*****
Marcus walked off and Anita realised that Cleo being here could work to her advantage. ‘I need your help Cleo,’ she whispered conspiratorially.
Cleo looked intrigued, loving nothing more than a conspiracy. ‘What do you need me to do?’
‘Distract Marcus. He’s about to take me into a separate room and I need you to come snooping around just after we enter. He’s showing me a picture, but I need you to buy me some alone time in there so I can have a look around.’
‘Anita,’ called Marcus, striding back towards her. ‘Are you coming?’
Cleo nodded at Anita. ‘I’m in,’ she said happily, in a low voice.
Anita walked towards Marcus, who led her through a very normal looking door that interrupted the rows of shelves housing a wide range of seemingly randomly categorised artefacts. The room looked very average and housed artefacts that resembled those on the shelves outside, all very boring, until Anita spotted a row of brass cylinders on the far side of the room, with one cylinder set slightly apart from all the others. Her stomach lurched and adrenaline flooded her blood as she turned back to look at what Marcus was showing her. ‘As you can see, Aphrodite is definitely the boat in your mind,’ he said, marvelling that it could’ve found its way into her head.
‘By the Gods, you’re right,’ she said, genuinely shocked. Although her focus here was now on something altogether different, she was fascinated by the picture and concerned about how the boat had managed to end up as a place in her mind. Anita took the picture from him and scanned every inch of it, although there was nothing that gave any clues as to why it was in her head. At that moment there was a light knock on the door and the colour drained from Marcus’ face. This was exactly what he’d wanted to avoid; the nosey Cleo finding out about the vault would not go down at all well with Austin. ‘Go and keep her occupied,’ said Anita, ‘I’ll be out in a minute; I just want a bit more time with the picture.’ As he turned, she made a big show of sitting down and studying the photo as though engrossed. Seeing this, Marcus decided it was safe to leave her alone and went to deal with Cleo.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Anita abandoned the photo onto the desk and made for the brass cylinders at the back of the room. She picked up the end cylinder and felt the smooth, cold metal in her hands. It was heavier than she’d expected, but as she placed it in her coat pocket, something curious happened; it started to shake. Anita turned to make for the door, not wanting to stay for a moment longer than she needed to in Austin’s treasure trove of secrets, but as she was about to push down the door handle, the conversation she’d had with Anderson in Kingdom came back to her. He’d said, ‘if someone stole a cylinder containing someone else’s memories, the energy would strain to get back to its rightful owner’. If that were the case, she had the wrong memory. This had only started to strain when she’d stolen it; it had been quite still and quiet before that. She looked back at the shelf to see which cylinders were straining so she could select one of those to take with her, but they were all standing entirely still, none of them seeming at all uncomfortable where they were. She looked around to see if she’d missed another row of brass cylinders, but there were none to be seen.
Anita had a horrible moment of clarity. Helena had lied to her. She wasn’t here to take back one of Helena’s stolen memories, she was here to steal for the Institution something of Austin’s. Anita hurried back across the room and put the cylinder back in exactly the same place she’d taken it from, slightly set apart from the others. However, as her hand left the cylinder and it reverted to a still, lifeless object, the door flew open and Amber, Austin and four security guards came hammering in. Amber took in the scene and reacted instantly, running forward and grabbing Anita by her arms. Anita countered instinctively; she was, after all, an adept Body, and used Amber’s forward momentum to flip her onto her back, causing her to release Anita’s arms. Anita valiantly fought her way through three of the four body guards, however, as she reached the fourth, the others, including Amber, had recovered, and collectively wrestled her to the ground, two of them pinning her down with all their weight.
Marcus appeared at the door, aghast as he took in what he found. ‘Leave her alone,’ he ordered, starting towards the pile of humanity in the centre of the floor, but Amber intervened, placing her body in his way.
‘She was stealing from your father,’ she said smugly, her words like poison.
‘No she was not. She was here looking at a photo of Tobias’ boat.’
‘Then why, when we came through the door, was she reaching for that brass cylinder?’ Amber asked triumphantly, gesturing towards the cylinder on the end that moments before, Anita had held in her hand.
‘I was just having a look,’ Anita spluttered, gasping for breath to speak again, finding it difficult to breath with such an immense weight holding her to the ground. ‘I’ve never seen cylinders so delicate before, so I just wanted to see them up close.’ She felt faint as she desperately tried to refill her lungs with air.
‘Do you really believe that?’ laughed Amber, looking at Marcus as though he were a stupid, naïve child.
‘Yes, I do,’ he spat back, turning to the so-far-silent Austin, who was weighing up what to do in this unusually delicate situation. ‘She was looking at this photo of Aphrodite,’ he said, picking up the picture of the boat and waving it in front of his face. ‘What’s wrong with that?’
‘Aside from the fact you brought her here at all, Marcus, and that you left her alone to explore to her heart’s content, and that we found her reaching for one of my brass cylinders, nothing, I suppose.’ His sarcasm was chilling. ‘And why exactly did you feel the need to show Anita this picture?’
Anita silently prayed for Marcus not to tell Austin about their meditation, or that the boat was a place in her head. She had a feeling that Austin would not think this was a redeeming factor. ‘Because we got talking about boats and sailing and I told her I’d just come across a photo of the most exquisite boat I’d ever seen. Anita asked me to show it to her, so I did.’
‘You expect me to believe that someone as manipulative as her came here just to see a photo?’ Austin laughed cruelly, exchanging a look with Amber that was clearly a commentary on his son’s incompetence.
Marcus’ temper flared. ‘What makes you think Anita’s manipulative? I tried to teach her Mind skills and she’s useless at manipulation.’
‘Don’t be so stupid Marcus. How else would someone from Anita’s background get so close to someone like you if not by manipulation? She was probably feigning ignorance to reinforce the ruse. Don’t you think it’s time to open your eyes and see who she really is?’
‘Don’t treat me like a child. Anita is not who you paint her to be, now let her go and stop being so melodramatic. There was no harm done. I’m sure if Amber calls off her guards, Anita will apologise for the confusion and we can all move on from what is an embarrassing misunderstanding.’
‘Marcus, you have a lot to learn,’ said Amber, enjoying patronising him. ‘Boys, take her back to the castle and put her in a cell for questioning.’
‘No,’ Marcus ordered, ‘let her go,’ but everybody ignored him, Austin turning to leave the room, followed by Amber, then the guards, dragging Anita between them. She threw Marcus a last pleading look and mouthed the words, ‘I love you,’ to him as they took her away. Austin, it would seem, was right about one thing; these days Anita did have a manipulative side.