The Seal of Solomon (Alfred Kropp #2)(14)

“We don’t know the answer to that question,” Abby said.

“It seems an odd turn of events, given what we know about Mike Arnold’s plans.”

“Maybe that’s something you could share with me,” I said. “Mike’s plans.”

“After he was terminated, Michael Arnold stole two very valuable items from the OIPEP vaults. We are on our way to intercept him before he can put them to use.”

“What did he take?” I asked, and waited for the usual answer: That’s classified.

Op Nine glanced at Abby, who gave him a sharp nod. He looked at me. His eyes were very dark, almost black.

“The Seals of Solomon,” he said in that deep, undertaker-like voice. If he was waiting for some sign of recognition from me, he was going to be waiting for a long time. I just stared back.

“You have heard of King Solomon,” he said.

“From the Bible, right?”

“Yes. In the days of his reign, Solomon possessed two items of great power, immeasurable gifts from heaven. The Great Seal and the Lesser Seal, also called the Holy Vessel. These two charges he jealously guarded until his death three thousand years ago. The Great Seal was lost in antiquity, but the Lesser Seal was recovered from its hiding place in Babylon by an archeological expedition in 1924—”

Abby cut off the lecture. “The Greater Seal, or Seal of Solomon, is a ring, Alfred. The Company recovered it in the 1950s from a now-defunct apocalyptic death cult in the Sudan—” “Wait a minute,” I said. “Did you say the Seal of Solomon is a ring? Like a wear-on-your-finger-type ring?”

“Precisely.

“Have you paged Elijah Wood? I think I saw this movie.”

She smiled. “The ring to which you refer is a product of art, a fiction. The Great Seal of Solomon is an artifact of history. It belongs to our world, not an imaginary one. Most significantly, Solomon’s ring is not the creation of evil. Of course, in the wrong hands it could be used to that purpose, and that is precisely why we recovered it and kept it safe for the past fifty-five years—”

“Until Mike stole it.”

“We have since launched a complete overhaul of our security protocols.”

“Boy, that’s a comfort. So Mike stole these two things from you guys . . . and then comes to Knoxville to kill me. Why?”

They looked at each other.

“We don’t know,” Abigail said. “We were hoping you might.”

“Me? OIPEP’s looking to me for answers? We’re in bigger trouble than I thought. What about Ashley?”

Op Nine frowned. “What about her?”

“Why was she spying on me?”

Again they looked at each other.

“The Company often assigns operatives to keep tabs on Special Subjects.”

“ ‘Special Subjects’? I’m a Special Subject?”

“How could the last son of Lancelot not be a Special Subject?” Abby asked tenderly. “Mike’s entrance into your particular interface took all of us by surprise. Fortunately, Ashley was watching your house when Mike made his move.”

“So you knock me out and bring me to this boat off the coast of Oman—where is that, Africa or something?—to do . . . what? ”

“Intercept Michael Arnold before he can use the ring to open the Lesser Seal.”

“Lesser Seal . . .”

“The Holy Vessel,” Op Nine said.

“Why don’t you want the Holy Vessel opened?”

For the third time they exchanged a glance. I was like the little kid in the room while the parents danced around the facts-of-life lecture.

“The ring, the Great Seal,” Op Nine said slowly, “is the key. Without it, the wearer cannot control the . . . agents confined within the Vessel. Indeed, without the ring, the Lesser Seal cannot even be broken. One without the other is useless. With both . . .” He took a deep breath. “Catastrophe.”

The door swung open and a guy in a black jumpsuit like Ashley’s stepped in, carrying a tray with orange juice and two slices of toast.

“Ah,” Op Nine said. “The food is here.” He seemed relieved.

“Not much of it, though,” I said, trying again to sit up. Op Nine bent to help me. The room whirled around my head. I wondered why I felt so light-headed and weak. What was in that shot Ashley gave me on the chopper—and why had she given me a shot in the first place?

I drank the tall glass of orange juice down in three gulps. The toast was cut into quarters and that’s how I ate it, stuffing a whole quarter in my mouth and barely chewing before I swallowed.

“Okay,” I said. “Let me see if I have all this. After you guys fired Mike for trying to take Excalibur, he breaks into your vaults and steals the two Seals of Solomon. I’m still not clear on what they are or what they do, but anyway, after that you assigned Agent Ashley to keep tabs on me because now I’m a person of special interest or something. Mike shows up, kidnaps me, takes me up into the mountains to kill me—only Mike knows why—and Ashley rescues me in the nick of time. Now we’re on a boat on our way to . . . where? ”

“The nexus,” Op Nine said.

“The what?”

“The center. The place of opening.”

“Right. Gotcha. And the plan is to stop Mike before he can pull off this opening.”