Robert had a strict policy against drinking alcohol in the middle of the day without a good reason, but he decided that being attracted to a mortal enemy qualifies as such, so now he stood at the bar with a glass of whiskey and tried to figure out why Jenna liked that drink so much. It was more than effective, he wouldn't deny that; barely finished half of the amount Luther poured for him and felt already lightheaded. But apart from that, it had a too strong taste and scratched his throat a little too much. Perhaps, as Jenna gently put it on the other day, he really was a pussy. Either way, when the time came for a second round, he ordered some fizzy orange drink.

'You seems to be in thought, young Montgomery,' said Luther. Robert looked up. The bartender's face was an unreadable black stone, as always.

'I have a… Decision to make, if you will.'

The pub was empty, except for an old tourist couple next to the fireplace. Robert realised that he never saw this place full, or even moderately busy. Although he suspected that if a member of the fae stayed over in this world, he did for something other than the money he could make as an innkeeper.

'Have you, my friend? Or are you just afraid of the decision you already made?'

Luther couldn't possibly know what troubled Robert, and yet he seemed to be very familiar with the problem. Maybe there was something about barkeeps being good at reading people, after all. A couple thousands of years practising probably helped, too.

'I am not sure. What do you think?' asked Robert.

'I think you silly little human beings are funny in a deeply tragical way. You have books and poems and movies and music about everything important, you have all the knowledge you could possibly ever need, and yet you fail to use it over and over again, in every part of your life. Acting as the problems were new and unique, and failing to listen to the answer which was always there, all along. Tragical, indeed, but amusing to watch.'

Robert considered this, took a sip from his orange drink and nodded.

'I know that you just wanted to make fun of me, but it was very helpful. Thank you!'

'I wanted to help,' objected Luther. 'Mostly.'

Robert grinned and even Luther showed a very pale shadow of a smile. It was a rare sight. So, if Robert decoded the old fae's words right, he already had his answer. He just needed some time to make his peace with it.

But quality time spent alone was on short supply these days. Only a couple of minutes later Marcus arrived, and behind him Rose entered. She wore civil clothes, a hoodie, a pair of jeans, a fanny pack on her hip, sneakers and a baseball hat, all pitch black. Marcus was in a simple white T-shirt and black cycle jacket. Robert felt overdressed, wearing his navy blue three-piece suit and grey trench coat.

'Look at that, he is alive…' said Marcus pretending to be surprised. 'Did you…? You know.'

'None of your business,' said Robert with a lot of dignity.

'So, no,' nodded Rose. 'You know, if you are into dangerous girls, I could have kicked you in the nuts every now and then while we were doing it, you only had to ask.'

'Rose, I…' started Robert, but he didn't know what to say. To be honest, up until that moment the thought that he could hurt Rose's feelings hadn't even occurred to him.

'No worries,' she waved her hand with a smile, 'it's not like we were dating or something. Still, Jenna Carano? I never figured that she was your type.'

'She is not… We just… Can we drop the topic, please?'

'He is cute when he is embarrassed, isn't he?' asked Marcus with a grin. 'Well, let's get down to business, shall we?'

They occupied the same booth Robert and Jenna did last night. Robert ordered a cup of Earl Gray to himself, while the others had coffee.

'So the thing is, the Met found Attila Kovach. He is hiding in a small flat basically walking distance from here. But turns out he is untouchable by the law, he has no official connection whatsoever to anything that happened, and he has an ironclad alibi for both the night when the British Museum was robbed and the one when he tried to kill Benjamin and Teodore.'

Robert gave a tired sigh.

'That's like the thunderstorm all over again. Everyone knew it was him, but nobody could have found any proof. Nothing at all, and he walked free.'

'And he will, again,' nodded Marcus. 'He is too smart. But my uncle offered an option…' He lowered his voice and leaned over the table. The other two had to follow his lead to hear what he was saying. 'I wouldn't even call it an option, we were just talking. So anyway... My uncle said, you know, in general, if someone, like, anyone, who is definitely not the three people at this table, was to go and get the information we need from Kovach, that someone wouldn't get into any trouble afterwards. Not with the police, anyway. You know, hypothetically. Not like he would ever say that some civilians should go and make Kovach talk, of course. That would be highly unprofessional and illegal. He is the Commissioner, after all, he cannot and never will authorise a task like this.'

