“My contact and the DEA finally came crashing in to rescue us. Ka-Bar was transferred to a hospital in Buenos Aires. We were brought to the States, and the rest you know.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t remember.”
“Shh. Don’t. Everyone handles grief and shock differently. The brain knows best how to protect the body it belongs to. It’s not as if you chose to forget things, and even if you had, no one could blame you for wanting to protect yourself.”
“It feels disloyal.”
“You’ve never been disloyal to anyone,belleza, especially me. If anything, you were loyal too long.” Lips brushed against her hairline. “Are you all right?”
“Sí,I’m fine now.”
“Loki and Gilgamesh need your help with a map of your home, and we’ve made some connections that suggest we have very little time to get to Waters and Ka-Bar. Are you up to helping them?”
Sitting up, she scrubbed her hands up and down her face, willing herself to shake off the exhaustion left by her revelations. “Whether I am or not, you need me to be.”
The look on his face was one of pride and admiration. “Always so strong.”
26
AUGUST 24, 2024
Steel
By the timethey arrived in the suite, the room was a hive of activity. Nemo, Gem, Medusa, TB, and Demon had returned from following their targets and were checking and repacking their kits. Loki, Gilgamesh, and God were grouped around the table with Midas and Cerberus, Mythos’ resident click-click-boom expert, as Nemo called him, on the split television screen.
They approached the table, Daleyza slightly in front of him, his hand across her lower back. He worried she was too exhausted for clarity, but as soon as the men began asking her questions, she perked up.
“The basics are easy to see,” God said. “But we have questions about the interiors, including the quadrangle, the support buildings, the church, and the residence. Also, if there’s anything we should know about the surrounding land.”
“As you can see, it’s atypical in some ways for missions built in that time period. It’s really built more like a medieval fortress. One whole side faces the lake. Unless you have expert rock climbers, nothing’s getting up that side.”
“Yo!” came from across the room, where Nemo and Gem raised their hands without bothering to look up as they continued packing. “You got extra carabiners?” he asked Gem.
“Does the Pope wear a funny hat?” Gem replied.
“Hey, that’s my line,” Midas complained.
“Stole it. Not sorry.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Daleyza found herself grinning and shaking her head. She really liked the little spitfire pixie.
“The other three sides have at least a half mile cleared in front of them, so anyone approaching will be clearly seen. When dusk hits, there are floodlights that leave the entire open expanse clear as day. The last several miles of the road have no offshoots, so it’s a straight shot. The trees are dense and packed tightly, so traditional vehicles cannot get through. On top of that, there’s only one road in from the southeast that curves around the front and to a delivery entrance on the south side of the building.”
“What kind of nontraditional vehicles could be used?” God asked.
“Motorbikes. ATVs, but not big ones. Small, one-person riders only.”
“There’s no way we can haul Waters and Ka-Bar out of there on those types of transport,” Steel warned. “They’ll be in no condition to ride solo. Probably not even with a partner.”
“What about access from the tree lines on the north and south?” Medusa asked.
Daleyza replied, “There used to be some old hunting trails, but they were allowed to go wild when I was a child. Unless they’ve cleared them, which I highly doubt, they’re long overgrown.”
“So to even get into the property, we’ll need some sort of distraction, even if we go in at the dead of night. Guess I know what I’m working on.” She walked off, muttering under her breath about drones as she headed to a computer to talk to Cerberus.
Daleyza continued. “The residence and church are on the farthest corners and built near the cliff down to the lake. Inside the church, at the baptismal font, is where the entrance to the crypts and the oubliettes is, as we discussed earlier. The crypts are centered under the church, with the oubliettes lined along the cliff wall behind them.”
“Could we go through the cliff itself?” Gilgamesh asked.
