Chapter 8:
"We got that fat ass, right now we are coming back to Asheville," Axl said to a satellite phone.
On this Gulfstream G600 aircraft, his team members were resting on those oversized couches with enough pillows to bury them alive. They tried to regain their strength and get ready for other works after this long flight. Fishlegs, on the other hand, were blindfolded and sitting unconsciously in the corner, without a couch or a chair. This aircraft was sponsored by the partner of Heimdall, billionaire Eric Frederic.
From the outside, Eric Frederic was a famous politician and a philanthropist who dedicated his time and richness into improving education resources for children who couldn't afford them. He also controlled a lot of political power, which allowed him to visit the Capitol Building or even the White House. His wealth could afford to build ten space stations or set up a camp on the Moon if he wanted to.
But behind all of this, he was the partner of Heimdall and a close friend of Axl McDowell. He provided financial and political support for Heimdall and keeping them away from trouble. Sometimes when some intelligence agencies found some information that could cause lethally affects to Heimdall, he would usually try to erase that trace from the system, usually by hiring people to assassinate the agent who found the info.
"Heather is secured as well. SWAT team got her," Eric added. "I picked her up and brought to our safe house."
"Thanks. How about Charleston? Keeping them busy?"
"Yeah, I hired some people who look like you guys and let them wander around in Charleston, and I told the police department to not help them. The sheriff told me that DPA tried to seek some help from them. It'll take Valka sometime to figure out the truth," The voice of people talking and champagne flutes knocking came from the background.
"Where are you? Another politician's party?" Axl asked.
"Yeah, people wearing tuxedos coming in and out, trying to hide their dirty secrets beneath their wealth," Eric complained. Then, he whispered. "I want to be back in the field again. This 'rich people thing' is driving me crazy."
"I know, and you'll get your chance. You joined the team when we ambushed Team Echo, right?"
"That's like...once in a year."
"Ok, ok, we can argue about this forever," Axl sighed. "We visited your daughter. She is doing just fine in Cambridge."
"How is she? Her life is not affected by my identity, right? She wants to live like a normal person until she graduates."
"Yeah, seems like no one knows Alinda Frederic is the daughter of the famous politician Eric Frederic. She is like usual, friendly, but always alarmed," Axl laughed. "I'm pretty sure she introduced us to her new… boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Eric chuckled. "I'm not a good father. I think the last time I met her was two years ago. And now you are telling me she has a boyfriend?"
"We predicted he is her boyfriend due to their intimacy. They wouldn't do such a thing if they are just friends."
"You know, I just realized that you four visited her more times than me, who is her dad. Does that mean I can leave her to you?" Eric joked.
"We'll turn her into someone like Nina if you leave her to us, which I think you don't want that to happen," Axl stared at the passing clouds outside of the G600's window.
"I gotta go, those motherfuckers want me to give a short speech," Eric said quickly as people in the background started shouting his name. "Take care, bud, god be with you."
Axl sighed again as he laid the phone on a table. He knew that even though Eric didn't need to deal with life and death every second like him, but living without secrecy would drive Axl crazy. Axl believed that the press was the deadliest weapon ever created by mankind, and he didn't understand how Eric survived the bombardments from the press every day.
As the Gulfstream G600 descended through the clouds, the Appalachian Mountains stretched endlessly long across the earth. Skyscrapers from cities looked like ants compared to the mountains, and cities scattered around like ancient tribes' residences. From his perspective, nothing could block Axl's vision, so he could even see South Carolina. The city below the aircraft was Asheville, North Carolina. The plane circled above the city two times after heading to a private airport outside the city.
"Good old Asheville," a female said behind Axl.
"Yep, nothing changed much," Axl didn't even need to turn to recognize the speaker. "You were pretty… close to Evan when you rested."
"I didn't realize that," Nina walked toward the other side window. "How close?"
"Close enough for me to lay you," Evan stood up from his couch and stretched.
"You had your chances, multiple times," Nina snorted, but then she changed to a more friendly tone. "I don't mind laying with you three."
"Enough, Nina, we don't need any more advertisements here," Axl cried. "You never get tired?"
"She never get tired of romping," David laughed. "Who gave us this plane again?"
"Eric, this plane is his, and the pilots are his staff," Axl replied. "When we land, our next job is to extract information from Fishlegs and Heather."
"Sounds easy."
Next morning.
Hiccup woke up as the sun lightened his room. He yawned and stretched his legs and arms under his blanket while trying to get rid of his sleepiness. He froze as his fingertips touched another warm body next to him, a soft and tender one. Hiccup jumped up, his sleepiness disappeared abruptly. He lifted his blanket violently as if he found a bomb beneath it. But there was no threat, a naked, blond, sleeping girl was unveiled. She slept soundly and her chest rose and fell as she breathed, hands reached out to where Hiccup had slept.
