Zeus (Frozen Origin) (25 page)

She sat in Zeus’ chair at the head of the table. It felt both odd and empowering to be sitting in the ‘power seat’. Shawn, one of Mark’s best investigators knocked on the door and she bid him enter.

“Nice to see you again, Shawn. Are Fern and Ken coming too?”

“They were right behind me. Mark caught us up on everything that’s happening. Too bad about his brother but I never liked him. I was surprised when you two hooked up. Man’s a psycho, guess you found that out first hand.”

Another knock and the other two entered when she told them to. Mark’s team was a real band of misfits but they were perfect for the jobs he gave them. Shawn would talk your ear off about nothing of importance, but he heard an
d remembered every word said to him. You might not think it benefitted him much but people tended to talk when he shut up, just so he wouldn’t talk again. That didn’t work with her, Sierra knew all about these people. Fern was gorgeous, way too pretty to be a soldier, more like a model. She had bright red hair, deep blue eyes, rosy red lips, and a milk white complexion. No doubt the gods, who were hungry for women anyway, were starving for her. She always looked like she had just walked off the silver screen, the leading lady in any romance. It was easy to overlook how sly and cunning she was. She was devious in finagling information from the toughest adversary and ruthless about using anyone to achieve her own ends.

Ken was the male version of Fern and they hung around together often. They gave credence to that birds of a feather saying that had been around forever. He was smooth for a soldier, charming to a fault.
He was the live version of a ‘Ken doll”, the ones that were made to go with the ‘Barbie dolls’. Mark used him the most on women, but he could convince men he was their very best friend easily enough given time.

Fern could have them spilling their guts along with blowing their load. Those two did their best work in bed when they interviewed. That wouldn’t work here, at least not if they were only here for Kyler’s team since forewarned is forearmed. Kyler’s team was familiar with them almost as much as Sierra was. It wouldn’t work with the gods either
, now that they had been warned. It wouldn’t stop those horny guys from dipping their wicks, but they knew better than to talk to Fern while they were doing it.

Now that all three of them were with her, she gave them their assignments. Kyler’s team had six plus him
after the two left to return to Origin. That left three, one of which was Sam who they had caught on tape. She would give Shawn him, which left Sara and Dave. She told them who they would question then she showed them the tapes Mark had seen. “We need to know what the plan was and their degree of involvement. Brenda taped several conversations so it may help us to know if they are honest with us or not.”

“Can we see the rest of them?” Shawn asked.

“I prefer you guys to be objective. You’ll get better answers if you don’t subconsciously guide their answers.” She looked at the three ruthless team members.
The game is on!
She hoped this was one the gods could win. She dismissed them and followed them out. She headed to medical first, where Sara was getting a pain reliever and a sleeping pill. It looked like she was having trouble dealing with recent events. Ken had followed her right to Sara, the man must have a homing beacon for finding his targets. She felt more than a little sorry for Sara who wouldn’t know what hit her. Sara was too short to be a regular soldier at five feet zero. She was sweet too, or at least she seemed to be. She had short honey blonde hair cut in a pixie so that it curled in around her face. She had huge sapphire blue eyes that seemed to take up most of her face. She was a popular target to hit on wherever she was. She was about to be hit on by the best.

“I said ‘no’ damn you, Ken and I meant it. I am not interested in anything you want to do.” Sara said loud and clear. Ken would get nowhere with her now.

“Sara, could I talk to you for a few minutes?” Sierra said seeing she would have to handle this.

“Sure, “ Sa
ra said eagerly wanting away from Ken. She followed Sierra to the meeting room. Sierra sat back in Zeus’ seat while Sara sat at the head of the table.

“I assume you know about Kyler?”

“Yes, everyone knows even the gods. I don’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, I’m glad he’s gone. He was beginning to come apart, I’ve never seen him like that before. On the other hand, he was always there for me, for all of us. His poor mother and brother, it’s just terrible.”

“Did you know what he did, what he was doing? Were you aware of any of his plans?”

“I knew something funky was going on. He disappeared and we couldn’t find him when we had meetings. Where can you hide at here, only outside, right? He was angry all the time, well except once in a while and then he was over the moon happy.”

“Why didn’t you report his unusual behavior?”

“I knew you had just dumped him. How would you expect him to act? He told us he loved you but you picked one of those creatures over him. Sure they look good, but what are they really? No one knows, that’s for sure.”

“Do you want to stay assigned here?

“You really want to know? I want outta here yesterday.”

“Thank you for being honest and if you pack your belongings, I’ll get you reassigned as quickly as possible. These are unusual circumstances and I’ll ask for a similar assignment elsewhere.”

“Thank you. Sierra?”

“Yes.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Sara said as she rushed away no doubt to pack and get the hell outta Dodge. One down, two to go.

She had Buzz check to see if he could find Shawn on the tapes and tell Eres to have him and Ken, who went to his room after they parted company, watched. Once that was done, Fern, who should be with Dave, needed to be found and followed. Shawn and Ken were easy to find, but Fern wasn’t in Dave’s quarters
or anywhere in the public areas which left few possibilities the most likely of which was her quarters.

Sierra had a god watching Fern’s door for now, it was all she could do. Sara was packed and ready to go as soon as the pilot finished resting. Maybe she could get rid of all humans except her own team which she trusted. Lucifer was sending her mental images of him and Athena playing which was sweet, but distracting. Who would have suspected he was just a giant teddy bear and a pushover for babies?

There was a knock on the door then Zeus came in wanting a progress report.
Why didn’t you just send me a message?

