Original: "Trafalgar and Boone," Chapter Fifteen
Another chapter down! :D Three chapters in three days. Don't get TOO used to that, kids. But I hope you can get used to it. ::feeling like my stride is back::
Chapter Fifteen
Dorothy’s torture continued for a hundred years. No. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus. One hundred years was impossible. She took a deep breath and remembered she was dealing with someone who could play with her mind, who could make her see and feel things that didn’t exist. She lifted her chin from her chest despite her brain telling her she was too weak, and she gazed at the bald bitch standing in front of her.
“You’ll have to do... a lot better than that.”
She thought she saw a hint of a smile cross the woman’s face before the trembling subsided. Once again she was young, but she was exhausted. She had no idea how long she’d actually been strapped to the chair. Her waistcoat and fob watch were gone. Her ascot was gone. Her socks and shoes had been taken off, and the floor was cold to the touch. She tried forcing her feet down onto the metal to let it absorb her body heat, but it didn’t seem to work.
“You know,” Dorothy said, “we’ve spent this whole time learning about me. What about you? Hopes. Dreams. Fears. Let’s get inside your head for a little while.”
The bones in Dorothy’s chest were crushed. She sagged forward and gasped for air as her vital organs were punctured by the shards...
...and then released. She panted to catch her breath and looked up at Milena through her bangs. “Okay. You don’t want to talk about yourself. That’s fine.”
The door to her cell opened and Orville came in.
“Orville,” Dorothy said. “Nice of you to join us. We were just about to talk about Milena’s childhood. Apparently she wasn’t hugged enough as a child.”
Orville ignored her and focused on Milena. “We’ll be landing soon. It would be best if she was a bit less of a handful.”
Milena nodded and approached Dorothy. For the entirety of their session, however long it had been, Milena had never spoken out loud or touched her. Despite herself, Dorothy cringed when the silent woman reached out and tapped her middle finger against Dorothy’s forehead. Orville was the one who spoke, moving so Dorothy could see him.
“You will be asleep when we arrive in Athens. You will sleep throughout our time on the ground so as not to cause problems with the airdock crew. You are falling asleep as we speak.”
“Sorry to disappoint. But you throw such lively parties that I’ll be up for hours.”
Orville smiled. “I’m afraid that’s not the case. How long has it been since you slept, Lady Boone? Twenty-four hours? Thirty-six? Forty-eight?” She felt her head growing heavy, her eyelids sailing downward of their own volition. She jerked her head back up and forced her eyes open. “Certainly not sixty. Seventy-two? Dorothy, have you been up for eighty hours?”
She wanted to toss out a quip, wanted to take one last dig at him, but sleep was crowding in on her senses. She couldn’t gather the strength to open her mouth, and her thoughts were far too jumbled to be clever. She slumped forward in her chair, her entire body slack in a deep and unbroken sleep.
#
Airship crew gathered in small clusters on the rainy airdock tarmac, stamping their feet to stay warm in the cold drizzle. Some of them held cigarettes cupped protectively in their hands, curled protectively around the burning tips so they wouldn’t be extinguished by the surprise downpour. Above them the massive airships glistened and cascaded more water down, as if each one was its own steel-and-canvas raincloud that had been tethered to the ground. The newest arrival, the Skylarker, rested a few slips down from a smaller craft designated Kestrel. Two ships among dozens, nothing to distinguish them from their neighbors.
Normally the crews were unflappable, having seen a large swath of the great big world during the war. They flew across Europe, to the furthest reaches of Asia and Africa, and to a man they claimed there was nothing that could make them shake in their skins. But today every man on the Athens dock was skittish. Out on the Saronic Gulf, the waves were dappled by sunshine that had escaped from behind the cloud hovering over the city.
It started with rumors about wet footprints on the concrete, impressions of a woman’s bare foot that crossed a dry space with no women - shod or not - anywhere near. And then when the drizzle began in earnest, some people said they saw the shape of a woman outlined in the droplets. She, or it, ran when anyone tried to get close to it. The last reported sighting was underneath the Skylarker, but no one was willing to risk career suicide by telling its captain that she may have a ghost aboard.
The Kestrel left a few minutes past seven-thirty in the morning. Some of the first people to report the ghostly footprints said they seemed to be coming from the Kestrel. A few minutes later the Skylarker requested permission to disembark. Departure was granted, and it lifted off with its ghost apparently still aboard.
The roughnecks on the dock said nothing nor did they react outwardly. But they all breathed a sigh of relief as the two ships - one that had lost a ghost and another that had gained one - drifted off over the Mediterranean. Whatever fate tied the two ships together, and whatever the true nature of the invisible woman might have been, it was no longer their problem.
