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"You can’t know that," Olivia sniffed

"Sure we can," Drake said "It od? Daedalus would dedicate his labyrinth to whichever god was best loved where he wanted to build Real estate developers do basically the sa every damn day"

Olivia and Henriksen studied each other a ain, Drake felt sure they were hiding so Not all of this stuff about Daedalus, because he sensed their excitement about the revelations that Yablonski’s translations had turned up But they had a piece of the puzzle they weren’t sharing

"It could be," Olivia said

"What else did your supergeek turn up?" Drake asked

Corelli hit another key More of the flowers that had been a part of the design throughout the labyrinth under the fortress and the Minotaur

"There are about a dozen flowers this could be," Corelli said "The research tea called false hellebore or white hellebore They’re poisonous"

Drake had been wondering why he’d take an interest until Corelli ht up The information had stuck with him because he had a fascination ays to hurt and kill people Drake had met his kind before and didn’t like the unpredictable quality they brought to the table

Olivia typed a couple of things I of the Chinese hell--Diyu--that they’d found in the chamber

"Obviously the labyrinth on Thera was begun later than the other three," Olivia said "Ithis hoard frodoms he had duped By the tiun, he had obviously found a new sucker and a location where he could break ground on a fourth labyrinth It would’ve been under construction while the labyrinth on Thera was still being completed

"By the time of the eruption on Thera--which destroyed the Minoan offshoot colony there--"

"Atlantis," Drake put in just to irritate her

"--the fourth labyrinth was being built in a place called Yiajiang in southern China," Olivia continued "Yiajiang was a tiny settle"

"It doesn’t really ring a bell," Drake said

Olivia turned to Henriksen "Today we know it as the city of Nanjing"

"That’s nuts," Drake said "I’ve been to Nanjing The original city wasn’t built until--what, fifth century BC That’s a thousand years after Thera exploded"

Olivia nodded "That was my first reaction, too But Yablonski confirh that period And would you care to guess what myth is consistent with every one of those settle it sink in He glanced at the hideous painting on the screen

"Diyu"

"You’re not as dumb as you look," Corelli muttered

Henriksen had his phone out He punched a couple of keys, and aorders It took Drake a minute to realize that he s either already in China or on their way and had just instructed the A second later, Henriksen hit an intercoave hi his attention back to the conversation

"The gold was on Thera during the eruption," Jada said, eyes narrowed as she worked it out "Had to be The labyrinth there was unstable but only partially destroyed Once they’d finished the fourth labyrinth, they would’ve moved Daedalus’s hoard there But what about Daedalus?"

Olivia clicked past several other ies and stopped on one of the ceremonial jars, which showed the Mistress of the Labyrinth, a Minotaur, and what Drake realized was a funeral pyre

"They burned him?" Drake asked

"He died," Olivia said "His nephew, Talos, finished the design for the fourth labyrinth and altered it considerably Beneath the painting of Diyu in the chamber, it is written that Talos wanted an army of slaves to build the labyrinth for him, and that would require overseers and protectors"

"The Minotaur was supposed to be the protector," Drake said

"Of the labyrinth, yes," Olivia replied "But the Minotaur would’ve been like a guard dog They’d have selected the biggest,warrior they could find"

"So, not Corelli, then," Drake said

Corelli

"Talos wanted what Yablonski translated as ‘Protectors of the Hidden Word,’ " Olivia finished

Henriksen looked at her "Tell lanced at her laptop screen "According to the s we found--the labyrinth was ruled by Yan Luo, sort of a god himself Yablonski’s translations confirm that the Chinese worship cha of hell On Thera, Daedalus had started to expand round, multilevel labyrinths, and that matches up with the myth of Diyu, which was a maze of levels and chaht and punished for their earthly sins Once they had redeeetfulness and return to the world, or so they were pro in hisinto place Jada ave him an odd look

"Nate? What is it?" she asked

Corelli, Olivia, and Henriksen were all looking at hiine seeh that his teeth clacked together, and it felt like the plane veered to the right Drake chalked it up to the pilot correcting their course for Nanjing

"Daedalus’s nepheanted slaves The people believed in hell What if that’s the reason they chose this location and the reason they changed the design? What if they built hell and then abducted people, ed them and pulled them down there and made them think they were in Diyu? Who knows, etfulness When they grew too old to be useful, they’d drug thelanced around, the plane taking a bounce that jarred his knees against the underside of the table He grimaced, then threw up his hands