by Nancy Madore
The door to the conference room suddenly burst open and two officers brought in Hudgins. “We found him,” they said.
Nadia gasped.
Hudgins looked confused. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why’s everything on lockdown?”
“Where the hell have you been?” demanded Ritter.
Hudgins just stared at him a moment. Nadia’s lungs were starting to ache but she still couldn’t bring herself to let out the breath she’d been holding. But then Hudgins turned, abruptly, to look at her, and she thrilled inwardly at the sight of that unmistakable twinkle in his eyes. She let out her breath in a rush and fell back against Will in relief. She would never have thought she could be so happy to see a djinn! But she gave Ornias a dirty look, because she suddenly realized that he only pretended to be confused to scare them. Eyes sparkling mischievously, he turned back to Ritter.
“Sir, some of the staff asked me to give them a hand bringing some of the heavier equipment back into the building,” he replied innocently. “Now will somebody please tell me what’s going on?”
“You were supposed to remain with our guests at all times when they were not in this room,” insisted Ritter.
“I’m sorry, sir,” replied Ornias. “We were on our way back here when the officer approached me. I figured they could find their way fine.”
“We cannot have people wandering around the building unattended!” snapped Ritter. “We will discuss this later. For the moment, they are waiting for Miss Adeire in the C Building. You will accompany her there and you will bring her back here when she’s finished with the briefing.” Ritter paused, eying Hudgins suspiciously. “Have you spoken to anyone about the things that were discussed in this room today?”
Ornias managed to look offended. “Of course not, sir!” he replied.
Nadia wondered if she was the only one who noticed the impish glint in his eyes. Suddenly she remembered what he’d gone after Wessler to find and she looked down at his fingers. There was a ring on the third finger of his left hand! She tried to remember—had Hudgins been wearing a wedding band? She turned to Benderman to see if she would find a clue there, but he was examining Ornias just as anxiously as she had been.
“You can go now,” said Ritter. “They’re expecting you.”
Ornias glanced at Will. “Where in the C building are they holding the briefing?” he asked.
“This officer will show you,” said Ritter.
Nadia looked at Will, who just smiled reassuringly at her. She had no choice but to allow herself to be led out of the room and taken down the corridor, flanked on one side by the officer who was escorting them to the briefing room and Ornias on her other side.
They walked down the hall in silence. Biting her lip, Nadia ventured another glance at Ornias. He winked at her and she jerked her head back to the forward facing position. She tried to come up with a diversion that would give her a moment alone with Ornias but couldn’t think of anything. Finally, desperate, she blurted out—“That’s an interesting ring you have there, Officer Hudgins.”
“Oh?” he replied casually, raising his hand to examine the ring for himself. “Looks like any other wedding band to me.” He turned to her with that cantankerous look in his eyes and she glared at him.
“Interesting story about it though,” he continued conversationally. “It wasn’t the one I originally wanted.” He paused meaningfully. “I had picked out this very special ring, you see, but by the time I had saved up enough money to buy it…it was gone! Someone else got to it first, I’m afraid.”
Nadia searched his face. “Who…got to it first?” she asked.
“Who knows?” he replied, gazing at her with those mischievous eyes. “It’s a cut throat world out there.”
Nadia’s mind was racing. She was sure that he was trying to tell her something, but what?
Their walk was a long one, with several stops along the way to allow the accompanying officer to unlock doors.
In contrast to the building they just left, the ‘C’ building held an air of disorder. People were standing around in the corridor in silent disbelief.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the officer. His question was met with surprise.
“Haven’t you heard?” asked a woman.
“Heard…what?” he replied.
“Max Wessler was just killed.”
“Max Wessler!” the officer exclaimed. “How?”
Nadia looked at Ornias, but this time he didn’t meet her eye. He was staring intently at the woman who was speaking, listening to every word with interest.
“He was killed in a bar a few blocks away from the White House,” the woman told them. “He was stabbed in the side…and his throat was cut. They haven’t released an official report yet.”
Nadia gasped. She could think of only one killer who first immobilized her victim with a knife to the kidneys and then completed the kill by severing the jugular. And it suddenly occurred to her that there was someone else who would’ve been looking for that ring.
Lilith!
Chapter 53
Manhattan, New York
Nadia sighed in frustration. It was hopeless. She couldn’t concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing. She stood up and slowly began pacing the floor of her office.
How was she supposed to get over what happened—especially knowing her role in it? A significant part of the world had been destroyed—forever. Everything west of the San Andreas Fault had disintegrated into the ocean, from Eureka to San Diego. Along with millions of people. The death count had hardly begun…but Nadia could no longer bear to listen.
And it was all because of her. If not for her need for closure, they wouldn’t have even been in Alaska. Lilith’s plan would have succeeded, and the HAARP technology would have been destroyed. Instead of several million casualties, there would only have been a few thousand. It still would have been a tragedy, but at least it wouldn’t have been Nadia who brought it about.
