Private Games

Chapter 65

SHORTLY AFTER DAWN that morning, racked with a headache that felt like my skull was being axed in two, I thundered at Marta: ‘What mistake?’

Her eyes exuded the same dead quality I’d first seen the night I rescued her in Bosnia. ‘I don’t know, Cronus,’ she said. ‘He wouldn’t tell me.’

I looked around wildly at the other two sisters. ‘What mistake?’

Teagan shook her head. ‘There was no mistake. Everything went exactly according to plan. Petra even got off the second shot on Wu.’

‘I did,’ Petra said, looking at me with an expression that bordered on delirium. ‘I was superior, Cronus. A champion. No one could have executed the task better. And on the river, we jumped off the boat well before it hit the wall and we timed the tides right on the money. We were a perfect ten all round.’

Marta nodded. ‘I was back at Knight’s home almost two hours before he came in. We’ve won, Cronus. They’ll shut down the Olympics now, for sure.’

I shook my head. ‘Not even close. The corporate sponsors and the broadcasters won’t let them stop until it’s too late.’

But what mistake could we have made?

I look at Teagan. ‘What about the factory?’

‘I left it sealed tight.’

‘Go and check,’ I say. ‘Make sure.’ Then I go to a chair by the window, wondering again what error we could have made. My mind rips through dozens of possibilities, but the truth is that my information is incomplete. I can’t devise countermeasures if I do not know the nature of this supposed error.

Finally I glare at Marta. ‘Find out. I don’t care what you have to do. Find out what the mistake is.’