When the Gods Are Away, page 23
Matthaios whistled. "The opposite coast of the Peloponnesus from us. That’s a long drive. We haven’t gone on a roadtrip like that since our honeymoon when you wanted to go penguin-watching on the peninsula.”
Virgil remembered her talking about that. Afterward, she said they hadn't found any penguins, but it was more about the journey than the destination.
Matthaios kissed the top of Chrysanthe's head. "Your weirdness is one of the things I love about you."
“You loving me is one of the things I love about you.” She rubbed his back. “According to the itinerary, Nyx and the others are supposed to leave in half an hour."
Virgil made another quick check of the hallway. Nothing. No sounds of anyone approaching.
Matthaios frowned. "We still don't have evidence that they're altering the test in any way."
"That's true," said Chrysanthe. "I don't think we can find it here, though. I've already gone through all the papers, and you can't log in to the computer."
"Maybe we can wait here for him," said Matthaios. "Ambush him when he steps into the room. He left the door open, so he should be coming back."
Chrysanthe shook her head. "The itinerary lists several other people. If he comes back to his office, they might be coming with him."
Virgil closed his eyes. Another failure. He knew Nyx was planning to do something. Without proof, though, even if they did manage to stop him, they would be executed.
Our deaths don't matter. Millions of lives will be lost if we fail. "We have to stop him. It's either here at the lab or at Galatas."
Matthaios rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Okay. We can go to the library. That should have information on the Galatas site. Blueprints, directions, and such. And if Nyx is still in the building, he might be there. Maybe we can lock him away somewhere without anyone noticing."
Chrysanthe nodded. "I imagine that's the best we can do." She grabbed something from the desk. "VIP badges. These might help."
Before Matthaios stood from the chair, he looked underneath the desk. "A safe!"
Chrysanthe started walking to the door. "If you couldn't guess his computer password, I doubt you'll be able to crack his safe."
"Probably not, but I should try while we're here." Matthaios knelt under the desk. A moment later, something flashed.
Virgil looked at the ceiling. Alarm lights began to blink red. "Um."
The alarms weren’t confined to this hallway. Reflected flashes came from the other hallways, too. Everyone in the building will know someone attempted to break into something. With our bright orange vests, Chrysanthe and I are going to be the most reasonable suspects.
Virgil's arms began shaking. Images of Artino chasing him through the parking lot were interspersed with images of Keres security guards pounding after him through the hallways.
Chrysanthe ran to Virgil's side. "Come on!"
Matthaios raced after her. "Stupid, stupid. I should have known. They are going to draw-and-quarter us."
Virgil grunted as Chrysanthe helped him to his feet. Confused shouts came from the main hallway. Guards would arrive soon. Virgil doubted he could move quickly enough to avoid detection, but Chrysanthe forced him to hurry beside her. He clutched his side as they ran in the direction opposite the voices.
The guards are going to find us. The police will arrest us. The government will execute us. This is my fault. I am getting my sister and Matthaios killed. Everything would have been better if Artino had killed me, or if the spirits had taken me in Hades, or if Patroklus' knife had killed me, or if I had killed myself in the bathroom.
"We need to get to the library," Matthaios said. "They'll be looking for intruders, but they won't necessarily suspect us. If we get there, we can claim we were there the entire time."
They rounded the corner before anyone could see them fleeing Nyx's office. Voices and footsteps still echoed through the corridors, but Matthaios kept moving. Virgil struggled alongside Chrysanthe as best as he could.
They crossed several hallways, leaving the voices somewhere behind them. Red lights flashed. Virgil and Chrysanthe followed Matthaios as he turned left toward the center of the building. At the far end of the corridor, the library awaited.
It took several minutes to reach it because of Virgil's injury, but then they stood before the golden doors of their sanctuary. Below the ceiling, 'Library' was written in bold letters. Thin windows were inset in the doors. Virgil leaned forward to peer through the closest.
The window provided a limited view. He could see that no one stood in front of the door, but little else. No nearby sounds of footsteps behind them.
