The Lost Libraries Archive (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 2)

Chapter 16

XVI

Two hours later, we were back at HQ.

Baldr and Xibalba were downstairs in the holding cells. Baldr was insisting we were setting the study of neurological teaching methods back by thirty years and Xibalba was screaming that the serpent goddess was going to eat our hearts and devour our souls. Neither of these had happened yet and both were also demanding their lawyers. Zeus and Ishtar had been formally cautioned for misuse of a time machine, but Zeus didn't seemed too bothered by it as he was convinced the whole story was perfect for his next documentary. He had used his legally-required comcall to call his producer rather than a lawyer and Mirabi and I were back in Horus's office, being debriefed.

"So let me see if I've got this right, Midgard," said Horus, resting his forehead on his fist. "You arrive at Oxbridge Luna to find the perpetrators of the attack on us already there and working as a security team. You then fail to recognise them, for over three hours, and when you finally do, you still manage to let them escape, probably to Free Mars, where we will never be able to get our hands on them. Is that about the scale of it?"

"We tried our best, sir," I said. "And they were just mercenaries. We found the man who hired them."

"Ah, yes. This Julian Ra," said Horus. "Who you also fail to arrest or prevent from being killed by some local witch doctor in the 15th century. Hax it all, Midgard! I needed prisoners! Putting the perpetrators in the dock and then sending them to Hektor until the end of eternity was the only way we were going to come out of this without looking like idiots!"

"Oh, really? So finding out who they were, why they did it and getting back what they stole was just a side benefit?" said Mirabi.

Hades and Baal had agreed to co-operate with our investigation - and give up their temporal artefact smuggling contacts - in exchange for reduced sentences. The only person who wasn't at HQ with us was Chernobog. When we'd gone through Xibalba's crates before we moved the weapons for disposal, I'd taken the time to find the rifle recharger that matched the serial number of the one Hades had dug up. Chernobog was making one more trip back to the Yucatan to hide it in Tutal Xiu, at the co-ordinates where Hades could dig it up in more than sixteen hundred years.

"Watch your tone, Arjuna," said Horus. "I am trying to maintain the reputation of this agency. We're going to be the laughing stock of Solar law enforcement once this gets out."

"Well, you could always mention to Imperia Intelligence that we know what happened to them on Io," I said. "And we didn't have a lot of options, sir. The place - and the time - was high paradox risk. We had to deal with that."

"Oh, yes. By - let me see if I've got this right," said Horus, looking at my report on his deskcom screen, "backstepping so you can clone this Miss Umuze, or whatever her name is, before she died, using that daxing J.I. mind gadget to record her memories, then coming back here and sulking in the medical wing for 18 hours while the clone grows and then giving it her memories so you can find out the password to the safe this Xibalba lunatic has planted a bomb in."

"And to preserve the time flow, sir," I said. "I'd seen Megan in the future, later than when she died. If she hadn't been there, we would have had a paradox reaction."

"That's your excuse for everything, Midgard," said Horus. "You go on and on about how much you hate your predicted future, and then it's the reason every time you see fit to break every rule in the manual."

"If he hadn't done it, the moon would be the new Mercury," said Mirabi. "The manual says preventing that takes priority over everything else."

"Yes, I know," said Horus. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Especially when you've just let six of our most wanted escape."