It was a jaw-dropping parade of famous and notorious personalities engaged in acts of depravity and self-pollution, all with smiles of pure bliss irradiating their faces, all with dreamy, delirious looks in their eyes, as if never before had they scaled such peaks of ecstasy and never before been so totally not at home to themselves. Their actions were slow, almost robotic, reminiscent of animatronic mannequins at a theme park ride. Time had wound down in the Hellenium's basement, the world's elite operating at a mere fraction of their usual meteoric pace of life, squeezing a minute's worth of joy from every second, relishing the prolonged savour of normally fleeting pleasures.
Incense covered up the smell of the emissions and effluvia that spurted all around — or almost did. But the miasma of rank sourness was pervasive, and choking, and somehow, in its way, more offensive than the deeds that gave rise to it. Sam struggled not to gag. And she thought the stench of the Hydra had been bad…
All the corridors in the basement branched off a central hub, and in this central hub was the source of the glazed looks and the heightened orgiastic sensitivity.
Dionysus and Aphrodite were perched on two thrones, side by side. A mismatched pair if ever there was one: plump, jocose Dionysus, slender, exquisite Aphrodite. Before them stretched a line of the ultra-wealthy, all queuing up to make their obeisance and receive the boon of the Olympians' powers. As the three Titans arrived, a bearded British entrepreneur who'd made his millions franchising a single brand name was on his knees before the god and goddess, promising to honour and serve the Pantheon with all the assets at his disposal. Dionysus beamed twinklingly down at him, Aphrodite nodded graciously, and then both of them closed their eyes and the bearded entrepreneur shuddered as their combined benison flooded into him. When it was over he tottered upright and left the room like a sleepwalker, already loosening his shirt buttons as he headed off towards whatever sexual scenario he had scheduled for himself tonight.
Next in line was the heiress to a prestigious hotel chain, but before she had a chance to prostrate herself, pet Chihuahua and all, Dionysus raised a hand.
"So sorry," he said to the young woman. "It will have to wait. I see we have newcomers, and if I'm not mistaken they're here in answer to a certain invitation that Aphrodite and I extended."
He was looking at Sam, Ramsay and Mahmoud.
" Am I mistaken?"
"You aren't," said Ramsay.
"Then come," said Dionysus. "Let us repair to a private room."
He and Aphrodite stood, to a collective groan of disappointment. The hotel heiress huffed and pouted and stamped her foot, but was ignored.
"Follow us," Aphrodite told the three Titans. "This is a highly significant moment, and one, I believe, that may resolve a great many things."
55. CONGRESS
"W ine?" said Dionysus. He proffered a carafe of red.
"Thanks," said Ramsay, "but no."
"Mind if I help myself?"
"You go right ahead."
The two Olympians were one side of a small table, the three Titans the other. The room had been set aside specially for this congress. Congress of a different kind could be heard going on all around, muffled grunts and groans and gasps echoing through the walls.
Sam still couldn't get her head round the notion that she was sitting less than a couple of metres away from two of the enemy. She found herself longing for her battlesuit, for the invulnerability that came with being Tethys. Longing for a weapon, too. Just in case.
"Wine clouds most men's judgement," said Dionysus, quaffing liberally, "but mine it clarifies. Claret, especially, clarifies." He tittered at his little bon mot, and quaffed some more.
"So," said Aphrodite. "Three of our foes. Hmm." She appraised. Sam appraised back. Aphrodite really was one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. Even close up, there were no flaws. Pristine skin, clear eyes, full lips, a toned but still curvaceous body. She tried to hate her but could only envy. She wondered what this ravishing creature made of the comparatively plain Sam Akehurst. To someone as perfect as Aphrodite, did everyone else look disfigured, malformed?
"I'm more impressed than I thought I was going to be," Aphrodite said at last. "Three ordinary people — I mean no disrespect by that — ordinary, seemingly unremarkable, and yet you have caused us no end of trouble. Brave, too. To come here tonight, unarmed. What makes you think this isn't a trap?"
"What makes you think we don't think it is and we're not prepared?" Sam replied.
"Ah, the spokesperson. The other two defer to you, I can see that. I like a woman who takes charge. I like your hair, too. Such a striking shade of red."
"Thank you," Sam said, then rued it. She wasn't here to accept compliments about her looks.
"Natural as well," Aphrodite went on. "You don't get coppery highlights like that out of a bottle."
"Listen," Sam said. "I'm well aware what you're capable of, Aphrodite, and if I detect the slightest hint of funny business, if I even suspect that you're trying to snake-charm me and my colleagues, I have this." She produced a rape alarm from her bag. "Hundred and fifty decibel siren. It'll drown you out and give us plenty of time to make an exit. Same goes for you, Dionysus. Any of us starts to feel the least bit merry or light-headed, then these come into play." She uncapped a tampon holder and tipped out a couple of small, single-use hypodermics with a clear liquid inside. They were part of the Titans' array of countermeasures, a specific defence against Dionysus, and Ramsay had pocketed a few of them before leaving Bleaney. "Solute epinephrine, with added cortisol to speed up the absorption rate. Enough of a dose to negate the effect of your intoxication power, at least until we can get out of range. So, if you want to discuss the possibility of a truce, fine, let's discuss it. The first whiff of treachery, and this is over."
Dionysus and Aphrodite glanced at one another.
"Well-prepared," she said.
"And so businesslike," he said, somewhat reproachfully.
"Not everyone has your laidback attitude, Dionysus." Aphrodite turned to Sam. "My admiration for you increases. May we know your names? What should we call you?"
"Tethys," Sam said. "And he's Hyperion, she's Mnemosyne."
"Titans," Aphrodite said, quick as a flash. "Of course. The ancient enemy. Obvious. Apt. But how about some real names?"
"You give us yours, we'll give you ours."
"You know ours. Dionysus, Aphrodite."
"No, that's who you want everyone to think you are. You were born human. You know that."
"I was born from the sea," Aphrodite said. "When Cronus cast Uranus's severed genitals into the ocean, the waves swirled and foamed around them, and I emerged fully-formed from that foam."
"Whereas I was born not once but three times," said Dionysus. "First, to my mother Semele, a princess of Thebes, whom Zeus impregnated. She died while I was still in the womb so Zeus removed me from her body and sewed me up inside his thigh, a second womb where I grew to term. Then as a child I was killed, at the behest of jealous Hera, by none other than the Titans, the real ones. They rent me limb from limb, roasted me and ate me, but Athena and Zeus buried my heart and my other remains and Rhea re-combined the parts and brought me back to life, my third birth. Thus, like the grapevine dying each winter and flourishing again each spring, I can be seen to embody the cycle of death and resurrect-"