Pawn (21 page)

Chapter Twenty Two.

The cottage was dark. But that was normal enough when it was night outside. Eumonia was asleep in her room, and Di could hear her snoring away quietly. The sound as usual made her smile. She would never tell her that she snored. Eumonia, goddess of good order would have had a fit. Her world was all about neatness and order, about things being clean and in their place. Snoring would not fit well with that. Besides Di didn’t mind the sound. After so many millennia it was simply a part of her world, a comfort in truth.

Outside she could hear the sound of the waves crashing gently against the beach, the eternal sound track to her life. It was almost like a heartbeat, sometimes a little louder, sometimes a little quieter, but always steady, always there.

Everything seemed in order. Everything looked to be at peace. And yet she felt uncomfortable. Something was wrong. She could feel it in her bones. She could smell it. Something was very wrong.

Still she walked the length of her home, looking for whatever was wrong. She found nothing. There was nothing. Everything was quiet. Everything was calm. Everything was as it should be.

And then it wasn’t.

“Hello bitch!” The words, full of venom and bile, came out of nowhere, from just behind her where there had been nothing and no one. She heard them and spun, shocked and frightened that anyone could be in her home, let alone him. But she was too slow. Much too slow. By the time she’d turned he was behind her again and one arm was looping around her neck, the other grabbing her wrist and twisting it up cruelly behind her back.

In a split second he had her, and for a moment Di almost couldn’t believe that it was happening. That someone would dare accost her. No one accosted her. No one touched her in any way without her permission. But of course she knew the voice, and she knew that if anyone would dare do such a thing it would be him. Hades wouldn’t dare, though the two of them were often close. Poseidon wouldn’t dare either though he was one of the strongest. But Plutos, drunk on his growing power and with grandiose dreams of so much more, he would.

“You dare Plutos!” She all but spat her words out. “You would dare to lay your hands on a goddess.” For an answer though he just laughed, and then twisted her arm even more cruelly behind her back and let his fingers start choking her.

“What’s happening?” Eumonia was suddenly there in the main room with them, wiping the sleep out of her eyes and just beginning to realise that something was wrong. But of course she was too slow and Plutos had known she lived with her.

“Get her.” Two words, a simple command, and from out of nowhere she heard the howls of wild dogs inside her home. But of course they weren’t normal creatures. Di knew that as she saw them race past her, black as night, large as horses and with far too many heads, all of them breathing fire. Hellhounds. Plutos had made a deal with Hades after all, and that was why he dared what no other would. With Hades at his back he thought he was untouchable.

The hounds crashed into Eumonia, and she barely had a chance to let off a scream before they started tearing at her. Their claws ripping at her flesh, their teeth biting away, and of course their fire burning her. She had no chance. Like Di she was no goddess of war, and there was nothing she could do. There was a shriek, a sort of gurgling sound and a puddle of blood spreading out over the polished wooden floors, and then she was gone. Nothing at all left behind.

Di screamed in horror and disbelief. A goddess, her handmaiden, her friend, killed. And so brutally. It was unthinkable. And then she screamed again. Though Eumonia wasn’t truly dead, gods and goddesses could never truly be killed, they could be hurt, and when her friend returned she would still have to remember those terrible few seconds as the beasts had attacked her. It was a nightmare.

“Now you see what I would dare.” Plutos laughed at her, happy at Eumonia’s demise and Di wanted to smash him. But she couldn’t. That was completely beyond her power. Love and beauty were never useful weapons. But intelligence was, and she knew she had to start thinking. She had to start asking questions. And the first question was always how Plutos had entered her home, unnoticed. Why she hadn’t been able to see him.

But of course there was only one reason. She realised that when she realised that there was only one among all the celestials who could have entered her home and remained there unseen.

“Erebos.” She named the god of dark and shadow, and wasn’t surprised when she could finally make out his silhouette in the gloom, and a pair of eyes. That was all that anyone ever saw of him, and mostly they saw nothing at all as he crept around in the dark. But he wasn’t a warrior. His only weapon was fear, the fear of the unseen, and he did not step out of his protective cloak of night very often. So why had he backed Plutos in this madness? He wasn’t the sort to take chances and this was a very big risk. He had to have been offered something very precious.

“You know an attack on one is an attack on all.” Of course he knew that. They all did. And no one was strong enough to take on all the gods. Not even the arrogant Plutos, who jumped in before she could finish with Erebos.

