27

JACK THOUGHT IT WAS THE ONLY appropriate place. For more than two weeks, he and Espy had concerned themselves with flying under the radar, with passing from city to city as unobtrusively as possible. Now that the moment they’d worked toward had arrived, a public place—the most obvious public place—seemed to make the most sense.

The Eiffel Tower loomed over them, but Jack walked along the metal barricades and barely noticed it. He scanned the length of the avenue, looking for the man he’d come to meet. He and Espy were ten minutes early. Jack, who on any normal occasion would have watched the meeting place from afar until he’d determined he wasn’t walking into a trap, had been unwilling to delay the meeting.

The line to ascend the Eiffel Tower filled the area beneath the Tower’s base and stretched along Quai Branly, and while Avenue Gustave Eiffel was almost free of its usual bus traffic, a number of people were crossing over from the adjoining park. Jack studied the faces in the line, yet there were too many of them crammed into the small space for him to notice anything amiss, to pick out someone who didn’t belong.

He turned to look out over the park, at the footpaths that bisected it. He saw nothing but families, young couples, and groups of tourists aimlessly wandering over the grounds.

As he took in the scene before him, Espy tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned, she pointed up the street.

At first, Jack didn’t see him, the unassuming figure approaching, but when his eyes settled on the man, he knew right off it was McKeller. Jack adjusted his grip on the bag hanging from his shoulder, the bones secured within. He didn’t move from his spot, allowing the rogue agent to come to him.

As McKeller drew closer, what struck Jack was how normal the man appeared. In his mind, McKeller had become a monster, a villain from an action movie. The man in front of him, though, was smaller than Jack. His clothes were rumpled, his face lined. It looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. What hit him the most, though, was that McKeller was alone.

“Where are they?” Jack asked, his voice hard.

“Near,” McKeller answered.

“That’s not good enough.”

Jack felt the tenseness of his wife next to him. He knew there was a thin line between her maintaining a measure of equanimity and her going for the man’s throat.

McKeller’s eyes moved to the bag at Jack’s shoulder, then back to Jack’s face. He slipped a hand in the pocket of his coat. Jack tensed, but McKeller pulled out a phone. He dialed a number and, after a moment, spoke a single word, “Wave.”

The agent looked to his right, to the large expanse of green. Jack looked with him and found his attention attracted by a movement different from that of people traversing the space. He saw the hand in the air at the other end of the green, the man attached to it—and the two smaller forms at that man’s side. They were almost a hundred yards away and yet, to Jack, they seemed so close. He felt something in his throat. He heard a noise like a gasp coming from his wife. He took a step.

McKeller’s voice stopped him. The man still held the phone open. “The bones first. If you even think of trying to reach your boys, my associate will have them in a car and gone before you’re halfway across the park.”

It took a great deal of effort, but Jack forced himself to turn away from his sons, to face this man who’d barged into his life and threatened everything that was dear to him.

Without a word, Jack took the bag from his shoulder and unzipped it. Reaching in, he moved the fabric aside, revealing the bones that once carried a great prophet of God through ancient Israel. McKeller looked at the relics, mesmerized. He reached out and touched the yellowed bone. He kept his hand there for several seconds, and Jack allowed the man his moment before speaking again.

“Now the boys,” he said.

The sound of Jack’s voice seemed to break some kind of spell. McKeller looked up and then withdrew his hand. He spoke into the phone. “Bring them.”

Jack held the bag tight as he watched his sons draw near. It was all he could do to keep from rushing toward them. Espy stepped forward. Jack took her hand and held her in place.

When they were close enough for Jack to see them clearly, he was relieved to find they were unharmed. He paid special attention to Jim. The boy was walking well, and his color was good. Jack was watching his face at the moment Jim recognized him, and when the boy broke into a smile, Jack felt tears threatening to surface. Realization came to Alex an instant later, and he grabbed his brother’s hand and began to run. Their escort didn’t try to stop them.

Espy was the first to move. As soon as the boys stepped onto the walkway, she ran to meet them, going to a knee and embracing them both. The tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Going by the look on Jim’s face, Jack knew she was squeezing too hard.

Jack wanted more than anything to join his family, so he completed the transaction, handing the bag to the rogue agent without a second thought. Suddenly the ancient relics had lost their meaning. The only treasure that mattered was wrapped up in the arms of his wife.

