The Last Second (A Brit in the FBI #6)(57)

He settled more comfortably in his seat, shrugged. She saw his powerful intelligence focus on her question. “I’ve studied the possible whereabouts of the Grail all my life, but really immersed myself for over three years now. And I found the journals of the captain of the Flor de la Mar, Afonso de Albuquerque. He spoke of a great black stone he carried home from Siam, so large it overweighted his ship, and he fully believed it was the cause of the boat going down. No one had ever found the wreckage, and many have tried, since it’s known as one of the most valuable wrecks in the world. We found it and it does hold an astonishing amount. We retrieved quite a bit over the course of our two weeks of dives, but now, of course, it’s lost again.”

He looked out the window into darkness, and when he turned back to her his face was alight with excitement. “When we found the sphere, it was precisely as Albuquerque described—large and black, not of this Earth. I believe it to be a natural asteroid of some kind, hollowed out, and those who had it initially knew it was the perfect home for the Grail. The stone was inside the sphere, in a lead-lined box suspended in the center, as if it had been placed in the asteroid and was merely waiting for someone worthy to retrieve it.”

“And you were worthy?”

“Yes, although I told the Grail I was only the messenger.”

“The messenger?”

“Never mind. You believe Nevaeh is behind all this, that she murdered Devi, stole the Grail. I will tell you that over the past three years, Nevaeh and I have discussed the Grail extensively. She just might know as much about it as I do. Her intensity, her desire to find it, rivaled my own. If she was behind this, well, this treachery, this betrayal, she wouldn’t be at all worthy, now would she? Thus I cannot believe the Grail would respond to her in any way at all. It would repudiate her, but what this would be like, I have no idea.”

“Wouldn’t she know that? Why would she take it if it wouldn’t gain her anything?”

“Mike, you know everyone has limitless ability to justify their own actions, believe them noble, believe them necessary. If she believed what she was doing was worthy, then I don’t believe it would even occur to her the Grail could reject her. I imagine she believes herself more worthy of the Grail than I.”

He sat back, closed his eyes a moment. “Listen, Mike, space can make you lose your mind. Just like the ocean. You have to be prepared for the concept of infinity. If you’re not, you can easily go mad. Trust me, many do. It’s possible that Nevaeh did as well. After they brought her back down to Earth, grounded her, she was forced to have multiple meetings with the staff psychiatrist. They wanted to put her on medication to help her deal with the delusions brought on by her near-death experience.”

“Ah. I take it you heard my conversation with my coworker?”

“Some, yes.”

“So it’s possible that her bosses at NASA were right. She changed, went mad, up there.”

“Possibly. But I will be honest. I never saw anything that would give me pause. The woman is brilliant, focused, amazingly creative. I’ve always believed genius must be given the time and place to flourish, which is one of the reasons I stay out of the way at Galactus.” He took a drink of water, stared out the window at the blackness beyond the plane.

Mike said, “I know one of your goals is to get as many people to space as possible.”

“Yes. Do you disapprove? Why?”

“I don’t, not really. Right now, I am very straightforward, no philosophical meanderings for me. I have to figure out how your company is tied to a nuclear EMP, and how I can stop it before it goes off and ends up killing millions of people.”

He stared at her a moment, slowly nodded. “I can help a little. I heard you asking your coworker about the woman standing behind Nevaeh. Her name is Kiera Byrne, the chief of security at Galactus. Let me say she has eyes only for Nevaeh, not that anyone cares, just a bit more information for you. You should know Kiera is slavishly devoted to Nevaeh. Perhaps dangerously so. If there’s anyone I know capable of murder, who finds murder pleasurable, it’s Kiera.”

Mike looked toward Nicholas. “The moment Nicholas and Grant wake up, we will put together a plan for how to approach Dr. Patel. Jean-Pierre, logically, I believe it’s irrefutable. Dr. Patel is involved. She might be the one in charge of it all. No, listen. If she is involved, she believes you dead. She’s stolen the Holy Grail. Why? We don’t know, you don’t know. She probably intends to set off an EMP. Jean-Pierre, do you actually believe the Grail gives immortality?”

“Yes, of course it does.”

As he said it, Mike saw his eyes lit with a desperate hope. What was going on here? She said slowly, “If Dr. Patel believes in the Grail, believes it brings immortality to the one who has it, and she was willing to kill to possess it, then she’s more dangerous than any of us can imagine.”

Broussard waved this away. “When her own people cast her out, I gave her a home, a mission, ample money to accomplish anything she could dream of. Trust. Responsibility. A life, a respected life. If Kiera is devoted to Nevaeh, I could easily say Nevaeh is devoted to me. To think otherwise—I don’t think I could bear it.” Broussard looked away from her and closed his eyes again.

Mike sent Adam a quick text—Got a name for the woman in the photo. Check out Kiera Byrne, Nevaeh Patel’s head of security. She got a bottle of water and settled back in her seat. She’d done all she could for the time being. She knew objectively why Broussard was holding fast to his belief in Patel’s innocence. They would simply keep him off his phone until they could prove to him he’d been betrayed.