The Goddess Legacy

Chapter 14

Drake was panting, his forehead beaded with sweat, when he made it back to the café where Allie was waiting. He handed her the phone as they hurried to the cab line, and Drake chanced a look over his shoulder at the morgue when Allie reached for the door of the first taxi. A group of morgue staff were speaking with two policemen and pointing in his direction. Allie ducked into the car and Drake followed, giving the address of their favorite market before settling back in the seat as the driver eased into traffic with a honk.

Allie scrolled through the phone after changing the security settings to no longer require a thumbprint for access.

Drake turned to her. “Anything good?”

“Sat images. Websites. Links and email addresses.” She paused. “Hmm.”

“Hmm?”

“Yeah. Check this out,” she said, handing him the phone. He peered at the screen, where a picture of a golden knife rested against a black backdrop.

“That’s got to be the relic he told Spencer about.”

“Looks like it to me.”

“Not really all that impressive, is it?”

“That depends on what the clue is, doesn’t it?” She took the cell back and pulled her own from her purse.

“What are you doing? Can you transfer the data to yours?” he asked.

“No, but I can take pictures.”

“Why don’t you email everything to your account?”

“Leaving a direct trail to me for whoever cut Carson’s head off? No thanks.”

“Oh. Right.”

Allie zoomed in on the first screen and her phone clicked. She studied the photo and nodded. “Not perfect, but good enough,” she said, and showed Drake the image.

“It’ll do.”

She pulled a pen and small notebook from her purse and scribbled something, and then enlarged the picture so she could capture additional detail. When she did so, she could make out script running the length of the blade. “See this? Want to bet that’s why Carson was so interested?”

Drake eyed the lettering. “All Greek to me.”

“Which is why I’m here.”

Allie swiped the screen, enlarged the page, took another shot, and jotted more notes. She continued the process as they bounced along, the driver swerving and cursing at other motorists with the enthusiasm of a fan at a sporting event whose team was defending its championship title. Allie stopped at the satellite shot and frowned.

“This one’s going to be harder to do. I’ll have to wait until we hit a light. It’s shaking too much, and because of the size, we won’t be able to see all the detail.”

Drake squinted at the image. “Looks like mountains, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. Probably part of the Himalayan range.”

“Are there any coordinates?”

“I’ll zoom in further once I get the larger shot. Can you ask him to stop the car?”

Drake leaned forward to the driver. “Pull over here.”

The man glanced at the dwellings that lined the street and shook his head. “This is a very bad place. Dangerous.”

“We’re not planning on getting out. Just stop for a second so she can take a photograph.”

The driver shrugged, as if to say ‘You people are crazy,’ and did as instructed. Allie’s phone snapped again and again as she took as many shots while stationary as possible. Drake was about to tell the driver to get moving when Allie’s eyes saucered as she stared at Carson’s phone in disbelief.

Drake leaned into her. “What is it?”

“I… I don’t know.” She held the phone up to Drake. The screens were vanishing at high speed, in reverse order.

“What did you do?” he asked, his voice alarmed.

“I didn’t do anything. It just started going nuts.”

“You had to do something. Phones don’t go crazy on their own.”

“Get out of here,” Allie called to the driver, who was obviously nervous and didn’t need coaxing. He tromped on the gas and they roared away with a screech of rubber, leaving a dust cloud behind as the car picked up speed.

Once they were in traffic again, Allie returned her attention to the phone and eyed the screen uncomprehendingly.

“What is it?” Drake asked.

She held the device out for him to see. The display was black, with small white lettering across the center. He read it aloud, his brow furrowed.

“Data error? What does that mean?”

Allie fiddled with the phone and, after several minutes, shook her head. “There’s nothing on it anymore. It’s like it erased itself. Not even the operating system is left.”

“Part of a security app?”

“Not one that I’ve ever heard of.”

“But it has a sim chip, right? Maybe something’s wrong with the chip.”

“Maybe,” she said, unconvinced. “But I’ve never seen a phone do that before, have you?”

Drake cleared his throat and spoke to the driver. “Do you know any shops that service cell phones?”

“Cell phones?” he asked, as though he’d never heard the term. “No, not really. When they break, most just get a new one. Too expensive to fix.”

Allie nudged Drake with her elbow. “Never mind. We’ll find someone later. Maybe Roland will know. Or maybe Reynolds has some black magic he can access.”

The driver glanced at them in the mirror. “You still want to go to the market, yes?”

Drake nodded. “Yes.” He turned to Allie. “How much did you get?”

“There was still a bunch more on there. How much more, I don’t know, but I’d guess I got maybe… a little more than half of what I skimmed through.”

“Maybe that will be enough.”

She gazed through the window and squirmed on the hot vinyl seat before turning back to Drake.

“Yeah. Because luck’s been on our side so far.”

“We’re here and in one piece, aren’t we?” he tried.

Allie sat back and closed her eyes. “I’d quit while you’re behind.”