Hellequin Chronicles 4: Prison of Hope

by Steve McHugh

  My mobile rang. “Hey, Nate,” Sky said, “We’re ready to go when you are.”

  “We’ll make our way up to you. How are we getting to London? I assume we’re flying.”

  “We’re taking the Blackhawk.”

  I could practically hear her smiling.

  “Great,” I said, with all the enthusiasm of being told you were about to be repeatedly kicked in the bollocks, and hung up.

  “From the way you sound, I guess we’re flying,” Tommy said.

  The word stuck in my throat a little: “Blackhawk.”

  “A helicopter? Wow, how you doin’?” There was no mocking in his voice.

  “You don’t like helicopters either?” Kasey asked.

  I liked helicopters even less than airplanes. I’d crashed three times in a helicopter, twice from being shot down and the third time from someone trying to kill me while we were both on-board. I’d ascertained that while I disliked helicopters immensely, they appeared to actively hate me. “I need to go get myself some whiskey,” I said.

  CHAPTER 26

  The journey took several hours, with a small stop in Paris for refueling despite the extra fuel the Blackhawk had on board. I sat and drank the bottle of whiskey the hotel had given me, while Tommy, Kasey, and Sky all did their best to ignore me. It was probably for the best; I doubt I’d have made good conversation.

  Sky informed us all that although Hades had tried to get hold of Hera, she hadn’t taken any of his calls. He’d left messages with members of her staff, but whether they told her that her life was in danger, he couldn’t say.

  We landed in London at a heliport on the southern bank of the river Thames, a large open space with several helipads, opposite Chelsea harbor. Once out of the helicopter, we found Olivia waiting for us.

  Kasey ran toward her mum and hugged her tightly, only moving so that her parents could kiss. Eventually, Olivia nodded toward Sky and me.

  “Are you causing trouble again?” Olivia asked me as the noise from the rotor blades died down. When the director of the southern England branch of the LOA asks if you’re causing trouble, it’s probably a good idea to stop doing things that bring you to her attention. Unfortunately, as she was Tommy’s partner, that was never going to happen.

  “I think technically I’m trying to stop trouble,” I pointed out.

  “Well, Hera won’t be happy to see you.”

  “She rarely is, but we’ll leave her for after we’ve seen Brutus. Hopefully, Hera will never need to be warned of Cronus’s plans.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Olivia asked, as we all walked away from the helipad.

  I shook my head. “No, but I like to have some optimism.”

  “While Sky can leave London whenever she wishes, her father is going to be another matter. I managed to call in a lot of favors a few years ago to get him access to Tommy’s security firm after what happened with the lich, favors from people I’m unconvinced I can call on again.”

  “That’s okay,” Sky said. “Dad’s trying to see who owes him what. He wants to be there when Cronus is taken down. I don’t think he trusts anyone outside of his organization at the moment. He’s worried about people using the situation to their advantage.”

  “With good reason,” Olivia told us. “There’s already a smattering of talk about something having happened at the facility. It’s only going to grow with time.”

  “We’ve got about forty-eight hours to get Cronus,” I said.

  “Lucie, I assume,” Olivia confirmed. “She mentioned something to me about her sitting on her report. She’s good people.”

  I nodded when it became apparent that everyone had turned to stare in my direction.

  “Does Brutus know we’re coming?” Sky asked.

  It was Olivia’s turn to nod. “By ‘we,’ you mean all of us,” she said. “I’m coming with you.”

  “What about Kasey?” Tommy asked.

  “She’s coming with us,” Olivia told him.

  Kasey’s grin could have been seen from space.

  Olivia didn’t even look in her daughter’s direction. “Young lady, if you do anything except what we tell you, I’ll have you sent back to Winchester to sit in my office, guarded by very professional people who will shadow every step you take.” Apart from being an incredibly influential member of the LOA, and Avalon as a whole, Olivia was also a powerful water elemental. When she tells you to behave, you behave.

  “Yes, mum,” Kasey conceded, although her smile had now changed into a subtle smirk.

