“Yeah. That’s the picture part.”

“So, if I told you three illuminations, three pictures, do you think you could find them?”

“No problem,” Charlie said. “That’s all?”

“And then, could you rip those pages out for me?”

Charlie opened his mouth wide, like he’d just been told that Santa Claus was real after all. “What? Are you crazy?”

Meng put his hands on the great book and began to lift it from Charlie’s lap. “It’s for a classified FBI project. I knew it would be too hard for a kid.”

Charlie kept his hands on the book. “It’s not too hard,” he said. “But my parents would kill me.”

“Your parents don’t have to know,” Meng said, letting the book fall back into Charlie’s grip. He described the three illuminations and explained where they could be found.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Charlie said, finding the first illumination after a brief search.

Meng held his right hand up in an odd formation, a blend of Scout’s honor and Vulcan salute. “Dragon’s Oath,” he said, taking the ripped page from Charlie’s outstretched hand.

“What’s that?” asked Charlie.

“I’ll let Cornelius tell you,” Meng said. He placed his hand on Charlie’s head and tousled his hair like a coach might one of his star player’s.

So much to learn.

He wondered if the kid would live long enough to fully understand.

Nineteen

nineteen

The passengers aboard Flight 1213 began to stir. People who had sat next to each other for hours in silence began to talk for the first time, knowing that the end of their flight would come inevitably soon, a safety net to save them from a verbose neighbor. August wished he’d never said a word to his traveling companion, as if that somehow could have prevented the avalanche from crashing upon him.

Xandria passed the laptop to August. “We land in an hour,” she said.

The final images had arrived. “I’ll have less than forty minutes before they shut me down,” he said. He quickly jotted down the illumination labels on his notepad:

Seven—Knight in Green Cape with Sword
Eight—Ox with Banner
Nine—Creation

“Freaky knight, you’re first up to bat,” August said, taking full view of the seventh illumination from the book of Maccabees. “You won’t see this one in today’s Bibles,” he murmured. The image started with a red initial E at its center. As with most of the others, the initial was curved, encircling the figure trapped inside: a knight, dressed in thick blue armor and draped in a green cape. The knight held a long sword in his right hand. His left hand rose, palm open, to heaven.

“Doesn’t look like a nice fellow,” Xandria said.