by Lizzy Ford
My brow furrowed.
Cleon bowed his head and offered a warm smile. “It is my pleasure, Your Majesty,” he purred. “May I ask what happened?”
Tommy looked up at the Queen, waiting. After a moment, he spoke. “We were shot down by the military. Thanatos saved us.”
“Who is Thanatos?” I asked, eyeing the unconscious man who appeared to be part of their security detail.
Tommy giggled again.
“The God of Death, Niko,” Cleon said with a look of disapproval.
“Phoibe asked him to spare us, and he did,” Tommy added.
I knew the name of a handful of gods but not this one. “Why would a god help you, if they’re fire balling the rest of the world?” I asked the Queen.
Her gaze slid to me, but it was Tommy who answered.
“We don’t know.”
“You are very fortunate to be alive,” Cleon said, impressed. “But we aren’t out of the danger zone yet. We face a difficult time escaping, I fear. The city has descended into chaos, and I believe everyone in a position of influence is searching for you, Your Majesty.”
“Phoibe says if you can help us, she will be in your debt,” Tommy said.
I almost laughed. The girl had walked straight into Cleon’s trap. The politician was feigning warmth and gratitude as he responded, but I didn’t have to guess what was going through his mind. He had secured the favor of the most powerful woman on the planet, the only surviving member of the Sacred Triumvirate. His foolish trek into the war zone that was DC was going to pay off, assuming he survived.
I took up a position at the door, close enough to Cleon to stop him if he made any sudden moves towards my son.
“My most trusted man is on the job,” Cleon said with a look at me. “You must be Tommy,” he said to my son. He started forward, and I snatched his arm.
“Don’t,” I warned.
Unfazed, Cleon stayed where he was.
“Phoibe is worried about Theodocia,” Tommy said. “Is my mommy okay?”
Both Queen and boy were huddled next to the High Priestess.
“She’s alive and breathing fine. Whatever happened knocked you all out,” I replied.
The two exchanged a worried look, and I sensed I had somehow missed the meaning behind the question.
“She will be well, Tommy, I promise,” Cleon said. “My men are looking for an escape route. Once they find it, we’ll be headed to safety.”
“Which is where?” I asked quietly.
“The central compound in DC housing the Supreme Triumvirate. Her majesty has a palace there, and no doubt, security.”
I didn’t understand the extent of Cleon’s game – but I could definitely understand taking the vulnerable Queen to the one place in DC where she might escape the riots and chaos. With any luck, I’d have the opportunity to extricate Tommy from Cleon’s clutches before then.
“Sir,” one of Cleon’s men called, moving down the hallway towards us. He smelled of blood and sweat and was panting. “We found an exit. Our enemies figured out we’re down here. We need to move now!”
Before he was finished, I was at Theodocia’s side. I lifted her and shifted her over my shoulder. Phoibe appeared scared, and Tommy slid his hand into hers as they stood.
“How many men do you have left, including me?” I asked Cleon and joined him at the doorway.
“Three.”
I shook my head. “Can you handle a gun?”
“I sport shoot.”
“Those are rifles, not hand cannons.” I handed him one of my spares. “Close enough. Same principles. Now, let’s go.”
“Phoibe says we have to help the pilot and her bodyguard,” Tommy said.
“Can the woman speak for herself?” I snapped.
“She’s mute, Niko. Your son appears to have a gift to be able to hear her,” Cleon replied. “You two, grab the pilot and bodyguard.” He ordered the remaining members of his personal security team.
“They’ll slow us down,” I objected. “They can’t fight if they’re carrying people.”
“If Her Majesty wants them saved,” Cleon said, “then we will save them.”
“Phoibe says thank you,” Tommy said.
I strode out of the room, annoyed with Cleon’s attempted heroics when I knew he didn’t care about anyone but himself. “Tommy! Stay right behind me.”
