“You are on the island of Elba, off the Italian coast.”
Ozan swore prolifically. “Emre talked.”
“We picked some clues up, too. We’re here already. If we attack tonight, while Jiri is angry and irrational, we can finish this quickly.”
“Even though he has Belial’s jewels? You know their power.”
“We have options.”
“Enough. I will call you.” Ozan ended the call abruptly.
“So,” Niel said to Mouse as he hunkered down in the back of a storeroom in almost complete darkness, “this is afterhours in a museum. Fun!”
“It’s gets better, I guarantee.”
“Good, because frankly, this is tedious.”
Mouse smiled, amused. “Keep your voice down. The staff can hang around for hours.”
“Even down here? In the bowels of the Earth?”
“Less so, fortunately.” She paused, holding her hand up for silence. The light from a narrow window over the door illuminated her eyes, almost as if she had a mask across her face again. She was dressed all in black, as usual. “Guards.”
There were two voices, conversational and relaxed as they rattled door handles and moved on.
Niel took comfort in the fact that so far, everything had gone smoothly. They had entered the museum an hour before closing time and wandered the halls and galleries, and occasionally Mouse held his hand, or looped her arm around his elbow. She had smiled playfully and said, “Let’s pretend we’re lovers.”
His loins stirred again, even at the thought. His response had been harsh, though. “I’ll pretend, but your nasty habit with a Taser has soured my ardour.” A shutter had fallen across her eyes, and he kicked himself for his response. But she had been true to her word. She had accessed a staff door in a crowded corner of a large hall and snuck inside, pulling him along a short corridor and down a flight of steps until they were on the level they were hiding on now. They had passed no one, which seemed like a miracle. She obviously knew her way around well.
They waited until silence fell before Niel spoke again. “How much longer?”
“Another ten minutes. Normally, the guards settle into a routine. They’ll come back this way, and then won’t return for another hour or so.”
Niel adjusted his position, stretching out his legs between tall stacks of shelving. A variety of boxes were stored on them, some were labelled, others were unmarked. “Do you know what’s in this room?”
“Fragments of pottery, jars, vases, pots, some animal bones, sculptures, and figurines.” She shrugged. “Most of it is uncatalogued, and nothing looks vaguely interesting to me. I picked this room to hide in because it’s one of the biggest and the most unorganised. In fact, from what I can tell, most of the rooms on this floor are.”
They were two levels below the ground floor. “All from archaeological digs, then?”
“I think so. The lowest level has the most interesting finds. The big ones.” Her eyes gleamed.
“Like what?”
“Huge statues, massive stone blocks from digs, half destroyed pillars. Some were donated. I read the inventory when I can find it.”
“You really are a little mouse, aren’t you? Scurrying into dark corners. How did you get into this line of work?”
“Stealing, you mean?” Niel nodded. She intrigued him, even more so now that he was getting to know her better. “I had a poor childhood and was unattended for hours. It was a fun way to pass my time. And lucrative.”
“How come you work for others?”
“Certain people always need a good thief, just like you do.”
“But clearly you do get caught, which worries me, or else why do you need multiple passports?”
“It’s an occupational hazard. Besides, I’ve never been truly caught. Just suspected. That’s very different. Shush.” She held her finger to her lips, and he heard the bang of a door from further down the corridor.
They both fell silent, and Niel used the time to try to feel for Belial’s horn, but there weren’t any tell-tale whispers or strange hums of power. After another few minutes, the guards returned, and eventually Mouse stood up. “Time to go.”
She progressed stealthily to the door and peered into the corridor; satisfied, she stepped out and headed left. “The stairs to the lowest level are this way.”
They passed several locked doors, finally reaching a lift with a staircase next to it. They ignored the lift and headed down the stairs. The lowest level was in darkness, and both accessed the torches on their phones.
“It’s supposed to be in the end room,” Niel said, wondering which end of the corridor that would be. Mouse had run through the layout earlier, but he was slightly disoriented now.
“There are two set of steps down here,” Mouse told him. “One at the other end, close to the more populated areas of the museum, and this one. I suggest we try right, away from the steps. That way leads to the big service lift.”
“Fine by me.” He scanned every door they passed, noting that the place was a warren. Several smaller corridors led off the main one, and his spirits dropped. “This will take hours if the horn isn’t where I expect it to be.”
“We’ll just be methodical,” Mouse suggested. “Otherwise, we’ll forget where we’ve covered.”
They reached the huge doors of the service lift that opened onto a large, square area. “This is where the biggest pieces are stored,” she said, gesturing to the rooms behind them. She accessed her skeleton keys and opened one. “Look.”
The beam of the torch showed a large room filled with enormous stone sculptures, broken columns, and what looked to be the remnants of old temples.
“Holy shit,” Niel said. “It looks like an ancient site.”
“Probably several. Come on.”
