The Seal of Solomon (Alfred Kropp 2)

“OIPEP headquarters.”

“I know that. I meant where is OIPEP headquarters?”

“I don’t think I can tell you that.”

“How come?”

“Because I can’t tell anybody that.”

He left the room and after a few minutes Op Nine came in, wearing a fur-lined parka over a tailored suit and a pair of snow boots. Ashley had been dressed for cold weather too, and I wondered if OIPEP headquarters might be at one of the poles.

“Well, Alfred, you’ve been given a clean bill of health. Or nearly clean,” he said.

“That’s like being nearly sane. Are you leaving too?”

“ ‘Too’?”

“Ashley came to see me.”

“Ah. Yes, I am leaving.”

“What about me?”

“That’s the reason I’ve come. You have a choice, Alfred. You may stay here at headquarters or you may accompany me on the hunt for the Hyena.”

“I don’t like those choices. How about I just go home to Knoxville?”

“I’m afraid that isn’t possible. It would not be safe.”

“I figured that was the reason. They know I’m from Knoxville, don’t they?”

“They know a great many things.”

“How many?”

He sat beside me and put one of his huge hands on my knee. “There is nothing of you that is hidden from them, Alfred. Nothing. They know you better than anyone will ever know you. They have seen your secret face, the face you hide from everyone, even from yourself. All that you know, all that you remember—even those things you cannot remember—all that you desire, even those desires you hide from yourself, has been laid bare to their eyes.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Of course, there is no safer place on earth than here at headquarters. We can protect you here. I cannot guarantee any protection should you decide to come with me.”

“So why would I decide that?”

He studied me for a long time, looking right into my eyes, but I didn’t look away. I had looked into worse eyes than his.

“Can they see my future too?”

He shook his head. “No one knows the future, Alfred, save one, and that secret is safe with him.”

“You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? You already know what my choice is going to be.”

I pushed myself off the bed, wincing as my right foot hit the floor and the pain shot all the way up my leg.

“Okay,” I said. “Where’s my parka?”

32

I followed Op Nine through a maze of corridors, into two separate elevators, past unlabeled doors with security keypads, some with armed guards stationed next to them, struggling to keep up with my bum leg as he strode down the lime green hallways, silent for most of the way, but sometimes, like in one of the elevators, he would turn to me and say something.