Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  “He did,” Aya said. “It's another one of those pearls he found on the sea floor...the one that helped him get rid of the Wharf Man.”

  “That's right,” Sam said. “There are two more of them out there, three pearls total. We just got some hints about where the others might be.”

  “So we find them...then what happens when we bring all three of them together?”

  Sam looked to Daisy who looked just as uncertain as he felt. They weren't sure on the specifics of that yet.

  “We bring them all back to...Poseidon's trident.” Sam said the words reluctantly and they slowly rolled out of his throat. It still sounded so ridiculous to him.

  Aya was understandably confused. “Poseidon's trident? That's a made-up god, isn't it?”

  Sam admittedly kind of enjoyed how red Daisy's face got at that remark. It was nice to have another sane person joining the conversation. He felt a bit outnumbered when they were talking with Mr. Irving. Logic and reasoning didn't seem to have a place in that particular discussion.

  Aya glanced to Purdue but he just shrugged.

  “And where are we going first?”

  The ship was exactly as Sam remembered from their journey to find the pearl initially. Aya still commanded her men with just as much stern gracefulness. She was a good, fair captain and a good ally to have in a tight spot. Sam was glad to have someone familiar to work with; he was no longer stuck with a bunch of novice Black Sun members that didn't know what they were doing yet or a delusional companion that was adamant that ancient gods were walking among them. There was finally someone he could rely on and depend on if things got bad—and things usually had a way of going bad.

  However, Sam wasn't exactly thrilled to be back on the open ocean. It was never a favorite place for him to be. He much preferred to have his feet firmly on solid ground. He never liked the endless rocking beneath his feet. If a place made even the simple act of standing difficult for him, then it really wasn't some place that he wanted to be. At least he used to have Purdue or Nina to talk to, to help distract him. Daisy Judge wasn't nearly as good at making interesting conversation. She just stood at the bow of the boat, raising her arms and inhaling the salty brine with glee.

  “Do you smell that?” she asked, sniffing the breeze. “That right there is Poseidon, alright. Unmistakable.”

  “That's just the ocean,” Sam countered. “It always smells like that.”

  “Exactly my point,” Daisy said with a confident smile. “Like I said...Poseidon.”

  “So let me make sure that I'm getting this straight. You see a wave break on a beach...that's all Poseidon? Or you find a dead jellyfish washed up on shore...is that also Poseidon? Every little thing that happens inside of the sea or that has anything to do with the ocean...it can all be summed up with that one name?”

  Daisy looked a bit offended, or at least put out. “It's still mindboggling that you're still such a skeptic of him, even after what you've already seen.”

  “And just what is it that I have already seen? Since you know me so well.”

  “What you saw during what happened back at headquarters, of course! You might recall it. The water everywhere. The guy whose body was literally made out of water drops. Surely you remember that.”

  They were back to that initial debate and she was still doing her best to try to convince him that all of that had been the work of a fictional deity. This was why it was hard to work with her, because she seemed to intentionally be trying to push his buttons after knowing that he wasn't the believer that she was.

  “It's hard to forget it,” Sam said. “I remember it perfectly. It was very, very vivid. What I don't remember is there being any proof or even a tiny bit of indication that it had anything to do with Poseidon.”

  “No indication?” She snorted. “All of it was indication! Obviously! The whole thing!”

  “I disagree.”

  “Disagree all you want. You are just refusing to believe the obvious answer.”

  “No, I'm just looking at the facts. The facts aren't biased against you, and they definitely don't support your big theory.” Sam knew that he wouldn't be able to refrain from the debate for long. He was trying to keep an open mind, he really was, but he couldn't support ridiculous conjecture just being tossed around nonchalantly like it was proven to be fact. “There is this thing called confirmation bias. It's the idea that you want your belief to be correct so badly that you will let any bit of information count as evidence that your thought is the right one, even when it's not.”

  “So that's what you think? That I'm just guilty of sticking only to my truth?”

  “You kind of are.”

  “Then you are just as guilty of the same,” Daisy said spitefully. “Your view is just more narrow-minded. That's all.”

  Daisy looked very annoyed. If it were anyone else, Sam might have tried harder to do some damage control, but he wasn't going to for her. The two of them were at a complete and utter impasse when it came to the facts of life. They disagreed even on the most basic of levels. There was no getting around that and no convincing the other one of the truth apparently. It made it very hard to agree on just about anything. She could believe whatever she wanted, the boat was big enough to contain both of their truths—no matter how ludicrous her truth was.

  Sam stared down into the water and tried to imagine some enormous bearded man sitting on a throne on the ocean floor, clutching a giant trident in his hands. How could something like that even be remotely real? The ocean was an enormous, mysterious place, even now, but there was no evidence that a god was lurking down there. He didn't care how many sacrifices used to be performed in Poseidon's honor; it didn't make him any more tangible. All it meant was people were always willing to commit violence in the name of their own beliefs.

  Daisy surprisingly hadn't stormed off and was leaning against the railing beside him still.

