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The restaurant maître d’ escorted Jade to the table where Nick Kismet was seated. Jade appraised him as she made her approach. He still wore the same casual attire as before, yet there was something different about him. It took her a second to realize what it was, and by that time, she was standing across from him.
He rose to greet her, retaking his chair only after she had taken hers. As he did, he turned to the waiter and gestured to the empty rocks glass on the table. “Another for me. And the lady will have...?” He glanced at Jade.
Jade couldn’t decide if Kismet was trying to be a gentleman or if he was naturally pushy, nor could she decide how she felt about it. “The lady will have Dos Equis if you’ve got it.”
The waiter gave a helpless shrug. “Lo siento.” Then he added in accented but passable English. “We have Budweiser.”
Jade made a face. “Great. Got anything local?”
“Si. We have a Ayrampo Roja—red ale—on draft from Cerveceria del Valle Sagrado. It is very popular with international visitors.”
Jade looked back at Kismet. “What are you drinking?”
“Twelve-year-old Macallan. But I’m willing to live dangerously if you are.”
“Ha. Okay. Let’s do it.”
Kismet flashed what she could only describe as a roguish grin and then turned back to the waiter. “Tenemos dos, por favor.”
As the waiter moved off, Kismet faced Jade. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a beer drinker,” he said.
In truth, she wasn’t. When she drank, which wasn’t often, it was usually in social situations and she would drink whatever was put in front of her, knocking back pints or shots as if to prove she could hold her own with any grad student or former Navy SEAL. She had picked up a taste for Dos Equis when she and Maddock had been an item, and she still defaulted to it for old-time's sake, which was probably a sign of weakness on her part.
Still, where did Kismet get off making assumptions about her?
“Shows what you know.” She paused a moment, then said. “You got a haircut.”
His mouth twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smile, then he shrugged and changed the subject. “Where’s your friend? Skipper, wasn’t it?”
“Very funny. It’s Professor, but you can call him Dr. Chapman. Or you could have, if he hadn’t been called away on other business.” She hesitated, feeling Professor’s absence even more acutely. God, this is like being set up on a blind date. “He’s a SEAL, you know,” she added with perhaps more assertiveness than the situation called for. “And he’s got friends in very high places. He checked up on you before he left,”
“Is that a fact?”
“Damn straight. I know all about you, Nick Kismet.”
“And yet you’re still here,” he said, laughing. The waiter arrived a moment later with two pint glasses filled with amber colored liquid. Kismet regarded her across the table for a moment then looked up at the waiter. “We’ll need a few more minutes, I think.”
When they were alone again, he continued. “So, if you know all about me, I guess we’ll have to come up with something else to talk about. You, for instance.”
Jade now regretted the hasty comment since, in fact, she knew almost nothing about him, but before she could think of a retort, her phone began buzzing. She dug it out of her pocket, hoping against hope that it would be Professor calling to let her know that his plans had changed and he was already on his way back, but it wasn’t him; it was Kelly Allenby.
She hit the button to accept the call. “Kelly. What are you still doing up? It must be after midnight there.”
Allenby’s laughing voice filled her ear. “Jim took me to the cinema, and drinks after. I only just saw your email.”
“You didn’t have to get back to me right away,” Jade said. “It’s nothing that can’t wait until morning.”
“No need to wait. It’s a simple request with a simple answer.”
Jade didn’t like the sound of that. A simple answer in this case probably meant they were out of luck. She noticed Kismet watching her intently. “Kelly, I’m here with...uh, Nick. Nick Kismet. Can I put you on speaker?”
“Certainly.”
Jade set the phone on the table and tapped the touch-screen to activate speaker mode. Kismet leaned over. “Dr. Allenby, I’m Nick Kismet with the Global Heritage Commission.”
“Please, call me Kelly. I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Kismet.”
Kismet chuckled. “I’m getting that a lot today.”
“Jade says that you’re looking for a manuscript from the estate of Gerald Roche, written in Enochian script, called Liber Arcanum, possibly authored by John Dee or Edward Kelley. Is that right?”
“Pretty close.”
“The museum wasn’t able to acquire all of Mr. Roche’s library, but we were able to scan everything before the collection was released for auction. We have a virtual copy of every rare book or manuscript in his collection. Now, there’s good news and bad. The bad is that there’s nothing explicitly identified as Liber Arcanum. But there are several manuscripts that haven’t been identified yet, so it’s possible that one of them is what you’re looking for.”
“That is good news,” Kismet said, with a genuine smile.
“I’ll email Jade the link to the online archive. You can view the scans at your leisure.”
Jade could see that Kismet was eager to get started. “Thanks so much, Kelly,” she said. “I thought we were going to have to travel there in person.”
“Oh, I wish you would. I’d love to see you again and catch up. And I wouldn’t mind a chance to meet you in person too, Mr. Kismet.”
“If you ever do,” Kismet replied, “You’d better call me Nick.”
Jade thanked Allenby again, and then rang off to check her email. The link was there, as promised, but when Jade clicked through and began selecting files to view, she realized the limitations of the technology. The crabbed handwriting was indecipherable in normal view, and when she tried to zoom in, she had to scroll back and forth to read complete lines. Not that she could actually read the odd script, which looked a little like Greek.
“You’re going to need that Apex thingy if you want to read this,” she remarked.
Kismet shifted in his chair, suddenly looking a little nervous. “There are online translation tools that can help with that,” he said. “And I’m good with languages. Even made up ones.”
“Hmm. We’re going to need a bigger screen.”
“I’ve got a tablet computer in my room,” Kismet said. “That should make it easier to view the scans.” He paused a beat before adding. “You said ‘we.’”
“Yeah. Why? Were you planning to kick me to the curb?”
“Not at all. I just assumed that you—”
“Yeah, well you know what happens when you assume.” She took a long pull from her beer, then brought the glass down a little more forcefully than she had intended. “I vote we order room service, and move this party to your place.”
She allowed herself a small smile when she noticed that, under his thick beard, Nick Kismet was blushing.