Chapter Eleven
Tanya stirred and opened her eyes to nothing but pitch blackness. She could tell she was in the back of a moving van, and she heard an all too familiar voice say, "Well, you woke up more quickly than I expected." She turned her eyes toward the source of the voice, but she couldn't see his face in the darkness. "Well," he added, "it doesn't matter anyway. As long as I have you, this new identity you've forged for yourself will have to fall by the wayside. After all, I won't let you use it. It's not like you're going to escape from me."
"You're a bloody cocky moron," she snapped, and she recieved a harsh kick in the stomach. Her eyes had completely adjusted to a point she could register, and she scanned the van. The windows were covered with black plastic, presumably garbage bags, and the man who'd kicked her was standing as erect as possible given the confines of the van.
"Where's the compass?"
"What compass?"
"Don't think I don't know you sent someone to steal the Viscount's Compass from me. Who did you send, and where is he?"
"Give me a good reason to tell you." For this remark, she recieved another hard kick to the stomach. "I need a better one, Nathaniel. You of all people should know that about me."
"Fine, here's your reason." He pulled out a gun, cocked it, and took direct aim at Tanya's head. "Tell me where the compass is, or you die."
"What's so important about the Viscount's Compass, anyway?"
"The compass points the way, even when all else fails."
Tanya made a mental note of this and shut up, and Nathaniel put his gun back in its holster on his hip. He took a seat on a crate and crossed his legs, and she did her best to roll over onto her back.
NTNT
Over the next several days, Riley and Ian continued their attempts to track Tanya and her kidnapper or kidnappers, depending. Over this time period, they saw both Viktor and Phil walk through the door, and most of the crew was back together.
Five days after attempts started, Riley finally got a solid hit on the location of Tanya's phone, and he shouted, "Yes," throwing his hands in the air. Within seconds, Ian, Viktor, Powell, and Phil hovered around him, staring at the red dot on the screen. "Worked out the last of the glitches and finally found her, or her phone, at least," he said again. "She's in New York."
"Trinity Church," Ian whispered.
"Remember the creepy tunnel inside the tomb? Yeah."
Ian and his three remaining men exchanged glances, and for a moment, there was a really long, awkward silence, which Ian was the one to break. "Well, boys, let's go find my sister."
"Hey, what about me?" Riley asked.
"You can come, too. Now, pack up and be ready. We leave in an hour."
Throughout the next hour, the five men rushed about, packing up everything. Riley found himself finished in half the time allotted, and his phone rang about ten minutes later. "Hello?" he asked.
"Ah, hello, Mr. Poole," the man on the other end said.
"What are you doing talking to me, Mr. President?" Riley asked in a low voice. "I thought you were talking to Ben."
"He told me he passed on the mission to you, that you wanted to have an adventure and beat bad guys."
Riley managed to stifle the gasp that wanted to burst from him as the President uttered the very same words he'd told Ben several days prior. "So why are you telling me this now?"
"I had to undergo long negotiations with Mr. Gates to get to this point, and I have to say you have a very good friend in him."
"Yeah, well..." He laughed for a second before recovering himself.
"So, just out of curiosity, what's your prevailing theory?"
"I think it has something to do with the Howe family." Riley checked the nearest clock, seeing that he had fifteen minutes until he had to leave. "I also think there's something to do with a compass someone I know brought back from England."
"You mean the Viscount's Compass?"
Riley did his best not to allow the chill that the President's words sent down his spine to seep into his voice. "Yeah. I still don't know how special it is, but it most be something important if it's in the Book of Secrets."
"You're a smart kid, Riley."
"Ben rubbed off on me."
"Sounds like. Now, I hope your quest is a fruitful one, Mr. Poole."
"Thanks, Mr. President."
The line went dead, and Riley snapped his phone shut and pocketed it.
NTNT
Tanya paced back and forth along the wall of the church, running the past few days through her mind, seeking out a flaw in Nathaniel's plan besides his cockiness. She had very few possibilities left to her as she paced that day, and it was getting harder and harder to stay focused and not let the panic take her.
Nathaniel watched her closely as she paced, but she struggled desperately to not let that bother her. Finally, when she couldn't take it anymore, she turned to face him and snapped, "Why are you staring at me?"
"Why are you pacing?" Nathaniel replied, though in a more even tone than Tanya had used when she addressed him. "Just let yourself relax and tell me where the compass is."
"First, you tell me what's so bloody important about the Viscount's Compass."
"Oh, you're an insistent one, Tanya. I should've expected this."
"Answer me."
"Very well, then, but as I said, the compass points the way, even when all else fails. That means every time, in every point on the Earth, regardless of the properties there. Just tell me where it is, and you can go free."
"What do you want with it?"
"There are so many things that the Viscount's Compass and the Soldier's Guidebook can be used for, even though the former is much more important."
Tanya's pacing stopped, and she furrowed her brow. "How is it that I have the feeling you can't have the one without the other?"
"I knew you'd say that, but I'm quite certain you're bluffing. The compass is all I need right now. Just tell me where it is and who has it."
"What's in it for me?"
"Excuse me?"
"If I reveal to you who I had sent after the Viscount's Compass and Soldier's Guidebook, then I expect an offer at least equal to what I give you."
Nathaniel raised his eyebrows and leaned forward, toward the edge of the pew he was sitting in. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, so make it good."
NTNT
Riley fished out his phone and texted Ben a request for everything Page 47 said, and he got a three part reply, which he read aloud to Ian and his men. "'Page 47 details the fact that the Viscount's Compass and Soldier's Guidebook,'" he switched to another message, "'are supposed to be used together to find,'" he switched to the third part, "'a treasure beyond all else.' Before you get any ideas, get this: 'No indication of whether it's of any intrinsic value.'"
"Sae what's the point?" Powell asked. "Why have a treasure if it ain't worth anythin'?"
"You can treasure a person."
"Yeah, but that person is worth something to you," Phil replied.
"Even so. If it's a treasure Page Forty-seven is leading to, then it's obviously worth something to a lot of people."
"Good thing Ian had me bring along the book and compass," Viktor said, illiciting a few odd looks from the rest of the people in the car with him, Ian included.
"He's got a point," Riley said, in an effort to break the silence. "We might...we might need those, y'know." This time, everyone's eyes shifted toward him, save Ian, who had to return his attention to the road before he crashed into something, or someone.
"Riley's right," Ian said nonetheless. "We can't allow perfect hindsight to reveal a mistake less-than-perfect foresight failed to reveal before the mistake took place. We need to have all of our bases covered now."
Viktor returned his attention to the window to his left, but he didn't say anything. Powell turned his eyes from Riley to Ian, furrowing his brow, but he didn't say a word, either. Phil just shrugged and fished his iPod out of his jeans pocket, cranking it up so loud it didn't matter if he had the earphones in or not. Everyone in the car could hear it, Riley and Viktor especially.
Riley let his head fall to the window, and he dozed off a little, but avoiding Phil's death metal was much harder for Viktor and Powell. Forcing it out of his mind was perhaps easiest for Ian, and for a second, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he glimpsed Shaw in the passenger seat instead of Powell. I'm losing my mind, he thought, not for the first time, but he teturned his attention to the road, nevertheless.