  “You have to understand, none of this is easy for me to even try to wrap my head around. I live in a world of facts, of going off of what I see with my own two eyes. You can think that's narrow-minded, I just think it's practical and logical even. That's all. I haven't seen a god with my own eyes, so how exactly am I supposed to believe that he is there?”

  “He is.”

  She didn't even try to elaborate or give him some sort of explanation of why she was such a believer. That was frustrating. If she was going to preach about Poseidon all of the time, she should have at least tried to give him some reason as to why she was so faithful.

  “Tell me, Miss God Expert, since you have all of the answers, what was Poseidon like?”

  “Well that's up for discussion considering that I never met him personally...but based on the old writings from how the ancient Greeks viewed him, he was very much like the sea itself...”

  “Deep?” Sam offered cheekily.

  Daisy couldn't hide the small smile that twisted on her face. “It was more like he was always fluctuating so at times he was pleasant—beautiful even—and then other times he was dominant, dangerous, powerful, overwhelming.”

  “If that was really him demanding the pearl, then I guess that was during one of his more dangerous periods. I guess I always pictured Poseidon as being more of a benevolent deity...riding around on sea horses and things like that.”

  “There aren't many simple personalities in the pantheon of Greek gods. They all have their good sides and their bad. Unlike the omnipotent God a lot of people still worship, the Greeks prayed to were much more fallible beings...gods that were much more human really. It's one of the things that fascinated me most about them.”

  “So if he's so powerful, why not come get his pearls himself? Couldn't he just summon a whirlpool and pull everything into the water to snatch his pearls back? Or send a bunch of crabs to come up to land and get them for him?”

  Daisy shook her head. “That's an impossible question for me to answer. How am I supposed to understand why a god does what he does?”

  “I thoug
ht you just said that the Greek gods were more like humans than all-knowing gods. So I don't think it's a big leap to try to get inside of their heads a little. I just think that Poseidon wouldn't be sending us on an errand to get his things back. Why would a god need us? No, I think this is something else...but I'll humor you for a second...what will you do if it is Poseidon?”

  “I'm not the type to brag,” Daisy said. “But I would definitely tell you that I told you so.”

  “Fair enough,” Sam said. “I may not share your faith at all but I have to respect you for not being deterred by anything. Your beliefs remain unshaken.”

  Daisy gave a smirk, and Sam saw the years of her beliefs coming through that smile.

  “They've never been shaken.”

  INTERLUDE – THE MYTH OF DAISY JUDGE

  Daisy Judge always had a deep love, fascination, and appreciation for all of the old myths about the Greek gods. Even the most morbid tales had captured her imagination as a child, far more than any of the usual fairy tales. The Olympians were always much more captivating than those kidnapped princesses that sat in their towers waiting for their knights in shining armor to come galloping to their rescue. Persephone was far better than Rapunzel. Hera was more interesting of a foil than the Evil Queen. The tales of St. George slaying a dragon or King Arthur pulling a sword from a rock were nothing compared to some of the Greek heroes of legend. Hercules didn't just go on one quest, he went on twelve.

  The stories that most people told were created with the intent of entertaining, or at least to teach some sort of life lesson to the listener. They were just fabricated stories from the very beginning. Everyone knew those fairy tales weren't real; no one had ever really believed in them. They weren't considered a valid part of history. In contrast, the stories of the Olympian gods had been seen as far for a very long time. Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Ares, and the rest were all seen as historical figures that continued to have power and sway over the world. Feasts were made in their honor. People were killed in their honor. They were part of everyday life, not just stories to tell around the campfire.

  Eventually, people stopped believing and the Greek gods became just as mythical as dragons, griffins, and wizards. That was always what fascinated Daisy the most. The Greek gods walked the line between reality and fiction. That gave them more weight in her eyes. They weren't just characters in a fable meant to teach a moral; these figures had been worshiped by generations of people. Some people back then had spent their whole lives as priests dedicated to these characters. For there to be that kind of utter devotion to supposedly fictional beings, there had to be more than just stories, didn't there? Those priests and priestesses must have experienced something concrete—something undeniably real. That was what made Daisy believe there was some truth to all of the myths and she carried that truth with her throughout all of her years.

  In grade school, she excelled at any lessons that had anything to do with the Ancient Greeks. She especially loved the studies about the legendary heroes that were constantly being tested by the gods on Mount Olympus. She used to like to envision herself as one of those chosen heroes. It helped her try harder when she pictured all of those gods looking down on her, curious to see if she would succeed—and she had succeeded. Despite her unorthodox interests, she was able to do what most people only dreamed they would get the chance to do—turn their obsessions into an actual career.

  There were of course many other people in her field that didn't consider her any sort of historian at all. She was seen as lesser because she wasn't talking about well-documented dates, laws, or military campaigns. She was talking about things that most people didn't consider to have ever really happened. It wasn't her job to convince anyone that it was real, even though she believed it was, but instead she just did her best to show people how influential the Greek gods were on the history of the world. She wasn't going to try to prove their existence, but she would prove their importance.

