Renegade

Griff's POV

He had to run the Partnership Office, didn’t he? The one guy that I had disliked from this Organization besides Xavier and Lt. General Douche.

Michael Carraway. With his smooth Cali surfer dude smile and his pretty boy style, I had known that Emily would have a crush on him. I saw it in her eyes, and she was trying to hide it. For some reason, I felt a small pang of jealousy rise in my chest as Michael’s eyes fell on us. Emily seemed smitten with him already.

“Oh, hey!” He greeted us, “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again! This is a…pleasant surprise.”
His smile indicated that the pleasantness of the surprise lied in him seeing Emily again. I wanted to shoot this kid, but I reminded myself that he was on our side. I also told myself that if I wanted to be in a relationship with someone as pretty as Emily, I would have to get used to other guys looking at her. Even if I didn’t like it.

“What are our new assignments?” I asked, and he smiled like Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Attractive to Emily, yet a wicked and twisted gesture to the normal viewer.

“I know, I know,” Michael said, like he was trying to comfort us, “you two don’t want to be separated. So, I’ll try to get you on maybe the same case, but I have to split you up to work with different people. Okay?”

“That sounds great, Michael!” Emily said, smiling at him. I wished that she would stop doing that.

“Here are your files, then. I already kind of put you guys on the same case,” He smiled at us innocently, and I was about to think that he was a nice guy, but I noticed something in his eyes when he smiled at us, something evil.

“Thanks, Michael,” I said, trying to look and sound won over.

“No prob,” He responded, still carrying that evil smile.

Emily and I read our files silently, and when we were finished, I realized that they had been in Ancient Greek.

“So,” I started, “We’re bounty hunters now?”

“Not really,” Michael explained, “More like human hunters.”

“What do you mean?” Emily asked, a bit weirded out by that phrase.

“Since the whole fiasco with Colonel Martens,” Michael began, but I interrupted him,

“Who?”

“You knew him as Xavier,” He said bluntly, like we should have known that, “and since that whole fiasco, we have been pressing more money and resources into Internal Affairs. Now, there has been rumors of a former officer of TFG who has gone berserk and ran. His code name is Raven. You two will be working, basically together, in trying to bring him down.”

“Okay,” I said, and then I realized that I needed to ask someone here this question, “Also, Michael, have you ever heard of someone named Mr. Otto Field?”

I hadn’t thought about the scary German businessman since Emily and I had met him in the café in Berlin. But I realized that I needed to know more about him.

“How do you know about him?” Michael asked quickly, the slightest bit of panic in his voice, “He’s top secret.”

“We met him in Berlin,” I explained, telling him the story from the café.

“Mr. Oto Field is an anagram for our biggest…complication,” He replied, like ‘complication’ meant ‘enemy’.

“What’s the anagram stand for?” I asked, tired of all the mystery.

“Think about it for a second, kid,” He responded, “I know you have Athena in your blood.”

Really? I thought, Just because I’m a grandson of the goddess of wisdom doesn’t mean I’m some genius, okay?

“Lord of Time,” Emily said, like she was realizing something, “But one ‘t’ is missing.”

“No it isn’t,” Michael responded with another smile, “Oto is spelled with one ‘t’ in this case.”

“So we’ve been dealing directly with Kronos this entire time?” I asked, shocked and appalled.

“Yes, you have,” Michael replied, “and you’re lucky to be alive, but then again, some people here at TFG don’t want you to be.”

“Okay?” Emily asked, but Michael had to have the last word,

“Personally, I’m with those people. I wouldn’tt think that all this Internal Affairs stuff is even necessary, but since you, Griffin, rushed proceedings and shot Colonel Martens in the head—”

“He had multiple hostages!” I exclaimed.

“Multiple hostages that I personally know you didn’t care about,” Michael clipped off, not even raising his voice. He was like a blonde Professor Snape: always annoying, yet always correct.

“Anyways,” Michael continued, “I know that you only really cared about one hostage in particular, and that is why you rushed the operation. We had officers coming from Olympus, sent from General Kamien himself, to…sort out the situation. You didn’t need to kill him. You made a mistake.”

“A mistake?” I roared, drawing my pistol and aiming it at his head.

Everyone in the Partnership Office stopped moving. All eyes were fixed on me. No, not me, my gun, specifically the barrel.

“Griff,” Emily said slowly, comfortingly, “It’s okay. Put the pistol down.”

Listening to her voice, I reminded myself of why I was here. I wasn’t here to argue with officers or do anything stupid. I was here to get a new assignment and leave. I holstered my pistol and spat,

“We accept the job.”

Then, I grabbed Emily’s hand and forced her to walk out of the Partnership Office. But again, Michael had to have the last laugh.

“Have fun!” He shouted cheerfully at our backs as we walked away.

“Screw him,” Emily told me, “Please, baby, don’t worry about him.”

“Baby?” I practically shouted as we got into the elevator, partly out of amazement that she had called me that, and partly out of rage that she had the audacity to call me that after she had been so taken by Michael,

“Seriously, Emily? I know you had a crush on that guy, so can we stop the couple-talk for now, please?”

She looked at me in horror as we left the elevator, and I realized that I had made a huge mistake. She turned away from me and practically ran out of the Empire State Building lobby.

“Emily!” I shouted after her as she got into a taxi, “I didn’t mean it like that!”

But her taxi just sped off. I didn’t even get a good look at her through the passenger side window.
I cursed in Greek and hailed a taxi as quickly as I could. As son as I was out of Manhattan and into Long Island, I took out the note that I had written this morning. I read it a couple times in my head, and with every word I came closer and closer to crying.


Emily,
I’ve been thinking a lot about the last couple weeks. We’ve been through so much, from Europe to Camp and the whole situation with Xavier. I have realized in that time that I love you, Emily. I love you more than anything in the entire world. I would die for you a thousand times. You complete me. So, I was wondering whether you would like to go on an official date. It would mean the world to me.
Love,
Griff

When we got to Half-Blood Hill, I asked the driver,

“You got a light?”

“Yeah, kid,” he replied in a thick, gruff accent, “What for?”

“I’m not smoking,” I assured him, “But I need to burn this.”

He saw the note in my hand, and must have realized what it was for. Then, he did something unexpected. He said,

“Look, kid. First loves are always hard. I know that myself. But you gotta hold on. She’s probabl all you think about, right? You’d die for her, right?”

“Yeah,” I responded, my throat constricting with emotion.

“So I’ll make you a deal,” He offered, taking out a butane lighter, one of the ones you get a gas station for thirty-five cents, “Take this. But don’t light up the letter yet, if it is a love letter. Wait until you’re sure you want to give this girl up. Then burn it. Deal?”

“Deal,” I said, slowly taking the lighter. I realized that this guy had given me some good advice, so I decided to give him a good review at the taxi bureau.

“Hey, what’s your name, man?” I asked, “I want to know the nicest cab driver in Manhattan, the man who gave me the choice to stick with a first love.”

“You should know me,” he replied simply, his sea-green eyes gleaming, “I’m your grandfather.”

And with that, he and his taxi disappeared into a cloud of mist, leaving a pleasant smell of sea spray in the air.

Notes

This is the last chapter in Act 1, and I will explain the Act system I have planned for this story in an author's note later. But for now, thank you so much for all of the support you guys showed me throughout this entire process. I have the main idea for the sequel and it's sequel planned out, so I should get writing soon enough.

Enjoy,
Grafon