‘All okay so far,’ Irene muttered. ‘How about you?’
‘Acceptable,’ Indigo answered, live from their getaway van. Irene could hear the hum of traffic through the phone, and the distant ebb and flow of CENSOR transmissions being monitored. ‘So far nobody’s noticed my taps into the network – or picked up on the squad you intercepted for their uniforms. Tina should have us in position to collect you in ten minutes. Let us know if you need more or less time.’
‘Understood.’
Felix broke off his conversation and signalled them over. ‘Herr Vogel has approved the investigation. You all know the procedure. Lang, anything to report?’
‘Central says all under control and to go ahead, sir,’ Irene responded. ‘They say call back in ten minutes if there are any issues.’
‘Very good,’ he said, acknowledging their code for pickup time. He glanced at Kai. ‘Bauer, you stay here a moment – see if you can link their security cameras to our system. The rest of you, follow me.’
Herr Vogel insisted on accompanying them up the twin flights of marble stairs, prattling nervously all the way. The regular lighting was off at this time of night, but the security officer had passed round torches. Marble lions crouched at the bottom of the staircases, their muscles smooth curves that gleamed in the torchlight. Painted figures peered down from the ceiling, eternal and unmoving. The entire museum seemed to be on guard, waiting for a moment’s slip. Irene felt a trickle of sweat run down her back under her stolen uniform. So many things could go wrong, so many people might make a mistake. This was why she preferred operating on her own . . .
‘I hear there are problems all over town,’ Herr Vogel said tentatively. ‘People are saying on social media that CENSOR patrols are making widespread arrests.’
‘I can neither confirm nor deny this,’ Felix answered, in tones which confirmed it very clearly indeed. ‘With any luck this won’t take long. Naturally we don’t want to cause unnecessary panic here as well.’
‘Oh, absolutely,’ Herr Vogel said quickly. ‘We’ll try to keep things under control. If something happens . . . should we assist?’
‘I appreciate your devotion to duty, but the answer is no. Our policy is containment. If this is a demonic manifestation, anyone unprotected may be subject to possession. We can’t risk your staff infecting the general population.’
The little colour in Herr Vogel’s cheeks drained away. ‘I had no idea the risk was so great.’
‘To all Vienna.’ Felix gave him a grave nod, one serious man to another. ‘Fortunately there’s no sign of anyone hanging around outside the museum.’
‘Fortunately?’
‘Cultists.’ Felix looked into the middle distance for a moment, haunted remembrance shadowing his face. The torchlight caught his expression at just the right moment to emphasize his battle-weary air. He was every inch the professional CENSOR officer, someone who’d devoted his life to fighting horrors beyond imagination.
Irene had to admit that Felix was doing an excellent job. And, as far as she could judge, thoroughly enjoying it. She suppressed a jealous thought that she could have played the squad leader just as well. The important thing was getting the job done.
‘Ah, I see. No, the area seems quiet tonight. Nothing on our cameras.’
With luck, it would stay that way. So far things had gone according to plan. They’d triggered CENSOR raids across Vienna, based on false information, via Indigo’s links to CENSOR’s network. They’d then ambushed a CENSOR team with a conveniently sized van and mostly conveniently sized uniforms. And they’d now infiltrated the Kunsthistorisches Museum, while Indigo and Tina remained in the stolen van, circling Vienna, ready to return for the pickup – it had been judged far too dangerous to keep the van sitting outside the museum.
‘Here we are,’ Herr Vogel said, gesturing round the gallery. The walls were dark grey, the floor tiled wood, and a long skylight in the ceiling gazed up at a cloud-filled night sky. Though it was empty, the paintings were full of human faces which seemed to stare at the group from the shadows.
Kai came jogging into the room. ‘I’ve linked up the museum cameras to CENSOR central command, sir. They’ll be able to analyse the feed and pick up anything that we can’t.’
‘Excellent,’ Felix said. ‘Benz, get out the scan tech. Herr Vogel, I must request that you leave this room now. There may be high-energy discharges, and while the paintings will be safe, I can’t answer for your physical integrity.’
Herr Vogel hesitated, then nodded. With an inclination of his head he strode away, leaving them together in the darkened room. Just the cameras left to take care of now . . .
