by Jason Zandri
Lisa grabbed for her drink. “So they are limited in what they could do today, were they to ‘show up’.”
“So to speak,” Adia said.
“I will tell you,” Lisa said, “from everything I looked over; they would be super powerful if they were worshiped today. Apparently, a part of the tie to their powers here in this realm is the life force of each individual that worships them. Not really ‘sacrifice’, but each person that ‘prays’ to a given Greek god, grants that god the ability to harness their life-force and add it to their own. This is why direct sacrifices were powerful gifts to them; if someone willingly gave their soul, even if it was in battle to protect a temple let’s say, that god would receive the remainder of their life-force.”
“That might explain their longevity; it only takes twenty sacrifices in war or at the altar to add one thousand years to their life span, assuming fifty years per. I am sure in those days there were many.” Adia said.
“There is that and what I was alluding to you before,” Lisa said eating more off her plate. “Time moved more slowly for them in their plane of existence.”
“So days here are like minutes there?” Lisa asked.
“There’s nothing definitive in the texts but it seemed to me that it was more like hours to minutes, but not one to one. Maybe like an extended slow motion?” Lisa said unsurely.
“Wow,” Lisa said leaning forward. “Can you imagine how powerful they could be today? There are seven billion people on the planet… if a segment started to worship them today…”
“That’s another thing,” Lisa said siting up, “apparently, even though they appear to be youthful because of what they received from the sacrifices made in their name, they are actually very old. Their age affects them. Apparently, when they come to Earth, and it’s a reason they do not so much anymore, they begin to age rapidly, although what it actually is, is a rapid consumption of their remaining life force.” Lisa grabbed her drink. “It is slowed as our hours are there minutes or some such, but it affects them. There’s no ratio but it goes back to the true age of the god, the amount of time spent in the Prime Universe, energies expended, and so forth.”
“I guess that better defines what Cici told us; that while the gods cannot easily intervene directly anymore, they still do, very infrequently. She mentioned that there is some strife in Olympus and that some of them are of the opinion that the one true God is too allowing of mankind’s free will and too absent a deity, which sends Earth and her people in and out of too much chaos. At the time, she was explaining Nathan’s gifts. Since their powers here are diminished, they created a way for special people, when the need is great enough and the correct person is found, to do for them. At times in history, these were true demi-gods, born of man and god, and other times they were just heroes. She mentioned Heracles and Perseus.”
“Wow,” Lisa said.
“What?” Adia asked.
“I always wondered what geek talk sounded like,” she said with a smile. “Now I know.”
Adia burst out laughing. She quickly stifled her laugh.
“What’s wrong?’ Lisa asked.
“We’re working on this… trying to figure out what is going on with Rebecca, to help Nathan. I am trying to remember what else we talked about when Cici was there. There was something more.”
The two sat quietly while Adia tried to recall more of the conversation, picking over their remaining food. When the waitress came by, they each ordered another drink.
“That’s it,” Adia said snapping her fingers. “We’re working on Rebecca, the issues she’s having and the problems she’s causing… I mentioned that any one person, having all that power, what would happen if the wrong person was chosen. I mentioned how horribly wrong that could be for humanity. Cici mentioned that something like that had already occurred. The Greek gods addressed the issue, she really didn’t go into how, but it is also why millennia have come and gone without a new hero or any other type of intervention by the gods.”
“Until Nathan,” Lisa said plainly.
“Correct,” Adia answered setting her beer down. “Cici, as the primary Watcher and keeper of the talisman, had the responsibly at the end of her life of passing the talisman to the next Watcher or to a champion. She chose Nathan.”
“So how does Rebecca play into this?” Lisa asked. “If there was only one talisman and the Champion already has it, how did she come into her powers?”
“I don’t know,” Adia responded. “Nathan isn’t really all that forthcoming when I talk to him about it. He mentions things in small snippets but he knows I am fishing. Also, for the most part, I really don’t see him all that often. The few times I do, he’s with her.”
Lisa took another drink from her beer and Adia pushed her glass around on the table. “One or two times he’s been here, and I made him honor the ice cream agreement we have, he’s sort of alluded to the fact that she imbued the powers onto herself.”
“How? Magic?” Lisa asked.
“He really didn’t say.”
Lisa lowered her voice and leaned in. “There’s more than one passage in the things I’ve read that mentioned magical conjuring.” She reached into her oversized purse and pulled out a small notepad. She opened it up and reviewed some of her notes.
The waitress came by and cleared a couple of items from the tables and then walked away.
Adia looked over her shoulder, “Did it offer any details?”
Lisa looked over her notes, “All the things I read were… I don’t know the best way to put it. Like workarounds… or hacks… to tie into the same universal energies. Each time it was mentioned, and there were many instances where that was fully omitted, it always discussed dark magic.”
Lisa looked over to the waitress who came back over.
“Hi,” Lisa said to her, “Could we have two more please?”
“Sure,” she said.