"Move," said Matthaios as he opened the door.
When no one shouted or tackled them, Virgil surmised the library was safe. He stepped inside, along with Chrysanthe, relieved that his mistakes hadn't cost her life.
The library's interior was even more extravagant than its doors. Its entryway reached to the domed ceiling, the morning sunlight streaming through slit-like windows. Soft sounds of strings played from hidden ceiling speakers. Meters away, a spiral staircase led to the second floor. Large bookcases, with accompanying ladders, lined the walls. Wide spaces throughout the room were occupied by long tables or decorations. Marble statues stood on pedestals, each statue a beautiful rendition of a horrendous creature preying upon soldiers. Other pedestals supported nuclear bombs, which were hopefully inert. A mosaic of an embattled General Klasistratos covered the far wall.
"Wow," said Chrysanthe. "This is the most beautiful library I've ever seen."
Virgil wondered if the decorations enhanced reading comprehension or had any useful purpose in a library. He doubted Chrysanthe or Matthaios wanted to hear the question.
Matthaios leaned closer and whispered. "The launch site material should be on the first floor, to the left. I don't know if anyone else is in here, so be careful. It would look suspicious if anyone saw us in that section, since there was an intruder alert in the office of the head of the Nuclear Warfare Department."
They walked past a column with raised lettering that proclaimed, 'Knowledge Can Kill', and asked, 'Do You Know Someone Who Knows Too Much?' Then they veered around the statue of a soldier being attacked by a woman whose skin was covered in boils and open sores, turned behind the spiral staircase, and found themselves in the nuclear warfare section. It consisted of two towering bookcases that contained leather-bound tomes, magazines, and binders full of loose papers.
Virgil disengaged from Chrysanthe and sat at the base of the nearest bookcase. It looked intimidatingly tall from this angle.
Chrysanthe and Matthaios busied themselves searching the upper shelves of the bookcase, while Virgil concentrated on the ground-level shelf. This section seemed more technical than he needed, filled with studies on the operation of nuclear bombs and trajectory analyses of missile flight paths. He didn’t bother opening those books, knowing they contained incomprehensible combinations of symbols that would make hieroglyphs seem like easy reading. After dragging himself along the floor to the second bookshelf, he discovered titles with more relevance: Establishment of Arestia’s Nuclear Program, Evaluation of Potential Launch Sites, Infrastructure for Galatas Missile Launch Site, Blueprints for Galatas Launch Site.
“Found it,” Virgil said.
Chrysanthe and Matthaios soon stood over his shoulders, reaching around him to snatch books from the shelf. He managed to stay out of their way and minimize his impedance of their investigations. After they had selected books, he grabbed one about building roads from the mission control center to the launch pads. It had detailed accounts of pricing, construction techniques, and day-to-day activities. My keen detective skills tell me this book won’t help.
“I think we should keep this one.” Chrysanthe held up a book containing blueprints.
“Good find.” Matthaios squeezed her shoulder.
“Virgil was the one who found the section.”
Matthaios glanced down at Virgil with a flat expression. “Oh.”
Voices came from outside. Virgil held still and listened. A loud conversation, then someone's hand upon the door. The ambient sound from outside drifted in as the door opened.
Virgil looked up to see Chrysanthe already holding a hand out to him. Have the guards come? Or Nyx? Will we be able to capture the scientist, or will we be executed on the spot? Virgil took Chrysanthe's hand and stood as quietly as he could, then peered past the staircase.
The man who came through the doors looked like Nyx: short dark hair and gold-rimmed glasses. The man who had killed Nicholas. Virgil looked at Matthaios, who nodded. Success. Virgil started to move forward.
Then two bulky security guards followed Nyx into the room.
Matthaios' eyes widened. "Shit."
Chapter 25
VIRGIL COULDN'T MOVE. He stood in the open, waiting for the enemy to discover him.
