"It's why I'm the only person immune to Niko's knives and guns. We'll talk about it later." Dosy left and slammed the door behind me.

The look Niko gave me made me think I should sleep with one of his guns. But I was just as upset and glared back. He spun on his heel and stormed into his bedroom, slamming the door.

That poor kid.

Although I'd never experienced it first hand, I imagined this was what it was like if my parents were fighting. Except my parents didn't go around mercy-killing priests. I locked the front door and settled down on the couch again, a little out of place and worried about what was going on that no one wanted to tell me.

At least I might soon know where Herakles was. If I were in trouble, he would come for me. It was only fair I did the same.

Father Ellis is dead. I wanted to hate Niko, but ... well, I was horrified to admit I was a little too angry with the priests for lying to me my entire life to feel complete compa.s.sion for them.

I was too confused to figure out what I felt. None of this seemed real. I wanted to wake up at home in my bed at the orphanage and trek into the woods with Herakles for another survival lesson.

Chapter Seven.

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.

Homer The next morning, I stood across the street from the thick metal gates of SISA headquarters located in downtown DC. Maybe it was stupid of me, but I hadn't really considered it might be hard to get to Herakles until I saw those tall, thick gates guarded by half a dozen men on the street side. Herakles had taught me to be self-sufficient in every scenario I could think of to the point I thought myself somewhat invincible. But those gates ...

There's no way I can sneak in.

I had to, though. I'd rather be trapped with Herakles in prison than stuck alone in an insane world I didn't understand. The morning crowd, consisting of tour groups and businesspeople, walked past the wall, seemingly oblivious to the compound. I couldn't look away.

At least, not until one of the masked guards looked my way twice. The masks kind of freaked me out. They covered their entire faces and heads. Each guard was identified by a patch with a number on it rather than names and faces.

I left the sidewalk and went into the cafe behind me. With the money I'd pilfered from Niko, I bought a Greek coffee and sat near the window. The streets and sidewalks were churning with rush hour activity. Part of me was thrilled to realize I was a part of this world, at least on this surface. Buying coffee, smiling at people whose paths I crossed ... no one knew I was different.

I kind of liked that.

The gates across the street opened once to reveal a second set, these much smaller, and guards and tire shredders in between the two. Beyond the second gates sat a white building with marble pillars. I wasn't able to gauge how large it was in the two seconds the two gates were simultaneously open.

Niko had claimed this building was more secure than the White House. Dosy disagreed, claiming this was an offsite and the real headquarters was located in Northern Virginia. She said this site was abandoned before a month ago and considered its reactivation a ploy of some sort. I was inclined to take her word over his, out of princ.i.p.al and because I liked her better than Niko. I had no idea either way.

The two had still been fighting about something that didn't matter to me when I left. They argued about everything. I didn't even have to be subtle just walked out.

Herakles would tell me to evaluate everything I could about the compound. So far, I'd figured out I wasn't going over the gates. I had no clue whether the sewer system was an option. The only thing Dosy had been able to find out was that Herakles was in the east wing, which wasn't visible from the street.

Official visitors entered the gates on foot and by car. Their identifications were scanned, and they, their belongings and vehicles were searched. My eyes followed the walls down the block. I stood, grabbing my coffee to walk the perimeter and see what other gates were present.

Half an hour later, I was forced to admit there was one way in and out of the compound. I returned to the cafe and sat with another coffee, toying with the red cord around my wrist.

"You little s.h.i.t."

I looked up to see Niko at my table. He sat down without waiting for an invitation.

"You all clearly had some things to work out," I replied.

"When you meet that special someone who turns out not to be as interested in you as you are them, then you'll understand."

"I doubt it. Herakles told me never to let any boy derail me from my goals, and I won't." It had been easy, if frustrating, to let go of the boys the nymphs stole. I wasn't letting anyone near my heart, because Herakles said that's when bad things happened.

"You think it's a choice to fall in love, to have a kid you aren't expecting," Niko observed.

"Everything in life is a choice."

"No, kid. It's not." He was amused. "But I do hope to see the look on your face when you realize that."

"Whatever. Are we gonna do this?" It was hard to talk to him when I wanted to explode about the priests.

"Do what?"

I pointed towards SISA building. Niko looked briefly.

"Let's get something straight. You're insane to want to go to the one place you should never want to be," he replied.

"You know why you're here right now? Because you murdered everyone else who could help me," I shot back.

"Shut up, kid. I was going to tell you, Dosy sent me down here to dissuade you, but I have a different idea."

I waited, surprised to sense he was on my side. And irked he didn't even blink when I mentioned the priests.

"There's only one way into that place," he continued. "We need to be invited."

"What does that entail?"

"A mercenary bounty hunter claiming to have the real Oracle in tow might warrant an invite."

I brightened. "That's brilliant, Niko! Let's do that!"

He eyed me. "Does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Like how dangerous this is, how small the chances are they'll let you leave? What they might do to you?"

"Can't be worse than what you might do to me."

"You have no idea how big of a favor I did those priests. They didn't even pay me."

What an a.s.shole. "Herakles will fix everything," I said, missing my friend even more.

"We don't even know where he is."

"Yes we do. The east wing."

"You're not getting it." Niko sighed and studied me. "You might get in but you won't get out."

Maybe he was right. But why did I want to leave if Herakles was trapped and being tortured? My world except him was crashing and burning. I was trying not to face that reality and holding out for Herakles to fix things. I didn't care what happened to me if it meant he was gone.