Lisa looked up into the waitresses eyes and caught a shimmering light before she turned and walked away.
Adia stared at Lisa and waited until the waitress left. “You looked spooked; are you okay?”
Anxiety took over and Lisa stood. “I could swear I saw a power discharge around her eyes. The waitress; Like static or something. I’ve seen that before. From Nathan. The day he was dressed as The Patriot and nearly assassinated in Madison Square Park.”
“Are you sure?” Adia asked. “You’re not just freaking yourself out with all this talk?”
“I’m sure,” Lisa said grabbing her things. “We need to go, now.”
“We need to pay…” Adia said grabbing her purse.
“I know Andre; I’ll come back tomorrow and take care of it.”
The girls turned to the door to leave and the waitress was in their immediate path.
“We need to leave,” Adia commanded, “I’m a New York City police officer…” Adia began to fish for her badge and then looked up at the waitress and locked onto her eyes.
The waitress stepped forward and into her personal space. “Yes, Adia Santiago, I know.” The waitress reached up, lightly stroked the side of her face, and then kissed her.
Lisa went to move and the woman raised her left hand and unlocked her lips from Adia. “Lisa Cooper… you too… come here.”
Lisa lost all her ability to resist; all of her anxiety and fear washed away.
The waitress stepped over to Lisa, holding Adia’s hand, and touched her face.
“I would think with all the studying you’ve done recently of us, that you would have noticed the goddess of love much sooner than you actually did.” Aphrodite said smiling, still holding the form of the waitress. “Still, it’s nice to know I mainly still have my touch when it comes to hiding in plain sight and blending in.”
Both women were in a trance.
“Follow me,” Aphrodite said, touching the body of the form she had taken. “We have much to discuss and little time to discuss it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Nathan returned
to the field; he looked about frantically but could not find Rebecca anywhere. From his vantage point in the sky he quickly noted that the sinkhole had expanded to nearly twice its size.
He slowed his speed, lowered his altitude, slowly spiraled away from the area and gained additional altitude slowly. He kept his attention down in an effort to survey the ground below.
Once he completely extended his orbit outward far enough to the rural access road he found what he was looking for.
“The tire tracks,” he said aloud and heading back to the ground.
Overhead he heard the sound of a helicopter coming closer. He looked westward toward the town and could see it on approach. He tried his communications device and it was still not functioning.
“I’m not going to reach Computer Central or Rebecca this way,” he mumbled aloud to himself.
Nathan rose off the ground and observed the single set of tire tracks from a few feet above. He then turned to see the helicopter slowing and cutting to a semi-circle pattern, which delayed its full approach.
Nathan lifted his hand slightly in a partial wave to the pilot, who then cut back and slowly moved in.
The turning motion allowed Nathan to see the helicopter was from the same news company as the van he saw through the area prior. As it came to a landing on the far side of the field and a safe distance away, Nathan rose higher and made his way over.
The pilot powered down the helicopter and two passengers exited.
Nathan landed and walked over.
“Hi,” the reporter yelled over the engine and the spinning blades, “Steven Capshaw, WADC Action News.” He motioned around to the camera operator. “That’s Julie Cummings and the pilot is Karen Cupp. We had a field reporting team out here and we can’t reach them. We know the storm was bad enough to knock out their broadcast but we can’t raise any of them on their phones either.”
A sinking feeling went through Nathan. “I saw them earlier. I actually came back this way partly to check on them. The epicenter of everything happened here and the intensity of the storm and the quake dropped rapidly as you move away. There wasn’t a lot for me to help out with so I returned.”
“They were broadcasting at one point and then debris took out the antenna,” Steven replied somewhat quieter because the helicopter came to a complete shutdown state. Karen opened up the pilot door and stepped out.
“I know where they came in,” Nathan said pointing around the sinkhole. “There’s a rural access road back there and that’s where I passed them earlier.” He moved where he was pointing slightly more north. “I saw some tire tracks off the road and into the grass; I am going to make the assumption that they followed Rebecca.”
“That makes sense,” Steven said as the four of them began to walk in that direction. “The footage they were broadcasting showed her in the area; they captured you on approach and then there was a dust up of heavy debris that hit the vehicle.”
Nathan floated upwards without responding and scouted from above. A little guilt came over him as he knew he intentionally forced the debris to stop the live broadcast.
“Can you see anything from up there?” Steven said calling up to Nathan.
“No,” Nathan responded, lowering himself to the ground. “Do you have a smart phone? My communications equipment back to Computer Central was damaged but I can open an encrypted communication connection if there is a signal out here.”
Steven pulled out his smart phone and readily handed it to Nathan.
“Thank you,” Nathan said, using a secured internet connection to open a port to Computer Central. Nathan turned the speaker on hands free.
“Enabled,” Computer Central’s female voice responded over the connection.
“Earlier we detected the live broadcast from the news van; do you still have that broadcast frequency and the transmission connection details?”
“Affirmative.”
“Scan for the broadcast frequency; where is that van?”
