Grant slowed. “The vault is around that corner, maybe twenty feet farther. We must go quietly now.”
Mike leaned down and pulled out her ankle piece, handed it to Grant. “It belongs to my father. Keep it safe.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
Cassandra had struck the woman agent as hard as she could, and she’d gone down. But for how long?
She needed to move, and fast. Her guards were both dead, necks broken by the thief’s husband. She’d left Drummond back there with Ajax, but she was worried. They’d somehow traced them here to the island. But how? She had to get to the vault before the thief realized no one was in the corridor guarding her.
She looked at her watch. Three and a half minutes for her to get the vault open, or they’d all be dead.
What had happened between Ajax and Drummond? Ajax was an amazing boxer, surely he could take down one FBI agent. She knew she should have stayed, but she couldn’t, she had to get back to the vault.
She leaned down and grabbed the guards’ guns and as many magazines as she could shove into her pants pockets and ran full out to the vault. If the thief got it open, then she wouldn’t need the guns. She knew the Ark was waiting for her to come, only her. It would open for her, the last of the Kohaths. It would surround her with power and flow into her and then she would rule the world, Ajax at her side.
Cassandra stopped, saw the thief’s face was glued to the vault door. She knew combination dial locks were straightforward, knew that when Kitsune hit the right number, the rotation of the internal wheel pack would line up and the gap would open, ready to be filled with the nose of the bar. Simple. The trick was to get all the wheels lined up, four times running. She wanted to yell at her to hurry but she forced herself to stay perfectly still.
Kitsune held the stethoscope inverted to the bell side, knew she was listening for the lower frequency clicks that would indicate the nose of the bar had slid into the wheel pack, and that number the dial was resting on was a part of the combination.
Kitsune had memorized the first two numbers—eighty-seven and twenty-eight—and now she was listening for the third. How much time did she have left, did Grant have left? No, she couldn’t think about that, she had to focus. She knew she was close—a gentle click started up and she knew she were nearly there, and she heard it, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, slight and tiny in the background, then suddenly a metallic slap indicated she had the third number. Her breath came out in a loud whoosh as she said aloud “forty-two,” wiped her sweating hands on her pants, then put her ear back to the stethoscope. She couldn’t have more than two minutes before the world exploded.
Cassandra knew time was nearly up. She ran toward Kitsune, screaming, “Get it open, get it open now!”
Kitsune didn’t move. “I’m nearly there. Stand quietly.”
“You have two minutes and ten seconds. If you don’t get it open, then we’ll all bloody die!”
“Be quiet.” Kitsune shut it all out, the possibility of dying, of Grant dying. She’d felt the earthquake and wondered what those insane twins were doing. Then she emptied her mind and lost herself back in the lock.
She could hear other noises now, but she was close, the fourth number was near to the last one, she turned the dialed one minute step at a time, bringing the dial back to zero, just past the ninety-eight, and then it thunked, loudly, and she was in.
“Get out of the way,” Cassandra screamed at her, and she shoved Kitsune to the ground, grabbed the massive titanium spindle wheel, pulled with all her strength, and finally the heavy door opened. She ran inside.
Kitsune stumbled to her feet, heard voices, Grant’s frantic voice. And Nicholas and Mike. They were here. She knew they’d come. Another kiss for Adam, this time for the tracker. She ran full speed away from the vault.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
Cassandra stood in a small antechamber. It wasn’t dark, lights burned in low lamps on the walls, turned on automatically when the door was opened. She went to the inner door and drew up short. There, carved into the metal, was the warning, the same warning on the cherubim’s wing. She knew, at last, her grandfather had lied, had been lying for years. He had the Ark and now Cassandra had found it.
Through this door lies a weapon of great power. Open it, and it will indeed kill.
There was a bar and she lifted it easily. The door swung open. It had been cold outside, but as she stepped into the small inner room, it was warmer, the air dry, to keep the Ark s
afe, that was the reason.
She closed her eyes, expecting a light of great brightness to appear, bathe her face, fill her mind and her heart. But there was no intense white light. Slowly, she opened her eyes. There was nothing at all. The room was more dimly lit than the outer room, and it was empty.
She stood dumbly, unable to believe the Ark wasn’t here. Had her grandfather managed to cloak it somehow, as he did the island and their palazzo in Italy?
She walked slowly around the room, hoping to feel it, and tripped. She looked down and saw a small Moleskine notebook, old, black, worn, but there wasn’t a speck of dust or mold on it.
Cassandra leaned down and picked up the book, and stilled. It was one of her mother’s notebooks, her mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. She brought it to her chest and held it there. She wanted to weep.
The light in the small room begin to dim, and the air grew even warmer. She turned slowly and looked back at the entrance. And there in the open doorway stood her mother, smiling at her, gesturing for her to come.
“Mama?”
And then she spoke, her beautiful voice so clear in Cassandra’s mind. “Quickly now, Cassandra, I need you and your brother to hurry, we’re going to be late for our flight. We’re going to the Gobi, we’re going to follow the trail Marco Polo went down when he took the Ark to Genghis Khan, and you and Ajax will be at my side. Isn’t this exciting? Hurry now, little dove. We need to gather up your brother and go.”