Gods of War (War of the Gods Series) (6 page)

“I don’t have to remind you how stupid Angolans are. The only reason they are a country is because their neighboring countries can’t even hold onto what they have.”

“So what made these fine gentlemen decide to turn on me now?” Amadi said disgustingly, pointing to the dead men being dragged out of the tent.

“Your officers had it in their minds that they could trade you and the people we took for a safe passage back home. Don’t worry though. Your loyal officers are already getting the men in defensive positions. I just have one question sir, do you know when Nyame is supposed to come and save us?”

“Hey scum bag, two more hours until you’re a dead man,” The guard said mocking Nicolai through the feed slot.

Nicolai remembered the guard from earlier. It was the same guard who gave him his death warrant. He was also the bailiff from the courtroom as well.
He has such a whine in his voice,
Nicolai thought. For days, the same guard would come and mock Nicolai. He was getting on Nicolai’s nerve.

“I have your last meal right here. Let’s see what you have; Pelmeni, Blini, some caviar and a bottle of Sibirskaya vodka.” The guard sat down outside of his cell where Nicolai could watch him through the food slot and started eating the food. “This tastes pretty good. You should try it. If only you ordered more because I think I am going to finish this off,” The guard said smugly.

Nicolai sat there watching the guard with his anger raging inside him. With that anger the urge to kill shortly followed.

“Who are you?” Nicolai asked, trying to hold back the anger. “What have I ever done to you?”

“You don’t even know, huh? How many people have you killed? A hundred? More? You may have not remembered them all. There was one who happened to be my brother. I swore I would avenge him. He was an innocent police officer and you killed him for doing his job. That is why I transferred from the courts to the prison. I paid a lot of money to be the one who gets to pull the lever when you fry.” The guard got up and tossed the empty plate into Nicolai’s cell.

Nicolai watched as the guard walked away and swore he would get his revenge on him and on the judge who put him in this situation. He would be the last one to laugh.

Nicolai laid back in his bed. He started questioning if Zeus was even coming. According to Nicolai’s count this was the 30
^th
day.
Maybe what I experience was just a hallucination
, he wondered.
But it couldn’t have been.
Nicolai cleared his mind and started to reminisce. The guard was wrong; he did remember killing his brother.

It was about seven years ago. Nicolai already had a reputation as one of the best hit men in Russia. The bosses knew they could trust him to not only carry out a contract, but to make it so it wouldn’t fall back on them. The guard’s brother was Nicolai’s first government worker he took out.

The brother took a bribe from a local mob captain. He was supposed to allow a transport of contraband go through his town without hassle, but the brother figured he could take the bribe and the cargo. He set up the captain’s men, killed them and took the loot. Turns out it wasn’t drugs, money or even human slaves. It was gold bars. Not only did Nicolai have to kill the guy, but he had to find out where the brother had put those bars. Doing that was messy.

No wonder that guard is mad at me
, he thought.
But he should feel lucky that I got the job. If it was some amateur, he wouldn’t just be upset about his brother. He would be worrying about his mother and father. He wouldn’t even be alive right now.

Oh well, Nicolai thought. If only the guard would have kept his torment to himself.

Another set of footsteps was heard coming down the hall while Nicolai brooded over ways to kill the guard. Nicolai looked up and all he saw was the prison’s priest. “So father, have you come to hear all of my dirty secrets?”

“I have come here so you can repent your sins so when you meet your maker, you can do so with a clear conscience,” The priest said with a concerned voice.

“Father, I have a clear conscience. Nothing can change that. You can tell the guards that I am done with this charade. Let’s get this show on the road. We have an hours’ time until I am supposed to be dead, right?”

Of course things could take a different turn of events Nicolai though smugly.

The next thirty days were a blur. Terry would wake up, go to the library, study, and then go home to sleep. Over and over again he repeated that schedule for 30 days. He was trying to find some information that would give just a glimpse into the world he experienced for a couple of hours. The only thing that broke up the routine was the calls from his friend Jake.

