Before she'd crossed half of it, however, a man fell in step beside her. By the color of the long tail of hair that hung from the back of his baseball cap and the shape of his face, the casual observer might have thought them siblings, or at least close relations. She supposed that, in a way, there might be a certain amount of truth to that. Both were from a nation on their home world that no longer existed, but it was there that the relationship ended. They couldn't be more different from each other. She'd been born and raised in the hardscrabble Coyun District, the city of Sempyr's most notorious slums. He, on the other hand, had been the scion of an old ruling family, one that had converted its power and influence to wealth when they'd abandoned the old monarchy in favor of democracy.
She had other reasons to loathe him, the least of which was his overly familiar manner. “Sif!” He threw an arm around her.
She shrugged it off with a silent snarl. “Loki. What are you doing here?” She paused, hating the fact that she always ended up looking up at him.
"Looking for you, actually. I heard that they'd called a Gathering. I can't attend—I'm up to my elbows in work right now—but I'd hoped I could get you to pass some information along for me."
She glanced around, quickly assuring herself that no one was close enough to overhear. “What could you possibly be doing that's important enough to blow off a Gathering, Loki?"
His answering grin was as familiar as a sunrise, even after so many years. “I think I've found out how human DNA was modified—and when. I think I know how to reverse the process."
"Then you definitely should be attending the Gathering,” she replied tersely. “But I know you—you're going to go off half-cocked and start all sorts of trouble without bothering to check with the rest of us first."
His expression took on a hurt 'who, me?' aspect. She gave a grunt of disgust and turned away. Some things never change. “I, for one, will never forget the last time you played with DNA, Loki. They didn't name you the ‘Father of Monsters’ for nothing."
He actually had the grace to look abashed. “That was different. I truly thought the Enemy would follow us here directly—I created all those creatures so we'd better be able to defend ourselves and our new world."
"Oh, I'm sure you had the best of intentions. You usually do. But look what happened. You unleashed a plague of the things on the people you were trying to protect. What makes you think your meddling this time will have any better result?"
"These mortals have almost achieved the level of knowledge we had, Sif. I have a whole team of human researchers working on it with me. They don't know exactly what we're doing, but they have enough skill to carry on even if something happened to me."
"Which doesn't explain at all why you can't attend."
He seemed to realize he'd argued himself into a corner. Another thing at which Loki was particularly talented. “That's just one of the projects. The others are a bit too sensitive to trust to a pack of mortals, no matter how skilled they are."
She shook her head disgustedly. “I'm going to have to tell the Gathering, you realize. Shea's going to hit the roof. You can't just ignore the Pact whenever it suits you, Loki."
For the first time in living memory, something actually sparked a hint of anger in his demeanor. The easy-going clown vanished abruptly, revealing a hard-eyed creature who bore no real resemblance to the Loki most of the other immortals knew. “I won't see this world fall to the Enemy like ours did, Sif. I won't allow some well-intentioned agreement made in order to actually set foot down here interfere with our ability to protect ourselves and those we've taken responsibility for. If Shea, or any of the others, take exception to that, fine. They can take it up with me directly. Athena knows how to contact me.
"I'm not going to quit, or set this research aside. I'm less than a month away from creation of something that can reverse the mana block in the human DNA sequence. The other things I'm working on are probably three months away from fruition. There isn't enough time for all of you to get together to stop it."
To her shock, he suddenly spun and stalked away, leaving her there, actually considering following him. Holy Mother of Angels, she thought to herself. I think we've got as big a problem there as we do with the Enemy itself.
She glanced at her watch. Oh, hell! I'm going to miss my flight!
* * * *
Athena walked into the large room and stopped dead. There hadn't been such a large gathering of their kind since the ship had first arrived. Even those who'd sat out the Civil War debate had apparently chosen to attend this one. Not that it's a big surprise. The Enemy is far more important than just another human war.
