Keri made a face. “Who doesn’t? I smelled something rotten the minute they started talking about the end times. As if we should want to bring about the end of days? That’s just nuts. Things aren’t great, but I’d rather that than live through it all going you-know-where in a handbasket.”
“I’m gonna agree with you on that one.” There was plenty Eliana wanted to do in her life before the Lord came back. Still, it was His timing, and He was ultimately in control. “If you’re not going to tell me who ordered you guys to break into the vault, at least give me something I can tell my boss.”
Keri snorted.
“It needs to sound like I had some success in here.” Eliana shrugged. “I am a Banbury.”
“You’re tryna be like your mom?”
“People always think I should be able to do what she does. Like it’s imprinted on my DNA to catch killers, or something.” Eliana shuddered. “I found the guy who was murdered here. I don’t want to see that again. Like your friend who died in the vault. Who wants to actually seek that out?”
“They killed him. They knew what would happen when he stepped into the vault.”
“Whoever told you to come here is responsible for all of it. Them, and the guy who pushed your friend in the vault. He had to know what would happen.”
Keri shook her head. “I meanDominatuskilled him.”
“They aren’t a thing anymore. They haven’t been a thing for years.” Eliana leaned closer. “There’s no secret society. This is just a museum.”
Keri snorted. “That’s what they want you to think.”
“The Shrine pays the bills. It’s where I work.” Eliana paused. “Breaking and entering, on the other hand, is illegal.”
“It’s for the greater good,” Keri said. “People don’t get to keep secrets.”
“Everyone keeps secrets. It’s called privacy.” Before Keri could spout more nonsense, Eliana continued, “What is for the greater good is the law. Justice for the victims of those whose lives are ended prematurely. Like Doctor Splitfield. Like my friend Carolena.”
“Who’s that?” Keri shrugged. “And why would I care?Dominatusis still doing everything they’ve been doing for years. They’re hiding secrets in that vault instead of destroying whatever it is.”
“So you were gonna steal it, and what—expose them? Why not be the one to just destroy it all? It’s cleaner to make sure no one can use it, ever. Or are you curious as to what they’re hiding in that vault?” Eliana propped an elbow on the table. “I’ll admit I am. But someone died. Is it really worth a life just to know?”
“You got in. So did that other security guard.” Keri sat back in her seat. “That means they can let others in.”
“You know who I am. Even I was told only one person could get in—the head of security. That’s the guy, Tony.” Eliana tipped her head toward the door. “Not me, him. Maybe who I am is what got me in, but it could just as easily have ended for me the way it did for your friend. For all I knew, it was going to.” She let Keri think on that for a second, then continued, “Dominatusisn’t something you mess with. If you want to know what they’re hiding, you have to work with them. Not against them.”
Keri huffed again.
“Tell me, who sent you here to expose them?”
“Ask one of my friends.”
“I’m asking you,” Eliana said. “You got yourself into this, now get yourself out of the mess so you can be free.”
Keri’s lips shifted to a sneer, just for a second. An acknowledgement she didn’t want to be in this situation, and yet she was. They all had a part to play, and it certainly seemed like a drama was unfolding.
“You didn’t ask for this,” Eliana continued. “Whoever they are, they told you to do it. They’re the ones responsible, and you just got dragged along. Don’t let the Shrine or the cops take you down in the fallout.”
That sounded like the work of someone like the Mother. Who else could it possibly be, trying to expose the secrets at the heart ofDominatus?The organization it had been decades ago was nothing like what it was now, and these days the whole thing seemed like a shell of what it had been, even with the Board of Governors in control and her hope that they would really aid in finding Luci. People still believed they were nothing but a relic of the past.
“What put you on this path, Keri? How did you get here?” Eliana looked around. “I think you took a wrong turn somewhere.”
“Life is nothing but wrong turns. Where we end up doesn’t matter.”
“I’m going to have to disagree with you there. It matters very much.” Eliana didn’t know much about the world, but she was sure about that. “The journey matters as much as the destination.”
“Then it’s been a crappy journey.”
“Let’s put you on a new path. One that leads you somewhere better than this.”
