FIFTEEN
Vadini might be sincere as hell, but as a scientist, a number cruncher and a no bullshit visionary, Finn didn't believe one word of this so called 'prophecy.' There was a hard sell coming. He just hadn't figured what it was, or who was behind it. and what the fuck their end game was. Yet.
"I will paraphrase the inscription on la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo, tablet number two, as follows," Bria's linguist rubbed his papery hands together before leaning closer to the second tablet. He spoke haltingly, clearly reading in the language the texts were written in, thinking in Italian, and then translating again in English.
Or he'd memorized a script.
"Warring factions distort the truth," Vadini intoned. "The chosen are not protectors. Blackstar's words must be heard or humanity will be lost. Goddess and stargazer unite. If message goes unheeded, fiery death."
Nicely done in suitably reverent and hushed tones. Finn wondered if the Cutters had found the guy at Central Casting. He was good, really good.
Not once in the decade he'd known the brothers, had they ever given him any indication that they'd been playing the long game. But some cons were worth a longer, long game.
"Again with the apocalypse," Logan shook his head, sending Finn a sardonic glance. "Better get out your cape and tights, buddy, sounds like you'll be busy."
"No. No. No." Núñez's mouth pinched in disapproval. He jabbed the tablet with his finger, causing Bria and Dr. Vadini to gasp. "This section says, 'The chosen are the protectors.'"
Nick put a hand on Núñez's shoulder, drawing him away from the tablet. "No touching."
"I do not think so, Dr. Núñez," Vadini's censure was mild. "My studies of the Abipón language tell me there is a negative in this line. Are not."
"I, too have studied and I most strongly beg to differ."
Vadini shrugged his narrow shoulders. "It is of no consequence that we disagree. Let us continue on."
"Okay, so we're listening to Blackstar's words," Zane said as he absently, and tenderly ran his palm over his wife's bedhead hair. All it did was make the dark strands spring up untidily in another direction. "But he doesn't seem to be telling us much of anything. Other than that people are going to war. Something us humanoids have done since time immemorial."
Teal laughed at her husband's quip. A little bit plain, a lot rumpled, she was a marked contrast to her sister-in-law Bria, whose dark hair was in a sophisticated coil behind her head, her clothes stylish and immaculate. And to Ariel, who'd bared her gorgeous legs in white shorts, and her arms in a lime green tank top, her crowning glory in a fat fiery braid that was already starting to unravel. Just the way he liked it. The three women couldn't be more different.
"I love this stuff," Ariel held the empty water bottle to her cheek. Finn wanted to be the bottle. He wanted to be the thin fabric of her shirt cupping her breasts, he wanted to be her damned shorts clinging to her heart-shaped ass.
Dear God, he had it bad. He was so distracted by her, he was only half paying attention to the revelation of the century about an apocalypse that was going to destroy their world – if he had the script right.
"The tablets are like a Shakespearean play," Ariel said with relish. "History and dark, ominous predictions. I wonder if he was foretelling the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"No, signorina, I will show you in a minute that he has pinpointed the precise date."
"Really? Okay." she smiled. "In the cast of characters who are today’s world leaders and influencers, who did boy seer cast as the goddess and the stargazer?"
As far as Finn was concerned, he had a red-headed goddess right beside him.
"You’re certainly standing next to a major influencer now," Jonah told her, shooting a grin to Finn.
Unamused Finn said, “And this influencer has a pretty astute nose for hoaxes. Let’s finish up with the 'reading' and get real. Then we can carry on with the business we’re here to do, which is dive and find treasure, right? Not engage in a myth designed to waste our time.”
"The next is the tablet retrieved by you, signorina." Vadini pointed bottom left. "Centuries of benevolent light becomes a swiftly moving force of evil," he read. "Appearing as bleeding wound in the Eastern Sky. Proceed with all haste. The lance must be propelled with all speed. Hesitate and all will be lost."
Oh, for crapsake. "A comet? A meteorite? An alien spacecraft coming in for a landing?" How fucking coincidental was it that space travel was coming up? Not. Finn tried to read the faces of his friends and colleagues to look for collusion in this con game. Ariel? Shit, he hoped like hell she wasn't involved in whatever this was.
