Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  She seemed so helpless at the time but eventually he would see just how good of an acting performance she was giving. She was really nothing like that nervous, rickety old woman on the bench, but how was he supposed to have known that at the time? His exceptional deduction skills could only get him so far sometimes. And as a police officer, it was almost a rule that he was expected to help old ladies cross the street. He didn't want to have to be an escort to this woman but at least he could shuttle her in his car so it wouldn't take too much time out of his day.

  “Of course, ma'am,” he said with a warm smile. He knew how to be personable. It was part of the job, even if it made him cringe inside. “It would be my pleasure.”

  She followed him to his car but it took longer to get there than he hoped. Her frail little body wasn't the fastest at walking. He was even more relieved that he didn't have to walk her home. Once they were finally in the car, something about the old woman changed. She seemed to have so much more life in her, like she was much younger now than she was just minutes prior. That was another thing he should have noticed at the time but he missed it. Something about this old lady made him not think as clearly. She was very convincing.

  After giving him an address to go to, they sat in silence for a few minutes but then a far stranger tone came out of the old woman's mouth. “I hope I found the right man. You are Inspector Amaro, are you not?”

  That is when he fully came to realize that she was sitting outside of police headquarters for a much more specific purpose. He should have seen it before. He turned to her and it was like he was seeing a different person in the passenger seat. She wasn't just some old lady worried about getting lost or getting home safely. There was much more to her than that. She was some kind of vastly intelligent creature wearing the wrinkled skin of an aging crone. That was what it felt like. There was something else—something much more threatening—behind those eyes.

  “I am,” Amaro said. “so I assume you want me to help you with something more than helping you get home, is that right? Well, ma'am, I do have a desk and an office that you're welcome to come to if you need my assistance. We would just have to make an appointment. My work is very busy right now as I am in the midst of a rather challenging investigation—”

  “I know,” the old lady said. “You are looking into the disappearance of Carmine Lorelli. That's part of the reason I came to you.”

  Amaro raised a curious brow. Was this going to actually be good for his case? Did she really know something? Was this finally a lead that could catapult him to some answers and to the truth behind this entire mystery?

  “Oh? Do you have information pertaining to my investigation then?” He tried not to sound too hungry for it but it was making him very excited and possibly even more curious. He couldn't get too anxious just in case this was some kind of trick or another one of the many dead-ends he had run into.

  “I do, yes, but I have to ask you some questions first.”

  That was unusual. In most cases, he was the one conducting the interviews and trying to get some answers. He supposed he could humor her for now though. If it would lead to more clues about Carmine Lorelli’s disappearance, then he would answer a few questions to satiate the old woman's curiosity.

  “Do you enjoy your work?”

  “I do, yes, very much. I wouldn't be doing it otherwise. Tormenting myself as a career has never been something I've been willing to work. If I'm going to work, I'm going to do something I legitimately find enjoyment in.”

  “I have heard that you are quite exceptional at your job too. You have an amazing track record and I assume a genius intellect.”

  Technically, he did but he wasn't the kind of person that liked to brag about it. Intelligence shouldn't be needlessly flaunted around after all.

  “So is this enough for you?” the old lady asked. “Or is there more to this world that you want to see? Don't you ever want different kinds of mysteries to solve?”

  He had thought along those lines before. There were times when the cases he was put on didn't quite do enough to quench his thirst for solving a difficult problem. Most of them were too easy and he didn't get all that much satisfaction out of those. It was only rarely that he ever do something that actually stumped him, that actually challenged his capabilities as a detective. The vanishing of Carmine Lorelli was one of those rare instances but those kinds of mysteries didn't come to him nearly often enough.

  “At times,” Inspector Amaro conceded. “But I think that comes naturally for any human, no matter what job it is. We all want more and we all imagine what that would be like. It's just human behavior. We crave progress and improvement. We all want to rise as high as we can, but so few of us ever make it past the first few steps.”