I didn't tell Niko any of this. It was obvious he thought I was insane. To discuss what I felt made it more real. It was easier for me to push away my emotions and put all my faith in the man sitting in a cell somewhere in the east wing of SISA headquarters.

Herakles had spent over a decade taking care of me. For once, it was my turn to do the same for him, and nothing Niko said was going to dissuade me.

"Well, come on," he said and stood.

"Where are we going?" I asked suspiciously.

"Dosy knows some people. You and I are going to walk into SISA and hope she can get us out." He stopped outside the cafe and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "I've never seen footage of a potential Oracle walking in voluntarily." He slid one cold cuff around one wrist then the other.

"You're really going to help me?"

Niko met my gaze. "No one else I know would consider me walking you into SISA helping," he replied. "When we're inside, chances are they're going to separate us. Count to a hundred and then pull off your red bracelet. If you really are what Dosy says, it'll cause some sort of chaos and distract them long enough for me to slip away and find Herakles."

"This is a great plan," I said, my hope building.

"It's a terrible plan. We have no exit strategy."

I didn't care. All I could think about was Herakles. "I can take care of myself," I told him when I saw the worried look he cast the walls. "I know self-defense and I can run."

"You have no clue, kid." Without another word, he took my arm and marched me across the street.

My stomach churned as we approached the guard post.

"I found the real Oracle," Niko proclaimed.

"Move along," one of the guards said, unconcerned.

"Look, I'm a merc. I've been tracking her, and I found her," Niko insisted. "If you check with your boss, he's expecting me."

Say what now? I eyed him.

"Whatever, sport. Keep walking," another guard replied.

Niko glanced at me. "Can you do anything Oracle-y to prove it?" he asked.

"Not that I know of."

He muttered something I couldn't hear then reached for the red cord at my wrist. Tugging the knot free, he pulled it away.

A wave invisible yet strong enough to shatter the gla.s.s of car windshields rippled outward from us. The gate before us shook, and the plastic chairs outside the cafe flipped onto their sides. Everyone within ten feet of us was flattened. The wave lost power the farther it traveled down the block.

Niko and I exchanged a look. We alone were left standing. The guards were sprawled onto the ground where they'd fallen. Replacing the red cord, Niko faced the nearest guard, who appeared too stunned to react.

"If you don't want her, I can sell her off on the black market for at least "

The guards erupted into action and shouting. Someone screamed for the gate to be opened while two more charged and grabbed us both.

"It's working," I mouthed to Niko, not fighting the men jostling us towards the gate.

He rolled his eyes.

We were escorted past the first gate where our entourage doubled before we were permitted through the second gate. The compound inside consisted of at least three buildings edging a courtyard and entrance to an underground parking garage.

We stopped there. One of the guards radioed into someone. He was too far away for me to hear, and my gaze fell to the building to the east, where I thought Herakles might be. It was impossible to tell anything about the buildings and what they held by their uniform, blank facades. No numbers or identifying marks were visible. The building on the left was boarded up.

Someone in a suit emerged from the eastern building to wave the guard forward. I was corralled in that direction. Niko remained in the courtyard. I automatically began to count as he had instructed.

The interior of the building was as plain as the exterior. A foyer consisting of an empty s.p.a.ce flanked by two doors held two men in business suits and a doctor or nurse in scrubs.

"Just one guard," one of the businessmen waved the others away. He wore spectacles and carried an iPad. "You won't be any trouble, right, princess?" He glanced at me.

What an a.s.s. But I was polite. "No, sir," I replied.

He waited for the door to close behind the other guards before motioning for his a.s.sistant to open one of the doors leading into the interior. We walked into the building, and I peered into the offices we pa.s.sed.

They were empty and appeared to have been for quite some time. The cameras in the hallways all pointed at the floor or the wall behind them rather than in the direction they should. Dosy's claim about this place being a set up for ... something began to make more sense.

"Name," the man in the suit said to me crisply.

"Holly."

"A pleasure, Holly. We're going to do some paperwork and then send you in for a medical exam. We've had quite a few frauds lately, so I'm sure you'll understand the precautions we must take. There's a great deal of wealth involved."

"Wealth?" I echoed.

He stepped into an office and motioned me to sit in front of a desk. "The Oracle of Delphi's fortune has been growing for ten thousand years. It's the number one reason for fraud. People have been after her money for years."

"So she's rich." I frowned, not understanding the divide between what the priests told me and this. "And the downside ..."

"Downside?" He gave me an odd look. "What downside is there to being one of the wealthiest people on the planet, handed power on a platter and having the honor of communicating directly with the G.o.ds daily?"

"I guess there is none." Something wasn't right about this. If what he said was true, why did Niko say every potential Oracle who came here did so unwillingly? The priests had only said the Oracle was tortured. They never mentioned wealth or anything else. I knew they favored the Old Ways and found myself wishing once more they'd taken the time to tell me something more than they had. Like, the full truth. Did they fear I'd be swayed to ignore the Old Ways by money?

The guard took off my handcuffs and the a.s.sistant scanned my arm. "Holly Rodriquez," he said, reading the screen. "According to this, you're thirty eight and wanted for murder in two states."

All four of them stared at me.

"About that ..." I cleared my throat.

Note to self: tell Niko never to use Marty again. Then again, this was probably karma after Niko stole money from his criminal friends.

"It hasn't been reprogrammed," the a.s.sistant continued. "Which means ..."

"You either killed Holly Rodriquez or bought a biotag on the black market," Spectacles finished.