Jake was happy to hear his wife wasn’t cheating on him. Terry would have been happy as well, except his mind was occupied with the task ahead. What frustrated him was the fact he couldn’t find anything that helped him understand the Greek gods. Yes, they always did what they wanted with the humans. Even Zeus used the humans to satisfy his carnal urges.

Terry hit his hand against the table, causing a loud noise. The other patrons looked at him, and even some of them gave him a shushing sound.

“Having some trouble there?” the librarian’s voice came from behind him. She walked around and sat next to him. “You know, I can help you find whatever it is you are looking for. I do have experience researching material. You get a lot of it as a PhD student.”

“I would take you up on that offer if I even knew what I was looking for.”

“What made you interested in this genre anyway?” She asked looking at the books he had open. “This seems like such an odd subject for someone to be studying. Especially for this long. Are you writing a book? It seems like you’re just blindly searching for something.”

“Honestly, I am just interested in the genre,” Terry said. “I watched a documentary about the Greek gods and they looked interesting.” To change the subject, Terry then added, “What made you want to be a librarian?”

“I doubt they really were interesting,” she said not taking the bait. “Even if half of the stories were true, they treated mankind horribly. They treated each other worse. I read somewhere that Zeus had to declare an edict that no god could harm another god. Their arrogant asses couldn’t even do that.”

Terry started looking questionably at her. “How do you know all of that? I read all of these books and I didn’t hear anything about that.”

“Well, like I said, I have experience researching material. You learn to read between the lines.”

“Yeah, well, I have a lunch to go to. I will be back though.”

Terry hurried and grabbed his things and left the library. Even if today wasn’t the day the Change was going to happen he wasn’t about to go back. The librarian had been acting weirder than normal lately.

With the battle having taken place for hours now, along with the month-long hike to get to their current location, General Amadi and his men were tired. His forces would have been wiped out if it wasn’t for the distrust between the Angolan army and the rebel fighters.

This battle had become more of a waiting game, trying to find out who had the guts to go first. Amadi didn’t have enough men to take out one army. Doing so would leave him wide open for the other to attack his flanks. “A good ole’ Mexican standoff is what we have here” General Amadi muttered.

“What was that sir?” the man next to him asked.

Amadi didn’t realize he spoke out loud. “Nothing. You have your orders now go.”

The runner turned towards the coast and started running. The runner was going to check in with the Sgt. Major who was left back at the camp. Amadi’s good radios were being used by the men on the front lines and he needed to know if those transports had arrived yet. He had forced the Sgt. Major to sit this battle out because of an injury he had received from the failed coup attempt. Amadi had preferred leaving him behind so the Sgt. Major could guard the civilians and watch out for their transportation.

How long is this going to take
? Amadi muttered in his head. He had done exactly what Zeus said to do, and now he was left to be massacred.

Gunfire erupted to the north east of him. Amadi turned around and swore. Suddenly gunfire erupted to the south east of him.
Damn, they are both pushing at the same time. This isn’t how it’s supposed to end.

Amadi forced himself to think; there had to be a way out of this. Overhead a sharp whistling sound was heard, followed by a loud explosion.
Their firing artillery at us.
Turns out the opposing armies weren’t waiting to see if they could trust each other, they were setting up their artillery. If they kept up the artillery fire, they would end up hitting their own civilians.
The Sgt. Major was right; they really do hate us.

Just as all hope seemed to be lost, comets started to fall from the sky. Amadi grabbed a pair of binoculars to get a better look at what was going on, but noticed he didn’t need them. He could zoom in on where they landed, and see it as clear as day. When the comets landed, monsters seemed to emerge and began attacking the enemy forces. But they weren’t killing the Angolans. They were subduing them and knocking them unconscious.

“General Assaraeus,” a voice screeched in his ear.

Amadi looked to where the sound came from, and right behind him was a woman wearing a breast plate and what looked like a skirt. She carried both spear and buckler with a helmet like the ancient Greeks. Amadi noticed all of the monsters were wearing armor like hers.

