I Bring the Fire Part III: Chaos

by C. Gockel

  Amy blinks. That might have sounded like madness a few months ago, but considering the circumstances...She nods. “Yes, that’s Thor.” Trying to step behind Steve and out of Thor’s line of vision, she says, “We didn’t get along.”

  Shaking the hammer, Thor bellows to everyone and no one. “I fight for mankind! You need not kneel before me!”

  Behind her she hears Bryant say dryly, “Well, thanks for that.” Turning her head she sees his arm is in a cast that wasn’t there the day before. Hernandez and Brett are there, too.

  Steve snorts. Stepping forward, he says, “I’m Agent Steve Rogers. How may I help you?”

  Before Thor can reply, two black shadows swoop down from the sky to land on the chariot. “Rawk, rawk,” they squawk at Thor, bobbing up and down. One shrieks, “Go home! Go home! You’ll make your daddy mad!”

  “You’ll ruin everything!” shrieks the other.

  Scowling, Thor swipes at them with his hammer. Leaping into the air, the two ravens cry out in rage as sparks and feathers rain down on the sidewalk. There are murmurs from the crowd as they fly away, rawking boisterously.

  Amy watches them go, vaguely aware of Thor stepping out of his chariot, his voice booming. “I have heard of your Captain Rogers of the Marines of the United States. I seek...”

  As Thor rumbles on, Amy squints at the vanishing birds. The ravens think Thor will ruin everything? Thor’s ‘daddy’ is Odin—Thor is here against his wishes? Last time Amy saw Thor he was trying to bring Loki home and had offered to exonerate him from all his ‘crimes,’ which apparently included attempting to keep his sons from being executed for trying to initiate political reforms.

  Amy tilts her head, the swell of the crowd’s voices rising around her. It suddenly hits her that she doesn’t hear Thor talking anymore. She cautiously slides her gaze in Thor’s direction. He is standing a few feet in front of Steve, staring straight at her, his face red.

  “You!” Thor shouts, pointing Mjolnir at Amy.

  “What?” says Steve.

  Before Amy knows what is happening, Thor lunges forward, and a heavy gloved hand wraps around her neck. “How dare you call me the God of Blunder and cowardly attack me with your automobile!”

  Amy grabs his wrist, eyes wide and instantly watery. She sucks in a small breath and feels her feet leave the ground. Around her she hears people start to shout, but above their voices comes Steve’s voice, eerily calm and steady. “In my hand, pointed at your head I have a weapon that shoots projectiles at 375 meters per second. Put her down, or we’ll see if it cracks your skull.”

  Amy’s feet connect with the sidewalk. Thor’s eyes slide to Steve, but he doesn’t release Amy’s neck. “This is Loki’s whore!” he says. “She is spying for him!”

  Amy feels her face go red and hears her heart beating in her ears.

  Gun level at Thor’s head, Steve says, “Ms. Lewis is with us, and if you don’t let her go I’ll shoot you here and now.”

  Thor stares at Steve a few long heartbeats more, and then, letting Amy go he begins to laugh. “Well met, Steve Rogers! Well met!”

  Steve narrows his eyes at Thor. “We need to talk,” Steve says.

  “Agreed,” says Thor, his own eyes going hard. “Perhaps at your fortress?”

  Standing motionless for a moment, gun still unholstered, Steve says, “Come with us.”

  Thor gives Steve a sort of half smile. “No, I’ll follow you.”

  Steve lifts his gun. Thor doesn’t bat an eyelash. “You need me, Agent Rogers. Don’t push your luck.”

  Steve looks around at the crowd and lowers his gun slowly.

  “If you’re not arresting him, we will!” says a police officer, running forward.

  But Thor’s already in his chariot, and it’s lifting into the air.

  “Be my guest,” says Steve, as the chariot starts to make lazy circles in the sky.

  The officer’s mouth just falls and he stares upwards.

  A little dam in her head seems to burst. “I’m not a whore!” she says. The police officer doesn’t pay her any attention and Steve is already making his way back towards the stairs. Amy turns to follow him. Brett and Bryant are there giving her funny looks.

  Amy looks at Bryant’s cast. “What happened to your arm?” she asks.

  “He fell,” says Brett too quickly.

