Anaz-Voohri (33 page)

“How many soldiers are familiar with Greek Mythology?" Zack didn’t see the connection.

“My point exactly.
If they can decipher the ad, they already passed the test of superior education and astuteness, and we want to talk to them.”

“But many of Carrick’s men read these ads." Zack had seen such magazines at the cafeteria and in the locker rooms of ORION headquarters.

 
“How about we write an encrypted poem instead of an ad? Like an ancient riddle." Archer winked. “Carrick’s watchdogs don’t waste time reading poetry.”

Dylan frowned.
“A poem in
Soldier of Fortune
?”

“Why not?"
Archer pulled out his epad and unfolded the larger keyboard. “It could be a very inspiring and patriotic poem!”

Zack sighed, removed his blue jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “We better get cranking.

It’s been a long time since I wrote poetry.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hero
Without
a Cause

May you be blessed, O ye who endured in Hades

To become the fiercest in all Aries armies

Ye with faith and courage, and who never despaired

Even under the yoke of the mighty Baldric.

Ye who thirst for justice, tired of infamy,

Seeking a noble cause, find refuge in Mythos.

Quiet triumph awaits in the dark underworld,

Among unsung heroes of the antiquity

For purpose and fortune shall reward the worthy

Who offers at sunset a single bloody rose

Before the tall altar of Vulcan’s western forge,

Welcomed by Apollo, Prometheus and Zeus.

And may death come swiftly to foreign barbarians

Who would dare to trespass on the Elysian Fields

In the dim backroom of a small Beijing restaurant, over egg fu yong and a bowl of green tea, Kin Raidon stared at the poem in his
Soldier of Fortune
magazine. Not only was the wording poor despite the regular staccato, but it didn’t quite rhyme and made no sense upon careful scrutiny. As he stared at the lines, unusual words popped out. Intrigued, Kin pulled out a pen and circled Hades, the hell of Greek mythology. Kin had known such hell and fortunately escaped from it. Aries being the God of War, his fiercest in today’s world would be Special Forces, or even super-soldiers like Kin, although very few knew of their existence.

Kin’s inbred intuition suspected some kind of riddle. Written by whom?
To what purpose?
He puzzled over the mighty Baldric. How could the sword belt of ancient warriors be mighty? But the word was capitalized, and he remembered from studying in England, that French astronomers called the Orion belt star system
le Baudrier d’Orion
, Orion’s Baldric. Kin circled Baldric and wrote ORION beside it.
Definitely mighty and oppressing.

This started to make sense and could be some kind of message. Excited, Kin thanked his late parents for an intuitive brain and a classical education. His mind flew away from the confining restaurant, the smells of the kitchen at his back, and the banter of the cooks. Letting his food grow cold, he pored over the clever riddle with renewed interest.

The word Mythos usually described cultural symbolism like in mythology, but it could also mean hidden and mysterious, as in conspiracy or secret plan. Because of its capitalization and the mention of the dark underworld, Kin guessed it might refer to a secret underground organization.

Since the heroes of ancient times were always largely praised, the unsung heroes constituted a contradiction. But it probably served to reinforce the idea of secrecy. The verse also implied there were other such soldiers already in that organization. Fascinating!

The third stanza seemed to explain how and when a worthy soldier might apply, with a single red rose, at sunset. As to where, the verse said
before
instead of
on
the altar. And altars were usually low, not tall. Could it mean in front of some tall landmark in the west? America symbolized the modern west.
A skyscraper, perhaps?

The hours passed, but Kin didn’t mind. His next contracted victim could wait. Some rotten bastard would get his deserved death a little later, so what? Deciphering the riddle seemed worth the time.

The name Vulcan stood out. It was Roman, not Greek like all the others. Kin couldn’t quite remember the Greek name for Vulcan. He moved to the last verses. The Elysian Fields meant paradise to the ancient Greek, an earthly paradise of green pastures. If that paradise represented an ideal Earth, then the barbarian trespassers could be the Anaz-voohri. It all seemed to fit.

Still. An important piece of the puzzle was missing. Vulcan. As Kin sipped his tea, now cold and bitter, the name came to mind. Hephaistos! Vulcan’s Greek name was Hephaistos, the demigod of Lemnos who forged magic armors.

Kin then remembered a series of articles in the papers several years ago, about the inauguration of the tallest building in Manhattan. Many criticized it for its vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
A feat of modern glass and metal architecture.

Doted with a great visual memory, Kin recalled one photograph in particular, illustrating such an article. The logo on the glass tower said Haepheon Technologies. Hephaistos... Haepheon...
Vulcan’s forge.
Then Kin remembered hearing about Haepheon’s military contract for a secret armor called the Lemnian armor. It made sense.

Something important was happening in New York, and Kin wanted to be part of it. If this Mythos organization planned to oppose ORION, this could be the opportunity Kin had awaited for years. Maybe the time had come to get out of China.

*****

In her private tent, on a temporary American base in the middle of the Afghani desert, Tia relaxed on her cot and wondered what Zack was doing right now, half a world away. She couldn’t believe her bad luck. But maybe that was the just punishment for her mistake, the mistake that had prompted Zack to sacrifice himself to save her.

Seeing him again had rekindled the passion Tia had buried and denied all these years. And she could tell he still felt the same about her. Had he forgiven her? How could this be? But Tia was a hybrid, and Zack a hybrid hunter. For her own survival, she had to stay as far away from him as she could, and get him out of her mind.

Opening her epad, Tia downloaded her favorite Ezine,
Today’s Warrior Woman
. She re-read the strange poem on the small screen.
Big empty words.
Although modern soldiers weren’t famous for their literary skills, some writers had no shame, unless...
A riddle?
Always up for a challenge, Tia studied the lines.

