The Gossamer Crown: Book One of The Gossamer Sphere (11 page)

Thames River

Kevin had barely recovered from the shock of the three of them starting the boat without a key when he witnessed Griffey change into a woman.  Griffey didn’t hold the change for long, and the reformation of his features was even weirder than the original change had been.  Kevin shuddered when the shapeshifter’s long, black hair silently sucked back into his skull, like enthusiastically eaten spaghetti.  The creepiest part was how attractive he’d been.

Once Griffey transformed back to his normal, intimidating visage, he said, “Why don’t you tell me about your business dealings with Caitlin.”

“We’re just friends,” Lizbeth said.  “Better friends than you.”

Kevin wasn’t sure what she hoped to accomplish by baiting Griffey.  This was a man who’d just bragged about taking some doomed woman’s seat in a lifeboat.  When Caitlin spoke of him, even though she’d shown little emotion, Kevin got the impression his supposed death had affected her deeply.  And yet, here he was, not only very much alive, but a shapeshifter, too, something Caitlin had failed to mention.  Plus, Griffey was now a high-ranking law enforcement officer.  Did he have something to do with her arrest? 

Griffey narrowed his eyes at Lizbeth.  “Caitlin doesn’t make friends.  She has, however, clearly shared some – classified – information with you, and I’m at a loss as to why she would do that.  I don’t like not knowing things.”

There was an implied threat in the words, and Kevin sensed rather than saw Zach go on alert.

“You mean about the crown?  Why do you think she told us?” Lizbeth asked.  “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the earthquakes and volcanoes.”

Griffey blinked, but otherwise didn’t react.  That one blink and the blank stare that followed told Kevin that Griffey had no idea the crown had anything to do with the current state of the world.  He confirmed it when he asked, “Are you saying whoever has the crown is causing it?”

“Can it do that?” Kevin asked.  Caitlin had never explained exactly why they needed the crown.

Griffey laughed.  “Typical Caitlin.  Only tell them what they need to know.”

Kevin suspected Caitlin told them what she thought they would
believe
, when they were ready to believe it, but he didn’t say as much.

“The crown is going to stop what’s happening to the world,” Lizbeth said.  “And it sounds to me like you know even less about it than we do.”

“Well, why don’t we pool our information, then?” Griffey said.  “First tell me what makes you three so special.”

“And give away our advantage?” Zach asked.  If Kevin didn’t know Zach was bluffing, he’d be convinced by the confidence in his voice.

“Oh, you have no advantage,” Griffey began, but his cell phone rang.  He flipped it open to look at the display before taking the call.  The volume was up so loud Kevin heard the entire conversation.

The tinny voice of the caller said, “Caitlin O’Connor has escaped.”

Griffey’s lips thinned into a furious line and he hissed, “When?”

“The guard was found in her cell, dressed in her clothes-”

“I didn’t ask how. 
When
?”

“We don’t know.  Hours probably.”

Griffey snapped the phone shut and stood.  “Consider yourselves under arrest.”

He posted two officers to guard the door, and left without another word.

Zach said, “Did you guys hear that?  Caitlin’s out.”

“I heard.  I also hear
that
,” Kevin said, referring to the renewed sound of the ship’s engines.  His stomach lurched a little in apprehension.  “We’re moving again.”

Lizbeth hurried over to a bank of wooden file cabinets against the wall behind the captain’s desk.  “We probably don’t have much time then.  Let’s see what we can find out.”

The cabinets were locked, but the desk drawer had all sorts of junk in it, and it didn’t take long for Lizbeth to find a suitable tool.  Kevin was impressed by how quickly she picked each of the locks.  He and Zach began to look through the files.  Kevin kept glancing over his shoulder, expecting someone to catch them at their clumsy snooping, especially after the ship stopped moving again.  They’d been digging through what seemed like hundreds of files for over an hour when Zach said, “Here.”

He placed a thick file on the desk and they huddled around it.  It appeared to be a crew manifest dating from the ship’s maiden voyage to its last.  Zach started to read the names out loud, but Kevin held up a hand.

“Shh—what’s that?”

The others lifted their heads and listened for a moment.  With the cessation of their movements in the cabin, the sounds from the ship seemed hollow and ghostly.

Zach looked back down at the file.  “It’s just the guards.”

Lizbeth went to the door and pressed her ear to it.  After a moment she waved them over.  Kevin put his head against the cold metal door on one side of Lizbeth and Zach on the other.  It was faint, but he could hear the guards’ conversation.

One officer was saying, “I don’t understand why we’re moving this bucket of rust.  Ship feels haunted.  They say seventeen people died on board.”

