“The scrolls can wait,” the Old Lady said. “They can wait until we have this handled. We have allowed this David Purdue problem to linger too long. We don't want to make the same mistakes that fools like Julian Corvus made. We should have gotten rid of him when he was in Mongolia. That was the best opportunity, back when he didn't even know we existed. Now that he does, and has continued to try and investigate us, we should give him what he wants. We make him think that he is going to get what he wants...we make him think he has a chance...and then we get rid of him for good this time.”
“I could have just shot him when he answered the door,” Inspector Amaro said. “I'm not usually one to sully my hands with violence like that, but that would have seemed like the simplest scenario, wouldn't it?”
“Nothing about this is simple,” the Old Lady said.
It was true. David Purdue wasn't a simple problem; David Purdue was a conundrum. It was best to get his brand of chaos sorted out before they went forward with anything else. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about it in the future. If what she already read from the Nostradamus scrolls were true, then she would want any of her potential obstacles out of the way.
If only Dr. Nina Gould had accepted her proposal to join them. That would have made her fight against Purdue so much easier. She could have had someone close to him, someone who knew so much about him to help remove him. Unfortunately, the historian was much more resilient than the Old Lady thought she would be. Instead, she would have to make do with other pawns that she had in play, ones that she would have rather not used but would rely on if she had to.
“I want to speak with them,” the Old Lady said.
“Speak with who?” Amaro asked.
“The new prospects that you brought,” the Old Lady said. “Those thieves from Rome that you thought had some potential.”
Inspector Amaro tapped his fingers together thoughtfully like he was trying to see what she was planning. He rubbed his beard and nodded in understanding.
“That can be arranged.”
The three thieves all sat in their seats in the center of the room, their hands bound. They all looked nervous, still uncertain as to why they were even there. They looked vulnerable, and even afraid, a far cry from the scourge of Rome they had been. They weren't in control of the situation anymore, and they didn't have those gaudy masks to hide their faces from the world anymore. Their presentation no longer mattered. All of their ridiculous aliases, each named after an old Roman emperor, were all that remained of their once-intimidating group.
They would be the perfect pawns.
“The Third Triumvirate. It's a rather presumptuous thing to call yourselves given how important the first two triumvirates were to world history. But obviously, you must have known that when you came up with it. You are well-versed in the history of Ancient Rome. You knew what you were doing. You believed that you were going to make as big of an impact on the world as the other triumvirates, didn't you? You thought your names would be remembered alongside Caesar, Pompey, Augustus, and Mark Antony. What a foolish dream. I swear, the young inherently develop delusions of grandeur these days. You all have such inflated opinions of yourselves. It's quite astonishing.”
The one called Mr. Nero looked up. “Well, if you think that, then why bother even talking to us?”
“I wanted to be sure that you're prepared for the days ahead. You will get another chance to try to change this world, but it won't be in the same way you tried to do before. We won't be fixated on bringing back a dead civilization or restoring an old, obsolete form of government. No. It is good to learn from the past but trying to go back to how it was never works. It's past. That's the whole point. Ancient Rome is gone, and it is never coming back. The sooner you can accept that well-documented fact, the sooner we can move on to better things together...the sooner I can trust your group with the tasks that I have in mind.”
“We don't serve you. We serve the lost glory of Ro—”
“Rome,” the Old Lady cut in. “Yes, I understand that. Did you hear nothing that I just said? It's high time for you to move on from that nonsense...make something even better than Rome ever was. We can do that. All of us. But if you are going to be part of that, then you need to know your place and follow my lead.”
“What is this even?” Miss Caligula spat. “You arrest us, but then just keep us as prisoners? You are not the police, are you?”
The Old Lady let out a throaty giggle. “Obviously, child. Obviously.”
Mr. Nero looked at Detective Amaro standing in the corner of the dimly lit room. “You're not even a policeman either, are you?”
Amaro gave a thin smile through his beard. “Oh, my thieving friend, I can assure you that I am very much a real police officer, a detective in fact, and I am a very good one. But some jobs and duties are a higher priority than others. So yes, I could have taken you into police custody, quite easily in fact, but instead, I brought you here—where you may be more useful and where you might not have to spend the remainder of your miserable lives in prison cells.”
“This feels like a prison cell,” Mr. Commodus grumbled.
“For now, yes,” Detective Amaro said. “But if you play your cards right, that could change...and you have very few cards left to play.”
“So we become your slaves,” Miss Caligula said. “That's the card that you think we should play? Really?”
“I prefer the word ally,” the Old Lady said with a smile. “Maybe even the word co-conspirator. But the important part is that you would have a seat of power in the world we're building. That's much more than you have otherwise right now.”
“And if we refuse?” Mr. Nero asked. “What then? We go to prison this time? We're locked away for the rest of our lives?”
“No,” Amaro said. “I'm afraid you will be going someplace different now that you have learned so much about us. Six feet under the ground. Or miles below the waves. We haven't worked out the exact details of the disposal yet.”
