Our Legacy - Episode 18

'There's an urgent matter I want your attention on. Jet waiting at 1400 to Rhode Island.' POTUS

Colonel Robert Hayes looked at his computer screen with beady eyes, immediately scratching the 'five o'clock shadow' on his chin. He shook his wrist to reveal a silver and gold Rolex. It was twenty-three past one. His personnel could get him to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport just before two o'clock. He looked back at the message. It would take him an hour to get to Rhode Island by jet. What did the POTUS want? They already had their hands full with the Demigods and the military was under attack on a constant basis.

He stood up from his leather chair and quickly leaned in towards a small mirror on the wall to brush his short blond hair to the side. The colonel was in his late forties, married and with three children in their teens. The man was hard working and frankly too tired to do anything, but people were dying and his superiors were breathing down his neck.

"Alice! Get my car 'round." He ordered through the closed door to his office. He could hear her pick up the phone and order his drive for pick up. 

A black armoured SUV was waiting for him outside. The colonel jumped right into the back seat and was suddenly face to face with a man he had never met before. The SUV was long enough to have six seats at the back, three and three facing each other. The man was in a black suit and sitting opposite him with his back against the driver.

"Secret Service?" the colonel asked.

"Yes, sir. Please take a look at these." He handed over a beige file with red letters imprinted on top reading "TOP SECRET". There were high definition pictures, each picture zooming further and further to reveal a flying woman in the skies.

"What's this? A Demigod?" He continued to flip through the images. The pictures were taken from satellites and onboard camera's from fighter-jets. They had shot down the Demigod with the next couple of images showing her falling out of the sky and landing near Rhode Island. "Why is this a matter I have to attend to?"

"There are a few more pictures, colonel." the man in the suit simply stated. There was a picture of the downed Demigod, deep into the ground from the crash. The colonel thought her dead but the picture after showed her getting back up and fighting off several of their soldiers. "We managed to contain her after a while. We have her subdued for now with AG equipment and handcuffs."

"AG?" The colonel asked, never having heard the abbreviation.

"Anti-God, sir."

"Jesus, that shit really works? We heard about it over our end but we like to stick to killing these bastards. Don't want a faulty error in equipment to cost us our lives."

"AG equipment is guaranteed, our scientists work with NASA and a private sector to understand how to disable Demigods."

"So what am I looking at here?"

"You may have missed the obvious because you probably want to go straight home tonight and finish the bottle of bourbon you had delivered last night, but that Demigod was downed by our fighter-jets. Colonel... she is intact when she should be a mist of flesh and blood."

"We fight against new Demigods on a daily basis. I've seen guys tank out some heavy weaponry, walking it off like we attacked them with bows and arrows. So I ask again, what's so special about her?"

"Our scanners picked her up halfway across the North Atlantic. We tracked her flight pattern. She came from Paris."

Maha woke up with a pain that felt like it was coming from the middle of her brain. She tried to shake it off but it only seemed to get worse. There were several people in front of her, many of them aiming weapons at her head. She suddenly remembered getting overwhelmed by the military. Maha spat on the floor in disgust. They had only managed to overpower her because she was tired from the flight. The weather over the North Atlantic Ocean was bizarre, filled with heavy rain and lightning storms. Flying over the clouds wasn't something she could have done either. She was still new to that power and her lungs weren't trained for high altitude flying, even if she was a Demigod. 

"You got a Visa?" A man among the crowd emerged and confronted her, wearing a dark green uniform. "I'm Colonel Robert Hayes and you're on American soil."

"I know where I am," Maha snarled. 

"Good, you know English. You're a bit dark and from abroad so we had our doubts, you see?"

"What do you intend on doing with me?"

"Well, that depends. I'd prefer we just kill you here and now but the President wants me to interrogate you. We know you came here from Paris. We want to know if you have any information on General Arcadeus that you could give us." Maha smiled. "We could do this the easy way or the hard way, miss. I don't give a damn as long as I get what my superiors want before sundown."

"I survived live cannon fire and crashed down from several kilometres high. You have to be one creative son of a bitch to find a way of inflicting something worse to get me to talk, let alone give a little girly scream for you and your friends." Maha threatened.

The colonel turned round with an impressed face at his personnel. He stared at the sky trying to think of something. They had certainly found one very tough Demigod and even with her chained, they couldn't kill her.

"Alright. Here's what we do. We take turns in asking questions and we each have to answer... honestly. How's that sound?" he smiled.

"As long as you give me what I want before sundown, we have a deal." The colonel laughed and slapped his thigh.

"Damn woman! Alright! You're a feisty one, aren't you? But I'll start first if you don't mind."

"I knew you weren't a gentleman," Maha commented. 

"No chit chat. You in with General Arcadeus?" he quickly got to the point.

"No." she simply replied.

"No? You with the rebel Demigods?"

"Thought we were taking turns. Are we not respecting the deal we just made?"

"Yes, we are. And that was a question." The colonel laughed. "You see... POTUS chose me because I get what I want. I'm good at what I do. I smile at the right people, growl at the right people. I get results. Hopefully, one day, I'll meet General Arcadeus in battle. I can't wait to out-think that man, show him who's the better tactician." The colonel boasted.

"Ok."

"Are you with or against the General?"

"Against." There was a surprised hmmmm from the crowd.

"Where is Professor Lambert Henny from the University of California?" Maha questioned with a straight face. The colonel was confused.

"Why are you looking for him?"

"He has answers to questions I have."

"About what?"

"About what God Particles really are."

"Why do you have this curiosity?"

"Because there are some Demigods who are growing too strong. I want to understand what God Particles are and their real power."

"So that you can become powerful yourself?"

"So that I can stop the few that would misuse that power."

"Like General Arcadeus?"

"Perhaps..." She tilted her head.

The colonel folded his arms and pondered for a while.

"If I give you this... Professor Henny... What can you give me?"

"If he gives me the right answers? The doom of General Arcadeus."

"And if he gives you the wrong answers?"

"Then we're all doomed."