The young man gawked up at her in terror.
“Spread the word. On pain of death, nobody better come bother me for the next half hour. Got it?”
The junior functionary gulped, nodded and scurried away.
Maddie closed and locked the office door behind her.
“Don’t you think you were being a little hard on the boy?” Faye asked mildly.
The chatelaine gave a snort of derision. “They don’t understand subtlety. If I didn’t scare them out of their wits, they’d be climbing all over my desk or curling up in the corners for naptime. I’m not running a pre-school here!”
“Oh, Maddie.” The old woman sighed reproachfully. “It’s training, not boot camp.”
“What doesn’t kill them will make them stronger,” the Amazon huffed. “I figure if they can survive me, they can survive anything in the field.”
Maddie pulled up another chair to face her visitor and sat down. “Maybe I’m a little crankier than usual,” she admitted.
“Is it the smoking?”
“Don’t remind me. I vowed I’d keep at it for a month, but there’s too much going on. It’s making me crazy!” She gestured toward the outer office. “Everybody is making me crazy, especially the tyros! I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.”
“Think of your health,” Faye reminded her.
“That’s just it!” Maddie countered in disgust. “I had a check-up last week. My lungs are completely clear. The doc ran every test known to woman to prove I should have some dire disease from smoking, but I don’t. Nada! Diddly! Not a damn thing wrong with me. Healthy as a horse.”
“Well,” Faye equivocated. “See if you can make it for a few more weeks.”
“You mean without killing anybody?” Maddie grinned.
“Yes, that would be nice, dear.” Faye returned the smile. “Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Oh, right.” The change of topic seemed to end the chatelaine’s tirade. “Thanks again for coming in. It wasn’t something I could talk about at your house with Hannah living there. How is she, by the way?”
Faye beamed. “She’s doing splendidly. Her studies are coming along nicely, and Zachary invited her out on a date a while ago.”
Maddie stared at her in disbelief. “You let that spikey-haired little vegan anarchist take her out?”
The memory guardian maintained her composure. “His hair is much smoother now. He’s trying to impress Hannah. As for the anarchy, I imagine that’s a fundamental part of his nature. From what Hannah told me, they had a good time.”
“Doing what? Attending a lecture on how to build a bomb?”
“Very amusing, dear. He took her to the cinema. Nothing racy, of course. I steered them toward a PG movie. Hannah said she enjoyed the experience of watching a motion picture on the big screen.”
“I suppose she’s got to get used to our world sometime,” Maddie relented.
“Indeed. If she’s starting school next year, we have to prepare her gradually now.”
A knock was heard on the office door.
Maddie turned in her seat and shouted, “Go away!”
A muffled apology could be heard through the portal and then the sound of scurrying footsteps.
“Now what is our meeting supposed to be about?” Faye prodded the conversation forward.
“Oh, right,” Maddie said. She frowned. “This wasn’t something I wanted to discuss over the phone. Do you remember what I said last fall about planting one of our own as a spy inside the Nephilim compound?”
“I do recall the conversation,” Faye replied in a troubled tone. “I also recall you saying that it was merely a notion you were considering. Might I ask why you’re bringing it up just now?”
Maddie leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I think I forced matters to a head this week.”
“How so?”
The chatelaine gave Faye a recap of her encounter with Rhonda.
“I see.” Faye looked down at the floor, lost in thought.
“I found out yesterday that Hunt got his marching orders. He and Daniel are heading to Africa. He’ll have a surprise waiting for him when he gets back.”
“You mean because Rhonda will be gone by then?”
“That’s part of it, but that isn’t the real issue.”
Faye cocked a quizzical eyebrow. ‘No?”
Maddie sat forward and clasped her hands. “Hunt may be a low life, but he isn’t stupid. When he comes back to find the antique shop gone, he’ll know somebody has been messing with his surveillance feed. He’ll realize that while he was watching the store, somebody was watching him.”
Faye nodded but said nothing.
Maddie continued. “Up til now we’ve been able to tail him and monitor his phone calls because his guard wasn’t up. We won’t have that luxury for much longer. Once he gets back from Africa, he’ll know enough to cover his tracks.”
“And if he covers his tracks we’ll have no idea what’s going on inside the compound or how he’s planning to find Hannah,” Faye concluded.
“You see the problem,” the chatelaine said gravely. “We’ll be flying blind. Not only that. We still have no clue what Metcalf’s grand scheme is. What’s he going to do with the Sage Stone once he gets it? We need to know that to get any kind of jump on the enemy.” She stared at her superior. “There’s only one way for us to find all that out.”
Faye rubbed her head tiredly. “At least promise me this will be a voluntary assignment.”
In an uncharacteristically soft voice, Maddie replied, “Of course. I wouldn’t want it on my conscience that I ordered somebody to undertake a suicide mission. You and I both know that whoever goes into that compound might not come out alive.”
Faye rose slowly to her feet. “I’ve never been of the opinion that the good of the many should outweigh the good of the few.”
The chatelaine rose too and placed a reassuring hand on the old woman’s shoulder. “I won’t do anything unless I get a volunteer. You’ve got my word.”
Chapter 38—Pinnacle of Success
The Arkana team sped across the new bridge that spanned the Nile River and
