The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child Read Free Book Online Page A

the guard’s eyes on her. She dropped a lipstick, bent down to pick it up—making sure he got a good look up her dress in the process—and touched up her lips. Then she fished in the bag again, cursed, and looked around. She let her eyes fall on the guard. He was staring back, the book lying unheeded in his lap.
    “Shit. Left my cigarettes back at the bar.” She flashed him a smile.
    “Here,” he said, rising hastily. “Take one of mine.”
    She sidled over and accepted the cigarette through the gap in the chain-link gate, positioning herself to ensure his back would be turned to the construction site. She hoped to God Smithback would work fast.
    The guard withdrew a lighter, tried to stick it through the gate, failed. “Just a minute, let me unlock this.”
    She waited, cigarette in hand.
    The gate swung open and he flicked the lighter. She approached and bent over the flame, drawing the smoke in, hoping she wouldn’t cough. “Thanks.”
    “Sure,” said the guard. He was young, sandy-haired, neither fat nor thin, a little dopey-looking, not terribly strong, clearly flustered by her presence. Good.
    She stood there, taking another drag. “Nice night,” she said.
    “You must be cold.”
    “A little.”
    “Here, take this.” With a gallant flourish he took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.
    “Thanks.” The guard looked as if he could hardly believe his good fortune. Nora knew she was attractive; knew that her body, with all her years spent backpacking in the remote desert, wasn’t too bad, either. The heavy makeup gave her a sense of security. Never in a million years would he later be able to identify the archaeologist from the New York Museum of Natural History. In an odd way the outfit made her feel sassy, bold, a little sexy.
    She heard a distant rattle; Smithback must be climbing over the chain-link fence. “You work here every night?” she said hastily.
    “Five nights a week,” the guard said, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Now that construction’s begun. You, er, live around here?”
    She nodded vaguely toward the river. “And you?”
    “Queens.”
    “Married?”
    She saw his left hand, where she had previously noted a wedding band, slide behind his gun holster. “Not me.”
    She nodded, took another drag. It made her dizzy. How could people smoke these things? She wished Smithback would hurry up.
    She smiled and dropped the butt, grinding it under her toe.
    Instantly the pack was out. “Another?”
    “No,” she said, “trying to cut back.”
    She could see him eyeing her spandex top, trying to be subtle. “You work in a bar?” he asked, then colored. Awkward question. Nora heard another sound, a few falling bricks.
    “Sort of,” she said, pulling the jacket tighter around her shoulders.
    He nodded. He was looking a little bolder now. “I think you’re very attractive,” he said, hastily, blurting it out.
    “Thanks,” she said. God, it was a thirty-second job. What was taking Smithback so long?
    “Are you, ah, free later?”
    Deliberately, she looked him up and down. “You want a date?”
    “Yeah. Yeah, sure.”
    There was another, louder sound: the rattling of a chain-link fence. Smithback climbing out? The guard turned toward it.
    “What kind of date?” Nora asked.
    He looked back at her, no longer trying to hide the roaming of his lascivious eyes. Nora felt naked beneath his gaze. There was another rattle. The guard turned again and this time saw Smithback. He was pretty hard to miss: clinging to the top of the fence, trying to unsnag his filthy raincoat.
    “Hey!” the guard yelled.
    “Forget him,” said Nora hastily. “He’s just some bum.”
    Smithback struggled. Now he was trying to slip out of his raincoat, but had only succeeded in becoming more tangled.
    “He’s not supposed to be in there!” the guard said.
    This, unfortunately, was a guy who took his job seriously.
    The man clapped his hand to his gun. “Hey you!” he yelled louder.