Lincoln Child - The Third Gate

“It’s like I’ve told you-he’ll do anything, try anything, to get what he wants. And Jen has demonstrated her psychic powers in enough ways that I know he wants to believe.” Rush stared at him. “What about you? What do you think?”

Logan took a deep breath. “I think-no, I know, because I’ve sensed it myself-that certain very strong personalities, life forces if you will, can linger in a place long after the corporeal body has died. The stronger, the more violent, the personality and the will, the longer it will persist-needing only an unusually gifted mind to sense it.”

Rush slowly ran his fingers through his hair. He glanced at Logan, looked away, glanced back. This whole development has him agitated, Logan thought. This isn’t what he expected to happen-at all.

“Who else knows about this?” he asked.

“March and Romero, for sure. One or two others, maybe… then again, maybe not. You know Stone. And this isn’t exactly charted territory.”

“And what does your wife think?”

“She doesn’t like it. It’s foreign and strange and, I think, frightening.”

“Then why go on with it? If she was brought here to help find the tomb, and the tomb might be located any minute-why stay?”

“Porter Stone’s express request,” Rush replied, his voice still lower. “Two reasons, I think. First, we haven’t yet found the tomb-and with his belt-and-suspenders mentality, he’s not going to release a potential asset until he’s certain it’s been located.”

He fell silent.

“That’s one reason,” Logan pressed.

It seemed a long time before Rush finally answered. “Her mission here was altered when we received… certain data.”

“Data?” Logan asked. Rush did not reply-he did not need to.

“You mean the curse,” Logan said. Now he, too, was almost whispering. “What, exactly, has Narmer-or whoever it is-been saying through Jennifer?”

Rush shook his head. “Don’t ask me, please. I’d rather not talk about that.”

Logan thought for a moment. The feeling of excitement, of otherworldliness, hadn’t left him. So the curse is bothering Stone, too. That was the only explanation he could think of for altering Jennifer Rush’s assignment. Stone doesn’t know what he’s going to find when he reaches the tomb. He wants to be as prepared as possible to meet any eventuality-and he’ll accept any help he can get his hands on… even from beyond the grave.

“Would you talk with her, please?” Rush suddenly asked.

For a moment, Logan did not understand. “I’m sorry?”

“Would you speak to Jen about all this-about these, um, crossings she’s been doing, her feelings?”

“Why me?” Logan asked. “I’ve only met her once-and then only briefly.”

“I know. She told me about it.” Rush hesitated. “It sounds funny, but I think she would trust you, might even open up to you. Maybe it’s your unusual line of work; maybe it’s just something in your manner-you made a good impression.” Again he hesitated. “You want to know something, Jeremy? Jen never, ever talks about her NDE. Everyone else won’t shut up about going over, about what they’ve experienced. She never has-not even for data collection sessions at the Center. Oh, we talk about the sensitivity it’s given her, we measure and try to codify her special gifts-but she never speaks of the experience itself. I was wondering if… well, if perhaps there was a way you could get her to share it with you.”

“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “I can try.”

“I wish you would. I just don’t want to push it any further myself.” Rush plucked at his collar. “I put up a brave front, but the fact is, I worry about her. I can’t pretend that things haven’t been a bit strained between us since her accident, but I’ve tried to give her a lot of space. All I can tell you… All I can tell you is that we once had about as close a relationship as two people could have.” He stopped. “We still love each other very much, of course, but she’s had, um, a hard time interacting with the world in the way she used to. And since arriving on site-well, she wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, trembling, bathed in sweat. When I ask her about it, she just brushes it off as a bad dream. And now, with these crossings Stone is insisting on…” He looked away.

“I’d be happy to do anything I can to help,” Logan said.

For a minute, Rush didn’t look back. Then, with a deep sigh, he met Logan’s gaze, pressed his hand briefly, and gave a mute smile of thanks.

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!”