Niel wanted to argue and shout, but knew she was right. He did need her around. He was reasonably sure he could control his violent urges, but with Mouse at his side, he’d try even harder.
He nodded. “All right. Any exit suggestions? I was thinking we should head up to the ground floor, and I’ll just smash a door down and leg it.”
“So sophisticated!”
“As long as we get out with this thing, I don’t care!”
“I have a better idea that will be a lot stealthier. But it’s also dark and damp.” She pointed downwards. “There are extensive ancient water cisterns in Istanbul—huge, stone arched chambers and waterways. Most of them are abandoned now, but some are open to the public. This museum sits over one of them. I suggest we leave that way.”
“Why the hell didn’t we come in that way?”
“Because the entrance is impossible to get through from the other end. It’s chained and padlocked on this side, and it’s…tricky. I know because I checked once, years ago. You’ll see.”
“My way sounds easier.”
“You’re a smash and grab kind of guy, aren’t you? No. You’d set alarms off, men will come after us, and it will create waves. We do this my way. That’s why you hired me. And we have time. We found this pretty quickly, really.”
He grudgingly had to admit she made a lot of sense. “Fine. Lead the way.”
“The access is in the centre. I think I can remember which room.” She pulled her mask over the lower half of her face again, eased the door open, and immediately frowned. “I hear something. Voices on the main corridor. I think the lights are on at the end, too.”
She snuck out, padding silently up the narrow hallway, Niel right behind her. He felt like a giant in comparison. Carrying a backpack and a box wasn’t helping.
“Well?” he whispered.
She turned to him with a look of resignation. “They’re bringing in a delivery through the service lift.”
“Now?”
“I told you, they work at night sometimes.” She turned and glanced down the main corridor again. “Okay, only the area around the lift has lights on, and it’s a good distance from here. We need to head about halfway down, and then duck into one of the side passages.”
“One of them? You mean you don’t know which?”
She glared at him. “I’ll know it when I see it.” She looked down the corridor again. “Okay, let’s go now. They’re out of sight.”
He followed her as she sprinted down the corridor, quickly ducking into another passage just as a group of half a dozen men entered the big square area by the lift. Most boarded the lift, but one remained behind, returning to the room they had exited. Niel presumed it was the big one that Mouse had shown him earlier.
That meant only one thing. They were coming back.
Mouse didn’t speak, she just continued, examining each corridor briefly before finally turning down one, just as the lift doors opened again. Niel saw the men wrestling a huge statue inside on a wheeled dolly before he followed her. He waited, wondering if he’d hear shouts or evidence of pursuit, his agitation and worry abnormally exaggerated because of the horn, but fortunately he hadn’t been spotted, and he found Mouse entering another storeroom.
“This is the one, I’m sure.”
He waited by the door while she searched the room. It was similar to the others they’d seen, containing big cabinets and long shelving. In here, though, there weren’t any boxes. Instead, a range of textiles and paintings in frames were stacked haphazardly. What a waste. So much art going unseen. He should just smash it all. That would teach them.
Niel gasped in shock at his thoughts. Damn Belial. He was certain that being surrounded by old objects was intensifying his experience, but perhaps that was just stupidity. It really shouldn’t make any difference at all.
“Niel! Over here!” Mouse summoned him with a raised whisper, and he hurried to her side.
A large, round metal cover was set into the floor, a padlock securing it in place. It was also partially covered by a long worktable. No wonder they couldn’t have entered that way.
“I’ll unlock the padlock,” Mouse said, already on her hands and knees, lock picks in her hand, her face covering removed once more, “while you move the table.”
Preparations complete, Niel lifted the heavy cover with a grunt of exertion, and edged it aside. Below was blackness, and the pungent scent of damp welled up to them. He flattened against the floor, gripped the edge, and peered inside, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, saw the reason why it was so hard to enter.
“For fuck’s sake, Mouse,” he hissed, “we’re thirty feet off the ground!”
“I know.” She crouched opposite him. “There used to be access, a ladder, I think; however, this cistern was dug very deep, and it’s been built on over the centuries. Now there’s just a big drop, but seeing as you can fly—”
“How do you know that there’s a way out? It could be our tomb!”
“I found a way in through the other end. We’re actually very close to one of the cisterns that’s open to the public. We can exit to the street that way.”
Niel didn’t speak as he once again assessed the space. Below, he could discern the inky sheen of water, and enormous stone columns emerged from it to support a vaulted roof. There was plenty of space to fly, at least in the area he could see. The hatch he was looking through was set into the roof at the side of the room, and he could see evidence of where ladders had once been fixed to the wall.
He looked up at her, suddenly amused at the situation. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I want to get out without being chased or arrested. Yes!”
“You’re plucky, I’ll give you that. Potentially insane, but that works, too.” And at least he’d have an excuse to hold her again. “Okay, I can’t get in this hatch with my wings visible, which means I’m going to have to hang from the rim, then extend them. There is no way I can carry the box and you, so the horn will have to be wedged into my backpack. You will hand me the pack, then you have to clamber down and wrap yourself around me. You face me, and wrap your legs around my waist. Then you can make sure the backpack doesn’t fall off.”
“I have to hold the backpack and you?” She looked down at the drop and then at him again. “That’s a big fall if lose my grip.”
He smirked, feeling like he was getting his own back for the Taser incident. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Yes, or I wouldn’t have suggested it!”
“But the reality of it is becoming clear, right? Don’t worry, I’ll hold you. Whether I keep holding you when I think of what you did to me is another matter.”