#
Dorothy was jarred from her slumber to discover she had been transferred to a vehicle. She was once again fully-dressed, although she could feel that her gun was missing from her belt. They were on a road cut into the slope of a hill, with lush vegetation rising high overhead to her left with a soft decline on the right. In the distance she could see the rise of a neighboring hill covered with a blanket of greens and yellows. The sky was utterly clear save for a few clouds near the far horizon. She pushed her shoulder against the door to sit up and turned to see Milena seated beside her in the backseat of the car. The bald woman didn’t acknowledge Dorothy’s waking.
Orville was seated in front beside the driver, and he looked back at her with a smile. “Good morning, Lady Boone. We’re almost to our destination. Have you ever been to Crete before?”
“Once.” Her voice sounded odd to her own ears, and she worked up a bit of saliva before she spoke again. “What day is it?”
“The day after we captured you in Rome. You haven’t been unconscious the entire time. I simply asked Milena to remove some of your memories from the past twenty-four hours.”
That information didn’t put her at ease, but she had to assume that was his intention. “Where is Trafalgar?”
“She’s in the truck ahead of us. Once we arrive at the site, we’ll be requiring you to help us search for the stone. I know Milena left the memory of what will happen if you refuse or attempt to delay us in any way.”
Milena slowly turned her head to look at Dorothy. The memory of severed limbs and physical violations flashed in Dorothy’s mind, and she shuddered.
“I’ve been hired by people I don’t particularly like in the past, but I haven’t let that get in the way of doing my job. I do believe you may have the distinction of being the most despicable client I’ve ever had. So there is that.”
Orville laughed. “That’s the spirit. The love of discovery.” He faced forward again. “This has all turned out for the best, all things considered. We have archaeologists in our employ, people who I’m sure would have served us well here, but I cannot tell you how happy I am to have someone as revered as you on our side.”
“Is that why you tried to kill me?”
“Well.” He shrugged. “It was the easiest course of action. We hired that masked miscreant to get rid of anyone who might stand in our way, and then it didn’t matter if we were working with second tier professionals. There was no longer anyone who might pull the rug out from under us, as it were. But then you and Trafalgar fell right into our laps...” He laughed and slapped his thigh. “Trafalgar! Who could have imagined the luck? We sent word back to London about having her with us, and people are positive it’s a sign we’re destined to succeed.”
Dorothy chose not to respond to that, instead looking out the window at their surroundings. She was more clear-headed now and found it easier to focus. When she looked behind them she could see the airship traffic above Heraklion, five or six fat ships riding high enough to be seen from so far away. When she faced forward again she saw Orville was watching her. There was something unsettling about his gaze, something knowing.
“Knossos,” she said. “I should have known when you said we were traveling to Heraklion. You want to excavate Knossos.”
He nodded. “Very good.”
“Arthur Evans...”
“Mr. Evans did a lion’s share of the work for us, but he and his men were... ultimately misguided. They wanted to protect the ruins from further degradation. What good is preserving a site if no one is going to appreciate it? There are treasures here waiting to be found, treasures that the Watershed Society believes will change the course of history. We managed to convince him to focus his efforts elsewhere and hand the site over to us.”
Dorothy said, “If ancient civilizations had the means to change the course of history, don’t you think it’s telling that they chose not to? They hid these items away so they would never fall into the wrong hands.”
“And who is to decide which hands are wrong? Who is the arbiter of worthiness? You do the same thing we do, but you couch your thievery in terms of exploration and knowledge.”
“You’re trying to take over the world,” Dorothy said. “Believe me, while our interests occasionally intersect, we are far from the same person.”
He sighed. “The events of today will dictate the rest of your life, Lady Boone. You can choose to be friend of the society or you can decide we are enemies. If you intend to deceive us, I should remind you that Milena had a full day to get acquainted with your mind. She’ll know even before you do.”
The truck turned onto a heavily-rutted dirt road. Grass and weeds clawed at the sides of their vehicle as it bounced and rocked through the scrub. The trees parted and ahead Dorothy saw the crumbling yellow brick of a wall on either side of the dirt path. Another truck was parked on the grass just beyond the fortification and Orville’s driver took them past it to a wide, open area that butted up against a stone courtyard. Trafalgar was standing in the courtyard surrounded by four leatherjackets and a woman who looked identical to Milena. The wind caught Trafalgar’s coat, which Dorothy was surprised to find she had been allowed to keep, and she held her arms behind her back so it was impossible to tell if she was restrained or not.
