Imperium (Caulborn) (12 page)

“No,” I said. “But kindly tell James that Vincent Corinthos is here to see him.”

“Mr. Gattwood is quite busy today, sir,” she said, her smile never wavering. “I will be happy to take down a message for you.”

“I’m sure he is,” I replied. “But for me, he can take five minutes.”

“I don’t think that will be possible, sir.”

I looked hard at the woman. Something about her eyes wasn’t right. It hit me that she wasn’t blinking enough. Now I really felt stupid. “James,” I growled. “You get out here right now or I’ll find whatever magic word is spelled out on this doll’s forehead and reduce her back to her component parts.” The receptionist calmly walked to her desk and sat down. Then her head tilted awkwardly to one side and her mouth cracked open.

A moment later, the side door opened again. A balding man just an inch or two taller than Megan popped out. He had a pair of goggles propped up on his forehead and a pair of headphones hung around his neck. Doubtless these let him see through the receptionist’s eyes, hear what was said to her, and somewhere he had a microphone that would let him speak through her.

“Morning, Caulborn Corinthos,” he said in a cockney accent. “Honestly, you didn’t need to threaten poor Jessica like that. She’s quite a good girl, she is, really.”

“New mouthpiece model, huh? I imagine it’s very popular with the younger crowd.”

“The older ones, too.” James said. “Now I am busy, so what brings you to darken my door? I’ve already seen one Caulborn this month, and that was too many.”

I glanced at Megan. “Other Caulborn? Who?”

“That pale fellow with the light hair, what was his name? Ah, yes, Singravel.”

I forced my face to stay smooth. “Yes, I’ll need to speak with you about that as well. In the meantime, has anyone recently commissioned a wolfsbane golem from you?”

“Wolfsbane? Haven’t made one of those in years. Last one was for a fellow who was traveling to Romania. He and the construct were killed in a plane crash. Terrible shame, that was one of the prettiest wolfsbane golems I’d ever built.”

“Anyone express an interest in learning how to make one?” Megan asked.

“Just your man, Singravel,” Gattwood responded. “He confiscated most of the books I had on herbological golems.”

“I’ll need a list of the titles he took,” I said.

James gave me a sly smile. “You didn’t know he was taking them, did you?”

“Mr. Gattwood, we certainly understand you’re a busy man, and don’t want to waste your time with inane chatter,” Megan said. “You were about to provide us with a list of the books Caulborn Singravel borrowed.”

“Borrowed?” Gattwood began, “Stole is more—”

“As such, I think it best if you retrieved said list of titles. Additionally, I’d ask that you tell us if there are any components unique to a wolfsbane golem’s creation so we might track down whoever is creating competition to your business.”

“Competition? What are you—”

“You of all people should appreciate the dangers of unauthorized golems being set loose in the city,” Megan continued in a cool tone. “Should such occurrences be allowed to continue, the Caulborn would need to take drastic measures, which would not be limited to shutting down all golems and the operations that created them.”

Gattwood’s mouth hung open. “You’re saying someone else in my city is making golems?” I nodded. “Come in the back,” he said gruffly. I smiled at Megan. Her dimple made an appearance as she winked at me. Gattwood grumbled under his breath about upstarts worming their way in on his territory. He made a handful of gestures and Jessica languidly got to her feet and opened the door for us.

We walked into a small office. It was furnished in stainless steel; the desk, the chairs, the cabinets, everything was metal. Jessica strode over to a chair, sat, and then resumed her head tilted standby mode. Overall, the shop spoke of a man who wanted all the things around him to be solid. Metal shelves lined the walls, and many of these were filled with books. A two foot section of one shelf was completely bare, and here James paused. Then he grabbed a pad of paper from the desk and scratched down some names.

“Herbological golems are some of the easiest to make,” he said. “The books I gave Singravel were standard construction manuals. Nothing fancy there. He just said the Caulborn needed them for research purposes.”

“I see. And are there any materials that are unique to a plant golem’s construction?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Just the plant that you want the golem to be made out of. If you want to imbue it with other abilities, then you need other items.”

“What sort of items? And did Caulborn Singravel take any books on imbuements?” Megan asked.

“He did, and it was a pretty comprehensive book. I don’t think there’s any one item in there I could tell you about; there are just too many of them.”

