The God Collector Read online

  “Close enough.” She tugged on his arm. “Let’s go catch a train.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  There was a set to her features that he had seen before, but it took him a moment to place. It was the look she’d had when he saw her in the loft that first night. A look that said, Stand back, I know what I’m doing.

  She ducked into a nearby pharmacy and emerged five minutes later with cheap hats, scarves and an off-the-rack parka. “Camouflage,” she said when he protested that he didn’t need it. “You have to blend in. There are people all over the city wearing stuff just like this, and it’ll make you harder to spot.”

  Once he was attired to her satisfaction, hat pulled down over his hair and a scarf over his nose and mouth, she pointed him towards the nearest Red Line subway station. There were security cameras in the station, but with fresh snow sweeping across the lakefront and freezing wind howling through the steel-and-glass canyons, nobody would look twice at two more bundled-up commuters.

  As they waited for the train, Theo filched a day-old newspaper out of a recycling bin and divided it up. “Nobody makes eye contact on the subway,” she said in a low voice, handing him the Arts & Entertainment section. “With the suit and the parka, you’ll look like a would-be hipster. No one’ll notice you.”

  “I hope you’re right,” he muttered as he took the paper.

  “I hope I am too.”

  Chapter Eleven

  I have not treated any god with disrespect. I have not cheated anyone. I have not done what the gods hate. I have not caused anyone to do harm to another. I have not brought suffering upon anyone…

  ~Excerpt from the “Negative Confessions”, Papyrus of Ani, circa 1250 BCE

  They switched trains seven times before Theo started to feel safe. What she’d told Seth was mostly true; dressed as they were nobody would look twice at them, especially on a weekday. Still, there were security cameras in the stations, and it wasn’t until they’d thoroughly fouled their trail that she relaxed a little.

  The truth was the CTA was a temporary solution at best. They’d dodged the police, but what had set the police off in the first place? Theo’s knowledge of law enforcement stopped at CSI and the top stories on the cable channels. She would’ve used her phone to check the news, but she’d left it behind in Seth’s apartment, and none of the headlines on display at the newsstands gave her any clues. And after hours on the train, crisscrossing Chicago three times, they were tired and worried. They needed to go to ground while they figured out their next move.

  After a lot of hard thinking, though, Theo could only come up with one possibility.

  Aki Lee lived in a twentieth-floor apartment on the very edge of a gentrifying outer-Loop neighborhood, right on the line between middle-class quiet and yuppie paradise. The building was old-world elegance for the first five floors, but at some point in the 1970s the roof had been pulled off and fifteen stories’ worth of a sheer gray façade tacked on. If you squinted, you could almost pinpoint the spot where the rents started to rise.

  There was no doorman, but the front door was locked and there was a buzzer. Theo’s thumb hovered over the button as she hesitated.

  “You should probably talk to him alone,” Seth murmured. “I get the impression he won’t like me.”

  “The theft didn’t help,” Theo pointed out. “But for what it’s worth, I think he was suspicious before that.”

  Seth tilted his head. “Very observant of him.”

  “No, he just thought you wouldn’t put out.” Seth’s expression was priceless, and he opened his mouth to reply, but Theo pressed the buzzer before he could say anything.

  After several long moments of silence, the panel crackled. “What?” a tired voice demanded. “Mom, not again!”

  Mom? Seth mouthed, confused. Theo hid an unexpected smile and responded.

  “Aki, it’s me.”

  Another moment of silence, this one shorter and infinitely more awkward.

  “Theo?” Aki said carefully. His voice was rough with sleep, but that didn’t hide the confusion in it. “Theo, what the hell?”

  “It’s a long story, Aki.” Theo hugged herself, trying not to shiver. It was 4:00 p.m., and the temperature was dropping as the sky darkened. “Please, I swear I’m not gonna get you into any trouble, but you have to let me in. I’ve been outside for hours, and I’m freezing my ass off.”

  The outcome was never in doubt. Seconds later, the intercom buzzed and the door unlocked. She slipped through sideways and Seth followed her, looking reluctant. This, after all, wasn’t his turf.

