Chapter 4 – Crossed Minds
Perseus woke with a headache, but no memory loss, it was very clear to him why the beautiful woman lying next to him was there. He made no effort to get up however, even though he knew that he needed to start making plans of approach on their assignment.
Perseus knew when Zeus was holding something back and when himself and Artemis had taken in the briefcase of info from their previous job, Zeus had carried himself very discretely with his wording when explaining that HE wanted both Artemis and Perseus to work together. Perseus got the sneaking suspicion that the two of them had been specifically requested for this mission.
It wasn't a hugely outlandish thing to hear of, especially for mercenaries of their fame. People in other regions that had gotten a reputation for themselves were always being requested for specific things.
This mission, this capture, interrogate then kill mission was going to be tough. Kronos, the location of whom was listed only as his own penthouse suit in the top of his corporation's tower, and every morning at around ten o clock he'd walk a couple of blocks south to go for coffee.
The only access points were for pros, which admittedly the two of them were, and the only other thing Perseus could see as an advantage was the fact that one of Kronos' subordinates, a man named Atlas, attended to pretty much all of Kronos' other needs. Kronos had a very particular schedule that involved Atlas in nearly every single action that Kronos himself took. By the sounds of it, Atlas was a very reputable personal bodyguard, one that had foiled several attempts on Kronos' life.
Given all that Perseus had already read from the files, there was a good chance that Kronos was expecting more attempts on his life, that would mean that security would no doubt be even tighter than if Kronos' was ignorant to them.
Kronos was involved with many different black operations that had caused him some unwanted attention, but it was the recent project known only as 'Trident' that he'd invested in which had caused the client to cash out for both the legendary lone wolf Perseus Jackson, and the Titan sized Artemis to act together in order to take him down.
Artemis stirred slightly, her head still on Perseus' chest. "Percy?" She called out.
"Perseus." He corrected her automatically.
"Perseus?" Her fake innocent voice never faltered and she continued without missing a beat. She batted her eyelashes dramatically at him.
"Yes?" He answered her with a single raised eyebrow. He was pretty sure that whatever she was going to say, or whatever it was that she now wanted from him, was going to amuse him greatly.
"I can't move my legs." She told him seriously. A humored smile slowly made it's way across his face as he took this in. His ego had only risen that much more during his night with her.
"Well it is only eight am, we only stopped an hour ago. Give it another couple of hours." He told her as he gently moved her over so that she could recuperate in comfort. A huge smile plastered on his face however. She may not have meant to, but she had boosted his ego by astronomical amounts. Instead he went to go and use his own shower before his one night stand no doubt took all of the time in the day to use it. Was that all it was to him? Just a one night stand? He shook his head of such thoughts, a drunken mistake was all that she would see it as no doubt, he wouldn't get his hopes up that she would actually see him any differently now, or not while she had a reputation to uphold at least.
After all, she's made him swear their night of untold passion to be kept in complete secrecy. He expected that sooner or later someone would find out but people knowing right away would spell trouble, especially if people knew before the two of them had even had the time to figure out what it all meant to themselves.
When Perseus got out of the shower he walking into his kitchen now fully clothed only to find Artemis eating yet more of his food. He didn't know how he felt about this but just chose to ignore it. She was however at least examining the intelligence packs that Zeus had given them, so that was something.
"I think if we were to take out Atlas then Kronos would just seal off the company. No, I think we should take a stealthier approach to this." He explained as he opened his fridge to retrieve an unopened bottle of fresh orange juice. Artemis examined him. He opened the metal cap with a thumb and lifted it up to his mouth where he proceeded to drink the entire thing. As he threw his head back to get the last drops out his shirt rode up to reveal more badly healing scars that could only have been made by Artemis' long fingernails.
"What?" Perseus asked, absolutely oblivious to Artemis' ogling. She pointing to his stomach and he lifted his shirt to examine the damage. She could see his perfect body in the morning light that flowed into Perseus' apartment.
"Huh, look at that." He said casually as he trailed a hand across the deep scratches.
"What kind of approach did you have in mind?" Artemis asked him curiously. Perseus came over and lifted the folder off of the islands that Artemis was sat next to. "Lift your bowl and I'll tell you." He explained very cryptically. Artemis raised an eyebrow at him incredulously but did as she was told.
