After Hel slipped back via the travel station, I shuddered back into Odin and made my way to my designated rendezvous point, approaching from a cautious distance.

Pakhet’s choice of meeting place resembled something an overdramatic villain would choose for an ambush site when he wasn’t busy priming his moustache for twirling time. The large concrete bowl rose like a ghost out of the thick layer of snow blanketing the ground. A faint glow emanated from under it, barely making a dent in the shadows and drifting snowflakes. It was the only structure around in eyesight, and if I hadn’t known I was headed to Greenland, I would have sworn I was looking at an abandoned Soviet building.

“It’s an abandoned Soviet building,” Pakhet’s voice announced beside me, and I jumped slightly before releasing my breath in a puff of condensation. In my black and silver I stood out against the white like a sore thumb, although at the rate the snow was falling it wouldn’t be long before that changed. “I transported it here, away from the vandals. Also because it looks much better on an open expanse. Fewer distractions, more splendour. Am I right?”

From my perspective, Pakhet’s hunt had been over and done with in a blink, the goddess returning to Hera’s office in blood-red clothes I suspected she hadn’t changed into. Siphon, she’d been confident, had been completely obliterated. Except for the Singaporean outpost, that was – and the trail of grieving companions the rest of the bloodbath had left behind. With the world obsessed with the appearance of the Deliveries, the casual murder of hundreds more would barely register to the authorities. And that was assuming they didn’t just put down the disappearances to spontaneous cube.

“Well, it can’t get much cooler,” I said, eying the snow I stood knee-deep in. The temperature was well below freezing and I’d numbed my ability to feel it the moment I’d touched down.

Pakhet, by contrast, had lost the tracksuit (and the blood), and wore a layer of warm furs under which a few awkward bulges told me the concealed armour was back. I considered asking, but brushed it aside. “Is there a reason we need to meet in an upturned casserole dish?”

“Not really,” she forged on, undeterred. “I could pick another den in my collection. But this one’s certified private. I’ve checked it for eavesdroppers and the like, and it’s clear. Seems like that’s a requirement for what you had in mind.”

I was glad I’d thought to reinstate all my fake jewellery for this visit. The executive were one thing, but it wouldn’t do for department staff to realise Odin was in a more vulnerable state than usual. “It’ll do,” I acknowledged.

“This is the most interesting work I’ve had to do in decades,” she rolled on, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Since the world wars, when all the governments kept hiring us to spy on their rivals. I don’t suppose you’d consider an application of transfer to your division?” She jiggled on her toes, buried as they were in the snow. “It’s just, working with seers takes all the fun out of it, you know? They use your abilities and work it all out for you.”

I raised a slow eyebrow in her direction.

A small ‘O’ appeared on her lips. “I mean, good seers,” she amended, only to wince as a look of horror crossed her face. “Please don’t demote me. I’m loyal, I promise.”

“You’re clearly not,” I pointed out, with a suitably menacing smile. “Going behind your superior’s back like this? Tut, tut. One could get in trouble for that. But it’s what’s best for the company. You’ve seen what happens under the influence of poor leadership; I don’t blame you for trying to find a way out. I’ll consider your application depending on what you’ve found for me.”

She nodded quickly, and swallowed. “I’m just doing what I’m told. It’s not like the orders conflicted. Why don’t we head inside where it’s warmer?”

‘Inside’ turned out to be a low-ceilinged partition under the base of the bowl. The bounding wall consisted of one squat cylinder circling the single room, long rectangular slits cut in at eye level like dashes on a scissor line. The whole thing was hung with thick, colourful fabric in patterned stripes; red, blue and cream. A collection of similar rugs coated the floor overlapping each other, and low seating bordered the space, also covered in fabric, broken by periodic armrests. Golden oil lamps sat burning among them. It was warm.

“You’re Bedouin,” I noted, taking it in.

“You’re Viking,” she retorted, falling backwards onto one of the seats with an audible thump.

“In a sense,” I said with a shrug. “We’ve had a lot of time to be a lot of things to different people.”

“Not all pantheons are as insular as the Greeks,” Pakhet said. “People forget our pantheon came from all over Egypt.”

“And what would the herder tribes want with a huntress?” I asked curiously. I made my way to the nearest window and peered out through the opening. Snow and dark.

“Who else will drive off predators?” she asked. “Who will find the best grazing lands, the oases, and the salt?”

“And abandoned Soviet buildings,” I added, gesturing at the room.

“No one was using them,” Pakhet said defensively. Her fingers curled around one of the armrests. “Anyway, I tracked down your deviant. Turns out you have two of them.” She wrinkled her nose. “You, uh, might want to sit down.”

I chose a spot and sat facing her, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee. “And?”

“Don’t get mad,” she said, leaning forward and putting her hands up. She inhaled a deep breath. “One of them’s an escaped fugitive.”

I raised an eyebrow again.

“You’re not going to like it,” she ventured.

“Tell me.”

“It’s Fenrir,” she said. “Loki’s son. I don’t know how, or for how long. I don’t have access to the paperwork to check for tampering, but it’s him, alright. He’s in custody with the others, but I haven’t told Vishnu his identity yet.”

I let my features settle into a mask of grave concern. “You did the right thing. He’ll need extensive questioning. Not to mention that if there’s one escapee, there could be others.”

“I can find them for you, if you conduct my transfer.”

