Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [58]
Which meant that someone, somewhere, had information that outstripped even the IHA’s discoveries. She only knew one group that might fit the bill. And that was why she had come to Rome.
‘Dr Wilde,’ said Nicholas Popadopoulos, turning her name over in his mouth like a piece of slightly unpleasant food. She had dealt with the stooped old man before. The Brotherhood of Selasphoros possessed an enormous trove of ancient texts concerning Atlantis; the organisation’s purpose had been to suppress knowledge of the lost civilisation.
It had done so by trying to kill anyone who got too close to the truth, which was why Popadopoulos’s antipathy was more than matched by Nina’s. She had been targeted, as had her parents. She had survived. They had not. The thought still caused a knot of anger to tighten within her.
She tried to suppress it. Her life might now depend on something in the Brotherhood’s archives. ‘Mr Popadopoulos,’ she replied, voice studiedly neutral. ‘Good to see you again.’
‘And you,’ he said, less than convincingly. ‘This visit is unexpected, though. We have cooperated fully with the IHA in providing anything it requested, so why you felt the need to come here in person . . .’
‘Your definition of “full cooperation” isn’t quite the same as ours,’ Nina said with a thin smile.
‘We are doing everything asked of us!’ Popadopoulos’s resentment was clear in every word. ‘We are the only people who know everything in the archives. It would take outsiders years just to understand how it is catalogued. Perhaps you think you can do it without us?’
Her smile turned colder. ‘I dunno, maybe we should try. You could have a nice long vacation . . . paid for by the state. What do you think?’
He glowered at her through his little round spectacles. What was left of the Brotherhood after the battles leading to Atlantis’s discovery had been forced to open its records under threat of being held to account for the organisation’s past crimes. ‘I will see if things can be done more . . . expediently,’ he conceded.
‘Thank you. Although that isn’t actually why I decided to pop in.’
‘What? Then why are you here? Just to bully and harass us?’
‘No, I want some information. Expediently.’
The old man was annoyed at having his words turned back at him. ‘What information?’
‘I want to know if you have anything in the archives about Nantalas.’
‘The priestess?’
Nina arched an eyebrow. ‘Then I guess you do have something.’
‘She was an important figure prior to the sinking of Atlantis.’ He leaned thoughtfully back in his seat. ‘She claimed to have visions, I remember. Of war, usually, but that was the major occupation of the Atlanteans. She also claimed to have magic powers.’
‘These powers – they wouldn’t have been connected to three statues, by any chance?’
Popadopoulos sat back up, surprised. ‘Yes. How did you know?’
‘We excavated some of the texts from the Temple of Poseidon.’
‘Ah, I see.’ His face tipped into a frown. ‘It would be nice to receive updates on the IHA’s progress in Atlantis. Anyone would think you did not trust us.’
‘Really,’ said Nina scathingly. ‘So what else do you know about the statues?’
‘It is many years since I last read the text, but I think they were how she received her visions. They were the keys to her powers . . . No, the powers were not actually hers. The statues were how she channelled them, but they came from something else, a stone . . . Wait, the sky stone, that is it.’
‘And what were these powers?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t remember. It was all magic, nonsense. I paid it no mind.’
Nina fought to keep her frustration in check. ‘And you didn’t think it might be worth telling the IHA this? You must have known that we had two of the statues.’
‘We provide exactly what is asked for,’ Popadopoulos told her. ‘Nothing less – and nothing more.’
‘Well, you might want to feel a bit more of the volunteer spirit in future,’ she snapped. ‘But in the meantime, I want to know everything about the statues. Even the stuff you think is nonsense.’
‘I told you, I would have to read the text again.’
‘Well, I’m not busy