The chatelaine gave a pleased smile. “I’ll tell them you gave a glowing report of how well they handled the recovery.”
Faye poured a cup for Maddie and handed it to her. “Speaking of our latest recovery, I haven’t had a chance to see it yet.”
“Someone will bring it along in a minute,” the chatelaine replied. Changing the subject, she asked, “Who’s minding Hannah while you’re here? It’s not a school day.”
“No, but her time is being spent in academic pursuits nonetheless,” Faye replied. She served herself from the tray and then returned to her plush armchair. “Zachary and Hannah are acting as ‘study buddies.’ Even as we speak, they’re preparing for their midterm examinations. I’ve been told that these things called midterms are a source of dread to teenagers everywhere.”
“Good,” the chatelaine murmured. “I’m all for anything that keeps your grandkid out of my hair even for a day.”
“Isn’t Zachary’s orientation going well?” Faye asked innocently.
“He’s got more hands than an octopus when it comes to grabbing artifacts he shouldn’t and more unanswerable questions than the sphinx,” Maddie countered.
“Perhaps you should drop him from the program then.” The memory guardian’s voice held a mischievous challenge.
“He’ll pass muster,” the chatelaine relented with a grudging smile.
Another figure entered the room. “Hey, guys.”
Griffin shot out of his seat. “What’s he doing here?”
Cassie’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Relax, I come bearing gifts.” Erik strode forward, carrying the Kailash artifact. He placed it on the coffee table.
“Oh my goodness!” Faye’s hand flew to her mouth in astonishment.
The paladin took a seat on the arm of the sofa next to Maddie.
Griffin sat back down, but both he and Cassie continued to glare at the new arrival.
“If looks could kill,” Erik quipped.
Maddie ran interference. “Chill out, you two. He’s here because there’s something he wanted to get off his chest.” She gave her protégé a sharp nudge in the ribs. “Isn’t there, Erik?”
The paladin dropped his gaze to the floor. “Yeah, there is.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably and then looked at his former teammates. “I came to apologize.”
Cassie and Griffin traded startled glances before directing their attention back to Erik.
“Dude, I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth,” Cassie said.
“Better late than never, I suppose,” Griffin sniffed, still obviously offended.
Erik continued. “Here’s the thing. I’m not sorry that I came back to the vault to take on a new assignment, but my timing sucked. I should have finished the Tibetan mission first.”
“Apology accepted,” Cassie said warily.
“What new assignment?” Griffin’s eyes narrowed.
“Infiltrating the Nephilim.”
“What!” Cassie and Griffin exclaimed in shock.
Maddie intervened once more. “Hey, dial it down! It’s not the death sentence we all thought it would be. Turns out Boy Wonder here came up with a good plan. He’s been taking odd jobs with the contractors Metcalf hired for his secret projects. Kept his ears open and learned a few choice tidbits.”
“Did you indeed?” The scrivener remarked archly. “What sort of tidbits?”
“For starters, I got a line on the guy Metcalf hired to run his lab operation. The director’s name is Rafi Aboud. He’s spent decades developing biological weapons in the Middle East. Now that he’s working for Metcalf, it looks like Aboud is experimenting on something a lot bigger than guinea pigs. I’ve seen Nephilim walk into that hole in the ground but never come out. They go up in smoke—literally. A giant incinerator disposes of whatever mistakes the good doctor makes.”
“So the diviner is allowing fatal experiments to be conducted on his own people?” Faye’s face had drained of color. “That is very disturbing news.”
“What toxin do you think he’s cooking up?” Cassie asked.
Erik shook his head. “Not sure yet—something uber-lethal. I’ll find out more in the next couple of weeks.”
“I suppose it’s unnecessary to tell you to keep your guard up,” Griffin cautioned, his anger apparently abated. “It sounds as if this Aboud would welcome another test subject, no matter what the source.”
“Yeah, I know,” Erik agreed. “I’m not looking for a one-way trip to the doc’s easy bake oven.” Changing the subject abruptly, he asked, “So how did your bait-and-switch operation go?”
Cassie gave a shudder. “It was the longest night of my life.” Turning to her partner, she asked, “How about you, Griffin?”
“I heartily concur. We’re lucky to be alive at all.”
“Did Maddie tell you we got jumped by bandits on the way down the mountain?” The pythia directed her question to Erik.
An unreadable expression crossed his face. “Yeah, we all got the short version of your last phone call to Home Office but not the details. How did you get away?”
“By the barest stroke of luck, that’s how,” Griffin replied. “We managed to untie ourselves and subdue the evil-looking bloke who’d been set to guard us. A few moments later, we heard the rest of his associates coming down the trail.”
Cassie picked up the thread of the narrative. “It was a good thing it was still dark. We tore out of that tent and never looked back. Behind us, we could hear a ruckus when the gang discovered their buddy trussed up in our place. They got sidetracked trying to bring him around which gave us some lead time. We ran for town as fast as we could.”
“The Land Rover had already been loaded in anticipation of our pre-dawn departure,” the scrivener explained. “Needless to say, we made a speedy exit out of Darchen just as the sun rose.”
The pythia eyed Erik with a woebegone expression. “For what it’s worth, you weren’t wrong about the snow.”
“Huh. How about that.” The paladin crossed his arms, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“From the condition of the sky, we could tell a storm was already building as we drove out of Darchen,” Griffin added. “We’d only just crossed the Nepalese border when a blizzard struck. All the roads to the north were closed.”
“If that snow had hit an hour sooner, we might have been cornered in town with those bandits still chasing