"You gotta be kidding me," Hiccup murmured as he wiped his face with his hands.
After living alone for a few years, he was already used to waking up by himself, eating dinner by himself, and watching movies by himself. Because he had no one to talk to at home, Hiccup would always turn on the tv, so that his home wouldn't be silent as the dead the whole time. His friends, like Fishlegs and Gobber, sometimes came to his house to hang, but that didn't solve Hiccup's problem.
He sat on his bed for a minute, trying to make himself realize that he should start to face the fact. Then he quietly dressed and exited his bedroom. He grabbed some chocolates from a jar to fill his empty stomach while his phone rang.
"Hello?" Hiccup picked up the call.
"I'm Emma," a female said. "When are you coming back?"
"I'll be there in half an hour," Hiccup answered as he stuffed a slice of bread into his mouth. "Any updates?"
"I got permission to use the Laser."
"The Laser?" Hiccup stopped chewing.
"Yeah, Sam told me last night that we can use the Laser whenever we need it."
"If I remember correctly," Hiccup searched through his memory. "The Laser is aMuspelheim's highly classified machine. I've never seen it before. Only Gobber and Sam know about it. It's a myth."
"Well, I guess it's no longer a myth."
When Hiccup joined Muspelheim, an engineer told him that Asgard had an underground bunker, and the bunker held some of the classified files and equipment of Muspelheim. To get authorization from Sam or Gobber to enter the bunker was just a dream for Muspelheim engineers. The Laser was a legendary apparatus that was located in the bunker. No one knew what it could do and no one had ever seen it before.
"Why do we need some help?" Hiccup said. "He gave us this thing because we need Otherwise he won't just leak a highly classified technology."
"Well, right now we don't need extra help to cool down gases, that's halfway done. We just need BEC to release enough energy to use as a weapon," Emma responded while tapping her laptop.
"So the Laser can make an element release energy without making the atoms move?"
"That's a good guess."
"But that's not possible. Sam can't create energy out of nothing. That is magic, not science."
"Maybe Sam got a magically powered science or something… all right, take your time. Have some fun with your girlfriend. Don't rush. I can take care of the project for a few days" Emma joked, and hung up.
Hiccup dropped his phone on a table and stood near the window. He could see the curve of Appalachian Mountains and the trees on the top.
"Seems like everyone knows about us now," a lazy voice came from behind.
"If you didn't want attention, then you should've waited outside of Asgard," Hiccup responded without turning back. "Hell, you found Asgard."
"I was there when we purchased the weapon. You don't remember?" Astrid stood right behind Hiccup, so close that she could almost feel his body heat.
"I didn't recognize you. You've changed a lot."
"So did you," she rested her head on his back and surrounded his waist by her arms.
"How was your life?"Hiccup tilted his head.
"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you…"
"I know, you work for the government, right? Like FBI?"
"How do you know?" Astrid looked up.
"We ran a facial identification on you," Hiccup smiled. "I feel pretty safe with someone who can fight."
"Well you already know, then why bother to ask?"
"I wasn't asking about your job. I mean your life."
"Not good. My parents died when I left, and my uncle put me into this junior military training school, boring as shit."
"Then why did you come to Asheville?"
"After I joined DPA, they put me into Team Foxtrot, which is located not far from here," Astrid laid her lips on his neck. "How is your dad?"
"He is dead," Hiccup said calmly.
"I'm sorry," after taking a moment to realize that he wasn't joking, Astrid replied. "What happened to him, if I may ask."
"He worked for Muspelheim as well, and that's why we moved to Asheville. He was a Lead Engineer, but he didn't get a lot of attention, just someone behind the scene. When he was working on a project, he had to go to San Francisco to meet with a Muspelheim's partner laboratory. Sam assigned a security team for him because he carried some classified files. He should only be staying there for two weeks, but Asgard lost contact with him and his security team.
When Asgard realized that something went wrong, they sent another team to San Francisco. The team broke into the hotel room that dad stayed, only to find that his guards were shot and killed and dad was missing."
"Where did he go?" Astrid asked.
"Six days later, local police found his body in an abandoned storehouse, in pieces, and the files were taken," Hiccup stared at the sky while telling the story. "Gobber told me the story."
"Who killed him?"
"No one knows. The authority spent ten weeks working on this, but the assassin didn't leave any tracks. They just found a picture of a horn carved on the wall of the storehouse, where they found the body."
"A horn?"
"That's what the police said."
A black SUV stopped before a house located in the country of Asheville. The members of Heimdall exited the SUV, each one wearing sunglasses and holding two black traveling bags in their hands.
"This is Eric's house?" Nina stopped and looked at the over-sized house with a pool and a tennis court in the backyard.
"One of his,' Axl replied as he opened the steel gate and walked into the front yard.
