Intrigue (34 page)

3.Oldest pair of sneakers (
might have to ditch them)

4.Hair up in half ponytail, half bun (
less likely to get pulled out in a cat fight)

5.Overnight bag (cause I’m suppose to stay at Jazz’s house) which contains: earbud, fighting gloves, brass knuckles, and shin guards (
the harpy does have an unfair advantage, so I am coming prepared this time!)

Thrace arrived promptly at 7, and we were quickly on our way. As he was driving, Thrace announced, “Calli, if something goes wrong and you have to choose between your safety and mine tonight,
please
, choose your safety. I can handle waking up feeling beat up, but I can’t handle you getting hurt.”

“Thrace, you have been one of my plane friends for over 10 years. I love you and will do everything in my power to protect you. If there was a way I could have stopped this, I would have.”

“Calli, this was
all
me. I was a complete mooooron. I truly don’t deserve you.”

We entered the GAR building and were met by Dr. A. He escorted us to the computer room where both Justin and Spart were already hanging out and playing online video games. Dr. A had me take the guys’ pizza and soda orders before I went to join the meeting. As I entered the study, the whole Plan A team was assembled, including Dr. A, Apollo, and Rafe. I gave them both a brief nod as Apollo walked us through
his
plan one last time. Since Apollo’s job was to trail Aglaea, he needed to leave at the end of his spiel. He walked over to Dr. A and said, “I’m entrusting Calliope’s safety to you, Admentus. Handcuff her to a chair if need be, but don’t let her out of your sight tonight.”

The pizza arrived and the boys each got one of their own. Dr. A also brought us each a soda of our choice. Each of the guy’s soda was laced with the necessary drug. Hopefully, they would all take affect at about the same time. Dr. A suggested we each give a toast (so everyone would drink quicker). Justin and Spart toasted to this all being over with and not getting beat up and blacking out anymore.

Thrace toasted me. “To my best friend and love of my life. Thank you for having my back, Calli, for one more time.”

Ok. Awkward. I gave a simple toast that acknowledged the past with Thrace and foreshadowed my future betrayal of Rafe, “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Rafe seemed puzzled as if forgiving Thrace meant that I wanted to go back with him. He toasted, “May we speed through this night and forget about it soon after.”

Dr. A ended our toasts with, “Be safe. Be smart. Be sound. Believe.”

We had all taken a drink at each toast, so Dr. A asked if anyone needed a refill. We all said yes, and he went and got us another round. He gave the boys water because he wanted them to start hydrating even before the nausea started. He let Rafe and I have our caffeine though. I said I needed to go grab my phone from the study as I planned. I sat down on the couch and leaned forward while I clasped my hands together and placed them on my forehead. I prayed silently for all my friend’s safety. I prayed for guidance, and I prayed for forgiveness. Rafe walked in and sat next to me.

As usual, he tried to tease me out of my worry. “You know I’m immortal, right.”

“You are definitely a force of nature. And you
own
first dates. They are going to have to update your Wikipedia page.”

He laughed and commented, “I’ll get on that. I take it that you and Thrace came to an understandment on the car ride over.”

“Yes, but not any different than before.”

Rafe replied in a slightly slow and drowsy manner, “I don’t think it is an understandment if he doesn’t accept it.” The drug was starting to work, and I needed to get to my confession.

I turned to face Rafe on the couch and my intense gaze burned into his sleepy one, “I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about us. In this time, in this place, in this moment, you have my heart, Rafe Hermes.” I kissed him with the desperation that I felt. I leaned him back on the couch so he was laying with me half on top of him. I pulled away and looked down at him.

He barely got out a “What have you done?” before his eyes closed and his deep even breathing started.

I laid my head on his chest and pleaded, “Forgive me, Rafe.” I rested on his chest listening to him breath for several minutes more before I got up. I moved his legs so they were laying on the couch as well, then leaned down and kissed him on the forehead as I whispered, “I’m soooo sorry, Rafe.”

I went to the door and one of the Plan B team was waiting outside. I announced, “He’s asleep. Please take good care of him and alert Dr. A if his breathing changes.”

I headed back toward the first floor loading docks where the guys were at their chosen van. As I walked toward them, I could see the vomiting had started. As I drew closer, one of the Plan B guys said, “We think they got most of the pizza out. I want them in the vans when they get the call, and we’re only about 20 minutes out.”

I walked toward Thrace as he said, “Calli, why didn’t you tell us about this part?”

“I didn’t want you to refuse to do it. If for some reason they find us and try to take you, you
need
to be sick so you won’t be worth anything to them.”

“Now we have to drive to make sure we keep you guys safe.
Please
trust me. We just needed that protection because I promised you that you would not wake up tomorrow beaten and bruised.”

Thrace nodded, and I led him to our van. Justin and Spart were already heading toward their van. Thrace was very confused when he was locked in to his compartment. It had a large trashcan as well as sprite and water. Thrace asked me, “Why is this necessary?”

I looked at him and said, “Just another precaution. They are going to have to pry you out if they want you.”

When all the guys were locked in and Team Calli stood in front of Dr. A, he smiled at us and said, “As some of you may know, one of my favorite actors is Gene Hackman. He was in a movie in the early 80’s called
Uncommon Va
l
or
, which I think describes all of you very aptly. Right before his unit split up to go on their mission, he gave the following speech, which I thought summed up what I want to say.”

