by Kate O'Hearn
“Have you ever been here before?” Emily asked.
Cupid nodded. “A very, very long time ago. Back then it was called Londinium and was just a rough settlement. The island was mostly ruled by the Romans. This city looks completely different and infinitely more interesting. It will be a pity to cut off all connection to this world, but seeing all these changes, perhaps it is for the best.”
They stood together on the rooftop, watching the day giving way to night. The colorful city lights came up and reflected on the wet sidewalk and roads. Emily walked over to the other side of the roof and peered down on the entrance to the Charing Cross Station. It was the same entrance she’d seen in Urania’s pool. Somewhere beneath that old Victorian building, her friends were being tortured.
“I wonder why the CRU chose such a busy location for their super-facility. It seems dangerous when so many people use the station.”
“That’s a good question,” Arious Minor said. The small dot was hidden under Emily’s thick black braid.
“I mean, if the CRU are obsessed with capturing anything unusual, why put it here? How do they get them inside if this is a busy train station? What if someone escapes? They could do a lot of damage to the city.”
“Perhaps it was built before this was a big city,” Arious offered. “I read on the Internet that Charing Cross Station was opened in 1864, so the CRU might have been here before then and the station was built on top. From what we have learned, the CRU are all over the world, but no one seems to know their origins. They are as much a mystery as those they hunt down.”
Emily agreed. Tom didn’t know, and in all their time together, Agent B hadn’t been able to tell her a lot either. “Guess we’ll never know. But when you were in the computer, did you find a way in? I don’t think we want to take Pegasus in through the front doors. He might draw a bit of attention.”
“Though it would be interesting,” Arious Minor said. “But from the plans I saw, there is a delivery entrance on a side street. However, the station is open late each night, so we have a wait ahead of us.”
Emily nodded and went back to Pegasus. She brushed his wet mane out of his eyes. “The station closes very late. But Arious Minor says there is a private delivery entrance we could use to get in.” She pulled down the sack of ambrosia cakes and nectar. “While we wait, we might as well eat.” She fed Pegasus first before she and Cupid ate their portions. Then she pulled out the Xan food hat and ordered up a large dish of chocolate ice cream for the stallion.
As the hours ticked by, they stood together on the roof, eating and watching the traffic start to thin. Later in the evening, the traffic picked up again, and Arious Minor explained that Charing Cross was in the theater district and that some of the shows were now letting out.
They watched crowds of well-dressed people with their umbrellas dashing into the station to catch the last of the late-night trains while cabs streamed into the station entrance to drop off their passengers.
It was a few hours later before Emily crossed the roof again and gazed down at the station entrance. This time Pegasus and Cupid joined her.
“It looks like they’re finally closing for the night,” Emily said. “They are turning off the lights. When it’s quiet, I think we should move.”
“So, do we have a plan?” Cupid asked.
Emily shrugged. “Not really. Just get in there and try to get the others out while doing as little damage to London as possible.”
“That is it? That is our plan?”
“Can you think of anything else with just the four of us taking on a CRU super-facility?”
When Cupid shook his head, Arious Minor came out from under Emily’s hair. “Do not forget, Emily, that you have powers. Not as strong as before, but you are still a formidable fighter and part Xan. Do not hesitate to use them to free your friends.”
Emily nodded. “Well, this isn’t going to get any easier. Let’s go.”
Pegasus dropped his wing, inviting Emily up. Once on his back, she patted his neck. “This is it, Pegs.”
The stallion opened his large wings and leaped out from between the air vents. He glided down to the ground and landed on a side street. Emily climbed back down and covered the stallion’s wings with the blanket.
Cupid landed beside them and pulled on his raincoat.
“All right, Arious,” Emily said. “Would you lead us in?”
The small dot hovered before Emily’s face. “I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t warn you a final time that this is very dangerous. Are you all certain you don’t want to wait for Riza?”
“I wish we could, but they’re torturing our friends in there. If we wait for Riza, there’s no telling what could happen. They might even kill them.”
“I am ready to go in now,” Cupid said.
Pegasus bobbed his head up and down.
“As you are all in agreement,” Arious Minor said, “I acquiesce to your decision.”
The dot led them out on to the main street, the Strand, and they walked toward the train station. Despite the late hour, the occasional cab drove past them but didn’t slow to look at them.
“I wonder if they see a lot of horses in the city,” Emily said.
“It is most likely that they are used to seeing strange things in the theater district. I am sure Pegasus could expose his wings and they would not look twice.”
That theory was tested when they were approached by a young couple. They were huddled together under an umbrella and nearly walked into Pegasus. Seeing the large white stallion, they simply apologized and walked around him without missing a beat in their conversation.
“This is definitely not New York,” Emily said.
“Theater district or not, I do not like being out in the open like this,” Cupid said. “I feel like we are being watched.”
Emily did too, but she didn’t say anything. “How much farther is it?”
“The delivery entrance is just down the street ahead of us,” Arious Minor said.
