Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X 1)

“Wouldn’t an unauthorized religion that’s involved with sacrificial murders use something a little more serious than a common system?”

He laughed again. “Theoretically, but a grain warehouse wouldn’t. Having something ‘serious’ would attract attention.”

“You have some pretty serious security on your house.”

He handed over the device. “Because I know stuff like this exists. If you don’t see five red lights, come back to me. It’ll make this harder but probably not impossible.”

“‘Probably’?”

“I can’t work miracles. Good luck.”

She went to the short side of the building and hoped she could make good on her claim that she could get up it. The implant responded to her tension, and she felt all her abilities intensify. She could do this. With a running start, she leapt up toward the wall, propelling herself higher when her foot made contact. One hand caught the corner of the building, giving her a brief moment of stabilization that let her other hand reach toward the roof. Her fingers nearly didn’t make it, and she braced herself for a fall. But she soon got enough of a grip to grasp higher with the other hand, and one more swing allowed her to catapult onto the roof.

She landed gracefully on all fours, her heart racing. The roof was large, with triangular peaks, but balance was no problem after what she’d just done. She hurried across to the opposite side, settled onto her stomach, and peered over the edge. Five red lights shone up at her. Reaching her arm down, she lowered the device Leo had given her and pushed the button. The lights turned green, and a click sounded.

As she jumped back to the ground, she tried not to think too hard about the kind of technology required to trip a system like this. This wasn’t off-the-rack stuff, and Leo had most likely carried it off from his time in Internal Security, either physically or mentally. The laws and rules being violated on this trip were already numerous enough without her adding on more. The front door opened for her without resistance, and she ran back to retrieve Leo.

“Did you even break a sweat?” he asked.

“Did you want me to?”

They entered the warehouse, and Leo paused to send a signal back to Dominic on his ego. Mae uneasily surveyed her surroundings, not liking the lack of visibility. The high, narrow windows offered faint lighting, but most of the space was swathed in pitch-darkness. Even the small high-powered flashlights they’d brought wouldn’t be able to light up the whole place, and that provided too many opportunities for attackers to hide.

She barely made out Leo pointing toward another panel near the inside of the door. “I’m going to cut the cameras and blank out some of their footage.”

Meanwhile, Mae began a search of the facility. Justin had given them a wide range of evidence to look for, from obvious signs like silver daggers to more difficult ones like screens. Mostly all she found were neatly stacked and organized bags of grain. If there really was a cult hiding out here, it was an efficient one when it came to storage. A small office off to the side looked promising, but getting into the desk computer was beyond her abilities. Another light joined hers as she searched the room, and Leo stepped inside. He turned on the screen and looked disappointed.

“More basic security. Probably means there isn’t anything groundbreaking in it.” Still, he sat down at the desk and began working whatever magic he had to look into the system. “See if there’s anything on the catwalk.”

There wasn’t. The only thing it provided was a good vantage to shine her light down on the main room. Nothing of consequence presented itself, but at least it reassured her they truly were alone. When she returned to the main floor, Leo was just walking out of the office.

“Nothing except fascinating records on corn hybrids,” he said.

The final examination turned up nothing, and she didn’t realize how many hopes she’d pinned on this trip until failure looked her in the eye. With a heavy heart, she joined Leo at the entrance and made one last desperate scan of the room. As she did, a strange feeling welled up in her. Some memory tickled her brain, nearly within her grasp—but not quite. It kept slipping through. There was something here she should recognize, but she didn’t know what it was. Images flashed briefly through her mind, but they were only indistinct shadows.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked her.

“This isn’t the kind of place a death goddess would have her temple in.”

He snorted. “A warehouse with bags of grain? Yeah, I can see how that would detract from some of her magnificence. Justin’s guy may have played him.”

Mae still couldn’t shake the sensation that she should know more. “Her temple would be darker…no windows.” An idea clicked. “Is there a basement here?”

That got Leo’s interest. “There could be.”

“That would be a better fit than this place. More secrecy too. Plus, a death goddess would have more power within the earth.”

In the dim light, she could see him staring. “How much time have you spent with Justin? Is he teaching religious-symbolism classes again?”