She felt so alone. Her father was lost to her forever. Her friends seemed miles apart from her since the kidnapping. She couldn’t imagine talking to them about all that had happened to her in the last few weeks, and they would never believe it anyway. Not to mention that she was forbidden by the United States Air Force from discussing the events that occurred in Alaska (and she was pretty sure they were watching her). Even her ‘boys’ were gone from her life. Will, Gordon and Clive had split up, just as they threatened to do. And once again, her interference had only made things worse, because in trying to get Will to change his mind, she had started a terrible fight.
“At least Gordon is capable of thinking for himself,” she’d said. “He isn’t just a puppet!”
“We have to follow orders,” replied Will, becoming angry. “Otherwise we’d have anarchy.”
“Yeah, well, you followed your precious orders and it still looked like anarchy to me,” she’d countered.
“That mess you saw was the Department of Defense trying to fix what Lilith did,” he said, growing exasperated.
“What Lilith did is nothing compared to what the Department of Defense did!” she accused.
“Your father is the one who created this crisis to begin with!” Will had eventually pointed out.
“And just how did he do it?” she’d cried, genuinely hurt by this inevitable reminder of her father’s part in the tragedy. “How did he get that much energy into the ionosphere? Did he just magically point his finger?”
It had been a brutal fight to the end, when Nadia finally screamed that she never wanted to see Will’s self-righteous face again.
Everyone had gone their separate ways. Will had actually filed a complaint against Gordon, and it looked like Gordon might be forced to resign. Clive was the one who requested a transfer.
It seemed as if everything had been taken from her. She felt bereft. She had nothing left. Even her convictions appeared to have abandoned her.
She kept wondering; Whose side am I on? Do I believe in the
human rights of everyone, or just the majority? She thought of the young woman, Amanda Fioretti, who would probably spend the rest of her life in prison, her soul forever scarred. And all those people in California! Were the djinn responsible? They were, after all, the ones who had introduced this power to mankind; this—power of gods.
Where would it all end?
Nadia thought of her father and his fear of Armageddon.
As much as she hated to admit it, she supposed that Will was probably right. If this knowledge was really out there in other places throughout the world, it would be foolish for the United States to bury their heads in the sand. And as well, it was unthinkable that people be allowed to know what was happening. Ignorance really was bliss. Her life had certainly been bliss before her eyes had been opened by the Raphaelians. Was this what the Bible spoke of in Genesis? Was there truly such a thing as forbidden knowledge that, if discovered, could bring about unspeakable evil?
These thoughts were interrupted by a tentative knock on Nadia’s office door.
“Come in,” she said, glad for the distraction.
A woman entered, looking around the room with mild interest. She was so stunningly beautiful and exquisitely dressed that Nadia couldn’t help thinking of the ‘dames’ who walked into the shabby offices of private detectives in old spy movies.
Nadia was intrigued. “Can I help you?”
“Ms. Adeire?” asked the woman.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t make an appointment,” continued the woman, though she had the look of a person who’d never been sorry about anything in her life. “Could you spare a few minutes? Or…” she paused, glancing around the room, “are you in the middle of something?”
With every word the woman uttered, Nadia was feeling more and more like a character in a detective movie.
“No,” Nadia replied, motioning for the woman to sit down. “I’m not in the middle of anything.” If she had been a detective in one of those old movies, this would’ve been the moment when she reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels.
The woman met Nadia’s curious gaze with a determined glint in her dark eyes. “I’m a friend of your fathers,” she began smoothly. She had been examining Nadia openly, and she smiled. “You’re like him.”
Nadia suddenly felt numb. “I believe I’m more like my mother, actually,” she replied, wondering over her outward calm amidst the inner turmoil that she felt.
“Perhaps, but you and your father are kindred souls,” the woman countered. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
Nadia couldn’t help a small smile of her own. And, God help her, she, too, was in awe of this creature that had so enthralled her father! “I think I understood him well enough to know that he would have—” Nadia paused here to let her eyes roam freely over the woman before adding—“…approved.”
The woman’s eyes sparkled. “Do you really think so?” she asked, clearly delighted by Nadia’s remark. “This might seem arrogant of me but I wanted something that…suited me this time. Do you like it?”
“It suits you to a T,” said Nadia truthfully. She couldn’t help wondering if the soul of the young woman was still there, listening to them, and if so, what she thought of the bizarre exchange.
As if reading her mind, Lilith’s expression became somber. There was a softness—perhaps even a vulnerableness—in her expression that made her seem almost sweet. Was it just the face that she was wearing, or was it Lilith herself? It seemed to Nadia that she was catching a glimpse of the drowning girl who had looked back on her life with confusion but not regret.
“I have the ring,” she told Nadia confidentially.
“I figured as much,” Nadia remarked.
“It’s Poseidon,” Lilith continued, openly savoring the expression that came over Nadia’s face. “Yes. That Poseidon.” Lilith laughed. “Would you believe the name meant nothing to me when Wessler…shall we say…surrendered it? I had no idea who Poseidon was.” She sighed contentedly. “I have so much to catch up on. But this is an amazing time! What, with the internet and everything else! Though, frankly, I have to admit that I was rather disappointed by the scant notoriety that I received. And all of it bad!” She seemed genuinely hurt by this.
Nadia was too astounded to speak. It was one thing to be sitting there having a discussion with Lilith. But Poseidon!