  On the occasions where people needed to know about the punishment of Prometheus or the legend of Persephone and Hades, Daisy proved herself to be one of the first people that were contacted. Everyone was weary with her, like they thought that she wasn't all there in the head, but she didn't mind. They could be uncomfortable all they wanted, she would still do her job well.

  One of the only people that never looked at her funny was billionaire David Purdue. She knew about him and his many exploits all over the world. He was constantly traveling the globe, searching for old artifacts and buried treasure. He was rather famous among some circles for all of his many, many adventures. They had met on a couple of occasions when he was looking for more unorthodox artifacts that pertained to Ancient Greece, but those conversations had only ever been brief interactions. She was just a source he could use when he needed additional, thorough information on something that most historical connections he had would just laugh at. She took all of it seriously, and he seemed to appreciate that. She always enjoyed speaking with him when he needed assistance.

  Even though she enjoyed their short spurts of time working together, she never expected it to be anything more than a consultation every so often for specific questions. It was unfathomable that a worldly man like David Purdue would ever want to work with her for a more extensive period of time. She was shocked when she received a call from him that was different than any other time he had contacted her.

  Purdue started off with his usual pleasantries. He was such a charming man, he could scrub away any awkwardness between two people with ease. Daisy was sure that Purdue had wooed many women with ease but he wasn't exactly her cup of tea. She still found him to be a very amusing man and he was very easy to talk to, which made it a very pleasurable experience to collaborate with him. The conversation shifted very early on though, and took her aback with its direction.

  “I have recently been made leader of a collective of like-minded individuals that are devoted to protecting history. Obviously, as you know, I've dedicated most of my life to trying to do that but it's difficult when I only have myself and a few others trying to do that. This group would give us the size and reach we need to really make a difference. You get what I'm saying, aye?”

  “I do, yes,” Daisy said, but wasn't quite sure why he was telling her this. Did this group need to know about the names of all of the Titans that were defeated by Olympians? Did they need to know the names of the snakes that wrapped themselves around Hermes's staff? She was happy to provide them with any help they needed. It sounded like a good group.

  Much to her surprise, Purdue had a larger role for her in mind.

  “How would you like to join a group like that?”

  “Me?” She couldn't hide her surprise. “Why would you want me to be a part of something like that?”

  Purdue laughed on the other end of the phone. “Because you're different, Daisy. It's one of the things I really like about you. You're not afraid to study things that other people would think makes them look childish. That provides a different perspective and I want as many different perspectives as I can get for this group. And I want your perspective to be part of it. Adds flavor, aye?”

  Daisy wasn't sure what to say at first. Her gut instinct was to accept but she didn't have the best experience working with other historians. And now he was apparently recruiting all kinds of people from all over the world. Sure, he wanted many perspectives, but she knew that they would all probably share one specific perspective—that her viewpoints were nothing but ridiculous conjecture that could never be proven as historical fact. She was used to that kind of reaction by people that she should be able to consider respected contemporaries. None of them usually respected her, unfortunately. She wasn't really looking forward to having to deal with that on a much more regular basis.

  She was about to come up with a polite way of saying no but then paused. Maybe she shouldn't be afraid of how her colleagues would think of her. Instead, maybe this was a chance to prove to them that she knew valuable things that might no
t have all of the historical evidence as all of the knowledge that they were masters of. They might finally have the opportunity to see what she was worth and that was too good of a chance to pass up. Her whole career—her whole life really—was spent trying to show people that she was more than just the weird woman that knew all about old myths. She could finally show them what she really could offer, and this group that Purdue was inviting her to join might be the best audience to display her skill set.

  “This isn't some kind of joke is it?” Daisy asked, trying to sound like she was joking but she was honestly worried about that. “You're not all just having a laugh?”

  “No,” Purdue said sincerely. “I really want someone like you on board for what we're going to be working on. You would bring something completely different to the table, Daisy, and that is more important to me than anything else. You're good at what you do. Time to show it off, aye?”

  That won her over. She couldn't say no when she finally had a good opportunity to prove herself not only to others but also to herself. This could end up being more important than anything she had ever worked on before.

  “Alright,” Daisy said. “That sounds good to me.”

  “Great,” Purdue said and his joy was palpable through the phone. That made her feel good. He had always been one of the only people that took her seriously and respected her knowledge. Now he was going to try and help her get respect from the rest of the world too. She wasn't going to let him down. “Welcome to the Order of the Black Sun.”

  Daisy Judge had no idea what that meant—but she would soon enough.

  6

  TUXEDOS, GOWNS, AND THE PEARL NECKLACE

  Erica Diosa—that was the name of the heiress that Mr. Irving told them about. Supposedly, her family had one of Poseidon's pearls for generations and she was its current owner. It wasn't confirmed, but that was the last Mr. Irving knew. Hopefully, she hadn't pawned it off or lost it. Then they would really be out of luck. They just had to hope that the heiress was good about hanging on to her belongings.