New Olympus Saga (Book 4): The Ragnarok Alternative (9 page)

Freedom Island, Caribbean Sea, July 16, 2014

Olivia O’Brian looked up from her drink and saw Ali Fiori walking into the bar. She lifted her glass toward her fellow Legionnaire, inviting her to sit at the booth. Ali hesitated for a second, then shrugged and walked over.

Lorenzo’s was a cozy bar reserved for veteran Legionnaires only, a place where those who had been there and done that could let their hair down and drink away their sorrows. Of late, Olivia had been frequenting the place quite often, and found herself drinking more in the past few months than she had in the previous five decades. Lucky for her, Neos didn’t get hangovers. She could drink herself into a stupor and wake up fresh as a daisy in the morning.

None of that made her feel any less sad or lonely, of course.

Ali Fiori looked like she was in a similar mood. She sat down, a wan smile on her face. “Fancy meeting you here, Councilor.”

Olivia grinned back. “I could say the same, Councilor. Drinking alone, this late at night?”

“Well, John doesn’t feel right if he isn’t in bed by eleven, unless he has to pull an all-nighter for some lofty purpose. I, on the other hand, can’t live like that. So I wait till he goes to bed and sneak out. Well, not really, he knows I’m leaving. He just doesn’t care,” she concluded bitterly.

“I’m sorry, Ali.”

“Hey, I knew I was the rebound. I just wish he didn’t make it so obvious sometimes.”

“That doesn’t sound like John,” Olivia said. And that immediately worried her.

Ali noticed. “No, nothing like that. I’m just whining. He’s still his nice old self. I’m just nitpicking.”

“Ah.”

“Enough about my silly troubles. How are you holding up?”

“You mean after Dawn Zhang’s death?”

Ali nodded. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

Olivia shrugged. She and Ali weren’t bosom buddies. But she needed to talk to somebody, so she decided to take a leap of faith.

“I felt nothing but contempt for the woman before she was declared dead during the Genocide War, and little more than pity afterwards. But to see her like that… She was insane, and her feelings for Larry played a part in unhinging her mind. She truly cared of him. I can’t forgive her for carrying on with a married man, but I can at least understand she couldn’t control how she felt. I wish we’d been able to talk.”

“Can’t control how you feel. Only what you do.”

“Yes.”

They drank in silence for a bit.

“John’s still in love with Christine,” Ali blurted out. “Guess I can’t stop talking about myself.”

“That’s all right. I really had nothing else to say about Dawn.”

“I told John I didn’t care.”

“Of course you did. And of course you care.”

“He’s still angry at her, but lately he can’t keep his eyes off her, whenever she’s around.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about them getting back together. Christine was very clear about that chapter being over. Both of them spoke to me about it, and their versions of their breakup agreed on that point, if not much else.”

“People change their minds.”

“True. And God knows I’m not the one to ask when it comes to infidelity,” Olivia said; Ali wasn’t the only one feeling bitter.

“That was a shitty situation all around. I’m not going to speak ill of the dead, but Larry…”

Olivia held up a hand. “I know. No need to get into it.”

“Yes. Moving on.”

They changed subjects. There were a number of charitable projects they both had been promoting, and they could discuss them without touching on any personal matters.

Olivia hoped Ali was right and John was back to normal, even if his new normal included pining for Christine.

The world needed John to be his old normal self.

Earth FUBAR, Day One

She wanted to run, but where could she go? Plus the guys in the hoodies had guns, and she couldn’t outrun a bullet.

There were five of them, all in their twenties, all walking with the swagger of professional bullies. Next to them, the Lowell kid looked like a piglet surrounded by wolves. Their leader was tall and skinny, with a pale complexion, dark hair, and a wide mouth twisted in a seemingly perpetual leer.

“That’s Charlie the Emo,” Robb whispered behind her. “Bad news. You shouldn’t have made trouble, Nellie.”

Great. I should have let that creep molest me. Eff that
.

Charlie the Emo walked up to the front porch.

“Mrs. Grace,” he said, politely enough.

The older woman gave him a short head bow in return. “Can we help you?”

“Seems there was a spot of trouble between your boy, the Gomez girl over there, and a couple others.”

“Those Lowell boys came after my Robbie, is what happened,” Mrs. Grace said in a plaintive tone. “They done beat him up, they did. Just look at him!”

“Is that what happened, Robbie?” Charlie asked him, in a sympathetic tone. “They done beat you up? Beat you up real bad?”

A bit too sympathetic. Faking it. He was enjoying this, Christine realized with a sick feeling.

Robb shrugged. “Ain’t too bad.”

“Really? It looks bad. How hard did they hit you, Robbie?”

Robb started to shrug, and that was when Charlie punched him. Right in his broken nose.

“Like this?” Charlie asked sympathetically as Robb howled and grabbed his twice-broken nose. “Is that how they hit you?”

Robb’s mother whimpered but didn’t say anything. She was afraid anything she said would only make things worse. That was what living in constant fear was like. That was what living in a world where the bullies ruled was like.

