Page 41

41

SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

Haskell

“Have you found his tracker signal yet?”

“No. It’s like it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m trying to boot up his alternate tracker now, but it’s going to take some time. We’ve got to update this shit. Never thought we’d actually have to use it.”

“Keep looking, Midas. We’ll deal with the rest of it later.”

Haskell heard the voices as she swam up from the deepest sleep she’d ever experienced. She tried to shift from her prone position, but her body still felt heavy. A hand smoothed back her hair. She heard herself whimper, but it was as if the sound came from far away.

“The kids?” she whispered.

A cool cloth swiped over her forehead, nose, and cheeks. “Shh. Rest, colleen . Your body will know when it’s time to wake up. Sleep. ”

She went back under.

When she woke up again, this time, it was with immediate clarity. She wasn’t tired, but she was extremely hungry and thirsty. The bed she was in wasn’t very comfortable, or maybe she’d just been in it too long, and her feet felt weighed down.

She looked down at the foot of the bed. “Zade?” The dog’s tail thumped against the bed wildly at the sound of Haskell’s voice. She slithered up the bed, crawling like an army man on his belly, and then she proceeded to wash Haskell’s face with big, sloppy strokes of her tongue.

“Glad you’re okay, girl. You missing your daddy?” She stroked the dog’s head while it whined. “I know, I know. Me too. We’re gonna find him.”

“Welcome back,” a deep voice said.

The dog didn’t move, so the voice clearly wasn’t a threat to her.

She looked over to her left. In a chair along the wall sat a man she’d never seen before. Even sitting down, she could tell he was a big man. Probably as big as TB. Muscles on muscles. She couldn’t see his face as he kept that in the shadows.

“Who are you?”

“Someone with a vested interest in Nemo.”

Haskell felt herself stiffen. “I’m not telling you anything. I don’t know you.”

The man smiled. “My apologies. A sincere vested interest in Nemo, my employee.”

She stared. “You’re God.”

“In the flesh.”

“Shouldn’t you be appearing as a burning bush or something?”

God chuckled. “A bit theatrical for my taste. However, like my namesake, I do need you to do something for me. ”

“Please tell me you’re not going to ask me to build an ark,” she teased.

“Only if you can tell me what the hell a cubit is. One of life’s great mysteries. No, Gem, I need you to lead my people somewhere.”

She smiled. Then her face fell. “They haven’t found him yet, have they?”

“No. I was hoping you might be able to help with that.”

“Murphy Mine, South Africa. Pharaoh Kader has him.”

“Thank you, Gem.” He used a cane to stand. His movements to the door were stilted, but he managed to move silently. When he reached the door, he stopped. “I know you care for him a great deal, as much as he cares for you. But I ask you to remember your commitment to Mythos. Nemo will be a huge temptation to you to throw everything to the wind for him. To do so, however, would be… inadvisable.”

“You don’t make decisions for me. No one does but me. It’s none of your business what choices I make.”

He sighed. “Trust me, Gem. Stay with Mythos. It will make things painful for him, but it will serve you both best in the end.”

The door quietly snicked shut. She sat there staring at the wall in front of her, absently stroking through Scheherazade’s fur. She had no idea how long it was before the door opened again.

This time, it was TB. “Hey. Glad to see you’re up. How are you feeling?”

“Oddly enough, I feel fine. Is everyone here? We need to start planning how to get Nemo back.”

“We’ve been looking. There’s been no sign of him. His tracker went dead.”

“I just told God where he was. He didn’t tell you? ”

TB stared at Gem. “How did you tell him? There’s no phone in here.”

She looked at him like he was crazy. “I told him in person. He was just here.” She flicked a hand to the chair.

TB clicked a button on his watch and barked into it, “Midas. Search the cameras. God was just here. He visited Gem. I was only out of the room for thirty minutes, so it can’t have been long. And get everybody in here. She knows where Nemo is.”

A flurry of footsteps could be heard in the hallway, coming from both down the hall and from downstairs.

“God was here ?” Midas’ eyes were practically bugging out of his head.

“Where the hell has he been?” Demon demanded.

“What did he say?” Steel asked.

“What does he look like?” TB asked.

“How the ever-loving fuck did he get past security?” Waters bellowed at Midas.

The Tribe started arguing amongst themselves.

Haskell stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled so loud it even hurt her ears. It did, however, get the cacophony of overlaying voices to stop. “Yes, he was here. He didn’t offer me a copy of his itinerary. He asked if I knew where they took Nemo. I couldn’t see his face because it was in the shadows. And his name is freakin’ ‘God,’ so he probably appeared in a bolt of lightning and left the same way. Now will you wankers please shut the fuck up so I can tell you where Nemo is since he didn’t?”

The men were all staring at her. “Sorry, Gem,” TB apologized. “We just haven’t spoken to him in weeks, and as far as we know, he’s never been seen by anyone other than Cherry or Kubrick. Of course we want to know what you have on Nemo.”

“And I want to know what that son of a fuck, Ka-Bar, was doing keeping you prisoner.” Waters’ face was so red she worried he might spontaneously combust.

Midas grinned. “That’s a new Kubrickism for the board. I like it.”

“Fantastic. I’m glad you’re impressed with my woman’s ability to swear,” Waters growled at him.

