The Gatekeeper's Sons (The Gatekeeper's Trilogy) (33 page)

She crossed over to him and took the money. “Thanks.”

“I’ll give you a call later. And hey, Mom says you’re welcome to come visit any time if you get bored and want to, I don’t know, hang out while we work the horses.”

“Thanks. Sounds good.”

She followed him through the screened porch, where Pete turned to her and muttered, “Are you two going out or something?”

Therese blushed. “Um, or something, I guess.”

He glanced once more in
Than’s direction. “Bye, then.”

“Bye. Thanks again.”

She felt sorry for him as she watched him leave. When he was in his truck, she waved once more before going back inside. Than was waiting for her. He, too, appeared sobered.

“You could have a good life with Pete.” He said this without looking at her. “He’d make you happy, and you wouldn’t have to leave. Y
ou could live among the living. You could see sunrises and sunsets. He could give you everything I can’t give you.”

She stood in the living room across from him. “Don’t. Please.” She could see the diseased elm through the kitchen window and a sudden urge to chop down the dying branch overcame her, but she pushed it down, thinking she was losing her mind.
She
couldn’t chop it down.

He met her eyes but said nothing.

“Is that what you want?” The hostility from earlier crept back in her voice.

“This is about you, about what’s best for you.”

“Then quit talking like that.” She stormed off to her parents’ room. In her mind, she thought, “If you can hear me, Than, please follow me. Please come in behind me and put your arms around me and tell me you will never say such a thing again.”

She stood there just inside her parents’ room waiting. Seconds later, he swept in behind her with his arms around her waist and clasped across her stomach.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She turned in his arms and kissed him, closed her eyes, and touched his neck with her hands. “Me too.” Then she played with his shirt and asked meekly, “Are we still going to Greece today?”

“If you wish.”

“Then we better get busy. Why don’t you tell me what your sisters learned about McAdams while I start bagging some of these clothes?” She went into the closet and grabbed four or five hangers with clothes and laid them on the bed. Before Than had begun his story, she said, “Oh. I remember the last time my dad wore this shirt.” She swiped the tears away as they fell unexpectedly down her face.

“Maybe you’re not ready for this.”

She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I want to do this.”

Than sat on a chair in the corner of the room and talked as Therese created piles of her parents’ possessions and then bagged them in giant black yard bags she found beneath the kitchen sink. While she worked, Than explained that McAdams was the CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company in Texas that bought counterfeit drugs at cheap prices from a manufacturer in Pakistan and sold them to customers at regular market prices. McAdams then split the profits with the Pakistani manufacturer, who was also able to provide forged approval certificates, valid samples for occasional testing by regulatory agencies, and pay-offs to agents when needed. The manufacturer had connections with various foreign rebels and so was able, through McAdams, to develop and sell the mutant anthrax to them. Than explained that when McAdams got wind of her mother’s research at Fort Lewis College, he ordered her execution because he feared he wouldn’t get paid if his customers heard that an antidote was being developed.

Then she asked, “But why would McAdams still want me dead?”

Than stood up and put his hands on Therese’s shoulders. “His men weren’t after you that night. They were after your aunt.”

Chapter Thirty-Two: Tagalong

“What do you mean they were after my aunt? What has she got to do with any of this?” Therese asked, her face twisted up to his with confusion.

“Maybe you better sit down.”
Than wished he could shield her from this news.

“Okay,” she murmured and sat on the edge of her parents’ bed.

He stood in front of her. “Your aunt works for a pharmaceutical company, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“A few months ago she attended a professional conference in Dallas. She went to lunch with a group of attendees, all salespeople like herself, and they got to talking about where they were all from, about their families, and things. Carol mentioned how proud she was of her sister, a professor at Fort Lewis College, who was going to be honored this summer for her outstanding work. Someone asked what work. Carol talked about the antidote for the mutated anthrax. One among the group worked for McAdams.”

Th
erese’s mouth dropped open, and she sat stunned for several minutes. She looked as though she had lost the gift of speech.

Than touched her shoulder. “Therese?”

“So that’s how he found out about my mom?”

Than nodded.

“Carol can’t ever know this.” Therese stood up and twisted her shirt in her hands. “This would absolutely kill my aunt. We can’t let her know. Oh my God.” She paced around the room. “Oh my God.”

“She doesn’t have to know.”
He could hardly keep up with the combination of silent and spoken prayers.

“Please don’t let her know,” she either said or prayed. “Please protect her, forever. I can’t stand this.”

Therese continued to pace. “But is McAdams still after her? I mean, is my aunt in danger?”

“I and many gods promise to protect her.” Then, gingerly, Than explained,
“McAdams murdered his informer, the one who lunched with your aunt, James Barber. He’s in Tartarus now. That’s how Tizzie discovered the connection. She got him to talk. Tizzie thinks McAdams is afraid that if the media show pictures of his informer once someone realizes Barber’s missing, your aunt will recognize him and remember having lunch with him, and that she might eventually put it all together.”

“Oh no.”

“But Aphrodite and Cupid are with her and Richard today. They won’t let anything happen to her. And even with Ares trying to thwart their every move, Tizzie and Meg are close to finding McAdams. Barber said McAdams is meeting with his Pakistani manufacturer today. Tizzie and Meg and I will be waiting for him. It won’t be long now.”

