The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark (9 page)

L
UO WAITED OUTSIDE
the Kryzhynka skating rink in the Olympic National Sports Complex in central Kyiv. The sun shone on a brisk Tuesday morning. A wind whipped Luo’s face. It was April in Kyiv, the equivalent of summer in Siberia. Normally such weather didn’t faze him in the least. This morning, however, he couldn’t get warm for some reason. Every time he tried to find a spot in the sun, some students from the Kyiv Sports Institute would gather to chat and cast a shadow on him.

He’d spoken to the detectives investigating the murder of Ksenia Melnik, the woman listed as Adam Tesla’s emergency contact. After contributing a thousand hryvnia to their retirement funds, the detectives confirmed it was a robbery-homicide. Ksenia Melnik’s son had hidden in the closet and placed an emergency call to the police from his cell phone. But the perpetrators escaped before the cops arrived, taking the woman’s cash, sterling silver tea set, and rare book collection.

After speaking with the detectives, Luo tried to meet with the dead woman’s son but he refused to let him into the apartment. Said he didn’t care to meet with any old friends of his mother. Told him to go away or he’d open the door and give him a beating he’d never forget. Luo had a mind to teach the boy some manners, but restrained himself. His sole purpose in life was never far from his mind.

The treasure. Nothing mattered except finding the treasure.

A rowdy group of six young men burst out of the Sports Complex. They carried equipment bags and hockey sticks. Luo recognized Ksenia Melnik’s son, Denys, from his picture on the Western Ukrainian Amateur Hockey League website. He was an eighteen-year-old defenseman for the Hockey Club Express. The season had ended in March. The website said that he lived with his mother in Kyiv.

Not anymore.

Luo walked up to the gang and blocked their path. Hockey was popular in Siberia and Luo had played as a teen. There were even two professional teams now. When he was growing up, the Russian version was a cerebral game with an emphasis on skills and tactics. But the North American style had influenced Russian play, and now there was a violent edge to the game.

As a result, Luo wasn’t surprised to see the young men’s faces tighten when he obstructed their path. Two of them closed their fists. Luo hadn’t even stated his business and yet they’d already revealed themselves. Physically strong, mentally weak.

He handed Denys a business card. “I’m Luo Davidov,” he said. He’d made up the last name yesterday at the printer’s shop. “I’m a scout with Donbas-2.”

Donbas-2 was a professional hockey team from Eastern Ukraine. They were the reigning champions of the Ukrainian Professional Hockey League, and a gateway to the national team, which competed in international events. Every amateur dreamed of playing for Donbas-2.

Denys took the card and stared at it as though it were a notification of a large inheritance.

“May I speak with you in private?” Luo said.

“Sure,” Denys said. He glanced at his friends with a mixture of shock and expectation. This was the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life, he seemed to be saying.

Luo led the way onto the sidewalk and around the corner toward the parking lot behind the stadium. They sat down on two empty soda crates near the rear entrance.

“We’ve been tracking your progress,” Luo said.

“You have?” Denys said.

“Yes. Just last week I was talking to Wayne Gretzky about you.” Gretzky, widely considered to be the best hockey player ever, was of Ukrainian descent.

“
The
Wayne Gretzky?”

“What? There’s more than one?”

“No, I mean, I . . .”

Luo pretended to listen as he pulled his boomerang out of his knapsack. It was different from the version he’d used to herd reindeer as a child. The wings were made of steel and honed to a sharp edge.

He slammed the sharp edge across Denys’s left boot, aiming for the line where the toes met the foot.

A thunk was followed by the sound of metal on metal.

Denys screamed.

Luo pulled the boomerang out of his boot. “Steel toe?”

Denys stood up. Fury and fear crossed his face. “What the hell?”

Luo pointed the boomerang. “Sit down or I’ll kill you as you stand.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the guy you wouldn’t talk to yesterday. I’m the guy you’re going to talk to today.”

