Donovans 02 - Jade Island

nodded. “Yeah, that’s about it. Except for the seduction part. That’s optional.”
    “I don’t believe it.”
    “Fine. So seduce her.”
    “This is a joke.”
    “I wish.”
    Kyle waited, but his brother wasn’t feeling talkative. Kyle was afraid he knew why. Archer hated involving family in any of the gray areas of his past. Uncle Sam was definitely one of those areas. But the U.S. government, like the past, never really went away.
    “What’s going on?” Kyle asked finally, shifting in his chair. “And don’t give me any bullshit about hands across the water and international cooperation.”
    Archer glanced at his brother. Sunlight glinted in Kyle’s tarnished blond hair and made his hazel eyes look more gold than green, but even sunlight couldn’t brighten the dark rim around the iris. Nor could light take away the lines and shadows of experience, experience Archer would rather have spared his youngest brother.
    “Would you believe business?” Archer asked neutrally.
    “Monkey business, yeah.”
    Archer’s smile was fast but real, like the anger narrowing his gray-green eyes.
    Kyle simply waited. This time he wasn’t going to be the one to break the silence.
    Archer got out of his chair. He was tall, rangy, quick, a darker echo of his younger brother. Silently Archer prowled the cabin’s homey main room, touching things at random: a computer that bristled with Kyle’s Rube Goldberg additions, books on everything from international banking to five thousand years of Chinese jade, a Baroque flute, a small vase with a branch of rosemary in it, a letter opener that could slice to the bone, and a fishing lure thatlooked like a tiny hula skirt. Beneath the slithery, glittery skirt was a hook so sharp it would stick to rock. It certainly wanted to stick to flesh.
    “You’ve changed,” Archer said, smiling as he carefully set aside the lure. “Before that amber fiasco last year, you couldn’t outwait me if your life depended on it.”
    “Does it?”
    Archer’s smile vanished. “Not as far as I know.”
    “Which brings up an interesting question,” Kyle said. “What do you know?”
    “Enough to worry. Not enough to do anything useful about it.”
    “Welcome to the human race.”
    For a moment longer, Archer stood near the window. He watched the windswept fir forest and the salt water beyond, where currents more powerful than rivers coiled beneath the peaceful surface of Rosario Strait.
    “I don’t know any more hard facts than I already told you,” Archer said finally. “There have been rumors of a spectacular find, a Ming emperor’s tomb. The emperor was a jade connoisseur. He creamed seven thousand years of Chinese jade and took it to his grave.”
    “Where was the find? Who made it? When? Does China—”
    “I’ve told you most of what I know,” Archer interrupted.
    “Tell me the rest.”
    “My contact believes that Dick Farmer bought every important jade artifact in the tomb.”
    Kyle whistled. “Must have cost a lot.”
    “Close to forty million, one way or another.”
    “Even for a guy who’s worth three billion—”
    “Five, at last count.”
    “—that’s a lot of money,” Kyle finished.
    “Money can be replaced. All it takes is a printing press, and God knows Uncle has one,” Archer said bluntly. “But the contents of the Jade Emperor’s Tomb can’t be replaced. The Chinese are having an international hissy fit.”
    “No surprise. What are they doing to get Uncle’s attention?”
    “Not much.” Archer’s tone was as sardonic as his smile. “The Chinese just threatened to break off all relations with the U.S. if the Jade Emperor’s treasure turns up on our soil.”
    Kyle’s blond eyebrows shot up. “They are pissed. Will it turn up?”
    “Worst-case scenario?”
    “Is there any other kind?”
    “It’s already here.”
    “Where?”
    “My contact didn’t know or didn’t say,” Archer said. “Same difference, as far as the Donovans are concerned.”
    “Farmer isn’t stupid,” Kyle said slowly, “but he isn’t the kind of guy to hide his glory under a bushel basket. He wants to be recognized as a big man in cultural circles, a true connoisseur as well as merely wealthy. If he has a coup the size of the Jade Emperor’s Tomb, he’ll strut it.”
    “That’s what Uncle is afraid of. At this moment we have some very quiet, extremely delicate negotiations going on with mainland China.”
    “Trade, dope, immigration, or illegal arms?”