The Chamber of Ten (14 page)

“So Tonio tells me Sabrina’s footage from Monday’s
accident convinced your bosses to let you do a six-part series?” Geena said, and Finch seemed to visibly relax. They finished their coffees while Finch filled them in—his series would cover the sinking of Venice, Geena’s original project attempting to salvage Venetian antiquity from the rising waters, Petrarch’s library, the Chamber of Ten, and the recovery effort—but all the time Geena was aware of Domenic simmering gently beside her. She would have to tell him soon, she supposed. But she would give it until lunchtime. If she’d heard nothing from Nico by then, she thought, she would need the support.

As she crossed the street with Domenic to her left and Finch to her right, the morning sun broke across the Biblioteca’s façade. A gentle breeze blew from deeper within the city, carrying a mix of the city’s scent with it—coffee, baking bread, sewage, dirty water, cigarette smoke, and that indefinable aroma of water that always seemed untouched by whatever impurities the water might contain. A rush of optimism was blown in with the breeze, and Geena felt herself lifted.
Everything’s going to be all right
, she thought. By midday, she would have cause to wonder where such foolish ideas might have originated.

They entered the Biblioteca and as they passed through the foyer, they could already hear the library director’s voice raised in protest, echoing shrill and angry along the halls.

“Sounds like your camera team have met Adrianna,” Domenic said as they entered the reading room.

“Yes, quite a lady,” Finch agreed. “First she told us we’d come to the wrong place, then she claimed there were old Venetian laws forbidding filming in the library.”

“She does like keeping the place quiet,” Geena said.

“Sounds like she’s the one making all the noise now,” Domenic said, chuckling.

They walked back into the now cramped room where the secret door to Petrarch’s library stood open. Sabrina, Ramus, and Adrianna were there, as well as several strangers—the BBC crew, she guessed—and two senior students she recognized from the university. These two had dived on many sites around Venice, sometimes on their own, and sometimes taking one of several other students or lecturers down with them. Sabrina was one; not yet fully trained as an archaeological diver, still she was well versed with all the technology, and she knew the dangers. They were already wearing dry-suits, and Sabrina was chatting with the BBC crew via an interpreter. They pointed at various pieces of camera technology arrayed on a table before them, and Geena guessed they were trying to decide whether they’d be able to patch Sabrina’s camera images directly through to their laptops. One of the BBC crew was standing behind Sabrina, surreptitiously eyeing her shapely behind in the suit.
And it’s the Italians who get the reputation as leches
, Geena thought.

Tonio emerged from the stairwell that led to the flooded chamber below—Petrarch’s library—a look of concern on his face. He noticed Geena and brightened, and she saw his eyes flickering either side of her as he looked for Nico.

“Geena!” he called, holding out his arms. “We’ve been waiting.”

She nodded at Tonio, then smiled at Ramus and Sabrina. She knew them well enough to know that they were uncomfortable, but she could not make out why. Was it
the BBC crew and the sudden widening of attention surrounding their project? Or had Domenic told them something of her conversation with him last night?

Now was not the time to ask.
Everything’s going to be all right
, she thought again, and maybe getting into some work would help her emerge on the other side with a clearer view of what was happening. Perhaps it was not only Nico who had been affected strangely by their unsettling experience and near escape from the flooded chamber below Petrarch’s, but her as well.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I just like to keep people waiting. So, when will we be ready to go?”

In the end, it was the BBC crew that held them up. After suffering several technical difficulties in linking their own equipment to the university’s laptops and filming equipment, it seemed they had a small dispute amongst themselves. Finch took them to one side to mediate, throwing frequent apologetic glances Geena’s way, and she smiled and shrugged. Meanwhile Sabrina and the two divers checked one another’s diving gear again. As well as the dry-suits and breathing apparatus, they carried a length of thin rope each, powerful lights, and a reinforced plastic helmet that sat snugly against their heads, protecting them in confined spaces. They went through safety procedures, and Geena noticed that both divers were carrying two knives each. The flooded chambers would be extremely hazardous. As well as the poor visibility they expected, everything left down there when the flood struck would be floating at random, and there was plenty that might entangle them.

