by Jory Smith
It was about seven years ago. Nicolai already had a reputation as one of the best hit men in Russia. The bosses knew they could trust him to not only carry out a contract, but to make it so it wouldn’t fall back on them. The guard’s brother was Nicolai’s first government worker he took out.
The brother took a bribe from a local mob captain. He was supposed to allow a transport of contraband go through his town without hassle, but the brother figured he could take the bribe and the cargo. He set up the captain’s men, killed them and took the loot. Turns out it wasn’t drugs, money or even human slaves. It was gold bars. Not only did Nicolai have to kill the guy, but he had to find out where the brother had put those bars. Doing that was messy.
No wonder that guard is mad at me, he thought. But he should feel lucky that I got the job. If it was some amateur, he wouldn’t just be upset about his brother. He would be worrying about his mother and father. He wouldn’t even be alive right now.
Oh well, Nicolai thought. If only the guard would have kept his torment to himself.
Another set of footsteps was heard coming down the hall while Nicolai brooded over ways to kill the guard. Nicolai looked up and all he saw was the prison’s priest. “So father, have you come to hear all of my dirty secrets?”
“I have come here so you can repent your sins so when you meet your maker, you can do so with a clear conscience,” The priest said with a concerned voice.
“Father, I have a clear conscience. Nothing can change that. You can tell the guards that I am done with this charade. Let’s get this show on the road. We have an hours’ time until I am supposed to be dead, right?”
Of course things could take a different turn of events Nicolai though smugly.
The next thirty days were a blur. Terry would wake up, go to the library, study, and then go home to sleep. Over and over again he repeated that schedule for 30 days. He was trying to find some information that would give just a glimpse into the world he experienced for a couple of hours. The only thing that broke up the routine was the calls from his friend Jake.
Jake was happy to hear his wife wasn’t cheating on him. Terry would have been happy as well, except his mind was occupied with the task ahead. What frustrated him was the fact he couldn’t find anything that helped him understand the Greek gods. Yes, they always did what they wanted with the humans. Even Zeus used the humans to satisfy his carnal urges.
Terry hit his hand against the table, causing a loud noise. The other patrons looked at him, and even some of them gave him a shushing sound.
“Having some trouble there?” the librarian’s voice came from behind him. She walked around and sat next to him. “You know, I can help you find whatever it is you are looking for. I do have experience researching material. You get a lot of it as a PhD student.”
“I would take you up on that offer if I even knew what I was looking for.”
“What made you interested in this genre anyway?” She asked looking at the books he had open. “This seems like such an odd subject for someone to be studying. Especially for this long. Are you writing a book? It seems like you’re just blindly searching for something.”
“Honestly, I am just interested in the genre,” Terry said. “I watched a documentary about the Greek gods and they looked interesting.” To change the subject, Terry then added, “What made you want to be a librarian?”
“I doubt they really were interesting,” she said not taking the bait. “Even if half of the stories were true, they treated mankind horribly. They treated each other worse. I read somewhere that Zeus had to declare an edict that no god could harm another god. Their arrogant asses couldn’t even do that.”
Terry started looking questionably at her. “How do you know all of that? I read all of these books and I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“Well, like I said, I have experience researching material. You learn to read between the lines.”
“Yeah, well, I have a lunch to go to. I will be back though.”
Terry hurried and grabbed his things and left the library. Even if today wasn’t the day the Change was going to happen he wasn’t about to go back. The librarian had been acting weirder than normal lately.
With the battle having taken place for hours now, along with the month-long hike to get to their current location, General Amadi and his men were tired. His forces would have been wiped out if it wasn’t for the distrust between the Angolan army and the rebel fighters.
This battle had become more of a waiting game, trying to find out who had the guts to go first. Amadi didn’t have enough men to take out one army. Doing so would leave him wide open for the other to attack his flanks. “A good ole’ Mexican standoff is what we have here” General Amadi muttered.
“What was that sir?” the man next to him asked.
Amadi didn’t realize he spoke out loud. “Nothing. You have your orders now go.”
The runner turned towards the coast and started running. The runner was going to check in with the Sgt. Major who was left back at the camp. Amadi’s good radios were being used by the men on the front lines and he needed to know if those transports had arrived yet. He had forced the Sgt. Major to sit this battle out because of an injury he had received from the failed coup attempt. Amadi had preferred leaving him behind so the Sgt. Major could guard the civilians and watch out for their transportation.
How long is this going to take? Amadi muttered in his head. He had done exactly what Zeus said to do, and now he was left to be massacred.
Gunfire erupted to the north east of him. Amadi turned around and swore. Suddenly gunfire erupted to the south east of him. Damn, they are both pushing at the same time. This isn’t how it’s supposed to end.
Amadi forced himself to think; there had to be a way out of this. Overhead a sharp whistling sound was heard, followed by a loud explosion. Their firing artillery at us. Turns out the opposing armies weren’t waiting to see if they could trust each other, they were setting up their artillery. If they kept up the artillery fire, they would end up hitting their own civilians. The Sgt. Major was right; they really do hate us.