The four gathered around the hands free speaker when the display changed.
“Coordinates delivered.”
Nathan looked them over and then looked about. “Are these correct?”
“Affirmative; the transmitter is still active despite the loss of the microwave antenna.”
“What does it mean?” Julie asked.
Nathan continued to look around. “The boost from the microwave antenna was lost when the debris took it out but it was still transmitting. Anything strong enough can pick the signal up. Computer Central is reading it. We are basically standing at these coordinates. We should be able to see the van.” Nathan brought the phone closer and looked over at the sinkhole, “Computer Central.”
“Enabled.”
“What is my altitude?”
“You’re not flying…” Karen said quietly. Nathan slowly raised his hand.
“Two hundred forty-four feet above sea level,” Computer Central responded.
“What is the altitude of the transmitter?” Nathan asked.
“One hundred sixty-three feet.”
Nathan quickly handed the phone back and flew up. He maneuvered over the sinkhole and looked for any shifting movement. There was a slight gravel displacement and he moved toward it. Arching over slightly, he drove a perpendicular energy spike into the ground and then flattened it out. He continued to focus and strain to expand it.
“Is there anything we can do?” Steven called out.
“Call 911; use a different phone. I’ll apologize later if I’m wrong.” Nathan replied, his voice breaking slightly.
Karen took hers and dialed.
With one thrust, Nathan used the shield like a giant shovel and wedged a section of the earth upwards. The action quickly uncovered the van and the three bodies. Nathan lifted everything he had and moved it from the area of the sinkhole into the adjacent field. Once everything was down, he guided himself back to the active smart phone. Steven handed it over and the three of them broke towards their co-workers.
“Computer Central.” Nathan said shakily.
“Enabled.”
“Scan all human life signs; tell me what you have.”
“Four human life signs, including yours.”
Nathan walked away from where he was and approached the three people from the helicopter.
Julie was openly crying and turned away. Nathan disconnected the session from Computer Central, erased the connection data, and handed the phone back to Steven.
“What happened?” Karen asked looking up at Nathan from her kneeling position in front of the reporter.
“The sinkhole formed as part of the seismic activity that was present,” Nathan began slowly. “It was smaller prior to my departure to Bucksville; I don’t know if it caved in on itself…”
“Nathan,” Steven called out, “there was nothing going on in this area until Rebecca showed up. We only caught what we caught on the feeds because the news van was coming back from a story in Bucksville; they basically wandered into what was going on, stopped, and began reporting on how a mostly sunny day suddenly spawned a storm with two tornados.” Steven looked about the muddy debris and kicked the small dirt encrusted ice. “This is baseball sized hail; I can’t imagine what it was before.” He looked up into the atmosphere. “The weather patterns don’t support what occurred here. Forget the earthquake for a moment; Rebecca’s powers, as much as the media has been able to piece together…”
“I know,” Nathan said, cutting him off. “I’ll find her.” Nathan looked over the wreckage and simply stood. “I’m sorry,” he said to Steven. Then he turned to the others. “I am sorry for the loss of your colleagues.”
Julie was still crying and could not respond. Karen only nodded slightly.
“Go,” Steven said. “We’ll wait for the emergency crews.”
Nathan moved to step away when the older man reached lightly for his arm.
“I trust you’ll bring her in,” He said plainly. “She was the only other person in this area
. She left either before this occurred or she at least saw it happen. The police and investigative teams will need to have access to all the information.”
“I will,” Nathan said looking at him.
Steven let his arm go. “I’m sure you realize two things; if she saw this occurring she should have done something to stop it. That and all of the events were caused by her; even if the ground caved in afterwards, it was her involvement that destabilized the ground.”
“I have little argument over the weather, she was directly responsible for that. I can’t definitively say…” Nathan defended until he was cut off.
“Can’t definitively say that a mainly inactive fault line wasn’t affected by her powers? The ones that tie to the Earth and nature itself? Nathan come on! We know you two are involved with one another but certain elements are unarguable here.” Steven proclaimed.
“Do you have kids?” Nathan said quickly.
“Yes, one in high school and the other is starting college. What does…” Steven said until Nathan cut him off.
“I expect the way I feel right now is the way you might feel if one of them was charged with a wrong doing. It pulls at the fabric of your being. Someone you love, someone you want to protect is in trouble and you want to do something about it to save them. At the same time, you know what the circumstances are surrounding it and that reality is telling you how you need to act over how you feel.”
Steven took a deep breath in but didn’t respond.
“I will handle my internal conflict and do what needs to be done.” Nathan said as he pushed off and made his way skyward.
***
“What’s the current status on the ground?” Jane parker asked peering over the monitors.
“The storm has fully dissipated, Nathan has returned to the epicenter and there was air traffic control response in the area. It sounded like communications with a helicopter.” One of the operatives called back from his terminal.
Another specialist got up from her chair and made her way over. Jane watched her approach. “Parsons,” Jane said standing up to meet her, “Natalie, what do we have.”
