The Cain Prophecy (Lilitu Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Improvisation, he thought as he stepped out onto the balcony, closed the doors behind him and then climbed across the wall to the balcony of his own room.

  Chapter Three

  Blue Lagoon Caye—Off the coast of Belize

  Steve Sommers had just finished reading the Wall Street Journal financial report on his iPhone and was now grilling a lobster, which he had personally caught while scuba diving just offshore. He would have preferred some snapper or codfish, but would have to settle for what he could catch. Next week he would make another run to Placencia and buy some groceries, maybe skip the fishing for a while. Since it was Saturday, Azeem was back at the house preparing the rest of the dinner—yams, legumes, coconut bread and of course, piña coladas. Sommers had managed to start a garden and it was doing quite well. He would be able to supply most of his own veggies and cut down his trips to the mainland by half. Not that he couldn’t afford it, but Sommers was raised in a thrifty household, so cutting corners had been something that was ingrained in him from a young age. He saw no reason to stop now.

  It was a perfect day—a light breeze, sunny blue sky, water lapping the shore of the lagoon—but he had found that most days were like this one. The weather didn’t change much in the Caribbean, but when it did, it was usually fast and violent.

  As he took a swig of Belikin, a beer made in Belize that he had quickly developed a taste for, he heard the motor of an approaching boat, something he had not heard in the months that he had been on the island. It was especially troubling because he had been guaranteed privacy by the realtor, and no one knew he was here, not even his closest friends.

  He glanced out over the horizon and saw a speedboat racing toward the lagoon.

  Why the hell can’t people leave me alone? Got to make a point to mine the waters around the island.

  As the boat got closer, he could see long, brown hair blowing in the wind behind the driver, obviously female and wearing a tank top and short shorts.

  On second thought, maybe I could make an exception this once.

  The boat slowed and passed through the shallow entrance to the lagoon, then slowly motored over to the small pier where his own boat was moored. Sommers saw that it was a forty foot Fountain boat, one of the rentals from the mainland. He set his beer down and jogged over to the piers, climbed up and caught the end of a mooring line as it was tossed to him.

  “We don’t get many visitors here in paradise,” he said as he tied the boat to a cleat on the pier. “What brings you out this way? Are you lost?”

  He glanced up to see the woman jump over the side of the boat and onto the pier, where he got a good look at her face for the first time. She stared back at him as his smile slowly faded.

  “Steve Sommers, I presume,” she said. “Or can I call you Gordon Powers?”

  * * *

  Gordon couldn’t say that he was glad to see Gabrielle Lincoln, or “Gabe” as everyone called her, though she did look good in the shorts, and the huge, red dragon tattoo running down her left shoulder and arm was still a turn-on. Plus there was the Aussie accent. Okay, she was hot. But he hadn’t told anyone where he was going, so how the hell had she found him?

  “No one in the agency knows I’m here, Lincoln. Have you been spying on me? I mean, if you wanted a date, all you had to do was ask. The stalking thing is kind of sad and a little creepy.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Gordon. I’m here because of what you pulled at the research center in Connecticut. You were supposed to destroy the asset. Instead, you sold him to a foreign country. Do you know the shit you’ve caused for us? For the world?”

  The former operative turned and began walking down the pier and back to the beach. Gabe followed close behind. “Is that what they’re calling murder, now—destroying the asset?” he said.

  “Don’t pretend to be so noble, Gordon. The only reason you took that kid was for the money. Why don’t you just admit it?”

  He stopped in mid-stride and turned to face his accuser, who nearly ran into him. “Okay, so what if I did? That whole operation was off the books, anyway. That monster and her offspring weren’t even supposed to exist. So what are you going to do—arrest me? And charge me with what?”

  “You know the agency as well as I do. If I tell them where you are, they will come pick you up, get all the information they want out of you, and then make you disappear—permanently. And it won’t be here on your nice little island, it will be in some top-security prison where you’ll live out your days making big rocks into little ones.”

  Gordon, wearing only swim trunks and flip flops, crossed his arms over his bare chest and stared at Gabe through his polarized sun glasses.

  “What exactly do you want me to do? It’s not like I can just call these people and say, ‘Uh, hey, would you guys mind bringing junior back?’”

  “Who did you sell him to? It was the Saudis, wasn’t it?”

  He thought for a moment. “Maybe. Does it really matter?”

  “Gordon, the Saudis are known to harbor terrorists. They would like nothing more than to take something like this and use it against us. In fact, they are probably planning just that.”

  “The Saudis are our allies.”

  “Are you really this dense?”

  “I am not dense. A little slow, maybe a bit obstinate at times. What’s your point?”

  Gabe glanced around the island. “They must have paid you a shitload of money.”

  “Well, that might be exaggerating…”

  “How much?”

  Gordon grimaced. “Okay, a shitload.”

  “Well, I’m giving you a chance to make amends. You can help me track this arsehole down, or I can call Langley and the black helicopters will converge on this place like hornets on a watermelon.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  She stared in silence.

  “What’s your interest in this?” he continued.

  “My interest is that I’m trying to make this right. I’m trying to take responsibility for my actions, and for the mistake of trusting someone like you to keep his word.”