The other officer replied, “Boat wasn’t secure where it was.  Griffey thinks there’s evidence here someone might try to hide.  And those people that died—he’s linked it to the new deaths on that drill ship.”

“Marine command always jump when Griffey calls?”

“Thames Counter-Terrorist Partnership is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?  Thank Al-Qaeda.”

An echo of footsteps from the corridor heralded someone’s arrival.

Kevin straightened.  “Someone’s coming.” 

Zach rushed to the desk, tore the top pages from the file and stuffed them in his pocket as Lizbeth tossed the file under the desk.  They scrambled for their seats and acted nonchalant when the door opened.

Griffey entered, followed by another man.

“I suspect you’re all acquainted,” Griffey said.

Bill Masters looked directly into Kevin’s eyes and nodded.

The North Sea

Lizbeth thought she’d been confused before, but when Bill Masters showed up, she became, as Granma liked to say, completely confuzzled. 

Bill looked around the Captain’s quarters and asked, “Where’s Caitlin?”

Griffey gestured to the officer hovering in the corridor to take a position outside the door.  He closed it and made a rueful face.  “I apologize.  I told you she was here, but she’s not.  Until recently, we’ve had her tucked away in a high security cell.”

“What?  Why?” Bill asked.

Griffey stepped back from Bill’s vehemence and moved to put the desk between them before answering.  “We were holding her for questioning.  There were no charges, except of course now her escape has racked up a whole slew of them.”

Bill’s baffled expression deepened.  “Escape…questioning for what?”

“I’m not at liberty to divulge that.  Ongoing investigation.”

Lizbeth frowned.  If Griffey was responsible for Caitlin’s arrest, why didn’t he know who Lizbeth, Kevin and Zach were?  She thought about their panicked flight from the officers in London.  If the police hadn’t pegged them as terrorist associates of Caitlin’s, then Lizbeth’s pick-pocketing had gotten them in trouble after all.  She felt a flush of shame work its way up her neck.

“So why have you brought me here?” Bill asked.  He looked down and ran his eyes over Lizbeth and the others.

Griffey sucked air between his teeth.  “As we speak, a dozen hazmat-suited officers are searching the drill ship.”

Bill looked like he’d been slapped in the face.  “Do you have a warrant?”

“It’s been served on the captain, but you could save us all some time by telling me where it is.”

“Where what is?  The core sample?”

Griffey snorted a humorless laugh.  “The crown, Masters.  I know it was on your ship.  You may have convinced the health authorities that those people died from natural causes, but I’ve seen that illness before.”

“The crown has never been on my ship.”

“But you do know about it.  Are you Guild?”

“What?”

Whatever “Guild” meant, Griffey seemed to take Bill’s response as a “no,” because he went on to ask, “What did Caitlin tell you about the crown?”

“Enough.”

Griffey sighed.  “How do you know her?”

Bill spread his hands.  “Look.  Caitlin hired me to salvage the crown from Titanic, but we were ordered to stop looking and someone else got to it first.  I couldn’t even tell you what it looks like.”

“Then what infected those scientists on board your ship?”

Bill compressed his lips.

Griffey stared at Bill with the same intensity he’d directed at Zach earlier.  Lizbeth thought about how Caitlin had spoken to her mind-to-mind that first day, when her father’s incantation had echoed in her head.  She suspected Griffey, too, had some level of mind-reading ability, and was exercising that skill now.  Finally, he said, “Tell me about the core sample.”

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

Lizbeth felt the hair on the back of her neck stir.  For a second, she thought Griffey was exuding some kind of energy, but then Zach stiffened in his chair like he was having an epileptic fit, and Kevin muttered, “Not again.”  She looked at Griffey and saw him wince.  It made sense that if they could feel it and Caitlin could feel it, Griffey would, too.

Outside, night became day.  The two portholes over the file cabinets changed into floodlights beaming a multi-colored glow into the cabin.  It was another sub-space storm aurora.  A message was coming in, and the force behind it made her doubt that the changes the gossamer sphere had made thus far to the earth were working.  The energy pulses coursing through her body were stronger than ever, and the show this time lasted for several minutes.  While everyone in the room but Bill suffered through the discomfort of it, Bill kept asking, “What’s going on?  What’s wrong with you people?”

Finally, it ended.  Griffey sat slumped in his chair, breathing hard and staring at Lizbeth.  His eyes reminded her of Caitlin’s, swirling as if each orb was home to a galaxy of stars.

“Why did you say the crown was going to stop what’s happening to the world?” he asked.

Lizbeth exchanged a look with Zach.  In her mind, she imagined she heard his voice: 
be careful what you say.

