38. Waterloo

Waking up the next morning, I wasn't immediately sure where I was. Not Manhattan, not Olympia, definitely not New England or Hercules' Paris apartment or in any of all those other places where I had stayed for more or less brief periods during these last spinning months of insane adventures. No, this was Athena's place outside South Africa, and more exactly Ares' bedroom and Ares' bed and Ares' arms I was resting in.

As realization hit, I remembered day before and although I ought to feel something like shame and embarrassment I rather wanted more of the same. No matter that I was still more or less together with Apollo; it was Ares who had triggered all those sensations within me yesterday. It was he who had me yearning so desperately that I felt my cheeks burn. Was he still asleep? No, as I tried to move away I felt his biceps tighten across my chest.
"Good morning sugarplum," he was whispering in my ear.
"Ares..."
"There's no hurry," he went on.
"Yes, I need... I need the bathroom."

At those words Ares let go.
"Second door to the left," he mumbled and I stood up, tumbled away and found what I needed. Including a chance to ransack my mind. To grasp tonight - and trying to figure out tomorrow. Pee and philosophy - that went well together. Always some short enough seconds to think without thinking too much. Done with that, I regarded myself in the mirror – hair in a mess and lips still swollen from all the kissing, still an unusual and utterly content look in my eyes. One I hadn't seen in ages!
"Well hello, Aidra!"

When I returned Ares was still in bed. A sure sight for a lonely woman's sore eyes. That body - in its nudity it was like a sculpture out of a dream. Brawny and sinewy and just with the right amount of hairiness covering his chest and legs. His dark curls around his head, those enchanting, brown almond eyes and that smile which turned my legs into spaghetti - just like Nemain had said hers had done. The Irish goddess had got the son; I was out to get the father.

Ares must have seen my reaction, since he was smiling while beckoning to me.
"Here, Aidra, come here!" he held out a hand I could but hesitate about a second before I was back in the bed and in his arms again. In for a rerun of the pleasures of the night.

"What do they expect of us... today?" I asked as we rested in the aftermath of yet another terrific eruption and I was hearing voices out there, Xantos calling for Penthesileia, Nike's laughter and Kydoimos bellowing out a Japanese war cry. Ares didn't answer immediately, instead I was hearing Paradox:
"Saxa? You seen Aidra?"
"Nah, I guess she's still asleep."
"But it's almost lunchtime!"
"Yes but - Aidra is almost certainly still on New York time, there it's only half past eight."
"Kumiiiiko!" Saxa was calling. "Seeeeen Aiiiidra."
"Negative..." I could hear Ares' granddaughter call out a bit from a far.

Then they started to sing that crazy song which was so in vogue now. 'Opa opa desu, opa opa desu, tralalalala!' I closed my eyes and saw those annoying manga characters on TV. Two girls with rubbery limbs, big eyes and long pigtails jumping like boucheballs on speed. 'Opa opa desu, opa opa desu tralalalala!' Was this Apollo's revenge over something which had yet to happen?

"Ares," I asked, triggered by my friends' discussion. "What time is it really?"
"Uh..." the god turned and reached for his watch on the side table. "Half past twelve."
"Oups!"
"We can excuse usselves - time lagged."
"Or jet lagged as we say in the US. Only that there was no plane involved this time. And Saxa is right, I am still in bed. Only - she has no idea in which."

At that we both started to laugh. It felt so pleasant.

0O0O0

Just as Athena had said, the Titan threat wasn't over. Danger was still in the air, a faint smell of hazard at the horizon. When the sun sank in the west, redder than ever it seemed, I kept on wondering if the Titans would come under the cloak of the nightly darkness. The Titans - or others. Kakos? Back in Manhattan, I was patrolling over the city like some cartoon superhero, looking for villains. The main difference to those coloured magazines though was that no one knew we were there, Palaistra, Enyalios and I. We weren't the Superman or Spiderman people pointed out in delight. We were the unknown and ancient vigilantes. We joked about claiming our fame by getting capes and masks in primary colours and coming up with corny names, like Mandrakita, Raven Girl and Donut Man. The last intended for Enyalios who kept eating those as if he was a cop.

