Boris had sent him through e-mail. He’d downloaded them while at Kabul International Airport, then examined them at his leisure while in flight.
He was thankful for the diversion because it had kept his mind from being preoccupied with thoughts of Layla, but she was never far from his mind.
It was confusing.
And it was daunting.
He needed to get his head back in the game.
Except that he had the ring in his backpack, and thoughts of it and Layla weren’t going away.
He walked up to one of the ANP patrolmen and showed his passport to the man.
The young man nodded gravely. “Professor Lourds. We’ve been expecting you.” He made a path through the sawhorses.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Watch your step as you go up.”
“I will.” Lourds started up the incline, and then the feeding frenzy hit.
“There’s Professor Lourds!”
Lourds didn’t know who had first vocalized his arrival, but the hue and cry rose.
“Professor Lourds. Could we get a picture?”
Lourds turned back toward the crowd and waved. Several cameras and camcorders were in evidence.
“Professor Lourds, could we get an interview?”
“In a little while, perhaps. At present, I’m afraid you people know more than I do.”
The ANP talked to a lithe young woman in a blue parka for a moment then let her through. She leaped up the incline, quick as a deer, and joined Lourds.
She threw back her parka hood and revealed strawberry blond hair and an innocent face. “Professor Lourds, you may not remember me, but I’m–”
“Anna Cherkshan. Of course I remember you. Boris is delighted that you’re involved with this.”
“And you’re not?”
“Of course I am. I was deferring to Boris. This is his circus, after all.”
“Thomas!”
Gazing uphill, Lourds saw Boris emerge from the cave and couldn’t help thinking of the groundhog that came out and checked for its shadow. It wasn’t a very flattering comparison in one respect, but Boris’s presence had certainly changed the weather.
The slight noise that had started at Lourds’s arrival became an avalanche of questions and demands for information.
Anna gazed at the crowd in wide-eyed wonder.
“Shocked to see your fellow journalists worked up into such a lather, Miss Cherkshan?”
Anna turned to him, raked hair from her face with her fingers, and shook her head. “I’ve never been on this side of it, you know. It’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
“It can be.”
“Do you ever get used to it?”
“No. Trust me, you don’t see this kind of thing every day in the field of archeology.”
“You must. You have found so many amazing things.”
“Well, I didn’t find this one. I was back in Cambridge while Boris was risking the elements and a broken neck climbing this mountain.”
“Can I quote you?”
Lourds smiled. “Of course. He’s only asked me in as a specialized consultant.”
“To translate the documents he found inside the tomb?”
“Exactly.”
Boris waved Lourds up the mountain, and Lourds went. When he reached Boris, the Russian professor scooped him up in an immense bear hug that drew laughter and catcalls from the crowd of journalists.
“It is good to see you, Thomas.” Boris placed him back on the ground.
“It’s good to see you as well.”
“I see you discovered Miss Cherkshan.”
“Actually, she found me.”
“And Layla?”
“Working, as I said.”
“Ah, that is too bad.” Boris frowned, but the expression lasted only a moment before being replaced with his broad smile again. “Does she know what has been found?”
Lourds smiled. “Boris, I still don’t know what you’ve found.”
“Then come. Let me show you.” Boris made his apologies to Anna, promised that she would be the next person he brought into the tomb, and led Lourds into the cave.
16
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
Lubyanka Square
Moscow, Russian Federation
February 14, 2013
Seated at his desk, General Anton Cherkshan watched the live broadcast of President Nevsky in front of Lenin’s Tomb. A large crowd had gathered in Red Square, and Cherkshan waited anxiously for some sort of violence or terrorist attack to break out.
He had wanted to be at the speech, but Nevsky had forbidden it. None of the military leaders were present. Nevsky had planned this to be a solo effort, a way to implore the Russian people to embrace his plans for the prosperity of their great country.
However, there were snipers in the area, in the buildings surrounding the Tomb that had clear fields of fire into the crowd. Cherkshan knew this because he had signed off on the placement of those men.
Nevsky looked good on the camera, but he didn’t look great. As always, he wore a gray suit, never changing his appearance, always remaining constant.