Adonis and Aphroditus (3 page)

Adonis was in the middle of the line that was
boarding and that meant he wouldn’t get a seat at the back of the
plane where he preferred to sit. He’d end up in the middle since
the leaders usually sat in the front and he didn’t want to be
anywhere near them. He felt forced to be present anyway and he
wanted his part in this operation to be as limited as possible. Out
of sight was out of mind so he’d keep his head down and blend into
the group.

“Where’s Adonis?” he heard Hercules ask. He
saw some of the other gods gesturing and pointing his way. Some
days it didn’t pay to get out of bed.

Adonis sighed, there was no use in hiding. He
stood up and walked to where Hercules sat. “You were looking for
me?”

“Yes, Hades told me to work closely with you
on this one since you’ve spoken to the female,” he explained.

“I have, but only on the hotline when she
called in.”

“You’re the only one that’s spoken to her so
you’ll be the one that talks to her when we arrive. Humans can be
wary and we don’t want her to change her mind. We need the folder
she has with all the surveillance she’s done. It will save us a
week or more in time and much effort. It was lucky for us origin
chose an intelligence operative to breed.”

“She’s not really an intelligence operative.
She’s a systems analyst that has some cross training. They wanted
her trained in the work their people did so she would understand
their needs and design around them.”

“If she’s managed to do half the things she
says she did and got the information she says she has, she’s an
intelligence operative,” Hercules insisted. “I wonder what she
looks like.”

Adonis bristled, he wondered what she looked
like too but she wasn’t for Hercules. She was, well shit when had
he begun to think of her as his? After thinking it through he
decided he had always thought of her as his. Even when he thought
her crazy and resisted believing her, she was his.
Damn
!
There were ten gods total on this mission and only Eudoris was
mated. He would have his hands full keeping them away from his
female.

He noticed Jupiter scrunched down in his seat
playing one of those two screened games. The kid was too young for
a female old enough to have a child to take an interest in. That
left eight horny female deprived gods, all great looking, athletic,
and smarter than the average human. He noticed Eros was along too,
it made him wonder why. It was probably to fill an empty space
because most missions were well planned in advance and this had
come up at a moments notice. It was led by second leadership level
gods like Hercules and Eros. Adonis had noticed the older leaders
stepping back and giving the next level a chance to run things.

There was a time he would never have expected
to go on a mission and sending Jupiter, a teenager, along to fill a
team spot that was odd to say the least. A lot of the choices the
leaders had been making lately, well since they were mated, seemed
odd to Adonis. Maybe mating messed up your mind, it was possible.
Just look at how crazy he was acting and he’d only talked to Lucy,
he’d not even met her yet. Hercules gestured for him to sit near
him. The trip was going to seem even longer now since they’d be
rehashing the little information they had over and over.

They talked, slept, talked, ate, and talked
some more. He’d never realized Hercules was as anal as those other
leaders, Zeus, Hades, and the rest. Maybe it was part of the burden
of leadership and it made him glad he wasn’t one. He had never gone
over the same information so many times in his life and it was
relief, pure and simple that washed through him when they
landed.

Chapter 3

Baby Blues

Nothing had ever hurt as bad as losing her
baby. It had been terrible physically, but she felt like part of
her soul had been ripped away and she was left aching for it. She
was amazed that they were doing this to other women and none of
them questioned it. They mourned the loss and moved on. Some of the
pregnancies were unintentional, at least on the woman’s part. That
was mostly their employees who hadn’t realized when they were
signing on that they were expected to give origin a baby.
Impregnated without their consent or even knowledge, some of these
women were as devastated when they found out they were expecting as
they were later when they were told the baby had died.

She had never even seen her daughter, but she
had heard her cry. It was what had caused her to start her
investigation. It tested all the skills she had learned when she
had started working for her super secret agency. Those talents had
come in handy once she had decided that her little girl was
alive
and needed her. No one would keep her from her little
one but she needed help. Once she had discovered origin backed the
facility she had gone to, she had no problem finding out what was
really going on behind closed doors. After she found out they had a
captive god, she knew exactly where to turn to for help.

The slightly thick headed god that manned the
line she called had worried her at first, but the woman she spoke
to had to be a mother too. It came across in her tone and her
words. She would see to it she got the help she needed in return
for the information they sought. It was odd, she had really liked
his voice. She could almost visualize him and it gave her a small
sense of comfort. They would arrive today and by tomorrow her baby
would be back in her arms.

The folder sat on her desk in her home
office. She had upgraded to a three bedroom apartment in
preparation for the baby. It infuriated her that this organization
thought so little of what they did to the women they victimized and
the gods they had created. Lucy didn’t intend to stop with freeing
her child. There were other mothers who’d had babies ripped from
their bodies literally and told they’d died. They had no reason to
doubt a doctor who quietly and mournfully told them they couldn’t
save the little one. The guy should be an actor because he looked
on the verge of tears the whole time he had talked to her.

As usual, thinking about that hellish day
upset her but no more than her empty arms. She thought back to when
she had discovered what had really transpired. She’d hacked their
computer finding all kinds of secrets hidden within. She had
scrolled and searched finding everything they wanted to hide. Her
baby was still being kept on site for now but there was talk of
moving her and the other babies that they had stolen from their
mothers. Glutted with arrogance because of the success they had
achieved, they had become careless with their security.

Lucy was the best that she knew of. She could
do things other computer specialists couldn’t. That was why she
worked for what she called
the inner circle
. It was the most
secret agency of all. They were so secret, she’d never heard even a
whisper of their existence before. They worked behind the scenes
sending information to the well known agencies when it was time to
take public action. Much of the action they took was not public. It
might even be considered illegal but her agency was above the law
and operated under a special mandate. They saved hostages just to
hand them off and let others take the glory. They assassinated
enemies of the state, but were never caught. That old saying about
the best of the best applied to the people she worked with.