  Bryant sighs and then says, “Yeah. Come on, let’s head back.”

  x x x x

  Amy is in the ADUO conference room which is magically shielded with Promethean wire. She is sitting at the conference table, digital tablet in front of her. Thor is landing his chariot on the roof, and the room is mostly empty. At the table with her are Steve and Jameson. Or rather, they’re standing at the table, fists down glaring at each other.

  “She shouldn’t be in here!” Jameson says to Steve.

  “She’s our liaison with Loki and she should be here!” Steve shouts back.

  “Your liaison with Loki?” Thor’s voice booms from the doorway to the conference room.

  Amy, Jameson and Steve all turn their heads. Behind Thor stand other agents.

  Thor’s eyes are on her again. Amy swallows, and his gaze abruptly shifts. He looks at the walls and ceiling of the room. “This room is magically shielded,” he says.

  “We can speak somewhere else if it would make you feel more comfortable,” says Steve.

  Thor reaches into a satchel that hangs around his waist near his hammer. “No, no, this will do,” he says stepping into the room. Agents rush in behind him and station themselves around the room. A few of them move their hands towards their hips. Jameson whispers something to one of the agents. The agent nods and then quickly leaves the room.

  Amy blinks. As Thor steps into the room, his demeanor seems to change a bit. His eyes soften, and he looks about curiously. Two agents whisper to one another, and Thor looks up at them and lifts an eyebrow. “Don’t try anything,” he says. “Although my hammer Mjolnir may not work here, I believe your Midgardian magic eggs will.”

  He opens his hand. In it is a grenade, his thumb through the pin. Amy’s eyes widen, and she swears she hears a collective intake of breath.

  Thor tilts his head and says quietly, “I come as a friend. Do not make me your enemy.”

  Amy’s mouth falls a little. Beside her she sees Steve shift, and her boss meets her eyes. Thor...is different now. Not so loud.

  “At ease, gentlemen,” Steve says.

  “You. Go!” Jameson says to Amy.

  “No, she stays,” says Thor before Steve’s even opened his mouth. Thor looks around the room. His eyes fall on the Venetian blinds on the window, slightly open to let in light. His jaw tightens. “Close the coverings on the window completely,” Thor orders, as though the room is his to command.

  Nervous eyes shoot to Steve and Jameson.

  Thor looks at Steve. “Although the room is shielded from Heimdall’s sight, ravens and that rodent Ratatoskr can read lips.”

  “Ragatoskr, the squirrel that carries gossip up and down the World Tree...is real?” The question squeaks out of Amy’s mouth before she’s even thought about it.

  Jameson glares at her.

  Steve raises an eyebrow that clearly says, Now I’ve heard everything.

  Thor spits on the carpet. “Aye. The Norns favorite agent has been active of late.”

  While everyone else is temporarily paralyzed with that bit of bizarre knowledge, Steve nods at one of the agents. The agent hastily stands and closes the blinds.

  As soon as the blinds are closed, Thor says to Steve, “I am sorry about the commotion I caused earlier. But I am not Heimdall, I am not all seeing. Although I’ve heard of you, Heimdall would not give your exact location—I needed to draw you out.”

  Amy tilts her head. Thor is suddenly not looking so...blundersome. Steve dips his chin fractionally, he looks like he is about to say something, but Jameson jumps in. “I’m Director Jameson. I’m in charge here. Why have you come?”

  Thor’
s eyes slide to Jameson for just a moment. He looks him up and down once and then turns back to Steve. “I have come for Loki. The thing beneath your streets will destroy him—”

  “We can only hope,” says a sharp feminine voice. All heads turn to the door. Gerðr is standing there, two agents at her elbows. On her head she is wearing a helmet of Promethean wire. Amy blinks. Every time Gerðr tried to leave her cell—a room lined with Promethean wire, Cera had taken control of her mind. The helmet she wears now must be enough to stop Cera’s influence. Amy looks at Thor—why wasn’t Thor affected by Cera?

  Thor’s lips curl. “Gerðr,” he says.

  Standing at the door, Gerðr wavers. Eyes on Thor, the giantess says, “Your devotion to that deviant is misplaced! Don’t you know who killed your golden brother, Baldur?” Amy tilts her head. Gerðr is speaking perfect English. Gerðr has picked up some of their language in the past few weeks, but usually she relies on translators...unless she has access to magic. The helmet doesn’t prevent her from using all magic, evidently.

