The Midas Code

“We’ll give you the updates,” Tyler said, “but we want proof that my father and Stacy’s sister are all right.”

“I’ve already sent you proof-of-life videos.”

“I want one every day, with proof that their ears are intact. You miss a day, and this is over.”

Orr thought about it, then nodded. “Fair enough. Once a day.” He looked around at the crowd hustling for one of the four entrances to get into the game that had just started. “It looks like it’s time for me to go. I’ll be in touch.” Orr slung the backpack over his shoulder.

“That’s it?” Stacy said.

“Understand that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, so I take it very seriously. You should, too. I’ll be in Naples on Sunday. If you can’t be there with the solution to my problem, don’t bother coming.”

As the skies opened up with another downpour, Orr melted into the sea of humanity. Stacy wanted to run him down and pound his head into the pavement, but that wouldn’t help her sister, and she’d get blown up in the process.

“I want to kill him,” she said. “I’ve never said that before about a person and really meant it.”

Tyler, who was also staring at Orr, just nodded. They kept watching until Orr walked around the corner and disappeared.

FIFTEEN

T yler was eager to read the documents that Orr had emailed to them, but Stacy insisted on stopping at her downtown hotel first to get into dry clothes. The plan was to then go back to Tyler’s house, where they had more room to spread out. While she changed, Tyler went to Gordian’s headquarters to print out the documents and check out a hunch he had about the geolabe. An hour later, he was back at her hotel.

Stacy came out wearing the same jacket and boots, but a fresh shirt and jeans. Tyler expected her to be carrying nothing more than her briefcase, so he was surprised to see her carry-on trailing behind as well.

“Pop the trunk,” she said as she reached the back of the Viper.

Tyler swung around in his seat. “What are you doing?”

“If we’re going to be working on this all night, there’s no sense in bringing me back here. It’ll just waste time.”

“So you’re just inviting yourself to stay at my place?”

“Relax. I’m not planning to throw myself at you. I’m being efficient, that’s all. Besides, it’s not like you’re married.”

Tyler glanced down at his ringless hand. He had been married once and wore the ring for a long time after she died, but it now sat in his nightstand drawer. His love for Karen would never diminish, but he’d decided to treasure her memory by moving forward with his life.

He looked back up at Stacy. “How do you know I don’t have a girlfriend?” Tyler didn’t object to her staying at his place. He was just amused by her brazen forwardness.

“Oh,” Stacy said as if she’d never even considered that. “Do you?”

Tyler had had one relationship since he became a widower. He’d really wanted the long-distance affair with Dilara to work out, but maintaining their connection through phone calls and emails had been difficult. Most of the time she was in Turkey excavating Noah’s Ark, while he was all over the rest of the world. They kept in contact, but developing a relationship wasn’t in the cards when they were separated by ten thousand miles most of the year.

“No,” he said with feigned indignation, “but you don’t have to seem so surprised.” He clicked the trunk release.

“Sorry,” Stacy said as she lifted her bag in. “I just figured you were like me. Driven. Workaholic. No time for romantic entanglements.”

“It’s like talking to a mirror.”

She picked up the thick folder of papers from the passenger seat and got in.

“Are these the pages Orr sent?” she said.

Tyler nodded and put the car in gear. “I made two English copies for us, plus the original in Greek for you.”

Within ten minutes they had entered the Magnolia neighborhood. He turned into the driveway of his two-story Mediterranean-style villa perched on a cliff overlooking Puget Sound and downtown Seattle. He pulled the Viper into the middle bay of a three-car garage, a Ducati motorcycle next to a workbench on the right, and a Porsche SUV with a flat tire on the left.

Tyler pointed at the Porsche’s tire and said, “That’s why we were crammed into the Viper today. I don’t normally take it out in the rain.”

When they got inside, Stacy walked over to the windows. “Carol would love this view.”

Tyler set her bag down in the hall. “You can have the spare bedroom on the right. The sheets are reasonably clean.”

Stacy shot him a get-real look.

“Kidding,” he said. “I wash them daily.”

“I’ll assume it’s somewhere in between.”

She took a spin around the living room, then checked out the kitchen, running her hands over the granite countertop and the cherry cabinets. “This is some house. Gordian must pay pretty well.”

Tyler took a seat and pulled out the three packets of paper. “You don’t have much of a filter, do you?”

“I’m just saying it’s not like you’re hiding the fact that you make money. A mansion. Red sports car. Porsche. Motorcycle.”