I climb the steps in the most ladylike manner I can while flashing him my blue panties. The thought of him looking up at my vagina with desire makes me feel sexy. If it were up to my vagina, she’d fix herself over his mouth like a muzzle.
At the top of the stairs, two men open a door for us to enter what I would describe as a private club. Men and women sit around three glass tables littered with guns and a powdery substance I’m sure isn’t flour.
We walk to the back of the room and enter an elevator that travels down. And down. And farther down, before finally stopping with a thud. The doors remain closed. Now I’m really freaked out. I tug Alessio’s sleeve. “Are we in the underground?”
“Yes.”
“Are we meeting with Hades?”
Alessio compresses his lips, clearly trying not to laugh. “Your sense of humor might kill me.”
“I truly hope that’s not the case.”
“Don’t worry. I wear armor.”
The elevator doors open. Hallelujah! Alessio and I walk toward more men dressed in tactical. They’re near a metal door that looks as thick as a safe door. It even has a massive circular handle.
Alessio murmurs, “Hades. How appropriate for a man who massacred tens of thousands.”
I glance at him, and I think he’s serious. “We’re meeting with such a man?”
“To some people, he’s a hero. If you recognize him from the news, try not to panic. I’ve secured this location. You’ll be safe, and rest assured that if he tries anything, I’ll end him with my bare hands.”
TWENTY-NINE
HADES
Lake
Two different security teams guard the door. Alessio’s and Hades’s. The Hades team thoroughly searches Alessio and finds nothing. Which is probably why Alessio mentioned he would use his bare hands.
The man turns toward me, but Alessio shakes his head. “You’re welcome to search my companion with your eyes. She is wearing very little for this reason.”
“Not enough,” the security guard says in a deep voice.
“As you wish.” Alessio turns and directs me to walk back. “Tell your minister we will meet at another time.” We take a few steps away from the security guys when the heavy door unlocks from the inside.
Alessio wipes the satisfied smirk from his face as soon as we turn back around, but the glint of victory remains in the wink he gives me. Only Alessio is having fun here. I think these security guys, the underground, and just about everything in this meeting is terrifying. Truth be told, I almost cheered when he decided we were going back upstairs.
Alas, the meeting proceeds as planned.
We walk through the door into a brightly lit space. It’s so bright that I squint my eyes.
Inside, a dark-haired, dark-eyed young woman slightly younger than me stands to greet us. She is wearing an elegant, sleeveless white dress with a high collar. Her hair is pulled up tightly into a high bun, and her diamond earrings dangle all the way to her shoulders.
She doesn’t return my smile, but she’s not cold either. Indifferent, I would say, when she offers Alessio a large ceramic bowl of what looks like water. Alessio washes his hands and dries them on the towel folded over her left forearm.
I go to do the same, but she steps back. “You’re clean.” She moves to the side and deposits the bowl on the floor, then joins an older man, maybe in his late fifties or early sixties, standing beside a single rectangular table for four.
He wears a sharp suit and has a full head of dark hair, the color of which matches his eyes, and he looks intense. I don’t recognize him, but the way he stands tells me he’s used to being the most important person in the room.
Alessio approaches and shakes the man’s hand while introducing himself.
The man answers, but I don’t catch his name. I note that Alessio never introduced himself to the daughter, and the man also said nothing to me. In fact, it’s almost as if neither she nor I exists. For them, it’s business casual, I guess, and perhaps that’s a part of his culture. The handwashing certainly indicated some sort of ritual we don’t perform in the West.
I sit on an uncomfortable metal chair and catch the daughter’s eye. She holds my gaze. As in holds it relentlessly. I look away and finally take in the space. Gosh, it’s bright in the underworld. I’d imagined it would be dark, you know.
And have walls. No walls here. It’s a large space, maybe the size of a basketball court, filled ceiling to floor with small metal boxes. They’re numbered too. How odd. Wait…what is this? I sit up, then look behind me. The doors close with a thud, sealing us in. I think we’re inside a vault.