“The Lowell kid came crying to me,” Charlie the Emo went on, strolling casually around Robb, who was bent over in pain, cradling his injured face in his hands. Christine wanted to go check on him, but didn’t think it was a good idea to interrupt Charlie. “That means I’m going to have to write a report, be all official like. I’ve got all kinds of extra work now, thanks to you.”

He casually kicked Robb’s feet from under him. Seemingly satisfied with the sight of Robb curled up on the ground, whimpering in pain like an injured animal, Charlie turned toward Christine.

“The Lowell boy didn’t want to tell me who messed his buddies up,” he said. “I knew it couldn’t be Robbie. He ain’t tough enough. So I made him tell me.”

Charlie walked up to Christine until his nose was a few inches away from hers. “They told me you done mess them up. A girl.”

She couldn’t help herself. “The Goddess is a girl.”

The Emo recoiled as if she’d bitch-slapped him.

“Be careful what you say,” he told her. His leer was gone. He looked a little scared at the very mention of the Goddess.

Christine crossed her arms and glared at him. “Whatever. Those guys came after us. We defended ourselves.”

A part of her felt bad about the ‘we’ bit. She figured the Watchers would find it more believable if it took the two of them to inflict all that damage. From the look Robb gave her from the ground, he clearly felt like she’d just thrown him under the proverbial bus.

“You two are coming with us,” Charlie said, composing himself. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

No choice.

* * *

The building used to be a church. They’d taken out all the crosses, and someone had spray-painted the words ‘CHRISTINE SAVES’ on both sides of the roof.

Holy Cult of Personality, Batman
, she thought to herself. She’d never been that self-centered. Even on Earth Alpha, she was mostly embarrassed by all the attention she got.
How did I become such a b-word?

Not you. She. She got infected by the Outsiders
, her brain reminded her.
That didn’t happen to you
.

Lucky me
.

Inside the church were another half-dozen Watchers, the other Lowell brother and Little Jimmy. All the bullies looked much the worse for wear; the Watchers had decided to add injury to injury, apparently. Welcome to D-bag Land.

Sitting on a chair on the dais of the church was a middle-aged guy who didn’t look as comfortable in the Watcher hoodie as the younger dudes. If he’d been dressed normally, he would have passed for your typical small town wise and gentle old-timer, with grayish hair, neatly-trimmed beard, and thick glasses. The eyes behind the glasses were cold and flinty, though, matching the emotions beneath. From the way everyone was looking at him, he was the man in charge. Even Charlie the Emo looked a bit greener around the edges when he saw him.

“Sheriff Bergen,” Charlie said, bowing deep at the waist like they did in Karate school. “I didn’t want to bother you with this, sir.”

“Been a slow day, and I heard there was someone with potential around these parts,” the Sheriff-Watcher said. “I’ve been charged with finding some fresh blood for the Games. Goddess needs new recruits.”

Oh, no, no
.

“These two?” Charlie said, indicating Robb and her. “They’re nothing. White trash. They got lucky and beat up three other losers.”

“It was the girl,” Little Jimmy said. From the looks of it, someone gave him a fat lip to go with his bruised testes. “Bitch broke my balls.”

“Is that so?” Sheriff Bergen said. Jimmy nodded emphatically. “Come closer, little girl. I want to get a good look at you.”

She walked up to the dais.
This isn’t going to end well
.

The old man was undressing her with his eyes as she approached. She didn’t know what she would do if he went beyond that.

Probably do something that will get me killed
.

“Pretty enough. Bet she cleans up real nice. Healthy. Let’s see what she can do. Charlie, pick one of your boys. If he can pin her down, he can do whatever he wants with her.”

And here we go again
.

She was scared crapless, but also mad as hell. The combination was making her vaguely nauseated.

While the other Watchers cleared a fighting area by moving pews around, Charlie picked the lucky wannabe rapist. All five members of his posse wanted in on the action. That almost sparked a fight right then and there, but the Emo put an end to it by the simple expedient of cold-cocking the friskiest guy in the bunch, restoring order and cutting down on the number of applicants in one swell foop.

“Luke,” he said, pointing at a wiry guy with a crewcut and a whole three front teeth, which looked pretty lonely when he smiled in triumph. “You’re up.”

“We’s gonna have fun,” Luke said, lisping badly and sending a thin spray of saliva everywhere.

What the eff do I do? Beat him quickly and get sent to the freaking Goddess as my door prize? Lose and get raped? Make it look like I barely held my own, and probably get raped anyway?

Anger won out.
Frakk it. I’m probably dead anyway, so I’m going out on a high note
.