“Is there anything they might have in common?” I asked.

“Sure.” Gattwood nodded. “Age.” I looked at him blankly. He sighed. “Always have to spell it out for you lot, don’t I?” He shook his head. “Look, when you make a golem, you incorporate things into its body. Let’s say you want a strong, fighter-type golem. Then you want to include some weapon, say, a sword, into its makeup. The nature of the item helps determine the nature of the golem. In that case, the older the sword, the more powerful the golem will be, because the sword’s nature is more firmly ingrained.”

“So if you make one golem with a sword that was forged yesterday, and a second with a sword that was made in medieval England, then the second one will be stronger?” Megan asked.

“Ten or twenty times stronger, yes,” Gattwood replied.

I swallowed as something clicked. “Just curious, would you ever use lenses in a golem’s construction? Like from old telescopes or reading glasses?”

Gattwood nodded. “Sure, if you wanted a tracker.”

“Tracker?” Megan asked.

“A golem that can see things people can’t. Sometimes it’s footprints, sometimes it’s auras. What the golem can see is largely determined by the age of the lenses and the type of glass used. So a pair of reading glasses with a red tint might let the golems see auras, while an old telescope would let it see very far, or perhaps even through solid objects. These are the hardest to make, you understand, because while man’s been making weapons for tens of thousands of years, lenses are a more recent invention.”

“I see,” I said, taking the list from Gattwood. “Thank you for your time today, James. We’ll be in touch, and I’ll be sure to get Caulborn Singravel to return the books he borrowed.”

Megan and I showed ourselves out. “Nathan Singravel?” Megan asked as we walked back to her car. “Didn’t you say he was Miguel Gomez’s ex-partner?”

“Yes. Nathan was kicked out of the agency for selling Caulborn secrets. He was sentenced to fifty years at Ashgate.” I didn’t like where this was headed. If Singravel had escaped Ashgate, we should’ve heard about it. And now he was impersonating a Caulborn agent and had obtained information used to create golems that were kidnapping Boston’s paranormal citizens.

And he was building them with parts that had been ordered from Thad’s antique store.

Chapter 10

Begin Coded Transmission
As time progressed, more and more of the Urisk worshipped Corinthos. While the Urisk had other gods at one time, the allure of seeing one perform miracles in person converted the majority of the Urisk. It is said that some of them still cling to their old faith, but this is only a small percentage of the population.
With so many Urisk actively worshipping him, his powers increased exponentially, and he has stated that while on the Bright Side he can change the physical composition of the landscape, alter the realm’s weather patterns and heal his followers with a touch. He may border on omnipotent, but Corinthos is not omniscient, and is as fallible on the Bright Side as the old Greek and Roman gods were on Earth.
-NS
End Coded Transmission

I had my cell phone out and was calling Thad before Megan had started the Tercel. He picked up on the fourth ring.

“Antiquated Treasures, where the past makes lovely presents,” he said.

“Thad, it’s Vincent. The guy who’s been ordering all the antique weapons and reading glasses, what was his name?”

“Robert Maxwell, why?”

“I think he’s doing something very bad with those antiques, Thad. Can you stop that last shipment of glasses to him?”

“Bad? Like illegal, bad?”

“Like evil scientist, bad.”

“That bastard,” Thad hissed. “After all the legwork I’ve done—”

“Thad,” I interrupted. “Can you stop that shipment?”

“Sorry, Vincent, but he just left here half an hour ago. Took the last batch of glasses with him. I can stop selling him stuff if you want.”

“Definitely. Also, please pull an inventory sheet of everything he’s purchased, and can you give me his address?”

“Sure thing, sweetie.” He paused. “Can I do anything else to help?”

“Yeah, actually. What’s he look like?”

“Oh he’s a strapping one, Vincent,” Thad replied. “Almost as tall as me, tan, shaved head and the most piercing blue eyes you can imagine. He’s got this intricate tattoo of a sun on the left side of his neck, too.”

“Thanks, Thad. Call me back on my cell once you’ve got that list.” Thad rattled off Maxwell’s address, which I jotted down in a small notebook I kept in my coat pocket. We hung up and I called Leslie. “I need to talk to the boss immediately.”

