Sylvia continued, “I’d like to introduce you to a new acquaintance of mine, a woman who has already proven herself to be a community leader. I hope she will become a dear friend in the future.” She motioned with a sweep of one hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, Lydia Rosenberg.”
Sylvia applauded, and the crowd of people joined in. Celebrating the woman who now made her way to the front of the room.
Eliana leaned over to her sister and whispered, “Are we really supposed to just smile and wave, and pretend like nothing’s wrong? Anything could be happening to Carlos right now.”
“This is a horrible thing to say,” Maizie whispered back, “but if they wanted him dead, they would’ve just killed him. They wouldn’t have bothered taking him somewhere else.”
Eliana squeezed her eyes shut for a second.
Maizie squeezed her hand.
From behind the podium, Lydia Rosenberg cleared her throat. “Ladies and gentlemen. We have all been witnesses to the historic events that have occurred across Chicago in recent weeks. In light of these events, it has been made clear to us all that for the first time in the history of the city, our differences should be set aside.”
Camera shutters clicked over in the crowd of journalists, and lights flashed. So long as they all stayed in their designatedarea, Eliana wasn’t going to have a problem with them. She’d already dealt with one reporter today, Neil Lorne, the guy who had been splashing articles on the front page for days about how they were in the end times. As if all the goings-on in Chicago were somehow an indication that the prophecies in the book of Revelation were now coming to pass.
Sylvia skirted the edge of the room, looking like she was making her way to them.
Lydia continued, “It is with humble thanks that I take my place as the head of our organization, a seat from which I can fully realize my place in this grand design we call life.”
Sylvia came to stand on the other side of Eliana. She leaned across Eliana and spoke to her and Maizie. “Can you believe this drivel?” she whispered. “I’m surprised she doesn’t float away, spouting all this hot air.”
Maizie snorted under her breath, but the look she shot at Sylvia told Eliana that her sister might not completely trust the director of the Shrine.
“Something isn’t right.” Eliana looked around the room. She didn’t see Tony, but he was on duty somewhere nearby. Watching out for the event as much as he was watching out for her. But with her sister by her side, Eliana doubted she was the one in danger.
It was everyone else she was concerned about.
Gathering people together made them a target.
Lydia went on about “new eras” and “cooperation”—using a whole lot of words but not actually saying much of substance.
“She going to make a point sooner or later?” Maizie muttered.
Eliana couldn’t get what she knew out of her head. Or the conversation she’d had with Lydia the night before. “She’s a murderer. Maybe she could tell everyone that she killed Doctor Splitfield, and my neighbor, and all of those other people.”
Maizie glanced over at her. “Do you know why she killed the doctor? It was here in the museum, right?”
Sylvia nodded. “We believe he might’ve been working on something sensitive.”
Eliana said, “I thought it was to get in the vault, like he had information about how to access it that she needed. But now I’m not sure. I mean, it didn’t work. A guy died trying to enter it, and all the people she sent were caught.”
Maizie whispered, “What if it was a test to see how the system worked?”
“How does that help us?” Eliana asked.
“It could’ve been purely recon,” Sylvia said. “To see what we’d do when someone tried to get in there.”
As if she, as director of the Shrine, didn’t know, considering she’d interviewed them all. But without telling the rest of them what those people said, Sylvia was the only one who knew. The fact that she wasn’t giving up the information freely meant none of them had spilled anything useful.
“That isn’t good,” Eliana said. It meant that whoever had learned what they needed to know to get into the vault might come back and try again. And what better night to do that than when everyone in the building was focused on what was happening up here?
She pushed off the wall she was leaning against, and the women on either side of her tugged her back.
Eliana gritted her teeth. She had promised them all that she would stay within arm’s reach of Maizie until this event was over and until they had a way to find Carlos. She had made so many promises she couldn’t remember what each one entailed. Probably not going and looking at the vault by herself. Just to check.
Lydia continued, “As for the events of the past few weeks, occurring in and around Chicago, I direct your attention to the screen behind me.”
The display changed, and a timeline of the events laid out in the book of Revelation flashed onto the screen.