While the three of us walked across the Rockefeller Plaza, me trying to recall what the Prometheus story had really been about, we discussed the underlying threat. The risk for one more act of terror directed at our town.
"I think dad is exaggerating a bit," Enyalios said and swung his arms, hands tucked deep down in the black leather coat and his iron soles making clicking sounds against the concrete ground.
"Perhaps he does," Palaistra guessed. "I only hope we all can go to Olympia for the solstice. It would feel so terrible to leave some people behind."
"Yes, but imagine the horror of an act of terror," I faced the others. "And no one around to stop it."

"Still, Aidra, we cannot be everywhere," the daughter of Hermes replied. "No one was in Monaco for instance."
"'Coz nobody saw it coming, Why was that?" I prompted.
"Monaco has never been a high profiled target. It's just the home for semi-wealthy has-beens," Enyalios snorted.
"See what I mean?" Palaistra replied. "No one from Hercules' team bothered with Monaco, because they didn't regard it important enough. They were busy guarding Mona-Lisa, Bradenburger Tor, the London Eye and the CERN accelerator instead. No one suspected anything to happen in Monaco. It's like someone should commit an act of terror in Baltimore! I mean what's in Baltimore?"
"A Baseball team, the Orioles and Frank Zappa was from..." Enyalios began.
"Yeah because you care about these things," Palaistra cut him off. "But how many Europeans care about Baltimore? How many Europeans care about baseball? How many Europeans know who Frank Zappa is? I mean there's not even many Americans these days who..."

"That doesn't mean a terror attack in Baltimore would be less devastating!" Enyalios defended the Maryland capital. "Just because..."
"What I mean,Yali, is that Baltimore is not high profiled enough. So the risk for an act of terror in Baltimore is next to zero. Or at least we think so when we fly over it on our way to Washington DC or back. If we think about it at all, mind you. And that's how Hercules' people regarded Monaco. They disregarded it because it's a backwater den with no..."
"Now look," I cut Palaistra off. "We might never know if it was a plan or a coincidence that made them pick Monaco. Perhaps it was just an easy target. A tiny independent nation without any real bones to pick with other nations. A nation most people don't even know exist. Which makes it easy to overlook. Now, can we at least agree upon an act of terror in Baltimore being highly unlikely? That the risk is larger that they hit us here! In Manhattan!"

We had reached the end of the large square and for some reason we stopped in front of the Rockefeller Center. Craning my neck I looked up at the well-known building like I had never seen it before, no matter that I had passed it by almost daily for years and years. The next moment Palaistra was saying:
"Guys... Prometheus!"
"Yeah?" Enyalios said. "What about him?"
"If you were a Tit - wouldn't you hit at something like him then?" Palaistra nodded at the gilded statue of the levitating man with a flame in his hand. "Destroying it as a slap in our face."
"You have a point," I said. Like on a cue we started walking back the way we had come, then we descended to the lower plaza until we were standing beneath the huge statue. For the first time was I really taking a closer look at that one. Earlier I had hardly bothered. It has just - well, been there my whole life. A Manhattan inventory. But so had the Twin Towers, up until 01...

"He looks like Cloud from Final Fantasy," I heard myself say and Palaistra giggled merrily.
"Or they might hit at other places connected to us," the more sombre Enyalios said. "The Athena temple in Nashville for instance. Fontana di Trevi in Rome not to mention countless of places in Greece."
"I think we should tell Ares." I figured as I continued to look at Cloud-Prometheus, thinking over the real thing which did hardly look like that generic Caucasian in a manga hairdo. The real Prometheus was bulky and coloured and he wore his hair in a ball cut of the kind that had been the hottest thing in 1977 or so.

