Donovans 02 - Jade Island

it did me,” Archer muttered.
    “—I told you to drop off and went back to sleep,” Kyle finished, ignoring the interruption.
    “So what are you whining about? You slept four hours.”
    “Not enough.”
    “It will have to be. While you were partying with the Tang Consortium, word of Farmer’s jade burial suit went straight to the People’s Republic. The People aren’t amused.”
    Cool air ate at the edges of Kyle’s comfort. The coverswere out of reach, he was bare-ass naked, and Archer wasn’t going to go away like he had last night. With a curse Kyle shot out of bed and into the bathroom. The door slammed.
    Smiling slightly, Archer went to get Kyle’s reward—a cup of coffee that could etch steel.
    Kyle didn’t believe in cold showers. If a man was going to get up before the sun, the least he deserved was enough hot water to fog up a gymnasium. He was well on his way to steamy bliss when Archer opened the shower door and shut off the hot water, leaving on the cold.
    Two seconds later Kyle leaped out, cursing.
    “Dry up,” Archer said, dumping a big towel over his brother’s head. “Coffee’s ready in the kitchen.”
    “Food.”
    “What do you think I am, room service?”
    “You don’t want to know what I think you are.”
    “Read the paper while I burn some eggs for you.”
    “You burn ’em, you eat ’em.”
    “Read,” Archer said with the impatience of a bright-eyed dawn raider for the sleep-in rest of the world.
    Kyle pulled on some old sweats and went into the suite’s cheerful lemon-yellow kitchen. Beyond the window, low clouds, wind, and sun fought for control of Seattle’s skies. At the stove, Archer was cracking eggs into a bowl. Barefoot, wearing old jeans and a blue work shirt, he looked younger than the thirty-five he had recently turned.
    “Coffee,” Kyle said, yawning.
    “Open your eyes, runt. It’s on the table.”
    “Runt you,” Kyle muttered. “I wore your tux, didn’t I?”
    “And my dress shoes.”
    “They pinched.”
    “That’s how you know they’re dress shoes. Did you use the rest of the outfit or just wear it?”
    “Just wore it.”
    “Good. Uncle would rather not have to clean up any more bodies.”
    Kyle felt the same way, but it was too early in the morning to be agreeable. “Then Uncle shouldn’t pressure us to play full-contact sports.”
    “Drink your coffee before I do.”
    Kyle went to the long chopping table that occupied the center of the kitchen. Two wrought-iron, cafe-style stools ran along one side, for family members who didn’t feel like sitting in the semi-circular breakfast nook that overlooked the sound. Near one of the stools, coffee steamed in a big mug that announced that the worst day of fishing was better than the best day of working. He reached for the mug, not caring if it held the black, bitter stuff Archer preferred.
    The instant Kyle actually saw the coffee, he knew something serious was on Archer’s mind; there was cream in the coffee. Kyle really got worried when he saw that Archer was grating cheese and slicing mushrooms for an omelet.
    “That bad, huh?” Kyle asked, swallowing coffee.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Cream in my coffee and now an omelet instead of scrambled eggs. You want something from me.”
    “Read,” was all Archer said.
    “Aren’t you going to Japan? Or was it Australia?”
    Archer gave Kyle a look.
    Kyle sat down and picked up the newspaper. When Archer’s eyes went from gray-green to plain old steel, a smart younger brother shut up.
    The headline on the news brief was “Emperor’s Tomb Bought by Billionaire.” Beneath that was a page number. Kyle turned to the page and saw a muddy color photograph of a Han burial suit. The caption read, “Precious jade shroud for an ancient emperor.” The one-paragraph article gave the approximate age of the tomb as six hundred years, but named no individual or institution as its discoverer. No specific locale in China was named. “Spectacular” and “priceless” grave goods were mentioned, butthere were no useful facts about what kind of artifacts actually had been recovered.
    “You got me up for this?” Kyle asked. “Like I told you last night, Han burial shrouds are rare, very rare, but not unique. As for the tomb the shroud came from, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t the Jade Emperor’s. That will be up to the scholars to decide. When they do, it won’t be from reading a newspaper article.”
    The eggs hissed as they hit the hot pan.