Delta laid her hand on his shoulder. He was a very handsome older man, a little taller than she and sporting graying sideburns. “You’ve helped us more than you know.”
“Well,” he said, clearing his throat. “I haven’t done enough yet. It appears as if I may be of some assistance to you in the last stretch of the journey.”
Nodding, Connie walked over and called her two large Dobermans into the house. “We were off on our last guess. We didn’t get in-depth enough to see that Nemesis takes away something the
arrogant
one really cherishes.” Sighing and letting two teardrops roll down her cheeks, Connie plopped next to Megan and laid her face in her hands. “And he couldn’t have taken anything more precious to me than Gina.”
“We’ll get her back,” Megan said, eyeing Delta for some reassurance.
“And we have less than twenty-four hours to do it.”
“Oh my,” came the soft sounds of Dr. Rosenbaum. “I hadn’t realized the situation was so dire.”
Delta nodded. “You couldn’t have come at a better time, Professor. If you hadn’t been here . . .” Delta’s voice trailed off, and she shook her head. The thought of Megan in Elson’s grasp was too much even for her to comprehend. No wonder Connie was barely hanging on.
Suddenly, Connie was on her feet. “I assume Megan has filled you in thus far, Dr. Rosenbaum?”
Dr. Rosenbaum nodded. “Yes. My field of specialty is Greek mythology, and please, call me Mort.” Mort Rosenbaum strode over to the sheets of butcher paper like a professor nearing the chalkboard. “And if I have the story correct, your little warrior faced Poseidon and retrieved the trident from him, yet you can’t manage your way beyond him.”
Connie nodded. “Getting the trident is one thing, Professor, but moving to the next level of the game is what the game is all about. I don’t know how to do that.”
“Right.” Dr. Rosenbaum studied the paper and scratched his chin. “Well, I may not be of any help where the game is concerned, but if it’s mythological answers you need, I may be of some use to you. What is happening in the game as we speak?”
Delta studied Connie as she turned the computer on. Her movements were quick and jerky, like someone who had too much caffeine in their system. Delta was well aware of how close Connie was to the edge, and it frightened her. “we’re counting on that help, sir.”
“Mort.”
Delta smiled. She liked this man with graying temples and steel blue eyes. He reminded her of her grandfather when he was much younger. “Okay, Mort.” Handing the tape from the racetrack to him, Delta explained what happened there before he listened to the entire tape.
When the tape finished, Mort Rosenbaum nodded to himself, wrote down a few notes and examined the sheets taped to the fireplace. “Your culprit sounds most insane.”
“He is. And he’ll make good his threat if we fail this time.”
Dr. Rosenbaum nodded as he studied the many pieces of butcher paper taped across the room. “I am assuming, of course, that you are aware that Poseidon is immortal and cannot be killed.”
Everyone in the room nodded.
“Then the clue he gives you on the tape leads me to believe only one thing.”
Connie turned completely around in her seat to hear him. “What clue was that?”
“Why the Laestrygonians, of course. He mentioned you would face them after defeating Poseidon.”
“But you just said—”
“I said he couldn’t be killed. I said nothing about defeating him.”
Connie and Delta looked at each other but said nothing.
“The Laestrygonians,” the professor explained in his most professorial tone, “were cannibals who lived on the islands around Sicily. They lived in a city called Telepylus, which was founded by Poseidon’s son. Odysseus and his men faced the Laestrygonians in
The Odyssey
, and it was a slice of luck that Odysseus was able to escape unharmed and uneaten.”
Delta cringed. “Uneaten?”
“They’re cannibals. Giant cannibals.”
“So, what’s the clue in all of that? That we have to eat Poseidon?” Delta asked, feeling somewhat stupid for even suggesting it.
Mort nodded. “Precisely.”
“What?”
Dr. Rosenbaum was in full lecture mode now. “You see, as the myth goes, Poseidon’s father, Cronus, devoured him, his four siblings, and a rock when they were born. Only Poseidon’s brother, Zeus, hadn’t been swallowed by Cronus.”