Hours later, she concluded that an obscure double meaning hid behind seemingly pretentious words. She doubted many would suspect it and even less understand it. Few English speaking soldiers had a strong grasp of Greek mythology. Could there really be a secret society recruiting special soldiers disappointed or persecuted by ORION?

Unraveling the confusing verses kept Tia’s mind off her obsession with Zack. It had been a while since she’d tried to solve riddles. If felt good. In the end, Tia believed she’d made some sense of the poem.

It seemed to refer to the Haepheon Technologies tower, and Tia wondered whether Lawson Archer, the owner of the corporation she’d met at the fund raiser, was involved. She quickly dismissed the thought. Archer was a friend of Zack and Carrick. He worked on military contracts and obviously supported ORION. The riddle probably used the tower’s landmark only as a neutral meeting place.

Tia wondered about Apollo, Prometheus and Zeus. Probably code names for agents already inside Mythos. If they fit their Greek profile, Zeus would be the mature, all powerful boss, Prometheus would be a seasoned skeptic with psychic foresight, and Apollo would be very young and pure of heart.

 
Although she secretly applauded the bravery of these daring Guerrillas for going after ORION’s abuse, Tia didn’t trust civilian militias. They always had more than one agenda and mostly served private interests. Groomed at West Point, Tia believed in the basic tenets of democracy and supported the leaders lawfully elected by their people. Besides, the military was her home, her family, the only place where she really belonged.

As long as she could evade DNA testing, Tia would remain in the military and support the legitimate governments. But if her situation ever changed for the worse and she became hunted, she’d definitely check out this mysterious organization named Mythos.

*****

As Kavak entered the council chamber, she didn’t bother to hide her annoyance at being disrupted. “What’s wrong this time?”

The two hybrids sitting on reclining chairs stood up suddenly. Kavak mentally ordered a Blue Heaven from the automatic bar but didn’t offer any to her pesky guests. “You may sit.”

The tall blond woman showed little emotion, a worthy hybrid. “Exalted Leader, the DNA testing is now extended to everyone in a position of control in the many governments of the planet and in the Global Security Sector."

Kavak took a sip of the blue liqueur and took the high chair on the platform at the end of the room, far enough that her visitors had to speak loud and listen carefully. These two hybrids would definitely spoil her drinking pleasure, she was sure of it. “What are you saying, exactly?”

The stocky man, with disgusting facial hair above his lips, looked more concerned. “Very soon, all our hybrids in high places will be discovered and killed."

Sighing, Kavak pivoted her chair to face the transparent hull displaying the dark side of the moon. “How can you be so sure they will be killed?”

“ORION murdered our agent in the White House, Janine Grant, the American First Lady, just because she refused to be tested." The man nervously wiped his hands on the many breast pockets of his dark green outfit.

“By Kokopelli’s flute!"
Kavak downed her glass of Blue Heaven, set it back on the floating tray and paced the round chamber. “This could compromise the fate of our precious Pleiades sisters as the deadline approaches.
 
I knew it was a mistake to accept a non-hybrid adoptive father for Tierney.”

“It complicates things,” the blond woman said calmly. “Tierney is now on her own, unaware of her true nature, with no one to prepare her for her important mission."

Kavak hissed in frustration. Where did her most carefully laid plans take a wrong turn? She wondered whether the dead Shaman had really set a curse upon her.

“We need help,” the hairy man pleaded. “Other adoptive parents have been killed by ORION as well, like Celene’s mother. Fortunately, her father is also a hybrid and he hasn’t been targeted... yet.”

Kavak remembered Celene’s mother, Marianne, the beautiful woman with green eyes she’d met in a log cabin in Canada. What a waste of a loyal agent!

“We could recruit more hybrids to replenish our ranks, Exalted Leader." The blond guest remained cool as the frozen oceans of Enceladus. “I understand many have not been called to duty yet.”

“First, we have to stop the killing of hybrids." Kavak would have to take drastic measures. “We need to keep these pesky humans otherwise occupied. I can’t believe they already forgot our bio-weapon scare of 2009. It’s only been eleven of their years.”

The blonde shook her head in disapproval. “Humans have a short memory, Exalted Leader.”

“If that’s the case, we need a new strategy." Kavak mentally inventoried her arsenal. “This time, we’ll strike anonymously. But we’ll make sure they do not recover so easily.”

“What do you have in mind, Exalted Leader?" The whiskered man sounded too eager. Why didn’t he control his emotions?

Kavak decided to try a new weapon. “I think
this calls
for an unprecedented storm.”

“Like Hurricane Katrina?" The blonde raised a thin eyebrow.

“That hurricane only served as a trial run. I’m thinking of ten times the area and ten times the power of that storm." Kavak enjoyed the shock on the male hybrid’s face. “We need enough destruction to mobilize all planetary forces, military and otherwise. If we keep that ant hill busy for the next few years, they won’t have the leisure to go hunt hybrids or gather their armies against us. Then we’ll trigger our master plan before they get a chance to recover.”

“When and where will you strike, Exalted Leader?" The man sounded pitifully alarmed. “Should we warn our people about this mega-storm?”

Kavak hated cowards. Since when did a hybrid care about others? “You’ll be safe on the American continent, where all our precious sisters are being groomed. Just don’t travel to Europe. I’ll make sure our hybrids there are evacuated before we strike. And not one word to anyone."

“You can count on our silence, Exalted Leader,” said the blonde, while the man swallowed and nodded.

Kavak smiled as she left the council chamber. She didn’t intend to evacuate or give any warning to her hybrids in Europe. They had been of little help anyway. She couldn’t risk the word getting out before her formidable strike. The vexing humans might find a way to evacuate. If the hybrids’ natural survival skills didn’t keep them alive, then they didn’t deserve to live in the first place.