“I haven’t talked to Zeus, but I’m sure the next thing on his agenda will be to find his fellow Olympians that are missing. Honestly, I really don’t care what Zeus, Cronus or any other deity wants. I need to find Hades because I have to wake him up. It’s my new Atlas mission.” Kala walked over to examine the books. Some of the titles were in languages she didn’t recognize. She wasn’t even sure they were human. “What kind of books are these?”
Asmodeus went to her side and pulled out a large black-leather book with no writing on its spine. He opened it up and handed it to her. As Kala took the ancient tome, the strange lettering inside began to glow and pulse at her touch.
Smiling, Asmodeus gently took the book from her hands and placed it back on the shelf. “I’ve been collecting these over the years. Mostly they’re harmless, but the book you just held is the original text of Gaia and Uranus. I wanted to see what it would do when you touched it.”
“So I can make a book glow. Is that because I have Gaia in me?” Kala wished someone would tell her more about who she was and how she had a piece of a goddess inside of her.
“Most likely. I recovered it from Cronus’s personal library and replaced it with a fake. I figured it might be useful some day,” he confessed.
Kala was curious. “I can’t read it, though. Is it magic?”
Asmodeus shrugged. “Oh yes, there’s magic in there. Unfortunately, I have no way to access it. I was hoping you might be of some help in that department.” He turned to face her, his eyes probing. “But that’s for a later date. Now: Hades. You have to wake him up, but you don’t know where he is, yes?”
Kala hated admitting she needed help, especially from Asmodeus, but she nodded. “I was hoping you knew where he was located.”
Asmodeus stared at Kala for a few moments, and then shook his head. “No idea. Cronus didn’t trust me enough to tell me where he hid the Olympians.” He grinned. “Crazy, huh?”
“Insanity.” Kala felt compelled to smile back, but her heart sank. How was she supposed to complete her task if she didn’t know how to find her target? “Could one of these books help?” she asked, desperate for any aid.
Asmodeus viewed all four walls of the floor-to-ceiling shelves. “Sorry, beautiful, nothing here that could locate a sleeping god. I can ask around though. Over the centuries there have been plenty of supernatural beings that have tried to track down the Olympians. Cronus did his job a little too well.”
“You don’t think Cronus would tell me…” Kala thought she’d ask Asmodeus his opinion, but his expression was identical to Talan’s.
He laughed. “Keep dreaming, sweetheart. Cronus doesn’t want any more gods mucking up his plans. He’s the one who put Hades to sleep in the first place. And you know he wants you to fail, so why ask?”
“I don’t know. I’m kind of his mother in a weird way. Maybe I could scare it out of him. The guy tends to buckle under pressure when he thinks I’m going to kill him.” Kala knew she was sounding desperate. But she was. Desperate. She was positive none of the Atlas surrogates had ever had to find an unconscious god and wake him up. It was as if the universe couldn’t wait until it had the real Atlas back, no longer an acting-Atlas, but the Titan itself, to do the really hard missions.
Kala searched her Atlas memories for any indication as to where that damn cave was, but came up with nothing.
“Cronus knows you won’t consume him if you have a choice. It’s the uncertainty that you’ll lose control and kill him out of raw emotion that scares him. You tend to give into your rage if you haven’t noticed. It’s how you became Atlas in the first place.”
Kala wasn’t sure if she liked the fact that Asmodeus’s observations were ringing true. But he was right, the only times Kala ever considered devouring Cronus was when she was enraged and lost control. “When did you get so observant? It’s disturbing.”
Asmodeus slightly brushed his hand against hers. His hand was gone before she could swat him away, but a part of her didn’t want to anyway. She found a strange kind of comfort in Asmodeus. His blunt and sometimes brutal outlook helped her work out her problems. Maybe he could jog her mind into figuring out what to do next.
The Demon sighed heavily. “I can’t believe your mission is wake up Hades. The guy is a total dick.”
Kala laughed. “Coming from you, he must be bad.”
“Me? I’m a perfect gentleman.” Asmodeus mocked offense.
“Yeah, I’m sure the king of the Demons is all heart,” Kala joked back.
“Better than king of the Underworld, believe me.” Asmodeus turned thoughtful. “Hades was the first god to be taken in the war. Cronus needed to get Hades out of the way fast since he has a knack for controlling dead things. Cronus didn’t want to be fighting both the living and the dead.”
“So where would Cronus hide him?” Kala wondered aloud, sharing her thoughts with Asmodeus. “It’s some sort of cave, under a body of water. That’s all I can tell from my vision.”
Asmodeus was at a loss as well. “That could be anywhere. Might not even be on Earth. But, as I said, I’ll ask around.”
Kala couldn’t help but feel awkward. It was as if they were friends. Something she never thought she’d say about any Demon, let alone Asmodeus. But he had proven on more than one occasion that he could be trusted – to a degree. It was all the other degrees she was worried about. “So what about you? Have you picked a side yet?”
Asmodeus slowly nodded his head. “Actually, I have.”
