Iris Johansen - Eight Days To Live

“Not in my world,” Jane said. “You try to do what’s right and hope. Life is too complex to be certain of anything.”

“This Millet is certain that you should be killed.”

“But he doesn’t belong to my world. He’s a monster who hovers in the shadows.”

Lina closed her eyes for an instant. “He didn’t hover tonight. He came out and destroyed my-” Her eyes opened. “I believe that’s a sight that I will hold in my mind for a long time. I must erase it.”

“How?”

“What’s difficult to erase, I find a way to replace.” Her lips tightened. “I don’t like to remember failure. I refuse to do it.” She leaned forward again to speak to Jock. “Next exit.”

“Right.”

She turned to Caleb. “Now. Where is my gun?”

“WE’RE ON HIGHWAY 6, but we’ve lost them,” Millet said to Roland on his cell. “I don’t know how. We were right behind them. Dammit, they just vanished.”

“Weismann didn’t take care of them?”

“I told you, we’ve lost them. The cottage was deserted… except for Weismann.”

“And you took care of that problem?”

“I roasted the son of a bitch. Not for you, Roland. For me.”

“I don’t care why, just so it was done. Did you find any sign of the tablet?”

“Nothing. They must have taken it with them. If we find them, we find the tablet. You have the make and number of that BMW, find someone to locate it. We’ll stay in the area and zero in as soon as I get a call from you.”

“I can’t create miracles, Millet.”

“You can call Ned Simpson at NORAD and have them do a satellite scan of the area for the car. He’ll do it. I saw him sucking up to you at the last Offering.”

“It will mean putting his job in jeopardy. You’re sure you can’t find them without Simpson’s help?”

“What does his job matter? We’re on the side of the angels.”

Millet always uses that religious bullshit when he wants to justify doing anything he wants to do, Roland thought. “His job matters because we can use him in little difficulties like this. But you’re right, we should let him help us. Doing this job will cement him firmly under my influence.”

“Then do it,” Millet hung up.

Roland smothered the flare of anger. Things were not going well, and he needed that prick Millet right now. But at least Millet had killed Weismann before he could talk. Now if Millet could get his hands on the MacGuire woman, he’d work on manipulating both her and that tablet out of Millet’s hands.

Roland reached for his phone and started to look up Col. Ned Simpson’s number.

Now what was the best way to persuade him that it was really the angels and not Millet who wanted him to send that satellite over Switzerland in the next few hours?

THE MERRIER INN WAS A MODEST one-story redwood structure, and Caleb had to wake the young desk clerk in the office to check them into the motel.

“Around the corner of the building.” He got back into the driver’s seat. “Two units side by side for Lina and Jane. One end unit that I’ll take, and Jock has one a little farther down.” He drove around the corner. “With any luck, we’ll get a little rest before we have to check out.”

“Is it safe? You had to show the clerk your passport, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I have a spare in a different name.”

“Of course, you do,” Jane said with irony. “Doesn’t everyone?”

“It would be chaos if they did,” Caleb said. “And I do like to be special.” He handed out the keys. “It’s the middle of the night, and the town seems to be locked up tight. But the clerk said there were kitchenettes in all the units. Gavin, will you call Venable back and see if he has any information we need to know? The team he sent to pick up Weismann must have gotten to the cottage by now.”

Jock nodded as he headed for his end unit. “Suppose we agree to meet in an hour in Jane’s room? That will give us time to clean up and relax a little. I don’t think we can spare more time than that.”

He meant that Millet was still on the hunt, Jane realized. They had probably only evaded him for a brief time before he caught the scent again. She felt the tension tightening the muscles of her neck and lower back as she unlocked the room. It had been a wild, violent night, and she was still reeling from it.

She glanced at Lina, who had just gotten out of the car. Lina’s night had been as devastating as the one Jane had undergone. No, probably more devastating. “I wish I could tell you that you’re safe now, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Millet knows that you probably learned more than he wants you to know while you were translating that ledger. If we can arrange for you to disappear somewhere, we’ll try to do it. But please don’t run away from us.”

“ ‘Disappear’? I spent years of my life in hiding before I learned how to protect myself.” Lina opened the door of her room. “I won’t do it again.” She slammed the door shut behind her, and Jane heard the slide of the bolt lock.

“She’s not going to run,” Caleb said.

She turned to look at him. “How can you be certain?”

“She’s very intelligent. She’s not pleased with us, but she can see that we’re not the destroyers, Millet is the enemy. She’ll just have to decide how to handle it.”

“The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt her,” she said wearily. “Millet would have killed her, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes. But he didn’t kill her. He destroyed her possessions, not her. Possessions can be replaced.”

She knew that was true. “But I still don’t like being responsible for their loss. She’d worked so hard to make a life for herself. I want to help her.”

“May I suggest you worry about yourself at the moment? You’re the one whose heart Millet wants to carve out of her chest. Everyone else is second in line.” He turned away. “Lock your door. I’ll see you in an hour.”

Jane shot the bolt and leaned back against the door. She would take a moment to get her breath. The adrenaline that had kept her going was beginning to ebb out of her. She had to face the fear and tension again but not yet. For an instant, in this little box of a room, she felt like an animal who had found a cave in which to go to ground. She was safe. She could close everything out.

But she couldn’t close out what Lina had told them of her translation. The information kept tumbling through her mind.

Hadar’s Tablet.

Judas at the right hand of God.

Coins that could shake the Christian world.

Sacrifices to Judas that had taken place for centuries and were still taking place.

Guilt.

She shook her head and straightened away from the door. Try to make her mind go blank. Wash. Rest. Maybe make a cup of coffee.

And get ready to face the chase again.

LINA KNOCKED ON JANE’S door thirty minutes later. “I need to talk to you.” She came into the room and sat down. “Or rather I need you to talk to me.”

“What is it?”

“You’re the key. I want to know everything about you.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve decided that I need to kill this man, Millet.” Her hands clenched together on her lap. “I’m very angry with him. And I would be safer with him dead.” She smiled mirthlessly. “No Millet, no more disappearing. True?”

“If Millet were the only one to worry about. But you’re the one who told us about that hideous cult.”

“I’ll worry about the rest of those maniacs later. Millet is the one who burned down my home.” She sat down in the chair at the table. “I know only what was in Adah’s ledger. I need to know everything I can about him. You have an important connection with him. Killer and victim. So you must tell me everything about yourself.”