Olympus: The Agency (Book One)

15. Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

'This is bull...'

Yet again, Apollo was annoyed at his assignment. Not only was he sent to do something away from the other members of Olympus, but he was also being forced to babysit two crew members. Kurt looked like he could survive a scrap, but Minnie? Probably best to keep her away from the battle.

This was if there was a battle. Apollo had spent the last 15 minutes following the Elf, her assurances that they were getting closer starting to aggravate him.

'Don't have to like your mission to do it, sir,' Kurt said, peering into a nearby room. He was still taking this dead-end job seriously.

'I'd prefer shooting something over this tedious crap any day. Are we there yet?'

'For the 50th time, no,' Minnie said irritably. 'We have two more wings ahead of us, and we need to go slowly in case there are traps, or ambushes, or survivors.'

'Who died and made you captain?' Apollo groaned.

'How old are you?!' Minnie said incredulously.

Tartarus and Dionysus were making good headway into the facility, taking care and respect not to step on any of the bodies lying on the ground, until Alice beeped in Tartarus's comm unit. The man stopped, then snapped his fingers to catch his partner's attention. 'Here.'

Dionysus nodded and took a position on one side of the door as Tartarus took the other. Carefully, he pushed the door open, then retracted his hand when a screwdriver shot out and impaled the wall.

'Christ, is that a screwdriver!?' Tartarus exclaimed.

Inside, just in their view, was a man behind creatively made cover of desks and lab tables, holding a handmade crossbow, quickly loading another screwdriver into it. 'Just keep on moving, you Black Feather creeps! I'm armed, and if you even think of-'

'Dr. Wilson?' Dionysus said calmly from her position on the wall. 'My name is Agent Dionysus, I'm with the Alliance.'

Silence. But the man didn't move, as if he didn't believe her.

'Agent... That's not an Alliance rank I know.' Dr. Wilson called back.

'I'm telling you the truth. I'm going to put my weapon on the ground, Doctor, and come inside with my hands up. You'll be able to see I'm not a Black Feather.'

Dionysus did what she promised, placing her rifle on the ground in the doorway to show him she was telling the truth, then she rose her hands and stepped inside slowly.

Riley Wilson was not having a good time of it. His blonde hair was matted and unruly, beard grown out ragged and full of crumbs, his eyes wild with sleep deprivation and paranoia. But he scanned Dionysus's armour, and nodded. She was far too well armed to be one of those terrorists.

'About time you lot showed up,' he said rudely. 'I sent that distress call weeks ago.'

'As far as I know, Doctor, we were sent A.S.A.P,' Dionysus said as Tartarus walked in with her rifle outstretched to her.

'Isn't an issue, either. We're here, now, and you're one of our objectives.' Tartarus said bluntly.

Riley rolled his eyes. 'Of course I am. Can't work half of the stuff here without me. But special operations teams are larger than two people. I'd hazard a guess that the other "agents" are elsewhere?'

'Mhmm,' Tartarus said unhelpfully, then moved to check the hallway.

'Our other two objectives are to download everything with the mainframe and destroy the facility,' Dionysus explained. 'But our radios haven't been working, so I'm unsure if-'