Kala would be fine with his choice either way. Even when he was on Team Cronus, Asmodeus still helped her out. It would be more difficult since Kala would always side with her father, Owen, which meant by default she was on Team Olympus and Grigori. But that didn’t have to get in the way of whatever arrangement Asmodeus and Kala had made between themselves.
“So, which side did you pick?” she asked.
Before Kala could stop him, Asmodeus leaned down and gently kissed her. When he pulled back he smiled, “Yours.”
It threw her off to the point where she decided not to kick him in the nads for his surprise-attack kiss. “Mine?”
Asmodeus nodded. “One thing I’ve learned lately is that you tend to win, unlike your namesake.” Then he laughed, “Besides, I never really liked Cronus anyway. He was just a means to survive.”
“And now, I’m that means?” Kala suddenly felt overwhelmed by the confidence Asmodeus seemed to have in her.
“Everything in life is a gamble, but over the last eight days you’ve shown you’re nearly unstoppable. Anyone that can scare Cronus is an ally I want.” His eyes bore into her with intensity. “And I’m an ally you want as well.”
Kala couldn’t seem to look away, but finally she spoke, “Whether it’s in my best interest or not, I do consider you an ally… of sorts.” She didn’t want his head to blow up from an over-sized ego, so she added that last part.
Asmodeus clapped his hands together. “I’ll take it.” He glanced at a clock behind him. “I better get to it. I’ll find you when I learn anything.”
And just like that, he was gone.
Kala was left in his personal hide-out-library, with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. That conversation was the most “real” conversation she’d ever had with Asmodeus. Usually they flirted, tried to play each other, spoke in disguised innuendos, but nothing like that this time. It made her feel guilty for some reason. He was the king of Demons after all. But what did that really mean? Honestly, the Malaks she met were just as nasty as any of the Demons. In fact, her former soldier-in-arms, Lali, was a Demon. Before Lali had tried to kill Kala, she had fought beside her in their elite team. Lali had even saved her life on a few occasions.
The more immersed Kala became in the supernatural world, the more she realized there really wasn’t much of a line between good and evil. It was simply whose side you were on.
Aside from wanting the world to end, Asmodeus could be a decent guy.
Kala shook her h
ead from the absurdity of that sentiment and racked her brain, trying to figure out what to do next.
She spent the next few hours going through any book she thought could help. Half of them she couldn’t read. After a while, though, her Atlas memories kicked in and some of the texts became legible.
None of it seemed to help. Most of the books appeared to be written-down spells and magic. That wasn’t a total loss: Kala knew that Roberta would be chomping at the bit to read some of these tomes. Kala might just have to smuggle a few of them to her. Roberta would probably have more luck translating them than Kala.
Kala glanced at the clock.
3d 20h 22m 15s: 9:38 AM.
Five hours had gone by since she’d destroyed the cure for cancer. It felt like five minutes ago.
Putting away another book, Kala plopped down in a leather chair. The problem was trying to convey to the others what that stupid cave looked like.
If she could just show her vision to Talan, Owen, Asmodeus, Turner – anyone her vision, maybe they could locate Hades.
Turner.
With the kind of technology General Turner had access to, he could probably use satellites to find the place. If the cave was anywhere on Earth, he’d be able to find it, if he could just see it. Or have a snapshot of it! It was so frustrating. Describing it meant nothing. Maybe a sketch artist would help? Anything to share what she saw.
Maybe there was something that could pull it out of her mind somehow…
Turner’s prototype machine. It scanned her brain. It was where Kala and Penny talked about her first mission. All inside her mind.
It had recorded her brain waves, telling Turner and his scientists how her noggin worked. And that was before she had devoured Atlas. Maybe it could capture the vision and show it in real time?
It was her only lead. She had to try.
Closing her eyes she concentrated on Turner. When she opened them again she was back in Fortski’s lab, staring at Turner and Fortski.
“Oh, hi,” she said lamely. Considering the fact that she had only left the Compound hours ago, Kala didn’t think Fortski had forgiven her yet.
General Clifton, though, had been a man of his word and cleaned up the floor of shell casings his shooters had left behind. The place was spotless.
Kala focused her attention on Turner. “I need to talk to you.”
Fortski eyed Kala like a disease. Kala was very familiar with that look. Before she had become Atlas, Kala had received it on a nightly basis whenever she’d reject some poor schlub at a bar.
Fortski whirled back on Turner. “Do I really have to continue to humiliate myself by standing in her presence.”
Ouch.
Turner sighed, shaking his head. “You need to learn when someone has done you a favor, Fortski. This girl has basically guaranteed your success with Age-pro, now take Lieutenant Echols’s blood sample and get to work.”
“What’s he going to do with Derek’s blood?” Kala didn’t like the innuendo that Derek could be a lab rat.
“I should take some of hers as well.” Fortski appeared downright happy at the prospect.
Turner grimaced with disapproval. “Later. You have enough to research for now.” Turner focused on Kala. “If your vision of the future is right, then Lieutenant Echols’s blood may be the key to unlocking immortality.”