All three of them noticed the underlying threat being made, and panic started to spread across their faces.
“We didn't ask you to share any of this!” Mr. Nero hissed. “We didn't want to know any of your secrets! We didn't even know you existed.”
Detective Amaro shrugged. “Yet now you know, which puts you in quite the uncomfortable bind it seems.”
The Old Lady spoke again. “This is the last chance for the three of you to be as important as you want to be. This is the last chance for your short-lived Third Triumvirate to make any sort of impact on the world. It's this or be forgotten like so many other Romans before you.”
The three prisoners looked at each other gravely, all recognizing that they had very very few options. It wasn't going to be a choice at all. It was either playing along with the Old Lady or being killed. The choice was obvious to all of them.
Inspector Amaro suddenly placed a crate in front of the three of them and instructed them to open it. They did but only after a moment of uneasiness.
They found three blank faces staring back at them—recreations of the stone faces of three of Rome's emperors that were the namesakes of their aliases. They were the masks that the trio had donned when they set out on their crusade as the Third Triumvirate. In some ways, they looked at those masks as their true faces.
“So, what do you say?” the Old Lady asked. “Would you like to do something important?”
The Third Triumvirate picked up the masks and put on their real faces.
8
THE CAMERAMAN
It was weird being in the outside world with Julian Corvus. Purdue had spent so long traveling the globe trying to get his life back from Julian...he never could have imagined that this would ever be a possibility in the future. Yet here they were.
Purdue didn't trust whoever this Gerald Morrison was, and he knew that Nina and Sam felt the same way. Sure, Julian claimed that the surveillance expert wasn't on his side or his payroll, but Purdue was smart enough not
to just take that as gospel. For all he knew, this Gerald Morrison was some highly-skilled assassin that Julian was going to use to kill them so he could finally be free. It was a strange time, that was for sure, and strange times called for very desperate measures.
They walked up to the doors of an elevator shaft, which presumably led up to the surveillance expert's penthouse. The strangest part was the excessive security surrounding the elevator. There were half a dozen different kinds of cameras mounted over the doors when one probably would have been just fine. Someone either loved cameras or was extremely paranoid—maybe it was a bit of both.
“Smile,” Julian said, looking up at the ever-watchful lenses. “I told you that Gerald is a bit of a surveillance expert.”
Nina didn't seem to be entirely convinced. “Yeah, if you want someone to know that you are watching them. It's just a little bit conspicuous, isn't it?”
“A bit,” Sam said, just as unenthusiastic about all of it.
Julian pushed a button on the wall connected to a speaker system. There was the crackle of static before a voice cut through it. “Who is it?”
Julian looked up at the number of cameras above them and gave a wave and a crooked smile. “You are telling me that with all of those eyes up there, you still can't tell who is standing right outside your door? What is the point of all of the cameras then?”
There was a pause.
“Corvus?”
“It's me,” Julian said with a shrug. “And I've brought some people that are in need of your services.”
“Well, I'll be damned,” the voice said.
The elevator doors split open, inviting them inside. Julian led the way as they all squeezed into the narrow space together. Not so surprisingly, there were elevators all over the roof of the inside of the elevator too. It was just as closely watched as the outside of it had been. Generic elevator tunes were playing over their heads as they all looked at each other uncomfortably. The only one that seemed to be perfectly content with their situation was Julian, who had been there before. He was used to all of this, unlike everyone else.
When the doors came open, they found themselves in a penthouse apartment. There were cardboard boxes stacked all over the room, piled on top of one another haphazardly. There were various brand names all over the boxes from dozens of different companies. They were mostly tech companies, and Purdue realized that all of the boxes were for different kinds of camera deliveries. That was where those cameras outside came from, as well as the cameras in the apartment too, and there were even more of those lining the ceiling. It must have been murder trying to watch that many cameras—or you would need a great many screens to watch all of them at once—and sure enough, there was practically a wall of monitors across the room and a man sitting in a chair looking at them.
The man swiveled around in his computer chair. He was a dark-skinned man in his thirties with thick glasses and chewing a large wad of gum between his teeth. He looked pleased to see them—at least Julian. Still, he put on a smile.
“I was starting to think that you had forgotten all about me. I'm surprised that you gave me another call. It's about time. I've been looking for something interesting to do. I'm so tired of private investigators or concerned spouses making me watch their significant others with their mistresses. I can only take so much of that divorce fuel...it gets uglier and uglier the more I show them. You wouldn't believe it. And since my military contracts dried up...it's been a rough go of it lately. I much prefer you secret society types, if I'm being honest. That's where the real good stuff usually is. At least, that's what I've noticed in my experience.”
“That's perfect then,” Julian said. “Then I think you are in for a fun day, Gerald.”
“Great,” Gerald said, rubbing his hands together excitedly. “So, what do you have for me?”
