Newton’s Fire

TWENTY-ONE
I

‘A new Jerusalem?’ said Rachel. ‘Here in Oxford?’

‘Or maybe not here,’ said Olivia. ‘Maybe that’s why the vault’s empty. I mean, don’t get me wrong, of course Ashmole would have wanted it here. He was a vain man and this was his building. But he died long before Evelyn, and decades before Newton or Wren; and none of those three had any personal stake in this place. And, for people like that, Oxford was never the new Jerusalem.’

‘Where, then?’

‘London, of course,’ she said. ‘Capital city of the Church of England. And finding a suitable spot would hardly have been a challenge. Wren was rebuilding the whole damned place.’ She shook her head in disbelief at the magnitude of it all. ‘I need to call Albie,’ she said. ‘He has to see this.’

‘No, Olivia,’ said Pelham.

‘Yes. Can’t you see how important this is? There are implications. Huge implications.’ She opened her address book, picked up the handset, began to dial. But then she stopped abruptly and dropped the handset like it had scalded her. ‘It echoed,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that what happens when people are listening?’

‘Stay here,’ said Luke. He hurried through the darkened lobby to the shuttered front windows, slid a shutter latch, opened it just enough to see shadows in the two cars parked across the street. He latched the shutter again, checked that the windows and front door were securely bolted, returned to Olivia’s office. ‘They’re there,’ he said.

‘Our friends from earlier?’ asked Pelham.

Luke shook his head. ‘Different cars. And if they’re tapping our phones, I’d say police.’

‘How did they find us?’ asked Rachel.

‘Maybe they worked out Sous Ashmolean for themselves,’ said Pelham.

‘Then what are they waiting for?’

‘Reinforcements?’ suggested Luke. ‘A warrant?’ He turned to Olivia. ‘Is there a back way out?’

Olivia nodded. ‘There’s a fire escape upstairs. It leads onto the alley.’

‘Is it alarmed?’

‘I turned it off when we came in.’

‘I’ll go check,’ said Pelham. ‘You guys get everything together.’

Luke zipped Olivia’s laptop away in its case, pocketed the digital camera, went with Rachel to the door.

‘Come on,’ he said to Olivia.

‘No,’ said Olivia. ‘I’m staying.’

‘You have to come,’ begged Rachel. ‘These people are bastards.’

‘I don’t care,’ she said fiercely. ‘This is my museum. Damned if I’m going to let them run loose in here without being around to watch.’

Pelham came back in. ‘They’re out back too,’ he grimaced.

‘How many?’ asked Olivia.

‘I saw three. There could be more.’

‘Oh, hell,’ said Rachel. ‘We’re trapped.’