  “A humanitarian. That’s touching. Do you know what the CIA was doing with that beast in Connecticut? They were planning to use it―her―as a weapon.”

  “So you think that gave you the right to walk off with her offspring and sell it to the Saudis? That’s kind of a stretch, Gordon, it really is.”

  “How did you find out about it, anyway?”

  “That was a CIA facility. You weren’t the only one with clearance. Besides, who do you think found that egg in the first place? “

  “I don’t mean that—I mean the fact that I sold the kid—or the asset, or whatever you call him.”

  “Remember your friend who owns the hotel in DC? Well, he happens to be a friend of mine, too. He saw those men loading the kid into the back of that SUV and suspected they were foreign nationals. He was a little freaked out that you had involved him in something that could have gotten him in trouble with Homeland Security.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that bastard.”

  “Don’t blame him. You’re just lucky he called me and not my superiors. You would be having a very different conversation right now.”

  Gordon knew she was right. He had royally fucked up, letting his greed override good judgment. If the kid was anything like his mother, Lilith, a lot of people could be hurt or killed. And Gabe could have gone to the agency with this, but she hadn’t. She had come to him instead, hoping that he would want to undo the damage. He was being given a second chance. He would be stupid not to take it. Wouldn’t he?

  On the other hand, it would mean leaving the island for a while. Maybe forever. But what choice did he have?

  “What’s it going to be, Gordon?” Gabe asked, breaking into his thoughts.

  He raised a hand and rubbed his jaw. “Hmmm, help out the hot chick or die in a maximum security CIA prison. Not many options. Could you maybe just give me a spanking and call it even?”<
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  “Gordon, I am five seconds away from getting on my sat phone and calling Langley.”

  “Okay, you’ve made your point—I’ll help you find junior. But I’m keeping the money, and the island.”

  “I can’t guarantee that. But I don’t think anyone really cares as long as we have the asset in custody.”

  “There you go with that asset thing again. Is that all humans are to you, Lincoln—assets?”

  “He’s not human, Gordon. You know that.”

  “Hmmm, that’s true. I do have one question for you, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you like lobster?”

  Chapter Four

  Gordon went for another dive into the coral reefs that surrounded the island and managed to bring back another lobster, which he also grilled while Gabe waited. They carried the lobsters in a pan up to his house, about two hundred yards away at the end of a dirt trail, where Azeem was finishing up the rest of the meal.

  They came to a clearing with a large beach house in the center, and Gabe could see hundreds of solar panels on the roof. Beside the house was what looked like a large shed or storage unit next to a huge water tank with PVC pipes running to the ground. The house itself appeared to be new, with stucco walls and four giant white pillars fronting a covered porch. The roof extended out over the windows by a foot and all around the house carved wooden stanchions were evenly-spaced just underneath. A two-car garage fronted the left side of the house, though Gabe couldn’t imagine why he would need one. The yard was immaculately landscaped with a freshly-mowed lawn, several yucca plants, azalea bushes, and palm trees. Indeed, Gabe thought it definitely was paradise.

  Inside the house, a foyer led to an open floor plan with a dining room, kitchen and a great room filled with Caribbean-style furniture, made even more spacious by a huge vaulted ceiling. They continued walking through on tiled floors as Gordon led the way.

  “We’re having dinner in the back,” he said.

  They continued through glass double doors to an outdoor kitchen area overlooking a swimming pool with a spa. To her right, Gabe saw a dark-skinned man preparing something over a grill.

  “Everything is ready, sir,” the man said before turning to spot Gabe. He blinked in surprise, then smiled and bowed slightly.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I did not know we were having guests,” he said with an accent that was a curious mix of Latino and Jamaican. He was short, with curly brown hair and a goatee, and eyes full of impish playfulness, like the naughty little brother you could never take anywhere. Gabe thought that he might be gay, although she was sure that his boss wasn’t.

  “It was something of a surprise to me, as well,” Gordon said, clutching a pan full of grilled lobsters. “Azeem, I’d like you to meet Gabrielle Lincoln, an acquaintance of mine from back in the states. Ms. Lincoln, this is my caretaker, cook, gardener, and friend, Azeem.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Gabe said, bowing as she had seen Azeem do. “You must keep very busy. It certainly is a beautiful place.”

  “Oh yes, very busy,” Azeem said, glancing at his employer. “My home is in Belize, but I stay here on weekends and whenever Mr. Sommers leaves for long periods. Which is never.”

  Gabe raised an eyebrow at Gordon.

  “She knows my real name, Azeem. Which means only two of you know who I am, and I’d like to keep it that way.” He glanced at Gabe. “Azeem’s family and mine go back a long way—his grandmother was adopted by my great-grandparents when they lived in Belize. We’ve been like family ever since.”

  They ate at a table under a screened lanai. Gabe drank sun tea, which, like the food itself, was quite delicious. Gordon had his piña colada, complete with tiny umbrella, and Azeem drank water.

  “So, Gordon, how do sleep at night, knowing where all this money came from?” she asked through a mouthful of legumes.

  “Soundly,” he said, spiking a yam with his fork.