  12

  THE CREAKING SEAT

  Part of Nina wanted to let Purdue know about her meeting with the mysterious Old Lady but she knew him long enough to know how he would react. He wouldn't take it very well. He would get anxious, worried, and would probably beg her to reconsider. He was already so caught up in his own paranoia that she didn't want to just make it worse. This was an opportunity she had been given and it was up to her and her alone how she wanted to handle it. Was it dangerous? Yes. Risky? Absolutely. The rewards from this, though—what she could learn about their enemy—was potentially essential to ever having a chance of beating them.

  So for now, she was going to play along and act like she was legitimately interested in the possibility of joining them. She could play the new recruit for as long as she needed. If that lying inspector and his old mistress wanted to let Nina get so close to their secrets, she wasn't going to stop them. No, she was going to let them spill all of their secrets right to her. All they were really doing by showing her anything was giving her a chance to study their weaknesses and that could be very helpful to Purdue and the Order of the Black Sun down the line.

  He wouldn't like that she was meeting the Old Lady in secret but he could thank Nina later when her decision was beneficial in the end.

  They were walking inside of a building now; she knew that much even with the blindfold on but Amaro removed it just in time for her to see a door open in front of her. A room appeared past the swinging door.

  There was a woman sitting by the window, her rocking chair creaking beneath her as she swayed. Her hair was gray, tied tightly behind her head in a bun. She wore a long black dress with white trimming that reminded Nina of some sort of nun. She didn't acknowledge her visitors at first, not until Inspector Amaro knocked his knuckles against the door frame to signal their arrival.

  The Old Lady didn't move in her seat, except for shifting her head just enough to see who was in the doorway. Nina could see more of her face and saw that it was chiseled with wrinkles. Her eyeballs were yellow and worn, like it had seen too much in her long lifetime. She wasn't just old, she was practically ancient. When she smiled, she showed brittle yellow teeth that complimented and matched her eyes. The smile, despite looking broken and worn like the rest of her, was warmer than Nina expected it to be.

  This was the dreaded Old Lady that had disturbed Purdue so much? The same woman that had driven him into a state of paranoid terror? At first glance, Nina immediately felt disarmed by the frail old lady. Maybe she had expected too much from her—like some demonic fiend that was wearing an old lady's husk, or some sort of behemoth of a woman who would beat Purdue to death with her cane. It was suddenly hard to see the image of the Old Lady that Nina had built in her mind since hearing about her but she knew it didn't look anything like the woman in front of her sitting by the window. That much was certain.

  Inspector Amaro took an uneasy step into the room. Despite how fragile the old woman looked, Nina did notice that he already seemed very nervous by just being in her presence. There had to be something off about her to inspire that much fear from someone like Inspector Amaro, who seemed to be unfazed by just about everything. “I'm sorry to disturb you ma'am, but you asked to speak with Dr. Nina G
ould. I tracked her down, convinced her to give us a few minutes of her time, and I am pleased to tell you that this young woman beside me is the very same Dr. Gould. She has agreed to speak with you after all.”

  “What a nice surprise,” the Old Lady said with her pleasant smile. “Come closer, child. Let me get a better look at you.”

  Nina glanced to Inspector Amaro who waved her on. The Old Lady might not have been exactly what she expected, but Nina knew better than to completely lower her guard because of it. She approached slowly. The rest of the room seemed to fall away as she stepped closer to the waiting crone. The Old Lady's smile remained on her wrinkled face and she looked so happy to see Nina that Nina couldn't help but offer a polite smile back.

  “Dr. Nina Gould,” the Old Lady said. “I am so delighted to meet you. After everything my children told me, I had to see the legend for myself. You have made quite a name for yourself with all of your many adventures with that Purdue man. Yes, quite inspiring.”

  The Old Lady put a hand on each side of Nina's right hand, bracing it. Her skin felt like sandpaper and her touch was so cold that it sent a chill through Nina's body. Given how old she was, it was a surprise that she wasn't just a corpse at this point—she probably would be someday soon. She looked up from her rocking chair with so much admiration, like a proud grandmother.