Extensive training in what they did was given
to all, even computer nerds. She had learned from the best and she
had found she was good at the things a spy needed to know. It had
come ion handy with her current dealings with origin and would be
just as valuable in her campaign against them. They had messed with
the wrong woman and she would make them pay again and again. She
checked her watch, it wouldn’t be long now. She had to admit to
curiosity about what Adonis looked like. Would he resemble his
namesake? She knew he would be tall and built, all the gods were.
His voice had been husky, sexy. She needed to get him out of her
mind especially until her baby was in her arms again even though
she needed a distraction from the constant worry and stress. It was
just a little harmless imagining after all. She had nothing to do
until they arrived which would be anytime now.

The call came none too soon and she answered
her phone. “Lucy?”

“Yes, is this Adonis?” she asked even though
she recognized his voice.

“It is. We need to meet. We’re at a hotel two
blocks from you’re address. It’s on Hunter Street. Are you familiar
with it?”

“Is it the one next to the mall?”

“Yes, there is a large mall next door,” he
replied.

“I can be there in ten.”

“Come to conference room 145. We will be
waiting for you.”

“I’m on my way.” Lucy grabbed her keys and
tossed the folder into her bag along with her laptop. For some
reason she had thought they would meet her here but if they had a
large team this place wouldn’t hold them all. She looked around to
be sure she had everything, grabbed her car keys, and hurried out
the door to her car. Her precious, her sixty-five mustang, sat
waiting for her. She got in, the motor roared to life and she was
there in five minutes flat.

She entered the hotel, butterflies danced in
her stomach her palms were sweaty. She wasn’t the nervous type but
so much rode on the success or failure of this mission. Her heart
ached at just the thought of failure. She had the gods on her side,
failure wasn’t an option. She stood in front of room 145 and stared
at the handle as if it was alive. She should just reach out and
grab the handle twisting it until the door opened. Yeah, that what
she should do.

She drew in a deep breath to calm and steady
herself. She grabbed the door handle and it twisted by itself.
Startled she jumped back staring at it in amazement until she
realized it was just someone coming out. He opened the door and
looked up right at her. Oh my god! He was amazing!

“Hello,” she managed to squeak out that one
single word.

“Hello,” he said with a sexy smile as he
looked her up and down. The voice didn’t sound familiar and
disappointment settled in.

“I’m Lucy. Who are you?”

“Hercules. Why don’t you come on in? I was
just going to have a walk and see if I could find you.”

Lucy looked at her watch. She still had a
minute to spare. She arched her brow at him in silent question.

“We’re a little inpatient to get started. We
were cooped up on a long flight and it’s made everyone a bit
antsy.”

She nodded. She hated flying and their flight
had been longer than anyone she’d ever taken. He stepped back and
held the door open for her. Nine other guys looked up at her. She
wondered why they had sent so many but decided a few extra wouldn’t
hurt anything if they were well trained. That’s when her eyes fell
on a teenager. How could this kid possibly be well trained? He was
looking back at her like she was a piece of cherry pie. How
awkward. She hoped this wasn’t Adonis or she would just die after
all the sexy dreams and erotic imaginings she’d had about him he
couldn’t just turn out to be a kid.

Hercules started introducing the gods
starting with the young one who was Jupiter. Oh thank, damn she was
getting hung up on that word. He continued and nearly at the end
was Adonis. He was yummy, the man of her dreams. Now her dream
lover wouldn’t stay in the shadows anymore. His lips curved in a
half smile almost as if he could sense her thoughts. He nodded at
her when Hercules said her name but he scowled when Hercules took
her arm and led her past him.

“We’ll need to get right on this. I need to
see the schedules and other information you have. Adonis, come on,
you need to help with this. The rest of you, grab some food and
sleep. I’ll call you when you’re needed. Oh, yeah. Jupiter, you can
help with this too.”

Lucy shot a surprised look toward Jupiter
that Hercules caught. “The youngster is very good at planning
attacks. You’ll see,” Hercules promised.

Lucy set up her laptop and started pulling
out discs labeled for the days and times of surveillance. She
pulled out schedules, pictures with names and backgrounds, and
finally a complete blueprint of the building. She hacked into the
cameras that origin used to monitor their own security and was able
to show them where everyone was.

“It is Perseus. Oh, dear father Cronos,
what’s happened to him?” Jupiter swore.

It was clear to everyone that the boy had
never seen the more serious abuse that was meted out to the older
gods. The children weren’t usually abused in this particular
manner. They were sometimes starved or put in solitary, but that
was usually the worst discipline they received. The children were,
however, occasionally put down if they were determined unsuitable
for the task they were bred for. There was no limit to the evil
that was origin. Lucy’s determination to take them out
strengthened. No one should ever be put through this type of
treatment.

They settled down once the shock and horror
of what they had seen wore off. Hercules and Adonis went through
disc after disc looking for weaknesses but in the end found nothing
Lucy had not already pointed out. They read over the schedule and
looked at her recommendations.

“You’ve done a thorough job of surveillance
and made good suggestions,” Hercules seemed to say reluctantly. “I
don’t see any other way of doing this in our timeline. We move
tomorrow at dawn.”

“Very good. When and where do you want me to
meet you?” she asked.

“I don’t.”

“You need me for this. It wouldn’t be right
for you to cut me out of this,” she said.

“You’re right. I want you to stay here with
us. We’ll all be together that way.”

“You want to keep an eye on me.”

“And you can keep an eye on us.”