Of course, it took two to tango and if Li was dead set on putting the brakes on their romance there wasn’t much Cedric could do.
“Mr. Tamaki is on the third floor, sir. Shall I ring him and let him know that you’re here?”
Cedric glanced over the top of his paper, his ears having perked up at the sound of Tamaki’s name. He saw an old man dressed in a long white lab coat and a rumpled suit standing at the clerk’s counter, struggling to hold a rather heavy-looking bag in his right hand.
“No, that’s all right,” the old man was saying. “He’s expecting me.”
The clerk smiled apologetically. “I’m sure he is but he’s actually given us strict instructions to alert him before anyone heads up to his floor. Can I have your name?”
With a sigh, the old man replied, “Professor Emett Potter.”
“Thank you, Professor. It will be just a moment.”
Cedric set aside his paper and stood up. He approached Professor Potter and was about to introduce himself when Li bounced over, blocking his path. Despite the wide grin she wore, he could see that she was actually concerned about something.
“We need to talk,” she said playfully, toying with his tie. “I like handsome American boys.”
Cedric glanced around and saw several people looking at them. He played his part, sliding his hands around her narrow waist and pulling her close. “Why don’t we go somewhere and converse in private, baby?”
The two of them exited the hotel just as the clerk gave Prof. Potter the okay to go upstairs.
“I hope this is important,” Cedric whispered as they ducked into the alley. “That old guy is on his way up to see Tamaki right now.”
“A couple of the guys I was talking to are hired guns of his.”
“Tamaki?”
“Who else? They said that he was furious when he got here and immediately sent one of them to find out if Charity Grace’s body was still in the morgue. When he found out that she survived, he really lost it.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“They also confirmed that Doctor Craig is with him and they’ve heard both of them mention the name Pandora.”
Cedric frowned, wishing that the entire team was converging on this spot right now. They could shut Tamaki down and be done with it all. He understood that Charity was hurting and exhausted but it didn’t make sense to give Tamaki a chance to regroup.
Stifling a yawn, Cedric realized that he, too, was close to passing out. Maybe Charity was right to wait, after all.
Li turned and smiled, noticing that Mortimer was stepping out of a cab. “Looks like our relief is here.”
“Yeah. Listen, Li, about earlier…”
Li visibly tensed. “Yes?”
Cedric stared at her, his voice dropping along with his heart. “Maybe you’re right.” Forcing a false note of sincerity into his words, he added, “We can still be friends, can’t we?”
“Of course.” Cedric wasn’t sure but he thought he saw a small tinge of regret in Li’s eyes as she answered him. The moment was quickly gone, however, as she spun about to greet Mortimer.
PANDORA HAD LISTENED to Craig’s story about his bizarre infatuation with her and about Hiroshi’s odd belief that she could help him conquer a country. In the end, she had agreed to be introduced to the Japanese man, from whom she immediately sensed an extraordinary amount of Pride. One of the worst of the Sins, in her opinion, for it often blinded its owners to their own faults.
Upon learning that the legendary Pandora was in his company, Hiroshi had banished everyone from his room save for himself, Pandora, Craig and the newly arrived Prof. Potter.
“Blessed Pandora,” he said extravagantly, “you have arrived at a most opportune time. The good Professor was just going to give me a demonstration of the device that will soon put you and I on the throne of this country.”
“You make it sound as if we’re going to rule side-by-side.”
“We are. Or, at least, I hope we will. I do not seek to be a solitary Emperor. I want an Empress who would be worthy of the name. You and I can remake this nation and, eventually, this world into something better.”
Pandora studied him closely, searching his eyes for any sign of madness. She saw only the same lust for power that she was all too familiar with. No matter the era, it was always the same in men of his ilk. “You want me to marry you,” she said.
“Eventually. I do not know your feelings about such things. Do you feel the need for love to enter the equation? If so, I can certainly court you.”
“The men who died in your name tonight, the woman whose body is now my own, do you care nothing for them?”
“I regret their passing because I might have made further use of them. But in the end, they were servants.” Hiroshi stepped towards her and took her hands in his own. “Surely you, of all people, would understand what I’m talking about. The weight of history lies heavy upon my shoulders. The foot soldiers who help carry my banner are essential weapons in my arsenal but they will be forgotten. My name will be remembered forever. And yours, as well. Whether you call yourself Pandora of if you want to take Locke’s name as your own, this is your chance to build a new story for yourself.”
“I despise Sin. I want to see it destroyed.”
“Then that will be the guiding mission of our rule.”
Pandora felt disgust building within her. This man was one of the ones who would have to be purged. She had realized even before her imprisonment that her goal of destroying all the demons she’d unleashed would not rid the world of its madness. It was necessary, yes, but then there would be a tremendous culling of humanity before the devil’s seed could be bred out.
Still, she found herself curious about the hows and whys of this man’s plan. “Your professor has a magic device to help us seize power?”
Hiroshi grinned as if he won a grand prize. Turning to Potter, he said, “Professor, if you please?”
Potter nodded eagerly and began removing a rather unwieldy device from his bag. It consisted of a rectangular piece of electronics housed in a wooden case, with a headset attached via a coiled cord. “This is a most amazing thing, if I do say myself. I called it an Emoting Transmitter Device — or ETD, for short.” The old man set the device down on a counter and then returned to his bag, returning with a tiny transparent container dotted with air holes along the top and sides. Within its confines was a small white mouse, which sniffed the air with interest. “This is Merlin,” the old man chuckled. “He’s going to help with the experiment.”
Setting the mouse’s container on the counter beside the device, Potter plucked up the headset and placed it over his head. It made him look like a spaceman from a terrible pulp magazine, Craig thought.
“The ETD can pick up on your emotional wavelengths and augment them, allowing them to be transmitted to another target. For instance, I will now call upon feelings of fear in myself and will send those emotions to Merlin.” The old man fiddled with the dials on his device and then began staring at the rodent, screwing up his face and bugging his eyes while doing so. The mouse seemed unaffected.
Craig hid his mouth to cover his laughter but the professor took note and frowned. His facial gyrations intensified but to no effect.
“May I help, professor?” Hiroshi drew his sword and placed it against the old man’s throat. “Perhaps this will instill a healthy dose of actual fear.”
Potter gasped, feeling the cold steel dig into his flesh. As a tiny droplet of red began to ooze down his skin, the professor’s terror became real. Immediately, the mouse’s behavior altered, as well. It squeaked loudly and began throwing itself against the walls of its tiny cage, bashing its body so hard that Craig was sure it was going to kill itself in a mad attempt to gain freedom.