Marrs picked up the phone and dialed a three-digit number. A phone on the other side of the office door rang once before being answered. “Call a press conference,” Marrs said. “Get me everyone. Tell them I have proof.”

Boucher heard the secretary’s voice through the door. “About what?”

“About everything.”

Chapter Sixty-Five

SIXTY-FOUR

Haifa, Israel

“WE DON’T HAVE time for this,” King said in frustration. His concern for Fiona coupled with the soaring temperature in the makeshift warehouse lab made him impatient.

“We’ll find her,” Queen assured him, her confidence unwavering, but her own thoughts half a world away with Rook.

“Tell me again what we have,” King said.

Knight looked over several photos that had been spread out on the table. He had taken them before leaving El Mirador. They showed the cuneiform scrawled on the walls beneath la Danta pyramid. “Cuneiform. We can’t read it, but we know its origin is in Sumer. That coupled with the oversized sandfish you bagged points to Iraq.”

“Which is a big country with plenty of places to hide,” King said.

“And with all the troops still stationed there, one of the last places we would think to find someone hiding from us,” Bishop added.

King looked at Davidson, who was waiting for test results at a laptop. “How long, Professor?”

“A few more minutes.” He turned to King. “I’ve been thinking. The level of violence you have described is beyond anything attributed to golems before. They’ve been killers, to be sure, but the wholesale killing of thousands is unheard of.”

“What’s your point?” Alexander said. His voice had been tinged with impatience since the confrontation with King.

“A warning I suppose. Back in my office—which no longer exists, thank you—I mentioned the cycle of, what’s the right word? Evil. The cycle of evil is said to be transferred from master to golem upon creation and from the golem to master after it has killed.”

“Black hearts,” Alexander said. “I remember.”

“From what I’ve heard, this Ridley character was dark to begin with.”

“The darkest,” Knight said. “He’s willing to kill anyone and do anything to achieve his goals.”

King eyed Alexander. Was he any different? Had he committed unforgivable crimes in the past? There was no way to know. The man had spent a lifetime covering his tracks and erasing himself from history.

“Then the first golems made would have contained that lack of regard for human life. And they’ve killed thousands over the past year?”

King nodded. He could see where Davidson’s line of thought led. “And all of that death, all of that evil, has been transferred back to Ridley.”

“Exactly,” Davidson said. “However evil your man started out, I assure you he is now much worse.”

“He is nothing,” Alexander mumbled.

King wasn’t sure what to make of the statement, but Queen had already shifted gears.