New Olympus Saga (Book 1): Armageddon Girl (36 page)

“Now we wait,” Mr. Night said. “The
Lurker and his daughter will be reunited soon, if they haven’t already. He will
try to initiate her into the mysteries of the Source.”

His twisted smile grew wider. “And that’s
when we will strike.”

The Freedom Legion

Hong Kong, Republic of China, March 15, 2013

Chastity Baal smiled pleasantly at her
quarry.

“You have exquisite taste,” she said in
Cantonese before taking a sip of the rather nice vintage her host had poured
for them before taking their conversation to a more intimate venue.

Kuo Wei-Fang smiled back. “I merely
appreciate beauty in all its forms,” he replied. “That is why I could not
refuse you an audience.”

 Kuo was officially a prominent and quite
legitimate financier and industrialist whose contacts with the Republic of
China had helped usher a new age of prosperity for Hong Kong after the British
handover in 1997. Unofficially, he also ran a large smuggling network between
the Dragon Empire and the rest of the world, bringing proscribed items into the
Empire in exchange for assorted illegal goods produced there. The smuggling
network generated enormous revenues which were in turn skillfully laundered
through his legitimate business operations.

Chastity had met Kuo in his sanctum
sanctorum, a three-level penthouse on an eighty-story skyscraper that provided
a god’s eye view of the burgeoning city below. The ten floors below the penthouse
were occupied by offices where a small army of managers worked on the many
enterprises that made up the overt face of the Kuo commercial empire. Kuo
himself had two sprawling mansions in the city, but he spent most of his days
here, overseeing his business concerns and receiving worthy visitors, like a
well-known international adventurer who had contacted him with an intriguing
business offer.

The penthouse was as opulent as one would
expect, combining modern conveniences with ornaments that would have befitted a
mandarin or emperor. Artifacts from various dynasties – including a pair of
imposing terracotta soldiers placed on each side of the entryway to the formal
dining room – shared space with the latest creations of the best designers and
artists from Shanghai and Beijing. Chastity noted that everything in the
palatial penthouse seemed to come from China, from Kuo’s perfectly tailored
suit down to the smallest fixtures. “Thank you once again for your
hospitality,” she told her host.

“It is the least I could do,” Kuo said as
they strolled through the penthouse. He was a tall and handsome man in his
mid-fifties, brimming with charisma and arrogance. “When I heard the notorious
Chastity Baal was acting as a go-between for an international cartel wishing to
conduct some discreet business with the Empire, I could not resist. Even if we
cannot do business, perhaps we can still have an enjoyable evening.”

Chastity's smile widened, suggesting the
financier's hopes were not unfounded.  “That would be most entertaining, I'm
sure. But business first, yes?”

“As you wish,” Kuo said. “What is it your
partners have in mind?”

Chastity started her spiel, a purely
contrived scheme to provide technical services to the Empire in return for
trading concessions, some of them of dubious legality. Even as she spoke, the
highly sophisticated sensors built into her contact lenses conducted a thorough
scan of Kuo's home. The penthouse was protected from outside intrusions by a
very sophisticated security system. Once inside, however, Chastity was quickly
able to detect several hidden compartments built into the penthouse. One of
them had a computer that had no physical or wireless links to any networks.
That would be the device Kuo used to record his illicit dealings, and that's
where the information she needed would be stored.

Kuo asked her several shrewd questions.
Chastity answered them without missing a beat even as she mentally commanded
her wrist-comp to initiate a covert invasion of Kuo's system. It was difficult
to carry out a conversation while at the same time directing a computer raid
through a neural interface, but Chastity was well-versed in multi-tasking. Kuo,
determined to charm and impress her into his bed, was blissfully unaware that
she was peeling away layers of electronic security and learning his darkest
secrets while she flirted with him.

“Your offer is highly tempting,
especially if I've guessed correctly as to the identities of your silent
partners,” Kuo finally said. “I will consider it carefully. I hope we now can
turn towards more pleasing matters.”