  The trip up to Aki’s floor was stoic and silent, and neither of them looked at the other. Seth peeled off his gloves and made a show of reading the Maximum Occupancy sign and fire-hazard warnings posted in the elevator. When they reached the right floor, they exited and Theo motioned him out of sight before knocking on Aki’s door.

  The door wrenched open to reveal a wild-eyed, disheveled Aki in sweatpants and a Rhode Island School of Design T-shirt with an unmentionable mascot. “What the fuck?” he whispered as loudly as he could. “Where have you been? What are you doing here? I had cops coming by an hour ago, asking me if you were on drugs! What’s going on?”

  “It’s a long story,” Theo repeated. “Can I come in?”

  “Yeah, yeah, of course.” He stepped aside. “I’ll make some coffee. You look like you need it.”

  “Not just me,” she said. “I brought a friend.”

  Seth stepped around the corner and met Aki’s stare. “Hello,” he said calmly. Aki flinched, his jaw clenching as he stared at Seth. Then, to Theo’s surprise, he moved back and motioned for them both to enter.

  The door barely locked behind them before he pounced. Seth barely had time to raise his hands when Aki slammed into him like a deranged linebacker and knocked him to the floor. Skull met floorboard with a sickening thunk.

  Aki landed on top and grabbed Seth in some kind of choke hold. Seth broke it easily and tried to roll Aki off him, but the angle was awkward and Theo could see fresh blood, already browning into clay, spotting the floor where his head had struck. Aki jammed both thumbs into the hollow of Seth’s throat, making him choke.

  “Stop it!” Theo shouted. “Stop it, both of you!”

  “Are you kidding?” Aki grunted. Seth grabbed Aki’s arm in a bone-breaking grip, and the smaller man’s face went white. He dug his knee into Seth’s stomach, drawing a short, sharp gasp of pain from him but not enough to break the other man’s hold. “This guy— Ow! Motherfucker!”

  Theo had never seen a rolling ball of flailing cartoon limbs in real life before, but it was obvious that they were about to turn into one. Seth was stronger and had lifetimes of experience, but Aki was scrappy and incredibly angry, and the two of them were pummeling each other relentlessly. In seconds Aki’s mouth was bleeding and Seth’s hand sported a brand-new bite mark. Neither paid attention to a word Theo said.

  “Goddammit!” Theo yelled. Grabbing a half-empty pot of cold coffee off the table, she threw it over both of them. It brought them up short.

  “Fuck,” Aki said, shaking droplets out of his hair. “That’s disgusting.”

  “Will you listen to me now?” she demanded. “Or can you at least leave the dick-waving contest for later? Aki, I know, I should have mentioned I had him with me. But there were reasons. Something huge is going on here, Aki, and it’s made a giant mess. You have to trust me. Please.”

  There was a moment of hesitation on Aki’s face, but it was a fraction of what Seth’s had been. Theo and Aki had known each other a long time, and Theo had always been the calm, stable one, the Hobbit to Aki’s Dwarf. She didn’t cheat, steal or break the law, and she definitely didn’t lie to her friends.

  “Son of a bitch,” Aki said, but he let Seth up. The two men were still glaring at each other, and both
had fresh bruises forming.

  “We’re not going to be here long, Aki,” Theo said quickly, forcing their attention back to her and breaking the stare-down. “But we need to find out what’s going on, preferably without getting arrested. The cops came to Seth’s place this morning, and I don’t know why. Have you heard anything?”

  Aki turned, scowling. “Have I heard anything? I heard them saying you helped this asshole rip off a bunch of Egyptian artifacts from the museum last night! Jewelry, a couple of statuettes, that kind of thing. They found your prints at the scene.”

  Theo’s stomach gave a lurch at Aki’s words. For a moment, his face was distant and unreadable. “Aki, you don’t think I—?”

  “Hell no. Anybody who’s heard your riff knows the museum’s your life. You wouldn’t.” Aki didn’t look at Seth, but there was venom in his voice. “Him, on the other hand…?”