The spiral staircase was between the new arrivals and Virgil right now, but since Nyx was in the library, he would probably want to use the Nuclear Warfare section, and then he would see Virgil and the others. Chrysanthe and Matthaios could beat Nyx in a fight, but those security guards could tear a person in half. Virgil recognized the one who had found him sneaking around the lab yesterday. He hoped to never learn how the guard would react to seeing him here again.
He had to find cover.
The first hiding place he saw was a small statue of a skeletal woman devouring a battlefield casualty, which stood only meters away beside a reading table. It was a questionable hiding place at best, and it wouldn't even hide everyone.
Behind the statue, though, was the first bookshelf in the Ballistics section. It faced the Nuclear Warfare's reading area and would block the view from anyone inspecting the books on launch sites. Virgil turned to tell Chrysanthe, but she was already gesturing to the same shelves. She took his arm and helped him hobble past the creepy statue and behind the bookshelf.
When they reached their destination, Virgil hunkered down beside the others where the books were tallest and thickest. A small gap, between the top of the books on the first row and the bottom of the next shelf, allowed him to view the Nuclear Warfare section. Chrysanthe and Matthaios angled themselves to peer through the gap, as well.
Nothing yet. Virgil offered another prayer to Hebe, though he couldn’t figure out how to make the situation fit her area of expertise.
Nyx strode into the section, and Virgil's mouth tightened. There was something strange about this whole situation, meeting a murder victim after their death and then seeing the person who had killed him.
The scientist didn't look frail, exactly, but he also didn't look like the type of person who could physically kill another. A toughness about the eyes and the set of his jaw indicated strength of spirit, but those arms didn't indicate strength of muscle.
The two guards who followed must provide all the muscle Nyx needed. Virgil remembered how it had felt yesterday when they had held him aloft, helpless. His knees wobbled in memory.
Three other men, wearing maroon uniforms, fanned out from behind the guards and looked to Nyx. Matthaios might know what the maroon signified. Blue was for Nuclear Warfare. The guards were hanging out with Nyx, so maroon likely had something to do with... ballistic missiles. Virgil cursed silently. Maybe this is not a good hiding place.
Nyx stood before one of the Nuclear Warfare shelves and began running his fingers along the spines of the books with a familiarity bordering on disturbing. The guards watched as though he were the most fascinating person in the world.
"Let's wait a few minutes to allow the business with my office intruder to settle," Nyx said in a strong baritone. "There was nothing in that safe. I thought any intruder would be unable to resist attempting to open it, though."
Beside Virgil, Matthaios shook his head.
"Still," said Nyx, selecting one of the books, "this gives me the opportunity to retrieve some documents, and we'll be safe here. Athas, fetch my car and move it to the rear entrance."
"Yes, sir." One of the men in maroon walked to the exit.
If Nyx had his people pre-positioning the car, they would be leaving for Galatas soon. Chrysanthe hadn't had time to formulate a plan for infiltrating the Galatas launch site, and it appeared she wouldn’t get much more.
“You have the tunes, right?” Nyx tossed the book to another man in maroon. “Something energetic? I hate listening to the radio on road trips. All that talking and ‘slow jams’ and whatever raucous sheep-bleating the record companies pretend is music these days.”
“Yes, sir,” said the man. “Your secretary had some suggestions. Some old-school Beached Whales, some Writhing Deceased, and the new Perilous Paranormal Paramour album.”
“Great. Put that one on first; I haven’t had time to listen to it yet, what with all the commotion going on here and all our improvisations to the plan." He paused. "We will need to exercise more caution, of course. The fact that someone snuck into my office means someone knows of my plans."
Virgil and the others would not have surprise on their side, then. Nyx would be expecting them.
Virgil heard the library door open again, though he couldn't see who entered until they rounded the staircase. A long, red robe flicked into view. A priest. Why does Nyx have a priest working with him? Virgil adjusted the angle of his head to get a clearer view.
Wait. Virgil recognized that face. He stiffened.
Patroklus.