He was starting toward them when McKeller spoke. “So it’s true, then? The bones will bring someone back from the dead? Will heal them?”

Jack paused, just long enough to give the man a tired smile. “I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t.”

Then he went to his boys. It took some doing to release them from Espy’s grasp, but once he did, he gathered them in his arms. Jim’s tears touched Jack’s neck, while Alex, his older brother, didn’t cry.

At last, Jim pulled back from his father. “Mr. McKeller said the bones can heal people,” he said. “Is that true?”

Jack nodded. “Yes, it’s true.”

Jim seemed to take that in, to process the meaning. “Then I’m glad you gave them to him so that he can help his wife.”

Jack found himself unable to speak. He grabbed his son again and drew him close. He was still holding Jim when he heard the shot.

Instantly, Jack reached out and pulled Alex down. Espy also got down, crouching before the echo from the gunshot had dissipated. Jack cast his eyes about, looking for the shooter. He saw the people in line for the Tower—people now gaping at each other, reacting in fear, many of them running for cover.

Then Jack heard the screams. People in the line were yelling, pointing. Jack followed the line of their fingers, causing him to turn.

McKeller, who’d begun to walk away with his prize, was down, unmoving. The bag had spilled its contents onto the avenue, some of the bones coming loose from their wrappings.

Jack continued to look around, searching frantically with his eyes, but still he couldn’t locate the sniper. Which meant no one was safe. He shouted at Espy to stay down. Then he grasped the boys’ hands and sprinted toward one of the food trucks parked along the walkway. When he reached it, he pulled both boys down, forcing them onto their stomachs, using the truck as cover. Just seconds later, Espy joined them.

The throng of tourists was scattering in all directions, a few of them joining Jack and his family behind the food truck. Jack heard shouts in a half dozen languages, the voices of the terrified caught out in the open.

Jack peered out from behind the truck and saw McKeller’s associate. He’d moved back across the grass, separating himself from McKeller. He was crouched low, but the area was wide open and provided no cover. He had a gun out as he scanned the surrounding park. He was at least forty yards from McKeller, from the bones. Even with the distance between them, Jack could guess what was going through the man’s mind. His boss was down, probably dead. And the bones, while valuable, weren’t worth trying to collect when their ultimate purpose had been the preservation of the dead man’s wife.

Jack told the boys and Espy to stay put, and then, staying low, he ran toward the nearest tree to get a better look.

Jack was watching McKeller’s associate when he saw two men proceeding down Avenue Gustave Eiffel. They walked with purpose, covering the distance quickly.

Israelis.

Neither of the men held a weapon, which told Jack they had a third man hidden nearby. With his attention diverted, Jack didn’t see Jim step out from behind the truck. He didn’t notice until he heard his wife scream, and by then Jim had almost reached McKeller.

“Jim!” Jack shouted, but the boy didn’t stop.

Jack hurried after his son, a sharp pain shooting through his knee. He’d closed half the distance by the time Jim reached the fallen agent. The boy went to his knees next to the man’s body. For a second, Jim didn’t do anything. Then Jack saw the boy reach for the bones spilled onto the avenue. Jim picked one up, freeing it from the wrappings that still clung to it. He studied it briefly before extending it to touch McKeller’s hand. Jack arrived a moment later. He reached for his son.

A flash robbed him of sight. He felt his son in his arms as a bright light rose from the relic, as it moved to envelop McKeller, and then began to expand, creating a bubble of light around Jack and his son. With the light came warmth, an otherworldly sensation that settled over them. Jim looked up at Jack with a beatific smile on his face. The light grew brighter, the warmth turned hotter. Jack held his son tight as the bones did their work. And then both light and heat vanished, gone in an instant.

Slowly, Jack released Jim, and together they looked down, and together they witnessed McKeller’s hand move. The bone was gone, in its place a dust that, even as Jack watched, began to scatter in the breeze. He looked at the bag. He saw only rags and more dust. Their power spent, the bones of the prophet Elisha had returned to the stuff of which they were made.

A shadow fell across McKeller. Jack glanced up and saw the Israelis—witnesses to a scene from their own past. Their eyes went to the now-empty bag. They moved toward Jack.

His son back in his arms, Jack returned the Israelis’ gaze. “Let the dead keep their own,” he told them.

He didn’t know if they’d accept that. In truth, he didn’t care. He just held his son, and when Espy and Alex rejoined them, he gathered all of them up and started walking, leaving all the rest of it behind.