Nina dared to ask more. “When you say that they used to be part of the Order of the Black Sun...are you talking about when Julian was running it? Is it one of his old crew? Is that it? Who?” She was already getting angry at that thought since Julian's goons were the ones that kept her imprisoned. Little did she know that it was about to get so much worse.
“This person was part of that Order of the Black Sun, yeah...”
“Just spit it out,” Sam said with a nervous laugh.
Here it was, the moment that could probably lose him these two friendships that he cherished quite a lot. All of those adventures with Nina and Sam...he had never asked them to do something as drastic as he was about to. He didn't know how they would react, but it was now or...now.
“Well...you know the expression how desperate times call for desperate measures, aye? Welcome to desperate times, my friends...”
Both of their faces were sinking with dread at what was about to come.
“And the desperate measure is Julian Corvus.”
There was a long moment of silence after the name left his mouth. Nina and Sam both stared at him like they were waiting for a wink or for him to start laughing. They were waiting for the moment that would tell them that this was all just part of some joke and wasn't happening. They were waiting for the punchline for the greatest joke they ever heard, but that punchline never came.
“You can't be serious...” Nina said. He had never seen her look so angry.
Sam shook his head. “After everything that bastard put us through...and after everything we went through to finally get him down...how? How can you think that this is a good idea?”
Purdue knew that question was coming, but he also knew that he never thought of a perfect answer for it.
“I didn't say it was. I'm not sure if it is...but it's an idea, and we're running absurdly low on those, I'm afraid. If we're going to defend the Order, we need to start being able to think outside the box. We need to be willing to do things that we used to never imagine that we could ever do.”
“But this?” Sam got up and looked like he was ready to punch Purdue in the face. “No. No, we can't do that. You know we can't. We finally have that guy contained. We can't let him out. Come on, Purdue. You know that. We can't let Julian out.”
Everything that Sam was saying made sense and were things that had gone through Purdue's mind. Of course Julian was too dangerous to let out, and of course it would have made all of their efforts to finally lock him up for nothing. Of course they would be releasing a plague on the earth. But maybe a plague like Julian Corvus was the only way to beat the Old Lady and to save everything they had been working toward with the new Order of the Black Sun.
“We have to,” Purdue said. “We have to use Julian against her.”
“We can't trust Julian,” Nina said, staring at the floor and deep in thought. “We can't rely on him, and we can't work with him. He will kill us all the first chance he gets, don't you realize that? We beat him. We took back everything he stole, plus we took what was his. We put him in a tiny box with the intent that he would be there for years...decades to come...and you think he is just going to work with us?”
“If it means getting out of that display case, I bet he will do just about anything. I know he's dangerous—”
“He's more than dangerous, Purdue.”
Nina stormed away, leaving Purdue and Sam alone. Sam looked like he was trying his hardest to hold back an explosion of expletives powerful enough to shake the whole compound. He was furious too but seemed to at least be trying to rein it in long enough to understand Purdue's reasoning for his decision or, at the very least, not hold it against him too much.
“This isn't the right call, Purdue. It's not the right damn call.”
“There is no right call,” Purdue said. “We just need to make a call in general, otherwise we're just sitting here waiting for the Old Lady to get rid of us for good. Any decision is good at this point.”
“Not this,” Sam said with a roll of his eyes. “This is a decision that isn't good even in the worst circumstances.”
“Will you just humor me, Sam? When have I led you astray? You've trusted me this far.”
“You have never done anything quite this stupid thus far. Now that you have...maybe I was putting my trust in the wrong person. The whole point of all of this was to try and make an Order of the Black Sun without people like Julian Corvus; we wanted to see how the organization could work without a psychopath like him being part of it. Now here we are, about to let Julian back in.”
“We're not letting him back in. He's not going to be a member of the Order. We're just going to be using him. He's knowledgeable, and I think he could help us diffuse this mess that has come up with the Old Lady.”
“Julian Corvus never struck me as the type of person that will diffuse anything. No, he seems much more apt to light the match and set a bomb off even earlier. Maybe he might even make the situation even more explosive than before. That's the kind of person that Julian Corvus is. Remember how he burned your house down? That's who he is. He's just going to make this so much worse!”
That was true, but he couldn't focus on that possibility. They needed something that could contend with the Old Lady, and the only force that even came close was Julian Corvus. That was their best bet. He didn't blame the others for not seeing it, but he needed them to be on board with this.
“Please,” Purdue said. “Please, Sam. Just help with this. Trust me.”
“I'll trust you,” Sam said. “But I'm not going to trust Julian. It's stupid to.”
“I know it is.”
“I'm not the one you have to convince. Julian didn't hurt me nearly as badly as he hurt Nina. She won't go along with this. No way. That would take a miracle to convince her to ever let this happen.”
Then a miracle is what he would need.
Nina looked like she would have preferred being anywhere else on the planet than in the same room as Purdue. He was afraid that if he got too close to her, she would tear his body limb from limb. She was angry enough to throttle him to death, and he didn't want to give her that opportunity, but they had a lot to discuss.