He had no idea where it was going. Pretty soon he'd shut the bullshit down and demand answers, but for now he was willing to bide his time and see where it went.
Logan grinned. "Don't get a run in those superhero tights, Rocketman."
In response, Finn shot him the finger. "I'll get right on that." He took out his phone.
"What are you doing? Calling the Batmobile?" Ariel asked, with a cheeky smile.
"This 'apocalypse' is supposed to happen in three days according to this thing, right?" he addressed the group, now wanting this to draw to its conclusion. "Eastern sky? Let's see what's coming to kill us off." He tapped the screen on his smarter-than-most phone.
Finn logged into one of his encrypted databases which was connected- thanks to his many hefty donations- to NASA's Near Earth Object Program. The coordinated efforts detected, tracked and characterized potentially hazardous asteroids and comets on a collision course with Earth. At his Blackstar space facility, this proprietary data was being coordinated with months of intricate calculations. Accumulated, tabulated, and studied on a minute-by-minute vigil. Every aspect of space was being assessed in readiness for the Mars launch in five months. Nothing could possibly be a surprise.
The debate continued around him in a hum of voices. As everyone added their two cents, whether their theory made logical, scientific sense or not, Finn scanned through calculations. He put up his hand when he'd run through several options. None of them panned out. No surprise.
"Unless the alien's ship is traveling faster than the speed of sound, we're safe," he told the gathering, tone dry. No point going into Near Earth Orbit Asteroids, or any other pesky details. There was fucking nothing out there for the foreseeable future, and everyone in the know knew it.
Science. Fact. Black and white. No bullshit. A kid getting attention by drawing shit on rocks wasn't that interesting.
Since they claimed their prophecy had something to do with space travel and the threat of NEO, he presumed the scam, when it came, would have something to do with Blackstar Galactic.
"Aw, that's disappointing," Ariel said. "I was kinda hoping to meet a little gray man."
Teal shook her head. "You are one weird, chick, you know that?"
"Don't want to rush you," Finn said, hearing the testy in his voice. "As enlightening as this is, I have a business to run and an international meeting in forty-eight minutes. Can we finish this up?"
"The tablet discovered yesterday on the El Crucifijo, sí." Vadini seemed eager to get back to what they were all doing there. "In the twelfth month when Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter align- Oceans will rise, mountains will topple, the mighty and innocent alike will perish. Seek the High Altar to discover the answers written in the stars. Raise the map to divine the truth."
Well, at least they'd put some thought into this con. "A metapuzzle."
Bria asked, "What's a metapuzzle?"
"A puzzle that unites several puzzles feeding into it to obtain one answer." The answer: either money, power or control.
"The technique is called backsolving. The metapuzzle is structured to make it possible to guess, with a greater or lesser degree of certainty, the solutions to the puzzles that feed into it without actually solving them."
"May I-?" Vadini said quietly. "There is more. In all my years studying la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo, I did not put as much attention to detail into this intricate border surrounding the whole, as I should have. I was more focused on learning the ancient language as best I could than to concern myself with what I considered basically a decorative border."
"Jesus." Logan shoved his hands through his hair. "What does it have to say?"
He didn't sound any more interested in this 'new' revelation than Finn did. But then one "dissenter" with the same views as the mark was classic misdirection.
"Instructions to build an ark?" Finn suggested dryly. Ariel jabbed him sharply in the rib with her elbow.
Vadini removed a jeweler's loop from his saggy back pocket. "Going up this left edge of tablet one, and continuing across the top edge- It appears to be a date, November 12th, followed by a string of numbers- eleven thousand, I believe. Will die."
"That's exact. And not the date the four ships sank," Nick pointed out. “That happened in June. You think we'll have this disaster in a few days?"
"Or last November 12th," Finn's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Or November 12th five hundred years ago."
"Or three days from now." Ariel slipped her arm around his waist, hooking her fingers into his waistband.