  Thor smiles sadly, “Yes, a nice human warrior named—”

  “Fool!” Gerðr screams. “It was Loki!”

  “Can you not see that Baldur deserved it?” Thor snaps back.

  There are some murmurs around the table. Gerðr looks shocked. “How dare you say such a thing! Of all your cursed race, Baldur was the only one who was good and wise and just!”

  Thor’s jaw twitches and his eyes narrow. “You did not see him in the light cast by Helen—”

  Gerðr spits. “That deformed nightmare Loki called his child?”

  Beside her Brett cracks his knuckles. Amy turns to see both of the brothers glaring at the giantess. Laura Stodgill looks like she might like to hit the giantess, or throw up. Steve’s eyes are cold and calculating.

  “Baldur knew Loki should die!” Gerðr says. “Don’t come here to save Loki. Don’t aid the prophecies! Help the humans kill Loki before he gets his hands on Cera and destroys us all!”

  Amy swallows.

  Thor’s jaw tightens. His voice booms through the room with such force the windows vibrate. “You’re too old to believe in fate, Gerðr!”

  Amy exhales. Even Thor, who is hundreds—thousands—of years old doesn’t believe in destiny. She feels herself go a little giddy with relief.

  One of Jameson’s agents coughs. “Prophecies?”

  Agent Hernandez answers. “Loki’s foretold to lead the armies of Hel against the armies of Asgard, thereby bringing about the end of the world...and the beginning of a new and more peaceful world.”

  A sudden, very deviant thought occurs to Amy. She almost snickers. “Of course, in Norse tradition, Hel is inhabited by the weak—everyone who didn’t die in battle.”

  “What is your point, Lewis?” Jameson snaps.

  Biting her lip to contain a giggle, Amy says, “So maybe Loki is going to lead the meek to inherit the Earth.”

  Sometimes you don’t recognize there is ambient noise in a room until it goes away. Suddenly, it seems that everyone in the room is holding their breath. Amy looks around. It looks like Steve is biting on the inside of his lip to keep from smiling, Laura Stodgill, their legal counsel, has a hand to her mouth like she’s hiding a grin.

  Jameson’s voice cuts through the air. “Don’t compare Loki to Jesus Christ. Ever.”

  Amy huffs and shrugs. She doesn’t care what Jameson thinks. Jameson’s far less scary than Steve.

  Thor clears his throat. “My intention is to bring Loki back to Asgard. Although my father seems to have given up on Loki, he has not renounced his offer of clemency.”

  “Clemency for what?” Steve says.

  Thor holds up the grenade. “At his sons’ execution he threw one of these magic eggs into the crowd. Nearly a dozen onlookers died.”

  Amy goes cold. She swears all eyes on the room have turned to her.

  “Onlookers?” someone says. “Were they civilians?”

  Thor looks up at the ceiling as though considering, “Yes, I suppose you could call them that.”

  A shiver sweeps through Amy’s body.

  She hears a gasp behind her. Turning, she sees Gerðr start to claw at her helmet. “Get this thing off of me, let me to Cera! Let me to her!”

  “Bring her in here and shut the door!” Thor shouts, his voice so commanding the agents beside the giantess comply. Gerðr scrambles and kicks against them, but they manage to drag her in and pin her to the table until she calms down.

  “Let me go!” she demands in her own language, the Promethean wire of the room obviously more effective than the helmet. Amy understands the language—a gift of Loki, but it is one of Jameson’s linguists who translates for the table. Amy just sits back in her seat, still reeling from the idea of Loki throwing a grenade at civilians and feeling vaguely sick. She knows he is a warrior, she’s seen him in action—but he only acts in self-defense. Her breath comes a little too fast. Doesn’t he?

  “Why doesn’t she call to you?” Gerðr says, her face a twisted mask of rage and tears. As the linguist translates, Thor shrugs and answers in English. “Cera did call to me. But I don’t crave revolution.”

  “How are you speaking our language?” Jameson says.

  “I speak several Earth languages without magical aid.” Turning to Amy and meeting her gaze, Thor says, “Cera is calling to Loki, too. And he has very good reasons to wish for revolution. You must warn him...he is going to his own death.”

  Amy stops breathing for a moment. “He’s also turning blue, all the time.”