  Olivia stopped and leveled her gaze at her daughter. “I mean it, Kase. No messing about. You do what we say, when we say it.”

  “Okay,” she said softly.

  Olivia kissed Kasey on the forehead and we all set off again, leaving the heliport compound, where we were met by half a dozen agents standing beside three black Mercedes SUVs. Four men and two women of various shapes and sizes, all of whom were wearing immaculate dark suits, which did little to hide the holsters they wore underneath their jackets. As we reached the cars, Olivia and Tommy climbed into the middle one, while Sky and I were motioned toward the last in the line.

  It was incredibly comfortable inside, and I would have happily had the ride be ten times as long. Unfortunately, time was not a luxury we had much of, and the trip was over quickly.

  Sky and I exited our car while the two agents remained in the driver and passenger seats. I looked up at the massive building that towered above us. The Aeneid wasn’t too far off, five hundred feet tall, and was by far the tallest building in the area.

  Sky and I waited while Tommy, Olivia, and Kasey left their SUV and joined us, along with a young female agent. The three vehicles drove off, presumably to the underground parking area, and we made our way into the expansive foyer of the building. From the outside appearance, it seemed the building had offices on the first ten floors and then housing for the top twenty-five, with the twenty-sixth being an exclusive penthouse that took up the entire floor.

  An unassuming, middle-aged woman sat behind the reception area, which was in between two corridors, each with a sign saying either “Office” or “Residential.” Olivia walked over and spoke to the woman while I glanced around, noticing the three guards standing at various points around the well-lit area, and a fourth who was sitting on an orange chair reading a magazine.

  “Nate,” Tommy said, getting my attention and then pointing toward Olivia, who was walking over to the corridor labeled “Residential.”

  As I walked past, one of the guards nodded a greeting at me, which I returned as the lift doors opened and we all stepped inside. The lift was all floor-to-ceiling mirrors, with a golden dragon painted on the ceiling.

  Olivia pushed the first number on the panel, 11, and there was a small jolt as the lift took off, the doors opening seconds later to show another large, open area. If the guards in the foyer were meant to be intimidating without seeming overly threatening, the half-dozen men on the eleventh floor beyond simply didn’t care how menacing they might appear. This was a declaration of power and a promise of what would happen to those who misbehaved. It wasn’t subtle, but then it was almost certainly not meant to be.

  We walked passed them without comment or incident; despite the presence of the weapons, we all knew none of them would even consider using them so long as we gave them no cause to consider us a threat. A couple of them even put their weapons away once they saw Kasey.

  At the far end of the room was a mazelike corridor that split off into several smaller corridors, all with doors along both sides. If you didn’t know where you were going, it would be easy to get lost. Brutus had once told me he’d based its design on the Minotaur’s lair near Knossos, although whether that was true or simply one of Brutus’s many twists on the truth, I was unsure.

  Eventually, we reached two massive, ornate doors that were guarded by two equally massive men. They nodded toward us and opened the doors, which led to another room with a few dozen more guards, all sitting
on comfortable couches scattered around the large room. Light spilled in through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that ran down one wall, and in the center, on a raised platform, was a golden throne.

  “Is that real?” Kasey asked, pointing toward the throne.

  “Yes, my dear,” a voice boomed as a man appeared from behind the platform.

  He wore a sharp black suit, which was clearly of the highest quality, and carried a walking cane, although I doubted he actually needed it.

  “Brutus, you dressed up,” I said as he walked toward us and shook my hand.

  “Well, Olivia called and told me you were arriving.” He glanced at Kasey. “Although she didn’t mention you’d be bringing her daughter along. My apologies for the armed guards; I do not wish to frighten you.”

  “I wasn’t frightened,” Kasey said. “I’ve been around enough people with guns and swords. Also, my dad turns into a giant werewolf. Guns are much less scary.”

  Brutus laughed, followed swiftly by several members of his court, who stood around the throne room.