She could barely look at him. “You are a real bastard, you know that?”
“Aye, I can be,” Purdue said honestly. “But my heart is always in the right place.”
“Not always,” Nina corrected. “Clearly.”
“I understand why you are against this...”
“Do you?” Nina asked with a humorless laugh. “Do you really? Fantastic detective work, David Purdue! Great deduction! So why am I then? Is it because Julian Corvus is a murderous sociopath that gets off on skinning people alive and kicking puppies? Is it that he has done nothing but hurt us since the moment we bumped into him? Or is it that he kept me locked up in a dungeon for months after he burned your house down and made me think that he killed you? Or is it that he's immortal because I tried to kill him with the Spear of Destiny? Why is it that I'm upset?”
She sure liked to make him feel stupid sometimes. He humored her anyway. “All of the above, aye.”
“Aye,” she said mockingly. “You are a regular Sherlock Holmes. We put him in there so he would have to spend eternity in there, remember? We never planned to let him out!”
“Things have changed, obviously,” Purdue said. “And we need to adapt—”
“Not with him, we don't,” she interrupted furiously. “No. Not with him. You are a smart man, Purdue. Usually. You are stupid but smart. You know about Pandora opening and the box and how big of a mistake that was, but now here you are, about to open that box without a second thought.”
“I've given it plenty of thought.”
“Evidently not,” Nina said.
He doubted that he was going to be able to convince her of changing her mind at this rate. All of her points were valid, just like Sam's. They were making sense, of course, but Purdue was at the end of his rope. Everything that made sense wouldn't wor
k against the Old Lady. They needed something that she wouldn't expect, and she definitely wouldn't expect him to go to Julian Corvus for help.
“It's only temporary,” Purdue said. “We use him to get the Old Lady off of our backs, then we put him right back into that display case.”
“Great plan, but that's only if everything goes accordingly, which it usually doesn't. I hope you are ready for this to all blow up in our faces because there is a very high chance of that happening.”
“I'll make sure it doesn't...and if it does, that's on me. We need to make a big move, and this is the biggest move that we could make against her. I know it's not ideal..it's so much worse than that...but this is what needs to happen.”
“Do you have any idea how angry with us Julian must be? He's not just going to forgive us if we let him out. Forgiveness isn't in his vocabulary. He is going to make us hurt, Purdue, just to get back at us for keeping him in there.”
“We put him in that cage before, Nina. We can do it again if we need to.”
“It cost Charles his life to bring Julian down before, remember? Whose life is it going to cost this time, Purdue? Me? Sam? You? Anyone else in the Black Sun? All of us this time?”
“We can't think like that.”
“That is exactly how we should be thinking,” Nina said. “I am not okay with this.”
“I know,” Purdue said. “But I'm going to do it anyway.”
Nina stared at him with large, confused eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She wanted to argue more, but there was no point. They may have been colleagues, friends, and occasionally maybe even more than that, but he was still the leader of their group, and she knew how stubborn he could be.
This decision could destroy his relationship with both Nina and Sam, but he was willing to take that chance. He wouldn't need to worry about that if the Old Lady got her way. She would probably kill them all if they gave her the opportunity. Stopping her was more important than any of their friendships were.
“Fine,” Nina said. “Do what you want...but this is a bad idea.”
“I know it could be,” Purdue said. “But it's the only real idea we've got.”
4
THE ADVERSARY
Anytime anyone was in the deep vaults, they usually kept their distance from the display case that had a curtain draped over it, hiding its contents. There were dozens of artifacts displayed around the room. Some were from Purdue's previous adventures with Nina and Sam, while others were from the Order of the Black Sun's history of acquiring relics, mostly to misuse. The remainder of the artifacts were kept in a hole in the floor, sealed tight and away from the world, with only a few people having the authority to retrieve them. So many of those display cases contained completely unique things and rarities in the world, but the shrouded, veiled display case contained something that most people would never believe—an immortal man.
Thanks to a run-in with the Spear of Destiny, Julian Corvus's body would never age and never die, making him even more dangerous than he was before, and he was already one of the most dangerous men in the world before he was given immortality. After losing a lot to bring him down, Purdue decided that the best thing to do would be to keep Julian locked in a glass box for the rest of time. That way, he would know exactly where he was so that Julian would never destroy his life again. He couldn't hurt anyone from in there.
“This is a bad idea,” Nina repeated.
“Agreed,” Sam said.
They both had made their opinions on the matter very clear, and both were happy to voice them aloud. Purdue didn't disagree with them, he was just more realistic about their odds of surviving against the Old Lady without him. They needed something, anything, to use against her.
They walked through the deep vaults, surrounded by trophies from their history together, the prizes of so many successful ventures. So many of those items had been hard-earned, and they had only gotten them after a great deal of effort and teamwork. Those had been the products of trusting each other, fighting for one another, and working through some life-threatening situations. They all knew where each other stood then. Now, doing what they were doing, things seemed so much muddier. Things were uncomfortable between them—the price of Purdue's decision.
