The Last Oracle by James Rollins

relief, he still felt cold.
    Something was wrong.
    A flurry of noise erupted ahead of him. It came from the crowd lining the panda exhibit. Excited murmurs swelled. A flurry of camera flashes sparkled among the crowd. More people were drawn by the commotion. Yuri heard a named called out and repeated.
    “Tai Shan…Tai Shan…”
    He sat up straighter with a wince of protest from his back. He recognized the name from the zoo’s brochure. Tai Shan was the panda cub born to Mei Xiang a few summers back. The youngster must have wandered into sight.
    The crowd jostled for a better view. More people gathered. Children were lifted to parents’ shoulders. Cameras flashed furiously. Frowning at the tourists’ manic response, Yuri stood up. He had lost sight of Sasha in the crush of the crowd. He knew she didn’t like to be touched.
    He stepped across the walkway and pushed into the pack of people. The park would be closing in the next few minutes. It was time to go.
    He reached the wall where Sasha had been standing.
    She wasn’t there.
    With his heart thudding, he searched the stretch of walls to either side. No sign of her ebony hair and red ribbons. He stumbled outward again, shouldering and pawing his way through the crowd. Grunted protests met his rude passage. A camera tumbled from someone’s hands and cracked against the pavement.
    Someone grabbed his shoulder. He was yanked around.
    “Mister, you’d better have a goddamn good reason—”
    Yuri shook free. His eyes, bright with true panic, met the larger man. “My…my granddaughter. I’ve lost my granddaughter.”

    Anger melted to concern.
    With mostly parents in attendance, word spread quickly. It was every mother and father’s worst fear. Questions peppered him. What does she look like? What was she wearing? Others offered words of support, promising that she’d be found.
    Yuri barely heard them, deafened by his own pounding heart. He should have never left her side, never sat down.
    The crowd thinned around him, opening views in all directions.
    Yuri turned a full circle. He searched, but he knew the truth.
    Sasha was gone.

4
    September 5, 8:12 P.M.
Washington, D.C.
    “Door!” Kowalski yelled from the rear.
    Gray skidded to a stop and glanced behind him. Elizabeth Polk held out her lighter and revealed a small doorway, hidden two steps off the dark tunnel. Gray had rushed past it, too focused on the roof, searching for a street exit from the service tunnels.
    Behind them, calls echoed from the searchers. A single harsh bark rang out as the trackers found their trail again. Gray had crisscrossed among tunnels, trying to lose them, but it proved fruitless, and they were losing ground.
    Kowalski reached to the door and fought the handle. “Locked.” He punched the metal surface in frustration.
    Coming up to his side, Gray noted an electronic key-lock below the handle. The lighter’s flame flickered across a small steel sign stenciled in Art Deco letters:
    NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
    The door was a subterranean entrance to another of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums. Closest to the door, Elizabeth swiped her museum security card, but the lock remained dark. To make sure, Kowalski tugged the handle and shook his head.
    “My card’s only good for the natural history museum,” Elizabeth said. “But I hoped—”

    A fierce bark drew their attention around. The bobbling glow of flashlights lit up the far end of the tunnel.
    “Better move it,” Kowalski said and stepped away from the door.
    A shotgun blast erupted. Something sparked off the metal surface, striking where Kowalski had stood a second before. The round ricocheted off the door and spun across the cement floor, spitting blue sparks of electricity.
    Kowalski danced away from it, like an elephant from a mouse.
    Gray recognized the payload: a Taser XREP. Fired from a standard twelve-gauge, the weapon shot out a self-contained, wireless dart that packed a shocking neuromuscular