“Only if you’re still a goddess.”

Di didn’t understand that. A god was a god was a god. It was all there was. And the only way they could be lost was if either the people lost faith in them and what they represented for want of a better phrase, or they strayed too far from their bailiwick. She was not as strong as she had once been, the people’s love and respect for beauty and love had waned over the centuries, but she was still relatively powerful among the gods and goddesses. And she had absolutely no intention of straying from her role. But Plutos, chortling away to himself, apparently drunk on his dreams of power, was only too happy to explain. He was actually bragging.

“You’ve sullied yourself my sweet sister, with that piece of human refuse. Your love is tainted and it makes you weak. With just a few more incidents like that, you will lose your place. And as for your beauty, a few scars here and there, and that will be a distant memory as well.” And just to prove it he grabbed a dark blade of some sort and slashed at her face.

It failed of course, and Plutos grunted with annoyance. No blade could cut her. But it didn’t fail by as much as it should have. The blade came too close to her cheek, and that was frightening. Of course he didn’t stop trying, and kept slashing at her face again and again, still failing, but not by enough.

Still she had to fight, and her only weapon was her wit. She had to put on a brave face as she summoned her power to her.

“Is that the best you can do? All that posturing and all those dreams and you still can’t so much as scratch me. Not on my bailiwick. Not in my home. Erebos you’ve tied yourself to a lost cause, and you will suffer his fate. The instant Eunomia reforms, everything will be known including your role in this sordid crime.” Erebos she fancied, looked less than confident in his veil of darkness. Plutos though, was still full of himself.

“So I can’t scratch you, I can still defile you.” Di suddenly felt his hands moving from her throat to her breasts, grabbing at the diaphanous material of her nightgown, trying to strip her, and she understood his intent instantly. Ever the monster he intended to rape her. To take her against her will. And then when he had destroyed her soul, destroy her godhood.

The thought was pure horror, the feel of his nasty little hands on her flesh, far worse. She screamed then, loud and long, and pushed him away from her as hard as she could, and for once something seemed to work as he was sent flying into the far wall like a missile, half her nightgown trailing him like a streamer. But not hard enough. She wanted him broken, but he wasn’t broken. Just excited, and he got up far too quickly and returned to try again. This time though, she had a defence. One he’d probably never expected. And instead of reforming her nightgown to cover herself, she drew her radiant armour around her. She was never a goddess of war but she could still protect herself.

The light from the golden armour made Erebos scream as his shadow was torn away from him, and when Plutos finally attacked her again, it was to find that his own power failed against her armour. He kept forgetting he wasn’t a war god. But he was cunning.

He punched and kicked and tried to rip her armour away from her, roaring like a mad man, and his fingers couldn’t even touch her. She was always too strong for that, though for a moment or two she’d almost forgotten that in her fear. But strength wasn’t everything. She discovered that when she felt chains suddenly wrap themselves around her, binding her. And then she saw the cruel smile return once more to his face as he thought he had her. And this time maybe he did. It seemed that hellhounds weren’t the only pets he’d got from Hades. Chains of the damned, foul things that were supposed to hold the souls of the dead in his underworld realm, could also bind a god. They had been used that way once before.

“Fine bitch! I can’t touch you, yet. But I will. As your hope fades so too will your power. Especially away from this place. And then you’ll be mine. Until the end.” He didn’t seem happy about it though. Just angry and full of hate. His plans weren’t working out quite as he’d expected. Erebos was down, Hades was of course absent, and he couldn’t hurt her as he’d hoped. She told him as much and was rewarded with an inarticulate scream of rage. For someone who always made sure to dress like a gentleman he certainly wasn’t acting like one.

“But you don’t have to stay here in this squalid shack. I have far more suitable accommodations for you in the mortal realm. A nice dungeon with your name already inscribed on the cell door.”

Unexpectedly the chains binding her lifted her up off the ground, causing her to cry out in shock. She hadn’t known they could do that. But worse was the feeling as they started pulling her away, carrying her through the air like a piece of luggage, away from her home, away from her safety.

She would have screamed then. Maybe she should have. But she knew it would only make Plutos happy. Drunk on his victory.

From this point on she knew as she was pulled out of her home, she had to remain calm and strong. She had to believe in herself. She had to stay true to her role. And she had to wait for rescue. And it would come. All of the heavens would come when they heard what he had done, and Plutos would suffer for his crimes.

All she had to do was wait.