“It just feels right, that’s all.”

“If it’s true, then that’s where we’ll find our real security system.” He’d switched into problem-solving mode and actually sounded excited. “I know the kind of hardware I’d use to hide my deadly underground temple, and something like that’ll have a strong electromagnetic field around it. We can find that.”

He took out another device from his bag of tricks and plunged back into the warehouse without another word. Mae again recognized her limitations at this stage of the search and simply followed him around. Fifteen minutes later, he came to a halt in front of a large machine that appeared to be some kind of grain sorter.

“Here we are.” He knelt down. “Help me move it.”

The machine was heavy, but casters aided in getting it out of the way. Below it, Mae saw neither a security system nor an underground lair. “Shine the light down,” he ordered. He ran his hands over the floor several times and then made a grunt of approval. “Nicely laid. I don’t suppose you have a knife, do you?”

Mae handed him the one from her boot and heard him mutter, “Goddamned prætorians.” But after a little prying with the blade, he lifted up a large section of the floor that had blended seamlessly with the concrete. A metal door showed itself, glowing with all sorts of lights. “Oh, baby,” he breathed. Mae had a feeling that as far as he was concerned, this was a brush with divinity. He handed her his ego. “Send something to Dom, and make yourself comfortable.”

One look at the tools he produced from his bag, and Mae was quick to comply. She sat cross-legged nearby and took out her own ego, once she’d sent Leo’s message. To Justin, she tapped out: Leo really is a genius.

When no response came, she asked Leo, “Do you think they’re all right? Justin isn’t taking advantage of a chance to flout his superiority.”

“Dom’ll look after him,” said Leo, eyes on the panel. “They’re not the ones in danger of tripping an alarm.”

She jerked her head around, nearly expecting attackers to come swooping in. “What happened to your amazing prowess?”

“I told you, I’m not a miracle worker.” He sat back with a frown. “But I think we’re okay.” He took hold of two handles on the door and lifted it up. Both of them froze. No wailing sounded; no one rushed at them. “If I set it off, it’d be silent,” he said, which didn’t reassure her. He shined his light downward, illuminating a chute with a narrow, spiraling staircase. “How quaint. Let’s make this fast.”

Mae took the lead, gun out, trying her best to see ahead of her. Her fight-or-flight mode continued ramping up, burning nearly as strongly as it would have in active combat. The implant could sustain this state for a long time, but that just meant she’d experience a big crash later. She reached the ground unharmed, and after a quick survey with the light, she allowed Leo to join her.

“No windows. We can do an overhead light,” he said. “It’ll get us out of here faster.”

The control switch was near the bottom of the stairs. He found it, and within seconds, light flooded the space, revealing a wide doorway that opened to an enormous room.

And Mae came face-to-face with her nightmares.

The walls of the vast room were painted with murals predominately in black and red, depicting people dying in gruesome ways. Entrails, skulls, expressions of terror. Around her, the smell of dampness and decay filled the air. A stone altar sat at one end of the room, stained with some dark substance and surrounded by piles of bones. The picture behind it depicted a monstrous woman, larger than life, whose form took up the entire wall. Her face managed to be human, reptilian, and aquiline all at the same time. Black robes clothed her body, the sleeves stretching down like bat wings. A high crown sat on her head, displaying a twisted pattern of thirteen tormented faces—and a crow made of knot work in the center. The sky painted behind her was the color of blood. That horrific face was mirrored in thirteen black masks hanging around the room—and they all were watching Mae.

“Fucked up,” said Leo. Mae couldn’t speak. She could barely even breathe, and he turned to her in surprise when he noticed her reaction. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been here,” she said, her voice very small. The air felt oppressive, a heavy weight bearing down on her. “A long time ago.”

It was the place her mother had taken her so many years ago, the place that had continued to haunt her dreams in shadows and half-formed faces. All this time, she’d thought her childhood imagination had twisted the memories into something greater than what they were. But here they were, exactly the same.

My mother lied, she realized fleetingly. She had to have known about all this.

Mae hadn’t been truly afraid of anything in a very long time, but she wanted to run out of this place as quickly as she could.