Felix turned to Irene. ‘Check with central command, Lang. Are you getting the camera link feedback?’
‘Can you access the cameras?’ Irene murmured into her headset.
‘Got it and setting a feedback loop,’ Indigo answered. ‘Walk around a bit and gesture with your equipment. I’ll record it and play it back, to distract security.’
‘Central says to run full scans, sir,’ Irene answered Felix. ‘They have full access.’
Irene wandered around, pointing pieces of appropriately mysterious equipment at the walls and paintings. Then Indigo said, ‘That’s enough. Synching – three, two, one, mark. You’re good to go.’
‘We’re clear,’ Irene said, putting the equipment away.
‘Are we?’ Felix asked.
‘We’ll know if they come in here, I suppose,’ Kai answered.
‘Damn. I’ve got to get Indigo to sign up with me one of these days. I never knew dragons could be so useful.’ Felix moved briskly over to where The Raft of the Medusa hung. ‘Irene, Ernst, give me a hand. Jerome, Kai, you’re on watch duty.’
Irene bumped fists with Kai in congratulation, before joining Felix. Felix scrambled onto Ernst’s shoulders, peering at the upper edges of the frame. He drew in a hiss of breath. ‘This is going to be as much of a nuisance as we’d thought. There’s tech behind this.’
‘What kind?’ Ernst asked.
‘Security alarms, what else? But far more than any of the other paintings seem to have. More than the Imperial Treasury had, even.’
‘So there is something unusual about this one,’ Ernst commented. ‘Then again, this is the one Mr Nemo wanted. Ours not to argue.’ He shrugged, making Felix protest and clutch at the wall for balance. ‘Will this stop you getting it down?’
‘Of course not! But I can’t be sure exactly what I’ll set off.’
‘Let’s hope it’s part of the main alarm system,’ Irene said. She touched her earpiece. ‘Indigo, are you picking up all this? Can you deactivate it?’
There was an uncomfortable pause. ‘That might not be quite so simple,’ Indigo said slowly. ‘There’s security in this system which I hadn’t expected. Fiddling the cameras is one thing, but turning off the alarms is something else. In fact . . .’
‘In fact what?’ Irene asked. That didn’t sound encouraging.
‘Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing. It’ll actually be easier if you handle the alarms at your end.’
Irene reported that back to the team. She decided to keep the It’s nothing to herself. Maybe it was just nothing, and if it wasn’t . . . they’d find out soon enough.
Felix laughed, glancing at the busy team – and it was infectious. Irene herself had to chuckle at a Fae, dragon and Librarian team working so effectively. ‘Let’s do it,’ he said. ‘Irene, as we planned: first alarms, then detach the painting.’ He leapt off Ernst’s shoulder, landing like a cat. ‘Ernst, be ready to hold the painting.’
Irene swallowed. This was where the theft made the final jump from plan to actuality. No time for nerves now. She stepped forward to lay a finger against the frame. ‘All alarms attached to the painting I’m touching, deactivate.’
Her voice echoed in the gallery, amplified by the harmonics of the Language. She frowned at a brief twinge of head pain, but it didn’t last. Next step. Felix had explained the mechanics of how the painting
would be connected to the frame and the wall, from his prior ‘acquisitions’ experience, and she’d worked out the most efficient vocabulary. ‘Fastenings holding up the painting I’m touching, detach and release: painting, slide gently to the ground without damage.’
The painting shuddered as screws unwound themselves from brackets and bolts detached themselves, then came free. The whole thing slid down the wall like water down a pane. Ernst caught it with barely a grunt as it started to topple, gently lowering it to the floor.
Felix looked at the wall where it had been, and whistled. There was a wide array of circuitry there – far more than one would have expected. ‘This is serious paranoia,’ he said.
‘Irene!’ Indigo’s voice was sharp.
Irene winced and put a hand to her earpiece. ‘What is it? And please don’t shout.’
‘Whatever you’ve just done has triggered alarms which I can’t shut down – and they’re not just linked to CENSOR, but somewhere else as well. You need to speed up.’
‘We’re out of time,’ Irene reported to the others. ‘Alarms have been triggered that Indigo can’t intercept. We need to get out – now.’