"Maybe we have to be on the lookout for Santa's sleigh?" Finn inhaled her unique scent of warm Casablanca lilies, and thought of a cool room, rumpled sheets, and the two of them alone, with all the time in the world to explore each other.
"Perpetual life will flow. And here, down the right-hand edge, it looks like a long string of numbers. . .Then; Will be lost. Presumably, the number of souls lost if the warnings are not heeded."
"Eleven thousand saved," Núñez informed him, his tone unequivocal, his features set like a bulldog with a bone.
"Saved?" The Italian linguist gave him a skeptical glance. "Where do you see that? The text is barely legible, and in some areas- like there and there – non-existent. We can't be sure-"
"Eleven thousand saved. The other numbers are those who will perish."
Vadini acquiesced without a fight. "If message is unheeded, apocalypse."
"That's cheerful," Logan said, "And annoyingly repetitious."
Undaunted, Vadini walked around the table, bent double, and read through the magnifier, the tiny text that looked, to Finn, exactly like a not very well drawn decorative border. "Warring factions distort the truth. Blackstar, the transformer, must be heard, or humanity will be lost."
"My head is starting to hurt with all these doom and gloom allegories." Jonah went to the buffet to grab a drink.
To Finn he looked as guilty as sin. And as jumpy as he'd ever seen such a laid-back guy.
"Seems simple to me." Nick and Bria headed to two easy chairs, then ended up squeezing into one together. "Someone better listen to this message or all hell will break loose and humanity will be wiped off the face of the Earth. That about sum it up?" he glanced at Vadini. “Pretty standard for your end of the world apocalypse.”
"All but eleven thousand people," Núñez repeated with authority. "The transformer will lead the people into a New World order."
"I didn't hear anything close to that interpretation, maybe Dr. Núñez is Blackstar reincarnated," Finn couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice. Ariel nudged him again.
"Here-" Vadini hunched, and read- "Do not believe the sages who discount mysticism." Then: "Trust goddess– I believe this word is fire."
Zane took Teal's hand and pulled her to one of the sofas to sit down. "What does that even mean? Did they have a goddess of fire in their theology, Dr. Núñez? Dr. Vadini?"
Finn slid his hand up Ariel’s back, to urge a return to the loveseat they'd vacated earlier.
"Not as far as I know."
"Bria was known as Fiammetta, fiery one, as a child. . ." Nick's lips twitched. "Is it possible that she's the goddess of fire?"
"Maybe it's Ariel," Finn offered, tongue in cheek.
"Anything is, of course, possible," Vadini told them absently.
"This does not refer to the sinking of the ships," Núñez stated unequivocally, clearly not interested in either woman present being part of the prediction. He was the only person still standing other than the Italian. "But rather that, on a specified date, the world will end, and only a designated number of people will survive,"
"Wow, that's pretty sad." Ariel sat as close to Finn as she could, without being on his lap. Fine with him. "Why did Blackstar bother with four tablets if November is the end of the world? He could've said that in the first tablet. One and done. And on that cheerful note," she said with a slight tremor in her voice, "I have a slightly less apocalyptic announcement to make."
"Oh, dear God," Teal blurted, staring at Ariel wide-eyed. "Are you pregnant, too?"
"What?" Peri, too stressed to be amused, said, "No!" a little too loudly. Damn it to hell. She should've retrieved her tablet before doing this. The four tablets lay, side-by-side, gleaming on the table in the middle of the room. Just an arm's length from her grasp. Once the Cutters knew who she was and what she’d done, they’d think it was their damn right to keep her property. Too late to make a run for it now.
Finn's fingers tightened around hers, even though he had no idea that she was about to blow their friendly gathering apart. His show of solidarity and support gave her that extra spurt of courage to face this head on. Grateful to have his strong hand linked with hers, she realized how much she needed him there, but it scared her, too. Would he be supportive when he figured out exactly how many times she’d freely chosen deceit as a course of action?
How had this dependency crept under her usual defenses so quickly?
