The Lazarus Factor by Nick Crow

Author:Nick Crow [Crow, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 37

SOMERSET HOUSE

London, United Kingdom

10:03 PM, June 9th

M arcus drew in a deep breath, then another. He desperately needed to steady his nerves.

He was seated against a wall, his hands tied tightly behind his back. His head ached, and there was a hard welt on the side of his head where he’d been pistol-whipped. But it wasn’t pain that had him nearly hyperventilating. Being imprisoned had raised the cortisol in his blood to nearly intolerable levels, and he sensed the ever-present threat of a panic attack bubbling in his subconscious. So he kept inhaling, one breath after another, focusing all his energy on remaining calm.

Sara sat at the table in the center of the room, typing away on a laptop. A single guard remained stationed behind her. But they’d been joined by one other. Seated on the floor next to Marcus was the young man named Kostas. He had stopped screaming, but only because he’d been gagged. Duct tape was now wrapped around his mouth like a silver muzzle.

“Kostas,” Alexi had explained when he deposited the young man here, speaking as though this should be perfectly obvious, “shouldn’t do so much molly.”

Before leaving, he’d instructed the guard that even Kostas wasn’t allowed to leave until he had pulled himself together. He also insisted the guard watch carefully to see that Sara didn’t email, IM, or do anything else to try to get help. So the guard stood behind her, his eyes fixed on the screen as Sara typed away.

She’d been at it for nearly seven hours now.

Marcus looked around the room. Thick Persian carpets covered the floor, and on the few spaces on the walls that weren’t covered by shelves, he could see hand-painted wallpaper depicting peacocks and pheasants. Someone had arranged a row of orchids along the window ledge. Pretty standard rich-person decor.

But the contents of the shelves were not standard. In addition to books, they held an extensive collection of scientific curiosities and ephemera. One shelf was completely devoted to vintage microscopes and surgical instruments. Another held a display of dark and light morphs of peppered moths, stag beetles of various sizes, and a collection of butterflies with shiny blue wings.

Even the books weren’t your usual fare. There were copies of Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle and On The Origin of Species, Hooke’s Micrographia, Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and even a framed copy of Mendel’s Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden. Frank, it was clear, had been a great historian of science, with a keen interest in biology.

But what interested Marcus most was the magnificent antique desk situated in front of the windows. It was a secretary desk with a cylindrical top to protect the writing surface, and nearly every inch of exposed wood was inlaid with intricate marquetry panels and gold leaf. As best as Marcus could tell from his seat on the floor, each panel depicted a different god in the Greek pantheon: Athena with her owl, Zeus holding a thunderbolt, Hephaestus at his forge, Poseidon with his trident.

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