Tension in the air heightened up a notch as the black-haired goddess spared us the briefest of glances. “All of you seemed to have made it. Good.” That was high praise already, considering it was Dike, and the tension eased, just enough for us to slightly relax against the backs of our seats.
“At present, we have a Category 3 Hurricane in our hands. INTERPOL’s confirmed that today’s inclement weather is a direct result of Zeus’ actions.”
I drew my breath sharply at Dike’s words, and the look on other agents’ faces told me that I wasn’t the only one worried aboutDike’s revelation. As divine head of the Olympian pantheon, Zeus held dominion over the skies, and him being ‘out of control’ could mean anything from a repeat of Hurricane Katrina or, even worse, a tsunami devastating even landlocked towns that could’ve served as temporary refuge for evacuees.
“The Anemoi is doing their best to mitigate the damage, but the backlash is expectedly severe.”
The Anemoi referred to the four most powerful wind gods: Boreas who commanded the North Wind, Notus from the South, Zephyrus from the West, and the youngest of them, Eurus, who commanded the East Wind.
The four winged immortals had sworn by the river of Styx to obey all of Zeus’ orders, and such vows were double-edged swords. Their own bodies had to absorb the damage every time they disobeyed one of the thunder god’s directives.
“All attempts to interrogate Zeus have been unsuccessful so far. He’s locked himself in his battle tower, and all the information INTERPOL has been able to glean is in your dossier.” Dike snapped her fingers, and case folders appeared in front of each of us.
“Right now, the CIA has all its agents out on the field, and their priority is to rescue humans and protect them in the event this matter escalates. INTERPOL, on the other hand, has focused their efforts in lending assistance to the Anemoi in whatever way they can.”
Dike’s glance swept over the room. “That leaves us, the CSI, to investigate behind the scenes. We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to find out what’s making Zeus act out of character.” She rose to her feet and gestured towards the doorsof the conference room, saying, “Now that you all know what to do—-” She made a little wave of her hand, and the doors flew open. “Dismissed.”
A moment later, the goddess vanished from view, and noise burst inside the room as everyone started talking. I headed over to my friends, Tristan and Maria, who had been dating each other since their rookie year. “Has this ever happened before?”
“Not in the five years we’ve been working for the agency, no,” Tristan answered grimly.
Maria pointed to my clothes, which were still dripping wet. “Want me to fix that?”
I nodded in relief. “If you don’t mind?”
“Piece of cake.” Maria cast a drying spell, and a few seconds later, I was feeling refreshed and wonderfully dry.
Tristan inhaled appreciatively. “Something smells familiar.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was grinning as I retorted, “Like anyone would believe you don’t recognize your girlfriend’s shampoo.” And now my hair smelled like it, too, a bonus perk of Maria’s spell.
Tristan laughed and tugged a lock of his girlfriend’s hair, admitting easily, “It’s my favorite scent in the world.”
“Do you mean that?” Maria teased.
The way they looked at each other was my cue to leave, and I cleared my throat and said, “Thanks again, guys.” But as expected, the other girl didn’t even seem to hear me. The couple might be top-notch Level 5 agents, but I had also been aroundthe pair long enough to know that they liked spending the first few minutes of the day flirting before getting down to business.
Spinning around on my heel, I flipped my case folder open on my way to my cubicle and began thumbing through the dossier Dike had provided. With Zeus locking himself away and Mt. Olympus being a strictly immortals-only zone, there was no way for any CSI agent to hope for more information beyond what our case file provided. If we wanted more clues, we were only limited to those of this world, and we had to unearth them (pun intended) on our own.
When I reached my workstation, I detached the photos from the folder and started pinning them one by one to my corkboard.
The first set of photos was of Mt. Olympus, and they were as majestic as I remembered from previous case files, with its towering all-white columns that seemed to reach all the way up to the earth’s stratosphere.
The second set consisted of photos of Zeus as taken by the Olympians’ resident doctor, the once-mortal Hippocrates, just a few hours before the thunder god had started exhibiting strange behavior.
A headache with still unknown cause, medical reports already with NSA.
Dark longish hair and bearded with soulful blue eyes, the thunder god reminded me of the Sad Keanu meme that had gone viral a few years back.
Too handsome for his own good, I couldn’t help thinking.
Many deaths among immortals could have been so easily prevented if Zeus had simply remained loyal to his Fates-chosen wife Hera.
I studied the photos one at a time, trying to find something – anything – that shouldn’t be in them. Nothing jumped out, and so I decided to print photos of Mt. Olympus and Zeus from a previous case. I compared the two sets to each other. Everything was in the exact place...everything was the same...except...
Why did Zeus’ hands seem to sparkle in the newer set of photos?
It was as if his hands were sprinkled with...
