A Certain Smile
"Oh, come on, Avon, why can't we go? It's a real treasure map, the guy who gave it to me swore it was. He was grateful, he wouldn't have been fooling me. Do let's go."
"No." Avon's tone was quite uncompromising but Vila refused to be put off.
"It wouldn't take long. We could get to Daystar in a couple of days, and Morgenstern's loot is legendary. Just think - if we found it - we'd be famous."
A muffled snort from Dayna caused Vila to cast a very reproachful glance in her direction and she grinned and said to Avon, "Well, why not?"
"I have no belief whatsoever in either the validity of the map or the veracity of Vila's so-called friend. All I'm interested in is eluding that search pattern Servalan has set up. Orac's working on it now. The last thing I want to do is go chasing off after some mythical treasure."
"That's it!" Vila crowed. "Servalan knows you pretty well, doesn't she?" This brought him a glare not only from Avon but from Tarrant and Dayna. "What I mean," he amended hastily, "is you've been opponents for a long time and she knows how your mind works. Well, if the last thing you want to do is go searching for Morgenstern's treasure, that's the last thing she'll expect you to do. Right? So that's exactly what we should do. Right?" He beamed round on them proudly.
"For once," Orac's prissy tones interrupted, "Vila is correct. Daystar is a sparsely inhabited world, with little to attract trade or other traffic, but not so remote that it would suggest itself as a hiding place. Scorpio can put down and remain there until the search pattern has swept past and we are able to return to Xenon base."
Avon cast the computer a look of cold disgust and Vila's grin threatened to split his face in two.
"Very well," Avon agreed. "Orac, give Slave the best course to take us to this Daystar and then return to the other task I set you. I want no delay there."
He moved forward without any more discussion and the rest exchanged rueful looks.
"The other matter," Tarrant muttered resentfully. "What's the other matter? He's getting more and more secretive since Cally died. Doesn't trust us at all."
"He's still looking for Blake, I suppose," Dayna said resignedly. "He must have been special to have made such an impression on Avon. I wish I'd had the chance to know him."
"What was so special about him?" Tarrant asked Vila.
A thoughtful smile quirked the corner of Vila's mouth.
"I don't really know. He was just - Blake. He held us together somehow, made us feel we belonged. None of us ever had much chance of stopping him once he'd decided on one of his tricky schemes, but if you could trust him to lead you into danger you could also trust him to lead you out. I don't know why we felt that way, but we all did - even him." He jerked a pointing finger after Avon and then grinned. "You heard him. We're going after Morgenstern's treasure. It's fabulous, fabulous!"
"What is it? Jewels? Gold? Rare metals?"
"No one knows. I told you, it's fabulous. Way back, just before what they called 'The Last War' - because they reckoned no one would survive it - a guy called Morgenstern raided all the treasure vaults on Earth and carried off (for safekeeping, he said) the valuables stored there. No one really knows what they were, but we're going to find out."
None of them really believed in Vila's treasure map, but life aboard Scorpio was even more monotonous than it had been on Liberator so when they arrived on Daystar only Avon remained aboard. The other two followed Vila across the soft sand of a dead lake bed to where a tall pillar rose in front of the rocky cliffs of the ancient shoreline. Other pillars were scattered here and there where harder rock had resisted erosion but this one was carved, probably by a laser beam, Dayna said after inspecting it, into the semblance of a man bearing a round globe on his shoulders.
"The entrance is behind him," Vila informed them. "We have to roll a rock aside. This one! It must be this one!" His voice rang out triumphantly and Tarrant and Dayna moved forward to help him. Under the additional muscle power the rock rolled back from the entrance to a dark tunnel. Light sprang up inside as Vila entered, and after a glance at his suddenly doubtful face, Tarrant led them forward, gun in hand.
Avon looked up as they re-entered Scorpio's flight deck.
"Well now, I see you found - your treasure?" His eyes were on the things they carried and his tone was faintly mocking.
Vila gave a rueful shrug.
"It wasn't real treasure," he explained. "Just a lot of things. Sort of pictures, only flat, not in 3D, and plates and bowls and things. They look nice but they break when you drop them. And figures of people and strange creatures, and some sort of cloth hangings with pictures worked into them, and fancy furniture. And books, shelves and shelves of books. There might have been jewels there somewhere but there was just so much - " His voice trailed away sadly and Tarrant broke in.
"We each took a souvenir. Vila wanted a female figure, nearly naked but just some sort of stuff draped round her hips. Good looking, but she had one arm broken off and the white stone she was made of was pretty heavy. He finally settled for this - " And he twitched around one of the paintings Vila was clutching to show a group of drinkers clustered around a god who was crowning one of them with vine leaves. "It's called 'The Triumph of Bacchus', painted by someone called Velasquez." The face of the central character reminded Avon fleetingly of Vila - it was not an exact likeness but something of the jaunty smile reflected Vila's attitude to life. He knew it was going to clobber him, and he hoped that it wasn't going to clobber him too hard.
"And what did you and Dayna choose?"
Dayna exhibited a stringed musical instrument.
"It's called a guitar," she told him. "The writing on the case said it belonged to someone called Segovia, who was apparently a very fine player."
"Mine's called a rapier," Tarrant informed him, showing a supple and deadly looking sword. "The owner was Cesare Borgia. I don't know who he was, but he evidently knew a lot about weapons."
"And we brought this back for you," Vila said, dragging forward another canvas. "We thought you'd like it."
Avon raised an eyebrow. "Thank you, Vila. I am most grateful."
He looked down into the picture.
Dark hills rose in the background, but the woman dominated the picture. Brown eyes gazed at him from a serene face, and a faint enigmatic smile tilted the lips. Avon gazed at her in silence for a few moments before an answering smile tugged at his own lips.
He wondered what her life had been, what joys and sorrows had she known, this woman from the long ago past. Had she loved passionately, as he had loved Anna? Had she lost her love in some battle, or to another woman? Or had sorrow never troubled her life? He would never know.
Ageless, the Mona Lisa smiled at the world as she had smiled for centuries, her secrets her own for ever.