The Crypts of Eden

CHAPTER FIVE

The world of Göbekli Tepe mattered little to Alyssa Moore as she sat inside a tent that was hot and dry with little to no wind providing any comfort. Drawings and glossy photos of the carved bas-reliefs lay haphazardly across her desktop and some on the ground, as if tossed about in a fit of rage. Her computer monitors were blank, the system shut down. And the single blanket of her cot remained unmade after a restless night in bed, which was unregimented of her.

Her entire world was becoming disheveled. She heard the tent flap pull back and someone enter.

She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw. She really wanted to be alone. And then, with such gentle softness: “Ms. Alyssa?”

It was Noah, so she relaxed. Right now, he was the closest thing to a father she had. “Yes, Noah.”

He crossed the tent, grabbed an empty chair, placed it beside her, and straddled it. He then reached out and grabbed her hand, feeling the calluses of a laborer, but looked into the face of someone who should have been a model on the runway. “I know this is a difficult time,” he told her, stroking the back of her hand gently. “But I’m afraid there’s been another tragedy.”

She looked at him, her mouth hanging. She wasn’t sure she could take much more. Not now.

“It’s Montario,” he said. “There’s been word from the AIAA that he’s met with a most unfortunate accident.” She sat upright, her spine as rigid as rebar. “It appears that Mr. Montario fell from his balcony in New York.” And then: “I’m sorry.”

Her chin became gelatinous as her eyes moistened. This time she was unable to choke back the emotions as she fell into Noah’s arms and wept. In return, he pulled her close and kissed the crown of her head. “I’m so sorry, my dear. He was a good man.”

Suddenly her world began to spin kaleidoscopically out of control, the pieces of a once orderly world becoming fragmented and displaced, her mind wheeling with confusion. She had always known that he loved her, cared for her, tried to see her more than what she was, a scientist. But she saw him as a brother, someone she could trust in matters of privacy that she could never share with her father.

“He was a good man,” Noah repeated, patting her lightly on the back. “A good man.”

And then she broke, sobbing into Noah’s shirt as her world was falling apart around her by the inches.