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

Jean-Pierre’s face changed, suffused with a sort of light she imagined only existed in the passionate and the mad. Perhaps she looked the same when she thought about her own extraordinary path.

“This is classified, Nevaeh, and for your ears only, of course—” The words burst out machine-gun fast, so great was his excitement. “I believe we may have found the Flor de la Mar, the ship matches her specs perfectly. She rests on the seabed below our current location and is in marvelous shape, considering how long she’s been down there.”

Her pulse began to pound. “Since November of 1511, correct?”

“Yes, the ship went down in 1511 in the Strait of Malacca, where we are now. As I told you, they were hauling treasures taken from the King of Siam back to Portugal. Our cameras show the ship is caught on a ledge, and some of the treasure is certainly lost in the trench below. We are undertaking a deep dive with the submersible today to take a closer look.”

Her mouth felt dry. She whispered, “And the Grail? Immortality?”

“You know the Grail brings more than immortality, Nevaeh. I’ve told you countless times. The Grail brings the holder whatever it is he desires most. But only if he is worthy, and that is the key—being worthy.”

Had she acted too impassioned? She forced a laugh. “Only ‘he,’ Jean-Pierre? The Grail is sexist?”

He laughed back. “Ah, Nevaeh, so many have failed, as you know, and I believe to my soul, it stayed hidden because none of those people were worthy of finding it, claiming it.”

She wanted to say yeah, yeah, blah, blah to his philosophical nonsense. She really wanted to scream at him, I’m worthy, what I want is worthy, the Grail is meant for me. But instead, she said dutifully, “If anyone is worthy, Jean-Pierre, it’s you.”

“Honeyed words, but appreciated. Now, I will let you get back to Lyon, and I will get back to my ship. A bient?t.”

Nevaeh said, “Happy hunting,” and reached for the button to end their call. As she did, she saw Jean-Pierre turning toward the doorway as an excited-looking young man entered waving his hands. She heard the very words she’d been waiting for, three years now, and her heart leaped into her throat.

“We’ve found it, sir! We’ve confirmed this is the Flor de la Mar, and there’s something big in the hold, bigger than—”

The call went dead.

The clear sibilant voice in her head said, They have found what we seek. It is time, Nevaeh. With the Grail, we will succeed, you will be with us forever.

She sat for a moment, thinking furiously. And then she placed another call.

“Flight command, what is the status of our satellite?”

The man’s voice was grave. “I was about to call you, Dr. Patel. There seems to be a problem. The satellite missed its insertion point. Apparently, it’s an issue with the code telling the satellite to unfurl its solar panels. Because of this—”

“How could this happen? The code has been programmed for weeks. This is the easiest part of the launch. Who is responsible?”

“I’m not sure, but I will let you know. I am so very sorry. We will begin diagnostics to determine what happened. As far as we can tell, the code coordinates were incorrect, but a check of the original code is correct. I have no idea how it happened, but we will get to the bottom of it. Might take a few weeks, but we’ll figure it out.”

Of course, she knew exactly what had happened. She smiled into the phone as she said, her voice hard, “See that you do. I am very disappointed. It was such a perfect launch.”

She didn’t slam the phone down, but it gave a good snap. Good, let them stew. She gathered her things and headed to the plane. By the time she was back in Lyon, the satellite would be written off as a complete loss, and she could begin her work placing it in a new elliptical. With Jean-Pierre’s discovery of the Flor de la Mar, she sent a prayer heavenward. Let it be the Holy Grail.





CHAPTER THREE


Sky News July 15

In aerospace news today, France’s private space company Galactus announced that despite a picture-perfect launch yesterday, the payload, a telecommunications satellite, failed to deploy in the proper elliptical orbit. In a statement released by the company, the failure was caused by a faulty fairing atop the nose cone of the rocket, damaging the satellite payload as the final separation occurred. This prevented its solar panels from deploying.

“The value of the satellite was estimated at thirty million euros, and is considered a total loss. Despite the failure, Galactus confirms there is another launch scheduled in two weeks, this time with the top secret government payload rumored to be a French spy satellite.”





CHAPTER FOUR


T-MINUS 120 HOURS

Home of Grant and Kitsune Thornton

Capri, Italy

July 23

Special Agent Mike Caine sat on a stool by the elevated countertop, her foot up, resting her healing broken ankle. She sipped her champagne as she watched Kitsune arrange tomato and mozzarella slices for a caprese salad. She started to stretch forward to hand Kitsune the olive oil when Kitsune waved her away. “No, don’t move, Michaela, your ankle’s nearly healed, no setbacks allowed. Your only job is to sit there and watch the master chef at work, and, of course, admire.”

“Can I at least drizzle on the basil and olive oil?”