“How’d he luck out?”
“Cronus ate them so fast, he didn’t know he was swallowing a rock instead of Zeus. Anyway, years later, Zeus came back and made Cronus vomit his children back to life.”
Delta rubbed her aching temples. “Damn, those Greeks had some kind of imagination. How in the hell did they dream these stories up?”
“For many years, the Hellenes, which is what Greeks were called then, didn’t believe these were just stories. They regarded the existence of all the gods as real and capable of changing mortal lives. It’s pretty much the same thing as our Bible is: stories that are too far-fetched to be believed, but we believe them nonetheless.”
Delta nodded. “Like the parting of the Red Sea.”
“Precisely. The Hellenes prayed to these gods and even sacrificed to them.”
“Really. But aren’t Cronus and Zeus immortal as well?”
Connie rose from the computer and nodded. “Right. It took another immortal to defeat Poseidon. Cronus ate them, and it still didn’t kill Poseidon. Dori is just a little warrior. She doesn’t have the capabilities.”
Mort nodded. “Of course she doesn’t. And that would lead you to believe that at this point, there is nothing you can do, correct?”
Connie nodded.
“Then, may I be bold as to suggest,” Dr. Rosenbaum offered, stepping away from the paper, “that you do nothing.”
“What?” came three voices in unison.
“You must be joking,” Delta said, joining Connie.
Dr. Rosenbaum smiled patiently, like a man used to having his students not understand him.
“You must admit, Professor,” Megan added, “it sounds like a preposterous thing to do.”
“Exactly. But hear me out. Since Cronus was the only force strong enough to apparently destroy his five children, why don’t we stick with that vein for a moment and wait for Cronus to destroy Poseidon.”
“But there isn’t a Cronus in the game. I’ve been everywhere on this level, and all there is is me and Poseidon. No Cronus, no Zeus, nothing.”
Again, a warm smile spread across the professor’s face. “Ah— nothing that you can see. That is key. It appears as if we are searching for an agent to destroy Poseidon; is that correct?”
All three nodded.
“And, if the gamesmaster ascribes to Greek mythology as we know it, then he has supplied that agent.”
“We’re hoping so.”
“Then, it’s there. You simply cannot, as you stated, see it.”
Connie’s eyebrows knitted together to form a frown, but she did not move out from under the gaze of Dr. Rosenbaum’s blue eyes.
“You know the answer, Connie, but you’re too close to the game and, I would imagine, too scared to slow down long enough to see it.”
“You mean it’s invisible.”
The smile deepened. “Tell me, ladies, what exactly does Cronus mean?”
The frown instantly disappeared from Connie’s face and was replaced by a wash of brilliance in her eyes. For the first time in days, Connie’s face lit up.
“That’s it! Time! Cronus means time!”
Dr. Rosenbaum smiled proudly. “It is where we get words like chronological.”
“Of course, Doctor, that’s it. What a dope I’ve been.”
Megan and Delta shrugged at each other. “What? What does that have to do with anything?” Delta asked. Time was something they had little of, and Connie was cheering as if she’d solved the puzzle.
Sitting back down at Eddie, Connie released the pause button and maneuvered Dori directly in front of Poseidon. “Stop me if I’m wrong, Professor, but that son-of-a-bitch knew that I would try everything to get past Poseidon. He knew I would exhaust every possibility we could think of.”
“Which we have.”
“Right. We’ve done everything except the one thing that he never thought I’d try.”
“And what’s that?” Megan asked, standing behind Connie at the computer.
“Nothing,” came Connie’s short response.
For a moment, no one in the room moved as unspoken questions whirled around in the air.
Delta was the first to speak. “Nothing?”
Connie nodded. “Exactly. See, we know that Cronus was the only immortal ever to contain Poseidon, and he did this by eating him when he was a baby.”
“Right. I followed all of that.”
