Pandora (Book 3) (The Omega Group) (3 page)

As Mirissa’s eyes scanned the spectacular ruins at Pella,
Greece, she sighed. She’d never considered herself a history buff. In fact, it
had always been her least favorite subject to study in school. But standing in
the midst of what remained of the twenty-five-hundred-year-old capital of
Macedonia, she found herself wishing she could be a tourist instead of an Omega
Group agent.

The mosaics dotted throughout the ruins consisted of
everything from simple geometric designs to elaborate depictions of deer hunts
and Dionysus made with colored stones, glass, and lead. Although the mansions
that once used these mosaics as floors had disappeared long ago, Mirissa had no
trouble imagining their grandeur.

“Where do we start?” Greco asked.

Mirissa’s mother looked equally as entranced with the site
but quickly refocused. “The team Daedric worked with was excavating at the
palace.” She pointed to a hilltop outside the city where a large group of
people were congregating. “The strange clouds aren’t frightening the tourists
away, so we’ll need to be careful.”

Mirissa once again glanced at the sky. The red clouds rolled
in all directions, pierced by the black smoke tendrils. The only cloud that
didn’t appear to be moving at all was stationed directly above the palace
ruins. “That’s a little ominous, don’t you think?”

“According to Julian, that was the first cloud to form, and
it hasn’t moved since,” Greco said.

The closer they got to the palace, the more apparent it
became that the group of tourists milling about weren’t admiring the ruins.
Police tape stretched across the entrance to a tunnel that ran beneath the
foundations of what had once been an outer building.

Mirissa and the rest of the team blended in with the other
onlookers. “What’s going on?” she asked a middle-aged man wearing a T-shirt
with an American flag emblazoned on the front.

“They found the body of an archeologist down there. Looks
like murder,” the man said, eyes fixed on the scene.

“Really? What happened?” Mirissa tried to sound like an
average teenager in search of some excitement.

“I don’t really know. People have been saying there were
four of them down there, secretly excavating some new tomb or something. They
think the guy got killed for the treasure, but I don’t believe it.” He turned
to face Mirissa and had to raise his eyes to meet hers. “You sure are a tall
one.”

“Yeah, it’s a curse.” Mirissa paused. “Why don’t you believe
them?”

“Because, if there was something worth killing for down
there, we would have heard about it. Don’t you think?”

Although Mirissa knew all too well that there were many
things the general public wasn’t aware of, she nodded her agreement. “Thanks
for letting me know.”

Her mother leaned in. “Let’s go.”

As they walked down the hill, Mirissa shared what the man
told her. “If Daedric really took part in that excavation, I think it’s safe to
say he got what he wanted.”

“But what did he want?” her mother asked. “We need to get
past the police line and see where they were working. There might be a clue.”

“I can probably help with that,” Mirissa said. “If we come
back after dark, I’ll teleport in.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Her mother turned away from the
ruins and headed toward their car.

Mirissa didn’t follow. She needed to see one of the ruins
first. At least, she felt compelled in that direction. Not so much a conscious
thought as an instinct.

She made her way through the grid lines of the ancient city
toward the Agora in the center. Incredible mosaics surrounded her, but only one
attracted her attention. When she reached the remains of what the pamphlets
called
The House of the Abduction of
Helen,
she stepped over the rope used to keep tourists back and onto the
floor of one of the antechambers.

“Mirissa? Are you okay?” Greco called to her.

She turned to answer but stopped short. Greco and the rest
of the team still stood there against the backdrop of the ruins, but another
image had superimposed itself on top of them. Trees with lush foliage now
encircled them from afar, stretching to the sky. Below their feet lay a thick
blanket of grass, the scent of which barely registered.
What the hell?

Bit by bit the details of the scene filled in around her—deer
running into the woods, passing through the ruins like ghosts; a group of birds
taking flight, squawking angrily at whatever disturbed them. A thunderous noise
emanated from her right, getting louder by the second.
Are those horses?

“Mirissa?”

The voice belonged to her mother, but Mirissa couldn’t bring
herself to speak, as she struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. The
action played out before her like a video sloppily recorded over another,
without quite erasing it.

Angry cries pierced the air as hundreds of female warriors on
horseback burst through the tree line, long hair flowing from under their
helmets. Beautiful armor protected their shapely bodies, and their bows were
held at the ready. Mirissa gasped at the awe-inspiring sight of an army of
women stampeding toward her.

When the first arrow launched, Mirissa followed its path
over her head. Another army, this time male, charged from the opposite
direction. Their armor glistened in the sunlight as they raised their swords
for battle.

Mirissa’s head swiveled from left to right as the two groups
closed in on her. Their steeds galloped at full speed and would meet in a
bloody confrontation within seconds. Mirissa instinctively covered her head as
the smell of sweat and horses assailed her. She screamed as strong arms grabbed
her shoulders and yanked her back.

Silence.