Than could here Therese’s prayers, for she directed them to him. She was explaining to him that i
t was one thing when Therese thought that McAdams and his men were after
her
; but it was another thing entirely to learn the bad guys were after her aunt. Since the death of her parents, Therese hadn’t been too afraid of dying. She wasn’t going to commit suicide, but if death happened on its own, that wouldn’t be so bad. That had been her attitude. She hadn’t tried to be careful. She hadn’t stayed up nights worrying about her safety. If she couldn’t fall asleep, it was because she missed her parents and longed to be with them, not because she was afraid to die. “I want to be with you, so death is no longer scary,” she prayed. But now that her aunt’s life was in danger, now that her aunt was the target, Therese was overcome with fear and a deep desire to seek out McAdams and put a stop to him.

“Help me avenge the death of
my parents,” she said suddenly, and now he could see she was speaking, not praying. “Help me kill McAdams and protect my aunt. I don’t want to wait another minute.”

He put his arms around her rigid body. “Calm down,” he whispered. “I’ll help you. But calm down. I don’t like to see you so upset.”

She relaxed a little in his arms and put her head against his chest.

“Listen,” he said softly. “Let’s finish sorting through your parents’ things and take the donations to the goddesses’ charities in Greece. We want to make sure we have them on our side before we get you involved. You’ll need their protection as well as mine. Maybe there’s something you can do for Artemis as well, since she has also vowed to stand by you.”

“I’ve already thought of something.” She looked up at him. “I want to donate my earnings from Mrs. Holt to a wildlife preserve.”

Than
was full of admiration for her. “Excellent. She’ll like that.”

They spent the rest of the day sorting and bagging Therese’s parents’ clothes, shoes, accessories, and a select assortment of books, magazines, and jewelry. Often Therese would stop, hold something up, look at it and remember. Tears would flow down her face like a waterfall, but she’d slap them away and keep going
, and Than felt lost and helpless, unable to comfort her. They took only one break, for a short lunch of egg salad sandwiches Therese made for them, and by the time they were satisfied, they had ten large garbage bags and four cardboard boxes ready to donate, and it was seven o’clock in the evening.

“We’ll have to go to Greece in the morning,” Than said. “It’s three hours later there, and the charity offices will be closed right now.”

He knew Therese was too tired anyway. “Okay.

“Plus, I promised my sisters I’d help them now. I’m already a little late.”

“Can I come?”

He cringed at the thought of his sweet Therese seeing the hideousness of the Furies, the blood pouring from
Tizzie’s eyes, the vicious snakes, the fierce falcon, the howling hounds; but, he supposed she would have to see these things eventually if she were to follow him to the Underworld and live there with him.

Therese quickly added, “I hate being on the sidelines all the time. This is about me and my family and I want to help.” She clutched the locket from Athena,
which she wore around her neck, and he sensed the determination to wield her own kind of power.

He looked at her, still considering.

“Unless I’d be a liability,” she said.

“You’re not too tired?”

She shook her head. “Please?”

“Do not leave my side, got it?”

She nodded, smiling, and prayerfully thanking him. Out loud, she said, “Got it.”

“And wear Aphrodite’s robe just in case we get separated.”

They went upstairs to her room, where she found and put on the robe.

“If we do get separated, concentrate on your room, on this spot, with all
your might. The robe will help you get back here.”

“Okay.”

He could feel her trembling beside him and could see her shaking as she put her arms through the sleeves. “Try it out first on your own. Think of your kitchen. Concentrate really hard on the spot in front of the kitchen sink.”

Therese closed her eyes. She
prayed to him the entire time, explaining that she felt a pressure against her body, like plastic wrap enclosing her, and then, a second later, he watched her open her eyes where she was standing, or stumbling rather, in front of the kitchen sink. She grabbed onto the counter to get her balance.

“I did it!” she shouted.

The police officer sitting out on her deck turned from where he had been eating his sandwich, his feet propped up on his cooler. He looked at Therese through the window. She gave him a wave to let him know everything was okay.

Than
, who had been waiting for her, said, “Okay, here we go. But hold tight to my hand and don’t let go unless I tell you.”

“I promise.” Then she said, “I better tell Officer Gomez I’m leaving.”

“Good idea, but hurry. We’re late as it is.”

She quickly poured some lemonade into a glass and took it out to the officer. She practically ran back into the kitchen, anxious to get s
tarted on their journey.

“Where are we going?” she asked, taking
his hand.

“Peshawar. A city in Pakistan.”

Chapter Thirty-Three: Artemis’s Gifts

Therese
closed her eyes against the bright light, and held her breath as the invisible plastic wrapped itself around her. When she opened her eyes, they were standing in the early morning sun in an abandoned alley. The foul smell of urine and rotting food accosted her. She gagged.

She followed Than, stepping over rubbish and weaving through garbage cans to a dusty window in the back of a metal building. Like Than, she peered inside, but it was difficult to see anything.

“My sisters must be around here somewhere.” He closed his eyes and appeared to be in deep concentration. Then he opened them and said, “This way.”

“So you can communicate with your sisters telepathically, like ESP?” Therese asked as she rushed beside him.

“ESP?”

“Extrasensory perception.”

“Telepathy is not an ‘extra’ sense for a god. Just as I hear your prayers directed to me, they can hear mine and I theirs, though the sounds can get distorted.” Then he said, “Turn here.”