What was that? Okay, underneath all the quips and the banter she did admire Orosa, she found her incredibly cool. But what was that a moment ago? Holding hands, and even worse, feeling great? Staring at her-
Aura looked up and noticed a lit window, the curtain moving slightly. It was her mother’s room.
Orosa wasn’t the only one with a keen eye.
Playlist: Video 26/67
“We have to scrap the plan,” Antioche said.
“What? We won’t back down just because Theseis knows we’re coming!” said Bremusa spitting out the words.
“The plan. Scrap the plan, not the mission. Jeez, when did I become the coherent one?” said Antioche throwing her hands in the air.
Theseis had let them pass after that dramatic forced encounter on the street. What she meant was, 'I know you are coming, I know what you are going to do, I don’t really like it but I will kick your ass if you try it.' Well, she’d never say that but in Antioche’s mind that’s how it played out. It was a clear warning, and it was a good one. How did she know they were coming? How did she know where to block them? Okay, the Artemis Automotive building wasn’t exactly a secret, but they always made sure to vary their routes to avoid just that sort of ambush. And she hadn’t blocked every route around the city blocks, Melousa checked the traffic cameras right after they left. No, she had appeared right where they were going.
Fate.
Antioche gulped.
Melousa was typing on her laptop furiously. She said, “I get what you mean. As an ex-Amazon, she knows pretty much all out tactics and methods. As Bremusa’s mentor-”
“Former!” added Bremusa with a snarl.
Melousa was shaken by that and went on cautiously, “Former mentor, she also knows how she thinks. So, we need a new plan, something that neither Amazons nor Bremusa would come up with.”
“Great way to crash it right off the gate,” said Antioche scratching her chin. She always wanted to have a beard, like men did. That way, she could scratch her beard thoughtfully in times like these.
Oh well, you can’t have it all.
“Well, em…” Melousa said and raised her hand.
Antioche eyed her with disgust. “Just spit it out Chubby!”
“Well, since we are running out of time, we can go for one of my plans then. You know, for once.”
“You have plans?” asked Antioche with genuine suspicion.
“Yes,” Melousa said and showed a layout of the Greek Parliament on her laptop. “I have come up with several, but the one with the best probability of success is this…”
She laid down the plan, nodded in surprise, and they prepared for it.
Playlist: Video 27/67
They were running down Poseidonos Avenue, the large seaside road that runs along the northern part of Athens. It is dedicated to Poseidon. They were enjoying the night-ride and the aroma of the sea.
Aura had made sure to put on some clothes for the night summer-chill, but she was holding on tight to Orosa. Not because of the cold, but because it felt nice.
“So, last exam is tomorrow?” Orosa asked.
Aura had her eyes closed and enjoyed the moment with a wide stupid grin. “Mmm. Yes, as long as I just put my name on it I’ll get to the next semester.
“And then what? Classes as usual? All day long?” Orosa asked, trying to be a bit too casual about this.
“Mmm. Yes, but I don’t plan to attend them.” The bike was shaking on the uneven asphalt and had a tickling effect on Aura’s body. She was larger than Orosa but she was pushing herself on her body, it feeling like twisted wires and summer skin. “I just want to delay the moment I tell my parents about this, quitting Dionysos. As long as possible. Dad won’t be happy about it, and mom with never let it go.” The sensation was starting to get more intense. She slipped her hand on Orosa’s modest breast. She felt a startle, but no further resistance.
Aura was breathing hard now. “By tomorrow… Mmm,” she moaned slightly. “By tomorrow I’ll be with you all the time,” she said and lowered her hand between Orosa’s feet. She snuck her finger between Orosa and the saddle and found her clitoris. Orosa revved, they went faster, and the vibrations made the night-ride infinitely more interesting for the both of them.
Playlist: Video 28/67
“You’re screwed!” Orestes exclaimed, raising his hands in the air. Then he realised people were watching, looked around and sat back down. He whispered, “Do you have any idea what the press will do to your father if you quit Dionysos?”
Aura sat and spun the blue helmet between her legs. She was thinking how simple everything was when she had it on. “They’ll recover,” she said after a long pause. She tried to convince herself, “You’ll see. Articles will pop up from two years ago, hinting at my decision. A couple of bloggers will claim they saw it coming.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she said with a wavering voice.
“Whatever. I’m on your side. I care about you,” he said and sighed.
If she was a dog, her ear would have perched up. She could hear Orosa’s bike getting closer. She put on her helmet and walked towards the street. She turned back, pulled up her helmet a bit and kissed Orestes on the cheek.
“I know,” she said and got on Orosa’s bike.
Playlist: Video 29/67
“This is a shit plan Chubby. Remind me to kick your enormously gigantic ass when we get back,” said Antioche on the common channel.
“It’s good enough,” said Bremusa and got into position.
Antioche sighed. She hated waiting, especially when she was so pumped for action. She watched with her binoculars from a rooftop. “Nothing yet. It’s almost two hours, what if Theseis was lying, just to get more men in place?”
“She wouldn’t. She’s honour-bound,” said Bremusa. “But she would definitely play strategic games, even without lying. The servers are going to be moved any minute now.”
