“Yes. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
He nodded. “All right. But if Covington and Drake didn’t steal the artifact, then who did? We’ve already cleared the estate staff, and Professor Dalaja and the Mythos students were the only other people there. The students were in the dining hall when the lights went out, which is why we thought Covington and Drake had stolen the artifact. That’s also the reason the Protectorate guards didn’t search the students before they left the mansion. We didn’t think they had anything to do with the theft.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’m going to figure it out. Who’s with me?”
The others murmured their agreement, and we all sat back down. Mateo cued up the security footage again, and even Babs woke up, opened her eye, and watched it along with us. This time, Mateo fast-forwarded through some of the images, although he slowed the computer feed back down to normal when the students reached the solarium.
“What about Kylie Midas?” Zoe asked, pointing at the Valkyrie on one of the monitors. “She keeps giving you two dirty looks during the tour. She knew Lance Fuller. Maybe she’s a Reaper like he was.”
Ian and I looked at each other. He winced and opened his mouth, like he was going to tell the others that he had been spying on Kylie, but I cut him off.
“Kylie didn’t steal the artifact,” I said. “She was standing right in front of me when the lights went out. There’s no way she could have gotten to the library ahead of Ian and me, much less stolen the artifact, summoned the basilisk, and escaped. Besides, she didn’t even see the basilisk when she stormed into the library, and it would have killed her if I hadn’t knocked her out of the way. Trust me, it’s not Kylie.”
Ian winced again, but he nodded, silently thanking me for keeping his secret. I shrugged back. I still wasn’t quite ready to forgive him for what he’d done to Kylie or me, but there was no need to tell the others about it.
“So if it’s not Kylie, then who is it?” Zoe asked. “Because everyone else acted perfectly normal.”
“I hate to say it, but what about Professor Dalaja?” Aunt Rachel glanced at me. “I know you like her, Rory, but…”
“But it wouldn’t be the first time someone I liked turned out to be a Reaper,” I finished her thought. “Yeah, I thought about her too. But look at the monitors. You can see her in the dining hall when the lights go out. I don’t think it’s her either.”
That was the end of the security footage, so Mateo cued it up for a third time, and we watched it again.
We had already ruled out Kylie and Dalaja, so I started watching the Mythos students. One of them had to have stolen the artifact. No other explanation made sense.
But Zoe was right. All the kids had acted normally. Wandering around, taking notes, whispering to one another. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Most of the kids spent more time sneaking glances at their phones than they did looking at the artifacts, especially Gretchen Gondul. I didn’t see her look up from her tablet, not even once. She was so fixated on her device that I was surprised she hadn’t plowed into a wall. She might have been recording Professor Dalaja’s lecture, but I was betting she was still going to flunk that quiz tomorrow—
Wait a second. For the first time, I noticed that Gretchen was cradling her tablet in the crook of her elbow and typing on it with her other hand. If she’d been recording the lecture, she should have been holding the device up, not down to her side. And the way she was clutching it reminded me of Mateo cradling his own tablet whenever he was wandering around the Bunker and checking the security system.
Maybe Gretchen had been doing the same thing. Maybe she had been checking the mansion’s security system—or hacking into it.
Mateo had said she had crazy good computer skills, so I had no doubt that she could have done it. In fact, I was starting to think no one else could have done it.
I ignored the other students and started watching Gretchen, but she followed the professor around like everyone else did. The living rooms, the solarium, the library. I focused on her, but she didn’t even glance at the artifact case where Serket’s Pen was, and she followed everyone out of the library when the tour was finished. Still, I kept tracking her on the monitors.
The Valkyrie was in the middle of the students as they trooped out of the library, and she stayed in the center of the pack as everyone walked through the solarium and headed into the next room—
Gretchen slipped out of the pack, opened a door, and stepped through to the other side. No one gave her a second glance, and the other students moved past her. She vanished so smoothly and quickly that I wouldn’t have even noticed her disappearance if I hadn’t been watching her.
“Mateo?” I asked.
“Yeah?”
“What’s that door off to the right down the hallway from the solarium?”
“Let me see…” He hit a few buttons on his laptop. “Oh, just a bathroom.”
I thought back. That was the same bathroom where Zoe had helped me pick off the basilisk feathers.
“Why do you ask?” Mateo said.
“No reason.”
Not yet, anyway.
The rest of the kids streamed by, including Ian and me, heading to the dining hall for lunch, but I kept my gaze fixed on that door. One minute passed, then two, then three. But the door didn’t open, and Gretchen didn’t reappear. Sure, it would have taken her a few minutes to use the bathroom and wash her hands, but it shouldn’t have taken that long.
Unless she was doing something else in there. Like hacking into the security system and killing the lights, along with the cameras.
A moment later, my suspicions were confirmed. The lights flickered, and the security footage went off, but Gretchen was still in the bathroom.
Mateo hit a button, and the footage resumed, only this time, it showed what had happened after the power came back on. I ignored the images of Ian, me, and my friends in the library and focused on the cameras that showed the parking lot. Sure enough, Gretchen was standing there with the other students.