  “You have made a name for yourself too,” Nina said with some uncertainty. She had to choose her words carefully. She didn't know a thing about this woman or how she might react. For all Nina knew, this frail woman could snap at the drop of a hat and turn into something very dangerous. “You're pretty much all Purdue has been talking about lately.”

  “Ah, yes,” the Old Lady giggled like a child. “I hope I'm keeping him up at night.”

  It was like she knew very well that she was. Purdue definitely hadn't been sleeping well lately and that could certainly be attributed to his fear of his invisible nemesis that was lurking about in the shadows—this old woman looked like she could barely hold a cup let alone concoct a plan for world destruction. She was the stuff of nightmares for Purdue, but now Nina couldn't imagine ever being that afraid of this old lady. Sure she was somewhat unsettling, but that was only because of how different she was than the stories that had been told.

  “But we don't need to talk too much about David Purdue. That rich man gets enough attention as it is. And now that he's in charge of the Order, I imagine he's letting all of its members attend to every want and whim he has, is that right?”

  For someone who didn't want to talk about Purdue, the Old Lady certainly had a lot to say about him. Whoever she was, she talked about Purdue like he was someone she knew personally, even on an intimate level. And she mentioned the Order without batting an eye. She obviously knew all about the Order of the Black Sun as well. So that part of Purdue's theory wasn't wrong. She may not be an obvious monster—or even a monster at all—but she did have vast knowledge and a long reach, just as Purdue feared.

  “You seem to know all about me,” Nina said, wanting to ease into whatever conversation this was going to turn into. “But I know very little about you...about any of this really.”

  “Ask away, my dear,” the Old Lady said. “What would you like to know?”

  “Your name, for one,” Nina said. “It's only proper to introduce yourself to a stranger, isn't it?”

  “I suppose it is,” the Old Lady said. “But for my protection, I remain nameless until someone can be trusted with my name.”

  “Nameless?” Nina said with a snort. “Just like your group. You guys have a real problem with names?”

  “Names are dangerous,” the Old Lady said. “And we are cautious.”

  “I thought I could ask whatever I wanted?”

  “I did not say that, child.” She turned to Inspector Amaro. “Donatello, bring this poor girl a chair. Immediately. We have so very much to discuss. There is so much you need to be made aware of, things that I can't let you not know for a moment longer.”

  Inspector Amaro did as he was told and left the room, bringing another chair a moment later and placing it beside the Old Lady. Nina wasn't used to seeing the detective be so dutiful. Usually he seemed to be playing his own game, like a game of chess by himself. He was usually so in control, dictating all conversations and plans that he was part of. But in her presence, he seemed so small, insignificant even. He was just a cog in a machine that the Old Lady built and Nina still wasn't sure what that machine could do exactly, or how big it was—and she was scared to find out. This whole group was still a complete unknown to her, despite being smack in the middle of their lion's den.

  Nina sat down in the chair that had been placed beside the Old Lady's rocking chair. The Old Lady still looked so pleased, like she had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She reminded Nina of her grandmother from when she was a child. Her grandmother always looked at her with so much joy, expectancy, and pride. The Old Lady had those same looks in her eyes as she studied Nina's face beside her. Nina wasn't exactly sure what she had done to earn the admiration of this woman, but it gave her a mixture of pride and unease.

  “So tell me about yourself, child,” the Old Lady said.

  “I think you already know everything about me,” Nina said sharply. “At least, it definitely feels that way. Your underlings have been following me around too. So, I doubt there's much that I can say that you don't already know.”

  Nina might not have feared the Old Lady very much but she also was a long way away from trusting her or from being friends. She didn't mind telling this old woman how she felt about the way she handled things. It might have been petty, but Nina was still quite angry about having apparently been stalked for some time by strangers—or at best, an Italian detective she barely knew.