“You better be right,” exhaled Antioche and kept on watching the city lights below. She could see a straight path to the main Parliament entrance, the one on the side where the limousines would come out of during the day.
A truck came out, followed by security cars. The road was blocked for a minute, but that wasn’t uncommon at Vasilissis Sofias Avenue which led to Syntagma square. All the ministers and the Parliament members came and went through there.
Melousa could be heard typing on her keyboard. “Checking the plates, yes. It’s owned by the Moiragetis company.”
“A perfect bait for Amazons,” Antioche snarled. “Give us a mobile big fat juicy target and we’ll pounce on it before you can say mouse-trap…”
“Yeah, we have to assume Theseis has advised them on our entire playbook. Melousa is right, we should do something they wouldn’t expect,” said Bremusa on the comm channel.
“Tsk. Could be a double decoy. Could be, she knows we know she knows, so she does precisely what we would fall for but we’d be too clever to fall for,” said Antioche.
“What was that earlier, about you being the coherent one?” Bremusa teased.
Antioche opened her mouth to scold her mouthy friend but was interrupted.
“I’m in pursuit,” said Orosa on the common channel. There was revving and street noises in the audio, but it was being cancelled well enough by the microphone. Amazons wouldn’t have managed much up to now if they hadn’t found a way to talk to each other between loud muffler purrs. She was the second part of the plan, the team-member to fall for the decoy so the main team could get inside the Parliament. “No, shush you, not yet,” she said talking to someone else. On a pursuing bike, that could only be a rider in the backseat.
“Who’s that with you?” demanded Antioche.
“My… apprentice. She’s cool. Wants to be an Amazon.”
“You brought a newbie to this?” asked Bremusa.
“Hey, shut your hole. I wasn’t going to come if she hadn’t nagged me to accept, so, you actually owe her,” said Orosa.
; “Fine. To whom do I owe my gratitude? Is she on comms?” asked Bremusa.
There was a murmur, a pause.
Then a young voice said, “Um… I’m Aura. Hi.”
“Aura! That’s an unusual name. Like Aura Nightingale, that rich failure who’s only famous because of the long shadow cast by her father,” Bremusa said casually.
“Um. Yeah, that’s me,” Aura said.
Bremusa choked at that. “You’re shitting me. I just said that at random!”
“Well, you got it in one,” Aura said.
“Fuck, it really is you, isn’t it? I love your father’s songs girl!” said Bremusa, totally fangirling the moment.
“Everyone does, but thank you. That’s nice of you to say,” said Aura.
“She can sign your boob later Bremusa, let them got get caught in the trap. If they keep their head in the game they might make it,” said Antioche firmly.
“Um… Thanks?” Aura hesitated.
“When do you want us to strike?” asked Orosa.
“A radius of seven kilometres would be nice,” Melousa said with her sweet voice.
“You got it,” said Orosa. “Going radio silent.”
The comm clicked.
“That gives us, what?” asked Antioche.
“About twelve minutes, plus what it might take for them to see it is a decoy assault,” replied Melousa.
Antioche exhaled. “Still twelve minutes then, ten for a worst-case scenario. Long enough. Let’s see now if we managed to outmanoeuvre the legendary Theseis.”
Playlist: Video 30/67
The drone buzzed like a swarm of bees.
It dove on the front of the Greek Parliament, right at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was always guarded by Evzones, soldiers in old-style ceremonial uniform carrying classic long rifles. They weren’t supposed to react to anything people did, and people just gawked at them, but sometimes people were assholes. Of the millions of tourists coming to Greece every year, a big chunk visited Athens and the main attractions. There was the Syntagma square, the Greek Parliament, the Hotel Grande Brittania, the National Gardens.
The poor soldier, the Evzones who was going to be immortalised soon in the collective unconscious of the internet, was on guard, as he had been for months now. He had managed to perfect the step, a slow, deliberate, open leg motion they had to do in rhythm while they changed the guard. The motion attenuated the fluffy black ball at the tips of their shoes. That was usually the thing the tourists liked, the changing of the guard. Otherwise, they were simply old-styled soldiers standing there like statues.
The drone had waited for the guard to come, which had attracted the crowd as usual. It was about to disperse, since the soldiers had taken their place and were now about to sit there silent and immobile for one hour. The poor soldier would have to well, soldier on, ignoring the snotty kids and the smartass tourists who where about to nag him.
One of the kids, a blonde boy with a haircut precisely like that of the old Dennis the Menace movies, grew bored, then squinted at his phone, then charged the soldier. He could see it coming, a projectile with a golden tip, yay-high, but could do nothing.
His parents would grab him, wouldn’t they?
They would see that their boy had slipped by the flimsy barrier that was there just to keep people a few meters away by sheer politeness? Wouldn’t they?
The boy came closer. It was clutching its phone. Wasn’t it too young to have a phone? Kids these days…
The soldier actually got a sweaty brow.
He couldn’t move at all. He could only just stand there. Sure, there were policemen around, the actual guard, but what were they going to do? He could see the tiny kid coming right at him in slow motion.
Every instinct in his body was telling him to duck, to move, to yell at the boy like an adult should.
