Magic Lantern (Rogue Angel) (40 page)

Instead, though, the sword sailed true and sank into the Asian warlord’s chest just below his heart. He looked down at the sword that transfixed him. Stubbornly, he tried to aim the pistol again, but the weapon dropped from his nerveless fingers. He sank to his knees and started to fall forward.

Annja reached for the sword and it disappeared from Puyi-Jin’s chest and was once more in her grasp.

“How did you do that?” Edmund said from a few feet away as he stared at the sword.

Annja grinned. “Magic.” She searched for Fiona, who was trudging across the rubble.

Fiona glanced down at Puyi-Jin. “That will be the lot of them.”

“What about Laframboise?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Puyi-Jin and his people were thorough about wiping them out.” Fiona gazed around the room.

Most of the dust had settled and less than half of the lanterns had been broken so there was still plenty of light.

Fiona wiped blood from her face. “So this is it, then? There is no treasure?”

“We’ll have to see.” Annja walked over to the wall of bones. “The obelisk wasn’t Dutilleaux’s hiding place. That was only window dressing.”

“And a rather nasty trap.”

“Yes.” Annja looked at Fiona. “You don’t see the clue, do you?”

Fiona wiped grit from her eyes and looked at the wall of bones. “All I see are a lot of poor souls who ended up as landscape.”

Annja shifted her gaze to Edmund. “But you do, don’t you?”

Excitedly, Edmund nodded. “Dutilleaux marked his hiding place with a symbol that Tsai Chien-Fu would understand.” He approached the wall of bones and knelt in front of it. “The secret’s here. In these skulls.” He traced a line with his hand. “See? The long line of skulls here.”

“Eight of them.” Annja released the sword and knelt beside him.

“And three columns. Again, only using eight skulls.”

Fiona nodded in understanding. “The numeral eight in Suzhou. Very clever.”

“Unless it’s just an anomaly.”

“Surely you don’t believe that.”

Annja reached for a skull. “No, I don’t believe that.” She pulled the first skull away.

Edmund joined in the efforts and they quickly cleared the space of skulls and bones. Behind the bones sat a brass box. Annja leaned back and gestured to Edmund.

“Your lantern is what brought us here. The honor’s yours.”

Edmund shook his head. “I’d never have gotten this far without you.” He removed the brass box and set it before Annja. “You do it.”

Carefully, Annja opened the box and tilted it so the lanterns’ light better illuminated the contents. A jumble of gold coins, pearls and gems.

Reaching in, Annja plucked out the royal seal of the Qianlong Emperor. As she did, her fingers brushed against another hard surface in the pile of coins and gems. Digging through them, she found two books, one of them written in Chinese and the other a collection of sketches, but there was an English translation on the title pages.

Poems of the Qianlong Emperor
and
Sketches of the Qianlong Emperor.

Annja couldn’t believe what she was holding. She turned the pages reverently.

“What is it?” Fiona leaned in more closely.

“These books are supposed to have belonged to the Qianlong Emperor.” Annja studied the pictures of loons, petrels and pelicans. There were other birds she couldn’t recognize, and animals, as well, including tamarin, alligators and pandas. “If they are, if that can be verified, they’ll be worth a fortune.”

Fiona stood and looked around the room. “I think we need to be going. We should probably notify the Parisian police before they end up catching us down here, don’t you think?”

Annja nodded and closed the brass box. “I’ll need to get my backpack first. We don’t want to get those books wet.” She handed the box to Edmund. “Well, Professor Beswick, how does it feel to find your first treasure?”

Edmund’s eyes gleamed. “Like nothing I’ve ever felt before.” He shook his head. “But this isn’t the first time for you. I suppose after a while an experience like this loses its luster.”

Annja grinned. “Never.”

Epilogue

“So you’re back in London?” Roux sounded only vaguely interested.

Annja walked through the winding alley in the East End. It was two in the morning and darkness draped the buildings. Sorting out the discovery of the treasure and accounting for all the bodies in the catacombs had taken three days and a host of Fiona Pioche’s lawyers.

In the end, though, the law-enforcement agencies had cut them loose, but none of them had been happy about it, and Annja had gotten the distinct impression that her presence in Paris wouldn’t be appreciated anytime soon.

“I am back in London. And I’m looking for Mr. Hyde.
Again.
” Annja turned her collar up against the chill and watched a group of college-age men walking down the streets. Judging from the way they were walking, they’d been on a pub crawl.

“I read about the catacombs find.”

The story had made international news, and that was one of the things that had mollified Doug Morrell and the
Chasing History’s Monsters
production management. Doug was working on cobbling some of the story together for a feature. It wouldn’t be quite Mr. Hyde caliber, Doug had been quick to point out, but they were going to heavily work the Chinese curse angle. After all, a lot of people had ended up dead.

“Congratulations on your success.”

Annja smiled. Roux was digging for something. He’d pried himself away from a Texas Hold’em table long enough to make the call. She’d ignored it, then returned his call when she was ready. “Thank you. So how’s the table action?”

“I’m making my way. What is your professor going to do with his share of the treasure?”

“Need a backer for your gambling?”

Roux made a grunting noise.

In the end, Edmund hadn’t been able to hang on to the find. Tsai Chien-Fu had given his life in the hope that he would provide a better future for his family. Two hundred years later, Edmund felt that the original effort needed to be honored. He had returned the treasure to the Tsai family, but Li Xiaoming had insisted that her good fortune be shared. She had given half of it to Edmund, Annja and Fiona.