  “Jewelry and statuettes.” Seth snorted at the thought as he wiped cold coffee off his parka. “I’ve been supporting the art department and networking artifact purchases for years. If I wanted antiquities, I’d buy them, not break in.”

  “I’ve seen rich people do way crazier things than pull a heist.” Aki crossed his arms. “My mom put me through school making chicken-wire cages for millionaires who liked wearable sculpture instead of clothes. Anyway, it was Theo”—he turned his skeptical eye on Theo, who frowned back at him—“who fingered you when the mummy and the shabtis were ganked. The police were saying you might’ve been working with a couple of professional art thieves, or maybe pulling an insurance scam.”

  Seth’s face froze, his expression remote and statue-like. “That’s not—” he began, his voice brittle.

  “It’s a very long story,” Theo broke in quickly. Aki was open-minded, but he likely wouldn’t be too happy with an explanation involving the truth. After all, even if he didn’t believe the mummy business, Theo would still be confirming for him that Seth really had stolen from the Columbian. “Aki. Please. You know I wouldn’t be here if things weren’t desperate. Just, please, trust me and Seth for a little bit, and let us lie low here for a few hours. Okay?”

  There was another frozen moment of silence, and Theo’s heart dropped. Finally, though, Aki gave a short, curt nod, and the two men took a couple of steps away from each other. Theo let out a soft breath and slumped a little, settling onto the arm of the sofa.

  “All right,” Aki said sharply. He straightened his back and crossed his arms, the picture of alertness and immovable rigor. “But not for long. I’m technically hiding criminal suspects, and you know they’ll come talk to me again. Being your friend and all. What the hell’s going on?”

  “We were framed,” Seth said bluntly. “That’s the only explanation. The stolen artifacts were from the Middle Kingdom exhibit, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah. Shabtis, mostly.”

  “So someone who wanted them earlier was taking advantage of Theo’s accusation. While she and I were out of the way, the remainder of the cache could be burgled. Her prints would be easy to find; she’s left them all over the museum. Our someone would know that.”

  Aki’s brow furrowed. “Someone like who?”

  “We don’t know,” Theo cut in quickly, aiming a sharp look at Seth. He stared back, immovable. On the train she’d spilled the story of Zimmer and the panic button, but she hadn’t been able to back it up by calling the man himself. She’d left her phone in Seth’s apartment, and on her advice, Seth wasn’t using his. He’d ditched it in a trash can in Chinatown.

  From the look on his face, Aki wasn’t quite buying it either. A spasm passed over his features as he visibly weighed his options. He could believe his friend’s bizarre story and risk becoming an accessory to grand larceny, or kick her out and risk the possibility that she might be telling the truth.

  Still, the spasm passed, and he nodded once. “Okay,” he said. “One night, okay? One night only. When I said I like to live life on the edge, I meant more like the extreme rock-climbing, flaming JELL-O shots kind of edge. It’s only fun if you’re not actually doing anything illegal.”

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, we never did anything illegal,” Theo said. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, trying to organize her racing thoughts.

  “Speak for yourself,” Seth murmured. Aki made a warning noise, something like an angry cat, and Seth just turned on his heel and walked away. Theo heard the balcony door slam, and opened her eyes reluctantly.

  “Aki?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’ve never gone rock-climbing.”

  Her friend laughed, easing away some of the lines of strain on his forehead. “The elevator here breaks down three times a week. Same thing.”

  She wondered if Seth could really deal with someone like Aki. Easygoing, wry without being bitter, matter-of-fact about his own strengths and weaknesses. Unassuming. Someone who could be that way because he’d never really been in any kind of danger or feared for his life. In that, Theo and Aki were a lot closer than Theo and Seth.

  But she’d kissed him and watched him die. Now he was here just because he was following her suggestions, trusting the advice of an amateur solely on the basis of their connection and her familiarity with the modern world. Seth trusted her enough to change his plans. That meant something.

  Her tired body was reluctant to move, and it took a real effort to get herself off Aki’s comfortable couch. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?” she said as she stood. She felt Aki’s eyes on her back as she went out onto the balcony and tried not to wonder what her friend was thinking.

