“He is,” she said.

“And what’s your situation?”

“I think our departure went unnoticed, but we’re not without problems.”

“Kang.” Moore guessed.

“To begin with,” she replied. “But it goes beyond that now. Do you know a Russian named Saravich?”

“Ivan Saravich?” Moore said, clearly recognizing the name. “I know of him. What the hell’s he got to do with this?”

“Tell me who he is first,” she said.

“Saravich is an old KGB hound. Back a few years he was listed as an enforcer, a problem solver for them. I’d have guessed he’d been put out to pasture by now.”

“Not unless his pasture is the south coast of China,” she said. “Apparently he bribed or removed your contact there and took a meeting with Hawker in his place.”

“To what end?”

“It seems Kang stole something from mother Russia as well: a twelve-year-old boy named Yuri.”

“Why?” Moore said, surprised.

“Saravich fed Hawker some line about the kid being used to extort information out of a Russian scientist. But I think the real reason has to do with his being a subject of experiments at the Russian Science Directorate.”

She glanced at Yuri. “He seems a little restrained, almost autistic or something. He also seems to have a sixth sense regarding energy fields, electricity, and magnetism.”

“Odd,” Moore said. “You think it’s connected with the search for the stones.”

“Kang is after them,” she said. “God knows why or even how he heard about them but a person who could sense varying degrees of electromagnetism might be very helpful in such an event.”

“I guess it makes sense,” Moore said. “The Russians have been known to experiment with psychics, clairvoyance, and things like that for years. It doesn’t surprise me that they had this kid in some type of program. But as far as I know it’s always been a big joke to them, their version of the four hundred dollar hammers and the bridge to nowhere. Certainly nothing has ever come of it that I’m aware of. But if Saravich is involved, they must feel differently about this boy.”

“The thing is,” she said, “Hawker made a deal with Saravich regarding the kid. A deal I broke.”

Moore was silent for a moment, a fact that concerned her.

“I’m guessing that’s a problem,” she said.

“Saravich will come after you,” Moore explained. “And Hawker especially. He’s a prideful son of a bitch. Even if he could let it go, he wouldn’t.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” she said. “See if you can leak some misdirection, buy us some time. Otherwise I think Hawker is going to go after him, try to take him head-on.”

It was something she didn’t want to see happen, not just because she feared for Hawker but because she didn’t want any more blood on her hands.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Moore said. “Where are you, now?”

“You know the proverbial slow boat to China?” she asked. “We’re on the return trip. We’ll be in Manila in a few days. How are things going on your end?”

“Not well,” Moore said. “The CIA is involved now. A sense of fear has begun to develop about the stone. Even in the president’s mind.”

“That’s not good news,” she noted.

“No,” he said, “it’s not. The president wants two separate teams studying it. So we’re getting joint custody, it seems. And he wants the stone moved out of Washington. We’re taking it to Nevada. A lab is being set up inside Yucca Mountain, at the unfinished nuclear waste depository.”

She realized there could be only one reason for that. “The energy pulse is still growing.”

“Our containment building was in danger of a breach, but the bigger fear is detonation. We’ve pinpointed the parameters of the countdown and the zero state will be reached on December twenty-first, at 5:32 in the evening, Pacific time.”

Danielle listened to the date. McCarter had recounted the story to her several times. At the end of this epoch, which had begun 5,114 years before, the Mayan Long Count Calendar rolled over, resetting its digits to zero. The prophecy spoke of the world ending in a flood of darkness. Dark sky, dark waters pouring from the heavens, dark earth. By itself the legend was just mythology, but when connected with the stone they’d found and its pending countdown and McCarter’s theory that there were at least three others like it, the myth had taken on a disconcerting reality.

“When are you moving it?” she asked.

“End of the week. And if we can’t figure out what this thing is supposed to do, or find the other stones in Mexico that might be doing the same thing, they’re going to destroy this one, bury what’s left, and hope for the best.”

Since the day he’d seen it, Moore had treated the stone almost like a divine gift of some kind. He saw purpose in it. Danielle felt the same way, but sometimes she wondered if she could trust those feelings.

They’d sought to keep it hidden from the CIA and military because the first question from those organizations would undoubtedly be how to use it as a weapon. And now two years later, with the stone generating more and more energy and counting down to something, it seemed as if that might be exactly what it was.

“Do you want me to bring you home?” Moore asked. “You’re entitled. And I’m sure Marcus would be thrilled to have you back.”

She smiled at the mention of the name and felt a sudden wave of anxiety, all at the same time.

“You sure about that?” she asked. “I think the neighbors called D.C. Metro after our last fight.”

“Pride does strange things to people. He’s angry, but you know he wants you back.”

She wondered. It had been a painful departure. “Does he know I’m okay?”

“Of course,” Moore said. “I contacted him as soon as I got word. And I’ll confirm it to him once we’re done here. Unless you want to tell him yourself.”

The offer caught her by surprise. She was an operative on a mission. It was a position that didn’t allow call-ins to home. Still, she liked the idea. She wanted to hear his voice, to tell him she was okay. But something held her back.

“You’d be bending the rules for me,” she said.

“Marcus was one of us once,” he said. “I can bend them for both of you, or I can bring you home.”

That offer sounded like a godsend. A huge part of her wanted to be done with the madness. She was drained emotionally and physically from everything that had happened. How nice it would feel to go home, sleep in her own bed, and wake up to Marcus making coffee for her. And even if their relationship was ruined, even if he’d moved on, or was still too angry to forgive her, she wanted to get home, to see him, even if just to explain more calmly why she’d made her particular choice. Yet as the thought crossed her mind she wondered why she should have to explain herself.

It seemed like the same old fight was already brewing. And McCarter was still out there, missing. She’d taken up the baton to protect him and she wasn’t ready to relinquish it until he was safe.

Feeling a sick sense of déjà vu she decided. “If you’re right, something catastrophic is about to happen,” she said. “What good is coming back home, if I arrive on the wings of disaster? Unless you have someone better in mind, the best thing I can do for everyone is to press on.”

She told herself it was cold logic, but she knew there was more to it. She knew herself well enough to sense the avoidance in her decision. She was ducking something: not the fight that would likely flare up once again, that came all too easily, but something else, something deeper. It was as if some truth waited there for her and she wasn’t ready to see it yet.

Moore remained silent, but Danielle sensed that he approved and perhaps had even expected this. “You sure?” he asked finally.

“I finish what I start,” she said. “Please ask Marcus to forgive me.”

“I will,” Moore said. “Do you think you can find McCarter?”

Danielle thought about what had taken place in Mexico. The work she and McCarter had done. The discussions they’d had. It had been only eight days earlier, but she found it was like trying to recall what one had done a year or two ago. Still, something came to her.