Untitled Part 13
WE CIRCLED UP OUR BEANBAGS.
Rachel spread blueprints across the floor between us. 'You guys know about the emperor's fasces?'
Meg and I shared a look that meant I wish we didn't.
'We're familiar,' I said. 'In San Francisco, we destroyed the fasces of Commodus and Caligula, which made them vulnerable enough to kill. I assume you're suggesting we do the same with Nero?'
Rachel pouted. 'That killed my big reveal. It took me a long time to figure this out.'
'You did great,' Meg assured her. 'Apollo just likes to hear himself talk.'
'I beg your pardon –'
'Did you find the exact location of Nero's fasces?' Nico interrupted. 'Because that would be really useful.'
achel straightened a bit. 'I think so, yeah. These are the original designs for Nero's tower. They were not easy to get.'
Will whistled appreciatively. 'I bet many Bothans died to bring us this information.'
Rachel stared at him. 'What?'
Nico sighed. 'I'm guessing that was a Star Wars reference. My boyfriend is a Star Wars geek of the worst kind.'
'Okay, Signor Myth-o-magic. If you would just watch the original trilogy ...' Will looked at the rest of us for support and found nothing but blank expressions. 'Nobody? Oh, my gods. You people are hopeless.'
'Anyway,' Rachel continued, 'my theory is that Nero would keep his fasces here.' She tapped a point about halfway up the tower's cross-section schematic. 'Right in the middle of the building. It's the only level with no exterior windows. Special-elevator access only. All doors are Celestial-bronze-reinforced. I mean, the whole building is a fortress, but this level would be impossible to break into.'
Meg nodded. 'I know the floor you mean. We were never allowed in there. Ever.'
A chill settled over our little group. Goose bumps dotted Will's arms. The idea of Meg, our Meg, stuck in that fortress of evil was more disturbing than any number of mysterious cows or penguins.
Rachel flipped to another blueprint – a floor plan of the ultra-secure level. 'Here. This vault has to be it. You could never get close, unless ...' She pointed to a nearby room. 'If I'm reading these designs correctly, this would be a holding cell for prisoners.' Her eyes were bright with excitement. 'If you could get yourself captured, then convince someone on the inside to help you escape –'
'Lu was right.' Meg looked at me triumphantly. 'I told you.'
Rachel frowned, bringing the blue paint spots on her forehead into a tighter cluster. 'Who is Lu?'
We told her about Luguselwa, and the special bonding time we'd shared before I threw her off a building.
Rachel shook her head. 'Okay ... so if you've already thought of all my ideas, why am I even talking?'
'No, no,' Will said. 'You're confirming . And we trust you more than ... er, other sources.'
I hoped he meant Lu and not me.
'Besides,' Nico said, 'you have actual blueprints.' He studied the floor plan. 'Why would Nero keep his prisoners on the same level as his most valuable possession, though?'
'Keep your fasces close,' I speculated, 'and your enemies closer.'
'Maybe,' Rachel said. 'But the fasces is heavily protected, and not just by security features or regular guards. There's something in that vault, something alive ...'
It was my turn to get goosebumps. 'How do you know this?'
'A vision. Just a glimpse, almost like ... like Python wanted me to see it. The figure looked like a man, but his head –'
'A lion's head,' I guessed.
Rachel flinched. 'Exactly. And slithering around his body –'
'Snakes.'
'So you know what it is?'
I grasped for the memory. As usual, it was just out of reach. You may wonder why I didn't have a better handle on my godly knowledge, but my mortal brain was an imperfect storage facility. I can only compare my frustration to how you might feel when taking a picky reading-comprehension quiz. You are assigned fifty pages. You actually read them. Then the teacher decides to test you by asking, Quick! What was the first word on page thirty-seven?
'I'm not sure,' I admitted. 'Some sort of powerful guardian, obviously. Our most recent prophecy stanza mentioned a lion, snake-entwined .' I filled Rachel in on our literally eye-popping ride with the Grey Sisters.
Nico scowled at the blueprints, as if he might intimidate them into giving up their secrets. 'So, whatever the guardian is, Nero trusts it with his life. Meg, I thought you said Luguselwa was this huge, mighty warrior?'
'She is.'
'So why can't she take out this guardian and destroy the fasces herself?' he asked. 'Why does she need ... you know, you guys to get yourself captured?'
Nico phrased the question diplomatically, but I heard what he meant. If Lu couldn't take out this guardian, how could I, Lester Papadopoulos, the Not So Huge or Mighty?
'Dunno,' Meg said. 'But there must be a reason.'
Like Lu would rather see us get killed, I thought, but I knew better than to say that.
'Let's assume Lu is right,' Nico said. 'You get captured and put in this cell. She lets you out. You kill the guardian, destroy the fasces, weaken Nero, hooray. Even then, and I'm sorry to be a Debbie Downer –'
'I am calling you Debbie Downer from now on,' Will said gleefully.
'Shut up, Solace. Even then , you've got half a tower and Nero's whole army of security guards between you and his throne room, right?'
'We've dealt with whole armies before,' Meg said.
Nico laughed, which I didn't know he was capable of. 'Okay. I like the confidence. But wasn't there that little detail about Nero's panic switch? If he feels threatened, he can blow up New York at the push of a button. How do you stop that ?'
'Oh ...' Rachel muttered a curse not appropriate for priestesses. 'That must be what these are for.'
Her hands trembling, she flipped to another page of the blueprints.