Nearly every immortal on Earth was there in Shea's lecture hall, sitting quietly in row after row of desks waiting patiently for their de-facto leader to arrive.
"Athena!” She glanced over and saw Sif waving a hand and drumming on an empty desk next to her. She was in the front row and had apparently saved a seat for Athena. And what prompted this? she wondered. With a mental shrug, she strolled over and slipped into the empty desk beside her.
The blond woman offered a tentative smile. It had been several hundred years since they'd spoken, she realized. Not that they'd ever really been close, but she was probably the only female immortal with whom she even had a passing acquaintance. “How you doing, Sif?"
"I'm fine. I hear you know how to contact Loki."
"Still as direct as always, I see.” Far from being offended, Athena actually welcomed it. One thing she could definitely say about Sif is that the small blond woman wasn't by any stretch of the imagination catty or any kind of backstabber. Quite a change from those she'd met on the job in recent years. “Yeah. He called me about a month ago. Why, you need to talk to him?"
"I already did. He ambushed me at the airport leaving home. He's up to something, Athena, and it's got me really worried this time."
"Like you weren't worried last time?” She held up a hand to forestall any objections. “No, that wasn't fair.” She sighed heavily. “So what did he tell you?"
"He's come up with some way to reverse the genetic block against magic, and he's already working on implementing it."
Athena winced. “That sounds like him. He doesn't think we can stop him, does he?"
"No. And he's probably right."
"Loki's probably one of the smartest among us, but he's got seriously shitty impulse control. You plan on telling the Gathering?"
"What choice do I have? Let everyone together decide whether to do something about it or not. I think he's buried himself, though. We'll be lucky to actually find his labs before he can set loose whatever he's been working on."
"Uh-huh. My thoughts exactly."
They both glanced up at the same time as the door to the right of the podium opened and Deryk Shea entered the room. The short, squat, truly homely man ran stubby fingers through his thick crew-cut and strode purposefully to the podium. A silence fell upon the hall.
"Welcome, brethren,” he said, his deep voice reaching every corner of the hall without any need of amplification. “Most of you are at least aware of the reason behind this Gathering, even if only through rumor.
"The Enemy is upon us. Its agents are here, working to undermine everything we've managed to accomplish in the past thirty centuries. We all remember how they operate. They infiltrate local organizations, seek to spread chaos and disrupt the order of things through acts of blatant terrorism, and operate behind the scenes to weaken existing power structures to make them easier to take over. I'm sure all of you saw the echoes of the past in the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. back in ‘02. For me it was like watching history repeat itself."
He took a long drink out of a glass sitting out of sight behind the podium. “The humans are doing a fair job tracking down many of the mundane threats, but, as we all know, the greater threat lies undiscovered behind and beneath that which they can see. The agents of the Enemy are not human, though they may look it. Not one of them will be ca
ptured by mortal forces and we all know why. It is time to set aside the greater part of the Pact and take an active hand again."
The murmur that filled the hall at that came as no big surprise. Athena herself felt momentary shock that he'd suggest abandoning any part of the Pact, much less the greater part of it.
"It is time,” he continued, “for us to use our own resources and infiltrate the agencies that are assigned to track down these creatures. We can capture them, and, in the process, reveal to those in power the kind of threat they face. This might even involve revealing ourselves as well, but I would prefer to avoid this if at all possible.
"Are there any questions?"
Sif raised her hand. Shea lifted an eyebrow, then lazily pointed her direction.
"Not so much a question, Deryk, as a comment. Both Athena and I have been contacted by Loki—who, as you can all see, is not here today. He revealed to us that he has discovered the source of the mana block and as we speak seeks a way to reverse it by meddling with human DNA. As this is part of the Pact itself, I'm wondering if you mean for this part of the Pact to be set aside as well."