Just as all hope seemed to be lost, comets started to fall from the sky. Amadi grabbed a pair of binoculars to get a better look at what was going on, but noticed he didn’t need them. He could zoom in on where they landed, and see it as clear as day. When the comets landed, monsters seemed to emerge and began attacking the enemy forces. But they weren’t killing the Angolans. They were subduing them and knocking them unconscious.
“General Assaraeus,” a voice screeched in his ear.
Amadi looked to where the sound came from, and right behind him was a woman wearing a breast plate and what looked like a skirt. She carried both spear and buckler with a helmet like the ancient Greeks. Amadi noticed all of the monsters were wearing armor like hers.
“General Assaraeus, I have been sent to gather you and your men. You will come with me, while your men will go on the transports.”
“Tell me who you are first? I thought Zeus was coming for us. Where are the transports?” Amadi said. He was starting to get worried. If she was a follower of Ares, then he would rather die under the Angolans.
“I am Athena. Zeus had other business to attend to. Your transports for your men are over there.” As she pointed to the coast, he saw three ships emerge from the fog.
“What are you doing with the Angolans? They are not my men,” Amadi said questioning her.
“They are coming with us,” was all she said.
“We were fighting them. How are we to fit on three ships?”
“I was told to bring every human. And those are not regular ships. They will hold. You have time to give orders to your captains but you and I, are to leave within the hour.”
Athena turned around and began issuing orders to her men. She turned and spoke normally to the monsters on the battlefield and they quickly followed her commands. No runners, no radios. She was speaking directly to each unit.
I a
m going to have to find out how she does that, Amadi thought. After sending runners to gather the Sgt. Major and the remaining officers to his tent, he headed to meet them there.
Once at the tent he issued his orders. The Sgt. Major would still be in charge of the recruits, as well as the enemy forces that would be joining them. The rest of the officers were to take the remaining two boats with the original men.
During the meeting, Amadi’s men asked him many questions. Who are commanding these boats? Where they are going to take them? Where is he going? The Sgt. Major asked how he would be able to handle all of the enemy forces.
“Athena, I have some questions about the boats,” He talked loudly, hoping that was how the communication worked.
“Stop talking so loudly. We are supposed to be an extraction team. Speak softly and think of only me.”
He did as Athena instructed and asked who was commanding the boats and how his men were supposed to guard the Angolans.
Athena responded, “The boat captains are under my command. They will take your men to Zeus’ domain, where they will stay in Artemis’ valley. I will leave some guards to handle the Angolans. Are you done issuing your orders? We are to leave now.”
“Yeah, hold on. Don’t get your panties in a bundle. By the time you come pick me up, I’ll be ready.”
Nicolai looked at the visitors seated for his execution.
A full house, he thought. I sure have made a lot of enemies in my day.
He looked around to see who all was there. First he seen the judge, who probably had some ideal to see every death sentence she handed out. Then there was the family of the deputy and his daughter. As he scanned the room more, his eyes fell on a familiar figure.
Who was that sitting in the back? Nicolai’s jaw dropped as he recognized who it was. It was Celeste’s father, the only target who got away. Last Nicolai heard was that he fled to the States, but he must have come back home when Nicolai was imprisoned. If this was true, Zeus had more to pay.
Zeus had better come soon because they are ready to fry me.
As the guards continued strapping Nicolai could not keep his eyes off Celeste’s father. Before too long, everything was ready to go. It was almost midnight and still nothing miraculous had happened to save him from his fate.
Oh well I sure did have a great run. Nicolai thought.
Nicolai saw the guard, who over the controls was the same one that had been harassing him. He had a smug look on his face.
“Nicolai Altukhov— you are being put to death for the murders of deputy Leonid Smirnov and his daughter Lyusya Leonidova,” Nicolai could have sworn he heard “and every other victim we couldn’t pin on you,” but the guard continued. “On my mark we will commence with execution. One, two, fire.”
Once the guard said “fire” Nicolai felt a jolt of electricity run through his body. But something was wrong. It didn’t hurt at all. Then he started to smell something burning and noticed that the smell was coming from the straps that covered his skin. He saw that he was free and everyone was freaking out. Now was the time to act.
He jumped towards the guard and put his hands on the man’s throat to choke him. As soon as he touched the guard, the guard started to scream out in pain as his flesh dissolved.
Nicolai turned toward his other marks, hearing shots coming from behind him but again, felt no pain. He looked down and saw a pile of ashes. It seemed that as soon as the bullets struck his skin, they turned to ash. The guards noticed the same thing. They threw down their weapons and ran away.
Nicolai turned his attention towards the judge. It was a mad scramble of people trying to get away in the viewing room. Nicolai walked towards the room, put his hands on the glass, and watched it melt away. Two of the judge’s bodyguards stepped in front of her, trying to protect her.
“You have two choices,” Nicolai said. “Either you leave the judge now and live, or stay and die with her. It is up to you.”