Denys pretended to seethe some more to prove he wasn’t intimidated. But he was. He knew better than to run or raise his hand to Luo.

He sat down instead. “Talk about what?”

“Tell me in your own words what happened last night.”

Denys repeated the story he’d told the police.

“I’ve heard all that. Now I need to hear what you didn’t tell the police.”

“I told the police everything.”

Luo lifted an old coffee cup from the ground with his left hand. He sliced it in half with a flick of his wrist.

“I doubt it,” Luo said. “The police can’t be trusted. They just want the case to go away. There was no reason for you to be honest with them. But there are reasons for you to be honest with me. Don’t you think?”

Melnik’s eyes remained on the boomerang. “There were two of them.”

“How did they get in?”

“I don’t know. I was lying in bed listening to music on my headphones. Next thing I knew I heard a scream. I got up and looked out the door and saw two guys with guns. Maybe they conned her into opening the door by saying it was an emergency. Maybe she needed to take out the garbage and they were waiting outside.”

“What did they look like?”

“They looked like businessmen. Except one of the men had a ring on his finger. It was gold with a black jewel in the center. In the form of the letter
Z
.”

The ring didn’t sound familiar. “Did this ring mean something to you?”

“Yeah. My mother once showed me a book with a picture of seven men. Actually, it was six men and a woman. All wearing the same ring. She said if a man with that ring ever approached me I was to avoid him at all costs.”

“What book?”

“It was a rare book on hunting. It was in the shelves with the others. They took them. The men who killed my mother.”

“Did your mother say how she came to know about these people?”

“No. I just assumed they were powerful men. The type of men who could do whatever they wanted. The kind of men you hear about but don’t talk about. At least not out loud.”

“What did you hear them say to your mother?”

Melnik appeared surprised. “How did you know I heard something?”

Luo had no idea if Melnik had heard anything. In his experience, leading questions were the most productive way to uncover secrets. Many people were too anxious or nervous to realize the questions were a trap.

“You just told me,” Luo said.

Melnik picked up a pebble. “They asked her about one of Dr. Arkady’s patients.”

“What patient?”

“A kid. A couple of years younger than me. His name was Adam Tesla.”

It was the name Luo had longed to hear. “What did they ask?”

“I didn’t hear. I ducked into my closet and called the police
.
”

“Did you know Adam Tesla?”

“I knew who he was. We weren’t friends or anything like that. I used to see him at Dr. Arkady’s office.”

“Why was he visiting the doctor?”

“He was getting treated for acute radiation syndrome. Him and the girl.”

“Girl?” Luo’s pulse picked up. “What girl?”

“Her name was Eva. I don’t remember her last name. She died. Then Dr. Arkady passed away, too. I never saw Adam Tesla again.”

“What else do you know about this Eva?”

Denys tossed the pebble and shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Did you hear your mother say anything?”

Denys took a deep breath. He pulled his shoulders back. A locket revealed its shape from beneath the fabric of his shirt. It was hanging from a necklace around his neck.

“Japan,” he said.

Luo frowned. “Come again?”

“‘Japan.’ I heard my mother say, ‘You’ll find what you’re looking for in Fukushima, Japan,’ and then they killed her.” Denys stared at Luo with a blank look. “Happiest moment of my life.”

CHAPTER 13

J
OHNNY LED
N
ADIA
and Bobby along the streets of Shibuya toward a low-key shabu-shabu restaurant, where customers cooked their own dinners on a skillet at the table. They’d left New York on Tuesday and arrived in Tokyo Wednesday afternoon. Johnny’s jet lag had vanished from the moment he’d laid eyes on Nadia. His gut told him she was in more danger than either of them knew, but at least the three of them were together.

Nadia and Johnny walked close together so their conversation couldn’t be overheard. They let Bobby get a few steps ahead of them so they could keep an eye on him. He gaped and gawked at the people and the neon lights.