Once they were parked Milena gestured for Dorothy to get out of the car first. She walked onto the stone slab with her captors following.
“Miss Trafalgar. Glad to see you’re in one piece. Although you could have avoided any injuries by fleeing when you had the opportunity.”
“Lady Boone. If that’s your way of thanking me for coming to your rescue...”
“Some rescue!” Dorothy said, gesturing at the leatherjackets around them.
Trafalgar shrugged. “The day is not over yet.”
Orville greeted one of Trafalgar’s guards with a hug, patting him hard on the back before letting him go. “We are here, Daniel. We’ve done it. We’re a step away from everything we’ve dreamed.”
Dorothy remembered Orville mentioning his brother was named Daniel. The man had the countenance of a weasel or some other vermin and if he was truly Orville’s brother then there had definitely been winner in their family’s genetic lottery. The weasel-faced brother looked at her and smiled with tombstone-spaced teeth.
“Is this her? The infamous Boone? I expected her to be much older.”
“You’re thinking of her grandmother.” Orville looked at her. “Mr. Solomon and our society had a few dealings with Eula Boone. She was a thorn in our side.”
Dorothy narrowed her eyes. “Someone sent a box of dead roses to her memorial. I had forgotten it until now. Was that you?”
Orville smiled and put a hand on his chest, bowing at the waist. “Not me personally, but the Society felt it was necessary to mark the occasion.”
“Aha. That is... enlightening.”
Orville ignored the threat in her tone and stepped out across the courtyard. He walked toward three large stone-walled pits in the center of the space and held his arms out to indicate the palace rising above them. Even in its state of decay, lost and forgotten for millenia, the site was still impressive. A large hill to the north would have protected them from the sea, and any attackers coming from inland would have been forced to attack from a downhill position. Standing in the courtyard, even though it was open on three sides, Dorothy couldn’t help but feel snug and secure. Imagining the grounds in their prime made her realize just how powerful Minos had been.
“Welcome to the Palace of Knossos, the home of the Minoan dynasty,” Orville said. “First inhabited eight thousand years ago, threatened by earthquakes and volcanoes and floods but always rising again from the rubble to regain their strength. The first kingdom to have a navy, which helped them rule the Aegean Sea. This was the heart of civilization and King Minos had his hand around that heart like a steel vice.” He turned to face them. “King Minos also possessed the chalcedony stone. It’s still here somewhere, hidden in this palace. It’s your job, Lady Boone and Miss Trafalgar, to find it for me.”
Dorothy held up her hands. “I can’t do much while I’m bound.”
“You’re not bound.”
Dorothy looked at her wrists and saw the ropes had faded. She glared at Milena, who didn’t even have the grace to offer a snide smile. Dorothy envisioned a bullet puncturing the insufferable woman’s forehead directly between her eyes, imagining all the gory details that went along with a good headshot, and she thought she saw Milena’s cheek twitch in response to the image. Dorothy looked away from her and faced Orville again.
“We’ll need space to work. And we’ve never collaborated, so there may be a bit of a learning curve. Don’t expect immediate results.”
Daniel said, “It’s disturbing that you’re starting off with excuses...”
“This is a science and an art, Mr. Weeks,” Dorothy said. “It cannot be forced or strong-armed into providing the results you want on a set timetable. You have kidnapped us and dragged us here and now we have no option but to help you. We intend to do that but you must understand that a lack of results won’t necessarily be for a lack of trying. I will not be executed or further tortured simply because the site isn’t cooperating.”
Orville nodded to his brother, who accepted the terms with a dismissive flap of his hands. Orville looked at them and smiled. “You have your space.”
Trafalgar said, “And we will not have your twins interfering with our work.”
Orville waved them off. Milena and the other one seemed to relax slightly as they moved off to stand together near one of the stone pits. Dorothy watched as they joined hands and turned to face the hills in the distance. Though silent as always, she had no doubt the sisters were engaged in a deep conversation that only they could hear. Orville moved to speak to his brother, and Dorothy found herself alone with Trafalgar.
“Well,” Dorothy said as she scanned the courtyard. “I see you had your own inquisitor.”
“Mircea Petric,” Trafalgar said. “She was... unpleasant.”
“Her sister Milena is no walk on the beach, either.” She scanned the horizon. “If we make a run for it, I doubt we’d get far. Even without the skittles-ball twins, we have no means to get home. This Watershed Society would only catch up with us and drag us back kicking and screaming. The only bright spot in all of this is that Beatrice and Leola seem to have gotten away.”
