Page 85 of Concluded
He and Atalanta had communicated via phone and letter a few times after, exclusively about the settling of the estate.And that had been it; not even Christmas cards.He hadn’t known her address for years, and although he could have found her via his connections, he’d never tried.Maybe she still had the same phone number.
Now, like long-sealed boxes tucked away in an attic, he found some good memories of Atalanta too.She used to very patiently help him with his homework when he was young and their parents were at work.When he was reluctant to read, she took him to the public library and helped him find books he’d enjoy.When he acquired cuts, scrapes, and bruises during various childhood exploits, she provided disinfectant, bandages, and ice.Maybe that was when she’d first decided to become a doctor.
He’d loved her and his parents.Had loved Orson.And, mystifyingly, wonderfully, he loved Dee.If you wrote those names down, they wouldn’t look like much.But all of those loves were important, and they’d left indelible marks on his heart and soul.Each one of them was worth remembering.
Sometimes Achilles walked in the black hole, blindly of course, and not really expecting to get anywhere.Sometimes he lay on his back, arms and legs spread, and stared up at nothing.Once or twice, he cried.
In fact, it was after a brief bout of sobbing that he wiped his eyes and scolded himself.“Wallowing won’t do you any good.”His voice sounded rough.Had he been screaming again?He couldn’t remember.
He decided to pretend that the chief was there and Achilles was debriefing him on the results of his latest assignment.He’d done that dozens of times, most recently with Charles but for many years before that with Townsend, and he’d always liked that part of his job.It made him feel accomplished.
“I don’t know what happened to Dee,” he told the imaginary chief as he neared the end of his story.It was hard to say those words, but at least he was fairly certain that Dee was too useful for the enemy to murder.Plus his mother had shown up and was on the enemy’s side, whatever the implications of that might be.“Spurling was going to kill me, I think, but Irina asked to keep me.For….”He tried to remember what she’d said, exactly.“For her collection.So Spurling zapped me to the black hole, and that was not fun at all.Way worse than when Dee did it.The first time, with Ashley, I was unconscious.”
Wait.He thought back to what he’d just said.Collection.Didn’t that imply that Achilles wasn’t Irina’s only prisoner?And Charles had said that he’d lost touch with several agents.Some had been deported, and maybe some had cut their ties to the Bureau, but it was possible that some were here.
Achilles shot to his feet, his heart racing.For the first time in… however long he’d been here, he felt something akin to hope.And hope, dammit, was a weapon.
“Hey!”he shouted.“Anyone here?It’s Agent Spanos.”
He tried several times, until his throat hurt, but didn’t get any response.Dispirited, he sank to the ground again.During the drive to San Francisco, he and Charles had discussed what they knew about the black hole, which wasn’t much.The Bureau had only learned about it recently, when agents Clark and Gale had obliquely encountered it in Wyoming.According to whattheirbad guy had told them, there were several black holes, reachable via portals.He could have been lying.But Gale was an empath, and when he was trapped in one of those liminal spaces, he’d sensed Ish in another.Which tended to support the bad guy’s claim.
And if all of that was true, Irina could have multiple agents in her clutches, each one confined in a separate space, like different cages in a zoo.Inaccessible to one another.
Shit.
But the more that Achilles considered this, the less sense it made.Magic and the occult might not be well understood, but they weren’t immune to the laws of physics.They just took advantage of loopholes that nobody yet comprehended.And one rule of physics was that using magic took energy.He’d seen that for himself with Dee, who was mentally and physically drained after granting a wish.Creating black holes—weird pockets in reality—undoubtedly required energy too, as did maintaining their connections to the ordinary world.Unless energy resources were boundless, which was rarely the case, conservation made sense.Which meant that there was probably just one big black hole with weird topography.
He hoped.
Achilles stood.This time, instead of shouting, he sang.He wasn’t sure why that had worked with Ish and didn’t know why he’d instinctively tried it.Maybe because music had its own magic.
Remembering the top-40 radio station his parents had favored, and the music he and Dee had listened to on the drive to Portland, Achilles began belting out “I Will Always Love You.”Poorly, but who the fuck cared?He followed that up with “Baby Got Back” and “I’m Too Sexy.”He was debating between George Michael and Mariah Carey when he heard… something.Very faintly.But it was definitely there.
He stopped breathing, closed his eyes—not that it mattered here—and concentrated.And… yes.There it was.He couldn’t make out the words or even the tune, but he was positive that someone was singing, the sound coming to him like the tiniest breeze on a sweltering summer day.
Achilles started walking in what he hoped was the right direction, singing loudly as he went.For absolutely no rational reason, his brain settled on “Amazing Grace.”And when he reached the end, he started back up again, still walking.Every time he reached the end of a verse he paused, and every time he heard the answering song.It wasn’t in English, which was irrelevant, and the singer sounded male.
For the fifth or sixth time, he sang “I once was lost, but now am found.”And before he could get to the part about blindness, the other voice came through loud and clear.Was that… Hebrew?
Achilles laughed as he sang “was blind, but now I see.”
A moment later, he stumbled into someone.They clutched each other to keep from falling, and the other man said something that Achilles couldn’t understand.
“Whoareyou?”Achilles demanded desperately, realizing he was gripping the other man’s bare arms too hard but not willing to let go.
“Abe Ferencz, boychik.Who’s this?”
Relief hit Achilles so hard that his knees buckled and he collapsed, dragging Abe down with him.It took a moment for them to untangle themselves and for Achilles to regain enough oxygen to identify himself.They sat, knees touching and hands clasped, each of them afraid to lose the other.
“Are you okay?”Achilles asked.“Are you hurt?How long have you been here?Is anyone else here?”
Abe’s laugh was wonderful to hear.“I’m as well as possible under the circumstances.No idea how long I’ve been here.You’re the first I’ve met.Who are you?”
Not as promising news as Achilles had hoped, but also not the end of the world.“Achilles Spanos.”
“Oy vey!You too!”Abe clutched him harder.
They exchanged stories, with Abe going first.His tale was simple.Spurling had burst into Abe’s house in Palm Springs, along with a couple of goons and Irina.They’d taken him to a nearby house and tortured him for a little while.“They wanted to know what I could do,” Abe explained.“And whether I’m human or something else.”
