“I will never get used to that,” Yumi said. “It gives me an upset stomach.”
Aida fell onto the sofa beside her friend. “So, Felix can’t go with us.”
Yumi looked at her. “Why not?”
“He doesn’t have an aegis, so he would have no protection from the misery. And I was thinking about that. I’ve long thought about asking Sophie to give him one, but I don’t want him to be in danger because of us. He’s only been peripherally involved. Now he definitely won’t be. I don’t want him down there.”
Yumi huffed. “Well, guess you and lover-boy Luciano will have the most interesting date ever.”
“I don’t think this will be terribly romantic,” Aida said, smacking her friend with a throw pillow.
“Felix lives right near there, at least. It’s a good place for me to set up. I wish the cell or Wi-Fi coverage would travel with you.”
Aida cursed. “We could be down there for hours. What if we get hurt? Gah. This is such a bad idea.”
“I think the alternative might be worse.”
Aida leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes. She tried to think of all the places she’d been since she started the job with MODA. There were museums that seemed to tickle the edges of her mind, but then slipped away. Every morning, she looked at her shorthand list to try to remember, and she did, for a little bit as she read the secretarial scrawl, but then as soon as she put the list away, the memories were gone again. She had done that... She had helped remove those places from the world, and not just her mind, but the collective consciousness of the people.
“I hate that you’re right,” she finally said.
“We’ll figure it out,” Yumi said, her voice taking on the cheerleader tone that Aida had heard countless times over theyears when she was feeling down. Yumi had always been a good counterbalance to Aida’s natural cynicism.
“At least I won’t be doing it alone.” Aida’s fingers hovered over the screen of her phone, her mind a whirlwind of apprehension and determination. As she typed out the message to Felix and Luciano, she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of excitement beneath the dread. The possibility of finding Effie, of changing something in this messed-up world, gave her a sliver of hope.
28
January 2021
A week later, they gathered at Felix’s apartment. With no jobs lined up for the next week, Aida had told Trista she’d be staying with Yumi, and to her relief, her aide hadn’t seemed to care. They arrived at dawn, then Luciano, Felix, and Aida made their way down the Appian Way, backpacks stuffed with emergency supplies slung over their shoulders. Felix had insisted on walking them to the catacomb entrance. After a few blocks, they reached a tall arched gate set into an ancient brick wall.
“We’re close,” Aida said, tapping her earpiece.
“Be careful.” Yumi’s voice crackled in her ear.
They waited until no cars were passing before Felix slid his key into the gate. It swung open with a creak. They entered, and Felix hastily shut the gate behind them.
“I can’t believe that worked,” he said as they began the trek down the cypress-lined path toward the main entrance to the catacombs.
At first, Felix didn’t want to tell them how he got the keys to the catacombs, but finally, after some wine a few nights back, he had loosened up and confessed he stole them from a man he knew worked at the catacombs. He’d seduced him, plied him with booze, and slipped the keys into his bag at some point in the night.
Aida had been horrified. “Wait, you got him drunk to steal the keys?”
Felix had realized what she was implying. “No, no! It wasn’t like that. We’ve been flirting for ages. He was very into it, and he was the one pouring the gin. I just encouraged extra booze to make sure he wasn’t going to notice I was stealing his keys. I’m going to bring them back,” he had sworn. “That is, if we don’t get caught. I rather like the guy.”
The catacomb grounds were quiet—too cold for the parrots to sing, with temperatures near freezing. Aida and Luciano had bundled up in anticipation that the catacombs would be especially cold, but Felix had thrown on a lighter coat, and he muttered the whole way about catching a cold. Finally, Aida smacked him on the arm.
“Stop! I’d give my right arm to trade you places right now.”
Felix gave her a sheepish look, then wrapped an arm around her. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ll make it up to you with a big bottle of champagne when this is all said and done.”
“How big?” Luciano asked.
“A jeroboam.”
“That’s only four bottles. I was thinking a Nebuchadnezzar,” Aida said.
Felix laughed. “We’ll need about twenty bottles after all this. Okay, you’re on.”