Maybe they would excuse him for breaking protocol like that, it was after all understandable that you couldn’t always contain or predict the actions of children.
The blonde missile kept on coming. The boy was gritting his teeth so much, he could see he was missing four of them.
The soldier winced. He shifted his weight slightly, turning a degree or two away from the oncoming menace.
The boy struck head-first at the soldier’s testicles.
The soldier held his breath and then staggered, leaning down.
“Mnngngnnnnaaannn,” was the only thing he managed to say.
The policemen came to him, shouted at the tourists and shooed the boy away but it was too late.
Everybody had their phones out, recording the thing. The crowd was big, all around the front of the monument.
The soldier tried to stand back up and cried out in pain.
Playlist: Video 31/67
“How did you do that?” Bremusa asked into the comms while she and Antioche were sneaking into Parliament by the front entrance.
The crowd was still there, people laughing and talking about the poor soldier’s fate. They were showing the video on their phones to people who missed the live version. Then the police guard had shot a net at the drone, so the crowd had that as well to hunch over.
Melousa’s voice came in through the comms, “I made a meme and sent it to every boy’s cellphone. Faked it to look as if it was the recent fad. One of them was bound to try ramming the Evzones soldier.”
“You are dangerous girl! Remind me to always be nice to you,” Bremusa said.
“You always are,” Melousa said and giggled.
“Stop giggling Chubby! Amazons don’t giggle,” said Antioche sharply, as she was walking swiftly and steadily towards the main guard-post. “Are you sure this is gonna work?”
“Of course, I spoofed your security passes. I’ve actually proposed this plan of attack before but you never wanted to do it like that,” said Melousa with a long nag.
“Duh? Of course? Who ever heard of female warriors sneaking in like thieves?”
“They are sneaking in now, since the point is to throw the playbook away,” Bremusa said and coughed for silence.
They stood at the guard-post, and presented their phone that carried their credentials. The guard checked the readout on his pad and looked at them both straight in the eye to confirm the photos. His visor lit up with data and lines of text, faint and scrolling as his eyes twitched around.
“That’s not really standard issue,” the guard said nodding at their firearms. “Extend your arms please,” he said with a polite but authoritative voice.
They did.
He pricked their fingers with a device that went gling after a moment.
Antioche was sweating at that, biometrics is much harder to fool than simple names and ids. Her hand was twitching over her sidearm, a stance which a police guard would definitely see. She stuck it in her pocket instead and said anxiously, “What a mess outside, huh?”
“Yeah,” the guard mumbled. I can’t really see what happened. You tell me, you were outside. The guys have gone out to disperse the crowd.”
“It’s already trending, check #rightinthenads,” said Antioche and pointed at his phone. She smiled at him awkwardly, in an attempt to appear flirty.
The guard tapped at it and said, “Yeah, go on in,” without taking his eyes off his phone.
They stepped inside. Bremusa relaxed her shoulders and said, “Seriously. Don’t ever try to flirt again as part of a plan.”
“I’m more of a smash-grab-scram type of girl,” she shrugged.
Bremusa shook her head up and down. “Ya think?”
“You have the instructions on your phone,” said Melousa.
Bremusa tapped it and loaded the Parliament’s layout. The server room they were after was noted “Plug the flashdrive I gave you in here sweeties!” followed by a row of hearts and kisses icons. They wanted to appear as if they were going somewhere purposefully, so she found a direction and went for it.
Antioche was spinning slowly around in awe, checking out the ceiling and the marble.
Antioche was still staring wide-eyed as she was being pulled by her arm. “I’ve never been here. I must have passed outside this place like a zillion times, but I’ve never been inside!” The place was actually very nice. A mixture of old marble and modern amenities, huge ceilings that were decorated with lavish lights. Tall columns in Corinthian style but were new and tipped with gold lines. The furniture was wooden and expensive looking. There were corridors fitted for school expeditions, lined with dates and facts and photographs of historic highlights.
Bremusa muted her comms microphone and pulled Antioche to a nook in the wall, behind Pericles’ bust. She pushed her to the wall and pressed her face close to hers.
Antioche smiled. “Hey, I thought we had outgrown that phase,” she said mimicking Bremusa’s voice but not struggling at all.
Bremusa sniffed loudly for Antioche’s breath and then looked into her eyes. “You’re not drunk. Nor high. What the hell is wrong with you?” she hissed. “Why are you acting like this?”
Antioche frowned theatrically, “Who knows? Maybe it’s fate. Maybe, whatever we do today, no matter how hard we try, nothing will change.”
Bremusa was taken aback. “Since when are you such a downer?”
“I’m okay. Really,” Antioche smiled.
“Put your damn head in the game or you’ll get us both killed. This is Zeus we are going up against, even if it’s by proxy.”
Antioche passed her palm in a wiping motion over her face and changed her expression to mock seriousness.
Melousa spoke on the comms. “Orosa has begun the fake attack on the truck. She’s streaming her camera to me. She’s doing fine, she’s with that sweet singer girl. She’s… Oh! I didn’t know that was even physically possible. How nice.”
MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets Page 50