Drawing comfort from being anchored to him, in anticipation of a potential shitnami, was simply another thing that was wrong in her life. Dragging him blindly into the middle of her complicated revenge plot, she realized too late, was unfair.
His lifestyle made it clear that he wasn’t permanently affixed to anything, except his goals of reaching the most distant horizon of space. And even that horizon constantly shifted, farther and farther away, as he accomplished each lofty objective. Without a deep breath, or counting to three, she took the dive. Probably into a pool with no water. "I'm the captain of Sea Witch."
Dead silence.
Numb with anticipation, it took a moment to realize that Finn had actually released her hand, not squeezed it in solidarity. It had simply been a figment of wishful thinking.
He knew about the thieving pirate on board Sea Witch then. Of course his best buddies the Cutters had told him about her stealing from them over the years.
Even though she knew Finn would distance himself, her heart sank. It hurt, damn it. He didn't say a word as her gaze roamed the room; from Cutter blue eyes, to Cutter blue eyes, to gauge their reactions. Finn’s defection hurt so much it made whatever the Cutters threw her way seem trivial.
Although she'd expected it, the condemnation from the Cutters stung.
Screw them. She didn't care. She'd expected it after all. Defiantly, she held up a hank of her bright hair. For God's sake, they didn't "see" her, even with the brightest red hair this side of the freaking Equator. "I said, "I'm Sea W-"
Logan scowled. Figured. He seemed like a guy who liked everything by the book, and this was definitely not by the book. He glanced at his brother. "Nick?"
Middle brother Nick's expression was inscrutable. Peri had held onto the lifeline in the last few days that he'd seemed friendly toward her. Now she wasn't so sure that wouldn't turn on a dime. He could, like his threatening-looking spy friends, be picturing gleefully how to break her neck and toss her body overboard. Zane frowned as he exchanged a long look with Nick, then his eyes drifted back to her with a marked frown. Jonah looked annoyed. He had the least reason to hate her, since she'd never stolen from, nor lied to him. Probably just didn’t like that she’d pissed off his brothers.
Teal and Bria gave her sympathetic looks. But perhaps they felt compassion because they knew the hell the Cutters were capable of raining down on a person when they felt threatened and formed a united front.
The three T-FLAC operatives still blocked the door. Perching on the edge of a chair as if waiting for the right moment to leave, Dr. Vadini looked uncomfortable. Theo looked intrigued. Neither left the room. Peri figured she was the floor show as long as the storm raged outside.
"We know who you are," Nick's voice was gentle, his scrutiny far too penetrating. It was as if he knew something no one else in the room knew. "We were waiting for you to tell us.”
"Took you long enough to come clean," Zane groused.
Logan leaned forward. "Hope you made a shitload of money selling your ill-gotten gains. It should pay for a decent attorney." He shot the words out like bullets he'd chambered for years. Bam. Bam. Bam.
Beside her Finn stiffened, but he made no move to touch her again. The few inches between them seemed as deep and wide as the Mariana Trench. "You knew who I was all along?" Holy crap. On one hand, she was almost relieved that they had at least recognized her, and on the other, mildly insulted that they hadn't confronted her from the moment they'd met.
Which indicated in flashing, neon lights just how disinterested they were.
She turned to a silent Finn. "Did you know?"
Finn's poker face chilled her anew. “I should've listened to my instincts when you tried to steal my tablet. Once a thief, always a thief." He turned to address the Cutters. "I’m stunned you haven’t put legal proceedings into motion before now. It would be well within your rights to have her arrested on multiple counts." He got to his feet, his absence leaving a cold spot next to her on the loveseat.
"I haven't sold any of it," Peri told the others as Finn walked away. "I'll return every last reale and artifact in better condition than before."
"And when will that be?" Logan demanded as Finn reached the double doors leading out of the salon.
"Logan—" Nick shot him a stern glance.
Peri dragged her attention away from Finn just as he turned to face the room, back to the wall, eyes, flat and cold. "As soon as you tell me where you want it delivered."
Logan flexed his fingers. "Cutter Cay and immediately."