'I asked my dad's senior architect about them,' she said. 'He couldn't figure them out. Said there's no way the blueprints could be right. Sixty feet underground, surrounded by triple retaining walls. Giant vats, like the building has its own reservoir or water-treatment facility. It's connected to the city's sewer mains, but the separate electrical grid, the generators, these pumps ... It's like the whole system is designed to blast water outwards and flood the city.'
'Except not with water,' Will said. 'With Greek fire.'
'Debbie Downer,' Nico muttered.
I stared at the schematics, trying to imagine how such a system could have been built. During our last battle in the Bay Area, Meg and I had seen more Greek fire than had existed in the whole history of the Byzantine Empire. Nero had more. Exponentially more. It seemed impossible, but the emperor had had hundreds of years to plan, and almost infinite resources. Leave it to Nero to spend most of his money on a self-destruct system.
'He'll burn up, too,' I marvelled. 'All his family and guards, and his precious tower.'
'Maybe not,' Rachel said. 'The building is designed for self-containment. Thermal insulation, closed air circulation, reinforced heat-resistant materials. Even the windows are special blast-proof panes. Nero could burn the city down around him, and his tower would be the only thing left standing.'
Meg crumpled her empty Yoo-hoo box. 'Sounds like him.'
Will studied the plans. 'I'm not an expert on reading these things, but where are the access points to the vats?'
'There's only one,' Rachel said. 'Sealed off, automated, heavily guarded and under constant surveillance. Even if you could break or sneak through, you wouldn't have enough time to disable the generators before Nero pushed his panic button.'
'Unless,' Nico said, 'you tunnelled your way into those reservoirs from underneath. You could sabotage his whole delivery system without Nero ever knowing.'
'Aaand we're back to that terrible idea,' Will said.
'They're the best tunnellers in the world,' Nico insisted. 'They could get through all that concrete and steel and Celestial bronze with no one even noticing. This is our part of the plan, Will. While Apollo and Meg are getting themselves captured, keeping Nero distracted, we go underground and take out his doomsday weapon.'
'Hold on, Nico,' I said. 'It's high time you explained who these cave-runners are.'
The son of Hades fixed his dark eyes on me as if I were another layer of concrete to dig through. 'A few months ago, I made contact with the troglodytes.'
I choked on a laugh. Nico's claim was the most ridiculous thing I'd heard since Mars swore to me that Elvis Presley was alive on, well, Mars.
'Troglodytes are a myth,' I said. Nico frowned. 'A god is telling a demigod that something is a myth?'
'Oh, you know what I mean! They aren't real . That trashy author Aelian made them up to sell more copies of his books back in Ancient Rome. A race of subterranean humanoids who eat lizards and fight bulls? Please. I've never seen them. Not once in my millennia of life.'
'Did it ever occur to you,' Nico said, 'that troglodytes might go out of their way to hide from a sun god? They hate the light.'
'Well, I –'
'Did you ever actually look for them?' Nico persisted.
'Well, no, but –'
'They're real,' Will confirmed. 'Unfortunately, Nico found them.'
I tried to process this information. I'd never taken Aelian's stories about the troglodytes seriously. To be fair, though, I hadn't believed in rocs, either, until the day one flew over my sun chariot and bowel-bombed me. That was a bad day for me, the roc and several countries that my swerving chariot set on fire.
'If you say so. But do you know how to find the troglodytes again?' I asked. 'Do you think they would help us?'
'Those are two different questions,' Nico said. 'But I think I can convince them to help. Maybe. If they like the gift I got them. And if they don't kill us on sight.'
'I love this plan,' Will grumbled.
'Guys,' Rachel said, 'you forgot about me .'
I stared at her. 'What do you mean?'
'I'm coming, too.'
'Certainly not!' I protested. 'You're mortal!'
'And essential,' Rachel said. 'Your prophecy told you so. A Dare reveals the path that was unknown. All I've done so far is show you blueprints, but I can do more. I can see things you can't. Besides, I've got a personal stake in this. If you don't survive the Tower of Nero, you can't fight Python. And if you can't defeat him ...'
Her voice faltered. She swallowed and doubled over, choking.
At first, I thought some of her Yoo-hoo might have gone down the wrong way. I patted her on the back unhelpfully. Then she sat up again, her back rigid, her eyes glowing. Smoke billowed from her mouth, which is not something normally caused by chocolate drinks.
Will, Nico and Meg scooted away in their beanbags.
I would have done the same, but for half a second I thought I understood what was happening: a prophecy! Her Delphic powers had broken through!
Then, with sickening dread, I realized this smoke was the wrong colour: pallid yellow instead of dark green. And the stench ... sour and decayed, like it was wafting straight from Python's armpits.
When Rachel spoke, it was with Python's voice – a gravelly rumble, charged with malice.
'Apollo's flesh and blood shall soon be mine.
Alone he must descend into the dark,
This sibyl never again to see his sign,
Lest grappling with me till his final spark
The god dissolves, leaving not a mark.'
The smoke dissipated. Rachel slumped against me, her body limp.
CRASH! A sound like shattering metal shook my bones. I was so terrified that I wasn't sure if the noise was from somewhere outside, or if it was just my nervous system shutting down.
Nico got up and ran to the windows. Meg scrambled over to help me with Rachel. Will checked her pulse and started to say, 'We need to get her –'
'Hey!' Nico turned from the window, his face pale with shock. 'We have to get out of here now . The cows are attacking.'
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