Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  Sam conceded. “Fine. We'll see this associate of yours. We'll hear him out.”

  “Yes,” Daisy said, pleased to be out of their standstill. “Just really listen, okay? He's a bit...out there.”

  This expert must have been extremely strange if someone as odd as Daisy thought that he was weird. That wasn't very comforting to hear. It made Sam somehow even more pessimistic, and he didn't think that was possible. He glanced down at the map in front of them.

  “So where is he?”

  4

  THE HOMELESS MAN

  Naturally, the other expert on Greek mythology lived on the coast of Greece. He clearly kept close to his studies. They were supposed to meet him on a bench by the docks.

  “So what are this man's qualifications?” Sam asked.

  “He is one of the world's top specialists when it comes to Ancient Greece, including its pantheon of gods. He is highly regarded by anyone who has any interest in the study of the Greek gods.”

  That probably meant that Sam wasn't going to hold him in high regard. He appreciated the warning, and that he wasn't being led to believe that this man was going to be legitimate. If he was anything like Daisy, then Sam knew that this probably wouldn't be the best use of his time. He was just going to go off about nonsense that couldn't possibly be real and pretend that it was real history. That was so frustrating and Sam wasn't ready for more of it. It was one thing for Daisy to be like that, but multiple people just made him lose hope in the intelligence of humanity. Were we all reverting back to believing that myths were fact instead of fiction? It felt like they were on the precipice of building temples in the honor of Apollo and Zeus again, but that was probably because he was just spending so much time with Daisy and her flexible idea of what was reality.

  They waited for quite some time. Whoever this associate of hers was, he was definitely not someone that believed in punctuality. Sam was about ready to throw in the towel and leave when he noticed a figure walking down the pier in their direction. He took one look at the man though and knew it couldn't have been who they were looking for.

  Daisy proved him wrong though. “Finally. That's him!”

  Sam couldn't believe his eyes. He must have been missing the real guy, just out of sight or something. But as the man drew closer and closer to them, it became clear that he was the only other person on the docks, and the only option that Daisy could have been talking about.

  Mr. Irving wasn't at all what Sam expected. He imagined that an expert on Greek mythology would look a bit more scholarly, but with a few eccentric quirks here or there. He would have settled for a peculiar fashion style or a strange look in his eyes, but what he got was much more extreme. Mr. Irving was a shabby looking man in tattered clothing. A graying brown beard hung from his face and he looked like he hadn't had a decent meal in weeks. The worst part was that he utterly reeked of fish and Sam almost gagged just from the smell. He had never been a fan of that smell and was what mostly turned him off of seafood. This man must have had to bathe with fish or something to smell like that. It was overwhelming and Sam instinctively took a step away. Whatever the man's unfortunate situation was, Sam really wished that he would reacquaint himself with personal hygiene because he currently was a threat to anyone nearby and their sense of smell.

  Sam really didn't expect much when he heard about Daisy's associate. His expectations were incredibly low, so low that it almost would have been impossible not to be better than them, but somehow this man wasn't even reaching those excessively low expectations. This meeting was already seeming like a waste of time but again, Purdue's words crept into Sam's head about keeping an open mind.

  Sam usually tried to refrain from judging a book by its cover, but there was a difference between that and judging someone based on how they presented themselves when that presentation was assaulting your nostrils. It was hard not to judge in a situation like that, and they haven't even gotten to talking about the Greek gods yet. Sam wasn't very hopeful.

  “Mr. Irving,” Daisy said with a nod of her head. “It's been awhile. I'm not sure if your remember me. I'm Daisy Judge. We collaborated a few times.”

  “I remember,” the man said, still looking out to sea. “When you get to my age, you remember a great many things...or you don't remember anything at all. There is no in-between. It will be all or nothing.”

  The man had a bushy brown beard with streaks of gray running through it. His hair was long and unkempt, poking out from underneath his knitted cap. His clothes were dirty and torn, like he had been wearing them for months on end. He looked like so many homeless people that Sam had seen but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. He wouldn't have been surprised, though, since being a Zeus expert probably wasn't a big help in paying bills.

  “I love seeing familiar faces but why have you come looking for me, Miss Judge?”

  “We need your help,” Daisy said. “And I know that you know a whole lot about Ancient Greek artifacts.”

  “I do indeed,” Mr. Irving said, brushing himself off. “But weren't you full of knowledge yourself?” The man let out a hoarse, wet laugh. “And who is this then? Your boyfriend? Your husband?”

  Sam and Daisy both broke into fits of uncomfortable laughter at the same time. When they could finally breathe again, Sam shook his head. “No, no. I am definitely not any of those.”

  “This is Sam Cleave. He's my assistant on this expedition I'm on.”

  Sam couldn't believe what he was hearing and laughed again. “Your assistant...no. I'm pretty sure that you're my assistant on this. I've been with Purdue for years.”

  “Sure, but I have far more experience with Greek relics and considering this involves Poseidon...”

  “We don't know that it involves—”

  “You agreed to keep an open mind. Remember?”

  “You sure you are not married?” Mr. Irving cackled from where he sat. “Because you sure bicker like you are. I don't care who is in charge of what. It makes very little difference to me. You mentioned a Greek relic. I hope you have it with you.”