Mirissa opened her eyes to see her father staring at her, worry
etched into his brow. The battlefield, the warriors, the trees, and grass had
vanished. Only the remnants of the ancient city of Pella surrounded her.

“Tell me what you saw, Mirissa,” her father said.

Mirissa glanced from one person to another as she fought to
find the words to describe it. “Amazons—hundreds of them—were about to go into
battle against …” She didn’t know who their opponent was.

“Greeks,” Beck said from a few feet away. She stared at the floor
where Mirissa stood moments before. “Take a look at this, Myrine.”

Mirissa hesitated to get too close but followed the group.

“This mosaic depicts the Battle of the Amazons,” her mother
said, pointing to the floor. “It was one of the largest and most brutal battles
in our history.”

“That was our biggest loss, wasn’t it?” Greco asked.

Myrine smiled. “Depends who you ask. Amazons were never big
on documenting their battles because they didn’t fight for glory. They fought
against tyranny. The Greeks, on the other hand, documented everything. They
wrote their stories with endings that suited their needs. And since their
accounts are the only ones left, people either believe they defeated us, or
that we didn’t exist at all.”

“Some things never change,” Mirissa said. “The history books
of the future won’t have any mention of the Omega Group’s escapades.”

“What I want to know,” Steve said, “is why Mirissa was able
to see any of that. Is it a new ability manifesting itself, or does it have
something to do with whatever’s going on with Daedric?”

Silence followed her father’s question, and Mirissa gave his
hand a squeeze. “I guess that’s yet another question we don’t have the answer
to.”

Flip scrambled up the perfectly manicured grass that covered
the excruciatingly steep path to Ares’s palace. Getting from one place to
another without his powers wasn’t so bad with the humans, what with their
awesome automobiles. On Mount Olympus, where every estate was separated by
miles of gardens, it was horrible.

When he and Daedric returned to the home of the gods with
the opened box and Eris freed, Ares flew into a rampage. As though it had
somehow been Flip’s fault that the humans dropped the box, Ares punished him by
stripping him of his powers. Not for the first time, either.

The higher gods generally got their kicks from tormenting
the lesser ones. It seemed to be their favorite source of entertainment since
Zeus decreed they could no longer mess with the humans. When Zeus made the
announcement, every lesser god cringed in anticipation of the suffering they
knew would come.

None more so than Flip.

Born to two lesser, virtually unknown gods, Flip clung firmly
to the bottom rung of the deity ladder. Add to that the fact that he stood a
foot shorter than everyone else—including the females—and didn’t possess the
beauty usually ascribed to the gods, and he quickly became the butt of
everyone’s jokes.

His name certainly didn’t make things any easier. Every
god’s name had a meaning. Adonis meant “lord.” Prometheus meant “forethought.”
Hades meant “the unseen.” Flip, on the other hand, meant “friends with horses.”
He’d stopped counting thousands of years earlier the amount of times his name’s
meaning had been twisted into something depraved by the other gods.

But today Flip would be the hero. He’d spent the afternoon
in the great hall, trying to blend in with the furniture as Zeus regaled the
crowd with yet another tale of his victory over the Titans, to which everyone
politely laughed and applauded at the appropriate times. His story was
interrupted when Chronos barged through the doors, wielding an enormous scythe.

“I hope you have good reason for this disruption.” Zeus
glared at the other god.

“A human has crossed the time barrier. I thought it might be
more important than another one of your self-aggrandizing lectures.” Although a
long beard covered half of his face, he couldn’t hide the hatred in his eyes.

“Impossible. No human has that ability.” Zeus dismissed
Chronos with a wave of his hand and returned his attention to the adoring
crowd.

Chronos threw a handful of black powder at Zeus’s feet. “See
for yourself.” The powder swirled into the air, creating a void of blackness
the same height as the god and twice that wide. The image of a young girl, tall
with long black hair and olive skin, standing in the midst of some old ruins
appeared. As quickly as it came into focus, the image changed. A battlefield
from long ago layered over the scene, complete with all the sights and sounds
of the time.

“So, that is Artemis’s secret weapon,” Zeus said with pride.
“Don’t worry, Chronos. The bounds of time haven’t been disrupted by a normal human.
She’s an Amazon, and if I know Artemis, she is much more than that.”

Flip’s jaw dropped as he watched the spectacle unfold. The
girl crossing the time barrier wasn’t what had him captivated. The key that
hung around her neck, however, was.

He’d hurried from the hall as fast as he could. Now,
struggling to catch his breath before knocking on the golden doors of Ares’s
palace, Flip considered the best way to share the news of his discovery. The
god of war promised many times to compensate him for his services but had yet
to follow through on any of them. His punishments came quickly, but his rewards
rarely did.

Without warning, Flip was teleported to Ares’s library.
I hate when he does that.
Thousands of
leather-bound tomes lined the walls, most likely never opened by their owner.
 
The room had become the god’s favorite place
to address his underlings. The pretentious setting added to the intimidation
its inhabitants endured.