  Thor’s brows knit, and he tilts his head.

  Didn’t Loki say that Thor has healing abilities? Her mouth races ahead of her. “It doesn’t present itself as cyanosis. I thought maybe it was some sort of magical Pseudochromhidrosis—that’s a condition where harmless bacteria pigment the skin, but that wouldn’t explain his hair and eyes turning black...”

  Amy stops. Thor has an empty look in his eyes she associates with someone pretending they know what she’s talking about.

  Leaning forward, Amy dumbs it down. “He thinks maybe it is a sign that he’s dying—is it related to Cera somehow? And can you help him?”

  Thor shakes his head. “I didn’t know of this. But it must be a magical ailment. He needs to come home.”

  Amy stares at Thor. Unlike Loki, his features are wide and generous. He looks so earnest...so good—so different from the man he was less than an hour ago when he attacked her. Her throat constricts at the memory.

  “I want to know how exactly how you know our language!” Jameson says.

  “I’d like to see the facility where Cera is being housed,” says Thor, striding towards the door.

  “You’re not authorized for that,” says Jameson. Two agents slide in front of the door. Thor waves the grenade in his hand.

  “We can discuss this like reasonable men,” says Steve in a weary voice.

  Thor smiles. “Excellent! Over food! I am starving!”

  Jameson tenses but nods.

  Walking towards Thor, Steve says, “Let’s adjourn in the cafeteria.”

  Feeling a little dazed and empty, Amy watches as the agents and Thor file out. Just before Brett and Bryant leave, Bryant turns to her. “You know, Loki does the right thing for the wrong reasons, and the wrong thing for the right reasons.”

  Amy lifts her head and stares at him.

  “That doesn’t mean that he is evil,” says Brett, his eyes soft and sympathetic.

  “But he isn’t safe to be around,” Bryant says.

  Amy knows what they’re saying. That she should go on the witness protection program. She nods at them, not because she agrees, just to make them go away. In the end she is left with Gerðr and two of her body guards. Gerðr glares at her. Amy is not sure how much of Brett and Bryant’s conversation she understood. Ducking her head, Amy stands up, picks up her tablet and heads to her desk. She can hear Thor’s voice, booming off in the distance. She wants coffee...and to be alone. She’s almost at her
desk, and her purse, when she has a sudden thought.

  Tapping her tablet on, she idly notices that it is 10:40 AM, close to the time she told Liddel's human doppelganger that she would meet him. Her heart rate increases, but it has nothing to do with that ill-fated not-going-to-happen rendezvous.

  Loki’s blue skin...She’s been thinking all this time in terms of a disease. She had run medical searches for infections that cause blue skin when Loki first started changing color. Nothing in the medical literature really fit. But she’d been looking for human diseases. Loki is an alien from another world. A world that humans see through a warped mirror in myths. An alien that human myths describe as a god. It might be exhaustion induced delirium, but Amy finds herself opening a browser, clicking to search and tapping the words, “Blue gods.”

  The first result is a post about Hinduism. Didn’t Loki have ADUO set up surveillance in India at some city—it was sacred to Shiva or something? Blinking, Amy clicks on the link. There are several blue gods in Hinduism, but Shiva’s name catches her eye. Scanning the page quickly, she picks up that he’s part of a trinity with Brahma the creator, and Vishnu, the preserver. Amy swallows. Loki is sometimes linked to a trinity, too...with Hoenir, the creator of mankind, and Odin, ruler of the gods.

  Amy stares down at the page with shaking fingers. Shiva is the destroyer.

  The words on the tablet blur in front of her eyes. Her heart feels like it has stopped beating. She is just being silly. Just because Shiva is the destroyer and Loki is foretold to bring about the end of the world, that doesn’t mean anything.

  Biting her lip, she Googles Shiva. Clicking to Shiva’s Wikipedia page, she scans the entry, willing her hands not to shake. Shiva isn’t a trickster like Loki, but he isn’t just the destroyer either. He’s the Transformer, the Cosmic Dancer, whatever that is—and he’s often depicted with his wives and children. That doesn’t seem so bad.

  Throwing a grenade into a crowd, that was bad. Would be bad...if it happened. She looks down at her desk. It must have been a mistake. An accident. A misunderstanding. He was trying to save his sons and something went wrong. Turning off the tablet, she retrieves her purse.