  Brutus was a large man, easily over six and a half feet tall, and built like a heavyweight boxer. He cast an imposing figure. His dark hair was cut short, and he was clean-shaven, both of which were very different from when I’d last seen him. He was the kind of man you’d enjoy having a drink with, but you’d never want to do it too often. He had a personality that flickered from calm and warm to hostile in moments. I’d had both aspects pointed directly at me on more than one occasion. I didn’t exactly consider him a friend, but I had to admit I liked the guy. Sometimes.

  “So, why are you here?” Brutus asked after he’d shaken hands with Tommy, Olivia, and Sky, lingering slightly before releasing Sky’s hand. He’d always had a bit of a thing for her, and she’d always turned him down, making him want her even more.

  “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?” I asked.

  “I would, but my advisors don’t like it when I discuss things without them,” Brutus said, motioning over his shoulder to three men and a woman who sat watching us.

  Two of the men were twins, not quite identical, but near enough, although their names eluded me. They were tall and thin, with shaved heads, and each wore a gray version of Brutus’s suit. The woman’s name was Diana; she was the Roman goddess of moon and hunting, and I think birth, although I never really understood that part. To be fair, I don’t think she did either.

  “Nathan,” Diana said and walked over to hug me tightly. She smelled of strawberries. She wore a pair of jeans and a red T-shirt with a picture of The Beatles on the front. Diana was the kind of woman who turned heads wherever she went; roughly my height, although in the heels she was wearing, she was a few inches taller, with a face and body most super-models would kill for. Her dark hair was tied back in a braid, and since she was also half-werebear, her long elegant fingers contained enough strength that she could crush me like a bug if she so desired.

  “Diana, you’re looking wonderful,” I said as Brutus continued to talk to the rest of the group.

  “I don’t believe in dressing up for guests,” she said with a smile. “Not friendly ones anyway.”

  “Not sure how friendly we’ll be after this visit,” I admitted. “It’s not good news.”

  Diana’s smile never wavered. “I have your back.”

  She meant it too. Diana and I had gotten along since the day we’d met when I was a young man working for Merlin and he’d sent me to talk to Brutus. I was never really sure why Diana stayed with Brutus; she certainly had the charisma to have her own organization, but she’d never been interested in politics, preferring to help Brutus and his people.

  The third man, who had watched me intently from the moment we’d all arrived, chose that moment to get involved. “I hope this is important,” he said, as he got to his feet. His voice was low, and in those few words he managed to convey his unhappiness at our—or more specifically, my—presence.

  “Licinius,” I said with a forced smile.

  There are two types of sorcerer in the world; those who are happy to share information and experiences to better themselves and others, and those like Licinius. They see other sorcerers as automatic competition and treat them with disdain and suspicion because they’re too hung up on the possibility of giving away some huge secret about magic that they can do and assume no one else can. Licinius is a good few centuries older than me and likes to point out his ability to use Omega magic at every available opportunity, but in a way that suggests he’s somehow figured out something no one else possibly could. In short, Licinius was a wanker. A giant, colossal, fucking idiotic, arrogant wanker.

  “Nathaniel,” he said, intoning the word with the exact right amount of disdain and apathy at my presence.

  I also never understood why he refused to call me Nathan. Probably more stuff relating to his being a jerk. Diana placed a hand on my shoulder in a gesture of solidarity, a gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by Licinius, whose features darkened.

  “Maybe we should discuss this elsewhere,” Brutus said, finally noticing the tension surrounding us. He looked over at the twins, who shrugged but didn’t move. They were clearly quite happy to stay where they were. “Follow me,” he said to the rest of us, and we all followed him out of the throne room and back down the corridor to the lift, where Brutus took us up to the twenty-fourth floor.

  After exiting the lift and going through the only door available to us, we found ourselves in Brutus’s living room. The entire floor was his, and it was furnished with ancient pieces of art, pottery, and weapons. Two full suits of ancient Greek armor sat beside the windows that gave a wonderful view of the city hundreds of feet below us.