“He doesn’t know what he’s going to do with the money yet. He gave the treasure to the Li family. He’s a good man.”

“If he invests it wisely, he wouldn’t have to work again. Neither would you.”

“I’m investing my share wisely.”

“How?”

“By leaving it with Fiona. She’s smart and capable, and I don’t like the idea of managing money. I never have. Mostly, I have what I need. I’d rather pile up experiences and memories than try to hang on to material things. Physical things just provide a lot of clutter.”

“You forget, I’ve seen your loft. You have boxes stacked everywhere.”

That was true, but most of the antiquities were there for classification and validation. Some of it she’d asked for to pursue her own studies. “Most of those artifacts go back as soon as I finish with them. I enjoy seeing them in museums when I get the chance.” It wasn’t often, but it was enough.

“As much as you have found over these past years, you could retire.”

“Not all of us can spend all of our days playing Texas Hold’em.” Annja knew that would never happen. As long as she was able to take up the chase, she wanted to be doing exactly what she was doing. Success wouldn’t change that. Financial gains weren’t what made her life good. It was the hunt, the challenge of the unknown and the friendships she made along the way.

Roux harrumphed. “There will come a time when you grow jaded.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Trust me.”

“If things do change, money will be there waiting for me. Besides, the way I live? I don’t think retirement is part of the package.”

“You shouldn’t talk like that.” Roux’s voice softened. “It’s depressing.”

“You know who else hasn’t lost that zest for life and become curmudgeonly?”

Roux didn’t reply.

“Fiona.” Annja kept walking, but she heard the echo of someone’s footsteps behind her. She turned at the next corner to put a streetlamp behind her. Long shadows of things behind her stretched across the cobblestones. “I’ve been with Fiona these past few days. She hasn’t changed. She still enjoys the danger and excitement. Probably more than I do. Or, at least, she’s more comfortable dealing with it.”

“She is an exceptional woman. I told you that when I sent you to her.”

“Why did you leave her?”

Roux was silent. Annja felt certain he was going to duck the issue. She hoped he wouldn’t.

“When I first started working with her, I didn’t really think about the danger I was involving her in. I never considered the consequences,” Roux said thoughtfully. “Do you know how many times she was nearly killed working with me?”

“No.”

Roux sighed. “I got up one morning and I realized I couldn’t watch her get killed. After everything I’ve been through, and I’ve been through some horrific events, I could not bear losing her in such a fashion.”

“So your abandonment had nothing to do with the fact that Fiona was getting older? Or that you hadn’t ever loved her?”

“I love her with all my heart, Annja. I just couldn’t protect her. My life was spent looking for the sword that you now carry, and that search took me into dangerous places.” Roux paused. “And I couldn’t give her children. I wasted twenty years of that woman’s life before I knew it. That was how much in love with her I was.” He drew in a breath. “I suppose, in your parlance, I had been something of an asshat.”

Annja felt sorry for him. “Nothing in return? Roux, did you ever stop to think that maybe all she wanted was you?”

“Annja, you’re young in so many ways. You’re not ready for commitment. You live for the adventure each day brings. Tell me that you’re looking forward to settling down with a husband and a house filled with children.”

Guilt stung Annja when she realized she couldn’t. “Maybe Fiona felt the same way.”

“The life I lived then, it was too big. You have trouble keeping up with what that sword brings you, and that’s the truth.”

Annja had no argument.

“Now, if we’ve discussed this enough, I’ve a game to get back to.”

“Sure.”

“Maybe we should plan to get together again soon.”

Annja heard the loneliness in his voice. He wasn’t all hard bark and bluster. “I’d like that. But it can’t be Paris. They don’t want me back there for a while.”

“Well, then, we have all the rest of the world, don’t we?” Roux broke the connection before Annja could reply.

She stayed on the phone and sucked in a breath. The footfalls behind her grew louder. “Fiona?”

“I’m here.”

Before she’d called Roux back, Annja had dialed Fiona and included her on the three-way call. She’d wanted to give the woman something.

“He didn’t leave you, Fiona. Not in the way you thought.”

“I heard.” Fiona’s voice was brittle and sounded far away. “At least I’ll have better memories, and I thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Roux would be livid if he knew what you did.”

“That’s part of what made it worth doing.”

Fiona laughed. “I suppose so. Do you know when you’ll be leaving London?”

“Soon.” The footsteps behind Annja were definitely closing in on her now.

“We should have lunch before you go.”

“Definitely.”

Annja hesitated. “You know, you could reach out to Roux. Maybe give him a call.”

“Out of the blue?”

“Yes.”

“For good or bad, he has his life and I have mine. Perhaps that’s for the best.”

“And perhaps it’s not.”

Fiona sighed. “I enjoy you, Annja Creed. Truly I do. Roux was right about one thing—you are still so very young.”

“But—”

“Is there someone you care for very much, who could change your life if you let them?”

Immediately, Annja thought of Bart McGilley. They had been friends for years, and she knew they could be more if she would just stay still.

“I can tell by your silence that you know exactly who I’m talking about. Now ask yourself why you don’t let that happen.”

The question made Annja unhappy. Fiona was right. Right now her life was one thing and there wasn’t room in it to be another.

“Now let me know when you plan to leave London. I do want to get together.”