  “What did this setup cost you?”

  He glanced around as he took a bite. “Including the island, about ten million. I had to have my own sand shipped in from the mainland to supplement what little was already here. Luckily, the island has good anchorage. I had the house built, since there was nothing here when I bought it. Had the solar panels installed on the roof to supplement power from the generator that charges a bank of batteries. That’s what was inside the shed you saw, along with the water desalination unit. I have satellite TV, Internet, and telephone. About the only thing I need from the mainland is gas and oil for the boat and the generator. Otherwise, I’m completely self-sufficient.”

  “What about bad weather?”

  “We’re inside the Belize Barrier Reef, so the water is fairly shallow for miles around. Any wave action we get is minimal. Unfortunately, hurricanes are bad for the reef itself, bleach it out. So far, though, it’s holding up pretty well. You really should dive with me some time—it’s like another world down there. Amazing.”

  “It sounds beautiful.”

  He smiled at Gabe. “So, how do you like my island? Kind of a turn-on, don’t you think?”

  Gabe saw Azeem trying to suppress a grin as she set her drink down.

  “Seriously? How many of those drinks have you had today?”

  Azeem glanced at her. “Now you see what I have to deal with,” he said.

  Powers stuck his fork in a piece of lobster tail and shoved it in his mouth. “The trouble with you is you’re too uptight. You need to chillax.”

  “Nobody says ‘chillax’ anymore, Gordon,” Gabe said. “It sounds ridiculous coming from a fifty-year-old man.”

  He winked at her, still chewing his food. “When’s the last time you saw a fifty year old with a body like this?”

  Gabe rolled her eyes as he swallowed, then suddenly stood up, knocking his chair over backwards.

  “Who’s up for a swim?” he said, then turned and trotted off toward the pool. Gabe and Azeem glanced at each other and laughed. But after watching the former operative do the backstroke in the crystal clear water of the pool for several minutes, Gabe could no longer resist, and finally excused herself from the table and joined him.

  Chapter Five

  They swam for an hour, spent another hour in the spa, and then lay out on the sun shelf of the pool until the sunset. The house was set on a hill overlooking the entire island, so the view was clear in every direction. The deep red and orange of the sunset was breathtaking against a brilliant blue sky. Gabe thought that she could definitely understand the attraction of the Caribbean. She felt as if she could stay there forever. But the fun had to end sometime.

  “Gordon…”

  He turned to her, raised up his sunglasses. For the first time, she noticed how deep blue his eyes were, like the ocean itself. “Yes, Gabe?”

  “Do you have a plan for getting some information on the whereabouts of the asset…I mean, kid? Because as of right now, we know nothing about him, not even a name.”

  He slipped his glasses on and lay back in the shallow water of the sun shelf. “I have a pretty good idea.”

  They lay in silence as Gabe waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, she propped herself up on one elbow and stared at him. “I get the feeling somehow that you’re not taking this seriously, Gordon. This guy could be out wreaking havoc for all we know, and you just lay here on your fat ass doing nothing.”

  “My ass happens to be very well-toned. Would you like to see?” He reached down with one hand and began to pull on the band of his trunks.

  “No, I would not like to see!” Gabe jumped up and stared down at Gordon, hands on hips. “You’re just about the most pompous man I’ve ever met.”

  He held up an index finger. “But loveable,” he said. “And don’t forget charming.”

  “When are you going to stop acting like a child?”

  “Look cupcake, you’re on my island here. Nobody invited you. If you don’t like the company, then get on your boat and head back to the mainland.”

/>   Gabe thought for a minute. How the hell was she going to get through that infuriatingly arrogant façade the man insisted on living behind?

  Take the humble side, Gabe. That’s the only way to play this.

  She sighed and crouched down beside him. “Look, Gordon, I know you think you got screwed over by the agency, that they took and took and never gave back, and you do deserve some recognition for the years that you served. Maybe you even deserve to keep some of the money. I’m not going to deny you that. But I’m asking for your help, here. There’s a dangerous boy on the loose, and he’s probably a man by now—a full-grown man. Who knows where he is or what he’s doing, what kind of power he possesses. We have to find him before something bad, maybe even catastrophic, happens.” She held out a hand. “Are you with me?”

  Gordon turned and looked at her. After a few seconds he reached up and grabbed her hand. “I’m with you,” he said. “Let me make a phone call. Oh, one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How do you feel about marriage?”

  Chapter Six

  She stood on a beach overlooking an endless expanse of clear, blue ocean somewhere in the Mediterranean—an island, one that was familiar, yet not. The sky was like topaz dotted with cotton ball clouds moved along by gentle winds and slowly making their way to mysterious destinations. The water lapping the shore was like music, gently lulling her into a serene sense of peace.

  She heard a voice behind her and turned to see John MacIntyre, the man who had stolen her heart. They had just finished making love between the sheets in their beach house. She watched as the sun inched down toward the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with red, orange, and yellow flame. The evening air was alive with the smell of fish, seaweed, and saltwater and she couldn’t wait for nightfall, to stare up at the stars that shone so brilliantly, it was as if she could almost reach out and grab one.