0O0O0

"You have a point, Enyalios," Ares said, removed his feet from the desk, plopped them down on the floor and glanced around at the eight Olympians who had gathered in his office. An office, which looked more like it belonged to a top notch executive than the God of War with its expensive, dark furniture and panoramic view over Manhattan. The only thing in here remaining of war was another O.A. painting, this one showing soldiers hiding in a World War I trench and then a tiny brass cannon standing on his desk. After that I rested my eyes upon the War God himself. I was thinking about the truce we had decided upon. The truce about disregarding what had happened at Athena's place - at least for the time being. I knew that Ares wanted to go further, but I was not ready, and he respected that. For that I held him in high esteem.

"Less violent, which would make our reason for retribution less valid. Still a hard insult to the Pantheon of Olympia. I think..." Ares went on as he pulled his computer keyboard towards himself, but Hekate cut him off:
"Why would a destroyed work of art like that really be such a hurt to our pride?" she asked. "After all we've been 'gone' in the eyes of mankind for millennia. Nobody believe in or worship us these days. Or at least very few do. We're just 'Greek Mythology' for the average Joe out there. The extras in Percy Jackson. The artworks 'dedicated' to us out there are mostly done for art's sake. Not as items of veneration anymore. For that they have their hackneyed Yehowa cult. Besides..."

"Katy, that matters very little," Ares cut her off. "There's still pictures of us they'll destroy. And I believe quite a few of us will take that as an insult. I can't speak for myself though, having given my name to an aircraft radar system I guess the risk is lower than if someone should think of hitting at for instance Athena in Nashville."

"Why Nashville by the way?" Kumiko giggled.
"Ask those Americans, they're sometimes a bit corny!" Nemain replied. "Oh, sorry Aidra, Didn't mean..." In reply I just blew her a raspberry. Yet I had to agree that a Parthenon copy in Nashville seemed kind of strange. All the same if some Titan should consider blow that structure apart it might be considered an insult to Athena. However...
"Haven't they done that before once?" I asked.
"What?" Deimos raised his brow.
"Destroyed Parthenon. I mean the real thing. In Athens, Greece. Back in... whenever it was..."
"26 September 1687" Ares replied. "The darn Ottoman Turks used it as storage for ammunition and the Venetians blasted it to pieces. And of course I got the blame because I was involved in that war. But I'd say the construction was more or less corrupt earlier, having been everything from warehouse to mosque, most items of value already peeled away by greedy hands. No Titans around at that time, at least not for that particular act of vandalism."

"What do we do with these speculations," Hekate asked ."I wouldn't go as far as referring to it as 'intelligence', since we don't know for sure if anyone is planning anything like this? It's just hunches. We cannot guard all those places around the world."
"But it would be so typically Titan to come up with a scheme like this," Palaistra insisted.
"I beg to disagree, it's a bit too clever for the Titans," Deimos figured.
"Can't we at least keep an eye on the most important monuments?" Enyalios suggested.
"Not in Baltimore you mean?" Palaistra smirked.
"What?" Kumiko looked consternated.
"Forget it!" Enyalios huffed.

"Don't forget the mortal groups," Deimos began. "They can be asked to keep an eye on these structures and see if there are any suspicious moves around there. They're not overly plenty and not really powerful but they are dedicated to the case and they know what to do, whom to call if they encounter anything not right. We have been using them for similar things in the past and it has been going very well!"
"You're right, bro'" Penthesileia said and shifted in her chair.

I nodded silently, remembering when I first met Hekate. Back then had I learned to know her as Katherine Night, head of this little group researching Titan organizations, and protecting that fashion designer Judith Brummer which had led me to 'The order of the Neotitans' and my first Titan encounter. In fact there were several mortals out there working against the Titans and other beings, very few of them knowing the whole story of the full scale battle which had wavered to and from, in and around the planet Earth for more than 1500 years. But they were good for tasks like this and for protecting certain mortals on strategic positions. Like the American president. Not to mention that he was protected by Romulus too. That man was very true to his duty. He wouldn't let attention slip easily.