He hurried to follow, tugging the young queen with him. With both my mobility and line of sight severely compromised, I had to stay sharper than before. One of my arms was wrapped around Theodocia’s legs, and I held a knife in the other hand.
The member of Cleon’s guard who had scouted the exit moved ahead of me, burdened by the weight of the pilot and carrying no weapons whatsoever. He moved quickly through the main chamber, in the opposite direction of the hole. I trailed him through a narrow tunnel that sloped upwards before opening up into a second chamber of indeterminable size. Aware of Tommy clinging to my belt, I kept my senses trained on what lay ahead of us.
We raced through another hallway before the bodyguard ahead of me stopped beside a ladder leading up to a manhole cover. We were all breathing hard from the pace and weight of those we carried.
I set Theodocia down carefully at the base of the wall and scaled the ladder fast. The manhole cover gave easily, leading me to believe we weren’t the first people to use it. In fact, the entire underground lacked the smell of sewers or mold or even dust and dirt I would have expected. Whatever the chambers and hallways were used for, they were maintained by someone.
Without time to consider the purpose behind it, I used my shoulder to push the heavy cover up and over until I was able to slide my fingers through the open space to force it the rest of the way open. From nearby, weapons were being discharged. The skirmishing between both sides sounded close.
“Stay here,” I called down to those below before leaping out of the hole. I scouted the side of the street leading into an abandoned neighborhood to determine the best route for escape. The gunfire and shouting came from the other direction, though I heard the signs of a battle in the neighborhood past this one as well.
The place was a mess. If ever I wouldn’t roll my eyes at Cleon using his helicopter, it was now, when such a thing was probably impossible. If the military had shot down the chopper belonging to the Queen of Greece, they wouldn’t hesitate to blow Cleon’s out of the sky.
When satisfied we had a somewhat safe route away from the main battle, I returned to the manhole cover and slid down the ladder.
“Go straight across the street and hide behind the house on the left,” I directed them. “Do not stop under any circumstances.”
No one spoke. If they chose to disobey, it wasn’t my problem, so long as Tommy and Dosy made it out alive. I picked up the body of the unconscious High Priestess. Cleon went first, followed by one of his guards carrying the pilot, the Queen, the second guard, and finally, Tommy. Balancing Theodocia, I climbed the ladder after my son.
He waited for me again, and we both darted across the street into the boarded up neighborhood.
“How far is the compound?” I asked Cleon.
“Far,” he said. “Too far to walk.”
“If you hadn’t noticed, we don’t have any other choice.”
“You’re creative with situations like this. I’m certain you –”
“Niko,” one of the guards called. He had set down the Queen’s bodyguard and was standing at the corner of the abandoned house we hid behind. He waved me over.
I lowered Theodocia to the ground and trotted to him, peering around the corner.
“Someone has been tracking us all night,” he reported. He was one of Cleon’s longtime security members who I had met during one of my numerous visits to Cleon’s home over the years. I wracked my brain for his name.
Dimitris. I had never worked with him, but I knew his reputation as a good guy, not too ambitious, who never disobeyed an order.
Two black vans had rolled up after we left t
he sewers, and no less than a dozen men piled out of the cars, gathered around a central person holding a tablet.
“When did you notice them first?” I asked.
“Not long after we left the manor up north.”
“Isn’t it protocol for you all to check for bugs?”
“We did. Except for the boss’s phone, since he won’t let anyone touch it.”
“Any chance it’s something else?”
“No.”
Ducking back around the side of the house, I strode to Cleon and snatched the phone out of his hands.
“They’re tracking you through this,” I snapped. I threw the phone as far as I could. “Any idea why?”
Cleon glanced at the Queen and Tommy, who were watching. He shifted closer to me, so they couldn’t hear him.
“You know very well I have a long list of enemies. I haven’t been able to deal with all of them,” he replied. “I also doubt I’m the only one who heard about the Queen’s accident. There might be more than one player with similar ambitions to mine.”
“Two vans full of armed men just showed up,” I replied.