“Okay, everyone needs to calm down. Here’s what I know. Goons One and Two took me to the original mine’s control room. After my earbuds got destroyed, Ka-Bar arrived to talk to me. He told me that Nemo was removed through the second tunnel on the same side of the chasm we were on to get the sample. It has a path to get into it with full-size vehicles. Hemeda and Pilis were taking him to Pharaoh Kader. Have you heard from them yet?”

“No,” Waters said. “What do they want with him?”

“They wanted TB or you, but they settled for Nemo.” Gem scowled at Waters. “How long has it been since you pulled me from the camp?”

TB spoke up. “When we lost contact, Cerberus told us to look for an air shaft. Said you’d escape, either alone or with Nemo, and that’s how you would do it. You appeared at the top of it almost twelve hours after you were taken. You were covered in dirt and delirious. Dehydrated. Once we had you, Cerberus blew the water tower as a diversion, and Medusa came screaming in on her ‘little bird.’” He put the phrase in air quotes with his voice. “That was yesterday. This is the first time you’ve been aware of anything around you.”

“Bloody hell,” she muttered. “Why haven’t they contacted you yet?” She looked back to Waters, worrying her bottom lip. “Nemo was taken away immediately. He’s a bargaining chip. They’re going to ask for Zahra and the boy in trade for him. If you don’t comply, they’ll kill Nemo. If you do comply, they’ ll kill Zahra.

“Where did they take him?”

“You can’t let him be traded. If you do, they’ll kill Zahra. They… they’ve made a deal with the devil.”

Tension vibrated throughout the room.

“What do you mean?” TB asked.

“The Kaders have pledged themselves to the Salieri. It’s a loyalty test.”

“Okay, I’m done with this. Who the fuck are the Salieri? No bullshit anymore, Gem. You, or someone, needs to start talking now.”

Her fingers pinched and unpinched the blanket edge. “Medusa could explain it better, but basically, they’re a form of crime family. They have people all over the world, and if it’s criminal, they’re involved in it. They’ve been around for centuries, and they have very… specific rules. The Kaders have pledged to murder Zahra in order to join.”

“What the fuck? Why does Zahra need to be murdered?”

“Because she’s a woman. There are no women Salieri. Men who join the Salieri are forced to remove their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, wives, and daughters from their direct bloodline and forsake their extended family,” she whispered.

“What the ever-loving fuck?” Demon bellowed.

“That’s beyond barbaric,” Steel muttered.

“How do they manage to keep this secret?” Waters asked.

“Their policies, believe it or not, are very similar to Tribe’s policies. When Cherry offered me the job way back when, she told me that if I opened that folder and then said no, I would disappear. It was too big of a risk to take when my da needed me so badly. The Salieri work on much the same principle. If you’re offered membership and you don’t take it, it’s a death sentence. Both groups are extremely selective, and both groups do their due diligence and research fully so that they know if someone is worth their effort or not. ”

“And why are the Kaders worth the effort?” Demon asked.

“The mines,” Waters supplied. “Somehow, the Salieri found out about the stones in the mines where they shouldn’t be together, and they’re going to use the Kaders to get access to them.”

“Yes,” Gem agreed. “But eventually, they’ll use them and throw them away, taking over the mines for themselves until they use up its resources.”

“This is all good information, but it doesn’t resolve our current issue, which is Nemo,” TB pointed out.

Waters held up his hands in surrender. “True. But it does help us know what we’re up against.” He focused on Gem. “What can you tell us about Nemo’s situation?”

“Ka-Bar said that he was being taken to the abandoned Murphy Mine in South Africa.”

“Is this another situation like what was going on in the Mzingwane Mine?” Waters asked.

“Yes, and the Kaders are also in control of this illegal mining operation, but it’s in its infancy stages. Before they can make that mine pay, they need to blast the veins they found. Pharaoh is going to use the combination of his trade for Zahra and the new mine as his ticket into the Salieri.”

Waters snapped into project mode. “Okay, gang, wash, rinse, repeat. Midas, start pulling up anything and everything?—”

“—on the Murphy Mine. On it.”

“Steel. I need you to check in with the safe house. Make sure everything is good with Zahra and the boy. Double the guard, tighten the rotation, and make sure everyone understands they are on complete lockdown until we give them the signal. No exceptions.

“TB. Get with Cerberus. If it causes blood loss or things to go boom, I want it in working order and ready to be used. Tear everything apart. Clean it. Reassemble it. Make sure it has ample ammunition.

“Demon, get Medusa out of bed and have her get her little bird ready to fly again. Make sure Gem is good to go, get food in her, then put her back to bed to rest up. Then check, double-check, and triple-check the status of our medical supplies. When we get him back, he’s likely to be in shit shape, so think about everything that could possibly be wrong with him and make sure we have whatever is needed to treat it, fix it, or heal it.

“Loki and Gilgamesh are working on a plan to get those kids out of Mzingwane. I’ll let them know they’re going to double down on what we’re going to find at the Murphy Mine. Then, I’m going to call Cherry and convince her to get God on the line. Between Loki, Gilgamesh, God, and me, we need to find contacts to help us out. Go!”

The men scattered to their tasks. Waters walked up to Gem’s bedside. “Your job is to rest and do whatever Demon tells you to do. We need your help to get him out of this.” Waters’ face had a strange look on it. “When he comes back, you’re both going to have choices to make. Make the right ones.”