Qayin smiled, and Lourds decided he didn’t like the effect. There was nothing chummy about the expression.

‘You suddenly seem to know quite a lot about that inscription,’ Qayin said.

‘On the contrary,’ Lourds disagreed, ‘I know next to nothing. This is just guesswork on my part. Under the gun, so to speak. It also stands to reason that the original object bearing this inscription is far too heavy to transport or cannot be moved.’ He paused. ‘Or it’s been lost.’

‘Does the message give any indication of location?’

‘I don’t know. If this is a warning or command, it’s most likely it would’ve been placed deliberately. There would have been no need to mention the location.’

Qayin scowled. ‘Then this paper is useless.’

Lourds nearly choked on his sip of water when he realized what he had done. ‘I wouldn’t say it’s useless. There’s still a lot that can be learned from it.’

‘What?’

‘With this, I can learn to decipher the language. If there’s more writing like this, I’ll be able to read it. Given time.’

Silence hung heavy in the catacombs and became as oppressive as the darkness.

‘There’s more writing somewhere,’ Lourds stated. ‘I’d bet my life on it.’

‘Maybe you are betting that life,’ Qayin said. ‘But you’re right, there is more writing. We’re in the process of searching for it now. I think you’re going to get to live a little longer, Professor.’

Lourds didn’t feel happy about his small victory. Living in servitude was no choice he would make. Still, death was a lot more final.

‘Get up.’ Qayin stood and waved to his followers. ‘We need to leave this place.’

Aches filled Lourds’ knees and back as he forced himself up to his feet. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and picked up the book.

One of Qayin’s followers slipped up behind Cleena. Lourds caught the movement from the corner of his eye. Lantern light gleamed against the thick, shiny blade in the man’s hand. Lourds began to shout a warning, but he knew he would already be too late.

She must have sensed something, though. She moved as quickly as a striking snake and brought up her pistol firing point-blank at the man’s head. As he fell, while everyone else stood stunned, she darted behind Lourds and grabbed him by the shirt collar. Her warm body pressed up against his.

The corpse sprawled to the stone floor in a loose spill of limbs.

The woman was barely tall enough to peer over Lourds’ shoulder, but she managed. She also opened fire immediately. Her bullets smashed into flesh, but Qayin and his followers had shaken off their paralysis. They dropped their lanterns and ran for the darkness. Four of them didn’t make it. Her aim was deadly, and in seconds she had halved the number of opponents they faced.

Certain he was about to get shot, Lourds tried to dive to the ground. Cleena held onto him tightly and her forearm was like an iron bar across his Adam’s apple. He choked and gagged, and remained on his feet.

‘You just be a good boyo,’ she said. ‘They aren’t going to want to shoot you. Not since you can read their precious little book and maybe whatever else they’ve got tucked away somewhere.’

‘You could be wrong about that, you know.’ Lourds blinked against the darkness and waited for bullets to rip into his body.

‘No, you have your field of specialty, Professor, and I have mine. They paid a pretty penny – well, half a penny anyway – to get you here. Now they think you can do what they hoped you could do, they’re going to want to keep you alive.’

Qayin spoke a harsh command. In response, a brief spate of gunfire rattled through the room. Cleena fired back immediately and evidently hit one of her targets based on where she had seen the muzzle flashes because a man toppled into the pool of light created by the abandoned lanterns.

Lourds tried to move again, but the young woman held him firm.

‘They didn’t hit you, Professor,’ she whispered into his ear. ‘See? You’re worth something to them. They missed you on purpose. And they’ve stopped firing.’

Despite the fear that gripped him, Lourds knew she was correct. Standing highlighted by the lanterns, he knew he was an easy target.

‘I guess there’s no honour among thieves, is there, Qayin?’ she asked. ‘You needn’t bother answering.’

‘You’re not getting out of here alive, Miss MacKenna,’ Qayin responded.

The woman fired in the direction his voice without hesitation. Ricochets bounced wildly around the stone walls. One of them came uncomfortably close to Lourds’ head.

‘If you’re not careful,’ he snapped, ‘you’re going to kill us both.’

She ignored him. ‘Are you still there, Qayin?’

Wisely, Lourds thought, Qayin didn’t answer.

‘Do you want to get out of here?’ she whispered.

‘I’d love to,’ Lourds whispered back, ‘but I think you may be getting a little ambitious. All they have to do is wait until you empty your pistol, then they’ll jump you before you can reload.’

‘Okay, Professor, you’ve been impressing everyone with how knowledgeable you are about languages. Since we’re in my field of study now, I’ll be giving the lessons. Just make sure you take notes. There’ll be a test at the end.’

‘What are you going to-’

She rammed the pistol’s hot muzzle under Lourds’ jaw and declared, ‘Either you let us leave or I’m going to blow Professor Lourds’ head off.’

The Emerald Nightclub

Trenton Street

Boston, Massachusetts

United States of America

16 March 2010

Dawson felt naked without a car, but Boston was a hard city to get around in one. He took a cab from Logan International after deplaning from a private charter. His early dinner with the vice-president already felt like yesterday instead of just hours ago.

He pushed his cuff back and checked his Rolex. It was 11.54 p.m.

‘Don’chu worry, mon,’ the Rastafarian cab driver called from up front. He had long dreads and smelled of ganja. ‘Dis town, she be live at night. T’ings still gonna be happenin’. You have good time. You see.’

Dawson ignored the man. The driver had Bob Marley on too loud, but the music seemed to fit in with the neon life tucked into the dark corners of the city.

The.40-calibre pistol on his hip felt good, dependable.

‘Dis club,’ the driver said as he pulled up in front of the address, ‘she small, but I hear she be rockin’.’ He pumped his fist in the air and grinned.

‘Glad to hear that.’ Dawson stepped out of the car and peeled bills off a roll.

‘You lookin’ for college girls, mon? ’Cause I hear this place be tight with ’em.’

‘Yeah.’ Dawson handed the man the fare. He was wearing jeans, a rugby shirt and a mid-thigh length suede jacket. He was vain enough to know that he could pass for late twenties in the bar light.

The Emerald Nightclub sat between a Chinese laundry and an electronics shop. Residential floors were above it and most of those lights were out. Neon tubing spelled out the bar’s name across the curtained windows. There was no queue, but there was a big bouncer at the door. He was black, had a shaved head and gold chains and a club shirt under a Sean John coat.

Dawson turned his collar up against the cold north wind and walked into the bar. The bouncer gave Dawson a cursory glance, then waved him through.

Inside, the club was jumping – packed wall to wall with college students, the noise level was deafening. ESPN filled the large television screens behind the bar. Basketball games were still playing on the West Coast, and Baseball Tonight was covering spring training.

Brigid MacKenna filled drink orders behind the bar, moving smoothly and efficiently. At nineteen, she was trim and lean, maybe a couple of inches over five feet tall and little more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. She hadn’t her sister’s statuesque build and height. She wore her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and looked younger than nineteen.