Trafalgar said, “What do you intend to do?”
“We help them. It’s not ideal, but for the moment I don’t see that we have any other option. Yes, they may intend to kill us when we’ve outlived our usefulness, but up until that time--”
“They don’t intend to kill me. They intend to use me as the host for this demon they are summoning.”
Dorothy said, “Still? After all their work establishing the identity of Felix Quintel, it seems odd that you would still be viable.”
“They claim it is destiny.”
“Damn. You have my assurances I won’t allow it to get that far.”
Trafalgar looked at her. “Why?”
Dorothy frowned. “What do you mean ‘why’? This entire debacle has made us allies.”
“Yes. But if you have to risk your life to preserve mine...” Trafalgar let the thought trail off. “Perhaps I have been wrong about you, Lady Boone.”
“You’re not entirely to blame. I’ve acted like you’re my enemy in the past. If you believe me to be the kind of person who would leave you at the mercy of these scoundrels... then I share the fault. Right now neither of us is going to get out of this mess without the other’s help. I doubt they left you with any weapons?”
Trafalgar shook her head. “Of course not. You?”
“No. But if we want to stay on their good side, we should get started. Any ideas?”
“This area is the caravanserai. Pilgrims coming to visit the king would stop here to bathe before they entered the presence of the king. There were facilities for running water and drainage...” She looked around and then pointed. “Along there.”
“These pits were simply drainage pipes?”
“No. They were most likely used for storage. The courtyard would be, for the most part, a staging area. If we’re actually going to look for this stone, we’ll need to start in the palace.” She started walking and Dorothy fell into step beside her. The Weeks brothers noticed and followed them across the courtyard. The eastern wall was unbroken by any obvious entrance, and the southern expanse was a sharp descent marked by trees. Trafalgar turned north and led them along a wide path that took them past what was once a large theatre. They were forced to walk in a single file, and Dorothy scanned the ground they crossed for any rocks sizable enough to act as a weapon.
There was a point where the wall had been destroyed enough for them to pass into the palace’s interior. Dorothy was about to ask for a torch when Orville stepped forward and held one out to her. It was a sleek black tube with brass fittings, the lens angled outward so she could aim it directly ahead without raising her arm. She turned it on and twisted the end cap to widen its beam before she swept it across the room ahead of them.
“Remarkable that it’s still intact.” Trafalgar looked up at the ceiling. “Imagine the work that must have gone into this. Even though so much of it has fallen to rubble the fact that any of it--”
Orville said, “There will be time for sightseeing later. Please, let us carry on. Treasures await.”
Trafalgar glared at him. “It is precisely that attitude which renders you unworthy of whatever we find here. The history of our species, the world from which we grew--”
“Has fallen to dust and rubble,” Orville interrupted again. He picked up a stone and hurled it at the far wall. “Nothing but bricks and faded artifacts. These people had their moment and it passed. The Romans had their moment. England’s moment is fading. Now is the time for a new society to rise up and take control, to lead the world into the new millennium. The only thing we have to gain from these people is whatever trinkets they left behind that can help us hold onto our power for as long as possible before the next era comes along.”
“Oh, my God,” Dorothy said. “You’re a child who just wants to play with his big brother’s toys.”
Orville glared at her. “Need I remind you of what Milena is capable of, Lady Boone?”
“Spare me,” she said, rolling her eyes as she moved the light along the far wall. “We should explore as much of the palace as we can before it gets dark. I think your depilated goons would be better served setting up light sources so we won’t be cast into darkness as soon as the sun sets.”
Trafalgar said, “On the other hand, the veil of night could provide us the perfect opportunity to escape.”
“An excellent point,” Dorothy said. “By all means, Mr. Weeks, leave your bald-pated twerps to linger and threaten us while we do our work. A much better use of their time.”
Orville’s good humor seemed to have completely faded, but he motioned for Milena and her sister to go fetch the lights from their vehicle. Dorothy motioned for Trafalgar to follow her to the other side of the room.
“Do you believe it’s necessary to antagonize them?” Trafalgar asked when they had nearly reached the far wall.
“Antagonizing them makes them angry. Angry people act with their guts rather than their brains. Just remember that if I provoke them too far, I’m the expendable one.”
Trafalgar snorted. “I would prefer a bullet in my head to some arcane beast.”
“What do you say we try to avoid either?”
“Sounds like the best plan. Lead the way.”