Felix let out his breath in a thoughtful whistle, playing his torch along the lines of the frame. ‘And the other shoe just dropped . . .’
‘Speak plainly,’ Ernst demanded.
‘There’s two canvases here. One’s fastened over the other. What was it Mr Nemo told us again?’
Irene resisted the urge to correct him to ‘there are two canvases’. This was not the time to be a grammar purist. Instead, she cast her mind back. ‘Mr Nemo said he wanted the canvas, whole and entire, and we could leave the frame behind. I suppose “canvas” could apply to both paintings, at a stretch, as an uncountable noun.’ But why was this hidden painting guarded better than the Imperial Treasury? Just how much more didn’t they know? ‘Shall I detach the frame now?’ she asked briskly, substituting efficiency for panic.
‘Go ahead.’ The shadows hid Felix’s face, but his shoulders were tense. ‘And call in Indigo for immediate pickup. Ernst, get the packaging ready.’
Ernst slipped off his backpack and pulled out a large piece of fine, clean canvas. He unfolded it as though shaking out bedsheets, and it fluttered to the gallery floor in a ghostly drift.
Irene was grateful for the time they’d spent beforehand going through the plan. She didn’t have to waste precious seconds looking for the right words. Bending down and touching it, she said, ‘Frame and struts of the paintings which I am touching, come apart, detach and roll away.’
The wood, gilding and ornamentation fell apart immediately in a dry rattling of antique pieces. Irene’s imagination supplied images of ancient bones scuttling across the floor. ‘Paintings which I am touching, float over to the plain canvas lying on the floor and rest on it, face-down.’
She leaned back as they drifted into the air and wished that there was some way to make them move faster. Tension knotted her shoulders, mingling with an incipient headache. All her instincts told her that this was about to go badly wrong – if it hadn’t already. The unexpected extra security was also a fairly good signifier of probable disaster.
‘I feel as if you’re using me like a blunt instrument,’ she remarked, trying to silence her nerves.
‘Yes, but you’re so good at this,’ Felix answered. ‘Normally I’d take more time and enjoy the process, but we need to move. Roll it up.’
‘Paintings and canvas on the floor, roll yourselves gently into a tube.’ As they obeyed, curling into an ungainly Swiss roll, Irene switched to her headset. ‘Indigo, get ready, we’re about to exfiltrate.’
There was a muttered exchange of words at the other end, then Indigo said, ‘We’ll be at the museum entrance in a couple of minutes. We think.’
‘Think?’
‘Roadblocks. Don’t worry about it.’ Tyres squealed.
Irene tried not to do just that. Indigo and Tina would be there. Because if they weren’t, after all she’d been through, she was going to drag the paintings through the streets of Vienna herself and use them to bludgeon anything that got in her way.
Felix fastened the roll with packing tape. ‘Almost ready to go,’ he said.
A few seconds later, Irene and Jerome were leading the way to the great staircase, torches turned off. The others followed, carrying the hefty canvas roll between them. While Ernst could have managed the entire weight on his own, the carefully packaged roll was unwieldy and cumbersome. The museum was silent and dim light filtered in through the skylights – not enough for them to appreciate the decor, but enough to find their way out. Irene’s stomach began to unknot slightly as they approached the staircase. From here it was a straight run to the exit. Almost there, almost there, she reassured herself. The wide stairwell beckoned, a white marble statue of a man with a raised dagger shining corpse-pale at the bend in the stairs.
‘Stop sneaking around,’ Lady Ciu’s voice said. ‘You’re not fooling anyone.’
She glided out of the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, tall and whipcord lean, as poised as any of the museum’s fine statues. Her dark glasses were a band of pure blackness across her face. She carried her swordcane in her left hand, but she wasn’t leaning on it now; her right hand rested on the handle, ready to draw the blade.
Jerome put a restraining hand on Irene’s arm and stepped into the light. He reached for his gun. ‘How convenient,’ he said. ‘I’d been hoping to see you again.’
Irene quickly ran through half a dozen things she could do with the Language. Order the floor to swallow up Lady Ciu . . . drop the cupola on her head in a shower of glass, gilding and fresco . . . break the swordcane in her hand.