Shea closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Believe me, I understand your concerns. But we're going to have to trust that Loki knows what he's doing. We simply don't have the manpower to track him down and do everything else we need to do.” He glanced around the room. “Two hundred of us landed on Earth so many centuries ago. I see a hundred and seventy-five here today. A hundred and seventy-five people who survived the final war on our homeworld, who managed to escape with me aboard the Mythrender. How many among us have forgotten what those final days on Alantea were like? The Enemy had performed its master stroke, infecting our whole population with the Thanatos Metavirus. The un-killable disease, the one our medicines couldn't begin to identify before it was too late.
"Those of us who survived were, indeed, the lucky ones. Thanatos had an unexpected side effect. Some of us were more than immune. We took the virus in and adapted it—became what we are today. Immortal, powerful, and the most implacable adversaries the Enemy has ever known. The Enemy and its agents may not know we're here. I'm hoping that's indeed the case. But even if it isn't—they can't know what to expect from us. With any luck at all, they don't know about the gifts Thanatos gave us. They may not even know about the immortality, the near indestructibility, the uncanny abilities some of us have since discovered within us.
"What Loki seeks to do, in a way, is expand our ranks. Common mortals can't hope to stand against the Enemy's minions. Never could, which was why our world fell so easily beneath its shroud."
He slammed a fist down on the top of the podium. The crack of impact echoed through the chamber like a gunshot. “I don't know if the Enemy can feel fear. But if it can, we will give it reason to be afraid!"
The cheer that rose up in response was ragged at first, but it grew in volume and harmony until it was a massive outcry that shook the walls. This might not have been their true homeworld, but most of them had adopted it as a suitable alternative. And none of them intended to see it fall the way Alantea had.
Shea waited until the furor had died down and raised a hand. “I don't want to issue orders, or give specific assignments—at least not to most of you. You all know what to do. All I ask is that you give us some means of coordinating your activities, so you don't accidentally find yourselves working against one another. Hermes will, of course, resume his post as communication central.” He gestured to a slim, curly haired immortal boy sitting a few rows back. “Sif, Athena, I'd like a few words with you two in private before you go."
* * * *
Deryk Shea had once commanded an Alantean Battle-cruiser, one of the greatest technological marvels of their world. He was a commander, an administrator to the bone, which was why he'd become so successful in Earth's business community in the past several years. He knew how to manage people, how to plan strategies and coordinate schemes and notions into things that took on a life of their own.
Athena respected him like no other. He'd earned their trust and respect a thousand times over, as far as she was concerned. Sif, she surmised, felt similarly.
They stood together in his office as he slumped down into his black leather seat, a muffled groan of what had to be exhaustion escaping his lips before he could suppress it. “Gods, I'm tired. Okay, I have a specific assignment for the both of you. Since Loki contacted you, I have the feeling he wouldn't have a great objection to you keeping an eye on him. It might not do any good, but I'll sure sleep a lot better at night knowing someone is watching over whatever the hell he's doing.
"You two have any problems with that?"
Athena shook her head. “No, sir.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see Sif shaking her head as well.
"Good. Get with Hermes, figure out how to set up a communication ring, and track the Trickster down."
They left together, Sif with a wry smile on her face, Athena just feeling as though someone had placed the weight of the whole world squarely on her shoulders.
Two
Loki blended into the background, slipped out the door, and strode down the hallway, sloughing off the glamour he'd been wearing inside. Went a lot differently than I'd expected. Maybe Shea's finally coming to his senses, he thought with a silent chuckle. Perhaps a little too much to hope for, he decided after a moment's consideration.
He'd been perceptive enough to realize Loki hadn't been entirely truthful—he was much farther along than he'd told them. Weeks, not months. In fact the mana virus—which he'd dubbed the ‘Arcane’ metavirus—would be ready for introduction to a human vector before the end of the week. If not within the next couple of days. He had every reason to believe it would perform as expected. All the tests seemed to indicate green lights down the line.