"Any news on the setup against Obama?" I asked Ares as soon as the meeting was adjourned.
"Nothing yet," the God of War replied. "Last thing I heard Helikaon, Keiko and Aristeion were still chasing that kako who goes by the name Toshinari Minamoto. He's apparently utterly shrewd and was long gone from Samargia where you had him identified."
"I hope they catch the bastard."
"They will, rest assure, Aidra," Hekate promised me. "It's just a little bit more complicated than going after hordes and hordes of Titans who just come at you begging to be killed."
"And we'll see how much of that there'll be in the future," Deimos added.

0O0O0

No, the terror attack didn't hit any work of art related to Greek Mythology. Still Palaistra's guess wasn't that farfetched. The Titans aimed it against New York on the second of December, the birthday of Hekate, I wondered if that was a coincidence. The first warning came during Polemos, Nemain and Kyknos' patrol. Alone at home I was curled up in the sofa watching an old movie – 'Dirty Dancing', which was so-so, but provided with a nice diversion for the time being. The film was almost halfway through and I had just finished a nice coupe of Ben & Jerry ice cream when I got a telepathic call from Kyknos:
"Aidra, Palaistra and Deimos, come down to the Ground Zero area ASAP! We have some suspicious activity going on."

I groaned silently, I had really been looking forward to this day off, and the rare chance to do nothing before going over to Hekate in the evening. Actually it had looked just like one of those days - up until now.
"How many Tits?" I asked.
"Some fifteen."
"And you can't deal with them alone, Kick-Nose?" came Palaistra's exasperated reply in my head. Apparently she was also annoyed about being called out on her day off.
"Then we wouldn't have asked," Kyknos replied curtly.
"We fear they might split up," his brother's reply was a bit more level-headed comment.
"I'm on my way," I heard Deimos. But neither he sounded like he had just won a million dollar.

Polemos met me halfway there. I had jumped into a pair of leather pants, sturdy boots and a thick sweater under a biker jacket, against the chill which had been plaguing New York for the last few days. The son of Ares was well dressed too, in his ordinary camouflage and a green beret covering his shaved head.
"You'll come with me and Nemi out to Statue of Liberty!"
"Libbie? Titans going there?" I asked, fearing the worse.
"Yup. Or it's a diversion. Some of them keep hanging around Ground Zero and Kick-Nose is there keeping an eye on them, he's calling in Saxa for back up. Palaistra, Enyalios, Deimos, Hekate, Diamanda and dad are following two other groups north. The twins are by the Empire State Building."

"Shit, will there... are we New Yorkers enough?"
"If we get ready to move on as soon as we find who's diversion and who's the real thing."
"I'd hate if anything would happen to Libbie."
"Yeah, so do I. Now that would be embarrassing along the line dad described. But to the Americans more than to us."
"I'm American," I scoffed and Pol made a sorry gesture.
"You know what I mean," he said.

Along came Nemain and she was teasing Pol for freezing and threatened jokingly to nick off him the beret. Pol dodged her easily and cracked some in-jokes which only they shared, before we began heading out to Lady Liberty. Along the way we passed one of those sight-seeing boats, only half full, since it was off-season. On board that one were the Titans. Polemos pointed them out to me - they were well disguised. They looked just like average, rural Yankees on their first visit to the 'Biiig Cituh' making big eyes at all the marvels, the presumed family father filming all and everything with a small camera. Not the kind of people you'd look twice at.