The bodyguards looked at each other, and one of them grabbed the judge and pushed her towards Nicolai. He grabbed her, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered in her ear. “You should have never signed the warrant.”
After dropping her body to the ground, Nicolai walked out of the room searching for Celeste’s father as the judge withered on the floor, dying.
With the prison on lockdown, it was a total mad house. Nicolai walked past the people still in the room, getting the attention of one.
“You,” Nicolai said pointing to one of the woman hiding behind a chair. “There was a business man here. Where did he go?”
The woman started stuttering, telling him that she didn’t know where he went. Nicolai cursed but kept on walking. When walking into the hall he began to smell a sweet perfume coming from the end of the hall. As he followed the scent, he found where it was coming from, Aphrodite.
“Nice little gift you have there, Nicholaus. If I were you, I would hold back on using your powers. We are trying to utilize you guys as a secret weapon. If you keep using your powers, Ares and Hades will be able to track you down.”
She started to slowly walk towards Nicolai. “Anyways, we need to go.” She ran her hand across his shoulder to the other side and grabbed his hand. “So if you can just follow me, we can get you out of here.”
“No,” Nicolai said pulling his hand back. “I need to find a man I was searching for. There is a long debt that has been overdue.”
She looked at him for a minute. “Come, I will take you to him.”
Aphrodite took Nicolai’s hand again and started walking down the hall. Nicolai noted that they were not being noticed by any of the people around.
“Why are we not drawing any of their attention? Are you doing something?”
“Yes and no. I don’t have that gift. But you do. The only thing I am doing is controlling it, since you don’t know how to yet. Here we are. Here is the person you are looking for.”
Celeste’s father was frantically trying to open up a door that was chained shut.
“Hello Joseph, it has been a long time.”
“Nicolai.” The man stopped what he was doing and turned around to face Nicolai. Eyeing him up and down, he continued. “Yes it has. I see you have not changed at all, killing innocent people with no cause for concern. What are you going to do? Kill me now? Just like you killed all of those people? Just like you killed my daughter?”
The anger inside Nicolai started to build up again. “I did not kill Celeste. The hit men were after you. You and your noble goals to stop the corruption in Russia that is what killed Celeste. You would not take the bribes. When I heard the hit men were after you I went to stop them. You were the one who put your daughter in that position. I loved her. I would have never put her in harm’s way. But you had to keep pushing their buttons. You had to keep mocking them on TV. Finally it got to a point where not even I could hold off the hit men.”
As Nicolai got closer to him, he put a finger on the man’s chest. “Now, you will die.”
Nicolai walked back towards Aphrodite as the man’s body fell lifeless to the ground.
“Now I am ready to leave.”
Terry was seated at the diner waiting for Jessica to come. After much pleading Terry finally got Jessica to agree to meet for lunch. He was seated at one of the outside tables, enjoying the nice summer weather. It was a nice diner with TV’s outside playing the local news, sports, and even the financials.
They were supposed to meet up at 1:30 and it was already 1:45. Terry reached for his cell phone to give her a call. Just as he was about to dial her number, she walked around the corner.
She we looking as beautiful as she always did. This time she seemed really mad. Terry must have got her at a bad time. This isn’t going to be pretty he thought to himself.
Jessica approached the table, and as she sat down she spoke. “What was so important that we had to meet right now? This is why we had to split. Everything has to be done on your time. So let’s hear it. What is it this time?”
/> Terry looked down and took a deep breath. Then he started to tell her everything that happened from the day she left, what he did all day to that night he came home and found her note. He told her about the animal shelter he wanted to open up. Most importantly, he told her what happened afterwards, about the appearance of the old man who turned out to be Zeus.
He continued to tell her about going to the library and trying to find any information he could about the Greek gods. Terry said he would like for her to come with him when he is taken back to Zeus’ domain. At first he thought it was going better than he planned since she just sat there. That all changed when she started to laugh.
“Terry, you are nuts. That has to be the biggest lie any guy has ever said to get in my pants. I’ll be honest, I was starting to miss you, but after this, I know you will never change. I never want to see you ever again.”
She stood up, grabbed her purse and started to walk away.
Terry got up and grabbed her arm. She turned around, and was about to smack him.
“Let go of me or…”
Her eyes were wide opened and they were fixed on one of the TVs. Terry looked at the direction she was staring at and even he couldn’t believe what he saw. On the TV was Pearl Harbor and attacking Pearl Harbor was this gigantic monster with tentacles coming out of its body. It was toppling destroyers and even split a carrier in half. It was slowly advancing towards the main base.
Terry felt this sense of danger coming towards his direction.
He grabbed Jessica and jumped out of the way. To his amazement, he jumped farther than he would have thought possible. He looked to where he was standing and saw a car engulfed in flames smashing into the diner and its occupants. A loud explosion took place and the cries of the dying patrons pierced his hearing. Terry looked to see where it had all come from, and saw the librarian from the library.