“I’m sure you can handle it.”
I clenched my jaw. If I didn’t believe Tommy’s life to be in immediate danger, I’d let Cleon wallow in the mess he created. As it was, I had sufficient motivation to do what he wanted – even if I wasn’t happy about it. “I’ll take care of this mess and then you’re on your own. It’s not like a trust fund will be worth anything now that the banking institutions of the world are being destroyed.”
Cleon frowned, as aware as I was he wasn’t going to make it far, if someone wanted him dead.
For once, I had the upper hand with him. Once the danger passed, I could take Tommy and leave – and there was nothing Cleon could do about it this time.
“Niko!” Dimitris called once more. “Thirteen.”
“What d’ya know? My lucky number,” I said wryly and drew my weapons. It had nothing to do with saving Cleon’s ass and everything to do with giving me the best chance possible at escaping with Tommy and possibly Theodocia, assuming she didn’t weigh me down too much to fight. We needed a clean break, though, to give us a shot at putting some distance between us and anyone pursuing Cleon or the Queen.
I joined Dimitris at the corner of the house. We observed the newcomers in silence. They were well armed and wearing body armor, which meant mainly head shots or, if I had time and space, aiming for the vulnerable areas in their armor.
“Dimitris, keep the others safe,” I said quietly.
He looked at me quizzically.
“This ain’t gonna be pretty. If something bad happens, protect the kid.”
“Um, we stand a better chance fighting in tandem than you alone,” he said.
“You’ve never seen me fight. You’ll get in my way.”
When he appeared ready to object again, I rested my hands on his shoulders.
“I’m not a team player, Dimitris,” I said deliberately. “You heard about the Athens episode, where no one was left standing, attacker or ally?”
He nodded. “I heard it was a massacre.”
“That was me. I don’t play well with others.”
He shifted away from me.
I smiled. “Stay here. Protect the kid or I’ll make sure you regret it for however long I let you live.” Satisfied he was sufficiently warned, I left him standing at the corner of the house and darted to the adjacent home.
With frequent looks to ensure the small force wasn’t positioning itself to attack Cleon’s exposed group, I raced three houses down, far enough away to draw the fire of the men and hopefully avoid the kind of collateral damage that would place Tommy in greater danger.
Sliding the rifle off my back, I settled on the ground, concealed beneath a hedge in need of trimming, and took aim. I squeezed off a round.
“Twelve,” I murmured and then lined up the next shot. “Eleven. Ten. Nine.”
Number Eight fired on my position before I could put a bullet in his temple. I dropped the weapon in place then ducked back around the side of the house and snatched my sidearm. One of the attackers was belting out orders. Gunfire splintered the face of the home, and I dropped to my stomach, waiting for the automatic fire to cease. It stopped about sixty seconds later, and I remained completely still and silent. At some point, someone would be forced to check my position and determine if the threat had been neutralized.
I waited for the poor fool they sent first. When he crept around the side of the house, I slammed a knife into the side of his neck and covered his mouth with my other hand to keep him from crying out. Lowering him to the ground, I waited for the next attacker.
And so it went. In the course of ten minutes, I managed to kill every single one of them. A few got in punches, and one grazed my arm with a blade. Otherwise, the battle was one sided as I did what I did best: unleashed indiscriminate violence upon everyone in my path.
When it was over, I snatched the keys to the vans from the two drivers and double tapped a couple of the attackers who had taken body shots. Wiping the blood of others from my features, I collected the weapons I’d left in the bodies of the dead, or on the ground, before returning to the group waiting for me.
“All clear,” I said. My pace slowed as I approached. Dimitris was down, holding his stomach, while the other guard was dead.
To his credit, Cleon was huddled with the Queen and Tommy, his arms around them protectively as he looked from me to Theodocia. My ex was awake – and holding the knife I’d given Tommy. It dripped with blood, and three bodies lay at her feet.