Meanwhile we flew ahead to Liberty Island, sat down on a stone wall and waited. Nemain went ahead and bought us admission tickets just in case, and then it took about a quarter of an hour before the boat arrived and the little group of tourists began embarking, our family of disguised Titans among those. Since all of them went up and got admission tickets, we tagged along. Soon we found usselves together with the family we had nicked 'The Does' on a guided tour led by an obviously bored girl in her late twenties. She held the tour mostly on routine, like she had done it a million times before and I got the feeling she could recite all the details in her sleep and at the moment she couldn't care less if she was inspiring or not. Nevertheless most guests, including The Does were doing their mandatory 'ooh's and 'aah's while we entered the great statue and began crowding into the elevators taking us up to the view in the crown. No lining were needed since we were so few.

We rode the elevator up to the crown of Lady Liberty and then some of the group reassembled where the guide droned on, but most people were crowding by the windows and the spyglasses, not really bothering with the lecture. Drifting around I had one eye on the Does, wondering what they were up to, as I pretended to take photos with my phone. Papa Doe kept filming and the two teenager brats were mostly standing around, sucking their lollypops and looking bored. Mama Doe seemed to be the only one interested in the lecture. To me they seemed like the typical American family, the typical diversion party. I was just going to tell that to Polemos when it became time to descend. We were among the last, right after the Does, and just as we were going to enter the elevator, Polemos grabbed me by the arm, and then he said:
"Nemi, follow them down, call for reinforcement."

Nemain, the pro, she just glanced over to her husband with a slight nod of her head before she leapt into the elevator a second or so before the doors closed.
"What?" I asked, and turned to the son of Ares.
"Papa Doe left his big black bag. Might be just a deviation but it might as well... come!" the bulky god said and guided me across the now empty hall and over to the 'forgotten' item standing halfway hidden behind a pillar. It was a black shoulder-bag in fake leather, of the kind you can buy in every supermarket there is around the continent. Nothing fancy and to anyone who had forgotten their 9/11 paranoia it would just look like something you kept some sandwiches and an extra sweater in. But Polemos was of another opinion.

"There you are," he said. Then he knelt down in front of the bag, opened the zipper carefully and folded down the sides.
"A time bomb!" I pointed out the obvious when the item with red numbers counting down was displayed. 1.35,1.34, 1.33, 1.32, 1.31
"Sure, and very little time left too," Pol replied dryly. 1.28,1.27,1.26,
"How much power in it?" .1.24,1.23,
"It'll blow the statue in half I guess," Pol said. "If I don't snuff this baby first." ,1.18,1.17,1.16,1.15,1.14 He sounded annoyingly calm.

"Shit! Can you fix it, Pol?" I heard my voice going shrill. 1.11,1.10,1.09,1.08
"Hush, Aidra, trust me!" 1.06,1.05,1.04 Polemos started looking at the various attached wires, biting his lips. 59,58,57. They looked all random to me. 56,55,54 Then he poked at some of them with his left pinky finger, 53,52, lifted one lightly 50,49, and shook his head.
"Darn, can't we just jump out with it in our arms."
"Nope, and have it exploding halfway, no time. Hush now!"

47,46, I didn't dare saying anything, 43,42,41, Even while knowing the two of us would survive an explosion, 39,38,37, I didn't know many else would die or how it may affect my fellow Americans. 36,35,34,33, Polemos lifted the bomb, 32,31,30, with tender hands as if handling an infant, 28,27,26,25 and then he turned it slightly,22,21,20 and as he did it felt like my heart was beating so hard that it resounded in all of the crown of Lady Liberty. 19,18,17,16 the bomb kept on counting down.