Kala simply nodded. She didn’t want to tell him the rest of her glimpse into the future, where Turner was responsible for killing thousands of people. She was still having trouble stomaching it herself. It was the part of her Atlas duties that she didn’t understand: how her last mission had been to destroy the cure for cancer, which could save millions, because ultimately Forstki would create a drug that would cure everything and save billions – only to have the world become overpopulated, forcing Turner to kill thousands. She pushed the thoughts away and tried to be at peace with the fact that it went beyond her understanding.
Fortski gave Kala one last glare of disgust before leaving to the other end of the room to continue his work.
After he was out of earshot, Turner gave Kala his full attention. “Now, what do you need from me?”
“Do you think that brain machine of yours could record memories?” Kala asked.
Turner seemed intrigued by this idea. “Possibly. Why would you need to see memories? Or are these Atlas’s old memories you want to look at, since you can’t remember everything at will.”
Kala hadn’t even entertained that possibility. She couldn’t simply access her Atlas memories since Talan’s mind-mojo kept them hidden until she needed to see them. If she could record those memories and store them digitally, that might prove helpful in the future. “That’s actually a good idea but, no, I need some immediate help figuring out where my next Atlas mission is. I figure if I could show it to you and my other allies we have a better shot at finding the location.”
Turner nodded, obviously interested in the idea of taking another crack at Kala’s brain. “I see. It’s on the black level, but I’ve heard that won’t be a problem for you to access anymore. Harry told me of your truce.”
“And you’ve forgiven Clifton, even after taking Roberta?” Kala pried.
Turner shrugged as if the matter couldn’t be helped. “Harry and I have a complicated relationship. Roberta is safe, that’s all that matters, and I’ve taken steps to ensure he can never kidnap my wife again.”
Kala didn’t even want to ask what those steps were. She was sure they involved some kind of dark magic.
“Let’s do this,” Kala steered the mission forward.
Turner nodded and walked toward the door that led to the inner sanctum of the Compound.
With one last glance at Forstki, Kala followed Turner out of the lab.
Traversing the many twists and turns of the underground facility had always felt like a giant labyrinth to Kala. It was only once she became Atlas that she was able to go to the different branches of the Compound. When she had been a soldier, Kala was limited to one small area that included The Cog (where all the tech resided), the ready room (where her team would suit up) and the infirmary for whenever a teammate was injured. The walls were made of a special black metal that prevented any enemy’s radar detection.
Before Atlas, Kala had been certain those were the only threats to her country and the world. Now she knew that with the snap of a finger any one of the supernatural beings could teleport in. She wondered if Rotoph, a Grigori with a knotty past of disloyalty to his brothers, was preventing Cronus and the other Titans from entering the Compound. He had done it before; she just didn’t know if anyone thought the facility needed protection. How would the Titans even know she was even here?
It took almost an hour of walking before they reached the room that held the machine. Just as Kala remembered, a chair sat in the middle of the room with a single headpiece that had hundreds of wires attached to it, all strung to the ceiling, then back down to a computer terminal.
“We don’t have Dr. Rosen with us this time,” Turner said, “but I know how to work the machine. I’m just not very good with keeping the volunteer safe. I’m afraid we’ve had two coma cases so far. But since you’re immortal and a Titan no less, you’ll be fine.” Turner didn’t seem worried at all.
“You’re saying you could put me in a coma?” Kala wasn’t reassured in the least.
“I don’t think so, no.” Turner began to set up the computer terminal. “Not deliberately at any rate.”
“Comforting,” Kala said with a sarcastic tone that Turner ignored. “Oh, and FYI: Dr. Rosen was Pandora, not a real doctor.” Kala felt the need to inform him.
“The Pandora?” Turner looked like he had received another treasure.
“Yes, the Pandora. So the only reason my brain probably didn’t fry was because I had her help.” Kala began to doubt the sanity of her decision to hook into the machine for a second time. If she went comatose, she wouldn’t be able to complete her mission and the world would end. But if she didn’t try
she might never find out where Hades was sleeping.
Turner grunted, exasperated. “You’re a Titan, for heaven’s sake. I’ll send for Talan if anything goes wrong. He’ll be able to pull you out if needed. But you won’t need him, I’m sure of it. Now, do you want to do this or not?”
Kala stared at the monstrosity of a machine for a moment longer, then nodded.
Here goes nothing.
Chapter Four
Kala was surprised at how calm she felt after the seventh hour of being strapped into Turner’s device. They had made some progress initially, which gave her hope that they’d be able to put her vision to video. But the few images they managed to pull out from her memories were the same images seven hours later. She was conscious through the whole experience unlike the last time when Penny aka Pandora took the opportunity to talk to Kala’s subconscious.
Kala and Turner communicated with each other the entire time as she guided him through what he called “brain mapping.” She worked well with Turner. He’d become a vital ally throughout the upheaval her life had become. It was difficult for Kala to imagine the man helping her today would be a mass murderer in the future. Even for the sake of population control, it didn’t seem like something he’d do. But time and circumstances could change a person. Kala had seen it before on a smaller scale – but after living for hundreds of years? Maybe human beings became more closed off about life and death. She’d certainly seen indifference in the immortal beings she’d met so far. All they wanted to do was destroy each other, and they didn’t care about the millions of humans that could end up as collateral damage.
The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) Page 3
