Guardians Inc.:Thundersword (Guardians Incorporated #2) (26 page)

Thomas leaned closer to the painting. “Is this blood?” he asked.

“Yes, it is. My family blood,” Tony said. “The ones with blood over them are the Namtarii my family has dispatched. The ones crossed with the sword are the Namtarii we know are dead but that were killed by someone else, and the others are the Namtarii that are still alive. These three are still roaming free.” He pointed at three pictures.

Thomas read the very strange names, and some of them had also a title associated to their name. “Sekhet,” he read aloud. “The Hand of Darkness…”

“She’s probably the most dangerous of the three,” Tony said. “She’s somewhere in China, manipulating influenza viruses, and every year she concocts new ways to attack us.”

“This guy Abbaas, sounds formidable too,” Thomas said, pointing at a Namtarii depicted in rich Arabic clothing.

“The Crimson Mist,” Tony said, looking at Abbaas. “He uses Dengue and Ebola. He likes to see blood in his victims.”

Thomas shuddered. Tony spoke of the Namtarii as he would of his schoolmate pictures in a yearbook, but each one of the men and women depicted in the triptych was a killer.

“Check the others and try to remember them,” Tony said casually. “You’re about to meet them.”

Thomas checked the other Namtarii, the ones under Guardian supervision. They looked…distinguished. The women were beautiful and the men were elegant, even regal in their portraits. Tsikiko, Uchechi, Yaakov, Shahrukh, Lejka, Thawaret—the names felt ancient. One of them, Obadiah—The Last Smile—even looked like a portrait from an African tribal king. “They all seem normal to me,” Thomas said.

“That makes them more dangerous, and it was one of the reasons they were able to enter my family’s home. They came in as friends and massacred them all: men, women, and children. They unleashed all their hatred on the Della Francesca household. And after all this time nobody has learned why.”

So that was the reason the Doctor didn't want to take Tony to the Keep. As a Della Francesca he was obligated by Bianca's Vendetta to try and kill them all.

“And you're cool with just talking with them?” Thomas asked after a couple of seconds. He had to make sure that Tony wouldn't do anything but talk with the Namtarii.

Tony lifted his shoulders. “We have a truce, don't we?” he said. “The Della Francesca might be Namtarii hunters, but we are also Guardians, Thomas,” he said. “And duty always comes first. Want a coffee or a soda? Perhaps some Quiche Lorraine I bought in Forbach?” Tony asked, heading toward the kitchen. “It is a very French city, but it is right across from the German border, and the Germans really know how to make Quiche Lorraine.”

Relief washed over Thomas; he wouldn’t need to tell Tony to leave his family’s sword. “I’m not hungry, but thank you,” Thomas said. “And thank you for showing me your family legacy.”

“Family is everything, Thomas.” Tony smiled. “Where we come from, who we are, and what we leave behind.”

Sadness suddenly overwhelmed Thomas.  For almost two years now, he thought his parents were dead, but now they were out there, somewhere. And Gramps…his heart hurt to think about the fact that his grandfather was on the enemy’s side. He returned Tony’s smile, but without real enthusiasm.

“We’ll find them,” Tony said, referring to Thomas’s parents. “And Morgan will come around. You’ll see.”

Thomas only nodded.

“You know,” Tony said opening a soda can and pouring two glasses. “Dad taught me that we don’t need to be blood-related to become family.” He handed Thomas a soda. “It is through our actions that we realize who are our brothers and sisters.”

Thomas extended his glass to him. “To family,” he said.

***

“You’re a regular mosquito, aren’t you?” Tony asked the nurse with a smile.  He rubbed his arm where the nurse had taken the blood samples.

The nurse responded with a smile of her own and pressed another vial to Thomas’s arm.      Thomas swore he could feel his blood being sucked away by the syringe in his arm. The nurse had already taken two little vials and she was prepping another two. A mosquito would have been content with just enough to eat.

“We do the tests and blood samples as we go in, and immediately after we come back,” the Doctor explained. “Then we do another full checkup every year.”

“Each human carries the potential for many genetic syndromes and disorders,” Bolswaithe explained. “The Namtarii can tweak those dormant genes that will develop sickness later. With these tests and screening, we will know if the Namtarii have tampered with us.”

