Chapter 23
Daleyza
The group sat, spread out among several tables, but because they all had comms in their ears and the microphones on their watches turned on, they gave the illusion of only speaking to each other when they were all conversing.
She had removed hers, shoving it into her pocket, unable to focus on their discussion.
At some point, she would need to tune back in, but Ildefanso had seen her unobtrusively remove it, and he would let her know when she needed to put it back in and contribute.
Although he’d held her in the forest, her body had been unable to reciprocate. She’d wanted to. Inside, she’d screamed at her arms to curl around him and take the comfort he was offering her, but they wouldn’t respond.
Now he sat beside her, his arm spread across the back of her chair, for all the world looking like her husband or boyfriend, as they sat across from Gem and Nemo.
Two couples at the top of Cerro Otto, admiring the view while drinking hot chocolate, eating lunch, and enjoying each other’s company.
At least, as far as the world around them was concerned.
Not that she’d been contributing to that image.
Once they’d moved inside the facility at the top of the mountain, the conversation with God had to be curtailed, and she’d shut down again.
All her energy allowed her to do was stare out at the scenery as the restaurant rotated. She wasn’t even really seeing anything.
“Oof.” Ildefanso sat upright from his relaxed position with a wince, and he appeared to be rubbing his shin under the table.
“I think Scheherazade needs to go outside,” Gem told Nemo during a break in conversation.
Obtuse to her message, the man frowned as he looked down at the dog lying at his side, happily munching on a piece of unsugared apple strudel. “She was just outside.”
“I’m sorry,” she apologized through her teeth. “I meant, I need to go outside.”
“Kitty cat, if you need the ladies’ room—”
She grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and pulled violently. “You’re a moron, you know that?”
He was still arguing with her confusedly as she dragged him out of the dining room, the dog exiting with them, the last of the strudel clenched between her jaws.
Ildefanso’s arm went back around her chair. He pushed her plate closer to her. “You need to eat, belleza.”
The words processed, but she was so tired, she couldn’t even summon the energy to answer. Between the tension with Ildefanso, the pain of being back home, the hike to the summit, and their conversation with God, she’d hit her maximum bandwidth. Something had to give.
“Please,” he begged. “I know you’re angry with me. You have every right to be, but you’re going to need your strength. We don’t exactly eat on regular hours, and sometimes we go longer than usual between meals.”
What he said made sense. She turned to look back at her plate and reached for the sandwich. It felt as if she were moving through a pool of water up to her neck.
“Can you forgive me, angel?”
Listlessly, she picked at the sandwich, tearing off pieces and putting them in her mouth. It tasted like ash. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
“There’s much that needs forgiving.”
“Even if it were true, it’s too late now.”
His head snapped toward the door, and he gestured to her pocket. He wanted her to put the comm back in. As she complied, she came into the middle of a conversation. Nemo was speaking. “—on your phones as we speak.”
Steel pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and pulled up a secure text chain. “Madre de Dios!”
On the screen was a photo of an older man, looking to be in his sixties. His face had a hawklike visage, with dark hair cut tight to his head, the hairline receding and turning gray.
“He’s got company. A guy I don’t recognize.
” Another photo came through. This was a younger man, fairly nondescript.
Caucasian. Bundled up for cold weather, sunglasses on, and all they could really see was his nose, cheeks, and part of his mouth.
No distinguishing marks and unremarkable features. He could be anyone.
“I’d say we’re in the right place,” God replied.
Studying the photo, she murmured, “He looks familiar.”
Steel pushed the phone closer to her on the table. “Which one?”
Several voices started speaking over one another on the comms, but she barely heard them. “The older man. If it’s him, he’s much older than I remember. It was a long time ago.” She looked up at Steel. “I’m pretty certain he visited my father on several occasions. It was before our marriage.”
“Do you know his name?” Steel asked her.
His face was blank, but there was something behind Ildefanso’s eyes. Like he knew the man and was searching to see what she knew. It was a cold and cruel look, and one she’d seen on his face often when working for his family. She felt very lucky to know it had never been aimed at her.
“His first name was Eli, I think.” She shook her head.
“No, that’s not right, but something similar.
I don’t remember. We were never introduced.
I saw him once or twice in my father’s office and once at a party.
