Interra (Awakened Series Book 5)

by Harley Austin

  “Ah, no,” he affirmed.

  “We could have lunch instead,” she continued, holding up a paper bag and smiling.

  Neither of them had eaten anything all day. They found a quiet out-of-the-way shade tree and sat on the grass sharing the small lunch Serena had brought.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the large campus talking mostly about Serena and her family. They made it back to the lobby of her dorm just as the sun was setting.

  They were still talking at ten when the “visitors out” announcement was made. Rion got up from the chair, “It looks like visiting hours are over, Warden,” he joked.

  It was one of the many annoyances of living on campus in the dorm. But it was what Serena and her parents could afford. Serena felt Rion’s strong arms around her as he held her for long moments. The commotion at the door of the lobby as several girls entered interrupted their embrace, and Rion gathered his phone and keys. He gave her another quick goodbye hug and she watched him walk away down the path and disappear into the night. She returned to her room and closed the door, leaning back against it.

  Serena sighed deeply. Disaster averted.

  7

  N ow well after midnight, Rion pulled into the empty parking lot of a tall office building on the outskirts of Houston. He surveyed the night-lit lot, noting the video security, his phone already in hand tapping up a custom app of his own design.

  The front door of the tall building was locked and the RF keycard scanner next to the door illuminated with a single red light. He waved his phone in front of the scanner. It chirped green and he quietly opened the thick, heavy glass door that led into the main foyer of the building. The elevator also presented him with a similar RF scanner. It too chirped green with a wave of his phone, automatically selecting the fourteenth floor.

  No one sat at the security desk this late at night on the top floor’s lobby. He made his way past the desk to another security door that allowed him to pass with the wave of his phone.

  He moved quietly down a long hallway riddled with security, from ceiling camera domes to motion sensors, all recording his every move as he passed non-descript numbered doors and offices. He finally sensed the one he needed.

  The newblood god reached out with his feelings finding a handful of people moving and working within the small offices beyond the secured double-doors. With speed and elegance the invisible tendrils fired out from his mind, touching the minds of dozens of others within the rooms beyond the large double doors.

  Suddenly the office rooms were quiet.

  No one moved.

  A wave of his phone opened the door to the well lit office space beyond. Two military uniformed security guards were sleeping, quietly stunned in the office’s foyer, one in his chair, the other napping on the floor. Both of them with their eyes still wide open. Rion picked up the one guard and set him neatly back into his chair.

  Deeper into the offices he found the small control room where five engineers lay quietly sleeping with open eyes. A dozen large overhead monitors displayed divided areas of a facility just outside of town showing various live camera angles of the interiors of a number of underground missile silos. Rion studied the screens and consoles momentarily.

  He removed a USB flash drive and plugged it into one of the console’s computers. It would only take a few moments for the contents of the drive to do its work.

  Penetrating a system’s perimeter firewall was all too often tricky and time consuming. Even more difficult, some systems were not physically connected to the public network at all. Physically accessing a system from behind the firewall often made much more sense, especially when time was of the essence, which tonight it was. This little trip easily solved the problem, if, one knew where to go.

  Rion watched the progress of his tiny binary program through another phone app as it wound its way into the system and then leapt into adjacent networks.

  A small grin crossed his face.

  His phone now displayed the topography of the off-site network he had been looking for in a kind of 3-D image. He watched as his code infiltrated, mapped, and then eradicated other tiny bits of code and files spread throughout the neighboring system. Within minutes the entire grid had changed from orange to green on the phone’s display.

  Sweet.

  He tapped another icon. The light on his USB drive began to flicker as the device now began uploading at high speed terabytes of critical data. After several minutes the device’s now steady light showed that it had completed its task. He removed the drive and placed it back into his pocket.

  Rion quietly exited the offices and then the building.

  In another two minutes a stealthy virus would self-execute within the building’s security monitoring, the access logs would be neatly expunged of Rion’s activity; the video of his visit overwritten with earlier recordings of an empty lot, hallways and the security office itself. When the guards woke up, other than a splitting headache, they would have no clue that anyone had even ever been in their room.

  Rion drove home, his thoughts now revolving only around the amazing and beautiful Serena; completely ignoring the critical piece of America’s national security now sitting quietly in the memory of his phone.

  8

  N o! Not today!” Serena groaned, still laying in bed. She had a test today but she was in no condition to be heading out. Her head and body were aching and she felt chilly, even though she knew her temperature was probably over a hundred.

  She managed to drag herself out of bed to get some Advil and use the bathroom, but even that little trip depleted all the strength she had. Once back in bed, she called her mom. The sympathetic voice of her mother was always comforting and reassuring to Serena. And, she could always count on her mother telling her to drink plenty of water and then make her laugh even though she was sick.

  Kelly was always the nursemaid of their dorm’s floor. As a biology and RN major, whenever anyone got sick, she would instantly take charge and make sure that everyone stayed away from the sickroom and that the “patient” had everything she needed. Kelly could be a boorish pain at times but when it came to someone’s well-being in time of need, no one was a better friend.