“And if they did?” Tony asked.

“It’s a breach in the truce,” the Doctor said, “and we can have the culprit executed.”

“But killing the Namtarii doesn’t ‘cure’ the disease does it?” Thomas asked.

“No, it doesn’t, but it serves as a deterrent for them.” Doctor Franco opened an ornate wooden box he had brought to the Medical Ward. “And speaking of deterrents…” he pulled out four amulets of an animal tusk on a leather cord. “These are the Graangu tusks. Given to Guardian, Ibn Batutta, in 1342 to protect him against the Namtarii.” He handed one to each of them.

“And you, Doctor?” Elise asked as she placed the amulet around her neck.

The Doctor’s cane glowed softly. “Aesculapius Cane,” he said. “While holding it, I have nothing to fear from them.”

“You have us for that, Doctor.” Henri entered the office followed by another three grotesques. “We’ll be ready if any of them tries anything.”

The Doctor gave Tony a questioning glance.

“Come on, Doc. I know you’ve read my mind already,” Tony said. “But just to be sure…” He lifted his arms and twirled. “I’m not carrying Bianca’s sword. Only my own.” He placed his hands on his twin blades by his belt. “Or do you want me to go unarmed?” he smiled at him.

The Doctor actually returned the smile. “No, Tony I believe you. We are ready Bolswaithe.”

“Follow me, please.” Bolswaithe led them through the Mansion’s right corridor. They crossed the first door and entered a room that had six metallic doors, each one with a numeric pad by its side. Bolswaithe approached the second door and entered a code on the pad. The door slid open after the safeties disengaged and opened into a smaller room. Henri and the other three grotesques had to go in one-by-one and transform inside into their smaller statue form for all of them to fit, but even in their usual Guardian statue form the grotesques occupied a lot of space. Seeing them on top of columns and the Mansion’s roof belittled their size.

The room looked like an elevator, and once the door had closed, a panel opened on the other side.

“Hold on, Bolswaithe,” the Doctor said. “I know that you all read what we could disclose to you about the Namtarii and their Keep.”

“It wasn’t that much,” Tony said. The single page they had received just before assembling had vague descriptions of the place where the Namtarii were kept. There were very explicit instructions on how to talk with them, or rather, what not to talk with them, touch them, or touch anything they had touched with bare hands. They couldn’t make idle conversation, and if they talked, they couldn’t hint at anything from the outside world, especially the date. They couldn’t take anything from the Keep, or take anything with them that could tell the Namtarii their location. They had to leave all things of special value behind.

They all wore special shoes and gloves. The shoes looked a little oversized and reached mid-calf. After they put them on they pressed a seal, and Thomas felt the air being sucked out from the shoe creating a vacuum that fitted the shoe tightly to his skin. The gloves were also oversized, but when they put them on and pressed the seal, the air was pulled out and the gloves became like a second skin. Henri and his brothers had been sprayed with a special resin that made them impregnable; the resin would dissolve through a chemical shower after they came back from the Keep.

Tony couldn’t even take his toothpicks with him.

“It’s for the world’s protection,” the Doctor said. “We are going to the most dangerous place on Earth, and not only because of the Namtarii. The Keep is sitting on top of a 25 Kiloton Thermonuclear device. It will detonate the moment the integrity of the Keep is breached.”

“A nuclear bomb...”  Thomas said. “Isn't that a little extreme?”

“The Keep has been sealed to the outside world for almost a hundred years. The Council of Twilight decided to keep them completely isolated shortly after the 1918 influenza pandemic. For the most part it is a closed system. Air and water are recycled, and any waste is basically disintegrated and stored underneath the Keep. We are actually their first non-scheduled visitors in almost thirty years when we came asking for help in stopping the Diphtheria pandemic in the former Soviet Union.”

“Why ask them for help?”

“Most pandemics are a natural part of the Earth's life cycle, but some are fueled by the Namtarii. And there are still three Namtarii at large roaming the world.” The Doctor nodded at Bolswaithe, who entered another code into the panel. “Imagine what these thirteen Namtarii would do if they were set free. So, any breach in the containment and the bomb will explode.”

“Why are you telling us this, Doctor?” Elise broke the momentary silence in the room.

The Doctor sighed. “Thomas and I need to go,” he said. “You can still decide to stay here.”