Dorothy fanned the light across the wall until she found an opening that led into a wide corridor. She led the way, with Trafalgar behind her and the Weeks brothers bringing up the rear as they ventured deeper into the ancient palace.
Chapter Fifteen
Dorothy’s torture continued for a hundred years. No. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus. One hundred years was impossible. She took a deep breath and remembered she was dealing with someone who could play with her mind, who could make her see and feel things that didn’t exist. She lifted her chin from her chest despite her brain telling her she was too weak, and she gazed at the bald bitch standing in front of her.
“You’ll have to do... a lot better than that.”
She thought she saw a hint of a smile cross the woman’s face before the trembling subsided. Once again she was young, but she was exhausted. She had no idea how long she’d actually been strapped to the chair. Her waistcoat and fob watch were gone. Her ascot was gone. Her socks and shoes had been taken off, and the floor was cold to the touch. She tried forcing her feet down onto the metal to let it absorb her body heat, but it didn’t seem to work.
“You know,” Dorothy said, “we’ve spent this whole time learning about me. What about you? Hopes. Dreams. Fears. Let’s get inside your head for a little while.”
The bones in Dorothy’s chest were crushed. She sagged forward and gasped for air as her vital organs were punctured by the shards...
...and then released. She panted to catch her breath and looked up at Milena through her bangs. “Okay. You don’t want to talk about yourself. That’s fine.”
The door to her cell opened and Orville came in.
“Orville,” Dorothy said. “Nice of you to join us. We were just about to talk about Milena’s childhood. Apparently she wasn’t hugged enough as a child.”
Orville ignored her and focused on Milena. “We’ll be landing soon. It would be best if she was a bit less of a handful.”
Milena nodded and approached Dorothy. For the entirety of their session, however long it had been, Milena had never spoken out loud or touched her. Despite herself, Dorothy cringed when the silent woman reached out and tapped her middle finger against Dorothy’s forehead. Orville was the one who spoke, moving so Dorothy could see him.
“You will be asleep when we arrive in Athens. You will sleep throughout our time on the ground so as not to cause problems with the airdock crew. You are falling asleep as we speak.”
“Sorry to disappoint. But you throw such lively parties that I’ll be up for hours.”
Orville smiled. “I’m afraid that’s not the case. How long has it been since you slept, Lady Boone? Twenty-four hours? Thirty-six? Forty-eight?” She felt her head growing heavy, her eyelids sailing downward of their own volition. She jerked her head back up and forced her eyes open. “Certainly not sixty. Seventy-two? Dorothy, have you been up for eighty hours?”
She wanted to toss out a quip, wanted to take one last dig at him, but sleep was crowding in on her senses. She couldn’t gather the strength to open her mouth, and her thoughts were far too jumbled to be clever. She slumped forward in her chair, her entire body slack in a deep and unbroken sleep.
#
Airship crew gathered in small clusters on the rainy airdock tarmac, stamping their feet to stay warm in the cold drizzle. Some of them held cigarettes cupped protectively in their hands, curled protectively around the burning tips so they wouldn’t be extinguished by the surprise downpour. Above them the massive airships glistened and cascaded more water down, as if each one was its own steel-and-canvas raincloud that had been tethered to the ground. The newest arrival, the Skylarker, rested a few slips down from a smaller craft designated Kestrel. Two ships among dozens, nothing to distinguish them from their neighbors.
Normally the crews were unflappable, having seen a large swath of the great big world during the war. They flew across Europe, to the furthest reaches of Asia and Africa, and to a man they claimed there was nothing that could make them shake in their skins. But today every man on the Athens dock was skittish. Out on the Saronic Gulf, the waves were dappled by sunshine that had escaped from behind the cloud hovering over the city.
It started with rumors about wet footprints on the concrete, impressions of a woman’s bare foot that crossed a dry space with no women - shod or not - anywhere near. And then when the drizzle began in earnest, some people said they saw the shape of a woman outlined in the droplets. She, or it, ran when anyone tried to get close to it. The last reported sighting was underneath the Skylarker, but no one was willing to risk career suicide by telling its captain that she may have a ghost aboard.
The Kestrel left a few minutes past seven-thirty in the morning. Some of the first people to report the ghostly footprints said they seemed to be coming from the Kestrel. A few minutes later the Skylarker requested permission to disembark. Departure was granted, and it lifted off with its ghost apparently still aboard.
The roughnecks on the dock said nothing nor did they react outwardly. But they all breathed a sigh of relief as the two ships - one that had lost a ghost and another that had gained one - drifted off over the Mediterranean. Whatever fate tied the two ships together, and whatever the true nature of the invisible woman might have been, it was no longer their problem.