He looked down at the piece of paper in his hand for a second, then recited, “We'll that's it...it's game time. There are some lines from Julius Caesar: 'If a man were to know the end of this day's business ere it come; But it suffice that the day will end, and then the end is known. If we meet again, well then we'll smile, and if not then this parting was well made.”

He scanned the room and said, “We will meet again, and we will smile, and we will have another victory against those
things
that took our loved ones way!”

We all started shaking hands, hugging, and telling each other to be careful. Dr. A and his reinforcement team waved us away and headed off to the communication area at a secret site, so Apollo couldn’t track them down.

My van had four men, Thrace, and myself. We started to drive our planned route. We had to wait to go to our destination until we were sure that Apollo’s car was disabled by one of our watchers with a kill switch. The first communication we heard over the radio was that Justin was starting to act funny. He was trying to get out of his bonds, and he was demanding to be let go. Soon after, the same story was coming from the van with Spart in it. Thrace started the same antics as his friends. Luckily, the puking sort of took the steam out of some of his yelling and demands. The tension in the vans was high. After about 15 minutes, we heard that our two Plan B watchers had reported that Aglaea and her two sisters were on the move in separate cars. Luckily, we had all the cars, including the Graces, hooked into our GPS system. Next, it was confirmed that Apollo’s car wouldn’t start, and we were a go for our destination.

We were heading to
Fisher Body Plant 21
on Piquette and St. Antoine. The building was a beautiful old structure with a half a million square feet built in 1919, and was yet another
Albert Kahn
designed building in Detroit. Factories back then were several stories high with countless windows so employees could enjoy the natural light while they worked. Fisher got absorbed by GM, and the plant was closed in the mid-nineties and has fallen to ruin. I am quite certain that the Fisher brothers, who started out by making horse-drawn carriages and ended up making 370,000 car bodies per year, would be rolling over in their grave to see their historic factory now. Because of the ground floor windows, ample space, location, and lack of security, it proved ideal for our purposes.

Home base kept us constantly apprised on Aglaea’s location. She definitely wasn’t too far behind us so we were going to have to move fast. I caught Thrace’s attention for a moment and told him we were going to let him out soon while the man sitting next to me got Thrace with a syringe to the arm. I was really hoping this knocked him out; otherwise we were going to have to do this the hard way. Luckily, Thrace was out like a light bulb. We were about to pull up to our destination, and our watchers reported that we were clear. We pulled the van directly behind a strategically placed dumpster that would hide the van from view of the window and street. We laid Thrace on a black carpet with his wastebasket if he had to hurl. I made sure to lay him on his side so he wouldn’t choke if he got sick while I was busy fighting Aglaea.

In two minutes, we had everything set up. The guys were ready to get into position. Addressing them, I said, “You are going to want to help me, especially if I am losing to the Graces. You need to know that ultimately they won’t kill me because I am a Muse, but they would kill you. So unless, the Graces literally tries to kill me before I can tell them that I am a Muse, you have to promise to stay put, got it?”

“We understand our job, Calli, even though we might not like it.”

“Even if I don’t get away clean and Ares finds out about me tonight, I will be able to get much more information if I am on the inside instead of staying safely hidden. It’s a win-win for all of us. By the way, understanding is not promising in my book Team Calli.”

In unison they swore, “We promise, Wonder Woman.”

“Excellent. Now get the flock out. She’s almost here.”

They departed quickly, and I put on my gear—earbud, gloves, brass knuckles, and shin guards. All there was left to do was wait, so I paced and memorized my surroundings. I heard through my earbud that she had arrived and that she made a phone call before she came in. I didn’t have long to wait before I heard her heading my way.

Aglaea spotted me and walked toward me cautiously. Once she discounted any additional threat, she asked in a curious manner, “What do we have here?”

I looked at her and almost snarled out, “I should have known.” I could hear Dr. A in my ear cautioning me to be a little less pissy. Easy for him to say, this was my part to play. I needed it to be convincing.

She came over and examined Thrace as I kept my distance. He wasn’t currently vomiting, but he was dry heaving in his sleep a little. And he had the nasty trashcan next to him as well.

When she was finally satisfied that Thrace was really sick and not just faking, she turned her attention back to me and demanded, “What is wrong with my lover?”

Whoaaaa…I think she wanted to goad me as well as pump me for information. I didn’t take her bait and remembered my role of confused friend. “I think it is food poisoning. We all went to get pizza tonight. Thrace, Justin, and Spart all shared a pizza and not soon after they all started hurling. I told them that seafood on pizza is probably not a good idea.”

Aglaea seemed to ponder my answer and the implications for her sisters as she asked, “Where are the two other boys, and why are you here?”

“I could only handle taking one puking person in my car, so I got Thrace. Just and Spart were taken home by some other friends. But Thrace didn’t want to go home, he insisted that I bring him here. I thought he was crazy, but he was desperate to get here.”

“How very inconvenient for both of us. Now I am a gladiator short tonight, so I think this is your lucky night. Thrace said you were a decent fighter; guess we will find out how good.”

She moved toward me with incredible speed and grace, but this time I was ready to do battle with the harpy.

Let me tell you, those fighting gloves and brass knuckles came in handy as well as the shin guard for a while. She was clearly better than me, but I would like to think that was due to her unfair genetic advantage rather than her fighting skills. We both landed some punches and kicks. However, when I landed something, it only made a small impact on her, whereas when she landed something I was knocked off my rocker. It was clear that she was about to go in for the kill, or bite, so to speak.