Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [38]
What was also apparent, however, was that Israel did not want to see the Capstone fall into the hands of either America or Europe—which meant Israel had an interest in the mission succeeding. That was good.
The big question, however, was what Israel planned to do at the end of the mission. Could Archer and Israel be trusted then?
At first, hardly anyone even spoke to Archer—which the ever-cool Israeli didn’t seem to mind at all.
But no man is an island, and one day he joined West as he carried out some repairs on the station . . . and so began the process of becoming part of the team.
And slowly, over the course of many months, by working and sweating and training with the others, he became accepted as one of them.
One member of their little community, however, always regarded Archer with great suspicion.
Saladin.
As an Arab and a Muslim, he distrusted the Israeli intensely, but he also knew that Archer’s presence in Kenya was now a given.
He would often say that while he had to accept Archer’s presence, he didn’t have to like it.
As all this was happening, Lily’s development was proceeding apace.
She was always inquisitive, always watching.
Watching Saladin go off into the big barn and disappear inside his explosives workshop. He was so sweet and cuddly, she renamed him Pooh Bear.
Watching the new man, Archer, go out to the western paddock and practise firing his ultralong Barrett sniper rifle at far-off targets—and hitting the target every single time. She watched him closely, even when he disassembled his rifle. He was so tall and thin, she started calling him Stretch. (She also noticed that Pooh Bear and Stretch hardly ever even spoke. She did not know why.)
Watching Witch Doctor do chin-ups. From an early age, she had loved his wild dreadlocked hair. He became Fuzzy.
Watching the two youngest troopers, Matador and Gunman, jog together, train together and drink together. This earned them their new callsigns: Noddy and Big Ears.
And, of course, watching Zoe.
Idolising Zoe.
Being the only twenty-something female Lily knew, it wasn’t unexpected that Zoe would become her feminine role model.
And Zoe Kissane was a good role model. She could outlast the men in fitness tests, outwit most of them at dinner-table discussions, and she could often be found studying history books deep into the night.
It was not uncommon to find Lily sitting in an armchair late at night beside Zoe, fast asleep with a book open, trying to imitate the pretty Irish woman.
Naturally, Lily called her Princess Zoe.
But above all, the one person Lily enjoyed watching most was Jack West Jr.
She would never forget the day in 2000 when Wizard had presented West with a shiny new silver arm.
With Zoe assisting, Wizard spent the whole day attaching the high-tech arm to West’s left elbow, pausing every now and then to frown and say something like, ‘The arm’s CPU is experiencing interference from somewhere. Aziz, would you turn off the television set, please.’ Eventually, he changed some frequencies on the arm’s central processing unit and it worked to his satisfaction.
The four-year-old Lily had watched them keenly as they worked.
She was aware that West had lost his arm on the day she was born, in the process of saving her life, so she really wanted his new arm to work.
At the end of the day, the arm was on, and West flexed his new metal fingers. His new hand could actually grip things far more tightly and firmly than his natural right hand could.
True to his word, Wizard had built West an arm that was better than the one he’d been born with.
Other things about West intrigued Lily.
For one thing, of all the team at the farm, he hung out with her the least.
He didn’t play with her.
He didn’t teach her any special subject.
He would spend most days in his study, poring over old books— really old books with titles like Ancient Egyptian Building Methods, Imhotep and the Architects of Amun-Ra and one really old scroll titled in Greek: A Collection of Wonders from around the