#
Dorothy was jarred from her slumber to discover she had been transferred to a vehicle. She was once again fully-dressed, although she could feel that her gun was missing from her belt. They were on a road cut into the slope of a hill, with lush vegetation rising high overhead to her left with a soft decline on the right. In the distance she could see the rise of a neighboring hill covered with a blanket of greens and yellows. The sky was utterly clear save for a few clouds near the far horizon. She pushed her shoulder against the door to sit up and turned to see Milena seated beside her in the backseat of the car. The bald woman didn’t acknowledge Dorothy’s waking.
Orville was seated in front beside the driver, and he looked back at her with a smile. “Good morning, Lady Boone. We’re almost to our destination. Have you ever been to Crete before?”
“Once.” Her voice sounded odd to her own ears, and she worked up a bit of saliva before she spoke again. “What day is it?”
“The day after we captured you in Rome. You haven’t been unconscious the entire time. I simply asked Milena to remove some of your memories from the past twenty-four hours.”
That information didn’t put her at ease, but she had to assume that was his intention. “Where is Trafalgar?”
“She’s in the truck ahead of us. Once we arrive at the site, we’ll be requiring you to help us search for the stone. I know Milena left the memory of what will happen if you refuse or attempt to delay us in any way.”
Milena slowly turned her head to look at Dorothy. The memory of severed limbs and physical violations flashed in Dorothy’s mind, and she shuddered.
“I’ve been hired by people I don’t particularly like in the past, but I haven’t let that get in the way of doing my job. I do believe you may have the distinction of being the most despicable client I’ve ever had. So there is that.”
Orville laughed. “That’s the spirit. The love of discovery.” He faced forward again. “This has all turned out for the best, all things considered. We have archaeologists in our employ, people who I’m sure would have served us well here, but I cannot tell you how happy I am to have someone as revered as you on our side.”
“Is that why you tried to kill me?”
“Well.” He shrugged. “It was the easiest course of action. We hired that masked miscreant to get rid of anyone who might stand in our way, and then it didn’t matter if we were working with second tier professionals. There was no longer anyone who might pull the rug out from under us, as it were. But then you and Trafalgar fell right into our laps...” He laughed and slapped his thigh. “Trafalgar! Who could have imagined the luck? We sent word back to London about having her with us, and people are positive it’s a sign we’re destined to succeed.”
Dorothy chose not to respond to that, instead looking out the window at their surroundings. She was more clear-headed now and found it easier to focus. When she looked behind them she could see the airship traffic above Heraklion, five or six fat ships riding high enough to be seen from so far away. When she faced forward again she saw Orville was watching her. There was something unsettling about his gaze, something knowing.
“Knossos,” she said. “I should have known when you said we were traveling to Heraklion. You want to excavate Knossos.”
He nodded. “Very good.”
“Arthur Evans...”
“Mr. Evans did a lion’s share of the work for us, but he and his men were... ultimately misguided. They wanted to protect the ruins from further degradation. What good is preserving a site if no one is going to appreciate it? There are treasures here waiting to be found, treasures that the Watershed Society believes will change the course of history. We managed to convince him to focus his efforts elsewhere and hand the site over to us.”
Dorothy said, “If ancient civilizations had the means to change the course of history, don’t you think it’s telling that they chose not to? They hid these items away so they would never fall into the wrong hands.”
“And who is to decide which hands are wrong? Who is the arbiter of worthiness? You do the same thing we do, but you couch your thievery in terms of exploration and knowledge.”
“You’re trying to take over the world,” Dorothy said. “Believe me, while our interests occasionally intersect, we are far from the same person.”
He sighed. “The events of today will dictate the rest of your life, Lady Boone. You can choose to be friend of the society or you can decide we are enemies. If you intend to deceive us, I should remind you that Milena had a full day to get acquainted with your mind. She’ll know even before you do.”
The truck turned onto a heavily-rutted dirt road. Grass and weeds clawed at the sides of their vehicle as it bounced and rocked through the scrub. The trees parted and ahead Dorothy saw the crumbling yellow brick of a wall on either side of the dirt path. Another truck was parked on the grass just beyond the fortification and Orville’s driver took them past it to a wide, open area that butted up against a stone courtyard. Trafalgar was standing in the courtyard surrounded by four leatherjackets and a woman who looked identical to Milena. The wind caught Trafalgar’s coat, which Dorothy was surprised to find she had been allowed to keep, and she held her arms behind her back so it was impossible to tell if she was restrained or not.