“Why are you skulking outside my home?” The deep baritone
voice rumbled through Flip’s chest.

Standing as tall as his stature would allow, Flip spoke with
as much bravado as he could muster. “I have awesome news. I was hanging out at
the great hall earlier and—”

Ares looked at him with disgust, raising his hand to cut him
off. “Don’t speak as the humans do. It’s difficult enough to remember you’re a
god without you using their ridiculous colloquialisms.”

“I know who the key-holder is,” Flip said flatly.

A wolfish grin tugged at Ares’s lips as his eyebrows rose.
“Is that so? Tell me, horse companion, how did you come across this
information?”

Flip clenched his jaw at the familiar insult. “That doesn’t
matter. What matters is that I know who it is.”

Ares strode around him, circling like a predator sizing up
his prey. “I’m waiting.”

Flip swallowed against the lump that had embedded itself in
his throat and took a deep breath. “Not until you make good on your promise.”

Ares stared straight through him before erupting in
laughter. The walls shook with every bellow, sending books clattering to the
floor. “Well, look who finally grew a pair. I tell you what: you tell me who
the key-holder is, and I’ll give you back your powers.”

Flip’s heart swelled at the small victory and it took every
ounce of his willpower to suppress the smile threatening to sprout. “Not good
enough. I want you to fulfill the promise you made to me when all of this
started.” He knew he’d pushed his luck, but that kind of bargaining power
wasn’t likely to land in his lap again.

Some of the humor seemed to leave Ares’s tone as he spoke.
“I will return your powers now. After your information proves accurate,
assuming it does, I will grant your request.”

Flip, about to offer his agreement to the terms, was hurled
to the floor by a jolt of energy.

Ares, brow furrowed and fist clenched, pierced him with an
evil glare. “If your information proves inaccurate in any way, your misery will
be boundless throughout eternity. Do I make myself clear?”

Flip nodded vigorously, unable to bring himself to speak as
he scrambled to his feet. A warm tingle spread outward from his chest until it
enveloped his entire body. The return of his powers eased his anxiety and he
once again stood tall. “It’s a young Amazon girl with long black hair. She’s
referred to as Artemis’s secret weapon. She’s wearing the key on a chain around
her neck.”

“Daedric!” Ares bellowed.

Flip jumped back, startled by Ares’s unexpected outburst.
The news he thought would make the god happy—at least as happy as the god of
war could ever be—seemed to be having the opposite effect. When his half-human
son popped into the room next to him wearing nothing but a robe, Flip
understood the anger.

“What is it? I was in the middle of—” Daedric started.

“I don’t care.” Ares glowered at the man in the same way he
often glowered at Flip. “It seems one of your many mistakes is coming back to
haunt us.”

Daedric looked genuinely confused at the statement. “I’m not
sure what you mean, Father.”

“Stop calling me that. I created you for a purpose, and
being your father wasn’t it.” Ares turned to
Flip
.
“Why don’t you tell him what you just told me?”

After clearing his throat and taking a few deep breaths,
Flip began. “I was at the great hall earlier, and—”

“Oh, for the love of … skip to the important part,” Ares
growled.

“The key-holder is a young Amazon girl that is Artemis’s
secret weapon.” Flip spewed the words out as quickly as he could.

All color drained from Daedric’s face as he dropped onto the
armrest of a beautiful leather sofa. “It can’t be,” he said, more to himself
than anyone else.

A sweep of Ares’s arm and the sofa disappeared, causing
Daedric to drop painfully to the tile floor. “It
can
be, and it is.”

Flip sidestepped to the edge of the room, wanting to
distance himself from the sputtering Daedric. For once, Ares raged at someone
besides him, and he wanted to keep it that way. As usual, the other occupants
of the room seemed to forget his presence as they argued. If one good thing came
from being at the bottom of the hierarchy, that was it. Flip frequently found
himself privy to all sorts of information he shouldn’t have, simply because
nobody cared enough to notice him.

The knowledge he gained now was priceless.

Apparently, Daedric had spent most of his adult life putting
together a plan for world domination—something to do with controlling the oil
humans needed to survive. The young Amazon stopped him. Not just that, but she’d
actually captured the demi-god, and he had to be rescued by Ares.

Flip drooled over the thought of all the ways he could use
this information against Daedric the next time the blow-hard half-breed talked
down to him. The one-liners being scripted in his head almost caused him to
miss the most important piece of information being discussed.

Ares was having difficulty controlling his sister. She’d
been locked away in the box for five thousand years and wanted revenge. Eris
would lay waste to the humans, which aligned pretty well with what Ares had
planned. But she also wanted to decimate the gods, and the first deity on her
hit list was Zeus.

“Flip!” Ares roared as though calling him in from another
room.

To keep up the charade of him not being present during their
private argument, Flip teleported to Ares’s side. “You called, sir?”

“I have a job for you.”