Olympus: The Agency (Book One)

18: Agent Chicago

Dionysus had been tied to a black steel chair, wrists behind her back and feet to the chair legs. It was a step down from a cage where she could at least move around.

"Sorry about this, Dio," Gunn said calmly, checking the knots. "Boss doesn't take chances on Alliance."

"Understandable," Dionysus said,looking at the door. "I wouldn't trust Copperhead either."

Gunn found himself smiling, before standing and clearing his throat.

"Yo, boss! It's all good, now!"

The door opened, and Dionysus was genuinely surprised by who she saw. A Human woman, a little shorter than average, with void black hair cut short, seemingly with a knife.She was strong, judging by the defined muscles visible on her arms and abdomen.

The leader of Copperhead walked into the room, and planted a foot on the chair, between Dionysus's legs.

"So, he does care after all,"she mused, mirroring the last words Dionysus had heard before succumbing in the tunnels. "What do you want here, Agency?"

Dionysus looked up at the woman, a little put off by the manic glee in her storm-water eyes, but held her ground, or rather chair. The woman grabbed Dionysus's face, her thumb in one cheek and fingers in the other, pulling her face forward.

"Do I look like a girl who likes her time wasted?" she said simply.

"No, ma'am," Dionysus said through the hand.

"Then answer my questions. Please. Or I'm going to start cutting things off."

Dionysus was not like Zeus or Tartarus. She wasn't a hardened soldier that had had training drilled into her. So at the threat of removed extremities, she started tearing up.

"I'm sorry!" she said through sobs. "I just, I wasn't... I died in New York in a robbery gone wrong, then woke up in a cloning pod! I don't want to be here!"

The woman sighed as Dionysus cried, then removed her foot from the chair. She crouched down to Dionysus's level.

"Hey," she said quietly. "I get it."

Dionysus sniffed and looked at the woman, who smiled softly.

"I get it," she repeated. "I used to be an Agent, too. I died in 2003, when my car went off the road. I woke up in a pod, and pushed into a team where I didn't know anyone, had no idea what was happening, or even how to use a gun. I was an engineer."

Dionysus listened, thankful for the connection. Her tears were still falling, but the woman continued to speak, trying to allay her concerns.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," the woman said. "I just want the Alliance, the people who hurt millions every day, to leave us alone. To leave me alone. I told Nevada that if he sent a squad here, I'd listen to his demands, but seeing you here... No offense, but I get the sense he expected you all to die."

Dionysus sighed. "It makes sense... we botched the last mission majorly... Apollo had to stay behind to save us all and Nevada refused to bring him back because Apollo chose to stay. Same thing with Cerberus. He stayed behind on the Klisky space station so we could get out. Both of them are still dead."

"So much for immortality, am I right?" The woman walked behind Dionysus and pulled a knife. Dionysus tensed up slightly, but was confused when the ropes fell from her wrists.

"You're letting me go?"

The woman sheathed the knife, and walked back to face Dionysus.

"No, not yet. You might not attack me, but you came in with an Alliance marine, who absolutely will if I let her go. That and your friends are on their way here."