On the Hunt - Page 37

“He is your horse, Fiona,” Kira reminded her as she put Mack in his seat in the row behind her own. “But we’ll both be back before you know it.” Then she was buckling her own seat belt as Harlan started the engines and the jet taxied down the runway.

She didn’t speak again until Harlan was in the air and setting their course. Then she turned to face him. “Why were you going to leave the island early? Is there a problem? I thought you said Captain Darue had everything under control.” She stiffened. “More drones?” Then she relaxed. “No, you wouldn’t have left if there had been any trouble.”

“I’m glad you have that much faith in me at least.” He nodded. “No current danger. I just thought there was a possibility we might need more aircraft once we’ve reached Kalim’s Hathor. As it happens, I have a factory outside Morocco where it might be convenient to store my second Gulfstream if Taylor decides to make the situation difficult for us in the area. I sent Belson to fly the Gulfstream out earlier today with orders to get it ready… just in case.”

“Why would you think Taylor might cause problems in the area? Is that a possibility?”

“Anything is a possibility where Taylor is concerned. There are hundreds of islands in the Mediterranean, some of them not even charted. Plus over a thousand Egyptian islands alone. It wouldn’t surprise me if Taylor had found himself a cozy little paradise somewhere near where the media might have mentioned you’d been working lately.”

She made a face. “That’s not exactly reassuring. What are the odds?”

“Nothing for you to worry about yet. I have no idea. That’s another thing Belson is going to try to determine on this trip. Besides collecting a few reports from my main executives in charge of engineering in the lab. Something about what you said regarding those wells off Kalim’s island of Hathor made me wonder if one of my current projects might turn out to be useful to us.”

“Why?” Kira frowned. “What kind of factory is it? What are you building in this lab?”

“That’s what I’m wondering.” He smiled mischievously. “I’ve found my work has a habit of changing and transforming as it goes along. I’m never sure until the final tests.”

“Then heaven help us.”

His grin deepened. “Oh, I do hope it does. But I think I can assure you it’s not a super hydrogen bomb. No, it’s actually a lab where I’ve been doing some preliminary research for the Pentagon. It’s still in its early stages, but I plan to keep it out of the hands of the politicians until I decide whether I want to let them buy it. So I set up the factory in Morocco where I could have sole control.”

“Your favorite state of being,” Kira said mockingly.

“Yep,” he agreed. “And I’ve noticed you have definite leanings in that same direction. You gave me hell in Colorado.”

“You wouldn’t let me do my job the way I wanted to.” She paused. “But we’re still taking your jet to Hathor first? Kalim would regard it as an insult if we consider him an afterthought and not the main attraction.”

“He’s definitely the main attraction,” Harlan said sourly. “I can hardly wait to meet him. I’ll phone Belson on our way to see the great man and have him bring me the engineering reports after I’m sure Kalim’s not going to behead me.”

“Don’t be absurd.” She couldn’t keep her lips from twitching. “I’ve heard Kalim hasn’t beheaded anyone in decades. I’m certain he wouldn’t make an exception in your case.” She added thoughtfully, “Unless he thought it would gain him some kind of additional prestige among his people on Hathor. You are considered very important in some circles.”

“Very amusing.”

She was chuckling. “Relax. Fiona would never forgive me if I let anyone hurt you. You’re quite safe.”

“What a relief.” Harlan shot her a glance. “But it’s a long trip, and you’ve already had an exhausting day. I’d feel better if you’d take a nap on the plane, so that you’ll be fresh when you have to confront Kalim and his merry band to save me.”

“You might be right.” She leaned over the seat and gave Mack a pat on his head. “When I’m sleeping, keep him company, Mack. I honestly believe he’s trying to help us, and we can’t let anything happen to him. Just like he took care of us… We have to regard it as our duty and privilege.”

“Thank you for clarifying that for him,” Harlan said wryly. “I’m truly touched.”

Harlan gave a low whistle as his jet circled the private airport on Kalim’s island of Hathor. “Very luxurious. Plus, I’ve seen air force training centers that didn’t have as much ground equipment or personnel as what we’re looking at down there. And I think he’s got more military personnel than Captain Darue has in the escort coming out of that mini-castle down by that lake.” Harlan was gazing at what appeared to be a gleaming, white marble palace with lattice carvings and curved windows that were pure Indo-Islamic in nature. “It looks a little like the Taj Mahal.”

“Kalim will be pleased you’re impressed,” Kira said. “Everything about the island is meant to look like it was built for royalty. It’s a family tradition passed from father to son for generations. I believe it may have started out as a question of pharaoh envy. After all, they lived like kings, ruling everyone on their property; the pharaohs came to them when they needed fine horses for battle or breeding. They probably didn’t see why they shouldn’t have everything surrounding them just as splendid as the royals possessed. Though actually, Kalim isn’t nearly as ostentatious in his tastes as his parents and grandparents were. You should see the photos.”

“I’ll pass for the time being.” He glanced at Kira. “Sarah said that neither of you is fond of palaces. Did she see where you were living when you were working with Kalim?”

“No, because I never lived here. I spent my first night in one of those palatial rooms and then I took my backpack and sleeping bag and moved up into the hills where I could be with the herds. When Kalim wanted to see or talk to me, he’d come visit where I was working that day.”

“And he let you get away with that?”

“Why shouldn’t he? He respects hard work, and he wanted me to complete my research with his horses and the dogs. It was important to him. He works hard himself, and his family made sure that he grew up appreciating the beauty of the property and, most of all, the horses themselves. Everything that came onto the property had to be top quality. Even Hathor, the Egyptian name of the island, means ‘everything beautiful in life.’” She gestured to the cliffs on the north side of the island. “In time, I even became accustomed to thinking of that north shore as beautiful, too. It’s exciting and dangerous and definitely fascinating. The cliff is jagged and sheer, with a drop of over three hundred feet to where the Mediterranean crashes against the rocks below. During storms, that seascape has almost hurricane force, and the waves are very rough. Kalim told me that, during the time of the pharaohs, there were frequent shipwrecks right there on the north shore. Ships from Rome, Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, and the rest of the world came through here on their way to larger cities on the mainland. That was why I went down to explore the caves in that area. And those horses Kalim owns spend well over half a year in the upper pastures, and I had to decide what trees and border plants would be best to keep them calm and avoid any accidents that would send them tumbling off that cliff and yet give them soul-freedom.”

“Soul-freedom?”

“You’re well known as an environmentalist. I believe you’re aware that animals have souls, and freedom is important to them. It’s particularly obvious when you run across a dog like Mack or a horse that’s as highly developed as some of Kalim’s.”

He nodded. “Or perhaps also a few elephants that have wandered across my path. I’m not arguing with you about the concept—merely questioning the descriptive phrase. But perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered. You were bound to come up with something unique to you. Well, how did you take care of Kalim’s problem?”