“Maybe you should ask Bill what’s going on,” she said.  “He’s the one who set it all into motion.”

Bill was leaning back against the door with his arms crossed.  “I already said he wouldn’t believe me.  I don’t know how much Caitlin told you, but there’s a lot of bizarre stuff involved here.”

Zach held a hand out palm up to indicate Griffey.  “You mean like shapeshifters?”

Bill’s head went back.  A small silence passed while he studied Griffey and appeared to absorb Zach’s veiled assertion that Griffey was a shapeshifter, too.  “Yeah, like that.”

The light from the desk lamp cast deep shadows over Griffey’s face, emphasizing his craggy profile and the bags under his deep-set eyes.  He looked tired, and Lizbeth wondered if he was experiencing negative aftereffects from the message.

She halfway expected him to deny it, but he said, “Caitlin and I were members of an ancient society, only it wasn’t ancient when we joined.  Recruitment was limited to the young, intelligent and strong.  The ritual was simple, but deadly for most.”

“Touch the crown,” Lizbeth whispered.

Griffey heard her, and shrugged one shoulder.  “Dozens of people died every year hoping to attain power and immortality.  Maybe one out of a hundred survived.  Once the Romans invaded our shores, they mistook it for human sacrifice and decided we were barbarians.  Before they came, our people were revered.  We were the nobles, the healers, scholars, philosophers, judges and teachers for centuries.”

“Druids,” Zach murmured, and Griffey nodded.

“The Roman Empire persecuted us out of fear, and those who survived went into hiding or left the country.  The nobles were in charge of protecting the crown, but they began to die off, one by one, until there was only one left – Caitlin.”

A light knock sounded on the door and Griffey called, “Yes?”

The officer stationed outside leaned his torso in and shook his head at Griffey, which Lizbeth took to mean they hadn’t found the crown on the drill ship.  Griffey nodded curtly in dismissal and once the officer shut the door, rested his chin in his folded hands and glared at Bill.

“Where’s the damned crown?”

“I don’t know.” 

“I can have you arrested, you know,” Griffey said. 

“For what?”

“We’ve got six bodies on slabs at the morgue.  The mere suggestion it was caused by an agent that could be used in a terrorist attack will get you a comfortable cell.  Caitlin may have resisted my interrogation techniques, but I assure you, you won’t.”

Lizbeth gasped when she heard all the scientists had died, but Bill’s face didn’t change.  She looked back and forth between the two men.  Caitlin said Griffey had been her friend, but then he’d disappeared from her life only to reappear as a powerful adversary.  Lizbeth was pretty sure Bill had been more than a friend to Caitlin at some point, but now they, too, were at odds.  At least Bill’s motives, if not his methods, seemed honorable; he was attempting to find a different way to stop the sphere, wasn’t he?  Griffey didn’t even seem to know about the sphere, yet he was after the crown with a frightening single-mindedness.  He and Caitlin obviously had different plans for the crown, but what did
he
want it for?

“The deaths weren’t caused by the crown,” Bill said.

“Don’t tell him,” Lizbeth said.

Griffey’s eyebrows lifted, creating three narrow furrows in his forehead.  “Make up your mind.  You said he set all this in motion.  Someone explain to me-”

A commotion from the corridor interrupted what Lizbeth suspected would have become a tirade.  Griffey shouldered Bill aside and opened the door.

“Fireballs in the sky!”  The officer shouted, even though he was five feet away.  “Dozens of them.  Asteroids or missiles!”

Griffey followed the officer down the dark corridor.  Lizbeth and the others exchanged quick looks.

“Let’s get out of here,” Zach said.  Bill was closest to the door and he led the way down the corridor and up the ladder to the deck.  The sky was lit up again, only this time, bright balls of white flame streaked through the atmosphere.  Some trailed away and disappeared, some rained down.  Lizbeth instinctively ducked as a loud whoosh preceded a fireball that exploded in the ocean mere miles from where they were anchored.

Griffey was nowhere in sight.  One of the officers ran up and she thought he was going to make them go below, but he attempted to get past them.  Bill grabbed his arm and asked, “What’s happening?”

“Command says it’s satellites!  They’re crashing to the ground all over the northern hemisphere!  They’ve lost communication with the space station!”  The officer yanked his arm away and rushed off.

Lizbeth remembered what Caitlin had said, “The sphere has been struggling to receive messages for some time now.  Climate changes caused by greenhouse gasses, space cluttered with orbiting satellites and junk, all have interfered.”

She stared around her at the hail of fire, convinced that the last aurora must have been more than a message.