The Pharos Objective by David Sakmyster Page A

he was intrigued with the library and . . .” A strange connection tugged at him—a spark of a great inferno waiting to be ignited. Suddenly he was certain that his father had known more than he’d let on.
    The sun ducked behind a cloud and the courtyard flickered into shadow. In mid-thought, nearly at a revelation, he noticed someone watching them, standing in the opposite section from Helen and Waxman, beside a pillar in the deeper shadows.
    Who is that? How long has he been there?
    He waited, narrow and trembling, with long arms and ragged hair, so out of place amidst the tourists who just walked by, snapping their pictures, ignoring him.
    Caleb’s blood went cold and the hair on his arms stood on end. He shuddered.
    “Caleb?”
    “Do you see him?” he tried to raise his arm to point but couldn’t.
    “See who?” Nina asked, whipping her head around.
    The sun reappeared, dazzling off the stone tiles and the limestone pillars. Caleb blinked and the figure was gone.
    Someone’s throat cleared. Caleb looked up and saw Waxman with Helen standing beside him. “Let’s go,” he said. “We’ll see if the team has fared any better.”
    When he walked past, Caleb looked at his mother and saw that she had taken off her glasses and was staring across the courtyard, squinting.
    “What?” he asked.
    She shook her head, blinked and put her glasses back on. “Nothing, come on.” She took one last look around. “I still think what you saw in your dream is the key, Caleb.”
    “You do?”
    She nodded. “But it’s just so frustrating. The Pharos is taunting us from the past, giving us scraps and keeping the larger secrets to itself.”
    Caleb looked warily at Nina. “Maybe,” he urged, “we should let it keep them.”
    Helen chuckled and pushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “You’ve got a bad attitude, you know that? What would your father say?” She rubbed his head in a rare display of affection, and then followed after Waxman.
    Caleb gave Nina an “are you coming or what?” look, to which she smiled and followed after Helen and Waxman. He couldn’t help but take her in once more before he threw a tentative glance over his shoulder to where the figure had stood, watching.
    Before they boarded the ferry, Waxman used the payphone to call the other Morpheus members who had remained at Alexandria. When he hung up, he was smiling.
    “They’ve found the entrance!”
     

 
     
     
     
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    Nina asked Caleb to wait for her by the pier with Waxman and Helen, telling them that since they had another half hour before the boat left she wanted to get a few more pictures first.
    Quickly returning to the palace, Nina entered the south stairwell and, pretending to admire tapestries and framed royal crests, she blended in with the tourists, murmuring to a group of Americans about her favorite exhibits and commenting on the grandeur of the palace and the grounds. Eventually she made her way back to the lower levels, where she waited for her target to emerge from the lab.
    Only a few minutes had passed before he appeared. Gregor Ullman. She sized him up in an instant: bald, hawk-faced and slightly overweight, rolled-up white sleeves and a new pair of Levi’s. He had a Bic pen behind his ear and a toothpick in his mouth. Nina smiled, but she was no one to judge. She only carried out the sentences.
    “
Scusa, signore?
” She stepped into his path, interrupting what was either a trip to the restroom or his chance to call and update his colleagues.
    “
Si?
” He stopped and smiled, admiring the frisky young woman moving in so close.
    Nina licked her lips and set a hand on his chest, while her other hand swept up and around and plunged a hypodermic needle into his neck. Ullman staggered, gasped and shot her a look of dawning recognition. He tried to call out, but only whispered something indistinct, and collapsed at her feet. With a quick glance around to make sure no one was in sight, Nina took his legs and