All of them exchanged disbelieving looks. Tony scratched his head. “Ooookay.” He muttered.

“Let's go,” the Doctor said. “Don't want to keep our guests waiting.”

The Doctor gave the signal and Bolswaithe pressed the button. The whole room began to rotate, and then a gap slowly opened in front of them. The solid, granite walls were at least ten feet thick and an illuminated corridor angled upward opened. One by one the grotesques transformed and Henri and Jean Luc took point as they entered the corridor. As soon as they had left the elevator room, the wall closed behind them with a hiss.

“Straight ahead,” the Doctor told them.

The Keep

      After the long corridor, they entered a square room carved directly into the rock. The room's electric lights turned on as soon as all of them had entered, and a myriad of colors emanated from the walls.

      “Wow,” Thomas muttered. The room was beautiful. He had seen pointillism paintings before; Doctor Franco had one by Georges Seurat in his office. This room was adorned with the same technique, but each dot was a colored stone instead of paint. A picture of the Roman Coliseum and surrounding buildings adorned one wall, but each wall portrayed a different season. Thomas immediately knew which one was autumn, with red tints and the darker tones of sunset and heavy clouds warning of impending rain. Spring was flowery, and birds and horses ran through the streets. Summer felt hot, but also breezy, the clear, blue sky and delineated shadows of the buildings ran through the painting. Long nights crept in winter and the wall was darker in tones. Cold blues intermingled with the buildings and the shadows were more profound.

“Amazing,” Elise said. Even the grotesques seemed moved by the mosaics. “Who did this?”

“Shahrukh, one of the most powerful Mages before becoming a Namtarii. He was a Guardian once,” the Doctor said. “He was also the first one to surrender into custody. He's been in this Keep since 1771. This was the first room of the Keep. We've made a lot of additions since then.”

      “Idle hands,” Henri said, leaning closer to inspect a wall, but he was careful not to touch it.

“And a lot of time...” the Doctor said. “Let's go.”

      The Doctor led them through a stairway carved into the rock. Shahrukh had carefully hidden it within the deep shadows of the winter mosaic, so cleverly integrated that the Doctor seemed to disappear inside the wall.

      The next level was less austere in its construction, and even more spectacularly adorned. Instead of little, colored rocks, Shahrukh had used chips of different woods to create the mosaic. As they reached the middle of the room, Thomas felt as if he was standing in a grand open plaza of a city; the buildings delineated against a clear, blue sky and the lights were hidden into the mosaic walls.

      “This holds their dormitories,” the Doctor said. “Although they don't need to sleep, each one has a room in here.”

      Thomas looked around in awe. Now that he had seen how Shahrukh hid the doors into the mosaic, he actually found the real doors, but not without difficulty.

“Should we call out?” Tony asked.

      “They were told we were coming,” the Doctor said, “and they probably know we're here already.”

      “You hear that?” Elise asked. They all kept quiet, and Thomas could hear a faint, rhythmic noise, a machine of some kind moving.

      “It’s coming from that room,” Bolswaithe said, moving closer to the room.       

      The Doctor took the lead, and as he opened the wooden door the sound became louder. “Shahrukh,” the Doctor said. “We are here.”

      Thomas couldn't help moving closer to the door and peeking in. He needed to see the creature that had created such works of art, even if it was a monster. The Doctor moved to the side to give Thomas a full view of the Namtarii inside the room.

      Thomas was in shock. He had expected to see the actual Grim Reaper, clad in a black cloak and scythe in hand. Instead, he found a middle-aged man, dressed as a carpenter, with the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up, a dusty overall and leather shoes sitting on a desk. He was carefully grinding a small piece of wood. He recalled Shahrukh’s portrait from Tony’s triptych, but he didn’t look at all like the man depicted by Piero Della Francesca. “The Bane of Justinian,” as the triptych called him, had fueled a plague in Constantinople that ended killing almost 100 million people in 541 AD and stopped Emperor Justinian and the Guardians from trying to reunite the fallen Roman Empire.

      In the portrait Shahrukh had looked regal and proud, but this man in front of Thomas seemed old and frail. He could easily have passed for someone’s grandfather and Thomas shuddered imagining this man insinuating himself into his house to play a friendly game of chess with Gramps.