Her response, as always, was terse. “Mr. Corinthos, Galahad XI is extremely busy—”

“Les, Nathan Singravel is out of Ashgate.”

There was a pause, then the phone started ringing again. “Yes?” Galahad sounded tired.

“Boss, did you know Nathan Singravel was out?”

There was a longer pause and for a moment I thought we’d lost our connection. When he spoke again, his voice was calm, the dangerous calm. “I was not aware of this. Are you sure?”

“Gattwood said that Singravel came by the other day, posing as an agent, and commandeered some books on golem crafting.”

Galahad’s voice was calmer still. “I am going to call Warden Garside now, Vincent. When you get back to headquarters, please join me in the conference room, and bring Megan.”

“Sure thing, boss.” We hung up and I tucked my phone back in my pocket.

“What next?” Megan asked.

“We head back to the office. Galahad’s looking into Singravel’s release now.”

“Do you think Singravel’s the one behind the disappearances?”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t seem like Nathan. He sells knowledge, not people. So he’s probably supplying the real threat with information. Just the same, that’s really bad. Nathan knew a lot, and what he didn’t know he had access to. He told me once that he wanted to be the Codex someday.”

Megan pursed her lips. The Codex was the Care Taker’s main advisor, a person who knew almost every secret the Caulborn had. “How do you think Galahad will handle it?”

I shrugged. “Tough to say. Galahad took Nathan’s betrayal personally. They all did. They were all pretty close, and no one saw it coming.”

“You said ‘they,’ not ‘we.’”

“I was recently recruited when Nathan went bad. I didn’t know him very well. But he, Miguel and Kristin had worked together for years. It was very hard for them.” On our way back to the office, I stopped at a convenience store and picked up a carton of cigs for the Doc. Megan watched my transaction with disapproval, but she didn’t say anything about it as we walked back to the office.

When we reached the office, I gave the cigs to Jake and asked him to pass them on to the Doc, then we took the elevator to the third floor. I stopped at Leslie’s desk. “How’s the boss?” I asked.

Leslie looked at me over the tops of her glasses. “I’m amazed you didn’t hear him all the way outside, Mr. Corinthos,” she said. “I haven’t heard him that angry in a long time. He’s calmed a bit, but I think he’s going to be upset for a while.” I thanked her and Megan and I walked to the conference room. Galahad was already there. He motioned for us to sit down. His hair was neatly parted as always and his clothes were tidy, but he looked exhausted. It was his eyes, mostly. They were bloodshot and there were deep hollows spreading beneath them.

“I just spoke with Warden Garside. He informed me that Nathan Singravel was released about six weeks ago.” Galahad spoke the last part through his teeth, but his voice remained steady. “Ashgate is operating at maximum capacity, and so the Care Taker decided to let some of the less threatening inmates go.”

“Less threatening? Boss, Nathan had access—”

Galahad put up a hand. I stopped speaking. “I concur with you, Vincent.” His voice was still steady. It was getting calmer with every word. I shrank back in my chair a little. “Our office was to be notified of Nathan’s release, but due to a clerical error we were not.” He paused and took a sip of water from a cup. “Regardless, Nathan is out. He was supposed to be monitored, but again, a clerical error prevented this.”

“That’s an awful lot of clerical errors,” Megan said.

“Yes, Megan,” Galahad said. “I had the same opinion. I suggested to the warden that perhaps he needs to re-evaluate his current staff and their intellectual capabilities.”

“Wait, six weeks?” I asked. “That would put Nathan getting out just before the Delions went missing. And if Nathan wanted revenge on Mikey for exposing him in the first place...”

“Exactly where I was going with this, Vincent. Put Nathan under surveillance and see if he’s involved with what’s going on.”

“If he is, we’ll take care of it, boss,” I said. Galahad nodded and stood. As Megan headed for the door, I caught Galahad by the arm. “Boss, are you okay?”

Galahad XI smiled at me. “The Lord never gives us more than we can handle, Vincent. Although sometimes, I think he tests us. This is one of those times for me. I appreciate your concern, but thank you, I’m fine.” His tone told me that I should drop it. I nodded and left the room. Leslie caught us in the hallway. “Just got this from Warden Garside’s people,” she said. “It’s Nathan’s Singravel’s new address.” I thanked Leslie and we stopped off in my office so I could grab my coat.