The Drowned Vault Read Online Free Page B

wall, and bounced all the way shut again.
    Cyrus and Antigone both jumped to their feet.
    The knob turned again, and the door swung open again, slowly this time. A huge man ducked beneath the lintel. He was wearing white pants, white patent-leather shoes, and a white patent-leather belt. A bright turquoise polo shirt barely contained his massive torso. A carpet of chest hair crawled up from his open collar, and the same hair, though not as thick, coated his tree-trunk arms. His face had been recently shaved, but his dark beard was visible all the way up his cheekbones. His sparking eyeballs would have been big for a bull, and the thick curly hair on his head had been oiled.
    “Doors can be tricky,” Cyrus said.
    The man’s purplish lips were as thick as young snakes, and he spread them into a smile. His teeth were factory-perfect.
    “Who are you?” Antigone said. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
    The man gripped the door with a huge hairy hand and shut it quietly behind him. Cyrus blinked. He had six fingers, each the size of a cucumber. Cyrus looked at the other hand. Six.
    “People call me Gil.” His voice was oddly smooth and soft coming from such a big face. “And I have flown a very long way to meet the two of you.” He looked at Cyrus. “But especially you.”
    “You were the one in the plane?” Antigone asked. “You’re the idiot who landed on my brother?”
    “Yes,” Gil said. “I landed on your brother. And if I had known—”
    “Right,” said Cyrus. “Whatever. Arachne already told us. You would have made sure to kill me.”
    Gil smiled.
    “What’s your problem?” Cyrus asked. “What do you want?”
    “My problem?” Gil’s knuckle-size nostrils puffed out a breeze. “I have many problems. My home in France has been burned. My golf has become terrible. My money has become gone. My life has nearly ended. A friend’s life—a life that should have been unending—
has
ended. Another friend is missing. I have retraced my problems, and my problems begin with this … place.” He looked around the hospital room, and his big lipscurled. Then he looked back at Cyrus. “But especially with you.”
    “Now, hold on,” Antigone said. “Cyrus didn’t do anything.”
    “Seriously.” Cyrus shook his head. “I didn’t give the tooth away, even when I could have. I tried to keep it safe.”
    “Keep it!” Gil’s shout rattled through the room. The blackbird shrieked. “Safe! No man should keep it! There is no safe for such a thing!”
    Cyrus and Antigone backed away slowly. Antigone pointed at the big man.
    “You listen,” she said. “Cyrus didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry about whatever happened to you. We both are. Okay? But we didn’t do those things.”
    Gil began to move forward. “No. The man-devil who now holds the tooth did those things. He is using it to do more things. He will not stop doing things. And why does the man-devil have the dark tooth?” Looming over Cyrus and Antigone, he waved his timber arms, smacking his knuckles against the ceiling. Another step forward and the black fan would kiss his scalp. His hair was already rustling. “No need to answer. Because
you
chose to keep it. Safe! Ha!” Twelve thick fingers curled and cracked. “Fools must be dealt with before villains.”
    Behind the big man, the door swung open quietly.Cyrus watched Rupert slip into the room and off to the side. Jeb Boone slipped through and to the other side. Arachne stood framed in the doorway. Both men were carrying triple-tipped spear guns. Large spools of wire were coiled beneath each stock.
    “Gil,” Rupert said quietly. “You shouldn’t be in here. Please step back.”
    Gil didn’t turn, and he didn’t step back. He locked eyes with Cyrus and grinned. “Or what?” he asked. “Little Rupert will hurt me?”
    Rupert flipped a switch on the side of his gun, and Cyrus heard it begin to hum. Jeb did the same. A moment later, tiny electrical arcs trickled between the