The other side of the world and out of their hair? "Consider it done." When she responded, her voice was toneless. Finn had already cut her heart out with a blunt knife.
"You won't be taking that tablet anywhere until we've established exactly how and where it was found," Finn said from his position across the room. Expression unreadable, he leaned one broad shoulder against the door jamb, his face half in shadow. With his fingertips shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, one ankle crossed over the other, he looked the picture of relaxed.
Relaxed wasn't in Phineas Gallagher's vocabulary in any language. The animus radiating from him was marked. His temper was tightly, chillingly, leashed. If he were a panther his tail would be flicking from side to side, eyes fixed on his prey. Unlike her own quick blow up/quick recovery, Finn's anger, once ignited, was of the slow smolder variety. Far more lethal. Far more lasting.
No second chances.
Pulling her eyes away from him with difficulty, Peri said. "I'm also Rydell Case's sister."
Zane dramatically fell back into the cushions of the couch like he’d been struck, his hands cupping the back of his head. "Fuck."
Logan shook his head. "Ah, Shit. Nick, you might've mentioned that bit of pertinent information."
"Explains everything in a fucking nutshell, doesn't it?" Jonah snapped, rhetorically, folding his arms across his broad chest.
"Actually," Teal said, "it doesn't. Just because Case is a dishonest shit, doesn't mean you have to be. We all know that's not a gene passed from generation to generation." She moved closer to Zane and laid a hand on his shoulder. The Cutter ranks were closing fast.
Peri looked Teal in the eye. This was not a time to back down. She’d laid her cards out, face up on the table for all to see. "My brother doesn't have a single dishonest bone in his body. That ball belongs squarely in your family's court."
Zane leaned forward, his wife's hand on his shoulder. "So, ripping us off all these years was a show of solidarity with your brother?" he snapped. "He must be so proud."
"He doesn't know about my activities. When he finds out, he'll kill me."
"If we don't do it first," Logan echoed her thought. "He's so honorable he knows you work for the Ministry of Antiquity and sent you over here to fucking spy on us. How convenient." He turned to Theo, then back to her. "Wait- You don't work for them, do you?"
"Of course, she does," Theo spluttered, obviously having no idea what the hell was going on, nor how to benefit from it. "Ariel's worked for me for years."
"Buddy, you shouldn't even be in the room. In fact, I don't know what the fuck you're doing on board in the first place." Jonah cast him a withering look, then turned those Cutter eyes on her like sharp knives. "Why's your last name Andersen and you're brother's Case?"
"Don't badger her, cognati," Bria said quietly, the tea cup poised at her lips before she set it gently in the saucer she held in her other hand. "Let her speak. There are many reasons a woman changes her name, are there not?"
"My last name is Case." Hearing how rapid her breathing was, Peri tried to slow it. "Persephone Case."
"Not Ariel Andersen?" Zane said tightly. "Not just a thief, but a liar as well. Nice."
Zane's wife punched his shoulder none too gently. "I told you her name was the same as that cartoon mermaid. And I told you it was weird that her last name was Andersen as in Hans Christian- Didn't I tell you that it was odd?"
Zane captured Teal's fist, then brushed his lips across her knuckles. "Several times, sweetheart. You were right as usual."
Jonah scowled as he typed on his phone with his thumb. "Calling the police."
Peri glanced briefly at the windswept waves beyond the water splattered windows. They wouldn't come anytime soon.
"Then you'll want to contact the Prefectura Naval Argentina directly," she informed Jonah, proud at how calm she sounded. "They're the ones charged with protecting the country's maritime territory. Unfortunately, since none of the artifacts were stolen from their jurisdiction, and I’m legally employed by their government, you’d have a hard time getting them to arrest me. Technically, you’d really have to contact the police in every location globally where the recovery operations were held."
"Difficult, but not fucking impossible.” Logan started to get up, then thought better of it, and sank back into his chair.
“I’m a thief, not stupid. Call the local police to get the ball rolling if that's what you want. I'm not going anywhere.”