“That means we need a Cronus in this damn game so we can kill or get rid of Poseidon, right?”
Everyone nodded.
“But there doesn’t appear to be one does there?”
Again, Megan and Delta shook their heads. “I sure as hell haven’t seen him.”
“Exactly. And we might not have ever seen him had the good professor not reminded us that Cronus means time. Elson anticipated that I would stop at nothing to find a solution, when the solution is actually to do nothing.”
Now, Megan and Delta stood behind Connie at the computer.
“Do nothing.” Megan echoed.
Connie nodded “Right. Absolutely nothing. Elson understands that we’re doers. We’d do anything to find Gina; anything, except the hardest thing, which is to do nothing.”
Delta inhaled slowly. Doing nothing would be far harder than trying everything again. Watching the screen, Delta saw Dori standing quietly before the looming Poseidon. “That’s got to be the hardest thing we could ever do. I mean, we could be wasting valuable time on a strategy that might not work.”
Dr. Rosenbaum completed the circle by joining them at the computer. “Precisely. If this man is as deranged as he sounds, then he most certainly would enjoy putting you in a position to do what does not come naturally for you.”
Connie leaned back and just let Dori sit in front of Poseidon. “Doing nothing goes against everything Delta and I are about. He’s gambling that time will run out on us because we will keep trying and trying until the buzzer sounds and the game is over. It makes sense if you see it through his distorted eyes.”
“How long should we wait?”
Connie shrugged. “I’d say two, maybe even three hours.”
“And if nothing happens?”
Connie rubbed the back of her neck. “Then, we will have wasted three hours of Gina’s life.”
“And if something does happen in that time?”
“We’ll face the Laestrygonians and take it from there. Dr. Rosenbaum—”
“Mort.”
“Mort, can you give us as much information as we’ll need to defeat the Laestrygonians?”
Dr. Rosenbaum nodded. “You’ll have everything you’ll need to know to face them, I assure you.”
“Speaking of eating,” Delta said, hearing her stomach growl at her. “Would anyone else care for some dinner?”
Dr. Rosenbaum patted his stomach. “I would.”
Turning to the professor, Megan took his hand in hers. “I can’t thank you enough, Dr. Rosenbaum—”
Mort waved her off. “Think nothing of it. A young woman’s life hangs in the balance. Besides, when’s the last time an old codger like me had the chance to tell his colleagues that he spent the evening with three beautiful women?”
At that, Megan took his arm and headed toward the kitchen. “Dr. Rosenbaum and I will make dinner. You two just keep your peepers on Dori and let us know if anything happens.”
As soon as they were out of the room, Delta pulled a chair over and sat next to Connie, whose eyes didn’t move from the screen.
“He may have just saved her life.”
“Don’t count your chickens, Del. We have as much now as we did before the professor got here. Only time will tell. Literally.”
“You okay?”
Connie shrugged. “Coming apart at the seams. You know that or you wouldn’t have asked.”
Delta rubbed Connie’s neck. There were golf ball-size knots on either side, and Delta winced as she gently rubbed them out. “Be strong. She needs your level head now more than she ever has.”
“I know.” Connie hesitated, as if searching for the right words. “Del, do you think people can sense when their loved one dies?”
Delta thought back to the instant Miles was shot. She had felt something spiritual being ripped from her soul in the darkness that surrounded her that night. She remembered the fist of death reaching through her chest and grabbing her heart, tearing from her someone she loved more than life itself. Yes, she knew he was dead even before his body hit the pavement. She knew, because her heart felt it.
“Yes, Con, I do.”
“Then Gina’s still alive.”
“It’s important that you remember that.”
Connie turned from the monitor and looked closely at Delta. “The fear of losing her would consume me, Del, if I wasn’t running on deep-seated anger. I don’t think I have ever loathed anyone as much as I do Elson Zuckerman. And to be honest, I’m a little afraid of what might happen if I catch him before you do.”