So Patroklus had been working for Nicholas’ murderer. Patroklus had been watching Virgil the entire time, trying to thwart the investigation. Did those first spells really not provide useful information, or did Patroklus purposely make them fail? Maybe he never intended me to survive the trip to Hades. And all that time, he looked me in the eyes, spoke to me as a colleague, and never revealed his true intentions or the fact that he might kill me if I got too close to the truth.
Of course, the evidence was all circumstantial. Maybe Patroklus was simply incompetent with those first spells. Or maybe he told the truth and there wasn’t anything useful to be gleaned from them. Maybe he had stabbed Virgil only because Virgil had unknowingly requested it.
But why is he here, then? Is he a double-agent, pretending to work for Nyx while reporting to another agency?
While Virgil tried to process this new information and keep his breathing under control, Patroklus’ face inclined downward and turned toward the bookshelf where Virgil and the others hid. Those piercing blue eyes seemed to penetrate the books and bore directly into Virgil.
Virgil reached for the charm in his pocket and squeezed it. Can Patroklus actually see me? This angle should make it almost impossible. Did he use a detector spell, or can he hear us breathing? Or do priests have some kind of extra-sensory perception? Will he tell Nyx and destroy the last chance our continent has at not being blown up?
The moment passed, and Patroklus looked away. Virgil didn’t know if the priest had seen them and decided not to reveal their presence, or if he had seen nothing. Virgil closed his eyes for a moment, trying to will his heart into slowing.
Patroklus crossed the distance to Nyx. “You have made your final decision?”
“Yes.” Nyx plucked a binder from the shelf. “During his visit this morning, the senator insisted upon proceeding with the plan, but I would have done it even without his approval. We have invested too much effort to withdraw now. It was foolish of him to believe I would even consider the possibility of doing otherwise.”
Patroklus inclined his head. “The senator fears unfavorable public opinion more than expended effort.”
“If we all had to rely upon public approval, we would never accomplish anything.” Nyx removed some of the loose papers from the binder and returned it to the shelf. “I suppose I have all I need from here. A rental Havoc paid for by the taxpayers, snacks paid for by the taxpayers, identification documents paid for by the taxpayers, some sweet tunes, and my stunning intellect that surpasses that of even Athena.”
His cronies exchanged worried glances.
Nyx raised his eyebrows. “It’s okay for me to say that. It’s not hubris if it’s true.”
Before the others could respond, Nyx swept out of the section. The others followed, with Patroklus gliding out last. Moments later, the library door closed again.
Silence. A minute passed without even the sound of breathing. Virgil waited, wondering if Nyx and the others would return.
And Patroklus... I thought he didn’t hate me. Maybe that note in my car really was referring to him, even though he made me feel guilty for implicitly accusing him.
Matthaios stood and spoke in a whisper. "I think they're gone now."
"It really is tonight," said Chrysanthe. "They're really going to do it. We weren't wrong."
She looked as though she were about to start giving orders. Before she could say anything more, Virgil spoke.
“Patroklus was with them.”
“Who?” asked Chrysanthe.
"The priest," said Virgil. “I’m worried he might be working for them.”
“Is that why he stabbed you?” Chrysanthe's voice faltered at the end of the sentence.
Virgil’s hand went to his stitches. “I don’t know. He might have been trying to kill me. There was this note. But he might have been trying to help with the investigation. He did give me that charm to ward off spirits while I was in Hades. I—"
“I think the important thing to remember here,” Chrysanthe said, a note of exasperation in her voice, “is that he stabbed you and left you for dead. I don’t care if he was helping with the investigation. I don’t care if he houses orphans and donates all his money to health care for the elderly. I won’t forgive him for what he did, and I don’t trust him.”
“He’s a priest,” said Virgil. “He doesn’t have any money.”
“Not the point.” Chrysanthe gestured to the reading section. “Besides, you saw him with Fred Nyx. They're co-conspirators.”
Virgil looked at his hands. “Unless Patroklus is only pretending to work with Nyx and actually plans to stop him.”
