The Third Gate

28

When Logan entered the cafeteria for his usual breakfast of poached egg and half an English muffin, he found Tina Romero sitting by herself in a far corner, hunched intently over an iPad.

“May I join you?” he asked.

She gave a grunt that might have been either yes or no. Logan sat down, then peered at her iPad. Romero was doing a New York Times crossword puzzle.

“What’s a four-letter word meaning ‘small box for holding scissors’?” she asked, eyes on the screen.

“ ‘Etui.’ ”

She entered the word, then looked up. “And just how the hell did you know that?”

“The Times crossword is one of my guilty pleasures. They use that one all the time.”

“I’ll remember that.” She put down the iPad. “So. I heard you were doing your Hamlet imitation yesterday.”

“What? Oh, you mean the skull.”

Romero nodded. “I overheard March complaining about it to one of his minions. Get any bad vibes from the thing?”

“I didn’t get any vibes at all.” Logan cut into his egg. “But I was surprised at how good a shape the skull was in. Only some scoring across the top and in one of the eye sockets.”

“Eye sockets?” Romero repeated.

“Yes.”

“Which one?”

Logan thought a moment. “The left. Why?”

Romero shrugged.

Logan thought back to Dr. Rush’s request the night before. “What did you think of Jennifer Rush’s performance back in the staff lounge?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Can those cards be faked?”

“Only if you’ve got a partner handling them.”

“In that case, it was remarkable.”

Logan nodded. “She seems to be a rather remarkable woman.”

Romero took a sip of coffee. “I feel sorry for her.”

Logan frowned. “Why?”

“Because it just isn’t right-dragging her out here after all she’s been through.”

“You think she didn’t want to come?”

Romero shrugged again. “I think she’s too kind to deny him anything.”

Him? Logan thought. Did she mean Porter Stone-or her husband?

Romero took another sip of coffee. “This kind of job can bring out the worst in anyone. I’ve seen people come to digs with the crappiest of motives.” She lowered her voice. “I don’t know. Maybe Ethan Rush is doing the greatest work in the world. But it sure seems to me that Jennifer is a guinea pig.”

Logan stared at her. Was she actually implying Rush was exploiting his wife-using the terrible experience of hers for his own gain? The truth was, he knew very little about the Center for Transmortality Studies. And yet, Rush seemed to care deeply for his wife. I put up a brave front, he’d said just the night before, but the fact is, I worry about her. Was he worried for her-or for her importance to his Center?

There was the beep of a two-way radio. Romero reached into her bag, pulled her radio out, pressed the transmit button. “Romero here.” She listened for a minute, her eyes widening. “Hot damn! I’ll be right there.”

She dumped the radio back into her bag and stood up, nearly knocking over her chair in the process. “That was Stone,” she said as she scooped up her iPad and bag. “They’ve found the mother lode!”

“The cache of skeletons?” Logan asked.

“Yup. And you know what that means? We’re practically sitting on top of the tomb entrance. Stone’s put all the diving teams online. I’ll bet you a round of drinks in Oasis that we find the tomb itself within ninety minutes.” And with that she left the cafeteria, Logan practically running after her to keep up.