Renegade

Emily's POV

The two days passed quicker than anything. Griff hadn’t said anything about our plans that had gotten messed up because of the Xavier situation, so I decided not to ask. I was kind of disappointed, though, because I had wanted to go on an official date with him. I had hoped that he wouldn’t forget, but I guess I don’t get everything I want.

We dressed up in our official uniforms, dark navy blue soldiers’ kits with matching berets. When I met Griff at the edge of Camp, he looked and me and grinned,

“You probably look a hell of a lot better than I do.”

“You don’t look that bad yourself,” I remarked, admiring him. The red lesions had disappeared, and he was looking fitter than ever. He looked great.

He grinned again and we hailed a cab to the Empire State Building. Once we got there, our smiles faded, because a massive guy in TFG fatigues greeted us with a grunt.

“Come,” he said with a slight German accent.

He led us into a side elevator, and I noticed with a start that the elevator only had one button. It read ‘600’ in Greek, and after the massive man slid a key-card in, it shot up faster than any elevator I had ever been in.

100, 200, 300, 314, 400, 500, 600.

The elevator dinged softly as we reached our destination, and the man stayed in a rigid ‘at ease’ position when the doors opened. Then, when we walked out, we both turned rigid…with fear. We realized that we were standing roughly six thousand feet over Manhattan. And what was in front of us was probably the most beautiful city we would ever see. Mount Olympus.

But we weren’t given enough time to admire it, so you’re going to have to go off Griff’s dad or mom’s description of it. As soon as the elevator opened, we were greeted by another TFG officer.

The guy was attractive, but young. I would have thought about having a crush on him if I hadn’t met Griff. He had blue eyes like mine, but blonde hair, unlike me. He definitely fit the type of a ‘pretty boy.’

“Finally!” He said, exasperated, “Gods, how long does the elevator take these days?”

“Um…sorry?” I said, because it wasn’t exactly our fault that the elevator was somehow slow. I had thought that it had been lightning fast.

“Sorry,” the officer said. He was young, maybe our age, and he looked like he was trying hard to look older than he really was. He was in a formal uniform, and everything was perfectly ironed and washed, so he looked professional.

“What’s your name?” Griff asked as he started walking towards a big administrative building with TFG’s crest on it.

“Michael,” the guy responded, “Private Michael Carraway.”

“Okay, Private,” Griff said, “Where are we going?”

He looked at Griff with such disdain that I cringed.

"Watch your tongue, kid. You're unranked. You didn't even finish a real quest. So please, have some respect for those who have worked for their position here."

"Where are we going?" Griff growled, instinctibely reaching for his pistol. I stopped his hand, and Michael seemed to notice the gesture.

"Oh, he's going to love you," He smirked. You're going to HQ,” He responded, smiling a little like he enjoyed saying those two letters, “You have a meeting with the General.”

“Who?” I asked, seeing as I had never heard of ‘the General’.

“The boss,” He said, a slight accent of awe and admiration in his words, “The second highest-ranking officer in the Organization under Zeus.”

Both Griff and I gulped, and Michael seemed to smirk. He must have liked making people nervous. It must have made him feel powerful.

“Who’s the first?” Griff asked, partly out of amazement, and partly out of curiosity.

“A guy named Zarko Kamien,” Michael replied, “Polish decent, and that’s all I know about him. He’s the most secretive guy I know, but I guess he has to be, seeing as he has the honor of dealing with the Gods themselves.”

We both gulped again, and then we reached the building. Michael quickly led us up a set of steps until we reached an office with the words, ‘Lt. General Anderson’ on the door in Celestial bronze.

“Here we go,” I said, and then we walked in.

The general’s office was interesting, but I won’t say that I was surprised by what I saw. On the right side hung a wall of trophies, some from peace, most from war. It was strewn with monster heads or horns or claws or other significant parts of now dead foes. On the left was a bookshelf filled with administrative stuff, and in the middle was the Lieutenant General.

The general was surprisingly young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three. He looked like he should be a general’s son, not a general. But, he definitely was a general. He was dressed in TFG domestic camouflage: a digital pattern of blues, greys and black that was somehow more freshly pressed and sharp-looking than Michael’s uniform. Maybe they went to the same cleaners.

His face was still fresh from childhood, but his eyes were the real story-teller. They were startling grey, hard as diamonds and dark as thunderclouds. If his eyes reflected a pair of real-life thunderclouds, Zeus would’ve been jealous. When he saw us, he looked at both of us quickly in the eyes, and then stared without emotion at our hands, which had naturally slipped together.

He wasn’t angry, or even trying to hide any anger. He was purposely holding up a poker face. Now normally, I would have smirked and laughed, trying to admit that he liked us as a couple and that his poker face wasn’t needed. But Lt. General Theseus’ poker face was not something to mess with. I was scared of that face.

We quickly released our hands, and he looked back up at our eyes.

“I see,” He clipped off, his voice neutral, “Well, that makes my decision easy. Follow me.”

“What do you mean?” Griff asked, “What’re you talking about?”

But the general marched out of his clean office and walked at such a quick pace that we had to jog slightly to catch up.

“General?” I asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“You just asked me two,” he responded, not looking at me as he super-walked.

We kept walking through a floor of office cubicles filled with the buzz of a well-oiled company.

“Permission to ask a question,” I clipped, slightly irritated.

“Sir,” The general clipped off even sharper than me.

“Permission to ask a question, sir,” I corrected.

“Granted,” He said as he turned a corner.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked, “What is the decision you were talking about? Also, who even are you?”

He stopped at the last question. He turned on me like a robot, lifeless and machine-like. He looked like a Terminator in the TFG grey-based camouflage.

“I am taking you to the Partnering Office. Your little fling is ending. You two are getting new assignments. That was my decision. Whether or not to keep you together.”

“What?” Griff asked in outrage.

“And as for who I am,” the general said, a low growl starting to rise in his voice, “I am Lieutenant General Theseus Anderson. I’ve been on more quests than all four of your parents. They think they defended Olympus? Please. The people I fought with and I did the real work.”

I thought Griff was going to say something biting in return, especially after the general insulted his parents, but when I looked at Griff staring into the general’s eyes, I saw that Griff was scared. Scared of the fact that he believed every word that the general was saying.

When we reached the Partnering Office, the general clipped again, “Now, I’ll be going back to my office. You want to disrespect me again, come right in. These people will give you your new assignments. Complain all you want, nothing will change.”

A large lump grew in my throat as I thought about ten years with a different partner, as that was the normal assignment length. I couldn’t do it. I would have to quit. But how in Hades was I supposed to quit in front of the scariest college senior I had ever seen?

“And don’t worry,” the general said, like he could read my mind, “this is a single assignment. You complete the task, you’re done. Then you two pansies can kiss in the sunshine together again.”

And with that, Lt. General Anderson turned on his heels and walked stiffly back to his office.

“Gods, I thought Xavier was a dick,” Griff said almost appreciatively.

“Please,” I said, my voice shaking from thinking about having to get through a new assignment before I could be together with him again.

I reached out, and Griff took my hand again. He looked over his shoulder towards the general before he did take my hand, though. But then he took it, and my breathing returned to somewhere near normal.

“New jobs,” He said, his voice disappointed. I hummed in agreement and we both took a deep breath.

Then we walked in.

Notes

I"M BAAAAAACK!!!!! Being gone for a week sucks. Anyways, second or third to last chapter here. Sequel soon. It's name will be Refugee. Also, the three new characters (Zarko Kamien, Michael Carraway, and Lt. General Theseus Anderson) will be very important in the sequel.

Enjoy,
Grafon