Once they were parked Milena gestured for Dorothy to get out of the car first. She walked onto the stone slab with her captors following.
“Miss Trafalgar. Glad to see you’re in one piece. Although you could have avoided any injuries by fleeing when you had the opportunity.”
“Lady Boone. If that’s your way of thanking me for coming to your rescue...”
“Some rescue!” Dorothy said, gesturing at the leatherjackets around them.
Trafalgar shrugged. “The day is not over yet.”
Orville greeted one of Trafalgar’s guards with a hug, patting him hard on the back before letting him go. “We are here, Daniel. We’ve done it. We’re a step away from everything we’ve dreamed.”
Dorothy remembered Orville mentioning his brother was named Daniel. The man had the countenance of a weasel or some other vermin and if he was truly Orville’s brother then there had definitely been winner in their family’s genetic lottery. The weasel-faced brother looked at her and smiled with tombstone-spaced teeth.
“Is this her? The infamous Boone? I expected her to be much older.”
“You’re thinking of her grandmother.” Orville looked at her. “Mr. Solomon and our society had a few dealings with Eula Boone. She was a thorn in our side.”
Dorothy narrowed her eyes. “Someone sent a box of dead roses to her memorial. I had forgotten it until now. Was that you?”
Orville smiled and put a hand on his chest, bowing at the waist. “Not me personally, but the Society felt it was necessary to mark the occasion.”
“Aha. That is... enlightening.”
Orville ignored the threat in her tone and stepped out across the courtyard. He walked toward three large stone-walled pits in the center of the space and held his arms out to indicate the palace rising above them. Even in its state of decay, lost and forgotten for millenia, the site was still impressive. A large hill to the north would have protected them from the sea, and any attackers coming from inland would have been forced to attack from a downhill position. Standing in the courtyard, even though it was open on three sides, Dorothy couldn’t help but feel snug and secure. Imagining the grounds in their prime made her realize just how powerful Minos had been.
“Welcome to the Palace of Knossos, the home of the Minoan dynasty,” Orville said. “First inhabited eight thousand years ago, threatened by earthquakes and volcanoes and floods but always rising again from the rubble to regain their strength. The first kingdom to have a navy, which helped them rule the Aegean Sea. This was the heart of civilization and King Minos had his hand around that heart like a steel vice.” He turned to face them. “King Minos also possessed the chalcedony stone. It’s still here somewhere, hidden in this palace. It’s your job, Lady Boone and Miss Trafalgar, to find it for me.”
Dorothy held up her hands. “I can’t do much while I’m bound.”
“You’re not bound.”
Dorothy looked at her wrists and saw the ropes had faded. She glared at Milena, who didn’t even have the grace to offer a snide smile. Dorothy envisioned a bullet puncturing the insufferable woman’s forehead directly between her eyes, imagining all the gory details that went along with a good headshot, and she thought she saw Milena’s cheek twitch in response to the image. Dorothy looked away from her and faced Orville again.
“We’ll need space to work. And we’ve never collaborated, so there may be a bit of a learning curve. Don’t expect immediate results.”
Daniel said, “It’s disturbing that you’re starting off with excuses...”
“This is a science and an art, Mr. Weeks,” Dorothy said. “It cannot be forced or strong-armed into providing the results you want on a set timetable. You have kidnapped us and dragged us here and now we have no option but to help you. We intend to do that but you must understand that a lack of results won’t necessarily be for a lack of trying. I will not be executed or further tortured simply because the site isn’t cooperating.”
Orville nodded to his brother, who accepted the terms with a dismissive flap of his hands. Orville looked at them and smiled. “You have your space.”
Trafalgar said, “And we will not have your twins interfering with our work.”
Orville waved them off. Milena and the other one seemed to relax slightly as they moved off to stand together near one of the stone pits. Dorothy watched as they joined hands and turned to face the hills in the distance. Though silent as always, she had no doubt the sisters were engaged in a deep conversation that only they could hear. Orville moved to speak to his brother, and Dorothy found herself alone with Trafalgar.
“Well,” Dorothy said as she scanned the courtyard. “I see you had your own inquisitor.”
“Mircea Petric,” Trafalgar said. “She was... unpleasant.”
“Her sister Milena is no walk on the beach, either.” She scanned the horizon. “If we make a run for it, I doubt we’d get far. Even without the skittles-ball twins, we have no means to get home. This Watershed Society would only catch up with us and drag us back kicking and screaming. The only bright spot in all of this is that Beatrice and Leola seem to have gotten away.”
Trafalgar said, “What do you intend to do?”
