Part 19 (1/2)
”They divorced when Lauren and I were in our teens. My mother was a high school teacher. History. A smart and quiet woman. And my dad, well-”
Lily waited, holding her breath.
West stared off into s.p.a.ce for a moment. ”He was with the US Army, met my mum while out here on exercises. He was on the fast track up the promotions ladder and always wanting to go higher. Ambitious. He was also intelligent, really intelligent, but conceited about it-he looked down on anyone who didn't know as much as he did, talked down to them, including my mother. Which was why they split in the end. She won't see him now.”
”Do you keep in touch with her?” Lily had never met Jack's mother.
Jack laughed. ”Of course I do! It's just that...she doesn't want my father to know where she is, so I only see her rarely. I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to join me the next time I visited her. She's very keen to meet you.”
”Is she? I'd love to!” Lily exclaimed, but then she frowned: ”What about your dad? Do you ever see him?”
”No,” Jack said firmly. ”We never really got along. In fact, I can honestly say I don't ever want to see him again.”
Despite the fact that Jack was no longer on active service, the military never quite went away.
On one occasion in late 2006, an Australian general came to visit Jack at the farm and asked him lots of questions about the Capstone mission.
The general also asked Jack if he knew the whereabouts of someone called the Sea Ranger.
This Sea Ranger, Lily gleaned, was a modernday pirate of some sort, cruising the east coast of Africa in some kind of boat.
Jack told the general he hadn't seen the Sea Ranger in years.
But the thing about Jack that was of most interest to Lily was his relations.h.i.+p with Zoe.
When Zoe was finally able to come to Australia more often, Lily was thrilled-especially when she could see how close Zoe and Jack were becoming.
They would smile when they talked on the balcony or went for walks together at sunset.
Lily also enjoyed doing girly stuff with Zoe-painting toenails, doing each other's hair, dyeing their end tips in matching electric pink-but more than anything else, she loved how Zoe made Jack happy.
She once asked Zoe if she was in love with Jack. Zoe had just smiled. ”I've loved him from the first moment I met him. But, well-”
”But what?” Lily had asked gently, but Zoe didn't reply, she just stared off into s.p.a.ce, her eyes moist with tears.
Lily let it go, but more than once she imagined Jack and Zoe getting married, and it made her happy because then Zoe would officially be her mom.
Christmas 2006 was an occasion Lily would remember for a long, long time.
She and Jack spent it in Dubai, at the Burj al Arab tower, with all the members of the team that had found the Seven Wonders and the Capstone.
Pooh Bear and Stretch were there, as was Fuzzy, having come all the way from Jamaica.
Zoe and Sky Monster, Wizard and Tank.
The whole family, back together again. Lily loved it.
She spent much of the next week with Pooh Bear and Stretch, visiting Pooh's father's palace.
There she met Pooh's older brother, Scimitar, but he talked to her like she was a child, so she didn't like him too much.
What shedid like was Pooh's demolition shed out beyond the mansion's stables. An explosives expert, Pooh had all manner of blasting supplies there. He even showed Lily a strange foamlike epoxy that Wizard had given to him: it was called BlastFoam and it came from the famous Sandia Laboratories in the US. You sprayed foam from a small canister around a live grenade and it couldabsorb the blast of the grenade.
He also showed Lily how to use C2 plastic explosive-a smallradius/highimpact explosive used by archaeologists on delicate sites. It could blast away tight sections of rock but not damage nearby relics.
”It can also blow locks,” Pooh Bear whispered to Lily. ”Which is why Huntsman always keeps a little wad of it in a compartment in his artificial arm, and why I keep some in this”-he indicated the ornamental bronze ring that kept his ma.s.sive beard in check.
”Don't leave home without it.”
Lily grinned. Pooh Bear was cool.
A WEEK LATER, the team celebrated the New Year on the rooftop helipad of the Burj al Arab tower, watching a fireworks display in the Arabian sky alongside many of Sheikh Abbas's powerful friends and a.s.sociates.
Despite the fact that she should have been in bed, Lily sneaked out in her gown and slippers and watched the gathering from the storage shed on the helipad.
The women wore sparkling dresses-even Zoe, who Lily thought looked just beautiful- and all the men wore smart dinner suits or Arabianstyle robes. Even Jack wore a tux, which Lily found very funny. It didn't suit him at all, and he seemed very uncomfortable in it, but it did make him look very handsome.
Arriving late at the New Year's celebration, just before midnight, had been Jack's brotherinlaw, J. J. Wickham.
Wickham was a few years older than Jack and seriously goodlooking, with short brown hair and a rough unshaven jaw a s.e.xy guy. All the women on the pad cast sideways glances at him as he walked by.
Accompanying Wickham was an exceedingly tall and skinny black man named Solomon Kol. His skin was a deep, deep black and his eyes were kind. He walked with a long loping stride and stood with a stoop, as if to diminish his considerable height.
Lily stared at the two men, frowning, struck by a strange feeling of recognition. She felt she had seen both of them before but couldn't remember where.
”Why if it isn't the Sea Ranger!” Pooh Bear exclaimed, clasping Wickham's hand warmly.
”Hey, Zahir,” Wickham said quietly. ”Sorry, it's Pooh Bear now, isn't it?”
”It is indeed and it is a name I wear with pride. 'Tis a great honor to be renamed by young Lily. I hope you have that honor one day.”
Lily smiled inwardly. She just loved Pooh Bear.
”Wick,” Jack said, coming over. ”Glad you could make it. And Solomon, my old friend, how are you?”
The giant African smiled broadly. ”We miss you in Kenya, Huntsman. You must visit again soon. Magdala misses young Lily terribly. She yearns to see how she has grown.”
”Oh, she's grown all right,” Jack said. ”And she's hiding right now in the shed over there.
Lily! You can come out now.”
Lily emerged, head bowed, in her gown and slippers.
Jack put a hand on her shoulder. ”Lily, I'm not sure if you remember Solomon. He used to live next door to our farm in Kenya, and would come over often. He now looks after it for us, just in case we ever return.”
”My, my, you have grown, little one,” Solomon said. ”Soon you will be as tall as me!”
Wickham was also gazing down at Lily, but silently, sadly.
Then he turned to Jack: ”I can't stay long. Got the Man on my tail again. But thought I'd swing by and say hi.”