She turned to look at him sharply.  He continued, “And, from what I understand, your handsome navy boy … um, excuse me … man … is on his way to New York now, even as we speak.  Maybe to surprise you?”

He gazed out on the meadow, filled with children running around and mothers and fathers sitting under trees.  There were people jogging around the jogging trail, and other groups of people sitting, enjoying their coffee or reading their morning paper.  Everyone was enjoying the pleasant morning of a beautiful summer day.  Sylvia blinked back tears.

“The things our children do for us … huh?” he observed.

His associate came up and said briefly, “Like she told us, she just mailed five packages, all of them with birthday cards.  They’re all loaded up in delivery already, so we can’t touch them.  Too risky.  But the man at the counter said he saw her package the gifts right there in the counter, and he saw there were just toys and stuff in the boxes.”

The other associate, a woman, who Sylvia guessed had driven the car yesterday, had walked up behind Sylvia.

The man thumped his hands on his lap with satisfaction, and patted Sylvia’s knee briefly as he stood.  “Well … I’m glad we had this chat.”

Sylvia felt a sting in the back of her neck.

“I had a squad comb through the things in your house right after you left this morning, and I just heard a report from the squad that they didn’t find anything there.  So I’m guessing you’ve already disposed of whatever it was you’ve collected about this case.”

His voice was coming through clearly but Sylvia found she was unable to move or speak without great effort.

“It doesn’t matter.  Without all the other information about the gold or the men and women looking for it, your case file won’t amount to much to whoever has it.”

He straightened his tie and said, “In any event, I like to keep things tidy.  You have enough strength right now to write out the name or names of who has the file.  After that, she’ll administer the antidote to the drug that’s beginning to immobilize you.  If you don’t then that drug will soon cause your heart to stop beating, and it will look like you just suffered an aneurism while sitting here enjoying your morning coffee.”

The woman behind her handed her a sharpie and postcard.

Sylvia remembered Bette telling her about a man who’d suffered an aneurism and through whom, Bette wouldn’t say how, she’d managed to get access to all the new information that had allowed them to build the new codex, amongst other things.

Although she couldn’t actually bring herself to smile, Sylvia felt content inside.  Bette had talked about the generations of custodians having faith and belief in each other.  And how each generation had battled against the evil that they’d seen in their day.  About trust. Integrity. About waiting for the right one.

Bette was well on her way now to blowing the lid off of this whole thing as well as finding the gold, in all likelihood.  And Sylvia had faith that the brunette would know what to do next.  Be the one, Bette!

Sylvia knew the man wouldn’t have that antidote administered anyway.  She wrote, “Go to hell.”

The woman wrested the postcard from Sylvia’s clenched fist and showed it to the man.

He laughed mirthlessly.

“You first.”

He started to walk away along with his associates, and then turned around to look at her, saying harshly, “And you can forget about your line living on.  Because your bloodline ends with that handsome son of yours!”

Sylvia couldn’t help the tears that rushed to her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks.

No it doesn’t, asshole. 

Bette and Tina will see to it.

I win.

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