“So what are you going to do now?” Domenic asked her quietly.

“I don’t know,” she said. She was avoiding his gaze because she knew that she owed him some sort of an explanation.

“You talked with—?”

“Yes, thank you. But as I told you, as far as the police are concerned, Nico isn’t missing.” She expected some protest from Domenic, a comment about the police’s ineptitude, but he only nodded grimly and looked down at his laptop, pretending to read the screen. “But he
is
,” she said. “He’s lost, and I need to find him.”

“After this is over, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you,” she said, and felt tears welling up again.
Oh no. Not now. Don’t start blubbering now!
she berated herself. She was stronger than that. But when one single tear did escape her left eye, she knew it was not all for Nico. It was because she did not understand what was going on, and that what she
had
seen of him was so wrong.

“I think we’re ready!” Finch said.

“About time,” Tonio muttered.

Geena touched Sabrina on the arm. “Be careful down there.”

“Of course. I’ve got these two hunks to look out for me.”

“Well, don’t rely on two hunks. Look out for yourself.” Geena smiled at the divers to let them know she meant nothing by it—she’d used them before several times, though for the life of her she could not remember their names. She could see the tension in their faces, and she viewed that as a good sign. They were worried, they were cautious, and that meant that they would be taking care.

“We’ll want an all-around view of Petrarch’s library first,” Finch said, “starting with what’s left of the manuscripts that were—”

“No,” Geena said. “Straight down to the lower chamber.”

An uncomfortable silence settled, but only for a moment.

“For the documentary, I really think we’ll need—” Finch began carefully, but Geena cut him off again. His shock turned subtly toward anger.

“We need to see why the hell this all happened,” she said. “We did nothing down there, and yet our presence caused the chamber wall to give way and flood. One of our divers is an expert in Venetian architecture and old structures built to withhold water. He’ll see if there’s still danger.”

“How could there still be danger?” Finch asked. “The water’s up to sea level.”

“Mr. Finch,” Tonio said, “Geena’s correct.” He blinked at Geena, his look saying,
We’ll be having words later
. “And quite frankly, we are the experts here.”

Finch bristled, his team fiddled with equipment or examined their fingernails, but then he offered Geena a soft smile. “I’m in your hands,” he said, and she was certain he meant it. He was a strong man, but not harsh. And whatever his superiors back in London said, he was already becoming more than aware of the intricacies of this operation.

The hairs on her neck stood on end, she felt a rush of warmth as if the sun were touching her again, and when Geena blinked—

A square with tourists taking photographs and drifting this way and that, crumbs from breakfast still on their lips and breath heavy with morning coffee. Sunlight floods in over the roof of a hotel bounding one side of the square, a fountain is spanned with a mini-rainbow
,
pigeons take off in a wave from a far corner, and the world seems to be dragging her perception onward against her will, hauling her quickly across the square when the only way she wants to go is back. She tries to close her eyes—

“Geena!” Domenic said. “Are you all right?” He had hold of her forearm, and she had to blink several times to clear her eyes of the bright sunlight she’d seen in that moment of psychic connection. The library was dark by comparison. All eyes were on her.

“I … I’m sorry,” she croaked, coughing to clear her throat. “Yes, time to go. Yes.” Domenic would not let go, and she had to turn and walk away before he loosed his grip. She approached the divers, aware of Tonio watching her, feeling Finch’s gaze on her back, and Sabrina paused in tightening equipment straps across her waist when Geena drew close.

“Geena, you look—”

“Don’t take any risks,” Geena said, louder than she needed to, echoing off the stone walls of the too-small room. “I was just thinking about those obelisks, wondering if they were even fixed to the walls.” It was an offhand way to try to explain her brief flake-out, though she knew that Domenic at least would see right through her, but mentioning it now seemed a good piece of advice. “The water might have knocked them aside, or they might be ready to fall at any moment. Not to mention the stone disk in the floor—the one Domenic called a cork. If that’s a seal of some kind, we should see if it remains intact.”

