“And after that, Erich Winter will no longer be a problem.”
16.
Sienna
“So this is Eleanor Madigan,” Old Man Winter said in a low, rumbling tone, the glass between her in the interrogation room and the eight of us watching feeling far too thin for a woman who could cast lightning. She sat on a metal chair, her legs and those of the chair resting in a children’s wading pool filled halfway with water.
“I wouldn’t advise using ice on her.” I said, “I don’t think it would end well for you, more like an AC/DC song.”
“AC/DC?” Reed asked, turning to me.
“Thunderstruck,” Clary said, mumbling. “Good one, Sienna.”
“Her talents do not concern me,” Old Man Winter said. “Keeping her in a pool of water should nullify her powers.”
“Is that an old trick for dealing with Thor-types, sir?” Bastian asked.
“No,” Old Man Winter replied, a glint of amusement in his eyes. “I saw it on an episode of Heroes.” There was a pause, as though someone had thrown a grenade in the middle of us and we were all waiting for it to explode.
“Oh, wow,” I said into the tension. “Was that a joke?”
Old Man Winter’s voice scratched as he replied. “Yes. Do none of you recognize one when you hear it?”
I looked around; taking the temperature of the room, I felt one thing and one thing only—discomfort. “From you, no.”
“What’s to stop her from turning the chair over?” Bastian asked.
“Clary will assist in the interrogation,” Old Man Winter said; whether he was ignoring Bastian or simply felt that was answer enough was anyone’s guess. “While he and I are speaking with Madigan, Parks and Bastian will again have a conversation with Bjorn, and Sienna and Eve will speak to Fries.” Old Man Winter turned from facing Madigan to look at all of us, a wintery glow of blue in his frosty eyes. “They will be moving soon. I will have names. I will have times, locations...whatever they know, I want it.”
“Did Bjorn talk?” I asked as Old Man Winter began to turn away. “After you broke his arm off, and whatever else you did to him?”
There was a pause, and I got the sense everyone else was waiting, the same as I was, to see if he answered. “No,” he said finally. “But that does not mean he will not say more now.” He walked out the door, Clary at his heels, and a moment later we saw him enter the chamber that held Madigan.
“He thinks the clock is winding down,” Ariadne said after Old Man Winter had begun to speak to Eleanor. “He thinks they’ll be getting cocky now, that some unstoppable hammerblow is about to rain down on our heads.”
“We’ve captured three of them now,” Eve said, a certain lazy, I-don’t-care-ness to her tone. “You’d think they’d be losing some of that arrogance.”
I thought for a moment about Eleanor, when we were talking during the fight in the hotel. “Hmm,” I said aloud, drawing Reed’s eye, and then Ariadne’s.
“What?” Ariadne asked.