"War map activate." Perseus said loudly. His voice was echoed by a very mechanical crunch as the Island split into two separate pieces of kitchen furnishings and a big metal board seemed to expand over the top of it. A holographic display was soon engrossing the entire kitchen. He looked at ease with his gadgets and technology that Artemis knew he could have made a decent living off of inventing this sort of stuff, yet he chose the dangerous walks of life.
"Holy shit." Artemis muttered off hand as she went to stand next to Perseus.
"Bring up a tactical map of Kronos corp and the surrounding area." Perseus casually ordered the war console on what to do and it complied immediately.
"Yes sir." A slightly autonomous woman's voice answered him, instantly filling the kitchen with a holographic map of red, yellow and green lights that illuminated exactly what Perseus had asked it to do.
"You have a female A.I?" Artemis' wide eyes were a good indication that he was time and again impressive her with his unique lifestyle.
"I started with a guy's voice module but he kept giving me weird responses that just didn't sound right, so I switched it over. And it's a V.I, can't bring myself to ever trust the concept of an A.I." Perseus responded completely neutrally, not a single hint of sarcasm was present in his tone or expression when he responded to Artemis' queries. She continued to eat his food but still couldn't help but ask more questions.
"Why, what's wrong with an A.I?" She pushed, determined to find out what made him tick, even when it came down to little things like this. Finding out WHY he would dislike something that could help advance them in their line of work to such a magnificent degree. She knew he was old fashioned in a traditional mercenary kind of way but that was just pushing it.
"You've clearly never seen the Terminator." He told her quickly before casting his gaze back to the war map that filled his entire kitchen. Artemis offered no response, he wasn't exactly wrong after all.
"Interesting. Well, I think we've got a few options here. Either we can parachute to the very top of the tower and find an entry point along the east side of the structure, or we can go in underground via the sewers. It seems that they have their own underground facilities that connect to a water filtration structure half a mile west." Perseus explained. Artemis couldn't help but stare in awe at the genius of her temporary partner.
"Do you always form your strategies like this?" She asked him curiously.
"No." He laughed with an amused smile, "I always just improvise, but when I have a second factor such as allies to worry about I always plan things out, because it's not just my life on the line. I refuse to be held responsible for the death of others via incompetence. This way if anyone were to die, I would simply not be the cause." Perseus explained. His logic was flawless, Artemis had the overwhelming urge to kiss him right then and there, but she uncertainly shook it off. The urge was going to be ever present throughout this entire mission and she just knew that it was going to cause her problems.
She put the empty bowl in the sink before propping herself up on the island that had opened up to reveal the war map below. She was no longer focused on it, but instead on him. She was only wearing her underwear and his shirt from last night which gave him a rather nice view of her curves. "Well, I am NOT going through the sewers, so how, do tell, are we going to get high enough to parachute onto Kronos' corp?" Artemis asked him incredulously once again. Perseus seemed happier than he had ever been when she asked this.
"Jason. When I was disbanded because of mental instability, there wasn't much left of the old team, so he went his own way and become one of the Top Gun pilots. He's the best fighter pilot I've ever seen. He's got connections still, he can get us in the air." Perseus was practically beaming at his chance to see his old squad mate.
"You were close weren't you? To all of them it's clear, but Jason, you were very close to." Artemis' voice fell soft as she looked into his eyes that slowly began to regain that miraculous mirth.
"Yeah. He was my best friend. We grew up together, I suppose it helps that he was my cousin." Perseus beamed once more. He clearly didn't see him often enough.
"Well then, we're going to see your cousin." Artemis told him with a sincere smile.
"Yes. Yes we are." Perseus smiled once again before putting his hands on Artemis' back and quickly pecking her on the lips. They both looked surprised by Perseus' actions, especially Artemis but she quickly got past that when she found herself subconsciously tugging at the neckline of Perseus' shirt.
He raised an eyebrow at her which caused her to notice what she was doing. She sighed before making it abundantly clear that she'd rested enough. She quickly wrapped her legs behind Perseus, pulling him in closer. "God dammit." She whispered before pulling him into a deeper kiss.
"What?" He asked in total confusion.
"Fuck me, right now." She demanded, taking his shirt off and throwing it across the room before being picked up in his incredibly toned arms. They never made it out of the kitchen before they were already going for it. Twenty four hours earlier she was preparing for a mission where there was a chance encounter with her rival, the legendary Perseus Jackson. Never in a million years did she expect that twenty four hours later she would be in his kitchen, being bent over his kitchen table and fucked from behind.
A/N: Review?