Endgame Novella #7 by James Frey

Author:James Frey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-11-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Ariadne

We are sitting at yet another table in yet another house. This time, the Cahokian safe house. I am relieved that Boone convinced the others to leave with us and come here. I did not want to have to threaten to kill anyone, particularly with the children there. Although nothing in my training prevents me from harming children, and in fact I have been taught that they can be a particularly effective tool to convince people to do what I want them to, it’s something I vowed to myself that I won’t do. Maybe this is a weakness, and maybe someday I will be forced to break my promise, but I can’t imagine it. Having had my own childhood taken from me so soon by my Player training, I understand how precious it is.

I’m surprised that Boone chose to reveal the location of their safe house, but as we seldom use any one place for very long, it doesn’t really matter. Next week, someone else will be sitting in this kitchen. Right now, seated around the table are me, Boone, Sauer, Boone’s brother, and Karl Ott. Lottie, Greta Ott, and their children are in the living room. I find myself looking from Boone to his brother. I only found out about their relationship as we were driving to the safe house—Boone, Lottie, Ott’s wife, and their children in Ott’s car, and me, Sauer, Ott, and Jackson Boone in another.

I insisted on separating the families to lessen the chance of them trying to escape, although I was fairly confident that Boone wouldn’t try anything. After all, he was the one who insisted on bringing Ott and his family. I would have been content with only Sauer, but Boone thinks that Ott may be useful in some way. Also, bringing him made it easier to convince the others to come. As a Player, I find Boone’s tendency to want to save everyone problematic, but as a woman, I also find it appealing.

Boone looks up, and I realize that I’ve been staring at him. He grins, and I look away. Sauer is telling us about something he calls a library, a collection of artifacts that supposedly have occult significance. The Cahokian weapon, or what there is of it, is among them. I look at the map Sauer has drawn on a piece of paper and placed in the center of the table. It shows what is called Museum Island, a man-made island in the middle of the Spree River. There are five museums there. The one Sauer is pointing at is the New Museum, which despite its name is one of the oldest of the five.

“The collection is in the museum?” I ask.

“Not in it,” he says. “Beneath it. The museum was closed at the beginning of the war, and many of its treasures moved elsewhere. It was heavily damaged during the bombings, and much of it is now destroyed. We should not have trouble getting inside.”

“Except that it’s in the Soviet sector,” I point out.

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