Suddenly, she didn’t feel quite as bad about bargaining her assistance for Fiona’s safety. The important thing now was to keep Kenner and Tyndareus from realizing that the young woman might be the only person alive who could understand what the map said.
The Minoan writing on the border would be a bit of a challenge for Gallo, since her specialty was the Classical Greek period. It was also something of an anachronism. She knew enough about the proto-history of the Greeks to know that the Minoans, despite being a sea-faring people, had never ventured beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
But Alexander did, she thought.
She turned back to Kenner. “That’s all very interesting, but it doesn’t answer my question.”
“Come now, Augustina. Surely you see the significance of this. Herakles’s quest to retrieve Queen Hippolyte’s belt was really about obtaining this map. A map of the entire globe. This opens up a world of new possibilities. Herakles’s journeys could have taken him anywhere. With this map and the complete account of his Labors, we will be able to pinpoint the exact locations of the places he visited.”
Gallo thought about what she and Fiona had been attempting in Greece. They had been acting on the same assumptions as ancient historians who used their incomplete knowledge of the world to identify the places where the ancient hero had performed his deeds. As much as she hated to admit it, Kenner was on the right track.
“I take it you are interested in finding a specific destination?”
The direct question took some of the wind out of Kenner’s sails. He pursed his lips as if trying to formulate an answer that would dovetail with his pretense of being a fellow hostage.
Gallo pressed her advantage. “You told George that you were looking for a way to make your own chimeras. That’s what you’re after, right?”
Kenner let out his breath in a sigh. “Those myths are evidence that the ancients knew how to recombine and engineer the DNA of living creatures, something that we are only just beginning to understand now. Herakles found a source, a mutagen that could make differentiated cells behave like stem cells. A genetic blank slate just waiting to be filled in. I intend to find it as well.”
“Why? So that you can make monsters, too?” She could tell by his wounded expression that she had gotten the last part wrong. “No, that’s not it. You think you can find the secret of immortality. A fountain of youth for your creaky old taskmaster.”
Behind her, Rohn cleared his throat, a none-too-subtle warning that she was being too defiant.
“Would that be such a terrible thing?” Kenner replied. “I’m going to find it, with or without your help. I would prefer the former.”
Gallo nodded slowly. Kenner had at last revealed the truth. He did not need her to help translate the Heracleia after all. This was personal. He was trying to use the situation to win her over. In his own twisted way, he still harbored the love he had once professed all those years ago.
She wondered what the mysterious Mr. Tyndareus would do when he figured out that he had been duped into playing cupid. Whatever the outcome for Kenner, it would certainly not be as bad as the fate that awaited her and Fiona.
“As would I,” she said. “Let’s get to it then.”
23
Monrovia, Liberia
Uncertainty about the fate of Gallo and Fiona robbed Pierce of any sense of triumph at surviving the carnivorous vines.
But survive they had. Even Cooper, who had experienced prolonged exposure to the acidic secretions, and who spent most of the trek back to the road unconscious on the shoulder of the man who now went by the name Erik Lazarus, would make a full recovery without even a scar to remember the ordeal.
Before leaving the jungle, they had taken care not to accidentally transmit even a shred of plant fiber away from the infested zone, which meant stripping nearly naked and leaving everything behind. It was a small price to pay to ensure that the species would not gain a foothold somewhere else. Once back in the WHO facility in Monrovia, scrubbed clean and salved with a topical ointment, the scientists under Carter’s leadership had wasted no time analyzing the plant. They researched the possibility that it might be some naturally occurring mutation, while they waited for the arrival of the high-tech equipment Carter had requested. Pierce had little to do but sit and worry, while he waited for Dourado to run down the Cerberus group.
He had contemplated returning to the citadel, but he rejected that course of action. There was nothing he could do there, not without Carter’s help at least, and he had not entirely given up hope of recruiting her into the Herculean fold.