“But once his secret had been leaked, especially to people who wanted to suppress it, he had to move fast. The only way he could see to keep the credit and the riches was to take it to a country that had no oil, that would agree to almost anything to cut its oil imports. I’ll bet Israel was his first choice, until he realized Japan had more money. And with a technology in hand that would not only reduce their dependence on oil, but give them something more valuable than oil to sell to the world, the Japanese government would dispute any patent claims that would arise. Ronald Clayton would be unimaginably rich, and guaranteed his precious place in history.”

“Except he never made it to Japan.”

“No,” Jack said. “Your Iswid Nahr buddies saw to that.”

Alicia thought she saw Thomas flinch. Didn’t he know? Or had he merely suspected.

“That was an accident,” he told Jack.

Jack shook his head. “The Japanese found explosive residues in the wreckage.”

“How do you know?”

“Same way I know about Iswid Nahr.”

Alicia guessed Jack didn’t want Thomas to know about the Japanese agent. She watched Thomas mull this new information a moment.

Then he shrugged. “Oh, well. He never cared about me anyway.”

“Only about himself,” Alicia said.

“How can you say that? Look what he left you. Before he left for Japan he hid all his records and cut me out of the will. He left everything to you, dammit! Why?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Alicia said. “I wish he hadn’t.”

“Then tell me what you know,” Thomas said, leaning over the flames. The shadow of his large nose flickered back and forth across his forehead. “I’ll cut you in with the Arabs.”

“No thought of releasing it and making the world a better place?”

He looked at her as if she were speaking in tongues. “Trust me, when I have so much money that it’ll take me a year to spend a day’s worth of interest, the world will be a better place.”

“I recall an old saying about the distance an apple falls from a tree…”

“You’ll be rich, Alicia. You’ve always hated him, always wanted to get even—”

“That’s not true.” But of course it was. She’d known times when it had been all she’d thought of.

“Who’re you kidding? The only person in this world you hate more than me is him. Now’s your chance to settle the score. We sell the technology to the Arabs… and they bury it. Isn’t it delicious? We get his money, and he gets no credit. His only claim to fame is that he was just another unfortunate passenger on JAL 27. You’ve got to love it, Alicia.”

She had to admit she found a certain sour appeal in Thomas’s scheme… but the thought of conspiring with Thomas on anything…