“If you wouldn’t mind, Zyah, I’d like to take photos of the drawing,” Player said. “It really is a masterpiece. It would be a shame to have it completely disappear. I’d get rid of the photographs eventually.” He glanced at Ink.
Zyah frowned. “What would you do with them?”
“I thought I’d have the drawing tattooed on me. I think it would go pretty nicely over the loom scars on my chest. If it would freak you out, I wouldn’t do it, but you love the drawing. I know your grandmother’s explanation is going to vindicate your family. She will ask to destroy the drawing, and it will most likely be safer to do so.”
“Take the photos, but if this all goes wrong, get rid of them immediately.” She tucked the purse up on a shelf out of the way, just in case things got out of hand when they opened the portal after her grandmother got there.
Player knew, no matter what, Czar was going to have them open it. All of them were curious. He couldn’t blame them. He would have been. They had no idea how very creepy it was. His main concern was the bomb. Did anyone else have the schematics for that bomb that could slip through the portal? If so, were there more portals and bombs? Could this man suddenly appear and slide a bomb into the shed where they were? It was difficult to believe someone else had the plans for the bomb because in all the years Anat had been in the United States, it would have shown up somewhere. At least, that was Player’s hope.
“They’re here,” Czar announced.
Zyah dragged in air and reached for Player’s hand, her eyes meeting his. Maestro hastily opened the door and waved to the others to move aside to give Destroyer plenty of room to roll Anat’s chair into the shed.
TWENTY
“Mama Anat,” Zyah greeted, sounding as if she might burst into tears.
Anat looked around at all of them and then at the drawing under the powerful lights. “I was afraid of this.” She gave a little sigh and looked at Player. “You have gifts, don’t you? Who would have ever thought this could happen? I never even considered it. I thought my secret was safe.”
She rolled her chair straight to the drawing and stared up at it. “Horus and Ken were both so brilliant, and their minds refused to rest. They were always dreaming up whatifs. Could this be done? Nothing to them was impossible. They would talk about things until all hours of the night. I loved to hear them talk. So did your mother, Zyah. We’d sit around together and just imagine the improbable, the impossible, and how it could be done.”
Her voice had taken on a dreamy quality. Loving. Sad. “I miss those times so much. They really were so far ahead of their time. So beyond brilliant. We laughed so much together. Dreamt up so many crazy ideas. This one”—she gestured toward the drawing—“was in response to several things. The ban on belly dancing. Horus and Ken loved us belly dancing for them. Of course, in the privacy of our home, we continued to dance for them, but they were still very upset that something they considered beautiful was thought to be dirty. And the officials were always coming around with veiled threats. If Horus didn’t go back to work for them building the bombs they wanted, there would be dire consequences. He had quit years earlier and they never let him rest.”
“What did Horus do after he quit?” Czar prompted.
“He was independently wealthy,” Anat said. “Which was a good thing. He was extremely interested in the force of gravity and properties of atom formation. He developed various theories and models to help explain it. He continually studied the very fundamental properties of atoms and molecules. He had so many interests, but he always came back to the evolution of the universe and atoms, molecules and gravity. He did present at the universities at times, but mostly, he experimented in his own laboratories. When Ken came along, they were so like-minded.”
Player frowned, shaking his head, trying to understand what she was saying. “This wasn’t a project for the government? Or for some splinter faction protesting the government?”
“No, Horus didn’t work for anyone. At times he presented his papers to the university. He lectured. But no, he refused to take money from anyone. He didn’t need to. He didn’t want anyone telling him what he should be working on. He wasn’t . . . structured. He was a dreamer.”
Anat indicated the drawing. “I shouldn’t have kept it. We were going to destroy it, of course. We always destroyed anything that was dangerous.” She stretched her arm up and touched the drawing with trembling fingertips. “I didn’t think anyone would ever discover what it was. How could they? It took Horus and me to open it. Even Amara, my daughter, and Ken couldn’t do it. So I thought it would be safe to keep it. I loved it so much, and I didn’t have many things I could bring with me.”