“Later,” I said. “Who was the other one?”

Pakhet scrunched her nose up again. “That’s the thing,” she said. “I don’t know. I mean, I know where they are, more or less. They’re in the office. And –” she rolled her head and shoulders a little, “– beyond my access level. Which means they’re manager level or above. I think above. It feels… high.” A hopeful expression crossed her face. “If you could arrange me that transfer and an escort to the upper levels, I could lead you straight to them.”

I grinned. “For a cat, you aren’t very subtle,” I remarked.

“I’d disagree with you there,” said Pakhet. She smiled. “I can be very subtle when I want to be, Loki. I told you, I’m top tier.”

The grin on my face suddenly felt very fake. “I think you misspoke, there.”

“Nope. You heard correctly. And you really should have learnt after last time. But if you still want convincing, you were getting pretty chummy with Hel earlier. That and, you know, the eye. Did you know, the best and worst thing about being a minor name is that people tend to overlook you.”

The smile dropped from my face, and I gazed over her warily. I had Apollo’s earring on me, but none of the seer’s foresight to give me the edge in a battle against her. Confronting a warrior god one on one was a bad idea even accounting for my general hardiness. Likely my best bet was to run, which left Pakhet open to approach Providence with her information. Although she could just as easily follow me.

“Okay,” I said, dropping the act. “What do you want? A promotion?”

“Transfer,” she corrected me. “Put me on your records so I can take extended time on leave, no questions asked. Maybe choose my own projects once in a while. I’ve had the same job for hundreds of years and I could do with a break. Fudge some numbers for me. Tell people I’m doing important work. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be on call for you if you need something important. And I’m genuinely curious about the Siphon sympathiser. But the rest of the time? I just want to decide what to do with my own life.”

“And how can I be sure you won’t just turn me in?”

Pakhet shrugged. “Look, I wouldn’t even have raised it if you’d just said yes in the first place. Here’s the thing. I don’t really care who’s in charge. I just want to do my thing without worrying I’m going to end up on the demotion block. If you want to play at being Odin, I figure we can take care of each other. It’s a win for both of us.”

“Deal,” I said, grimacing. “And if you change your mind, I won’t hesitate to take you down with me.”

“That’s fair,” Pakhet said cheerfully. “No reason we can’t all get along.”

I stared at her skeptically. I still had memories of the last time the office had gone into spontaneous battle mode, around the time Eris had punctured my eardrum. If I recalled correctly, she’d been right in the thick of it escalating the tensions on both sides and egging on the unpowered Helpdesk staff to face off against each other.

“I still want your help finding Siphon’s benefactor,” I reminded her. “Then I’ll arrange the transfer, and you can go off and knock things off shelves or whatever it is you want out of life.”

“Sure. Want to go now?”

“Oh, no. Not while Yahweh is in his office. I want to know what I'm dealing with before Sir Superior Morals gets involved.”

“Eh, that’s easy,” said Pakhet. “What would make him leave? I’ll find it for you.”

My thoughts went to the Spear of Destiny, but the risk meant it wasn’t an option. Direct defiance also had a chance; I’d seen it happen first-hand with the pope. The level of the disobedience made a difference, of course; the higher up it went, the more likely the tyrant was to be invested. Ironically, the most likely person to catch his interest would be the very person I wanted to identify. That or myself, of course, which I wasn’t going to let happen.

Praise kept Yahweh in his starry salon, so another possibility would be to remove the incentive to stay there. Hera’s offhand comment about shutting down the task system fluttered into my mind and hung around – but not for this exercise. And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

We still needed a lure for Yahweh, after all. And if we could drop the whole task system out at once, there was one deity who would suffer from bombardment far more than anyone else.

Before the Deliveries, I wouldn’t have considered it. The plan was the opposite of subtle, and would also hit Lucy and Durga, the more notorious members of the revolution. But next to Yahweh, they were small fry. They’d be prepared. And the world was long past subtle.

Of course, we had to make it happen – but it turned out we had the world’s foremost team for the task on our side, too. Not quite Xiānfēng’s original purpose statement, but I suspected Yun-Qi wouldn’t be averse to a little creative application of its principles here and there.

Messing around with Yggdrasil without knowing the identity of Siphon’s divine manager would be an additional risk, but perhaps the interference would draw them out, too. Two ravens, one stone.

Take down the Helpdesk system just before the Marketing announcement and leave Yahweh a trail of clues obvious enough to get through to his battered brain under the weight of all those tasks. Poetic justice was a wonderful thing. Once in place, Mayari would be able to finish him off with the spear.

That made three down, two to go.

“You look like you’ve thought of something,” Pakhet commented with a nod of her chin. “Going to share?”

“Hah,” I said. “I just remembered what an absolute genius I am.”

“Oh, well. You know, if you forget something as intrinsic as that –”

“Just for that, and also because you're hardly trustworthy, I’m not going to tell you,” I elucidated.

“You really shouldn’t say that to someone whose skills lend themselves to finding things,” she replied, crossing her arms. “It might make me curious.”

“There’s a saying about curiosity and cats, Pakhet,” I responded, and readied myself to depart. “And I’m not sure how many lives you think you have, but the answer is usually ‘not enough’. You'll get your transfer. Yahweh’s going to leave eventually. When he does, that’s when we’ll get our answers.”