I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Sweet Dosy hadn’t had it in her to swat a fly when we were together. How did she manage to kill three armed, trained men with a tiny knife?
She shuddered and dropped to her knees and then passed out, slumping to the ground.
“Mommy!” Tommy ran to her and knelt. He murmured something to her I couldn’t hear. Phoibe went with him, shaken but on her feet.
“Did she do that?” I asked Cleon.
“Slightly less brutal than your approach but not by much. I’ve never seen anything like you two,” Cleon answered uneasily. “She fought like she was possessed.”
“Maybe that was the infamous maternal instinct.” Curious, I was nonetheless done with putting myself and my son in danger and shrugged off Dosy’s strange display. Now was not the time to deal with it. I tossed Cleon the keys to one of the vans. The other set I kept for my escape.
“Tommy.” I waved my kid over. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Niko, wait,” Cleon said.
I ignored him, not in the mood for his shit. I bent down to pick up Theodocia. Her breathing was rougher and she was bloodied. I’d worry about her potential wounds later. My goal was to leave before someone else tracked Cleon’s phone and showed up with more firepower.
Cleon trailed me. “This is the new world order. Those in power are gone. The whole world is up for the taking, and I plan on being the one who takes it,” he said. “But first, I need you to get us to the compound in central DC.”
“Or I can be on the north side of Maryland by the time you make it there.”
“And where would you go? The protected zone isn’t that large, Niko.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” I replied. “When this fire stops, I can go wherever I want.”
“You assume the gods wrath will not take on a different form once their initial attack is over. This isn’t a warning, Niko. They are determined to punish humanity for reasons I can’t comprehend.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should. Can you face a god?”
I hefted Theodocia. “If I have to.”
“You’re a fool to believe so and to put your son at risk if you try,” he said firmly.
“Thanatos says we won’t survive outside the safe zone,” Tommy said in a scared voice.
“Don’t tell me you talk to gods, too!” I snapped with more heat than I intended. �
�I heard enough of that shit from your mother.”
Tommy gasped. “You said a no-no word,” he whispered, stricken.
The Queen of Greece nudged him. Tommy looked up at her.
“Phoibe wants you to stay with us,” he said.
I straightened and glared at the tiny royal. She didn’t back down, as small as she was.
“I agree,” Cleon seconded. “We need to stick together.”
“I can protect my own son. I don’t need you,” I replied. “Tommy, come on!” I started walking away.
“For this moment, yes. But what happens next?” Cleon called.
“Daddy, stay with us!” Tommy cried.
The panic in his tone sent coldness streaking through me. I turned and saw him hugging Phoibe. I didn’t care about Cleon or the Queen, but it was Tommy’s refusal to follow me that stopped me in my tracks.
Sensing my dangerous mood, Cleon approached and paused a short distance from me. “You’re too selfish to care if I tell you we have a duty to save the Bloodline, the only person who might be able to talk some sense into the gods,” he started. “Humanity will survive in some form, and the new world order is going to need her alive. I plan on being at the top when the world rights itself. You stand to gain a lot, if you are at my side.”
“Pretty big ambitions for someone who won’t survive ‘til morning on his own,” I pointed out.
“You’re right. I won’t. Not without you,” he agreed. “What if tonight we renegotiate our business relationship to make it more advantageous to both of us? What if I could protect your son indefinitely in exchange for you taking us all to safety?”
I didn’t know why this question sank in so much deeper than anything else. I didn’t want to be in charge of the kid’s welfare. At the same time, I was determined to ensure he survived. How did these two warring ideas exist simultaneously in my mind? How did I want to protect Tommy while also shying away from the responsibility of ensuring he didn’t end up like me?
The kid was turning out to be much more similar to his mother than I liked. Aside from the ability to talk to deities, both of them were capable of scrambling my brain and making me question myself.
“Big picture, Niko,” Cleon pressed. “When we do make it to the compound, which we will, what do you think happens?”