"No one is calling anyone. Cool your jets," Nick told them as he and Bria shared a brief silent conversation in a shared glance which spoke volumes about their close bond. "Let's all take a deep breath here. No one died, no one lost a limb. Persephone was just doing what any one of us would do when faced with our brother's enemy."
"Her brother is your brothers’ enemy, dickhead," Logan reminded him. "Do you see any of us stealing Case blind?"
"Yes," Peri told him with asperity. "You did. You do. Consistently."
"Bullshit. Is your brother too chicken to come over here and say that to my face?" Logan demanded, his voice curt. "Because I'd be more than fucking happy-"
"I'm sure Finn doesn't want any bloodshed onboard Blackstar," Nick said, tone cool. "Bullying Persephone isn't productive. She's confessing voluntarily. Trying to make amends. Seeking a peaceful resolution."
“Jesus." Logan ran his fingers through his dark hair, clearly exasperated. "Other than spying on us, what the hell are you doing here?"
"If by here you mean Patagonia?" she spoke to the oldest Cutter. "You don't own the damned entire world, Logan. Over seventy percent of the Earth is covered by ocean. You could've gone any damn where else in the Universe other than here. I freaking live here. If you mean on this fifty-plus miles of Patagonian coast, then I have as much right- more right even, than any of you."
She hesitated. Should she spill it all? But…she couldn’t make herself say the words that would reveal the truth that no one else knew. Obviously, not the Cutters. Not Finn. And not even Rydell, the brother who had loved her all her life. Her real motivation made her seem. . . pathetic. Needy.
"Dangerous and pretty damned brazen of you to beard us on our own ships to spy for your brother.” Zane tucked Teal against his side, linking his fingers with hers on his knee.
The gesture made Peri's eyes sting. She looked at the ceiling for a second to center herself. She was damned if she'd cry in front of these people. Damned if she'd show even a sliver of a chink in her armor.
Yet they deserved their pound of flesh. They'd get it, then she'd be done with them once and for all. "Rydell had no idea I was doing this, so don't blame him. This was all my idea. Besides, I was here first. I discovered the wrecks almost six years ago. All of them-"
She eyed each man one at a time. "The references were so obscure, so badly documented that I sincerely doubt you would've found them on your own. The only reason you're here now is because you saw the notice of my multi-ship salvage claim, and like bloodsuckers glommed onto the location. As usual, just as you've done year after year with my brother's claims."
"How could we possibly know you were the Koúkos Corporation?" The penny dropped for Jonah. "The cuckoo stealing another bird's nest. How appropriate. Sneak in, steal our shit, and run. If, as you say, you were here first, why didn't you stake claim to all four ships?"
"First of all," she snapped. "I never stole a damn thing from you. So you don't get to pick up a pitchfork."
"You stole from my family," Jonah informed her, eyes blazing. "Which means you stole from me."
"Can we get on with this?" Logan demanded.
"Guess I’m not as greedy as you." Peri tucked a strand of loose hair back into the braid hanging down her back. "I couldn't afford the good faith payment required by the Argentinian government," she admitted. "Not to mention, trying to tackle the entire area alone would take me about a hundred and fifty years. I had to prioritize which area to salvage first. I partnered with my brother. You showed up like your usual bad penny selves. Bottom line; if I’d had the funds at the time, none of you would be here at all.” Not strictly true. If not the Cutters then another salvager would've followed her trail.
“You would've had the funds if you’d sold all the artifacts you stole from us over the years,” Logan pointed out.
"True." Chin high, she crossed her arms trapping her braid against her chest. “Money wasn't my motivation." Never. "It was just-” Payback. Petty. Hollow now. “Freaking stupid,” she admitted, releasing her hair and shoving the long plait over her shoulder.
“But you’re not a stupid woman." Nick scrubbed the back of his neck. "Ballsy, impulsive, yeah. Stupid, no. So why have you been stealing from us for years?”
Looking for a touchstone, her gaze went to the doorway to gauge Finn's reaction. Peri wished she hadn't. Quick-silver eyes like stone, lips pressed into a hard line, he looked furious.
No second chances.
Spinning away, Finn strode out of the room without a backward glance.