  It was noon when Kelly checked in on her very sick patient again. Serena’s half-awake state-of-mind meant she was barely cooperative. Kelly checked the thermometer. It read 104. Kelly had heard that the external gadgets were usually a degree off, which meant that Serena could actually be running 105. That was too high. Kelly grabbed Serena’s keys and found her a robe. This patient was heading straight to the ER.

  Rion was fully at home in the building’s lab. The security front company they’d created decades ago to keep an eye on the various governments had provided the gods near unbridled access to nearly every network on Earth. At the moment, his iPhone-looking device was plugged into the lab’s neural network while a myriad of intelligences were busy analyzing code and schematics pulled from the numerous internal government systems that had been mapped the night before.

  After the defeat of the Seven, the handful of remaining gods now seldom interacted directly with Humanity. They lived and worked among them, hiding within the shadows. The high-rise building Rion now worked within had been constructed by Humans, but ultimately refurbished with the knowledge of the gods—the building a façade for the pinnacle of a tower that sank miles into the ground below it.

  Rion was suddenly aware of someone approaching him in avatar. “Good afternoon, Mr. Steele.”

  “Hey, Perry.”

  “I just wanted to let you know that your new friend, Miss Erickson, appears to be running a high fever.”

  “Uh-oh,” Rion’s mind worked quickly. I should have known. What are her current bio’s?”

  “We don’t know specifically at the moment. Apparently she’s no longer wearing her key and her last location was a hospital emergency room.”

  A wave of concern rang through Rion’s mind. “Thanks, Perry. Do you know where
Sev—”

  “Yes, yes, I’m already looking at her last vitals.” Sevrin’s avatar stepped into existence and the conversation with he and Perry.

  “Where is she now?” Rion asked him.

  Sevrin had already plugged into the hospital’s network and was reading Serena’s latest updated vitals.

  “She’s only been there for a few minutes. You can relax; she’s running a nasty temperature but that’s all. I can see she doesn’t quite care for you all that much, my friend. Evidently, you make her sick.” Sevrin chuckled at his own bad joke.

  Perry smirked, looking away, not wanting Rion to note his reaction to Sevrin’s typically uncouth humor.

  Rion felt a sense of some relief. “Ha-ha. Very funny,” Rion mocked.

  “Without her key, we can’t inoculate remotely.”

  Rion nodded. “I’ll take care it. How much time does she have? Are they taking care of her?”

  “She just had a blood draw only a few minutes ago. They won’t treat anything until the results from that come back.”

  “Alright, Sevrin, don’t let them do anything stupid, please.”

  “They’re just trying to cool her down. They should be able to tell it’s viral. I doubt they’ll try to do anything other than drug her before you get there.”

  Rion had no trust in Human hospitals. In many ways the care was better than it had ever been in Human history, but in other ways there were still huge gaps in how these organizations were run. Human error was still the patient’s worst enemy. Even the best doctor’s care could be undone by a careless or incompetent nurse or the other way around.

  Rion pulled into the hospital’s ER parking lot and headed into the reception area. It didn’t take long for him to smooth talk a nurse into leading him back to the treatment area and into the bay where Serena rested quietly behind a thick curtain. She was wrapped in cooling compresses. An I.V. dripped fluid into her arm and a number of sensors were attached to wires leading to a central cord plugged into a monitoring machine. Rion’s empathy immediately connected with the ring Serena had put on a chain. It rested quietly inside a large purse beside one of Serena’s friends who sat in a chair talking with a very tired Serena.

  “Rion?!” Serena offered weakly, “How—?”

  “Shhh,” he said. “Hi, Kelly.”

  “Hey, how’d you know we were here?” Kelly finished Serena’s question.

  “A little bird told me,” he evaded. Rion went to Serena’s side and moved her hair away from the cool compress on her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like a ton of bricks fell on me.” She gripped his hand weakly.

  “Yea, these viruses can definitely make you feel like that.”

  “They think it might be more than a virus,” Kelly stated matter-of-factly. “Probably sepsis.”

  Rion smiled. “I’m sure it can seem like that.”

  Serena smiled weakly at him; very glad he was here. “I probably look terrible,” she groaned.

  He shook his head. “You look just as beautiful as ever,” he assured her, smoothing her hair back from her damp face.

  She knew better. Serena tried to smack him but her arm was too weak and he just took her hand into his; holding it.

  “Kelly, could Serena and I talk for a minute?”

  Kelly suddenly realized that she might be a kind of third wheel now that Serena’s new boyfriend was here.

  “Oh, ah, sure. I’ll go get a soda.“ She picked up her bag and then stepped out of the bay.

  Rion stroked the side of Serena’s face with his fingers while Serena closed her eyes to savor the sweet sensations.

  “You’re not wearing your ring—”

  “The nurse made me take it off when they admitted me. I told her I didn’t want to but she said it’s policy. Kelly has it now. It’s in her purse.”

  “Are you sure?” The ring fell from Rion’s open hand, and now dangled from the fine gold chain Serena had bought for it.

  “Hey—how did you—?”

  “It looks better on you than in Kelly’s purse.”

  “I’m sorry I took it off. They said it was policy.”