“I read that he is considered the god of the sea,” Lilith continued thoughtfully. “Normally the opinions of the sons of men don’t count for much, but I’d say that in this case they might be onto something. It’s strange that we never heard of him in Uruk.”
Nadia could do little more than stare in fascination.
Lilith met Nadia’s eyes and held them this time. “He’s yours,” she said, pausing a moment before adding—“for a price.”
Nadia felt faint. She didn’t need Lilith to tell her what the price was.
“Asmodeous is of no use to them,” Lilith continued. “They can’t reach him through that ring they have.” She leaned in closer. “Give him to me,” she implored seductively.
Nadia struggled to find her voice. “I…don’t have him,” she managed to say.
“But you can get him!” Lilith was quick to reply. She leaned back in her chair again, tilting her head sideways this time as she examined Nadia’s face with something like curiosity. “You carry your power so passively,” she observed. “I would have expected more…spirit from a child of Asmodeous.”
“I…it’s been a rather trying week!” Nadia replied defensively.
Lilith laughed. “The poor sons of men!” she lamented disdainfully. “How they cherish the word, ‘no!’ I suppose I never understood the word myself. To me, it always seemed more enticing even than ‘yes’.”
Nadia lowered her eyes in order to give herself a moment’s respite from the penetrating stare that never seemed to let up—not even to blink.
“Nadia, I think you know why your father wanted to destroy that place in Alaska,” said Lilith. “And what’s more, you know he was right. While we might not have succeeded in destroying them, we’ve robbed them of their most precious resource. The brains behind the power. Poseidon could be an invaluable tool in the right hands. His knowledge could be used to improve world conditions everywhere.” Lilith’s words were as persuasive as her manner, but Nadia couldn’t help wondering if she was just saying what she knew Nadia wanted to hear.
“Your father expected you to be confused…initially,” Lilith continued. “But he assured me that once you understood what was at stake you would make a powerful ally.” Lilith paused. “Was he wrong about you, Nadia?”
Nadia felt as if she’d been kicked in the guts, but her anger was aroused as well. “I might have been raised by a djinn, but I belong to the sons of men,” she couldn’t help reminding Lilith. “I refuse to be a pawn for either of them…assuming I have the power to influence this one way or the other!”
“Well now!” Lilith exclaimed, clearly impressed. “That’s a little better! And you do have the power to influence the outcome of this, Nadia. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have wasted my time in coming here.”
Nadia felt that Lilith was wrong about this.
“You can get Asmodeous’ ring!” Lilith assured her. “You’ve grown quite close to his captor, have you not?”
Nadia couldn’t help admiring Lilith’s determination in pursuing all that she wanted. Why wasn’t Nadia more like her? Why wasn’t it enough, to simply do what served her own interests best? Why did she have to concern herself with the interests of others? What, for that matter, did she know about the interests of others? She had just caused one of the most catastrophic events in history in an effort to prevent a relatively small disaster.
The truth was that Nadia didn’t want to be involved in any of it any more. She didn’t want the responsibility. The stakes were too high.
But who, then, would bear the responsibility? She thought of Wessler and men like him
, who never wavered in their objectives, regardless of the cost. Perhaps the only ones capable of shouldering this kind of responsibility were the Wesslers of this world. Where did that leave the rest of them? Nadia supposed that Asmodeous was right. The world was full of worker bees, buzzing along, often with discontent, as they went about their daily activities, unwilling or unable to do more.
Much as she hated to admit it, she had been much happier as a worker bee.
Nadia stood up. “I’ll pass your message along to the people who have the ring,” she said. “And then I want nothing more to do with any of it.”
She could see the disappointment—or was it contempt?—in Lilith’s eyes. She stood up as well, placing a small card on Nadia’s desk.
“Those are the instructions for contacting me,” Lilith told her. She moved toward the door and then paused. “If you truly want nothing more to do with this, then you’ll help me get that ring,” she said. There was a clear threat attached to this statement, but it was more in Lilith’s eyes than in her words or tone of voice. And then she was gone.
Nadia suddenly noticed how small her office was. She walked over to the only window and opened it. She stood there a minute, looking out over Bryant Park. There were some autumn blooms visible, but she was more aware that the leaves were fading and that everything was dying.
What was she doing here? Had she just been fooling herself to think that she was making a difference with BEACON? All these years she’d been congratulating herself for what boiled down to putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
How she wished she could talk to the boys! But there were no more ‘boys.’ They’d each gone off in different directions.
And the person she wanted most to talk to was gone. Tears filled her eyes.
Oh daddy. Why did you put me in this position?
She felt as if she would have a nervous breakdown if she didn’t talk to somebody. But she was upset with the people she wanted most to talk to. She was still too hurt to call Will, and besides, she felt that he should be the one to come to her. She thought of Gordon, and couldn’t help remembering how frightened she’d been when they were trapped in the lockdown in Fort Greely. Gordon had risked all of their lives. In that moment, she’d understood Will’s irritation with him. Gordon had acted irresponsibly. Perhaps Clive was the most disappointing of all. He had simply walked away from the lot of them.