The Project 01 - White Jade by Alex Lukeman Page A

' m glad I ' m alive. " She looked out the window, then over at him . " I ' m glad I ' m here with you. "
    She drank coffee . He didn't know what to say. She was an unknown force he hadn't expected. H e couldn't think of something to say that wouldn ' t sound stupid.
    Time to call in and see what was on Harker ' s mind. Maybe they ' d found something at the house.

Chapter Nine teen

    " No bodies . Lots of forensics ." Harker said. " We ' ve got casings, blood trails, tire impressions, prints and DNA from a wine bottle. "
" Selena ' s and my prints are on that bottle. "
    " We know that. There are others. Where ' s the book? "
    " In a safe here at my cabin. "
    " I want you two back here now . I ' ve sent a plane to pick you up at Beale Air Force Base. You know where it is? "
    " Yes . It ' s about an hour from here. When do we leave? "
    " 1800 hours. An escort will pick you up at your cabin at 1600 and take you to the base. Ronnie will meet you when you get in . It will be late . I want you to stay at the apartment here. We ' ll meet tomorrow at 0700. "
    The a partment at the Project building was for keeping out of sight. Carter had never had to use it.
    " Anything more from the FBI? "
    " Jordan sent over more photos. You can look at them when you get here. Wait for your transport. I ' ll see you in the morning. "
    S he clicked off.
    Selena gestured at the porch, past the screen door. " You have a cat? "
    Pawing at the door and looking in through the screen was an enormous, beat-up orange tomcat.
    " That ' s Burps . It's more like he has me. He ' s a different sort of cat. A neighbor feeds him when I ' m away , which is most of the time . "
    The cat was part Maine Coon, part whatever. He weigh ed forty pounds at least and had a pair of cojones that would make many a larger animal proud. His ears were notched and scarred, pink scars mar red his orange fur and his tail was half as long as it should be. He had one long, sharp front tooth . T he other one was missing.
    " Big, isn ' t he? "
    " He ' s a regular tiger. Let ' s sit outside. "
    Carter opened two cans of cat food, put it in a dish and took it out side. Burps began chomping it down. They took a seat on the porch . T he cat paused mid-chomp and gave out a loud belch.
    " U UUURRRPP. "
    " Did he just do what I think he did? "
    " That ' s why I call him Burps. "
    " He always does that? "
    " All the time. "
    " I ' ve never heard a cat burp. He ' s loud. "
    " Prime TV material. I ' m thinking I ' ll get him on American Idol. "
    Burps belched again, finished his meal and wandered over to them . He began rubbing his head against Selena ' s leg and purring. It reminded Carter of a chain saw.
    Selena stroked him behind the ears and Burps held up his paw and closed his eyes, arched his neck, purred louder and drooled through his tooth onto the deck.
    " He ' s cute. "
    Cute was n ' t how Carter would describe him , but who was he to argue? He told Selena what the Director had said.
    "What did you do to that guy's wall?" he asked.
    "Kuk S ool Won. It's a Korean martial art. I've been doing it since the tenth grade."
    "What's your rank?"
    "Seventh degree black."
    "Remind me not to mess with you."
    "I think y ou already did. " She scratched Burps on top of his head. He jumped up in her lap and she grunted. He began kneading her leg. She grimaced.
    " I've been thinking about the book. The language is archaic but the calligraphy is elegant and I can read it. Whoever copied it took his time, so that ' s not a problem. The problem is the section in Linear A. I need to compare what ' s in the book to other examples and to Linear B. We can read some of that variant. "
    " The Project has some big Cray computers . Steph can help you there. "
    " Steph? "
    " Stephanie Willits. She's Harker's deputy and a genius with computer s . We can scan the book into the system. "
    " That solves some problems. Once it ' s in the computers, we won ' t need to lug it around with us. We ' d have access anywhere.