Luke came at her, stupid-like, just like Little Jimmy. For a place that was essentially a matriarchy, they sure didn’t seem to respect women. He bull-rushed her, going for a tackle and takedown. She dodged the clumsy charge with ease and tripped him with a strategically-placed foot. Luke ended up sprawled on his stomach, to the laughter of everyone else. As he scrambled to get up, she walked up behind him and kicked him right between his ass cheeks, getting at least a partial impact on the family jewels. Luke folded into a fetal position with a cry of pain, giving her plenty of targets for a follow-up kick. She picked the kidneys, just to stay consistent. Luke yelped, all thoughts of violence against women forgotten.

Maybe next time he won’t be so eager to join the local wrestle-and-rape team
.

“Well, well, well,” Sheriff Bergen said, looking pleasantly surprised. “She is a little minx isn’t she? Where have you been hiding her?”

“She never done anything like that,” Charlie the Emo said. “She always knew her place, before this.” He turned to Luke, still shuddering on the floor. “You stupid cocksucker! You let a girl take you down like that?”

Luke was too busy feeling feelings to say anything back. Charlie looked about ready to walk up and finish kicking him to death.

“Your men don’t seem ready to face someone willing to fight back,” Sheriff Bergen told Charlie, stopping him on his tracks. “That’s disappointing.”

“He just didn’t think she’d fight back,” Charlie replied. “Stupid. Let me pick someone else.”

“No. But I do agree that wasn’t a proper test. On the one hand, she is willing to fight, and that’s good. On the other, I can’t tell if she has a killer instinct. She didn’t finish Luke off, for one. If she ain’t willing to kill, she’s no good for the Games. One of you, give her a knife.”

Seriously?

Charlie began to reach for a knife on his belt.

“Not yours, Charlie. You’re going to be needing that knife.”

Motherfrakker
.

* * *

Round two. Christine versus Charlie the Emo. Fight.

Christine had gotten some fairly good hand to hand training during her time as a super-duper-hero. But nobody had bothered to train her with weapons and stuff. Well, Mark had tried. He’d offered to teach her how to use guns, knives and clubs, because “you never knew.” But she loathed guns, and didn’t think she’d ever need to use a knife, so she’d turned him down, and he hadn’t pressed the issue; he’d probably figured the odds she would need to use a weapon were low enough it wasn’t worth the hassle.

As it turned out, he’d been right. You never knew.

Someone flicked a knife at her. It stuck on the floorboards of the former church. A bone-handled knife, with a four- or five-inch long blade. She grabbed it, yanked it free, felt its weight and heft in her hand. Tried to picture herself driving it into a living being, into someone’s flesh.

Oh, God. No
.

Christine didn’t drop the weapon, though. She might not want to use it, but she’d done many things she didn’t want to do. And she wanted to live.

Charlie looked mad, and a little scared. His idea of fighting was to beat up outnumbered and cowed victims, not anything resembling a fair fight. And he’d seen her move and knew she was fast and sneaky. He wasn’t going to come at her any old way.

He’s going to cut me
.

Not if you cut him first
.

She gets a bit wobbly in the knees at both thoughts. She’s got no Neo super-healz, no Neo super-strength – she’d actually managed to deadlift an entire metric ton just a few weeks ago; not anymore – no Neo anything. Trying to use the Codex Words in real time was unlikely to work, not to mention would probably attract the attention of the Goddess, so that was out. It was going to be human versus human, and, Mark had told her knife fights were the worst, the kind of thing where the loser went to the morgue, and the winner went to the ER, or maybe the morgue as well.

Charlie unsheathed his knife, and it looked bigger than hers, like six inches to her four, which was a big difference if you were talking penises or Subway sandwiches, so she figured it also applied to knives. Plus he was taller than her by another two inches, and he had longer arms. Better reach. And he probably liked cutting people, or at least had some experience in it.

He was scared, though. Afraid of getting hurt. He also knew that getting into a knife fight was a terrible idea. Her empathy was strong enough to pick that up from his messed-up head.

That makes two of us
, she thought. In a perfect world, they would both realize just how wrong this senseless violence was and they’d drop their knives, hug each other, and solve their differences another way. A dance-off, maybe.

The thought made her giggle, and that really bothered Charlie the Emo. He went even paler than usual.

He’s really scared now
. Good. Scared people made mistakes.

“What’s so funny, bitch?” he yelled at her. “I’m gonna cut you bad.”

“Dead man says what?”

“What?”

“Exactly,” she said.

Sheriff Bergen started laughing, and the other Watchers followed suit, although their chuckles sounded rather tentative.

Glad I’m entertaining you
,
asshole
, she thought.
You’re on my list. If I ever get the chance, you’re going to find me effing hilarious
.

It took Charlie a moment to work it out. He was pumping adrenaline by the gallon, so his cognitive abilities were at a pretty low ebb.

Good. Outthink him. Outmaneuver him. Out…

He came at her, done with the talking and posturing. She tried to back away, sidestep, something, but she just managed to interpose an arm before he could slash at her face. The cut on her forearm didn’t hurt at first, while she sidled around, keeping her distance, but when it flared up it stung like a mother-effer. She was bleeding, and it wasn’t healing; the pain wasn’t going away.