Walter spotted a broom in one corner. “Head hippie in charge of maintenance?”
“Not likely.” Gabriel pointed at a widescreen display. “He looked at this one for quite a while, then he left through the other door. It has to be Mardon.”
Walter studied the screen. “Looks like some kind of map. It’s got an X-Y grid and lots of points.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Gabriel moved his finger along the grid. “There are ten bright points from here all the way around to here. I think the eleventh point, the middle one, represents this station, and the ten other stations kind of make a ring around it.”
Walter nodded toward the turbine room. “I saw energy beams shooting out from Chazaq’s fingers, so that accounts for ten stations, like he’s somehow connecting them all together. Think they’re making some kind of power grid of their own?”
“I’d bet on it.”
Walter pointed at a lever on the wall. “There’s an alarm shutoff.”
“I wonder why Mardon lets it blare like that.”
“Probably to keep people away. Who wants to go into a gazillion-megawatt power plant when something’s gone wrong?”
“Good point.” Gabriel grabbed the lever with both hands and pushed it down. The alarm died away.
Walter massaged one of his ears. “That’s better. It was about to drive me”
A new voice barged in. “Are you gentlemen interested in my project?”
Walter and Gabriel spun around. An oval-faced man wearing a long tunic stood at a waist-high control panel at the center of the room, his hands behind his back.
“Uh, yeah,” Walter said, edging away from the monitor. “I wanted to find out what was causing the blackouts, and when I found dead employees here, I decided to look around. Stumbling over dead bodies is kind of unusual, you know.”
“So you came here with a winged friend.” The man pushed his hand through his short white hair and walked toward them, arching his thin eyebrows. “That is also unusual, I think.”
“Yeah.” Walter laughed nervously. “Weird, isn’t it?” He pulled out Excalibur and held it in front of his body. “And this is a really weird sword. It disintegrates anyone I touch with it.”
The man halted. His eyes widened briefly, but his voice stayed calm. “Where did you get my father’s sword?”
“Your father’s?” Walter squinted at him. “This is Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword.”
“On the contrary, that is Chereb, the sword of Eden. Arthur obtained it from Morgan Le Faye, who took it from King Nimrod, my father. Since my father is dead and I am his heir, the sword rightfully belongs to me.”
Walter tightened his grip. “Well, unless it has your name on it or you have your father’s last will and testament to prove it, I think I’ll hang on to it for a while.”
“So, you’re Mardon,” Gabriel said. “You’re the master of the Nephilim.”
“You two are certainly knowledgeable for random curiosity seekers.” Mardon leaned toward him and narrowed his eyes. “I take it that you’re one of the anthrozils. I heard about their existence, but you are the first I have seen. Who are your parents?”
Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest. “I think I’ll keep that to myself, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” Mardon said, waving his hand. “It was just small talk, really. I was hoping to pass the time while I wait for my tower to be completed.”
“Your tower?” Walter asked. “What tower?”
Mardon folded his hands behind his back again and began a slow pace in front of Walter and Gabriel. “To quote your winged friend, I think I’ll keep that to myself. Tooting my own horn about my accomplishments would be entertaining, to be sure, but letting you know what my plans are would be foolhardy. Although it is not the two of you I fear, I see no reason for me to crow about what my giants are doing.”
“No fear, huh?” Walter waved the sword from side to side. “Have you ever seen Excalibur operate?”
“Long before you were born, young man.” Mardon backed away several steps and withdrew a dagger from underneath his tunic. “If you try to attack me with the blade from Excalibur, as you call it, I will merely run and hide in one of the many hallways in this edifice, which will put you at great risk should you seek me in dark places where I can ambush you.”
He nodded toward the computer displays. “If you smash my equipment, the destruction will only serve to ruin data output. It will do nothing to the actual power infrastructure