The president was there, and a bunch of other dignitaries.
I think he wore a military uniform when I saw him. ”
“Elliott Howard,” Steel offered. “Does that name sound familiar to you?”
She raised her head and nodded at him. “Yes, that’s it.”
“This is important, Daleyza.” His hand grabbed hers, where it sat on the table. “Think. Do you remember what the event was?”
Trying to concentrate, she removed her fingers to massage her temples, as if the motion would make the thoughts clearer.
She’d been fairly young. Sixteen? There’d been dancing, she remembered that, and fancy food that she hadn’t enjoyed.
After the party, her abuela had brought her some choripán and dulce de leche, two of her favorite foods.
“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I don’t remember. I do know it wasn’t long after my quinceanera because I insisted on wearing my same dress. It made me feel like a fairy princess.”
“I didn’t think Argentinians did quinceaneras anymore,” TB said.
“They don’t, as a rule. But my family is very old-fashioned. Traditions like that would have been a signal of our family’s wealth and privilege.”
“Hence the arranged marriage,” Steel said.
“With my brother now in charge, it’s impossible to say which traditions he keeps anymore, not that things like a girl’s party matter in your current situation.”
“No,” God agreed, “but it does give us insight into how mired in tradition he is. That, actually, can tell us quite a lot about how he will react, security measures, things like that.”
“Well, if he’s keeping Waters in an oubliette, I’d say that’s pretty traditional,” Demon pointed out.
“Possibly. But oubliettes would be an effective prison, traditional or not,” Steel argued. “One way in, one way out. Very little security needed. Probably only one man at the entrance.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” God said. “What about the other man, Daleyza? Do you recognize him at all?”
“No. I’ve never seen him. Or if I have, I don’t remember him.”
“All right. Midas, are you still online?”
“I’m here,” he replied.
“Add our new mystery man to your visual surveillance.”
“You got it.”
“Also, go back into whatever archives you can find and see what official events would have occurred in the weeks and months around Daleyza’s quinceanera. Maybe we can narrow down which event Howard might have attended.”
“What is Howard doing now?” Steel asked.
“He’s leaving via the cable car.”
“Is he alone?”
“No. He’s still with our mystery guy. Gem and I are going to follow. We’ll be two cars behind them.”
“Stay in touch,” God ordered. “Don’t do anything rash.”
Gem snorted. “No. Not Nemo.”
“Hey. Sarcasm is very unbecoming in a lady,” Nemo quipped.
“Where do you see a lady?” Gem pushed back.
“Both of you. Be serious, for once.”
There was a double snort over the line before it went quiet.
“I swear, it’s like herding cats who are herding goldfish,” God muttered.
“All right, people. We need information before we can proceed. In your travel groups, I want everyone to journey back to the hotel, not all at the same time, please. When Midas has some information, we’ll regroup and go from there. ”
TB and Demon left first while God and Loki paid the bill for the table, then they followed. Gilgamesh left several moments later. Meanwhile, she and Ildefanso sat, their gazes drawn back to the mountains.
“This man. He’s involved in all of this?” she asked.
“Directly involved. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll try.
A long time ago, before the time of Christ, a man named himself Salieri.
He selected seven of his most trusted companions, and he named them the Worthy.
He then sent each of them to a different continent, armed with a bible, of sorts, with rules he thought would make a great society.
The organization at large refers to itself as the Salieri, as if it’s a living extension of the man. A hive mind, of sorts.
“Throughout time, those men have followed particular policies and breeding practices, which have allowed them to increase their numbers into the tens of thousands. In recent years, they’ve resorted to sex trafficking to meet their needs.
Last April, we captured one of the direct descendants of the Worthy.
Unfortunately, General Howard, a man named Zion Norton, and a boy named Andres Deschamps escaped.
Since then, we managed to track down and eliminate Zion, but Howard and the boy are still in the wind. ”
Air felt trapped in her lungs. “I know that name.”
“Zion Norton?”
“Yes. Tall, thin. Almost cruel-looking. British accent.” She shivered. “I don’t scare easy, but he frightened me.”
He tapped a button on his watch, and God’s voice filled their ears again.
“What is it, Steel?”
“Daleyza knows of Zion Norton as well.”
“How?” the man barked.