She passed the binoculars to Fiona, who took a look and passed them on to Mordred. “That’s a very old building,” she said.
“The structure is,” Mordred said. “But the locks and bars look new. They’ve also painted over an old Soviet Union sickle and hammer. Did the humans use this place?” He took a moment to look around the rest of the village he could see. It was mostly just small huts, dozens of them, and a few larger buildings that looked considerably sturdier, and warmer. Presumably they were for the guards.
“They had prisoners mine up in the mountain,” Diana said as she returned with Wei, who looked less than thrilled about being in the middle of Siberia in the winter.
She wore a white winter coat, and gray trousers that made Mordred think of something he’d once seen an artic explorer wear. She removed a dark-gray hat, and chestnut-brown hair fell over her shoulders.
“I’m Wei,” she said.
“Thanks for coming,” Fiona said.
“Don’t thank me just yet. I’m not exactly an Avalon supporter.”
“That’s okay. Neither am I at the moment,” Remy said, making Wei smile. “Between them and the humans, they keep trying to see who can fuck up the most.”
“How’s that working?” Wei asked.
“Too early to tell.”
Fiona gave Remy a glare. “My husband and friends are down there somewhere.”
Wei nodded. “Yes, I heard. Do you know what there is?”
“An old gulag being repurposed by people who’d like to kill a large number of very innocent people,” Nabu said.
“There’s a mine in the mountains,” Wei explained. “Humans were used as prisoners here at one point a long time ago. Actually at several points. I don’t know what they were looking for, but I had a friend from back in the day tell me and he didn’t know, either. And he worked with Avalon during Soviet control. Whatever it is they’re doing in there, they kept it secret.”
“Who’s they?” Remy asked.
“Avalon.”
“So, not mining as such,” Morgan said.
“If the mine was being used to produce something, it was something that never left this area,” Wei explained. “It was something that even high-ranking members of the Soviet-era government had no idea about. This was a place where Avalon used to send its prisoners. It was disused for decades, but a few years ago it started up again. I tried to get into the mountain to see what they were doing, but there were too many guards at the time.”
“Someone who works for Avalon,” Mordred said. “Based on her previous form, it could be Hera.”
“That’s possible,” Wei said. “I heard you swapped sides.”
“Less swapped and more realized I wasn’t exactly fighting the right people.”
“And how’s it working for you now?”
“About the same number of people want to kill me,” Mordred said. “But on the other hand, most of those people probably deserve to die, so I don’t feel so bad about venting my anger in their general direction.”
“Are you going to help us, or what?” Fiona snapped.
Diana placed a comforting hand on Fiona’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off. “My husband is in that hellhole, and I’m up here discussing niceties.”
“Diana asked me here because I’ve been here before,” Wei said. “It’s nice to see another nine-tails here.”
“Oh, I’m not a nine-tails,” Remy said. “Just the one tail, see.” He wiggled his tail to prove his point.
“Interesting,” Wei said, staring at Remy for several seconds before looking back at Fiona. “I lived in a village close to here just before the Second World War was finally over. Fortunately the arrival of troops gave me the incentive to leave, but I came back a few years later when one of those in the village asked for my help. Avalon shut this place down just before the war, but it reopened in the fifties. Several people were abducted and forced to work here. Humans, I might add.”
“Do you know the mines?” Fiona asked.
“I don’t know too far down, as it was heavily guarded and I was only interested in finding those abducted. For some reason that mountain shields me from tracking people when you’re inside it. I think it’s got some sort of magical quality to it. I scouted the village a little before you arrived. I found nothing of note, apart from a few dozen armed guards patrolling the far end of the place.” She pointed down toward the village. “You see the curve just there? The village opens out just behind there, but you can’t see it from here because it goes around to the opposite side of the cliff. There’s a building there that looks a lot like the one you were interested in. I saw guards going in and out, but I couldn’t get closer. “
“Could people be held prisoner in it?” Fiona asked.
“Yes. I couldn’t get inside to check, but I know for a fact that it’s big enough. When I rescued the abducted humans, they were being held in there. Inside there’s a set of stairs that leads down into the actual prison area. It’s underground. When I checked earlier, though, I saw runes drawn on various places, although I don’t know what they did. They’re new.”
“So, we’ve found our first destination,” Nabu said.
“I’ll go,” Mordred said. “I just need a distraction.”
“You sure?” Diana asked. “No offense, Mordred, but you’re not exactly stealthy.”
“I’ll be fine. Besides, you’re going to be better equipped at making enough noise to wake the dead.”
“You’re going in alone?” Fiona asked. “Because that’s not happening.”
“Fiona, whatever bullshit you think you know about me, push it aside. You want your husband back in one piece? Well, I’ve been sneaking in and out of places for hundreds of years. Normally to assassinate someone, but that’s not exactly the point that’s relevant at this point in time.”
Fiona looked around for an ally and, finding none, resigned herself to the situation. “Fine, but if you do anything to put his life in jeopardy—”
“I don’t plan on putting anyone’s life in anything close to trouble. I plan on getting in, finding out what I can, and getting out. Or, should the need arise, getting in, killing everyone inside, and letting you guys come to me.”
“You want us to take out everyone else in the village?” Morgan asked. “That wise?”
“It’s necessary,” Mordred replied. “If I get in there and someone can’t leave under their own power, we need a clear line to escape.”
“Or hunker down,” Remy said. “This could turn into quite the protracted battle if anything goes wrong.”
“Well, aren’t you just a bundle of sunshine?” Diana said.
“Sunshine fucked off about two days ago,” Remy told her. “Right now I’m a bundle of barely-held-together anxiety, rage, and just a smidge of sexual allure.”
Everyone got a laugh out of that.
“That dreadful image aside,” Morgan said, “we need to make this fast. We also need to figure out how we’re going to get away from here. The chopper wasn’t going to wait around for us.”
“I brought a truck,” Wei said. “A big truck. That should do the trick, yes?”