The Prince's Wedding (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 3)

Chapter 9

Back upstairs, the camera crew were waiting to pounce as soon as we came through the doors.

"Lord Thoth!"

"No," said Thoth, walking past Oannes without looking at her.

"Can you at least tell me if we're still on schedule or not?" said Zeus. "If is this going to speed things up, I'll need to rehearse now..."

"Do not talk to me about schedules when you couldn't get the painting here until 72 hours beforehand, Doctor," said Thoth.

Across the room, I saw Megan relax with relief, and then smile, as she saw me. My heart twisted. I wanted to go to her – almost as much as I wanted to go back in time and stop myself from talking to Thor. But neither of those were options. I couldn't put this off. I grabbed Mirabi's arm.

"We need to talk," I whispered.

"You don't say?" said Mirabi. "Good idea. I'm dying to hear why you're suddenly looking like someone's fed your soul through a laser shredder. Or more than you were previously."

I turned my eyes to the ceiling, but for once, that was a pretty good description of how I was feeling. We stepped out into the teleport suite corridor, just as I had done with Thor.

"I spoke to Thor," I said, as soon as the doors closed behind us.

"Yes, I noticed," said Mirabi, folding her arms. "What the hax did he tell you? A ghost story?"

"It's not me," I said. "It's you."

I'd been planning to tell her slowly, to try to stop her from panicking. Once I started, it came out in a disjointed, stumbling mess. I could hardly look at her while I was doing it. But I managed to get through all of it, every detail Thor had told me. I finished, and found Mirabi staring at me.

"Is that all?" she said.

"What?" I blinked at her expression. "Yes..."

"Oh, for Darwin's sake," said Mirabi, turning her own eyes to the ceiling. "I should have guessed."

"Guessed?" I said.

"That it would be something this idiotic," said Mirabi. "Come on. We've got work to do. The next attempt isn't going to foil itself."

"What? Wait," I grabbed her arm as she turned away, and hardly noticed the pain as she chopped my fingers away with her other hand.

"No," said Mirabi, continuing towards the doors.

"No!" I grabbed her again and pulled her around to face me. Mirabi's foot lifted as she almost drove her knee into my crotch, but she sighed and shook her head.

"Darwin. Every so often, I almost forget that you're barely seven years old, but then you remind me," she said. "Forget about it, Erik. If you can't, ignore it. That's what I'm going to do."

"Are you...?" I said. I could not believe what I was hearing. I was used to her not caring about what might happen to me, but I could not imagine that she might be similarly unconcerned about herself. "Mirabi, you could..."

"Die?" said Mirabi. "Obviously. Just like any other day on this job. You always think you're the only person in the universe whose number is going to come up. Everyone's is in the hat. It could be today, tomorrow or in fifty years. It's an occupational hazard, for Newton's sake."

"This is different," I said. "Thor saw it..."

"Yes, you already told me the gory details," said Mirabi. "He saw something. Darwin knows it actually was or when. And if I've learnt one thing from you watching you alternately mope, panic and sulk, it's not to be afraid of the future. You should have learnt that yourself by now."