“General Assaraeus, I have been sent to gather you and your men. You will come with me, while your men will go on the transports.”

“Tell me who you are first? I thought Zeus was coming for us. Where are the transports?” Amadi said. He was starting to get worried. If she was a follower of Ares, then he would rather die under the Angolans.

“I am Athena. Zeus had other business to attend to. Your transports for your men are over there.” As she pointed to the coast, he saw three ships emerge from the fog.

“What are you doing with the Angolans? They are not my men,” Amadi said questioning her.

“They are coming with us,” was all she said.

“We were fighting them. How are we to fit on three ships?”

“I was told to bring every human. And those are not regular ships. They will hold. You have time to give orders to your captains but you and I, are to leave within the hour.”

Athena turned around and began issuing orders to her men. She turned and spoke normally to the monsters on the battlefield and they quickly followed her commands. No runners, no radios. She was speaking directly to each unit.

I am going to have to find out how she does that,
Amadi thought. After sending runners to gather the Sgt. Major and the remaining officers to his tent, he headed to meet them there.

Once at the tent he issued his orders. The Sgt. Major would still be in charge of the recruits, as well as the enemy forces that would be joining them. The rest of the officers were to take the remaining two boats with the original men.

During the meeting, Amadi’s men asked him many questions. Who are commanding these boats? Where they are going to take them? Where is he going? The Sgt. Major asked how he would be able to handle all of the enemy forces.

“Athena, I have some questions about the boats,” He talked loudly, hoping that was how the communication worked.

“Stop talking so loudly. We are supposed to be an extraction team. Speak softly and think of only me.”

He did as Athena instructed and asked who was commanding the boats and how his men were supposed to guard the Angolans.

Athena responded, “The boat captains are under my command. They will take your men to Zeus’ domain, where they will stay in Artemis’ valley. I will leave some guards to handle the Angolans. Are you done issuing your orders? We are to leave now.”

“Yeah, hold on. Don’t get your panties in a bundle. By the time you come pick me up, I’ll be ready.”

Nicolai looked at the visitors seated for his execution.

A full house
, he thought.
I sure have made a lot of enemies in my day
.

He looked around to see who all was there. First he seen the judge, who probably had some ideal to see every death sentence she handed out. Then there was the family of the deputy and his daughter. As he scanned the room more, his eyes fell on a familiar figure.

Who was that sitting in the back? Nicolai’s jaw dropped as he recognized who it was. It was Celeste’s father, the only target who got away. Last Nicolai heard was that he fled to the States, but he must have come back home when Nicolai was imprisoned. If this was true, Zeus had more to pay.

Zeus had better come soon because they are ready to fry me
.

As the guards continued strapping Nicolai could not keep his eyes off Celeste’s father. Before too long, everything was ready to go. It was almost midnight and still nothing miraculous had happened to save him from his fate.

Oh well I sure did have a great run.
Nicolai thought.

Nicolai saw the guard, who over the controls was the same one that had been harassing him. He had a smug look on his face.

“Nicolai Altukhov— you are being put to death for the murders of deputy Leonid Smirnov and his daughter Lyusya Leonidova,” Nicolai could have sworn he heard “and every other victim we couldn’t pin on you,” but the guard continued. “On my mark we will commence with execution. One, two, fire.”

Once the guard said “fire” Nicolai felt a jolt of electricity run through his body. But something was wrong. It didn’t hurt at all. Then he started to smell something burning and noticed that the smell was coming from the straps that covered his skin. He saw that he was free and everyone was freaking out. Now was the time to act.

He jumped towards the guard and put his hands on the man’s throat to choke him. As soon as he touched the guard, the guard started to scream out in pain as his flesh dissolved.

Nicolai turned toward his other marks, hearing shots coming from behind him but again, felt no pain. He looked down and saw a pile of ashes. It seemed that as soon as the bullets struck his skin, they turned to ash. The guards noticed the same thing. They threw down their weapons and ran away.