My eyes narrowed. The bathroom she’d gone into was on the far side of the mansion. There was no way she could have gotten to the parking lot that fast unless she was the one who had stolen the artifact, opened the first-floor library window, and climbed outside. From there, she could have easily run around the mansion and slipped into the crowd, pretending she had stampeded out of the dining hall with everyone else.
Even more telling, Gretchen was no longer staring at her tablet. Of course not. She didn’t need it anymore.
I watched the Valkyrie on the monitor. She paced back and forth, checking her watch, but she wasn’t upset. Not like the other kids were. No, she was worried. She wanted to get on the bus and get back to the academy before anyone realized what she’d done.
I pointed to the screen. “It’s her. Gretchen Gondul. She’s the one who stole Serket’s Pen.”
I got Mateo to rewind the footage. As we watched it again, I pointed out Gretchen going into the bathroom and told the others my theory. Everyone was silent, then Mateo sighed.
“Ah, man, not Gretchen,” he said. “Why do all the supercool, supersmart girls have to be Reapers?”
Zoe snorted and rolled her eyes.
Takeda shook his head. “That’s the problem. I don’t think she is a Reaper.”
“What do you mean?” Aunt Rachel asked.
“When the Midgard first came here, I went through the academy rolls and investigated the students, looking for those who might be Reapers or might be tempted to join the Reapers. That’s how I found out about Lance Fuller,” Takeda explained. “I’m doing the same thing right now with the professors, librarians, and other staff members to make sure that none of them is a Reaper either.”
“So?” Ian asked.
“So as far as I know, Gretchen Gondul isn’t a Reaper,” Takeda said. “She’s never been in any trouble at all. So why would she steal the artifact?”
“Maybe sh
e wants revenge against the Protectorate, like Lance Fuller did,” Zoe suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Takeda replied. “Both of Gretchen’s parents are alive and well, so she has no reason to want revenge. So why did she steal the artifact? And what is she planning to do with it?”
No one knew the answers. We threw out some more theories, but none of them seemed right.
Takeda looked at Mateo again. “Can you pull up the live feeds from the academy security cameras and use your facial-recognition program to find Gretchen? I want to know if she’s still on campus.”
Mateo nodded, pulled his laptop closer, and started typing. A few seconds later, images appeared on the wall monitors, showing live shots of the main quad, as well as inside the dining hall, the gym, and the other buildings.
“Got her!” Mateo said in a triumphant voice. “She’s in the library, sitting with Kylie Midas and their Valkyrie friends.”
He hit a few more buttons, and a view of the Library of Antiquities appeared on the center monitor. Gretchen was sitting next to Kylie on one of the couches that flanked the fireplace. Several other girls were lounging in the chairs around them, and they all seemed to be talking and having a good time, except for Gretchen, who was ignoring her friends and texting on her phone.
Takeda let out a soft curse.
“What’s wrong?” Aunt Rachel asked. “Now that you know where she is, you can send in the Protectorate guards to arrest her.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that simple. We don’t know what Gretchen did with Serket’s Pen. If she sees Protectorate guards, she could panic, especially if she still has the artifact with her.”
Aunt Rachel’s face paled. “She could summon up more basilisks, and since she’s in the library…”
“She could hurt a lot of innocent kids,” Takeda finished her thought in a grim voice.
“But she could do that at any time, anywhere on campus,” Zoe pointed out. “The quad, the dining hall, even in her dorm. There are people everywhere.”
“Well, we can’t sit around and wait for her to use the artifact,” Ian said. “We have to figure out some way to get it back.”
“So she can use it on us first, and we can get killed by basilisks? Great,” Zoe muttered. “Just great.”
The others kept talking, trying to figure out what to do. I stared at the monitor, watching Gretchen text on her phone.
I didn’t know Gretchen Gondul, not really, but she had been very smart so far. Hacking into the mansion’s security system, turning off the cameras so no one would see her steal the artifact, riding the bus back to the academy with everyone else. And now she was in the library with her friends, acting like everything was fine and she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Gretchen hadn’t gone to all that trouble just to steal an artifact. She had some plan for Serket’s Pen, and I didn’t think it involved summoning up basilisks in the library. If she had wanted to use the artifact to hurt Mythos kids, she could have already done that at the mansion or on the bus ride back to the academy. No, Gretchen had something else in mind.
Aunt Rachel noticed my silence. “Rory? What you are thinking?”
The rest of my friends turned toward me.
“I know how to get Serket’s Pen back from Gretchen without anyone getting hurt.”
“How?” Takeda asked.
“Simple.” I grinned. “We do the same thing she did. We steal it right back from her.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Mateo and I were standing on the second level of the Library of Antiquities, looking over the balcony at the first floor below.
Students crowded together at the study tables, flipping through books, scribbling notes, and typing on their laptops. Other kids clustered around the checkout counter, asking the librarians questions. Still more students waited in line at the coffee cart to get a sugary pastry or a much-needed jolt of java before they hit the books again. And of course, the far less studious kids were lounging on the chairs and couches around the fireplace, texting and talking in loud, excited voices.
“Did you go on that field trip?”
“Oh, yeah. It was so creepy when the lights went out.”
“Someone said it was a power surge.”