"Talk to me baby!" Polemos whispered as he scrutinized the bomb, but it just kept on counting down, almost sarcastic, 15,14,13. He put it down once more, gently, so gently... 12,10. And then he pulled slightly at a red cable, 09,08,07 before shaking his head.
"Polemos!" I gasped. 06,05,
"Relax!",04,03,
"Uh..." I whimpered. 02

Polemos pulled a blue cable this time. 01... The countdown stopped right there. And the gleaming crimson number kept on staring me right in the face. 01!
"Fuck!" I said. "That was close."
"Sure was." Polemos nodded.
"Couldn't you have – teleported the thing away?"
"If I'd tried that, It might have gone off in the process," the god explained and then he produced a cellphone from one of his many pocked and hit a shortkey, while I kept calming my breath, stilling the adrenaline rush.
"Hi dad! We're inside the Statue of Liberty... Yeah, with a time bomb... You too? Where are you... Empire State building! What a nasty scheme. And the other guys... Oh, holy halternecks! M.O.M.A too! ...so it was only Ground Zero which was a diversion... Yeah, yeah I think so too. Paris, Cape Town, all those cities... Roger! We'll seize the bomb and get right back to your place now."

"Pol!" I said as the elevator indicated that it was on its way up again. The god was fast to hide the disarmed bomb in the bag. As a new load of tourists spilled out of the elevators, he hitched the bag up upon his own arm and then we mingled into the new group, which wasn't really that hard since nobody really bothered about other people for real. Besides we did probably just look like another couple, although a bit more like inhibitors of New York than visitors from out of town. However New Yorkers too could take a liking for sightseeing their own city, and I realized I hadn't been to Lady Liberty since back in school, and back then the crown had been closed for tourists.

When we once more were heading for the elevators I asked Pol in ancient Greek and a hushed tone:
"How come the security scan didn't discover the bomb?"
"Some stealth magic no doubt," Polemos replied with a shrug. "We're doing the same on the way out of course."

0O0O0

The TV was on when we arrived at Ares' place. It was showing pictures of the Louvre in Paris and the shattered remnants of the glass pyramid which had been the Art Museum's entrance since 1989. 'Act of Terror in Paris' was flashing in red beneath the pictures.
"So the Titans scored at least one then," Polemos said as he left the bag with the bomb to Astyokhe, goddess of arms and weaponry. She was to take care of all those bombs and see what she could make out of them, trace a more exact origin perhaps.

"Yeah they did," Hekate confirmed. "Although I bet Hercules missed the pyramid on purpose. He has always hated the structure. Said it tainted the Louvre."
"I don't think so," Kyknos said. "Herc's too much of a pro. And he won't risk lives."
"'Pro' enough to miss a bomb?" Astyokhe sounded disbelievingly.
"Can happen to anyone, there were five in Paris," Hekate told.
"How many here?" I asked.
"Besides your, there was one in M.O.M.A, one in Empire State Building and one in the Nasdaq headquarter. But the latter was not adapted for some reason." Ares said.
"Strange!" Polemos commented.
"Indeed," his father replied. "Perhaps something scared them off before Diamanda and I got there."

"Someone died in Paris?" asked Palioxis and threw her jacket and her gun belt over a chair. Proioxis came right after her as usual.
"Yeah, two people," Hekate confirmed. "And then some wounded. Hit by glass splinter."
"Ouch," Proioxis exclaimed.

"Imagine this newscast if all those bombs here had gone off!" Nemain said and nodded at the TV set.
"And there was not a single one in Cape Town." Hekate added.
"The only cities affected were apparently ours, Paris and Moscow, where Alexander found a bomb in the Basilica," Kyknos told.

At the same time Ares' phone chimed and he stepped over to the side-board where he had placed it together with a gun and the knitted cap he had been wearing earlier. As he picked it up and started listen to the one at the other side, he got a confused look upon his handsome face. Then he made a gesture at us and ordered us to turn down the TV. After that he kept replying in monosyllables for a while before hanging up.

Then he faced us with a strange look upon his face and made a theatrical pause which I think might he have been unaware of.
"What?" Hekate said and glanced across the room towards the god of war.
"It was dad," Ares said. "He's been approached by a Titan named Ketlakyther. This woman claims she's the new leader of the Titans, and she has expressed a willingness to negotiate for peace. Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that the Titans are capitulating. Today, when only one bomb went off, two humans died and more than a hundred of their kind were killed, the Titans have realized that they've arrived at their Waterloo."