Covenant

13

Ethan walked down a corridor with Cooper following silently, turning as soon as he found the toilet door and going inside. The white-tiled interior was mercifully devoid of students as he strolled to a cubicle and unzipped, glancing over at Cooper.

“Want to hold it for me, or is that below your pay grade?”

Cooper stood with his hands clasped before him at the entrance to the cubicle, saying nothing. Ethan shrugged, finishing his business and washing his hands before turning and following Cooper toward the exit. As expected, Cooper held the door open for Ethan to pass through.

“Too kind.”

Ethan stepped through the open doorway onto his left foot, and then pivoted sideways and slammed backward into the half-open door, ramming Cooper against the tiled wall and pinning his arm against his chest. Ethan turned and jabbed the locked knuckles of his left hand up under Cooper’s thorax. The guard’s eyes bulged, swimming with panic as his throat momentarily collapsed under the blow and blocked his windpipe. Ethan yanked the door open, driving his left knee into Cooper’s plexus before hammering the point of an elbow down behind his ear as Cooper doubled over. Cooper crumpled sideways onto the tiles, his eyes rolling up into their sockets.

Ethan dragged the unconscious guard backward into a cubicle and checked that he was breathing clearly again before shutting the door behind him and hurrying back the way they had come. He walked into Karowitz’s office, and Flint turned to look at him.

Ethan wasted no time. Even as Flint’s jaw opened to ask where his colleague was, Ethan strode forward a pace and shot a fast left jab. Flint was quick, but not quite quick enough for the unexpected blow that caught him just above his left eye. As Flint’s head flicked backward and sideways, Ethan swung a roundhouse right that smashed across his temple with a loud crack. Flint’s legs quivered as he toppled across a desk and slumped onto the carpeted floor.

Rachel’s eyes flew wide. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Ethan turned to Karowitz.

“Which one of the fossil hunters you mentioned is most likely to have known where Lucy was?”

Karowitz stared in shock at the fallen guard.

“Bill Griffiths,” he stammered weakly. “He’s staying in Beit Hakarem, not far from here. Hassim Khan in Gaza might know too, but I haven’t heard from him in a week.”

Ethan approached Karowitz and clicked his fingers in the Belgian’s face to focus his attention.

“I need you to tell me the truth: what’s the chance that what Lucy found was just some kind of deformed human skeleton?”

“Zero,” Karowitz said confidently. “Lucy would have easily identified any kind of forgery or deformation of natural remains.”

Ethan turned, grabbed Rachel’s hand, and yanked her out of the lecture hall.

“You’re insane,” she snapped, struggling against his grip.

“If you want to find Lucy, we need to lose these MACE goons,” Ethan said, releasing her. “You can either stay here with them or come with me. Your call, but I’m leaving now.”

Ethan set off without her, suppressing a smile as he heard her run in pursuit.

“I just know I’m going to regret this,” Rachel muttered as they hurried out of the university compound.