“Well, I heard that Reapers were there.”
The snatches of conversation drifted all the way up here. I grimaced and turned away from the balcony.
“Do you really think this will work?” Mateo asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but you’re the only one of us who has any classes with Gretchen. So you should be the one to talk to her, if it comes to that.”
He glanced down at the first floor again. Gretchen was still sitting by the fireplace, although she had finally put her phone away and was talking and laughing with her friends.
My plan was simple. Mateo, Takeda, Aunt Rachel, and Ian were going to watch Gretchen. If it looked like she was getting ready to leave, Mateo would approach her and start talking about a project they were working on in one of their computer-science classes. Mateo’s goal was to make sure that Gretchen stayed in the library for as long as possible, but if she did leave, then Ian would text and let me know. We had decided not to use our regular earbuds so Mateo wouldn’t be distracted by our other conversations if he did have to talk to Gretchen.
Takeda, Aunt Rachel, and Ian had already gone down to the first floor. Takeda was chatting with a librarian at the checkout counter, Aunt Rachel was flipping through a cookbook at one of the study tables, and Ian was standing in line at the coffee cart. The three of them would stay here and watch Mateo’s back, leaving Zoe and me free to leave the library, go to Gretchen’s dorm, and break into her room.
I doubted that Gretchen had hidden the artifact somewhere as obvious as her room, but it was worth a shot. Even if the artifact wasn’t there, maybe we would find some clue to where it was or what she planned to do with it.
Mateo shifted on his feet and moved his backpack from one hand to the other, which told me how nervous he was.
“Zoe should be up here any minute with her lockpick gun, and then we’ll go to Gretchen’s dorm,” I said. “It shouldn’t take us long to search her room. Don’t worry. It will all be over with before you know it. Remember, you don’t even have to talk to Gretchen, unless it looks like she’s about to leave.”
“I know. Don’t worry, Rory. I won’t let you guys down.” Mateo looked over the balcony again. “I guess I should go downstairs with everyone else.”
“Good luck.”
He nodded, turned, and headed toward the stairs.
I waited until the sound of his footsteps had faded away, then walked over to Sigyn’s statue.
Head held high, tall, straight body, hair trailing over her shoulders. The Norse goddess of devotion looked the same as always, except for her expression. When I had been here last night, Sigyn had seemed calm and serene. But now her brow was furrowed, her jaw was clenched, and her lips were pressed into a thin line, as if she was as worried about the missing artifact as I was.
The longer I stared at the statue, the guiltier I felt. My heart sank, my stomach churned, and hot, frustrated tears gathered in my eyes. I should have realized that Gretchen was up to something. I had studied the other kids in the mansion library, wondering if one of them might try to steal the artifact, but I had been so busy worrying about Covington and Drake that I hadn’t seen what was right in front of me. Now Gretchen had the artifact, and we had no idea what terrible things she might do with it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Sigyn. “So sorry. You picked me to be your Champion, and I totally let you down.”
The goddess didn’t answer me. Not in words, anyway. But her brow smoothed out, her jaw relaxed, and the corners of her mouth slowly curved up, almost as if she were encouraging me to keep going. Not only that, but a faint breeze swept over the balcony, kissing my cheeks with its cool, soft touch and drying the hot tears stinging my eyes.
Seeing all of that, fe
eling it, and knowing that Sigyn still believed in me, even if I didn’t quite believe in myself right now, made new determination surge through my body. My chin lifted, my shoulders straightened, and I blinked away the last of my tears.
“You’re right,” I said. “I still have time to fix this. All I have to do is find the artifact, and everything will be fine. Thank you, goddess. Good talk. Really good talk.”
Sigyn’s eye slowly slid down, and she winked at me. I snapped up my hand and saluted her, then turned and went back over to the balcony to watch Gretchen.
Chapter Fourteen
A minute later, Zoe stepped out of the secret elevator and onto the balcony, and the two of us went downstairs to the first floor. We stood in the shadows in the stacks, staring out over the library, but everything was the same as before.
Takeda was still talking to the librarian, while Aunt Rachel studied her cookbook. Ian had gotten his coffee and was sitting at one of the study tables with Mateo. Both of them kept glancing at Gretchen, who was still over at the fireplace, and Mateo’s fingers tapped out a quick, nervous rhythm on the table. Maybe she would stay here, and he wouldn’t have to talk to her.
Either way, Zoe and I needed to get moving, so we left the library, stepped outside, and headed across the quad at a quick pace. Not fast enough to be suspicious but not dawdling either.
“So…” Zoe said when we were about halfway across the quad. “What’s going on with you and Ian?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the two of you looked super, super tense when we got back to the Bunker. Does it have anything to do with Kylie Midas?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I muttered. “Besides, we’re on a mission, remember?”
She nudged me with her elbow. “And I think we can walk and talk at the same time. It’s called multitasking, Spartan. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”
I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t say anything.
“Okay, then, let me guess,” Zoe said. “You found out that Ian has been chatting up Kylie, spying on her to see if she knows anything about the Reapers.”
Spartan Promise: A Mythos Academy Novel (Mythos Academy spinoff series Book 2) Page 13