He had concerns about the others, however. They hadn't been so easily manufactured. Everything rested on their DNA, which seemed to operate under entirely different rules than that of the humans. He'd used the human mapping information to track some of the variables down, but there were still far too many for comfort. He thought he knew what the viruses would do, but it was the five percent remaining uncertainty that worried him.
He turned a corner and ran straight into Sif and Athena, who seemed, as unbelievable as it was, to be waiting for him. “Hello, Loki,” Athena said, taking one arm. Sif muttered something—probably profane—and took his other arm. “We've been looking for you."
"Athena had a feeling you'd be here after all, skulking about as usual, so we decided to have Thorne do a scrying for you. And, lo and behold, here you were."
Damn. He hadn't even considered Thorne—the only true mage among them. Somehow the virus had opened up his mana receptors even wider than those of the magic-wielding mortals who'd been around when they'd first arrived on Earth. Thorne had taken to magick as if born to it.
Of course he'd not been affected by the virus that had stripped the mortals of their magic. Immortals could not contract human diseases. For a long time Thorne had been the only true wizard left on Earth. Well, if Loki had his way, that would no longer be the case.
They escorted him through a second doorway and down an adjacent hall, this one filled with mundane Shea Industries employees rushing to and fro doing whatever it was Shea Industries employees did. Loki generally didn't give a rat's ass what corporate clones did with their time. Even Deryk Shea's corporate clones.
"So Deryk figured my work a fait accompli, didn't he?” Loki couldn't help but grin.
"As you were hoping,” Athena responded dryly. “I doubt he ever thought you'd follow the rules anyway, Loki."
Sif affixed him with a frosty stare. “You're a lucky bastard, Loki. That's all I have to say."
"Yeah, well, your feelings on the matter aren't a mystery to anyone."
They stopped in front of a bank of elevators and waited for a car amidst the flow of everyday workplace traffic. As the car arrived and the doors slid open, they quickly escorted him inside
. “We want to see your lab, Loki,” Athena told him. “As per Deryk's request."
"Uh-huh. I heard what he said. He never said that."
"You weren't there when we talked to him afterward,” Sif told him. “It won't hurt you to cooperate anyway. We'll be out of your hair in a matter of an hour or so."
The elevator stopped one floor down and someone else entered the car. He was about Loki's height, wearing a pair of Levis and a blue plaid flannel shirt. Long, curly hair hung halfway down his back, tied back in a leather thong. Eyes like chips of coal inspected each of them in turn for a long moment before the doors slid shut and the car began moving once again.
"Hello Athena, Sif ... Loki."
Loki did a double-take. The voice was familiar, but ... Suddenly he lunged for the man's throat, hauled away at the last instant by the firm grasps of each woman on each of his shoulders. “You traitor! How dare you show your face! Let go of me,” he snarled at the women, who both shook their heads at him. “You talk about me—I may bend the Pact, but this son of a bitch ripped it into shreds and danced on the scraps."
"Hello, Gabriel,” Athena said carefully. “I am almost as surprised to see you here as Loki is."
The curly-haired man shrugged. “I heard there was a Gathering. I realized I wouldn't be welcome, but figured I'd best stay in tune with what's going on."
Loki snarled wordlessly, imagining his hands implanted firmly around Gabriel's throat. It would feel so good.
"I don't recall you as being the particularly violent type, Loki,” Gabriel murmured, meeting his eyes with an ironic tilt to his head.
Sif's grip on Loki's shoulder grew harsher, as if in warning. He knew damn well he was being mocked and didn't like it in the least. “Say your piece, Gabriel. We're listening. But remember, both of us are more likely to side with Loki than with you."
"There's one heck of a note of irony in that,” Gabriel remarked with a wry chuckle. “I don't remember you ever agreeing with Loki about anything before now."
"You still a carpenter?” Athena asked, with a pointed glance at his hands. Loki's eyes flicked over them, noticing they were thick with calluses.
Loki's Sin Page 2