Julian introduced Purdue, Nina, and Sam. As he did, Gerald looked them all over like he was memorizing their faces. His eyes seemed like cameras on their own, recording everything that was happening in front of them and zooming in on all of the details.
“There's an upcoming meeting that we would like to...to have documented...thoroughly.”
“What kind of meeting?” Gerald asked, looking excited. “Something clandestine? Something that should be more of a secret encounter?”
“Precisely,” Julian said. “We need to be able to watch the entire thing from a safe distance, but be able to hear and see all of the finer details without being seen ourselves. And I know you can make that possible.”
“Very possible,” Gerald said. “Sounds easy.”
“The task itself is, yes,” Julian said. “But the stakes are far from it.”
Gerald smiled like he was smiling for a million flashing cameras. “Well, you have certainly caught my interest. So who are we going to be monitoring?”
The general plan was simple enough. They parked Gerald's van close by to the meeting point. Everyone, except for Purdue, would wait inside of the van where there were a great number of screens and monitors set up, connected to the cameras that Gerald had placed in the area. There were dozens of monitors that lined the inside of the van. They would be able to see the entire meeting from the safety of the van.
“You set all of this up yourself?” Purdue asked as Gerald set him up with wires under his shirt, hidden microphones to help listen to the conversation he was going to have with the Old Lady.
“Yes,” Gerald said. “It's kind of what I do. I got pulled over once by the police for a traffic violation. It was somewhat hard to explain to him...”
“I would imagine,” Purdue said with a snicker. He figured to try and get to know Gerald a bit more, especially his connection with Julian. “And what kind of things did you work on with Julian before?”
Gerald glanced across the van at Julian like he was nervous to speak about him, but then he shrugged. “All kinds of things. I set up security cameras for him. I bugged a few of his enemies.”
“You bugged them?”
“Yeah,” Gerald said proudly. “Not bugged as in annoyed but placed bugs in the homes of people he wanted me to. Microphones, cameras, some so small that no one would ever even have noticed that they were there.”
“Like actual bugs,” Purdue said.
“Exactly.”
“And you were okay with doing that?”
“Of course,” Gerald said. “It's none of my business. I just have a talent and am able to use it to get paid. I provide a service. That is all.”
Purdue wanted to ask him more, but Nina interrupted, looking more and more nervous. She had been looking at Purdue that way a lot lately. She was already stressed enough about being in the same vehicle as Julian Corvus, but she was also the only person to have ever met the Old Lady in person before. She sort of knew what he should be expecting.
“This is insanity,” Nina said. “You're just going to go have a nice afternoon chat with her?”
“Yes,” Purdue said bluntly. “That is exactly what I'm going to do.”
“You don't know—”
“Then tell me,” Purdue said harshly. He didn't want to be annoyed with her, and he usually wasn't, but all she had been saying to him lately was warnings. Any time they spoke, she questioned him on his decisions and his authority. “Instead of telling me how unprepared I am for this, just tell me what I need to know about what I'm getting into. What is the Old Lady like? From what you saw when you met her?”
Nina looked a little hurt by his reaction but pushed that aside to answer his question. “Well...” She looked like it wasn't a pleasant experience to even think about. “She is intimidating but not in the way you would expect. It's not physical. Physically, she's frail...and doesn't look like much. But the moment she starts talking...there's something about it. It's like you know that she means what she says, and she will follow through with whatever it is she says. When she's said something that was a little...frightening, I knew that she had done it probably hundreds of times. She's old, Purdue, and
she...feels old, right? Not in that usual way. You can feel her experience when she talks, and most of those experiences have been bad for someone.”
Purdue didn't like the sounds of that. Nina made it sound like he was about to have a meeting with some ancient, primordial evil that was older than humans, older than life itself. That didn't sound great, but he couldn't let himself get too nervous. He couldn't let the Old Lady get into his head already, before he even met her.
He just hoped that those experiences that Nina sensed weren't too horrible and that he wouldn't be the next one.
INTERLUDE: THE FAINT GLOW OF THE BLACK SUN
The ruling council of the Order of the Black Sun back then were very protective of their precious top-secret society. They had their own plans for some of the world's rarest artifacts and had no intention of letting anyone get in the way of their—admittedly diabolical—plans, least of all some woman they had never met. She would have been offended if she couldn't see right past all of their cloak and dagger secrecy with their fancy secret galas and their top-secret meetings behind closed doors. They didn't have any intention of helping the world's history. No, they were just a group of megalomaniacs trying to prove to everyone how great they were.
By that point, Agatha had already acquired quite a bit of influence on her own. She didn't really need to be part of their little club, but she usually practiced the smart lesson of never having enough friends; allies were some of the most important things to have. They weren't necessary, which made their rejection of her quite a bit easier to stomach. As she turned away, the ruling council of the Order of the Black Sun all poured glasses of scotch for one another, as she knew was customary at the end of their meetings.
The Nostradamus Scrolls Page 6