Robert took a sip of his tea then put down the cup and shook his head.

'Too risky,' he said. 'I don't trust the Commissioner. He would throw us into jail at the moment we are not useful to him anymore. I won't do anything illegal over a promise that he will look the other way. And needless to say, he cannot guarantee that Kovach won't have us killed.'

Rose was nodding along.

'I am sorry, hun, but I'm with Robert on this one. Your uncle likes to play dirty. I rather not give him any opportunity to screw me over. I'm too pretty for prison, let alone to be dead.'

'C'mon guys, he is not that bad. What if I give my word? You trust me, right?' Marcus asked. Robert looked at him with a blank face.

'Sure,' he said. 'What is your job again?'

'Funny,' he replied with badly masked anger, 'you weren't so curious about my job yesterday when your creepy girlfriend needed my help.'

'Guys, calm down,' said Rose, raising her voice before Robert could have answered. 'That was enough testosterone for now, okay? I'm sure we can figure out something,'

'As much as I would like to watch you try, I believe it would be much easier if you would just ask your questions.' said a voice. From another box that they thought to be empty a man emerged, and walked towards them. He was tall and slim, over forty but not close to fifty yet, with dark hair and surprisingly soft features. There was something off with his smile. The eyes, Robert thought. His blue eyes stayed cold and dead in his kind face.

He wore a suit that cost more than Robert's rent and spoke with a strong Eastern European accent.

Marcus jumped to his feet.

'Attila Kovach, you are under arrest,' he spluttered, taking out a wand. It looked white gold.

'No thanks,' Kovach said. 'You have nothing against me, and you aren't even a real copper. Besides, I'm here to help.'

'Why would you help us?' asked Rose, with one hand in her fanny pack, ready to fight.

'I will tell you in a moment, but first I'm gonna need you all to put down your weapons. Makes me nervous.'

Robert stood up, with his cane in his hand.

'Give me one good reason why shouldn't I beat the crap out of you,' he said quietly. 'You tried to kill my brother, Kovach.'

The man sighed.

'I just did. I'm here to give the information you need. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one here? I heard you are a professor or whatnot. And just so you know, it wasn't personal, young Benjamin was only in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, even I know that good old Luther doesn't like fighting people in his pub. There is a good reason I came here, boy. The Shield is a neutral zone. There will be no arresting or beating here.'

He was right. Luther had his own rules, and somehow nobody ever tried to question them. It was like general knowledge: don't touch the hot plate while it's working, don't drink and drive, don't try to fight in Luther's pub. General knowledge.

Robert looked at the fae who was staring at them, standing a little too close for the sword on the wall. Marcus sat down and Robert did the same. Kovach took the spot right next to him, which he didn't like but let it slide.

Kovach reached for his inside pocket, which caused some tension, but he didn't take out a weapon. Instead, he put a miniature wooden music box on the table, with a tiny silver Z-shaped arm.

'That is a… Well, I'm not exactly sure what it's called,' he said and started to turn the small arm. 'Very useful little machine nevertheless: while it's playing, our conversation will be impossible to overhear or be recorded. There are no cameras here, and Luther won't give any testimony because he never interferes with our businesses.'

Robert had to admit that Kovach was very clever indeed. He knew how to stay out of sight. Or out of prison, for that matter.

The music was slow and on a very high note, and as it started, it felt like someone covered them with a very thick blanket. Everything outside their booth became muffled.

'So, I assume you kids figured out what the statue is, right?'

Marcus nodded but didn't say anything.

'And you know how to open it?' asked Kovach.

'I am sorry, but I thought we are gonna be the ones asking the questions,' said Rose sharply.

'Right, right. So, here is the story. I know a man, I think you guys call him "The Priest". We are not friends, not even acquaintances, actually. But he has a certain skill set I find very useful from time to time, so, let's put it this way, he does favours to me, and I am showing my appreciation with some money. You cannot even call us business partners, and what is more important, neither could a judge.' He looked around with a hopeful grin, waiting for laughter but saw blank faces. 'Tough crowd, right. Anyway. I heard a story about something wonderful once. It was about an imprisoned entity, a living god suffering from almost as long as we, humans existed. You understand that I cannot allow this. Nobody with a good heart could. This is cruel. So I decided, out of the sheer love I feel towards every living thing, that this god has to be free.'

