Hades (13 page)

“I’m with him, but I have a mate and need to
do what’s best for her. My brothers have never made her feel
accepted and I’m not sure they ever will. She did the best she
could, but she was a victim every bit as much as we were,” Lander
said sadly. “For now, we will stay, but don’t be surprised if we
call to get picked up.”

“She’ll always be welcome at Olympus where I
would be proud to have her as part of my team. I feel like I let
her down. I never imagined Origin would coerce scientists in order
to recruit them.”

“It’s okay, Doc. At the time Rachel came to
you, she never thought they would do that either. They stopped
trying to recruit her, waited a few months until she forgot about
them, then they took her from her home. She didn’t stand a chance
and the only reason they didn’t do the same to you was you were
military and you have some influential family. That’s what they
told Rachel. They even told her they would have preferred you.”

“Now they are after her,” Hades said. “They
aren’t smart enough to know if they come after her, they’ll
die.”

“They’ve not shown much intelligence lately.
I think all these attacks and losing so many facilities is making
them act in haste. They will suffer for their bad decisions and
eventually we will shut them down,” Doc said.

“You need to rest,” Hades said. He settled
her in bed then laid down next to her. She would rest if he had to
stay with her to hold her down. He cuddled up with her, wrapping
his body around her. He had his nose in her hair breathing in the
sweet shampoo Rachel had used on her. It mixed with her own
tempting fragrance to both calm and excite him. He could hear her
breathing even out and slow down. He fell asleep not long after she
did.

XXXX

Far away on another continent, Mark looked at
his disgraced brother. He wondered if he was really crazy or if
there was some truth to the things he muttered to himself. He
wanted to believe his brother wasn’t completely insane. He had to
think things through reasonably and common sense said that if Kyler
was right, the gods would have killed him or at the least refused
to let him out of their possession. Mark admitted to himself if he
were Zeus he would have killed the man who attacked his woman. That
showed the strong influence Sierra had on him. Mark would never let
his woman influence him like that.

His main reason for wanting Kyler back had
been personal. No matter how crazy, stupid, or criminal he was, he
was still his brother. That didn’t mean he couldn’t pump him for
information. The whole situation with the gods, with the facility,
and with their
mates
was too weird not to keep an eye on.
Now that they had agreed to run some ops for the US, keeping an eye
on them was even more important. He intended to tape Kyler’s
ramblings and have one of his people listen to them. He just
couldn’t stand to listen to them himself. The term
bat shit
crazy
came to mind.

There was bound to be something they could
use somewhere in between all the crazy stuff. The gods were a tool,
one Mark intended to use any way he could. He nodded at the two
soldiers that stood on either side of Kyler just waiting for the
sign to take him to his cell. They moved and he docilely moved with
them. It was time for him to go home and see his mom. He was tired
of lying to her, but how could he ever tell her the truth?

Chapter 7

The Next Generation

Apollo was unhappy Zeus had sent him on what
he figured was a wild goose chase. They were on a boat traveling to
Easter Island. Ares would be flying in and while riding in a copter
wasn’t fun, a slow boat ride was no picnic either and there and
back would kill a week or more. None of the other gods were
enjoying it anymore than he was, but misery wasn’t enjoying the
company. He wished he was alone and not on the boat with ten other
unhappy gods just looking for a fight. He had broke up more than
one and the fights seemed to get more violent as time passed.

The island was in view, so now they would all
prepare to go ashore except the two unluckiest gods who had been
selected by the short straw method to remain behind. Who said
things couldn’t get worse? Those two had found out it could when
they drew their straws. No one had laughed at them, they had been
too busy being grateful that fate had not chosen them for such a
dubious honor. Apollo, as leader of this mission hadn’t been in
danger of having to stay behind. He would have gone crazy if he
hadn’t been sure he would get off this boat even if only for a
little while.

