Op Nine frowned. “What about her?”
“Why was she spying on me?”
Again they looked at each other.
“The Company often assigns operatives to keep tabs on Special Subjects.”
“ ‘Special Subjects’? I’m a Special Subject?”
“How could the last son of Lancelot not be a Special Subject?” Abby asked tenderly. “Mike’s entrance into your particular interface took all of us by surprise. Fortunately, Ashley was watching your house when Mike made his move.”
“So you knock me out and bring me to this boat off the coast of Oman—where is that, Africa or something?—to do . . . what? ”
“Intercept Michael Arnold before he can use the ring to open the Lesser Seal.”
“Lesser Seal . . .”
“The Holy Vessel,” Op Nine said.
“Why don’t you want the Holy Vessel opened?”
For the third time they exchanged a glance. I was like the little kid in the room while the parents danced around the facts-of-life lecture.
“The ring, the Great Seal,” Op Nine said slowly, “is the key. Without it, the wearer cannot control the . . . agents confined within the Vessel. Indeed, without the ring, the Lesser Seal cannot even be broken. One without the other is useless. With both . . .” He took a deep breath. “Catastrophe.”
The door swung open and a guy in a black jumpsuit like Ashley’s stepped in, carrying a tray with orange juice and two slices of toast.
“Ah,” Op Nine said. “The food is here.” He seemed relieved.
“Not much of it, though,” I said, trying again to sit up. Op Nine bent to help me. The room whirled around my head. I wondered why I felt so light-headed and weak. What was in that shot Ashley gave me on the chopper—and why had she given me a shot in the first place?
I drank the tall glass of orange juice down in three gulps. The toast was cut into quarters and that’s how I ate it, stuffing a whole quarter in my mouth and barely chewing before I swallowed.
“Okay,” I said. “Let me see if I have all this. After you guys fired Mike for trying to take Excalibur, he breaks into your vaults and steals the two Seals of Solomon. I’m still not clear on what they are or what they do, but anyway, after that you assigned Agent Ashley to keep tabs on me because now I’m a person of special interest or something. Mike shows up, kidnaps me, takes me up into the mountains to kill me—only Mike knows why—and Ashley rescues me in the nick of time. Now we’re on a boat on our way to . . . where? ”
“The nexus,” Op Nine said.
“The what?”
“The center. The place of opening.”
“Right. Gotcha. And the plan is to stop Mike before he can pull off this opening.”
“Correct.”
“Or else . . . ? ”
“Catastrophe.”
A bell went off, a blaring sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Op Nine checked his watch.
“It’s time for the briefing,” he said to Abigail.
She nodded, then turned to me and gave my shoulder a little pat.
“We have to go, Alfred.”
“When are you taking me home?”