  “Sometimes policy is worse than the disease.” He grinned, unclasping the chain and securing it around her neck. Serena weakly tucked the ring under her hospital gown.

  Suddenly Serena felt that familiar sense of calm. The minute the ring was back around her neck she was already beginning to feel better.

  “You really should try to find better places to hang out,” he joked. “ER’s are no fun.”

  “Quit,” she retorted. “I don’t understand this. Rion, I never get sick. Really, I just don’t. I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve been in a hospital; and this is one of them.”

  “It’s okay, Angel, people get sick now and then,” he sympathized, squeezing her hand.

  “But I don’t. I felt fine yesterday when you and I were having lunch.”

  “See, that will teach you,” he smirked; ”never share a sandwich with a stranger.”

  “You’re hardly a stranger, mister.”

  Rion rather liked the sound of those words. He could feel her bio’s now that the ring was back around her neck. Sevrin had already administered the tiny molecular inoculation against the ancient virus invading her body. Some of the gods were infected with some rather nasty viral code they purposefully carried. The viruses were very beneficial to them, but they could be deadly to Humans. It was part of the reason Ra and Humans seldom mingled.

  Kelly returned with a Dr. Pepper in hand.

  “I don’t know if you realize this, Kelly, but you may have saved Serena’s life today,” he complimented.

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “I would,” Rion assured her with a serious look.

  A younger looking man in a white jacket stepped into the bay. He greeted Serena and then Rion and Kelly and introduced himself as Dr. Ben.

  “We’re watching your vitals very carefully, Miss Erickson. We’ve been able to bring your temperature under control for now. You seem to have a severe infection and we’re running tests on the blood we took when you came in. We’ll know more in about thirty minutes. I’ll be back when I know more. If there’s anything you need. Just ask.” He smiled again and left.

  “Yea, at fifty times the regular price,” Kelly grumbled after the doctor was out of earshot.

  “Oh, man,” Serena groaned.

  “Hospital sticker shock?” Rion asked.

  “This is going to cost a fortune.” Serena rolled her eyes.

  “She just has school insurance,” Kelly added.

  “I take it that it’s not very good.”

  “We complain about it all the time,” Kelly continued. “Even when it’s supposed to cover things, it doesn’t. Marcy had a really bad ear infection last year and we came here. The bill was still over a thousand dollars. She’s probably still paying it off.”

  Rion and Kelly waited with Serena in the bay for several hours. The ER staff insisted on keeping Serena under observation even though her fever had inexplicably broken just after Rion had arrived. By late afternoon a still weak but cheerful Serena was ready to leave and she made everyone aware that she was not going to be kept overnight.

  It was well into early evening when they all finally emerged from the hospital. Rion would meet them back at campus. He was already talking again with Sevrin as he watched them drive off.

  “Well, that made for an interesting day now didn’t it?” Sevrin was far too cheery over the continuum.

  “Not funny, Sev,” Rion scolded. “I almost killed her.”

  “You did no such thing, Rion,” Sevrin corrected. “We caught it in plenty of time.”

  “It’s still unnerving. Will you make sure they don’t mess with her blood samples?”

  “Our Dr. Perry has already taken care of them; pathetic how these places misplace patient tests these days,” he mocked. “We won’t have any Black Plague going around after this, I assure you. St
ill, I didn’t realize you were a carrier?” he joked.

  “A lot of the old ones are carriers.”

  “You’re hardly ancient, my boy.”

  “No, but mom and dad were. I picked it up from them. My fault. I should have been paying closer attention. It’s one of the reasons I don’t spend a lot of time with people, Sev—that includes new girlfriends.” He frowned.

  “Ah, young love.” Sevrin sighed.

  “Will you knock it off. She could have died.”

  “Well, that didn’t happen. She’s fine now. When are you going to introduce her to the rest of us?”

  “I guess I’m going to need to at some point.”

  “If she really is Invicti, Rion, she needs to be someplace safe. Not running around some college campus.”

  “I know that! But I’m not going to just destroy her life.”

  Rion heard Sevrin clear his throat.

  “You’re not funny, Sevrin.”

  “Maybe you should let me or Mitch handle her introduction to the family?”

  “Not a chance. But thanks for the offer.”

  9

  R ion’s bedside clock showed just after ten when he finally decided to open his eyes. After checking in on Serena back at her dorm, he had headed back home and then down to the lab. He had been up almost all night working, and today was going to be a really long day as well. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling with a sigh. Why did life have to be so complicated?

  Rion moved his hand over the satin-like sheet beside himself thinking about Serena. What would it be like to have her to wake up next to? The thought was both exciting and unnerving. Rion had grown very accustomed to his bachelor life and the thought of all of that changing was not just off-putting, but mildly terrifying. Still, there was something about Serena that pulled at him, more than their natural attraction. There was something definitely missing in his life. It was an emptiness she somehow filled.

  Rion could count on one hand the few women he had been in relationships with in the past. But that was the problem. None of those were really relationships. He wasn’t sure what they were actually; flings maybe? Occasional trysts? Friends-with-benefits? They sure as hell weren’t relationships.