“Does it matter?” Kenner asked. “Pierce can’t touch us now.”
“I dislike loose ends, Dr. Kenner. They have a way of unraveling the best laid plans. I cannot allow this particular enterprise to be jeopardized. Not with the goal in sight.”
“I will take care of Pierce,” Rohn promised.
The old man considered the statement for a moment. “We will monitor Pierce’s activities, but our first priority must be finding the source of the mutagen. Dr. Kenner…I expect results.” The screen went dark.
Rohn glowered but said nothing.
As pleased as he was that Rohn was now feeling some of the heat, Kenner knew that the pressure on him would only increase with time. Tyndareus was not a patient man. At his age — the man had to be at least a hundred years old — he could not afford to be.
Kenner thought about the symbols etched into the belt of the Amazon queen. He would not find the Well of Monsters without first deciphering that strange text, but ancient languages were not his area of expertise.
He did not dare reveal to Tyndareus that the search had already hit a roadblock. With luck, the solution to the mystery would be found in the pages of the Heracleia. If not, Tyndareus, despite having one foot already in the grave, would definitely outlive him.
He needed help, but he didn’t dare ask for it.
Then the answer occurred to him. “Mr. Rohn, I think I may know a way for us to kill two birds with one stone.”
14
It did not take long for cabin fever to set in. Only an hour after Pierce’s departure, Fiona felt like climbing the walls and hanging out with the Forgotten up on the ceiling. She had to do something, anything, to alleviate the tedium of being stuck in the cave.
She had been eager to join in the hunt for Cerberus. She imagined it was a secret fraternity — a sort of anti-Herculean Society — or a vast global criminal enterprise, like something from a James Bond movie. But despite Pierce’s directive, Dourado had warned her and Gallo off.
“This is a job for a hacker, not a historian,” the Brazilian woman had told Gallo. “I know what to look for and what to avoid. If you go poking around on the web, you will only draw attention to yourself.”
With that potential diversion removed, there was little else for Fiona to do but get caught up on her schoolwork and visit with Gallo, something that never rated high on her list of preferred activities. It wasn’t that she disliked Pierce’s girlfriend, but extended conversation with the woman only accentuated the stark differences between them. Fiona was a tomboy, raised by soldiers — mostly men — and still a teenager. Gallo was beautiful, sophisticated and refined…boring.
A real stick in the mud, Fiona thought.
They got along best when they didn’t try to get along.
Still, since they were stuck with each other, maybe this was a chance to break down some barriers. “Are you hungry?” Fiona asked, rising from the table.
Gallo glanced at her wristwatch. “What’s on the menu?”
“Uncle George brought some MREs from the plane.” She went over to a stack of boxes near the entrance — cases of military-style rations and flats of bottled water.
Gallo raised a disdainful eyebrow. “As appealing as that sounds…”
“I know what you mean. I used to think they were really cool, but after a while, I realized they’re actually pretty gross.” She started rooting through an open box, checking the variety of choices available. “Now, I eat them only because I have to. If I don’t, my blood sugar goes all wonky.”
“Well, wonky blood sugar won’t do.” Gallo tilted her head sideways. “But don’t you want something more…appetizing?”
Fiona shrugged and gestured to the MREs. “I can deal. It’s not like we’ve got much of a choice.”
“There’s always a choice, my dear.” Gallo took out her phone and began scrolling through the contact list. “If you can hold out a bit longer, I’ll see if we can’t arrange for something with a little more flavor.”
“I think we may be outside the delivery area.”
“Who said anything about delivery?” Gallo’s tone was almost playful, but there was a hard edge to her smile. Refined and proper maybe, but Augustina Gallo was very much her own woman.
An hour later, as they dined on Indian cuisine at a little hole-in-the-wall overlooking a marina on the west side of the Rock, Fiona decided that maybe Aunt Gus wasn’t so boring after all.
Gallo swirled the contents of her wine glass. “So, what’s next on our agenda?”
“Back to the citadel?”
“Well, that sounds dreadful.”
Fiona didn’t know what to say. She knew what Pierce would want. And while she didn’t relish the idea of returning to the cave, she hadn’t forgotten the narrow escape from the Labyrinth. Kenner and Rohn were dangerous and meant business.
All the more reason to stop them, she thought. “Uncle George did tell us to learn all we could about Cerberus,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “That would include figuring out what they want.”
“My thoughts exactly. We may not have Cintia’s prowess on the digital battlefield, but we are not without skills of our own.” She took a sip of her wine. “Walk me through it again. Everything Kenner said and did. Let’s see if we can figure out what he’ll do next.”
Fiona searched the corners of her memory, trying to recall her encounters with Kenner, first after escaping the museum and then later in the Labyrinth. Gallo interrupted only a few times to ask specific questions.
“You mentioned that there was something on Queen Hippolyte’s belt earlier. Did you see what it was?”
Fiona shook her head. “A picture, but it was too dark. And as soon as Kenner saw it, that was it. He was out of there.”
Gallo pondered this. “So Kenner now has the most complete ancient record of Herakles’s deeds, and an object from his Ninth Labor.”
“He kept talking about finding the mutations that caused the monsters. Maybe he’s looking for the actual monsters themselves. Their remains, I mean.”
“That might explain why he took the Heracleia. Perhaps he thinks he can follow in the footsteps of Herakles.” She shook her head. “But the Lion skin was right there in front of him. I think we’re missing something. Something about that belt.”
Fiona squeezed her eyes shut and replayed the scene in her head once again. “He mentioned a ‘source.’ Is there something like that in the legend?”
Gallo thought for a moment before nodding. “There is. The monsters of Greek mythology are, almost without exception, described as ‘chthonic.’”
Fiona knew the word. “Subterranean. From the Underworld.”
“Yes, but in this instance, the term is not limited to their place of origin. The chthonic monsters were the literal offspring of Earth spirits. Nearly all of them, including all the monsters Herakles fought, were the children of Typhon and Echidna. They were themselves the children of Tartarus — the embodiment of the deepest parts of the Underworld — and the Earth goddess, Gaia. In mythology, Echidna is often called ‘the mother’ of all monsters.”
“That could be what Kenner is looking for. The original monster mom.”
“Possibly,” Gallo replied, chuckling at the nickname. “Echidna was said to live in a place called Arima, the Couch of Typhoeus, located somewhere in the Underworld. The ancients believed there was a literal entrance to the Underworld, but disagreed about where it actually is. Herakles’s final Labor was to capture Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld, which would suggest that he found the entrance, if the story is to be taken at face value.”