  “Of course,” Daisy said, pulling out the pearl.

  Mr. Irving practically snatched the pearl from Daisy's grasp and held it in front of his bloodshot eyes. “Well, well, well, isn't that a beauty? A real beauty.”

  “Do you know what it is?” Purdue asked.

  “Of course I know what it is!” Mr. Irving chuckled. “This right here is unmistakable. One of the three pearls that once adorned Poseidon's trident. That much is obvious!”

  Sam ignored a glance from Daisy. She must have felt very validated but it would take more than a second opinion from another crazy person to convince Sam. Just because two people were saying the same thing, believed the same thing, it didn't necessarily make it a fact.

  Sam took the pearl back from the man's hand, looking him over suspiciously. “You sound pretty certain. How exactly do you know that?”

  “Because like your friend, Miss Judge, said...I know a lot about this.”

  “Yeah?” Sam was trying to keep his irritability in check but it was proving to be difficult. “Do a lot of studying? A lot of research? With what book exactly?”

  Mr. Irving laughed again, a throaty laugh like he was drowning in his own saliva. He launched a glob of spit to the ground. “More like firsthand experience. It's the only way to learn about anything. These eyes of mine have seen years and years more than you, boy. Plenty of time to do some real learning.”

  “What else do you know about the pearls?” Daisy asked. “I only know the stories...”

  “But not the details,” Mr. Irving said. “Yeah, they do tend to leave the most important parts out of those bedtime stories, don't they? It's a real shame. Some of the best things are the things that don't get talked about.”

  “What else?” Sam asked again.

  All of the investigative work he used to do was full of interviewing witnesses that like to beat around the bush. They liked to drag things out and getting answers from them wa
s like pulling teeth. He was used to questioning people like Mr. Irving—people who didn't seem to be right in the head. Sam was just out of practice, a bit rusty in his approach. He didn't quite have the patience that he used to have with these kinds of people.

  “What else!?” he repeated when Mr. Irving just grinned.

  “You only have the one?”

  “Yes,” Daisy said. “We're looking for the other two.”

  “And where did you find that one?”

  Sam could feel his annoyance building again. They didn't owe this man any answers but he was the one asking most of the questions. That wasn't how this was supposed to happen. “That's none of your business.”

  Daisy gave him a hard nudge to his side with her elbow and spoke in a much friendlier tone. “We found this one at the bottom of the ocean.”

  Sam hated her use of “we” when talking about that. Daisy had nothing to do with finding the pearl. She wasn't there when Purdue made that dive to the deepest, darkest depths of the sea. She had no right to pretend that she helped find it.

  Mr. Irving's eyes widened with surprise and he looked taken aback. For the first time in this conversation, he didn't seem to have control of the situation. He scratched his hairy chin and ran his fingers through his beard.

  “The bottom of the ocean...imagine that...that is certainly interesting.” He started mumbling to himself under his breath but Sam thought he heard something about a nose. “One of the pearls was found by some pirate hundreds of years back. Last I heard, he was using its power to give him an edge on all of his enemies at sea. They could fire their cannons as much as they wanted...with the pearl, this pirate could sink their vessels with just a thought...not exactly a fair fight, was it? If that pearl ended upon the ocean floor, that pirate must have finally sunk too.”

  Purdue had told Sam all about the pirate, Walton Ogden, and how he had thrown the pearl into the sea to get rid of it, seeing how dangerous it was to have. Mr. Irving wasn't entirely right, but he was on the right track.

  “Which means the other two pearls...” Mr. Irving started looking out at the ocean contemplatively, pursing his lips while thinking of the right thing to say. “One is sitting on a small piece of land on the eastern coast of America, a shore where horses like to tread. The other...well...it's somewhat complicated.”

  “I've dealt with complicated before.” Sam wasn't posturing. He'd been through plenty of challenges that had taken all kinds of effort to overcome. He had faced death, loss, and done things he never imagined that he would for the sake of the search.

  “You aren't the only ones that have one of the pearls. There is another person who has one in their possession. And that's only since last I heard, which was some time ago. There is a chance that they might not have it anymore.”

  “Who was it?”

  “An heiress...” Mr. Irving seemed to be searching through his own memory banks, filing through it for a name. “Erica Diosa, I believe. She lives in Athens...or at least she did.”

  If that was the truth, then it complicated an already complicated situation. It was quite a bit harder to steal something than it was to just find something. It presented a whole different set of risks—including that you were guaranteed to make an enemy of someone if you stole from them. Succeeding in your heist guaranteed that someone was going to be very angry.

  “So we're what? Supposed to just steal it from her?”

  “How should I know?” Mr. Irving said with a raise of his shoulders. “It's entirely up to you how you would like to handle it, if it's even still there at all. I can only tell you what I know, I can't tell you how to get your job done. So yes, one of them should be in Athens with Erica Diosa and the other, last I knew, was on an island called Assateague Island.”

  “If you knew where the pearls were, why didn't you go get them?”