  The balcony door was glass, but Aki had draped a printed Indian blanket over a curtain rod to keep anyone from looking in or out. Brushing the blanket aside, Theo stepped into the night.

  The cheap parka didn’t fit Seth, but he was wearing it anyway. His scarf was a band of white that seemed to cut off his head from the dark-clothed body. He had his gloves back on, and the slick black leather was the only part of it all that suited him. In the orange-purple light of the city he was a statue again, like the black-glazed Anubis that guarded so many tombs. Silent and watchful. He leaned on the balcony railing and watched the city lights, and Theo watched him.

  “I hate this,” he said after a long moment. “I hate winters here. Nothing ever gets warm.”

  Theo moved over to the railing. “I’ll bet,” she said. “This winter’s worse than usual, though.”

  “Can’t be more than zero out.”

  “But it’s been that way for a while. It’s a bad time of year for this kind of thing.”

  That got a bit of a rueful smile from Seth. “Running?”

  “Yeah.” Theo huddled into her coat. “It’s probably harder on you, though. You kept the charade up for a century, and now it’s all been spoiled.”

  “I’m sorry.” The words came out awkwardly—not insincere, but unaccustomed to being used. Theo guessed that Seth didn’t have a lot of people who might warrant such a thing. “I’m sorry you were dragged into this. None of it was supposed to happen this way.” He swallowed. “I didn’t know you were working that late. You weren’t meant to be involved.”

  “I know.” Theo turned to him, meeting his eyes. “If I hadn’t gone down to say goodbye to the shabtis, I wouldn’t have seen you.”

  “Or if I hadn’t been seated at your table at the party, I wouldn’t have recognized you.” Seth shook his head.

  That brought her up short. “Recognized me?” she repeated. “That was the first time we met. Wasn’t it?”

  “Not exactly.” Seth shook his head. One gloved hand lightly touched a fading scar on the ball of her thumb. “You cut your hand in the prep lab months ago. Someone dropped a jar, and you were helping to clean it up. That was the first time I saw you.”

  “But there were only a couple of people in the lab that day. You couldn’t have been there. How d
id you—” She stopped. There had been eyes watching her, but not all of them were human. “The shabtis are conscious?”

  Seth shook his head. “No, not really. But magic—my kind…really, the priest’s kind—is all about names and images. You spent so much time there, talking to them as if they were real. It had to make an impression.”

  “Images and names,” she said softly. “The essence of a real thing. Jesus.”

  “So Kemet believed.” His free hand was idly tracing lines in the snow on the railing. She thought she saw an ankh, but he wiped it away before she could be sure. “And, well, the shabtis are images made to become real things. So treating them like the thing they were made to represent and become… It gets a little tangled. I’m not explaining this very well, I know. I was never the priest. I could barely even read or write. This was my brother’s job, or my scribe’s.”

  Theo’s face reddened. She remembered talking to the shabtis, all right: reassuring them about the exhibition, joking with them, telling them they were handsome. The statuettes had been in storage for a long time, after all. The exhibition would’ve been the shabtis’ first chance to be presented to the public. Talking to the little guys had felt natural.

  Once, just for the heck of it, she’d planted a kiss on the cabinet. Why not? She was always good at entertaining herself when she was alone, but she didn’t know if they had the same skill. It must not be fun to be stuck in a glass box all day. But now they’d been stolen again…

  Seth stiffened a little as Theo put an arm around him, and he looked down at her in surprise. With their differences in height, she couldn’t comfortably drape the arm across his shoulders, but the waist did almost as well.

  After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled her closer. Theo let out a quiet sigh and relaxed into his arms, doing her best to share her warmth. A shiver ran through Seth, and for a moment, she thought she heard his breath hitch in his throat. He lowered his head, resting his chin on her hair.

  “Too cold,” he said after a long moment. His voice was deep and hoarse. “Next winter, I’ll take you to Egypt. The weather’s sane there. None of this fucking snow. I can show you where Itj-Tawy was, and my burial site.”