“We help them. It’s not ideal, but for the moment I don’t see that we have any other option. Yes, they may intend to kill us when we’ve outlived our usefulness, but up until that time--”
“They don’t intend to kill me. They intend to use me as the host for this demon they are summoning.”
Dorothy said, “Still? After all their work establishing the identity of Felix Quintel, it seems odd that you would still be viable.”
“They claim it is destiny.”
“Damn. You have my assurances I won’t allow it to get that far.”
Trafalgar looked at her. “Why?”
Dorothy frowned. “What do you mean ‘why’? This entire debacle has made us allies.”
“Yes. But if you have to risk your life to preserve mine...” Trafalgar let the thought trail off. “Perhaps I have been wrong about you, Lady Boone.”
“You’re not entirely to blame. I’ve acted like you’re my enemy in the past. If you believe me to be the kind of person who would leave you at the mercy of these scoundrels... then I share the fault. Right now neither of us is going to get out of this mess without the other’s help. I doubt they left you with any weapons?”
Trafalgar shook her head. “Of course not. You?”
“No. But if we want to stay on their good side, we should get started. Any ideas?”
“This area is the caravanserai. Pilgrims coming to visit the king would stop here to bathe before they entered the presence of the king. There were facilities for running water and drainage...” She looked around and then pointed. “Along there.”
“These pits were simply drainage pipes?”
“No. They were most likely used for storage. The courtyard would be, for the most part, a staging area. If we’re actually going to look for this stone, we’ll need to start in the palace.” She started walking and Dorothy fell into step beside her. The Weeks brothers noticed and followed them across the courtyard. The eastern wall was unbroken by any obvious entrance, and the southern expanse was a sharp descent marked by trees. Trafalgar turned north and led them along a wide path that took them past what was once a large theatre. They were forced to walk in a single file, and Dorothy scanned the ground they crossed for any rocks sizable enough to act as a weapon.
There was a point where the wall had been destroyed enough for them to pass into the palace’s interior. Dorothy was about to ask for a torch when Orville stepped forward and held one out to her. It was a sleek black tube with brass fittings, the lens angled outward so she could aim it directly ahead without raising her arm. She turned it on and twisted the end cap to widen its beam before she swept it across the room ahead of them.
“Remarkable that it’s still intact.” Trafalgar looked up at the ceiling. “Imagine the work that must have gone into this. Even though so much of it has fallen to rubble the fact that any of it--”
Orville said, “There will be time for sightseeing later. Please, let us carry on. Treasures await.”
Trafalgar glared at him. “It is precisely that attitude which renders you unworthy of whatever we find here. The history of our species, the world from which we grew--”
“Has fallen to dust and rubble,” Orville interrupted again. He picked up a stone and hurled it at the far wall. “Nothing but bricks and faded artifacts. These people had their moment and it passed. The Romans had their moment. England’s moment is fading. Now is the time for a new society to rise up and take control, to lead the world into the new millennium. The only thing we have to gain from these people is whatever trinkets they left behind that can help us hold onto our power for as long as possible before the next era comes along.”
“Oh, my God,” Dorothy said. “You’re a child who just wants to play with his big brother’s toys.”
Orville glared at her. “Need I remind you of what Milena is capable of, Lady Boone?”
“Spare me,” she said, rolling her eyes as she moved the light along the far wall. “We should explore as much of the palace as we can before it gets dark. I think your depilated goons would be better served setting up light sources so we won’t be cast into darkness as soon as the sun sets.”
Trafalgar said, “On the other hand, the veil of night could provide us the perfect opportunity to escape.”
“An excellent point,” Dorothy said. “By all means, Mr. Weeks, leave your bald-pated twerps to linger and threaten us while we do our work. A much better use of their time.”
Orville’s good humor seemed to have completely faded, but he motioned for Milena and her sister to go fetch the lights from their vehicle. Dorothy motioned for Trafalgar to follow her to the other side of the room.
“Do you believe it’s necessary to antagonize them?” Trafalgar asked when they had nearly reached the far wall.
“Antagonizing them makes them angry. Angry people act with their guts rather than their brains. Just remember that if I provoke them too far, I’m the expendable one.”
Trafalgar snorted. “I would prefer a bullet in my head to some arcane beast.”
“What do you say we try to avoid either?”
“Sounds like the best plan. Lead the way.”
Dorothy fanned the light across the wall until she found an opening that led into a wide corridor. She led the way, with Trafalgar behind her and the Weeks brothers bringing up the rear as they ventured deeper into the ancient palace.