  “They are not mine to take,” Mr. Irving said and shrugged again. “This might surprise you, Mr. Purdue, but not everyone wants to own everything. Some things just need to be left alone. It wasn't my place to take them from where they have ended up.”

  “How noble of you,” Sam said. “It would have saved us some trouble.”

  “Those pearls belong to a god,” Mr. Irving said with some caution. “I would never take from Poseidon and if Poseidon is demanding you give them back to him, I suggest you do that and with some haste. If you knew anything about the gods, then you would know how powerful Poseidon is...and that he's not always the most forgiving of gods. You need to get those pearls back to him before we all suffer for it.”

  Sam wasn't sure exactly what he meant by that. His mind drifted to thoughts of tsunamis coming to hit coastlines and earthquakes of magnitudes that had never been recorded before. Though that moment of imagination passed and he remembered that Poseidon wasn't real. There was no need to fear the ramifications of his anger if he didn't exist to carry them out. But if he did really exist, then they could really be in some serious trouble.

  “Get those back to him, quickly,” Mr. Irving said with wide eyes. “You will do that for me, for all of us, yes? Right, Daisy?”

  “Of course,” Daisy said reassuringly, sharing in Mr. Irving's worry. “We are going to get the pearls back and he will be appeased. We'll all be okay.”

  “Good, thank you,” Mr. Irving said. “And thank you, David Purdue. Please don't dillydally. The sea is not something that you want to upset any more than it already is.” Mr. Irving took a step away before he suddenly stopped and his eyes widened. “Oh! I almost forgot! I brought along something that might help!”

  He reached into his bag and pulled out a long cylindrical rolled up scroll. When he unrolled it, it revealed a very old map. It wasn't exactly accurate compared to most navigational charts these days but they didn't quite have the technological capabilities to accurately display the world. There weren't any satellites for one thing. It was very crude but it was recognizable. Someone long after the map had originally been drawn had put it on top of a large piece of paper that bordered the map, displaying the longitude and latitude to help decipher what exactly it was showing.

  “This chart was made long ago by navigators hired by disciples of a temple that worshipped Poseidon to showcase his domain. This shows all of the oceans of the known world at the time and is mapped out to the best of their abilities of the time. Of course, it's not entirely accurate...but it might be of some help so I decided to bring it along. You will need to bring the pearls back to Poseidon's trident. You won't be able to get to the trident without all three of the pearls. The location of the trident may even be on this map.”

  Sam wasn't convinced by the chart but took it anyway. He wouldn't have been surprised if the map was nothing but a fake that was made just to try to convince people of the existence of the gods. The trident being displayed on the map...Sam kind of doubted it, but he knew better than to discard possible clues. Any little thing might end up being helpful in the end.

  “You don't want to come with us?” Daisy asked Irving.

  Sam cut in. “He wasn't invited.”

  “No, no,” Mr. Irving said. “I'm afraid I would only just get in the way in such matters. I wish you safe travels,” Mr. Irving said. “The sea is an unpredictable place. Who knows what the next wave might bring.”

  5

  THE EXPECTED SEA VOYAGE

  Sam was looking forward to speaking with someone sensible again so he called Purdue and told him everything Mr. Irving had claimed. Purdue was very quiet on the other end of the line, only sporadically asking a question or giving input. Purdue was much more accepting of the crazier things that had come out of Mr. Irving's mouth than Sam was. Either that, or he was just distracted by his continual research into their unseen foe. Either way, he didn't seem overly impressed or alarmed by the task at hand. It all sounded absurd to Sam but he wasn't going to complain. At least he was doing something that might be able to help the Order. Purdue had finally offered him something important to do. He just wished that he was doing it i
n better company and not with a person that he wouldn't trust with a textbook let alone with his life.

  “I can get you a boat,” Purdue said. “And you will set sail immediately after that?”

  “I think so,” Sam said.

  “Brilliant, I have just the vessel in mind. It would be perfect for this.”

  It didn't take long for that ship to arrive and Sam recognized the vessel and the woman that stood in front of them on the dock—Aya.

  She had helped Purdue during his nautical searches for Walton Ogden's gold and later for the first pearl. That's when Sam met her. She and her crew used to work for Jamaica's biggest crime boss, the Wharf Man. However, they turned on him to help Purdue. Sam was honestly surprised that they weren't all members of the Black Sun now after that, but maybe it was their choice to not be part of the Order. They were probably just enjoying their freedom now that they were out from under the Wharf Man's thumb.

  Aya smiled when she saw him. “How are you, Mr. Cleave?”

  “I am doing much better than the last time I saw you. How about you? What are you doing here?”

  “Purdue asked me to ferry you on this new search of yours.”

  That made sense. Both Purdue and Sam knew that Aya's crew was reliable and could be counted on in a tough situation. Sam was actually feeling very happy to see a familiar face. Aya would be someone to turn to when he would be annoyed by Daisy's stories at least.

  Daisy introduced herself to Aya. “You have worked with Sam before?”

  “Yes,” Aya said. “A short while ago. Mostly, we just sat around waiting for Purdue to come up from the bottom of the ocean.”

  “Good times,” Sam said. “Has Purdue told you anything about what we're after this time?”