Angelopolis(98)

Grigori—a master race of angels, if you will. For this he needs a superior angelic specimen.”

“We have reason to believe he acquired a creature he has been pursuing for a very long time,”

Bruno said.

Dmitri glanced at Verlaine. “This is the Evangeline you mentioned?”

“The very one,” he replied, his manner measured. He turned back to the bank of plasma screens.

“Could she be here?”

“On paper there isn’t anyone in the panopticon that I don’t know about,” Dmitri said. “All

prisoners are checked by security before intake.”

“And in reality?” Yana asked.

“In reality, Godwin can do what he wants,” Dmitri admitted. “He has ways of getting around the

regulations. He could have Evangeline here and I wouldn’t have a clue.”

“The question, then,” Verlaine said, scrutinizing the screens, “is where.”

“What about the nuclear plant?” Yana asked.

“Security at the plant is extreme,” Dmitri said.

“Godwin could get around it,” Yana said. “He could access the panopticon via the nuclear reactor

itself.”

“That would be a suicide mission in the extreme, even for a psychopath like Godwin, but not

beyond the realm of possibility.” Dmitri stepped to a screen and, releasing a catch, pushed the screen

up, revealing a vast interior garage stacked with long white bricks of plastic explosives, blue and red

wires twisting around them. “This belonged to Godwin.”

“PVV5A,” Yana said, astonished.

“I intercepted a shipment in January,” Dmitri said.

“You’ve got enough of this stuff to bring down the whole prison,” Bruno said.

“Considering the fact that we’re below a nuclear reactor, that’s what we don’t want to happen,”

Dmitri said, taking one of the white bricks and placing it on his desk. “Godwin, on the other hand, has

planted this stuff in every nook and cranny of the prison. After I intercepted the PVV5A, I knew he

was up to something, and so I used dogs to find the rest of the explosives. What you see here is a

collection of what was found in the panopticon itself. I can’t guarantee he hasn’t rigged his private

research center or the nuclear reactor, and I can’t promise he hasn’t planted other kinds of devices.”

Bruno was surprised to see sweat dripping down Dmitri’s face. His voice cracked as he spoke.

“So he likes to play with fireworks,” he said. “But to what end?”

“Godwin knows that explosions in the cells would trigger the panopticon’s security system,”

Dmitri said. “A series of mechanisms are in place that, once activated, cause a large-scale self-

detonation. The structure will continue to destroy itself over the course of several hours, tunnel by

tunnel, level by level, until the entire prison is incinerated.”

“Melt down to what extent?” Yana asked.

“To the extent that everyone and everything—including the caged angels, the laboratories, and all

the data collected in the past four decades—will be destroyed. It’s a protective mechanism,” Dmitri

said, “like torching fields and villages to deprive the enemy of food. The tower will go first. Then the

labs. When the various pieces of the facility have been destroyed, a gas will be released into the

panopticon, and every living thing—human being or monster—left inside will be poisoned. The

system was meant to cover all traces of our presence here. The panopticon was built underground for

this very reason: If they need to destroy it, the ruins will be hidden below the earth, a tomb containing

thousands of dead angels.”

“Makes sense to have a safety measure in place,” Bruno said. “But why would Godwin want to

trigger it?”

“That I don’t know,” Dmitri said, quietly. “I can only guess that he has no intention of leaving his

work unfinished. If he’s under threat, he’ll bring the whole thing down.”

“Then we have to get to Evangeline before Godwin has a chance to self-destruct,” Verlaine said.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of guards patrolling this compound,” Dmitri said, reaching

into the recesses of the crawlspace and pulling out three canisters of gas, face masks, two

semiautomatic weapons with ammo, two stun guns, and three bulletproof vests. “Godwin’s

movements are like clockwork. He got here this morning, entered through the south tunnel, and went to

his lab. He’ll leave for an hour at lunch. I estimate that you’ll have half an hour to get in, look around,