"We need to be careful, so several days at least. Maybe a week. We'd also need to be careful about the climate control. The interior is maintained at very specific conditions, and we could trigger some kind of failsafe if we breach the enclosure."
Losham frowned. "What kind of a failsafe?"
Grovdan shrugged. "Given that there must be something very valuable inside, there's probably also a mechanism to destroy it so it wouldn't fall into enemy hands."
It was exactly the kind of thing his father would do. He would have booby-trapped his secrets to prevent anyone from stealing them.
"I don't want to risk collapsing the mansion," Losham said. "Order what you need for cutting the glass."
The guy nodded and retreated to his crew, barking orders that sent his men scrambling.
The thought that Navuh had kept this from him rankled.
Losham had served his father faithfully for centuries, had risen through the ranks to become his most trusted advisor, and yet here was proof that Navuh hadn't trusted him enough to share this secret with him.
He also hadn't told Losham about the submarine.
What else was hidden on this island, and where?
Whatever this was, Navuh had first hidden it in the harem, and after the flooding, he had transferred it to his mansion. It was important enough to build an entirely new chamber to house it. Important enough to make it almost impossible to access without his personal authorization. Important enough to compel the guards who had retrieved it from the harem to forget what they had taken out.
No one remembered anything.
In fact, Losham was surprised that someone had remembered something being retrieved from the flooded harem at all.Perhaps Navuh hadn't been as thorough in covering his tracks as he'd thought.
Still, his father had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect whatever lay beneath that sand, lengths that suggested the contents were more valuable than anything else on the island.
Losham had to find out what it was, no matter how long it took.
31
TAMIRA
The ping of an incoming text jolted Tamira out of the restless half-sleep she'd been drifting in and out of since dawn.
She grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and as she saw Kalugal's name on the screen, her heart started hammering in her chest. A message from him could mean news about Darien, and at seven-thirty in the morning, it had to be important.
Roni, our talented hacker, found a lead,Kalugal wrote. Face recognition caught Darien at JFK airport, flying out to Singapore. I've asked Roni to forward the information to the investigator to continue from there. Will keep you updated.
Tamira read the message three times, her eyes blurring with tears that were equal parts relief and frustration. Singapore. Her son had recently flown from New York to the other side of the world, which meant that he was alive, and that was what mattered.
It would have been better if the update also included his address, but that would have been a miracle.
"What is it?" Eluheed propped himself up on one elbow beside her.
"Kalugal." She handed him the phone, watching his face as he read the message. "The clan's hacker found Darien. He was at JFK, on his way to Singapore."
Eluheed read the text and handed the phone back to her. "That's good news."
She nodded. "It's a sign of life. I've been praying to the Fates for a breakthrough in the investigation, and they answered my prayers." She smiled. "Now I need an address. Do you think that the clan's hacker can find it?"
"I don't know," he said, his expression apologetic. "I haven't met the guy, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to gauge his competence."
"I want to go to New York." The words tumbled out before she could stop them. "I want to be there, looking for him, doing something instead of sitting here and waiting. It's driving me crazy."
"And what would you do in New York? Wander the streets hoping to stumble upon him? Even if he's already returned from Singapore, we wouldn't know where to start looking for him. We need more clues."
"I could talk to people. Show his picture around. Someone must have seen him."