Marcus scoffed at the "sheer love" part, but Kovach couldn't be bothered. He continued. 'So I asked that man, and I need to remind you that he is not my friend, employee or anything in any manner, I asked him to find that creature and set him free. For the sake of fairness and humanity, of course. Did I know that the statue was in the British Museum? Certainly not. Did I say that The Priest allowed or should kill in order to get it? Of course not. Nobody is more saddened than me about how things happened.'

Robert cleared his throat.

'That was a wonderful story, even so borderline psychotic and terrifying to listen to. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we believe you. You still haven't said anything remotely useful as of yet. We already knew that much.'

'Well of course you did, otherwise, we wouldn't have that misunderstanding with all the police looking for me and everything. No, the useful part just coming up now. Let me ask you one more time: do you know how to open up that statue?'

Marcus looked at Robert, who shrugged. If Kovach tried to trick them into giving some information to him, he wasn't particularly good at it.

'Why don't you tell us what you think the key is, and we will tell you if we knew that or not,' said Marcus carefully choosing every word.

'Pains me to see how little you trust me, my friend,' said Kovach with a cold grin. 'But let it be. To set the god free, who by the way is a goddess, which I'm sure you figured out, so the key for that is blood. Supposedly the blood of the sorcerer who closed her up, but of course that is impossible.'

'But the Priest thinks that the blood of a descendant will do the trick, am I correct?' asked Robert, and Kovach nodded.

'He was quite certain about it. He even had a device, kind of like a compass, more trustworthy than any searching spell, as he said, which was supposed to lead him to the right man. Or woman,' he nodded to Rose. 'He kills women too. He is a feminist. Anyway, he had his device and the sample of the blood from the statue, so all he needs now is time to find the right candidate.'

'But of course, you didn't know what happened or what he is going to do when you two talked about this,' said Marcus sarcastically.

'All I knew at that point was that he was going to ask people politely for a drop of blood to try it on the statue. If I knew anything about human sacrifices I would have stopped him immediately, needless to say.'

'Sure,' nodded Rose. 'But you still haven't said anything useful at all.'

'Kids nowadays are so impatient,' Kovach sighed. 'But let's cut to the chase then. The Priest is still here, in London. He found half a dozen of possible descendants here, another point to the multicultural metropolises, right? And he wants to try them before he is leaving the city.'

'And when you say try them, you mean, cut them open and pour their blood all over the statue, one by one, until someone's blood will be pure enough,' pointed out Robert.

Kovach made an outraged face, and when he answered, his voice was offended.

'I most certainly didn't mean that! That would be terrible and I don't know anything about such things!' Then he added with a normal tone: 'But yeah, he is gonna do that.' He put his hand into his jacket's inside pocket again and took out a piece of folded paper. 'Well, as it happens, by accident, I came across a list. That thug, that murderer who betrayed my trust…'

'Get to the point!' said Rose annoyed.

'Right. So I stole the motherfuckers list with the names because he decided that from now on he serves this Goddess chick and I don't like if people are fucking with me. Here, have fun. I am as of now, officially out of this whole fuckery.' With that, he stood up, grabbed his music box and left. The three of them looked at the piece of paper for a very long time before Marcus reached out for it.

'Okay, so… What the fuck?' asked Rose. 'Did he just actually help us?'

'If the list is legit, then yes, he did,' nodded Robert. Marcus was already on his phone, pacing nervously, then collapsing into a chair and looking at his friends with big, terrified eyes.

'Okay, thanks. Yes. In an hour or less. See you.' He put down his phone. 'My uncle checked our database. Four of the names on this were already attacked. Three of them were killed within the last week. One was robbed, one left a suicide note and cut his veins and one of them was a drug dealer so the Met assumed it was drug-related. The last one… The last one is fighting for her life in the hospital right now. She got stabbed a couple of hours ago at a train station.'

'What about the rest?' asked Rose. 'We need to find them, now.'

'The police are looking for them at this moment, and they will put them under serious protection. We are talking about dozens of officers and a buttload of magic.'

'Let's just hope it will be enough,' said Robert grimly.