“Here we are,” Purdue said as they came to the covered display case. “His holding pen.”
“Last chance,” Sam said. “We don't have to let him out. We can just leave him right where he is and figure this out together like we always have. We don't need him, Purdue. We can just keep him right where he is, just like you planned. Wasn't that what you wanted?”
“It was,” Purdue said. “And it still is. When we're done with him, he's going right back in.”
Nina and Sam didn't look convinced.
They pulled the curtain down, revealing the glass box with its prisoner inside. Julian Corvus didn't look much different than the last time Purdue saw him—he still had that arrogant grin despite the circumstances of his imprisonment. Those cold gray eyes moved slowly from left to right, looking his three visitors over closely.
“Well, look at this happy little reunion. The illustrious Mr. Purdue. The forgettable Mr. Cleave. And of course, the murderous Dr. Gould. I remember the first time I saw the three of you...in that old Hospitaller palace on Rhodes. Yes...yes, it feels like only yesterday, but so much has happened since then, hasn't it? Dr. Gould tried to kill me, gave me immortality instead. I destroyed Purdue's life...or so I thought...and then you came back and ripped the rug out from under me. You didn't just take your things back from me, you took everything of mine away as retribution. Yes, look at us. We have been through so very much together. It's a rather special bond we share. So what brings you here?”
“You know why,” Purdue said, having come down for a few discussions with Julian before. He had made his terms quite clear. He wasn't going to tell him much unless he was let out of his cage. Now here they were, and he was about to give in to Julian's demand. “The Old Lady.”
“Still on about that?” Julian said with a snicker. “Fair enough, Mr. Purdue. But I already told you what it would take to get my help. I can't help from within here. If that's not good enough for you...well...I can wait for you to change your mind. I can wait a very, very long time. It's a funny thing...immortality. It's a very, very long time. In some respects, it means that there would be enough time to see everything, to experience everything. But, on the other hand, it can be an eternity of misery...trapped in a box with no hope of escape. But that's what you all wanted. To keep me in here as a prisoner for the rest of time. I have to wonder, will you be sending your son to come check up on me? Your grandson, perhaps? Generation after generation of Purdues coming down to make sure that the monster down in the cellar is still locked away? Is that how it's going to be? Or are you going to let me out of here so I can put my talents back to use? I'm no good to you in here.”
“I know you're not,” Purdue said. “Aye...but you also probably will just be a hindrance or an actual threat out here too.” He glanced at Nina and Sam. “It's not...it's not an easy decision to let you out of there, but given the situation we find ourselves in...I think it's the best way.”
Now it felt so real. Letting Julian out as a trump card was an interesting idea, but doing it, with him standing in front of him, reminded Purdue of just how dangerous he was. There was no guarantee that he would really help them or that he wouldn't just kill them all the first chance he got. They were lucky to have been able to stop him before. There was no way of knowing they would be able to do it again. Purdue had a moment of hesitation, and he started to second-guess his decision.
“You can help us bring down the Old Lady?”
Julian smiled. “I can. I already wanted her to burn before you trapped me in here. I still want that. You let me out, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that we win.”
It was a decision that could change everything for them. It might someday lead to their untimely deaths, o
r some horrible defeat because of allowing him to walk free again. It was a risk, but risks were the only way they would stand any chance against their new enemy. They would need their old foe to beat their new one.
Purdue moved to unlock the display case of reinforced glass. As he did, he could feel Nina and Sam grow tenser behind him, and he could see Julian Corvus grinning in disbelief. Everyone, including Julian himself, thought that Julian would never see the outside of that glass again, but now he was. His damnation had been much briefer than everyone would have liked, but Purdue chose to think of it as just a brief reprieve. He still fully intended to make Julian continue his imprisonment the second that the Old Lady was beaten.
“Purdue,” Nina said.
He turned. “Aye?”
Nina and Sam were both looking at him with a lot of concern. “Are you sure about this? Like absolutely sure?”
Purdue turned back to the waiting Julian, who looked nervous that Purdue's mind was about to be changed. He stared at Purdue, and in that box, he didn't seem nearly as dangerous, but Purdue knew that would change once he was out. Everything would change, but hopefully, that change would be helpful in their efforts. It needed to be.
Purdue looked back at Nina. “I'm sure.”
The display case opened, and Julian Corvus stepped out. He moved unsteadily, as he had gotten very little practice with his legs in the cramped confines of his holding cage. He looked startled by his own footsteps, but then a thin smile moved along his lips. For the first time in months, Julian was back in the real world, not just looking at it through a piece of glass. He wasn't in his box anymore. He was out, and all of his darkness was out with him.
Purdue watched his greatest enemy closely. He knew how risky this was, but it had to be done. There were so many stories he'd read or seen on film of heroes having to align with their antagonists. This felt very much like that, but the lesson he took away from those stories was that alliances like that could indeed be beneficial, at least as long as your interests were shared. There always came the inevitable moment when they weren't, and he would need to be ready for that.
The Nostradamus Scrolls Page 3