They had planned this as a night mission, the
dark would hide their landing and they could move about with ease
that humans couldn’t. They had the coordinates for the facility and
they all headed that way single file with Apollo in the lead. He
wondered how Hades’s mission had gone since they had had radio
silence since they had left. Too many spies in their midst could
mess up plans but they couldn’t find out what no one knew. He
thought Zeus was getting paranoid, but he’d never tell him that. He
could hear the sounds of copters not too far in the distance
telling him that Ares had made the rendezvous point first.

That was okay because he was just happy to
have his feet planted firmly on the ground for now. He could see
Ares, who had ten gods and demons with him. They all moved into a
circle, twenty-two gods on a mission.

“Are we good to go?” Apollo asked.

“Yes, the mission is a go,” Ares confirmed.
He made the hand motions that told their gods to follow them. The
facility was just out of sight and two of their stealthiest demons
slipped ahead to remove any obstacles that might impede their
progress.

When the group arrived the guards were
already restrained and the door opened. The two demons were busy
making short work of the few guards that Origin had here. Apollo
wondered where the rest of Origin’s soldiers were since this
facility was seriously undermanned. They continued through the
building until they found an elevator. Origin tended to keep gods
on the lower levels. There was only one sublevel in this small
facility.

They exited the elevator heading for what
should be the sleeping area. “Holy crap!” Ares exclaimed.

Apollo blinked, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“It’s fucking Romper Room!”

“How many you see?”

“Maybe thirty?”

“What’s the matter with you two?” Erebus
asked as he pushed them from behind. “We need to get in and get
out. Damn, those are just…”

“Yeah,” Apollo agreed.

Some of the gods behind them were getting
pushy so Ares and Apollo moved into the large room that had bunk
beds along both walls. The room wasn’t of any interest so much as
the gods sleeping in the beds were, or more exactly the children
waking up in the beds.

“I thought they stopped making gods,” Eremus
said.

“Yeah, we all thought that until now,” Apollo
replied. He would guess they were from the age of five all the way
to possibly fifteen. They were getting up and falling into place
behind what appeared to be the oldest and their leader.

The young god stood protectively in front of
the younger gods with two more close to his size and probably age
standing beside him. “Who are you?” he asked suspiciously. He had
to realize they were gods since they smelled similar to him.

“I’m Apollo and this is Ares. Who are
you?”

“I am Jupiter,” he said it emphasizing each
word which might impress a human but it only made Apollo fight the
desire to laugh. He realized these were replacement gods bred
because Origin realized the ever more dangerous missions they’d
been accepting from their clients would mean a larger loss of the
gods they sent on those missions. Clearly as long as they had
replacements, Origin considered the loss acceptable.

Zeus might not find it too amusing that they
thought he would be one of those to fall. They must have planned on
replacing him soon since Jupiter was old enough to lead now had the
need arisen. Apollo wondered what in the hell they were going to do
with a bunch of baby gods. He decided that it wouldn’t be his
problem and smiled. He had never been so happy that Zeus was in
charge.

Since the facility was so small only two of
Pedro’s guys had come along. They went with the two demons that had
led them all into the building. There was no real lab set up here,
only medical for the young god’s needs in case of illness or
injury. He and Ares looked at each other both wondering how to get
the others to tell Jupiter they had been freed but since they
weren’t adults they would have to come back to Olympus with them,
at least for now.

“You tell…,” they both said at the same
time.

“Okay,” again at the same time. Apollo had
never thought he and Ares were much alike but they were certainly
viewing this situation in the same light. Apollo had an
inspiration, someone would have to tell Zeus about everything.

“I’ll contact Zeus while you deal with them,”
Apollo said as he pointed at the young gods. Ares made a face but
nodded so Apollo looked for a secure place to radio Zeus from, he
found it in the facility’s radio room. After he scanned it and
locked the door, he put in the call that would shake Zeus up.

“Hello, Zeus?”

“Nah, it’s Hermes, but I’ll go get Zeus. Call
back in five, no make that ten. Zeus is with Sierra and it’s hard
to get him away from her.”