  “I must apologize,” the Old Lady said. “They should never have been seen, or told you that they had ever even been there.”

  That was an interesting apology, Nina thought. The Old Lady wasn't apologizing for having Nina followed. She didn't have any remorse for sending her men to spy on Nina. No, she was mostly just disappointed that her underlings made it known that they were spying at all. She didn't regret the surveillance one bit.

  “Think of it like this, my dear,” the Old Lady said soothingly. “Athletes, performers, people like that are often viewed by scouts before they are recruited. They aren't usually aware that these scouts are even watching from the audience or from behind the scenes, and that's how the scouts like it. They don't want their presence to influence the one they are viewing. They want to see them as they are, raw and sincere, before making a decision about them.”

  “So that's what you consider yourself? A talent scout?”

  The Old Lady grinned with her yellowing teeth. “I have been known to have an eye for promising individuals. And you, my beautiful girl, are very promising...more promising than most of the drivel that have tried to become part of our collective here. To say that I am impressed would be just a most horrendous understatement. I am far more than that. I am thrilled that someone like you exists. Someone with so much talent on her own, but that also shares a history with the Order of the Black Sun. You are a perfect candidate to join our ranks.”

  So that's why they were so interested in her. They weren't just looking for someone with her skill set. They wanted someone with the connections that she had, especially with the Order of the Black Sun. They probably wanted to utilize her inside information against Purdue and the Black Sun but Nina was definitely not going to allow that to happen. She wasn't going to be turned into a mindless weapon for the Old Lady and her disturbingly loyal followers to use against her friends.

  “You want me to join something that I know nothing about...and you still can't at least give me a name. I've turned down jobs for much less than that. Contrary to your beliefs about your security measures, names are important. They aren't just about creating a brand. They establish a connection between the members of the group, so everyone knows what flag
they are fighting under. What do you expect your workers to put whenever they're asked about their employer?”

  “I will take your thoughts into consideration, Dr. Gould,” the Old Lady said. “Our lack of a name also separates us from other factions that do similar things to what we do...your friends, the Order of the Black Sun, for instance. There's no chance being mistaken for them when we don't have a name at all. Besides all that, it helps keep us hidden. A name would firmly establish something as a group, easy to bring down in one fell swoop. But nameless, we are all just individuals joining together to make our dreams reality.”

  “And what's your dream?” Nina asked. “Destroying the Order of the Black Sun?”

  The Old Lady's rocking chair came to a sudden halt as she put her toe to the floor. “It is not at all what you think, child. The Order of the Black Sun has been a blight upon this world for a very long time. They are a stain that needs to be removed. You think that David Purdue is going to somehow change that? No. I had hope for a moment that he was going to be able to get rid of the Black Sun for good during his battles with Julian Corvus...but then he decided to take control and push things in a new direction. That's futile.”

  “You're wrong,” Nina said. She had seen the results firsthand. She knew that Purdue's decision for the Order of the Black Sun was a good one. “He wants to do a lot of good for the world using the Order's resources and he already has. He's been making positive changes already.”

  “Perhaps,” the Old Lady said. “But it will not last. It never does. There have been many leaders of the Order of the Black Sun...and it always ends up the same. Believe me, I have seen it with my own eyes. The Order of the Black Sun was your enemy for years, weren't they? It might not seem like it right now but I promise you, they still are, even if you're a part of it. It does not matter who is running things now. Think about it. Think about that enormous collection of artifacts that they have locked away there. Do you really think any of those relics are actually safe there? Under David Purdue's leadership, I understand that your order is just collecting even more. That's not even including the ones that Purdue had collected before taking control of the Black Sun. The Order of the Black Sun is sitting on a stockpile of some of the planet's most valuable and even some of its most dangerous items. The relics are just sitting there, waiting to get turned into a real mess. All of it is just to appease David Purdue. He just wants his retribution on the Black Sun. And to do that, he's willing to just strip the world of all of its history in the name of protecting it.”