“I regret to inform you that will not be
the case,” Chastity said. The last of Kuo's private files had been downloaded
into her wrist-comp. She mentally sent a signal to the awaiting Chinese Secret
Police and her fellow Legionnaires. “Acting on information provided by an
Imperial defector, the Chinese authorities have issued an order for your
arrest. I suggest you come along peacefully.”

“You have made a grave mistake,” Kuo
said, his friendly expression vanishing. “You and the foreign devils that have
divided and enslaved the Middle Kingdom for far too long.” His eyes started to
glow, and Chastity’s widened in surprise. Kuo was a normal human; his dossier
had included detailed medical records.

He was certainly not a normal human
anymore. He moved with unnatural speed, and Chastity barely ducked under a high
kick that drove his foot through one of the bedroom walls. She rolled away and
hoped her backup would arrive in time. They had expected Kuo might try to escape
and possibly summon armed bodyguards. Nobody had expected this.

Gunfire and the sharper report of energy
discharges erupted outside the apartment. Her backup had run into Kuo's guards.
She rolled away from a stamping kick that smashed a hole through the
penthouse’s floor. Kuo came relentlessly after her. His files mentioned he was
a martial arts aficionado, but he clearly was not used to his newfound strength
and speed. His attacks were slightly off-balance. Chastity dodged another kick
and landed a punch before the magnate could retreat. Kuo flew off his feet
under the impact and crashed into a wall hard enough to embed himself into it.
Daedalus’ words came back to her: the dagger had indeed transferred some of the
dead Celestial’s power to her.

Kuo forced his way through the wall’s
wreckage. He casually ripped off the expensive suit jacket and silk shirt off
his chest, revealing an Imperial Sigil. The mark on Chastity’s hand tingled as
if in recognition. She blocked a kick and used her grip on Kuo's leg to flip
him face-first onto the floor. She stamped on his unprotected neck as he
struggled in her grip, but the lethal attack did no apparent damage. Kuo
twisted around and kicked at her, knocking her away. The blow should have
killed her instantly. As it was, it left her bruised and winded. The two
combatants leaped back to their feet.

Reluctantly, she considered reaching for
the dagger in the hidden sheath strapped to her upper thigh. The mark on her
hand started tingling as soon as the thought crossed her mind, and she felt
something akin to lust surging through her. A part of her wanted to wield the
dagger, to feel it cut into Kuo’s flesh and drink his life and power. Her hand
started moving towards the weapon.

The penthouse's front door exploded
inwards and Swift and Chasca rushed into the bedroom. Swift smashed into Kuo
like a humanoid missile; the two crashed through a wall. Chastity stopped
reaching towards the dagger with a feeling of relief.

“Are you all right?” asked Chasca.

Chastity nodded. “I’m fine. Go help
Swift, he might need…”

Swift’s unconscious body shot through the
walls of the penthouse, disappearing into the night. A second later, Kuo soared
past them and flew away from the skyscraper.

“On it,” Chasca called and darted after
Kuo.

Chastity could not follow – or could she?
What other powers had she stolen from the Celestial? She would have to find out
sometime soon. For now, however, she would leave the chase to the other
Legionnaires.

She did not trust her new powers. She did
not trust herself.

* * *

Olivia O’Brien saw Larry’s limp body
falling off the skyscraper, but resisted the urge to go and help him. Other
Legionnaires would rescue him. Olivia needed to deal with the developing
situation, not worry about her husband. Once again, the Legion had been caught
flat-footed, and she was getting sick and tired of it.

Things rarely went according to plan: the
opposition always had its own plan, after all. Still, the Legion rarely got
blindsided so badly. After being briefed on the situation, she had organized a
team to back up Chastity Baal as she tried to extract information from Kuo
Wei-Fang. They had expected the possibility Kuo would call out armed guards and
possibly Neo mercenaries. The smuggler’s display of superhuman abilities had
been wholly unexpected.

Olivia wasn’t one hundred percent sure the
defector’s allegations were true – Chastity Baal’s misgivings had been
persuasive, despite the antipathy Olivia felt towards the spy – but there was
enough damning proof to get the Republic of China to issue arrest warrants for
one of its most prominent citizens. The Legion had hoped Chastity would
persuade Kuo to give up and cooperate, but now they would have to arrest the
man and try to scare him into giving up more information.