“I wondered the same thing,” Finch said behind her.

“This is just an initial look,” Geena continued. “Don’t disturb anything down there if you can help it.”
But what
have we already disturbed?
she thought. She’d recognized that square. It had been richer than a memory, and she knew what a touch from Nico felt like. She’d been seeing what he could see right now … and he’d been moving fast.

Sabrina and the divers worked their way through the narrow corridors leading to the first old staircase, and Geena followed. Domenic was behind her, and for a moment she was angry at him—
Can’t I just have a moment on my own?
—but that anger was misdirected. She should really be angry at herself.
After this is all done
, she thought,
I can take time to sort things out
. She glanced back at Domenic, and in his uncertain expression she saw doubt.

They went down. Sabrina was between the two divers, her camera held in front of her, cable playing out behind. There were two BBC technicians at corners in the corridor, making sure the cable did not tangle and ensuring there was plenty of slack. She and Domenic watched until the diving lights had faded and the water’s surface calmed again, and Geena could not help thinking they had been swallowed.

“Let’s go back and see what’s left,” Domenic said, and Geena nodded. She noticed that he did not lead the way, though. He was following her like a parent keeping an eye on their unruly child.

Back in the empty reading room, Tonio and Ramus were gathered behind Finch and his team, all of them staring at one of the larger laptop screens. As Geena approached she heard Sabrina’s muffled voice narrating her slow journey down into Petrarch’s library. Even Adrianna had come to watch, steely-eyed yet obviously fascinated with whatever had been beneath her all these years. Geena
and she exchanged smiles, and Geena looked over Tonio’s shoulder.

The visibility was terrible. Virtually any dive they performed in and around Venice was marred by the filthy water—silt and shit, chemicals and refuse—but Geena had been hoping that the contained environment down there would have allowed the water to settle. It seemed it had not. Sabrina focused her camera and light on the back of the diver ahead of her as he led the way across the jumbled chamber, and the stark light picked him out like a ghost against the murk. Strange lighting effects gave him glittering wings—reflections from his equipment buckles and air tank, Geena guessed. There was no way of telling how far they had progressed other than Sabrina’s commentary.

“Floor’s pretty treacherous,” she said. “Shelves fell and broke. Some of the books are still whole. Most are pulp.”

Tonio sighed, and Geena placed a hand on his shoulder.
We got most of it
, she wanted to say. But what she
really
wanted to see was farther down. She wished the audio link wasn’t just one-way—she wanted to tell Sabrina to hurry. An urgency was bearing down on her, though she could not discern its origins. Impatience made her shift from one foot to the other. Domenic was behind her, a warm presence, and suddenly she wanted his hand on her shoulder, the comfort of a human touch. Because something in that last vision had felt
in
human.

The divers moved on, Sabrina filming the mess on the floor, and then they paused when they reached the open doorway leading down.

“Go on,” Geena whispered, and Tonio glanced back at her.

“Maybe it’s too deep,” Finch said. “Or too dangerous.” Nobody replied, but Geena thought,
Is he feeling it, too?

The lead diver started down the staircase.

“Here goes nothing,” Sabrina’s distorted voice said. One of the BBC technicians adjusted something on the laptop’s sidebar, and Sabrina’s breathing came in clearer and louder.

Geena’s neck bristled.
No!
she thought. And she held Tonio’s shoulder again, locking her knees and concentrating on standing upright as—

She’s fighting the forward motion. People look at her. Sunlight blinds her, scorching eyes so used to darkness. The people who look appear unsettled, as if they’re seeing someone they can’t quite place. Through a narrow street where cafés hustle on either side, vying for trade and custom, she emerges onto a street she knows, running alongside a canal and crossing a narrow bridge, heading toward the Piazza San Marco and the Biblioteca. More people see her, and they stand aside. She’s struggling
, fighting,
exerting every ounce of her energy, and there’s a desperation there that makes her feel—

Geena opened her eyes and swayed a little, then felt Domenic’s hand on her shoulder.