“We were followed from my apartment to the airport,” Nadia said. She told him how Bobby duped airport security into taking the men into custody.

Johnny wasn’t surprised by the kid’s balls or skills. The backstory to his murder accusation had established he was no ordinary seventeen-year-old. “Who were they?”

“Don’t know,” Nadia said. “They looked straight out of central casting for Russian or Uke mafia types. Right off the streets of Moscow or Kyiv. But when things look one way, they’re often another.”

“Yeah, but in this case, given Bobby’s from Ukraine and you guys spent all that time there, odds are high they are what they look like. Which leaves only one question.”

“Who do they work for?”

“Exactly.”

Nadia shook her head. “You got me.”

“Could it be someone who knows about the formula?”

Nadia thought about the question. “Johnny, at this point, it could be anyone. Bobby and I had the same conversation about the source of the e-mail, the person who called himself Genesis II. We shouldn’t make any assumptions. When we assume, we create a bias that can prevent us from seeing the truth.”

Johnny chuckled. “You sound like a lawyer.”

“Heaven forbid.”

They walked quietly for ten more minutes until they arrived at the restaurant. It was packed and noisy. Johnny looked around for suspicious characters, especially Caucasians, but didn’t see any. If locals were following them, he wouldn’t know it.

Nadia’s phone rang while they were perusing the pictures on the menu. She lowered her voice and turned away. It was a quick exchange but enough to put a healthy glow on her face.

“How’s your Russian sweetheart?” Johnny said.

Nadia fired a quick glance at Bobby. She frowned at Johnny as though he’d embarrassed her. “He’s my client, not my sweetheart, sweetheart.”

“What did he want?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“It’s a game. It’s silly. He’s trying to figure out where I am. And how did you know it was him on the phone?”

“You were blushing. You know, the way a woman does when she’s talking to any old client.”

Nadia blushed some more. Johnny savored the victory until he realized he was losing the war. She didn’t blush like that in his presence, and he didn’t play silly games. He was too busy solving her problems and trying to keep her and Bobby alive.

They ordered plates of beef and exotic Japanese vegetables. Johnny’s phone rang while they were waiting for their food. He recognized the voice from the bar.

“Are they with you?” Nakamura said.

“Yes,” Johnny said.

“Let me talk to her.”

Johnny handed his phone to Nadia. “He wants to talk to you.”

Nadia leaned in close to Johnny so they both could listen without using the speakerphone. “Hello?” she said.

“Is your cousin with you?” Nakamura said.

Nadia took her time answering. “Maybe.”

“Ask him what Dr. Arkady used to give him when he was done with treatments.”

Nadia glanced at Johnny. Johnny shrugged and nodded. Nadia repeated the question to Bobby.

“Marzipan,” Bobby said.

Nadia repeated his answer into the phone.

“You brought the locket?” Nakamura said.

Johnny glanced at Bobby. The locket was in its original place, hanging on a necklace around his neck, hidden beneath his turtleneck. Nadia had told Johnny that they’d photocopied the engravings and left copies at home and in a sealed envelope with the professor from Columbia. She’d given him instructions to disseminate the contents of the envelope to the scientific press if she and Bobby suffered fatal accidents during their trip or disappeared. If the second locket did contain the rest of the formula, she wanted the world to know about it.

“Yes,” Nadia said. “We brought the locket. Are you going to bring yours?”

“Put Mr. Johnny Tanner back on the phone.”

Johnny leaned in. “I’m here.”

“Tomorrow. Ten-thirty a.m. There’s a hot springs resort called Higashiyama Onsen. It’s in a town called Aizuwakamatsu. It’s a three-hour train ride from Tokyo. Three and a half hours by bus. There’s a café near the lobby. Tell the maître d’ you’re waiting for me. He’ll get me.”

“Why do we need to go there? Why can’t we just stay in Tokyo?”

“Because I am not in Tokyo anymore.”