They followed the tiny white dot to a street that ran beside the large old train station. Most of the street was taken up with brownstone-style homes. Some had gold plaques outside that said they were offices. One plaque even said that Benjamin Franklin had lived there.
“Are you sure it’s here?”
“Yes,” the dot answered. “It’s just ahead at that driveway. The entrance runs under the building.”
Emily stopped and took a deep breath. The feeling of being watched was getting worse. A little voice inside her head was telling her to go. Instead she squared her shoulders and walked forward. “All right, let’s go.”
The driveway turned to the right and descended down a long, dark ramp. It soon split. One way went straight along the road that ran behind the block of brownstones and out onto the next street. The left-hand side took you deeper into the delivery area of the station.
No one was moving in the area, and there were no security guard houses. The only sound they heard was from the heavy machinery of the large ventilation systems blowing air into the station.
Walking to the left along the white painted walls of Charing Cross Station, they approached a tall chain-link fence that blocked the underground entrance. The fence was sealed with a digital security log. Emily was about to use her Flame to burn it open when Arious Minor stopped her.
“Don’t destroy it. Let me try.” The tiny dot disappeared into the box with the security code numbers. They heard soft bleeping, and then the heavy gates started to swing open.
“That’s a handy trick you’ve got there,” Emily said when Arious returned.
“It’s better than setting off the alarms.”
As they descended deeper, they saw cars parked in bays. These weren’t the normal black cars favored by the CRU. Emily thought that these looked more like station employees’ vehicles—especially when she noticed a BABY ON BOARD sticker in one of the car windows.
Emily’s Olympian night vision also spotted the lens of a secu
rity camera hidden in a round ball hanging down from the ceiling. It was scanning back and forth and hadn’t made it back to face them yet. “How are you with security cameras?” she asked Arious. “Do you think you could disable that one before it sees us?”
The tiny dot of light followed her line of vision and darted forward. It disappeared into the camera ball. Moments later, there was a flash of sparks and the round cover blew off the camera.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Emily said.
The sound of drunken laughter filtered down from the street. Pegasus nickered softly and Cupid nodded. “Yes, we are still very exposed here. We must get inside.”
They walked farther along the dark ramp and saw several brick archways with plain gray doors beneath each arch.
“Arious, can you tell us which door to take?”
“I am sorry. The plans I found didn’t go into these specifics. I believe any of these doors will take us inside.”
“Yes, but which one will lead us down into the CRU part of the station?” Cupid asked.
“That I do not know,” the dot answered. “Emily, what do you recall from the vision in Urania’s pool?”
Emily thought back. “The way in that I was shown came up through the public bathrooms inside the station, not from out here in the delivery bay. But there must be more than one way in. We can’t go through the station itself. It would be too open and dangerous.” She looked at each of the doors and shrugged. “This is as good a way as any.”
She walked up to the nearest door and was surprised to see there wasn’t a keypad security lock, just an old-fashioned key one. She summoned the Flame and her hand burst into a bright fire. Then she placed her palm on the lock. Closing her eyes, Emily intensified the Flame.
Metal dripped to the ground as the lock melted. She reached for the handle and gave a mighty pull. The melted lock and door gave easily. She looked back at Pegasus. “Are you ready?”
When he nodded and nickered softly, Emily walked in. The hall was dark and very narrow. With her Olympian vision, she saw the whole left side of the wall was covered in large electrical piping. The right side had strange metal boxes built into the walls and a framework that helped support the many ventilation ducts hanging down from the ceiling.
Emily looked back and saw that Pegasus could barely fit through. His wings grazed the electrical pipes and gray cement block walls on either side.
“Are you all right, Pegs?”
Pegasus nickered and snorted.
“Perhaps you should wait outside,” Cupid suggested.
That set Pegasus off. He responded with a series of soft but angry whinnies.
“It was only a suggestion,” Cupid said. “There is no need to lose your temper. I was thinking of you and the damage to your wings.”
Emily approached Pegasus and stroked his soft muzzle. “He’s been this far with us and seen us through some terrible things. Pegasus stays.”
“Fine,” Cupid said as he pressed forward and pushed past Emily. “Wait here, then. I’ll see how far this goes and if there is any way down into the lower section.”
Emily stayed with Pegasus, stroking his muzzle. Cupid was right about one thing. The feathers on his wings were fraying from rubbing along the walls. “Just ignore him,” she said. “It’s you and me forever, Pegs. Where you go, I go.”
“If you are finished,” Cupid called when he walked back, “I have found a set of steps going down. But I warn you, if Pegasus barely fits through the corridor, I will be curious to see how he manages these wooden steps.”
Beneath her hand, Pegasus tensed. Cupid was starting to push his buttons. “We’ll manage,” Emily called back. “Just show us where they are.”
They followed Cupid through the tight winding corridor. The metal boxes gave way to large water pipes lining the upper wall. At one point, a gas pipe actually crossed the floor in front of them.
“Mind your step,” Emily warned the stallion as she walked over the pipe.
“Here,” Cupid said. He stood before a set of wooden steps going down. They looked more like a ladder than stairs. “See, there is no way Pegasus is going down these.”
