The Lost Kingdom

CHAPTER THIRTY

Hayden entered the home she shared with Mano, mulling over all the fragmentary pieces that comprised the Pythians’ latest plan. This mastermind, this leader she had already met called Tyler Webb, seemed to have gathered a veritable mental institution together — an institution of like-minded, ultra-wealthy, powerful, repressed and psychopathic individuals. If aerosolizing bubonic plague wasn’t enough, then how about ransoming and threatening the world’s most formidable emerging superpower?

Probably not.

Memories of other Pythian projects filtered through her mind as she closed and locked the door. Galleons and Tesla and what was the big one? Saint Germain? One day she would have to hit serious research mode to see if some clues to the future were already emerging. Maybe it would help to advance Webb’s incarceration date.

For they would get him, dead or alive. Of that she had no doubt.

Kinimaka headed for the kitchen, already rubbing his hands together and no doubt imagining up a grand feast. The couch shuddered as his left hip rammed into it. No matter. The Hawaiian was a substantial amount of incredible things but he was never going to be her dance partner.

Hayden headed for the shower, taking her cellphone with her. They were still very much on call, waiting for developments to emerge from China and Taiwan, but the little side trips like this were what kept them human, and on top of their game. The water was hot and refreshing, pounding down onto her shoulders and spine. She lingered a while and then wrapped the big soft towel around herself and stepped into their bedroom, casting around for fresh clothes.

Her phone rang. It was the hospital calling. Hayden’s antennae rose instantly and then stayed on high alert as the head of security spoke for several minutes.

“Nothing was taken,” he finished. “Nobody was harmed. It all seems whacky to me. Just this letter P drawn on the wall.”

Hayden found her gaze transfixed on something as she listened. “Where was it drawn on the wall?”

“Umm, next to Miss Fox’s head.”

Hayden tried to drag her eyes away from something but couldn’t. “And that’s it? No damage? No… letter or anything? Nothing else that shouldn’t be there?”

“Not that we can make out. Do you know what’s going on here, Agent Jaye?”

“It’s not Agent—” she began and then a hand fell on her shoulder, almost making her scream. Twisting away, letting the towel and the cellphone fall, reaching for her gun, she stared into the eyes of her attacker.

It was Mano, now transfixed and distracted by the sight of her body.

“Put your tongue back in.” She reached down and picked up the phone. “Listen,” she said. “We’re on our way. Don’t touch anything.”

“We’re going now?” Mano’s puppy-dog eyes almost made her smile.

But then she remembered.

She turned, eyes again drawn to the far side of the room where a high chest of drawers sat in the corner. “What do you see, Mano? What do you see?”

“Only the greatest ass in the known universe,” he said. “How did I get so lucky?”

“There!” Hayden jabbed her finger forward, catching his attention. “What do you see over there?”

“A chest of drawers,” he said a little hesitantly. “A cordless phone. An alarm clock, not my favorite since its set so high I have to get out of bed to switch the damn thing off. A spare mag. Whoops.”

Hayden gave up and climbed over the bed, gesturing at the drawers. “I didn’t leave my underwear hanging over the side of this open drawer. I didn’t leave it bunched up inside.” She scooped every item out onto the carpet.

Kinimaka looked over her shoulder. “Crap.”

“And I certainly didn’t write that fucking letter P on the bottom of the drawer.”

Hayden rose fast, suddenly shivering, suddenly feeling exposed. Quickly she grabbed the towel and sent her eyes roving over every corner of the room, searching every nook and cranny and light fitting and lamp.

“We’re being watched, Mano,” she said. “Now I’m sure. The Pythians are watching us.”