Chapter Seven
Artemis' Bow
Myka pulls her Farnsworth from her jeans as Pete moves to stand between her hands and as much of the crowd trapped on this sidewalk as he can. Granted everyone is, for now, staring across the street at the Barclay Center Plaza and taking cell phone pictures of the field of blood and bodies, but that could change in a moment.
She presses the activation button. "Claudia?" she asks, but the screen does not change from black. She presses the red button again. "Steve?" she tries and a moment later the man's face appears on the round screen. He looks apprehensive in the greyscale image. "What's wrong?"
/Oh, nothing./
For a human lie detector, he is an atrocious liar, but she has no time for this. "Is Claudia with you?"
/Right here,/ her voice says and a moment later the image tilts to show her horizontal face.
"I couldn't get you a moment ago."
/Oh, sorry, I had it on 'silent'./
"You had it on…?" is silent. She didn't know the thing had a silent mode, but it figures the computer guru would…. Never mind. "I need some help. What do you know about a jeweled bow that fires invisible arrows?"
/Not a lot. But stand by./ The image shrinks to black.
Myka bites back what she would have said, it being in no way complimentary to the younger woman. She activates the communicator again, this time directing the call again to Claudia and she had better have taken her unit off 'silent'.
x
When the redhead's face appears in black and white, she bites "I wasn't done."
/Sorry./
"There are hundreds of people out here, and three quarters are taking pictures while the last quarter wish their phones had enough power." The younger woman smiles, she doesn't feel up to it. 'Too many dead bodies will do that.' "I'm betting someone, maybe a great many someones, photographed our Mystery Archer to share on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, whathavethey."
/Coming right up./ But then she hesitates. /Over and out?/
"Yeah."
This time it's safe to break the link.
Myka knows the woman's laptop and tablet each have a secure link to the Warehouse and 10G Internet speed. These are courtesy of, and established during her visit to Eureka by, her then on-again-off-again boyfriend, the facility's Director. While they wait there is much they can do. There are droves of people being held back on the opposite sides of the streets that angle outward along the widening field of the Plaza.
Pete checks the black leather bag slung on his left shoulder, tucks the carry sack under his arm and delves into the crowd.
xxx
In West Palm Beach, in the car with the air conditioner cranked up to 'survive in hell' mode, Artie and Leena consider their options. "So far our best leads are the Community Board and Ganze."
"Well, I have a rapport with Mary Stewart," she reminds him.
"Didn't she turn down your request to look at the files?"
"That's right," she admits, deflating.
He checks his watch. "Looks like it's closing on time for a little inspired cat burglary."
She gives him a leading grin. "You've never seen me in a cat suit."
And he'd not going to consider it. "Okay, a slow dinner, then a little B&E."
"You sure you don't want to stop at a costume shop?"
He turns in his seat. "Did you touch Casandra Peterson's make-up case before we left Dakota?"
xxx
In Brooklyn, New York, the late afternoon sun is telling Myka and Pete that this Police Investigation is going to last into summer twilight, but the agents are still trying to collect Witness Statements, not a quarter of which provide any useful information.
Pete has spoken to a hundred people in his half of the mob - they'd started at the far ends with intent to meet in the middle - but only four had admitted to seeing anything during the attack and they are not showing without cash in hand.
Fortunately, sites like Google, if permission has ever been granted through the downloading of an App - or two - can capture whatever the phone snaps while the user is connected to the Internet, and Barclays Center has a huge Internet radius.
So, by the time the agents have rendezvoused, no one is willing to share and dozens of people have Shared.
In fact, the Warehouse gods, as Pete has been known to observe, lead Claudia to buzz Myka's Farnsworth three minutes into their conversation. His Farnsworth is in his shoulder pack along with several other useful artifacts, but he's glad it is his partner's device that calls for attention. It's so much fun watching her wiggle it out of the tight rear pocket of her jeans.
x
/I've got the stuff you wanted,/ their distant partner declares. /Enough cameras caught the barrage of invisible arrows so I have excellent 3D images./
In still imagery the screen shows - fortunately in greyscale - the havoc from moments after the firing had begun.
Chaos had erupted, several victims are down when, on the third image shown, a man on the sidewalk across the street, barely discernable, is knocked off his feet and blood spouts from each side of his body. He falls to the concrete and the glass door of the Best Buy Electronics across Pacific Street fractures into a thick spider's web of cracks.
Tumult spreads.
Men and women, perceiving what they may think to be silenced gunshots, run wildly in the still pictures in a dozen useless directions. A woman is knocked from her feet and then after that a man cutting across from right to left traverses only two thirds of the killing field before he is cut down, blood gushing from left and right sides.
To get that shot, the cameraman had to be standing still in the carnage.
x
In real time seventeen men and women are dead, their bodies strewn through the plaza outside the main entrance of the Barclays Center and along the side street, but Myka is grateful they have seen only three.
"Did you get anything on the shooter?"
/I got one photo. Apparently, your people cared more about who got hit than they did who was firing the arrows./
On the screen appears the image as Betty Cooper would have described it. The man had needed a haircut two years ago, now the mop is unkempt and windblown. His tee shirt proclaims 'Black Lives –' with the last word the antithesis of the motto creator's intent.
In his outstretched left hand he holds a bow they estimate to be a yard long, lines of jewels making it as beautiful as it is deadly. His right hand is by his chin and in that instant his hand is open.
"Do you have a facial rec?" Myka asks.
/Not yet, but I'm hopeful./
"As soon as you can."
x
/I found plenty on your Bow and Quiver,/ Claudia admits, /though I could've done better from the Warehouse./
"Give us what you've got," Pete directs.
The woman smiles. /Say please,/ she says with a saucy smile that promises a juicy revelation.
"Pretty please with sugar on it," he says with a grin, "and a side of banana split."
/This one's worth that. You're looking to snag Artemis' Bow./
"Artie's bowl?" he asks, ruining her relish.
/The bow of Artemis,/ she says with no smile, /was discovered in an Archeological dig in Greece in 1749, brought to the British Museum but was stolen along with a load of other antiquities in 1937. It was discovered to be an inside job. The thieves were ultimately caught but among the treasures that were never returned were Artemis' Bow and Quiver.
/There were rumors, unconfirmed as many were back then, that during the time that Adolph Hitler went madder than usual and launched his campaign to snag and use mystical relics, and Warehouse 12 had already moved to South Dakota as #13, the bow turned up in Germany. But that was never proven. As far as the world was concerned, it disappeared.
/It's believed it made its way into a private collection, maybe even several such./
"I get the feeling," Myka says, "that this guy we're looking for did not buy it from a Collector."
"No bets there," Pete counters.
x
/Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon and chastity. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the patron and protector of young girls, and was believed to bring disease upon women and to relieve them of it./
"What's with that?" he wants to know.
/I don't make the legends; I just report them./
"Do you have an image?"
/I have several, of which two sets are great./ On the circular screen, though rendered in greyscale, are in turn four images, rendered first full on, then two profiles, then a final one from the wielder's view. The full-on view shows the golden bow set with a line of large, clear stones, evidently diamonds, and neither agent wants to guess the value. Only the middle, at the hand grip, is bare gold. The other views show black and white images that can be interpreted to be single lines of emeralds, rubies and sapphires.
/You'll find this muy interesante./ The next two photos are the top and bottom of the weapon, where it is clear there is nothing to secure the string to. /The bow was never intended to be used./
"Except by a goddess," Pete quips.
/Yeah, well, there is that./