“Well, he’s not staying behind,” Emily said as she peered down into the darkness. “But I do have an idea.”
Emily descended the long set of wooden steps down into an area that looked a lot like the scenes from Urania’s well. The ceiling was high overhead and lined with corrugated steel sheets, and the walls were much wider. They were made with much older brick than the concrete block from the floor above and had been whitewashed. This was an original part of the Victorian building.
She looked back up the steps. “Cupid, come down. Pegs, stay there for a moment.”
Cupid muttered to himself all the way down the steps. At the bottom, he shook his head. “I am telling you, he will not make it down those steps.”
“He won’t have to,” Emily said. “My powers aren’t all gone. Are you ready, Pegs?”
When he nodded, Emily raised her hands, and her power surged as she levitated the large, heavy stallion off the ground. He floated through the tight opening of the stairway entrance and above the steps. She soon lowered him to the floor beside her.
She brushed her hands together and looked back at Cupid triumphantly. “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.”
Emily looked around. Her eyes let her see a lot in the complete darkness, but not enough. She held up her hands and summoned the Flame. Her palm started to burn painlessly with enough light to drive back the darkness.
“Now where?” Cupid said.
Emily walked forward. This whole area looked similar to what she’d seen in Urania’s pool. Ahead of them was a wide, tall corridor with thick brick dividers that made them look like a strange kind of horse stalls. She walked the length. “I wonder what these were for. They look almost wide enough for trains.”
Arious appeared before her. “Records show that in the early days of the station, the trains actually did come down this deep. These may be where the tracks were and where the trains were housed at night. Or perhaps this is where they kept the coal for each platform, as the early trains were steam-powered. Unfortunately, the records are scant. However, if this was where the trains were stored, I am sure the CRU would not be beneath us, because the weight of the old steam trains would collapse through the ceiling. The facility must have been built later.”
“Or, knowing the CRU,” Cupid put in, “they built a very good support system.”
Emily looked down at the solid concrete floor. That seemed new, compared to the old brick walls. But there was no telling what the CRU did in the past. It was today she was worried about. Tom said it was a super-facility, which meant it had to be big. Was it just below her feet?
“This way,” Cupid called. “I believe I have found something.”
Emily held up her hand and saw that Cupid had moved forward and was exploring other parts of the lower level. She rested her hand on Pegasus’s neck and followed him toward Cupid, who was standing near the wooden stairs.
“Look.” He pointed down into the darkness. “There’s a corridor down there that feels strange.”
“Strange? How?”
“Follow me. Then you can feel for yourself.”
The corridor Cupid found was narrower than the other area. The ceiling was much lower and arched. Once again, the walls were almost too narrow for Pegasus to fit through. But Cupid was right. When Emily stood in the center of the corridor, she felt a strange, uncomfortable presence.
“Do you feel that?” she asked Pegasus.
Pegasus nickered softly and pawed the concrete floor.
“He does not like it here either,” Cupid said.
Emily closed her eyes. Not only could she feel “something,” but she could hear it too. “Listen. Do you hear that?”
Cupid tilted his head to the side. “I hear nothing.”
“I am not designed to pick up on soft sounds,” Arious Minor said.
But Pegasus whinnied and walked forward. His tall white ears were moving constantly, trying to follow the sound as his tail swished back and forth in irritation.
Finally they made it to the end of the corridor, through a tight doorway, and the room opened up.
“This is it!” Emily cried, walking into the wider room. “Isn’t it, Pegs? We saw this in Urania’s pool.”
The room was a good thirteen feet wide and twenty feet long. She held up her hand and saw the fluorescent lighting attached to the ceiling. One wall had an indent that looked like at one time it might have been a large garage door. But now it was all bricked up.
Everything about the room looked as old and unused as the rest of this lower area. But Emily knew it wasn’t. There was no dust on the floor or cobwebs hanging down from the ceiling. “This is the entrance to the CRU facility.”
“It cannot be,” Cupid said. “The walls are solid and old.”
“But it is,” Emily insisted. She stood in the center of the room. “If you walk back that way through the narrow corridor, instead of going to where the stairs are, turn to the right. You’ll find another tunnel leading to a door that heads up into the station’s bathrooms. Try it. Tell me what you see.”
Cupid did as Emily suggested. He left the room and went down the dark corridor. He returned moments later. “It is as you say.”
“I told you, this is the room. We both saw it in Urania’s pool.” Emily looked back at the garage-door-size indent. “This isn’t a wall. It’s an elevator.”
Cupid frowned and walked up to the indent and knocked on the brick. “But it feels so solid.”
Arious Minor left Emily and disappeared into the framework around the indent. When he returned, he reported, “Emily is correct. It is an elevator.”
Faced with an elevator that traveled down into the bowels of the CRU facility, Emily looked around with a deep frown creasing her brow. “This doesn’t make any sense. There should be guards here and security cameras. We’ve been to enough facilities to know they are never empty like this.”
“I believe we should be on our guard,” Arious Minor suggested. “Many times, what is hidden can be infinitely more dangerous than what is shown.”
