Page 138 of Gates of Tartarus

Tennireef adjusts his expression and response so rapidly and expertly it almost makes me wonder if I imagined his frustration.

Face smoothed out to an amused, abashed grimace, one hand held up in a “mea culpa” movement, Tennireef says to his bodyguard, “I’m sorry, Thomas! And embarrassed!” Thomas looks confused and holsters his weapon hesitantly, still looking around the room. As he’s doing so, Tennireef silently and without flinching slams a desk drawer on his other hand. His expression doesn’t alter even slightly, still locked into that semi-pained, semi-amused look, and he holds up his now injured hand awkwardly.

“I’m afraid I’m not nearly as tough as one would think,” Tennireef says, tone sheepish and slightly distressed. “I accidently closed the drawer on my finger.”

Thomas moves to the desk and frowns. “Oh, Christ! Senator, that thing looks pretty bad. Possibly broken.”

Dark bruising is already spreading out on his pinkie finger, and Tennireef shakes his head ruefully. “Please don’t spread around that I yelled so loudly at a little pinch that you had to rush in to save me, gun drawn. It’ll ruin me. I can see the headlines now…”

Thomas laughs, shaking his head. “Never, Senator. I’ll take it to the grave. Let me get you some ice for that thing. It would have made a lesser man than you shout a bit. Looks terrible.”

Thomas heads to find ice, leaving Tennireef alone, contemplating his hand. Thoughtfully, he squeezes his injured finger tightly with his other hand, wincing slightly, then shivering and smiling. “No rush, Thomas!” he calls out, still squeezing his hurt finger in something close to elation. “No rush at all,” he whispers then to himself, a sick little smile still turning up the corners of his lips.

Smith leans forward towards the feed and clicks it off, leaving our little room in silence.

“Well, fuck,” Walker says quietly, almost under his breath.

Well fuck indeed.

???

There’s a flurry of activity, with Smith making calls to his British counterpart, and the rest of the guys running the aliases in the system to see if there are any hits. Nothing pops at all, and I think we’re all taken aback by the magnitude and power of what we’re dealing with here. Assuming this is just one cog in the wheel, and the wheel is just one piece of a larger machine, we are, for lack of a better term, completely fucked. Rhea, and by association, Kronos, have at the very least one major US senator firmly in their pocket. From what the Brits have said there are one or two similar-level politicians on their side on the payroll. And there are, at a minimum, three new players that we’ve neverheardof on the field, all code named for gods, and…

“How large is… are... how many Olympians are there?” I ask suddenly and get very confused looks from everyone except Hideo, who cocks his head at me and says slowly, “Twelve, I believe. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus. Or Hestia, depending, I think.”

Looking towards him, eyes locked just over his shoulder so I don’t have to meet his steady gaze, I try to ignore what’s happening between us and work together the way I know we can, the way we’ll need to to solve this.

“So we have Rhea, Kronos… Hideo, can you look this up for me? Who were their children?”

He Googles on his phone and reads off, “Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hestia.”

Groaning, I rub my head. “We haven’t metanyof them. Whohavewe met?”

He pauses, eyes running down the pages. “Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis… Aphrodite, though she’s... born from the sea, so slightly different…”

“So we haven’t even met the major players, guys. If this is following the structure we’re hearing, we haven’t evenmet the major players. I mean, I’d assume that Athena, Artemis, etc… they’re not even the top level, right? They’re what, one level down from Zeus and Poseidon and... And we know the top level must exist because we heard Tennireef mention Hestia.” Head pounding now, despite Gemma’s presence, I try to push through. “So, I mean, I’m 99% sure Tennireef is Apollo, right? Because I mentioned that name to him at dinner and he froze. Just froze. Which means a future president of the United States doesn’t even rate top-level operative.”

We all inhale at once, faces tense, mirrored looks of grim dismay around the table.

Jonah whispers quietly, “We need to get that plug back, Kai.” I turn to him, and he continues. “I don’t know how, but this is a massive breach in their system. It’s such a stupid, small thing, and it will be overlooked for awhile, but at some point, if we’re looking at what we’re looking at with Kronos, they’ll find that, and we’ll lose our advantage. I honestly... I didn’t think we’d get something like this. Just...”

I know he’s right, but my head hurts, and I can’t think. Smith and Walker both look perplexed, but Hideo has an idea. I can tell. I can see it in the set of his jaw that he has something to say but doesn’t want to.

“What?” I ask tiredly, and his russet eyes dart between me and Gemma, regret warring with indecision on his face. “What?” I say again, and he sighs.

“It’s just an idea…” he begins slowly. “Doll has done commissioned work for the city before…”

I’m not following, but to my sudden horror and biting sadness, gnashing razor-sharp teeth in my heart and stomach, I realize that Gemma is.

“Ooohhhh…” she says slowly, on an exhale, looking thoughtful, and she and Hideo exchange a look of understanding that makes me want to throw up. “Okay, yeah. So, what are you thinking? Like, two micro pieces?”

Hideo shakes his head. “No. He’s arrogant,” and she nods.

“Right. Right. Okay, I have a painting that could work of ‘The Troll’. Really ominous, but super Seattle, so right up his alley. You think just take it? Play off the fact that I’m Kai’s roommate?”

He frowns. “She could call ahead, as a personal favor?” but Gemma shakes her head.

“No… he could suspect... but if I just name drop… and then ask for the installation going in downtown... or drop my card? It wouldn’t be hard.”