  Brutus motioned for everyone to sit on one of the two large black couches. A young blond woman, wearing some sort of gray and blue uniform, appeared out of nowhere, and Brutus sent her away to get drinks.

  “You have a maid?” I asked.

  “Several. I have butlers too,” he told us. “I’m a king, after all.”

  “How can you be king of England?” Kasey asked with all of the innocence that only someone can possess who has no idea of the minefield she’s just placed herself right in the middle of.

  The maid brought back a tray of drinks.

  “To answer your question,” Brutus said, selecting one of the glasses of what appeared to be lemonade and settling onto a leather chair, “I arrived here after being forced to leave the battle of Troy. England was ruled by giants, who didn’t appreciate the interference I and my people brought with us, so we defeated them and I crowned myself king. Unfortunately, Merlin had already claimed this country as Avalon territory, and we had a disagreement. We settled on the idea that I could keep London for myself, so while I’m not king of England, I am the king of London.”

  Brutus’s disagreement, was basically a fight between him and a still young Merlin, one Brutus lost handily. Over the years, Merlin regretted giving Brutus London, which had still been a tiny place at the time. Brutus doesn’t involve himself in the day-to-day city dealings but does require anyone from Avalon or one of the big organizations to ask his permission to enter the city limits. Although on the flip side of that, Brutus can’t leave the city without permission from Merlin, permission my old teacher was rarely eager to give.

  “We’ve got a problem,” I said and began telling Brutus about Cronus’s escape. Concern shot over his face as I described the involvement of the Vanguard and the krampus.

  “You think I was involved?” he asked. There was no anger in his voice, once I’d explained that Sky had gotten his name out of Sarah Hamilton’s spirit.

  I shook my head. “I think you know who Sarah Hamilton was, though.” I removed the Kituri dagger from inside my jacket and placed it on the table before us.

  Licinius, who’d stood behind Brutus, almost leaped over the back of the couch to protect his boss. “You brought a weapon in here?” he demanded.

  “Oh sit down, it’s not like they’re going to
kill me.” Brutus lifted the dagger and began examining it. “It’s dwarven steel. Explains why none of the metal detectors in the foyer downstairs spotted it. You know how much this is worth?”

  “A lot,” Tommy said.

  “That is an understatement. A dagger of this kind, you’re looking at millions of pounds.”

  “I don’t think it’s for sale. Do you know who it belonged to?” I asked.

  Brutus shook his head. “Did Sarah Hamilton have this in her possession?”

  “Before Cronus murdered her with it, yes,” Sky told him. “Nate says Pandora has one.”

  “Well, she might have, but she’s hardly allowed weaponry where she is. So if she did own one, and this is it, then Sarah must have retrieved it from somewhere outside of Pandora’s current whereabouts.”

  “Even so, we’d like to speak to Pandora,” I said.

  Brutus glanced over at Licinius. “Can you arrange it?”

  The sorcerer glared at me but left the room nonetheless. “He really doesn’t like you,” Brutus said.

  “He clearly saves all of his sparkling personality for the ladies,” I suggested, which got a laugh from Diana.

  “Sarah Hamilton was a witch,” Brutus told us. “A good one too. She worked for me. Started here about eight or nine years ago.”

  “What did she do?” Olivia asked, the cop side of her taking control of the conversation.

  “She was a guard for Pandora. Yes, I know what you’re thinking,” he added quickly. “But Pandora did not have that dagger in her possession.”

  “But she could have told Sarah where it was,” Olivia suggested.

  “That’s possible. Because Sarah was a guard, they had plenty of opportunity to talk to one another. But Pandora couldn’t have enthralled her, so if Sarah did retrieve it, she did it under her own power. None of the guards are permitted entry to the cell, and as Pandora can only enthrall those she’s in physical contact with, Sarah was never under her spell. It’s the only way to ensure the guards are loyal to me and not Pandora.”

  “Can they fake not being enthralled?” Olivia asked. “Maybe a few of them get sloppy and she makes contact.”