The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15) - James Rollins Page 0,30

own when they had the horsepower to be pulled up.

An angry bellow chased them.

Maria glanced back. Even now, the fiery creature tried to force its way after them.

“Screw you,” MacNab called back.

Maria let out a sigh of relief—until the tunnel began to cave in. Whether from the thrashing of the beast or the concussions of the shotgun blasts, something finally gave way. The tunnel below cracked, and the chute imploded with an explosive clap of ice.

The roaring finally ended.

The continuing collapse chased them up the moulin. She stared ahead and sent a silent prayer to those above.

Don’t spare those horses.

After a few more breaths, they reached the wider vertical shaft. The snap of the line tossed them hard against the wall. With the impact, the Inuit elder lost his handhold on her belt. He swung wildly by one arm. Secure in her harness, she let go of the rope and grabbed his hide jacket with both hands.

“I got you.”

She clutched with all her strength until iron arms hooked around her waist and hauled her and Nuka’s grandfather free of the moulin.

She let the elder go and lay on her back.

Joe’s windburned face stared down at her. “What did I tell you about not playing hero?”

She shrugged. “I think I was only a supporting character here.”

Joe helped her sit up. The others were safely out, too. She stared over at the red-bearded climatologist.

“Mind telling me what that was all about?” she asked.

“I will. Over a beer. Lots of beer.”

Joe nodded at this wisdom. “Best plan I heard in a long time.”

Maria held up a hand, knowing this could not wait. “First, what about Elena? Do you know who took her?”

“Dr. Cargill? She’s still alive?”

“As far as we know. I’ll fill you in on the details over those beers. But do you know who took her and what they wanted?”

“I have no idea who they were. But they’re definitely not from around here. They were speaking Arabic.”

Arabic?

“As to what they wanted, I’m not entirely sure. Definitely wanted the gold map. They called it the Storm Atlas, as if they already knew what it was.”

Maria frowned. A Storm Atlas?

“Oh.” He reached to a pocket and removed a softball-sized silver sphere. It looked to be inscribed and covered with complicated-looking dials and compasses. “They also wanted this.”

Second

The Daedalus Key

Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas.

No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars.

—IPHIGENIA, A TRAGEDY BY QUINTUS ENNIUS (239–169 B.C.)

8

June 22, 8:59 A.M. EDT

Takoma Park, Maryland

Commander Grayson Pierce had survived countless brushes with death, but nothing had prepared him for fatherhood—especially living with a tiger mom.

“It’s not going to happen,” he warned from the living room’s sofa.

“It will.”

Seichan sat cross-legged on the Persian rug, like some Eurasian queen. She had pushed the coffee table aside and held their baby boy under his arms. She did her best to get the child to balance on legs made of Jell-O. Jackson Randall Pierce wasn’t cooperating. He cooed and babbled and tried to reach his toes.

Gray tapped the well-thumbed book on the end table. “Says here not to expect a baby to walk until nine months to a year. Maybe longer.”

“That’s only an average.” She pointed her chin toward a stack of printouts. “Look. There are many articles about babies who started walking by six months. It’s rare but not unheard-of.”

“Jack is only five months old. In two days.”

“So? He’s already sitting up on his own, even crawling a little. That’s ahead of schedule. And I got him sleeping through the night two months ago. You said that couldn’t be done.”

“Not true. I seem to recall I said, please, dear god, won’t this kid ever sleep.”

“Well, I did it.”

Gray considered whether he should unplug their wireless router. Seichan spent too much time on the Internet reading all she could about child-rearing and treated motherhood as a blood sport. She was determined that Jack would reach every milestone sooner than the books said, using those accomplishments as proof she was the best mother on the planet.

And this was a woman who once doubted her maternal instincts.

Of course, she was a former assassin, brutally trained to be heartless and cold-blooded. So, he understood her misgivings. He had enough worries about his own parenting skills. At first, her dogged determination amused him, but as it continued, he had grown concerned. After Jack’s birth, the two of them had taken an extended period of parental leave from Sigma. Gray was scheduled to return to