Prime (Chess Team Adventure, #0.5)

4171…


She was still sifting through the factors when the Toyota crested a hill, revealing a fenced compound with four buildings nestled in a valley between two lushly forested hills. As the Toyota drew near, two men rushed out to open the gate ahead of their arrival. They were wearing civilian clothes, but carried guns—maybe they were AK-47s, she really didn’t know for sure. She thought it might be some kind of paramilitary base, but it looked almost like a school yard; there was even a rickety looking playground in one corner of the compound.

They got out in front of one of the buildings and Rainer escorted her inside. This, at last, had to be their ultimate destination, and now he would tell her the reason for his actions. But Rainer offered no explanation. Instead, he motioned to a row of cheap, molded plastic chairs that lined the wall near the entrance, and then disappeared down a hallway, leaving her alone.

For a fleeting moment, she thought about simply getting up and leaving; it wasn’t like she was handcuffed to the chair. She could hide somewhere, bide her time and wait for an opportunity to sneak out of the compound…stowaway in one of the cars in the parking lot perhaps.

No. Too many unknowns, too much uncertainty.

Rainer returned a moment later, accompanied by a tall, handsome man. Although she seldom paid attention to the latest fashion, Sasha thought his clothes looked expensive. He smelled amazing too.

The man greeted her with a smile. “Ms. Therion, is it? A pleasure to meet you at last.”

Sasha didn’t know exactly how to respond. She couldn’t read facial expressions very well; smiles were just another unpredictable human variable. “Who are you?”

The man glanced sidelong at Rainer. “She doesn’t know?”

The turncoat Delta operator shook his head. “I didn’t tell her anything.”

“Well, it’s not that important.” The man flashed his smile again. “You’re not here to see me, after all.”

“I don’t know why I’m here.”

“You are here because I have a problem. You see, I’m used to getting what I want. It’s one of the perquisites of having more money than God. When I am confronted with a problem that I can’t solve, I bring in the very best people to solve it for me. That is why you are here.”

“Are you…offering me a job?”

He threw back his head and laughed. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

She was dumbfounded.

“This would be easier if I just showed you. Please come with me.” He beckoned to her, and even though she had decided that she wasn’t going to trust him, there seemed no alternative but to go along with him.

He guided her to a bleak-looking conference room. The chairs were the same as those in the lobby, and the table looked like something from a school cafeteria. He seemed to sense her train of thought. “I hope you’ll forgive the rather austere appointments. I usually spare no expense when it comes to decorating, but the secretive nature of our work here meant that I had to make do with what was available. But here, this is what I want you to see.”

He held up a small plastic rod, which she immediately recognized as a thumb drive. As if on cue, one of Rainer’s cohorts stepped into the room and set a laptop computer down on the table—her laptop computer, which she had not seen since setting out on the ill-fated raid more than twenty four hours previously. The man opened the hinged screen and tapped the power button.

After the device booted up, her host plugged the thumb drive into the USB port. Understanding what was expected of her, Sasha entered her password to unlock the computer and then opened the directory for the portable memory stick. The folder contained several image files.

“Try the ‘slide show’ option,” her host suggested.

She did, and after a few seconds the screen went black as the first image loaded. It was a photo, but of what exactly, she couldn’t tell. Misshapen and irregular, blackened and corroded, it looked like something recovered from a fire. The image changed, showing it from a different angle, but the mystery of what it was remained unresolved.

Except she did recognize something.

She moved her face closer to the screen, peering intently at something that protruded from the object. She couldn’t guess what its function was, but there was a symbol on it, a single character that she instantly recognized. Before she could process the information, the image changed again, and as if anticipating her desires, the next image was a close-up of the symbol:





“That’s the script from the Voynich manuscript!”

Her host smiled. “Yes, it is.”