Olivia altered her flight path to join in
the aerial chase over Hong Kong. Kuo was flying at high speed, with Chasca not
far behind. As she caught up to them, Olivia saw Chasca fire several powerful
light blasts at their quarry. He dodged some of them, but was hit twice. Both
times, the light bolts dissipated in a coruscating energy release, leaving the
man apparently unharmed, although his flight trajectory wavered a little under
the attacks. The financier and smuggler was not just a Neolympian but a very
powerful one. Few beings could survive Chasca's energy attacks.

She closed into range and hurled a flame
spear towards him. The financier had been too distracted with Chasca’s attacks
to notice Olivia’s approach. The spear struck Kuo squarely in the back but the
fiery impact did not seem to damage him any more than Chasca’s sun rays. The
smuggler’s naked torso gleamed with sinuous glowing symbols shining brightly in
the evening’s growing darkness. Olivia recognized them at once: they were
Imperial Sigils, the marks of a Celestial Warrior.

The Emperor had long claimed to have the
power to create Neolympians. The spectacle of a middle-age businessman flying
through the air and shrugging off attacks that would have obliterated a tank
confirmed those claims. The implications of finding a Celestial involved in
supplying the attack on the Legion were terrifying. The war the Legion’s
Council had been blithely discussing mere hours before had just become nearly
inevitable.

“To all units: converge on my position,”
Chasca called through her communication implants as she kept up a barrage of
energy discharges. Olivia did so as well, striking the fleeing smuggler again
and again. The impacts were beginning to tell; Kuo’s flying became erratic and
wavering. The chase had led them away from the city and over the surrounding
sea, which thankfully would reduce the chances of collateral damage. She was
thankful for that; subduing someone with Kuo’s powers would take a great deal
of force, and she didn’t want innocent civilians anywhere near the upcoming
fight.

Twinkling points of light over the
horizon grew closer and resolved into man-sized figures flying straight at Kuo
and his pursuers.

The enemy had plans of his own.

* * *

Isabel Quispe, code name Chasca, was angry.

Anger was a natural emotion for a woman
of color in Peru, where the social divide between whites and the
cholos
– the Quechua Indians that made up much of the country’s lower classes – ran
deep. Things had changed a great deal over her lifetime, but she still seethed
when remembering the genial contempt she had endured as a
cholita
, a
little Indian girl good for nothing more than cleaning the houses of her
betters, and that under supervision, because everyone knew that
cholos
would steal anything not nailed down if they were not watched closely.

She would have ended her days as just
another anonymous brown face if not for the random chance that turned her into
a demigod. The more superstitious among her people believed she truly was the
reincarnation of the goddess Chasca, Lady of Dawn and Twilight, protector of
virgin girls. In reality, her code name was a bitter joke. Her own virginity had
been gone before her Neo powers manifested themselves, taken by a family friend
who had caught her alone one day. She had never told anybody about the rape,
nursing her rage and hatred in private. Even the possibility of vengeance had
been taken from her: the family friend had died in a drunken car crash months
before her ascension. Those
cholos
, you can’t trust them with liquor,
either.

Anger had driven her even as she became
the darling of the press, the heroine who had winkled out gangs of bandits in
the Andes, death cults in the Amazon, and helped defeat international criminal
Hiram Hades, although it had been the
yanqui
demigod Ultimate who had
finished off the villain. Ultimate had sponsored her entry into the Legion, but
whatever gratitude she had felt had been tainted with frustration and rage.
Look at the nice
cholita
. Let’s make her an honorary member of the
Legion of White Aristocrats. She had used her position to fight for the rights
of the poor and oppressed, and to stamp out the racist and paternalistic
tendencies within the Legion itself, but she had never been satisfied, never
felt content or happy. Despite all her achievements, Isabel often wondered if
her rise to the ranks of the Legion Council had been another pat on the head
rather than a reward she truly deserved. Those doubts only made her angrier.