Maybe I wanted to see you, maybe I missed you?

I missed you too, and I’m happy to see you.

“We’d better talk out loud in case someone finds a way to watch us.” Zeus suggested even though he clearly enjoyed mind to mind talking.

“You’re right. Mark left this morning taking half his team with him. We have two of Kyler’s left, Dave and Sam, for now since Sara is or has left on the chopper. Mark’s team should leave if Dave or Sam wasn’t involved or if they are sure they were, they will take them with them. Mark promised extra help to secure next week’s ball, we should be glad for that. I think that’s everything, any questions?” She asked with a smile. She loved to look at him even dressed and across the table, he looked like hot sex waiting to happen.

“No questions about the facility, but when will Doc clear you for sex, Sweetheart?”

“Two more days, so it’s plenty of time before the ball. Anything else, Babe?” She asked looking at him intently.

“All kinds of things but I don’t want to distract you while you’re working.”

“When has that ever stopped you?” She asked watching him as he stood up and stalked over to her. He approached like a predator making her heat rise and her panties get soaked. It amazed her that a male like this even existed much less that he was all hers.

Her com buzzed. “Sierra.”

“This is Buzz. We just had an attempt to hack our computer system but we stopped it.”

“You don’t usually tell me every time someone tries to hack us.”

“I do when it’s from inside the facility. I already sent some gods that way, but they were gone.”

“You don’t know who it is?”

“I didn’t say that. They tried to hack us from medical. The place was empty because everyone went to lunch. I caught them going in and leaving. It was Sara, she was the hacker.”

“That little bitch, I even tried to help her. She’ll need help where she’s going.”

“I’ll keep checking the feeds to see what’s going on.”

“Thanks, Buzz.”

“No, prob, Cap.”

“Zeus, we need Sara intercepted immediately. I want her on that copter in handcuffs with one of Mark’s team guarding her.” She got on her com and called Ken.

“This is Ken.”

“I need you to arrest Sara and bring her here to the meeting room.”

“What happened? I thought she was cleared.”

“I never told you she was cleared.”

“She told me you cleared her.”

“Well
, that was before she tried to hack our computer.”

“No shit?”

“She really did.”

“I’ll get her as soon as I can.”

“If you don’t find her in her room, have some gods help.”

“Will do.”

Ken was always very informal about taking orders from her as was the rest of Mark’s team. In Shawn’s case it was because they were the same rank, but the rest of them hated taking orders from anyone but Mark. She sat with Zeus talking while they waited to see what went wrong next. “Have you heard anything new about Hermes?” She asked because she liked him. She knew Zeus worried about Hermes like she would a younger brother had she had one instead of all sisters.

Chapter 8

Secrets

“No, and that worries me more than if I received a demand. It looks like whoever has him, wants to keep him.”

“If it’s at all possible, we will get him back, both of us together.”

“We are together, Sierra.” He said as he stood walking to her side. He dropped to his knees and grabbed her hand. “I want to marry you, Sierra. I love you with all my heart and since I don’t have a last name, I would be proud to share yours.”

She looked in his eye
s which was level to hers and he hoped she saw the love he felt there. “I would love to give you my last name, so my answer is yes.” He leaned in kissing her passionately. He loved her more than anything.

“You know, I just realized I don’t even know your last name.”

She smiled at him. “You’re silly. Seems you would want to know it before asking to share it. It’s a good solid name not anything weird. It’s Dunlevy.” He was shocked as the name sank in, but she couldn’t know why. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you have a male relative that was a major?”
He asked thinking it couldn’t be true.

“Yes, my dad, did you hear about him?
Did Way mention him?”

“No, I went on a mission with a Major Dunlevy when I was a boy. It turned out to be his last mission and I never forgot it, couldn’t forget it. He died right in front of me looking out for us. He was angry that we were so young when Origin sent us out to test our skills. He was distracted because he was more worried about us than what was going on. He was a great man, a good soldier but he never should have been sent with us. He just cared too much.”

“My dad, are you sure it was my dad? You couldn’t have been very old, certainly not old enough to go out in the field, when he died. I was just five, didn’t you say you were seven years older than me? You would have been twelve. Shit, Zeus, that’s just crazy.”

“We mature faster than humans. I was six foot two and very muscular at age twelve. I had the needed skills and the ability to use them, I just needed to be battle hardened. He died, and I and my team knew it was real, kill or be killed. We’ve never forgotten his sacrifice or him
, and we never will.”

“How did he get involved with a joint mission with Origin? He was special forces, US military. They should have never worked with Origin.”

“We were told he was a merc newly retired from the military. He had honor and courage, you should be proud of him no matter who he worked for.”

“I am proud of him, Zeus. You just don’t understand. My father was still active when he died, but they said the mission was classified. His body was dismembered and we had to fight for his proper military funeral because of the nature of his mission, but he was buried with full military honors under a slightly changed name.
The point is, he was US military which means they have been working with Origin for years. Maybe they had a parting of ways, but it means Origin may have a lot of connections in the military. It actually makes only too much sense considering Kyler and his team. This means we don’t know who to trust.”

“Why isn’t Way a Dunlevy?”
He asked out of the blue.

“What makes you think Way is family?”

“She smells like you, like a close relation.”

“Way was married before, but she’s a widow. Her husband died very young in some secret operation just like our dad did.
Way was military at the time. She was off on leave for a while but when she came back, she took terrible chances. I finally talked her into  changing so she wouldn’t get herself killed. She is great at the job she has now and the risks are few.”