Page 118 of Gates of Tartarus

“But Maela,” he looks up, blue eyes locking intensely on mine, “a mole in Gaia, and probably someone fairly high placed, to pull off something like this, means–”

“What?” I whisper, ankle twining round the chair leg.

“Kronos may know about your abilities.”

The bottom drops out of my stomach. “No.” I shake my head. “No, only Elizabeth knows who I am and what I can do. And Babylon.”

“Maela!” Emlyn interjects. “We know that Kronos took an interest in you and in the drug trial. Ratko and Magda knew we were on to them, though they didn’t know how. But Kronos wanted the formula for the drug badly enough to threaten Elizabeth, and we have to assume they’ve now managed to gain access to Gaia’s systems. If Elizabeth wrote anything down, let something slip…”

He doesn’t need to spell it out. If Kronos knows or finds out what I can do, I’d be invaluable to them. I held out against Ratko, but the Russian mafia? I shudder.

“Which is why,” Seef says, “I’m moving in today. Kavi and Jorge would be good in a hand-to-hand fight, but they haven’t been trained how to handle a gun. And an extra weapon could make all the difference.”

I gaze at them, eyes wide. “And Kailani?”

“In hospital. If it hadn’t been for her, the team would never have found those women, but she overloaded somehow.”

I gulp: “But, she’ll be OK?” We’ve never met, but I feel an affinity for my counterpart.

“Smith says ‘yes’, though she’ll need a few days’ rest.”

Relieved, I sink back into the chair, mind whirling. How could Kronos have infiltrated Gaia?Easily, comes the answer. Tennireef managed to get a job there; on paper he looked great, ticked all the boxes. Whywouldn’tGaia have wanted to employ him? And Kronos got an operative into my hospital room after Ratko snatched me.

“Any leads on the orderly? Amy, right?”

Emlyn shakes his head. “No, no priors. She’s not in the database. For all we know, she’s not even in London anymore.”

“Do you think she could be Artemis?” I’m grasping at straws, but our leads are pitifully small.

Emlyn pauses, considering. “I doubt it,” he says slowly. “She’s more likely to be a lower-level operative. And an expendable one at that. But we can’t rule the possibility out.”

“And Magda? Are we any closer to finding out who or where she really is? What are the chances of Mr. Deveraux helping?”

Seef snorts: “Slim to none. His wife’s an heiress; he’s not going to risk his marriage or his political career by admitting to an affair. And we’ve got nothing to threaten him with.”

“So we’ll have to hope that one of the rescued women can identify her abductors. Or that a background search on one of the Gaia managers comes up with something.” Both options sound like they’ll take time.

“That’s about the gist of it. Right,” Seef says, standing up. “I’m going to pack a bag. Maela, don’t even think about going out on your own. Until we know for certain that Cole didn’t breathe a word about you to anyone, I want someone with you at all times.”

I nod wordlessly. I’m getting stronger every day, but I have no desire to put my defensive training into practice. Besides, there’s something I want to try, something I’m kicking myself for not having thought of before now.

Up in my bedroom, I sink cross-legged onto the thick carpet. It’s a long shot, but I want to see if I can connect with Amy. We only chatted briefly, all those weeks ago, but it’s got to be worth a try. I deepen my breathing, like Kavi taught me, and work my way up the chakras: root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo. I don’t know how much time passes before I feel ready to visualize the silver rope, but I don’t want to rush things. I look up and see it shining above me and pull myself, hand over hand, into the susurrating blackness. I try to remember Amy’s features: brown hair, broad forehead, rosy cheeks… What color were her eyes? Dark. Dark eyes. I think I see a little glimmer of light ahead, and I walk towards it. But as I get closer, all I can sense is a sort of blankness, and then I feel sick.

I open my eyes. My headache’s back.Damn! Stupid cold.

???

We’re a pretty sober lot at dinner that night. After trying to see Amy, I ran through our only other suspects – Magda, Tennireef, even the Honourable Robert Devereaux – but my headache just got worse, and I couldn’t concentrate. Emlyn decided I should stay at home today, until we knew more, so I ended up taking a nap. It seemed a bit self-indulgent, under the circumstances, but I consoled myself that maybe, this time, dream incubation would work. I set my mind to “Rhea” and closed my eyes and… nothing. No vision, no flash of insight, and my headache was still there when I woke up.

There’s really nothing we can do at the moment, except to wait for updates from the Americans, and I can tell the guys are frustrated. But Kailani and the women are in hospital, and Elizabeth will be warned. And the checks on known oligarchs in London haven’t turned up any links with Kronos so far. Other dodgy connections? Sure. Obscene spending by their Botoxed wives at Harrods? Yup. But pretty much par for the course.

It should feel weird to have Seef here, but he’s been around so much lately, it just seems natural. But thewhyhe’s here unsettles me. We’re stalled, and I feel utterly helpless.I look at him over the buttered peas and let out a long, slow breath through pursed lips.

“Everything OK,querida?”

I start. “Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just a bit, uh, down at the mouth. No biggie.”

Jorge’s forehead crinkles: “Down at the mouth?”

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