Yet every single one would tell the dragon that a Librarian was involved. This world wasn’t protected by the treaty, but her and Kai’s reputations as ambassadors were at risk. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Lady Ciu discovered the dragons’ top-secret computer conspiracy had become public knowledge. All the more reason to have Felix take charge of the actual theft . . . and the blame.
Perhaps the elderly dragon would be willing to negotiate. But too many things didn’t add up. The extensive security behind this particular painting. The alarm Indigo hadn’t been able to shut off. The fact that dragons happened to be in Vienna, right where the painting was – and now Lady Ciu chanced to be here. There was clearly something shady afoot.
But she still had to have that painting.
Not for the first time, Irene cursed the size of their target. Shoving it through a window simply wasn’t an option. Even if they could risk damaging the canvas that way, they couldn’t expect Lady Ciu to just stand there while they did it. And if Irene used the Language to help somehow, then that was again undeniable proof that a Librarian was involved . . .
Jerome was still smiling at Lady Ciu. ‘Is it time for another gamble?’
‘I knew you were that sort,’ Lady Ciu answered. Her voice dripped contempt. ‘No self-control – and you can’t resist the thrill of a mortal risk.’
‘I may not be able to resist a bet,’ Jerome replied, ‘but you can’t resist a challenge. We’re well matched.’
Out of Lady Ciu’s line of sight, the canvas-carrying team had come to a halt. In the lead, Felix hesitated.
Irene raised a hand in silent instruction for them to stay where they were.
‘I can hear your confederates scuttling,’ Lady Ciu said. ‘So what now?’
‘You let me come down to the foot of the stairs,’ Jerome said, ‘and then we draw. This is between the two of us.’
Irene wished she could see the dragon’s eyes and read her expression – but Lady Ciu’s dark glasses were as opaque as the black stone of the pillars, as dead as a shark’s eyes. A bullet could kill a dragon who’d taken human form. So if Lady Ciu was willing to go up against someone with a gun, armed only with a sword, then either she was suicidal or she was very good with that sword. Impossibly good. Legendarily good.
‘No.’ Jerome glanced towards Irene. ‘What happens between us is between us, all right? This is on me. I signed up for the risk of it. Nothing more.’ He was already walking down the stairs, each sharp footfall on the marble steps like the ticking of a clock. ‘Whoever survives this can discuss next steps.’
‘Gambler,’ Lady Ciu accused.
‘It’s what I’m doing here. I’m not ashamed of that. But what about you? Sitting like a spider, waiting for challengers?’
‘I’m doing my duty.’ Lady Ciu paced backwards as he approached, keeping the same distance between them. ‘When my lady queen commands me to guard a world, a place or an item, then I do so. My sword has always been enough.’
‘So far.’ Jerome was nearly at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Should I turn up the lights? I wouldn’t want you to miss your cue.’
Lady Ciu snorted. ‘My eyes are my least important sense. Don’t waste your last thoughts on such a thing.’ She pulled a long blade from the neck of her cane. It gleamed like a strip of moonlight in the near-darkness. ‘But what do you mean, you “signed up”? Who hired you?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘It might make the difference between whether I keep you alive or not.’
Jerome chuckled, deep in his throat. ‘The stakes are all or nothing, lady.’
‘I’ll be a little more precise.’ She shifted her wrist. Light flickered on the steel. ‘It makes a difference to me whether you were hired by a dragon or a Fae.’
‘To do what?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. We both know why you’re here.’
Jerome shrugged. ‘I don’t roll over on my employers.’
‘I can appreciate loyalty.’ Lady Ciu lowered the tip of her sword. The two of them were ten yards apart. ‘On three, then?’
‘Very well.’ Jerome let his hands fall to his sides. ‘On three.’
Silence filled the museum. It seemed to clutch at Irene’s throat. She couldn’t see a way out of this without revealing a Librarian was involved – or without someone being killed. And while she had never claimed her hands were clean, she certainly didn’t believe in casual murder. But this was what Jerome wanted. She glanced over her shoulder at Kai and the others, and for a moment she saw the same tension in Kai that she had seen in Lady Ciu: the same eagerness for a challenge, the same readiness for a life-or-death duel. He wasn’t going to offer any convenient way out of this. None of them were.
The Secret Chapter Page 19