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Chapter Twenty Three.

“There’s our boy.” The inspector was in a good mood for once. Things were starting to fall into place and he finally had a plan of attack. Once he knew who had the painting and why, the rest had become routine, even when dead men were seemingly walking. A crook after all was a crook, and he knew exactly where Venner’s criminal nature was leading him.

After so many long days and weeks of getting nowhere to have picked up his prey’s scent again, that was marvellous.

“You sure?” Hopkins stared at the photo and then at the man making his way out of his motel room with a briefcase in one hand and an overcoat wrapped around his other arm. He didn’t look exactly like his passport photo, but then who did? They were usually taken on a budget, and lasted ten years. People changed.

“Yes. He’s older, greyer and he’s lost a little hair and put on a little weight, but it’s him. Besides, he’s in the right room and he’s getting into the car he rented at the airport.” Barns knew he was their man. The scent of the chase was in his nose and he would not be fooled by a few grey hairs.

“Follow him, discretely.” They probably didn’t need to when there was a tracking device fitted inside his rental’s back bumper. But he liked to make certain. There was always the chance after all, that he’d change cars. Venner he was beginning to realise, was a crafty devil. But still, and it would cost him his freedom, predictable. He was greedy, far too greedy.

“Yes sir.”

Hopkins started the car, and they pulled out of the lay-by when the white Toyota left the motel car park, and slowly chased it, at a distance, down the road.

“Don’t let him get away.” Agent
Dikē of course, had her own worries about the case, and about Venner escaping. She really didn’t like him. And so it was she who’d spoken to the judges and arranged the warrants. Somehow, she could simply flash her ID around and judges would issue all the writs and bench warrants she asked for. Now that as far as the inspector was concerned, was magic. But there was a price for it, and her sitting in the back seat was it. She wanted to be there at the arrest. But since she also had the tracking unit in her hand and was keeping an eagle eye on both the machine and the car ahead, he wouldn’t complain.

Hopkins wouldn’t complain either, and Barns had noticed him snatching a surreptitious peek or two at her through the rear view mirror. But then he was a younger man, and she made for an attractive package in her black pressed trouser suit. Long dark hair, pretty face, athletic figure, it was only natural. As long as he wasn’t planning on asking to join her at Interpol. He was just young and stupid enough to want that, and it would look good on his resume. Barns though, wasn’t yet ready to start training a new sergeant.

“I won’t.”

They drove sedately down the quiet roads running through town, and then on to the motorway, unseen by their quarry. That was exactly as the inspector had expected it to go. After all the man was an art historian not a spy or a crook. The chances were that he never even looked in his rear view mirror. Why would he? As far as he knew, he was simply being asked to authenticate a painting. Again. Though of course if he’d watched the evening news, he would have known that it had been stolen, always assuming that he’d been told what painting it was that he was being asked to authenticate. If he hadn’t, then things might go very badly for him when he finally laid eyes on Aphrodite in the Roses. Because the moment he did he would know who the thief was. Then he would either be bribed to say nothing, or killed. Like it or not their quarry might need their protection quite soon.

“Looks like we’ve got a drive ahead of us.” The agent was right of course, but at least it would be smooth for a while as they cruised down the motorway in top gear, and that gave Barns a chance to ask some of the questions he wanted answered.

“Time enough perhaps for you to tell me how you got all those warrants.” And that still bothered him. Getting a warrant for most coppers was mostly a matter of presenting a convincing case against a suspect in front of a judge. Getting a warrant to put an electronic transmitter on someone, was more like proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt. And this guy was no criminal. Getting a warrant to knowingly bug an innocent man, that was unheard of.

“Why, inspector, -” Agent Dikē fluttered her eyelashes at him and spoke in a breathless whisper like a winsome young girl, “- you know it’s all about presenting the evidence.”

Of course it was, and it didn’t hurt that when you presented your case to the judge that you were young and pretty. Especially when most judges were old men with just enough foolishness left to them to imagine that those girlish affectations might mean something more. Maybe she did have some advantages when it came to such things. Barns tried not to groan too loudly.

“Eyes on the road Hopkins.” Of course that didn’t mean he could tolerate sergeants with sly smiles growing broader as they listened in and heard him being schooled by a young slip of a woman.

“Yes sir.” But the smile didn’t fully go away.

The inspector turned his own eyes back to the road as well, and the car a few hundred yards ahead of them. Maybe it would be a better trip without conversation.

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