The front yard was a volleyball court sized grass field with tulips and bushes around it. The house was three stories high with a garage that could hold more than five vehicles. The roof was covered by solar panels and some satellite dishes. The decoration of the house looked like the owner copied from one of the palaces from ancient times. Nina stayed close to Axl while David and Evan dragged the blindfolded Fishlegs behind them.
"Looks fancy, but with a good security system," Nina whispered as she observed the house. She could see the hidden cameras in the corners and on the roof.
"Eric built this place into a safe house that every mercenary wants, so don't be surprised when you go in there," Axl replied as he knocked on the door.
"Hello, my old friend, I've been expecting you guys," as the door opened from inside, a five-feet-nine man with dark brown eyes wearing suit showed up. His hair was neatly brushed toward the right. "Come on in, that was a long trip, wasn't it?"
"Eric," Axl dropped his bags and hugged his friend.
"Nina, David, and Evan, so good to see you again," Eric names every member as they entered the house. Then he pointed at Fishlegs. "Oh, I guess you need someplace to keep him."
"That would be helpful," David replied as he punched Fishlegs in the belly when he tried to wriggle himself loose. "Calm down, Fish-face, you have nowhere to go."
"We have a basement, so maybe you can use that place. At least this poor guy can have a companion," Eric said as he pointed at the stairs.
"What does that mean?" Axl asked.
"I transported Heather here as well, and I locked her up in the basement. I redesigned this place. I didn't know what to do with the basement at first, so I guess it'll be a dungeon for now."
"Maybe we should put you in there as well," Evan laughed as he poked David.
"Quit messing around, we need to get info out of those two," Axl ordered. "We don't have much time."
"Axl, if I may…"
"No, Evan, you may not. Now I want to know everything that Heather and Fishlegs know," Axl bellowed. "Now get going."
"Are you sure you want to come with me?" Hiccup parked his Ford in the lot beside Asgard.
"Yeah, you know about my work, and I would like to know a little about yours," Astrid replied as she unbuckled her safety belt. "If you don't mind."
"Fine, you can come," Hiccup gave in. "But don't bring those MP7s."
"What...how do you know?"
"Metal detector," Hiccup pointed at the AC on his car. "I put a metal detector there. You hid your weapons pretty well. Your coat covered them from being seen, but metal detector can see everything."
After staring at Hiccup silently for a while, Astrid finally took out her two MP7s from her coat and put them beneath her seat.
"Am I good now?"
"All right," Hiccup opened his door. "Let's go."
"Hey Hiccup," Emma greeted her Lead Engineer as he walked into the lab. "And you must be Astrid, right?"
"That's me," Astrid replied carelessly. "You two can keep doing what you were doing before I came, and just pretend I'm not here."
"Let's go and check out the Laser," Hiccup grabbed his lab coat from his locker. "Astrid, can you stay here for a while?"
"No problem," Astrid shrugged.
"Just don't break anything," Emma added. "You can't afford them."
"That's very helpful," Astrid murmured as Hiccup and Emma exited the lab.
Hiccup and Emma walked down the hallway toward Sam's office. When they passed other guards or engineers, they all joked about the incident that happened yesterday. Since the news leaked out, Hiccup was no longer just the youngest Lead Engineer of Muspelheim, he was also the Lead Engineer with the hottest girl.
"Now I'm getting uncomfortable even when I'm walking," Hiccup said to Emma when they stopped before the door of Sam's office.
"I'm pretty curious about her as well," Emma chuckled as she knocked on the door.
Someone opened the door from inside. Gobber showed up before Hiccup and Emma with Sam standing behind him.
"Come in, you are here for the Laser, right?" Gobber stepped back.
"Yeah, I'm interested in things in Muspelheim that I don't know about," Hiccup and Emma entered Sam's office. "Let's go to this bunker."
"Seems like you've already known a lot," Sam said as he opened the wooden door of his walk-in closet.
Behind the door wasn't jackets or shirts that people usually find in a closet. An elevator sized room with metal walls showed up.
"That looks like an elevator," Emma saw the buttons on one side of the wall. "But why do you use hardened steel for an elevator?"
"This is an elevator, and those are not just hardened steel. They are mixed with beryllium," Sam knocked on the cold steel.
After the four people entered the elevator, Gobber pressed on one of the two buttons on the wall with an arrow pointing down. Unlike other elevator buttons are labeled with numbers, these two buttons only had an arrow pointing up and down.
"Ok, now I'm even more curious about a closet elevator which can stand extreme environment," Hiccup leaned on the wall as the elevator started descending.
On a monitor above the buttons, a red number decreased from zero as the elevator traveled down. "The numbers on the screen shows our depth," Sam pointed at the decreasing negative number.
The elevator stopped when the number reached "-245 meters". After Sam turned a knob beside the monitor, the metal door of the elevator started to slide open.
"Welcome to Niflheim."
To be continued
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