“Okay, Apollo out.” He looked around the room
finding nothing that held his attention until he found a box of
security tapes. Most of them were from the cameras placed where the
young gods stayed. It reminded him of when he was young since
Origin hadn’t changed their treatment of children at all. He
checked his watch, time to call back.

“Hello, is this Zeus?”

“Yes, how did it go, Apollo?”

“We had no trouble, but we’re not out yet. I
believe I remember you saying you wanted a large family,
right?”

“Yes, but what’s that got to do with
anything?”

“We just found you thirty children to add to
your two.”

“Repeat that Apollo, I’m not sure I
understood you.”

“Oh, you understood alright. We found thirty
gods ranging from about five to fifteen. Congratulations
Daddy!”

“Those son of a bitches! They continued
breeding gods, but they won’t be able to do it anymore.”

“No, any new gods will be bred the fun way,”
Apollo said laughing.

“I think you’re enjoying this entirely too
much,” Sierra said but he could hear the humor in her voice. Good
thing that female loved kids. Apollo had a feeling this group of
kids wouldn’t be easy to deal with. He wished he could waste more
time talking but he knew he had to get back to Ares where the fun
was probably just beginning.

“I have to get back and help Ares with the
kids.”

“Call with updates,” Sierra said.

“Will do,” he said just before he hung up. He
considered hiding a little while but his sense of responsibility
won out.

He walked slowly back to where he’d left Ares
but as he drew near he heard shouting. He hurried wondering if
Origin was attacking but when he walked in the room, Ares was being
dog piled by the young gods. He was yelling at them but he couldn’t
get up with at least ten of them hanging on to his arms, legs, and
a couple lying on top of him. He tried not to, but he broke out
laughing which made Ares roar with anger.

“So, Jupiter, can you tell me what’s going on
here?” Apollo asked.

Jupiter looked as pissed off as Ares was.
“He,” Jupiter said pointing to Ares, “told us we would be going
back to Olympus with you when you left.”

Apollo raised his eyebrow at the young god,
not understanding what the problem was.

“He’s not the boss of us,” Jupiter said
sounding every bit like a rebellious teenager.

“So what would you do? None of you have jobs,
you don’t own this facility so you can’t stay here, and even if you
could, there is only enough food for about a week.”

“Don’t know, but we expect to have some say
in it.”

“Maybe Ares could have explained things
better to you. Since you can’t stay here, Zeus has offered you a
place at Olympus until you decide what to do. As a leader, you’re
expected to come to speak to him since he is the acknowledged
leader of the gods, according to the rest of the world. You will be
expected to take your place helping your people to seek freedom.
There are still those Origin has locked away and it is up to all of
us to free them.”

Jupiter gave his gods some hand signals and
they reluctantly let Ares go. They were smart enough to keep a
close eye on him and some jumped when he growled after he stood up.
Anger washed off him in hard waves making everyone more than a
little uncomfortable.

“He going to be safe to be around?” Jupiter
asked looking toward Ares.

“He’s house broken, he’ll get over it, just
give him some time,” Apollo said as Ares stomped off.

“We will accompany you to Olympus where I
will meet with Zeus. We will visit until we decide what we will do
next. Maybe Zeus will have some sage advice for us.”

Apollo had to smile with the way Jupiter said
it as if he really had a choice but if it made the boy feel better
what the hell. “Zeus will be glad to hear it.”

Jupiter nodded. Apollo could see the
responsibility he felt for his young gods. For the first time,
Apollo saw him as a scared boy trying make the best of a bad
situation while looking out for his males the best he could. He was
a leader among gods so he wouldn’t, couldn’t allow himself to look
weak or uncertain. He was perched on the edge of adulthood, forced
to make decisions he was unprepared for and fearful he would make
the wrong choice.

They would all be leaving this place, since
Origin had built the facility, but they didn’t own it. They had
only been able to get use of the land on a ninety nine year lease
that heavily favored the local government. Now that Origin had been
exposed as being behind the group that used this place, it would
revert to the government. It was a shame the gods wouldn’t get the
property, but at least it was one less place for Origin to
hide.