The Phoenix

‘Am I? You said yourself the “nun” was wearing a burka-like habit.’

‘Yeah! Like Sister Elena’s!’ Ella seethed. ‘Why is it so hard for you to admit that you screwed up. It was Athena and we lost her. Now I’ll have to resurrect Persephone Hamlin and go back to Makis until I can get a new lead.’

Gabriel sat bolt upright as if he’d just been electrocuted.

‘You cannot go back to Makis Alexiadis. Not now, not ever. Do you understand?’

‘No. I don’t,’ Ella said bluntly. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but right now Mak is our only live lead, our only link to Athena. That’s what you told me, remember? And he trusts me.’

‘It’s out of the question,’ Gabriel said, his fear playing out as arrogance.

‘I can handle him,’ said Ella.

‘It’s not feasible. Persephone Hamlin has been retired as a cover persona.’

‘So un-retire her,’ said Ella.

‘No.’

A tense silence descended.

Ella broke it first, and not in the way that Gabriel had expected.

‘You know I think I recognized him.’

‘Who?’ he asked warily.

‘The man. The giant. In Sister Elena’s cell. I can’t place him yet but I just … I know I’ve seen him before somewhere.’

‘OK,’ said Gabriel, his unease increasing. ‘Well if anything comes back to you—’

‘It was really strange.’ Ella cut him off. ‘He was threatening her. He had a knife. I’m sure he’d come to the convent for the same reason I did. He knew who she was. He intended to kill her. But then something happened. Something changed his mind.’ She was thinking aloud, talking more to herself than to Gabriel. ‘Maybe it was me?’ The awful possibility dawned on her. ‘Maybe if I hadn’t walked in, he’d have finished the job? Maybe I did more than just let her get away. Maybe I saved her!’

‘Stop,’ said Gabriel. ‘Those are way too many maybes. You don’t even know who he was; you can’t speculate about his motives.’

‘Yes, but—’

‘Look, Ella, this was your first mission. It would have been nice to get the picture, but you were under immense pressure. Nonetheless, the intelligence you’ve provided is valuable and you can rest assured we’ll act on it. If you’re correct that Elena was Athena, and if you’re correct that she escaped—’

‘If?’ Ella spluttered indignantly. ‘There is no “if”!’

Looking out of the tiny window in the bedroom of ‘Marta’s’ rented cottage, she watched as a pair of mangy-looking chickens chased each other across a dusty lane, squawking and pecking at one another out of hunger or boredom or both. I know how they feel, Ella thought. This island was starting to depress her, but not as much as Gabriel’s attitude. This was exactly what she’d feared. That, without the mental picture, the ‘proof’ that only her special abilities could provide, he wouldn’t believe she’d found Athena. It was infuriating, the way he blew hot and cold. One minute he trusted her: ‘Only you can do this for us, Ella. You’re our secret weapon.’ And the next she was some inexperienced little girl, ‘cracking’ under pressure. Well she’d had enough of trying to please him, of watching him twist the evidence she presented to get the answers he wanted, even when those answers were just plain wrong.

‘I want to talk to Nikkos,’ she said curtly. ‘He trusts my judgment, even if you don’t. He also knows Makis Alexiadis is our only hope of ever finding Athena again.’

Gabriel cleared his throat. ‘Ella, I’m sorry to have to tell you this. I meant to say something earlier, but I needed to understand what happened today at the convent and I—’

‘Tell me what?’ Ella interrupted.

The silence, laden with dread, seemed to go on forever.

Then Gabriel said quietly, ‘I’m afraid Nikkos Anastas is dead.’

Ten minutes later, her call with Gabriel over, Ella walked down the creaky cottage stairs and out into the lane. The chickens had gone, and so had their owner, a stooped old farmer ironically named Herakles, who usually pottered around outside her cottage until sunset. All was peace on Folegandros. But, in Ella’s heart, war raged.

Nikkos. Dear, sweet, incorrigible Nikkos. According to Gabriel he had been tortured before he died, his fat body burned and beaten, the bones of his kind face crushed, his fingers snapped like twigs. Gabriel claimed not to know who was responsible.

‘We’ll find out, believe me,’ he promised Ella. ‘But until we do, we must assume it’s at least possible that Makis Alexiadis was involved.’