She shrugged. “Doesn’t change a thing.” She pointed at the screen. “Each of those men, before the sun sets, will be infected, just like you were. They’ll never realize a thing until a runny nose, or a sore throat, or a headache signals they may be coming down with a cold. You recall those symptoms, don’t you, Enver?”
“You’re as evil as I ever believed.”
“If I were evil, I would have let you die.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She pointed the remote and changed channels. A map appeared.
“This is what we’ve achieved. A unified Asian state that all of the leaders agreed to.”
“You didn’t ask the people.”
“Really? It’s been fifteen years since we achieved this reality and the economies of all the former nations have dramatically improved. We’ve built schools, houses, roads. Medical care is markedly better. Our infrastructure has been modernized. Electricity, water, sewage disposal-nothing like it once was with the Soviets-now works. The Russian rape of our land and resources has stopped. International business is invested here in the multibillions. Tourism is on the rise. Our gross national product has increased a thousand percent. The people are happy, Enver.”
“Not all.”
“There’s no way to make everyone happy. All we can do is please a majority. That’s what the West preaches all the time.”
“How many others have you pressured like me?”
“Not all that many. Most see the benefit of what we’re doing on their own. I share the wealth, and power, with my friends. And, let me say, if any one of you has a better idea, I’m willing to listen. But so far no one has offered anything better. The little bit of opposition we’ve faced, you included, simply want to put themselves in power. Nothing more.”
“Easy for you to be generous, while your germs can whip us all into line.”
“I could have allowed you to die and solved my problem. But, Enver, killing you is foolish. Hitler, Stalin, Roman emperors, Russian tsars, and just about every European monarch all made the same mistake. They eliminated the exact people who could sustain them when they really needed help.”
“Perhaps they were right? Keeping your enemies alive can be dangerous.”
She sensed a slight thawing in his bitterness so she asked, “Do you know about Alexander the Great?”
“Just another Western invader.”
“And in a dozen years he conquered us, taking all of Persia and Asia Minor. More territory than the Roman Empire acquired after a thousand years of fighting. And how did he rule? Not by force. When he claimed a kingdom he always allowed the former ruler to keep power. By doing that he cultivated friends who sent men and supplies when he needed them, so more conquests could be made. Then, he shared the wealth. He was successful because he understood how to use power.”
Hard to tell if she was making progress, but the Kazakh had made one valid point. Enemies did indeed surround her, and the assassination attempt from earlier still loomed fresh in her mind. She tried always to either eliminate or recruit the opposition, but new factions seemed to spring up daily. Alexander himself eventually fell victim to an unreasonable paranoia. She could not repeat that mistake.
“What do you say, Enver? Join us.”
She watched as he mulled over her request. He may not have liked her, but reports noted that this warrior, an aviator trained by the Soviets who fought with them in many of their foolish struggles, hated something else far worse.
Time to see if that were true.
She pointed at the screen toward Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. “These are our problem.”
She saw he agreed.
“What do you plan to do?” he asked, with interest.
“End them.”
FOURTEEN
COPENHAGEN
8:30 A.M.
MALONE STARED AT THE HOUSE. HE, THORVALDSEN, AND CASSIOPEIA had left his bookshop a half hour ago and driven north, following a seaside route. Ten minutes south of Thorvaldsen’s palatial estate, they’d veered off the main highway and parked before a modest one-story dwelling nestled among a grove of gnarly beechwoods. Spring daffodils and hyacinths wrapped its walls, the brick and wood topped by a lopsided gabled roof. Gray-brown waters of the Øresund lapped a rocky beach fifty yards behind.
“As if I have to ask who owns this place.”
“It’s run-down,” Thorvaldsen said. “It abuts my land. I bought it for a bargain, but the waterfront location is wonderful.”
Malone agreed. Prime real estate. “And who’s supposed to live here?”
Cassiopeia grinned. “The owner of the museum. Who else?”
He noticed that her mood was lightening. But his two friends were clearly on edge. He’d changed clothes before leaving town and retrieved his Magellan Billet-issue Beretta from beneath his bed. He’d been ordered twice by the local police to surrender it, but Thorvaldsen had used connections with the Danish prime minister to block both attempts. Over the past year, even though retired, he’d found a lot of uses for the weapon. Which was troubling. One reason he’d quit the government was to stop carrying a gun.
They stepped inside the house. Sunlight poured through windows clouded with salt film. The interior was decorated with a mishmash of old and new-a combination of styles that seemed pleasant by merely being itself. He noticed the condition. Lots of repairs were needed.
Cassiopeia searched the house.
Thorvaldsen sat on a dusty tweed-covered couch. “Everything in that museum last night was a copy. I removed the originals after I bought the place. None of it was particularly valuable, but I couldn’t allow it to be destroyed.”
“You went to a lot of trouble,” Malone said.
Cassiopeia returned from her reconnoiter. “There’s a lot at stake.”
Like he needed to hear that. “While we wait for someone to come and try to kill us-the individual you talked to on the phone three hours ago-could you at least explain why we gave them that much prep time?”
“I’m well aware of what I’ve done,” Thorvaldsen said.
“Why are these medallions so important?”
“Do you know much about Hephaestion?” Thorvaldsen asked.
He did. “He was Alexander’s closest companion. Probably his lover. Died a few months before Alexander.”
“The molecular manuscript,” Cassiopeia said, “that was discovered in Samarkand actually fills in the historical record with some new information. We now know that Alexander was so guilt-ridden over Hephaestion’s death that he ordered the execution of his personal physician, a man named Glaucias. Had him torn apart between two trees tied to the ground.”
“And what did the doctor do to deserve that?”
“He failed to save Hephaestion,” Thorvaldsen said. “Seems Alexander possessed a cure. Something that had, at least once before, arrested the same fever that killed Hephaestion. It’s described in the manuscript simply as the draught. But there are also some interesting details.”
Cassiopeia removed a folded page from her pocket.
“Read it for yourself.”
So shameful of the king to execute poor Glaucias. The physician was not to blame. Hephaestion was told not to eat or drink, yet he did both. Had he refrained, the time needed to heal him may have been earned. True, Glaucias had none of the draught on hand, its container had been shattered days before by accident, but he was waiting for more to arrive from the east. Years earlier, during his pursuit of the Scythians, Alexander suffered a bad stomach. In return for a truce, the Scythians provided the draught, which they had long used for cures. Only Alexander, Hephaestion, and Glaucias knew, but Glaucias once administered the wondrous liquid to his assistant. The man’s neck had swollen with lumps so bad he could hardly swallow, as if pebbles filled his throat, and fluid spewed forth with each exhale. Lesions had covered his body. No strength remained within any of his muscles. Each breath was a labor. Glaucias gave him the draught and, by the next day, the man recovered. Glaucias told his assistant that he’d used the cure on the king several times, once when he was near death, and always the king recovered. The assistant owed Glaucias his life, but there was nothing he could do to save him from Alexander’s wrath. He watched from the Babylonian walls as the trees ripped his savior apart. When Alexander returned from the killing field he ordered the assistant to his presence and asked if he knew of the draught. Having seen Glaucias die so horribly, fear forced him to tell the truth. The king told him to speak of the liquid to no one. Ten days later Alexander lay on his deathbed, fever ravaging his body, his strength nearly gone, the same as Hephaestion. On the final day of his life, while his Companions and generals prayed for guidance, Alexander whispered that he wanted the remedy. The assistant mustered his courage and, remembering Glaucias, told Alexander no. A smile came to the king’s lips. The assistant took pleasure in watching Alexander die, knowing that he could have saved him.