Authors: T.G. Ayer
But I had to be sure, so I bent closer and said, "Could we talk in my office for a few minutes before I leave?"
He nodded, his grin cheerful and his eyes bright and eager. He pointed at his laptop. "Just give me a couple minutes?"
"Sure," I said before heading out of the hall to my small room next door.
When Odin had relegated the job of looking after the realm to me, I'd been given a small hall down the corridor from Fen's. It served as a base of operations for me and all my teams, but I'd barely spent time in it over the last week or so.
I moved to stand in front of the empty fireplace and waited for Derek, fiddling with the ties of the invisibility cloak.
A scuffling at the door drew my attention and I glanced over my shoulder to see Derek hurry inside. When he saw me at the fireplace, he frowned, looking slightly confused, as if he'd lost something. A significant change from the confident Derek of a few moments ago. Was he beginning to get nervous? Was he guilty and now on edge because he now suspected we may be on to him?
I brushed the thoughts aside and went to the table, taking a seat before waving Derek at the one opposite me. It was a large table, seating about ten people, each chair high-backed and large enough to accommodate the largest of the Ulfr warriors.
Derek seated himself and smiled, "Hey, Bryn. How can I help you?"
"Just a little information." When he nodded I asked, "So when you told me you found Loki's last location using the program you developed, did you have any other data on the location."
He shook his head slightly. "I'm not sure what you mean?" His face remained unaffected by my question, almost as if he wore a mask to hide his emotions.
My stomach tightened.
"What I mean is, how did you find that particular location?"
"The program showed me the last place he'd been to." His answer was short but uninformative. Not the usual rambling-unnecessary-info-dump Derek answer.
I frowned, studying his face but he remained unaffected by my scrutiny. "You do realize where you sent me?"
He shrugged. "I just gave you the location you asked for." Again, another answer that was not Derek.
"What is going on with you, Derek? Do you realize you send me straight into Loki's trap? He was waiting for me, standing right in front of the portal."
Again he shrugged. "I'm not sure how that's my fault. I gave you the location that the program gave me. How was I to know that Loki was waiting for you?"
Defensive Derek? Now that was new.
I got to my feet, shoving the chair back behind me. "I don't know, Derek. I'm not sure I can trust you any longer."
Derek also moved to stand, the points of his spiked hair quivering above his head. I couldn't understand how he'd changed so much in attitude and demeanor. Had he been pretending all along?
A noise on the threshold drew my attention and Fen and Derek both walked into the room. I gasped, my gaze going from the Derek at the door, to the Derek standing across the table from me.
Everyone froze for a moment, then all hell broke loose. Fake Derek rushed backward, tipping his chair over as he spun to face Fen and Real Derek.
I spent precious seconds being shocked before I launched into the air and grabbed Gungnir, from the sheath on my back. I shook the spear open and closed in on the impostor. We had to capture him before he escaped or we'd have no idea who he was, or who he worked for.
As I pointed the end of the spear at him he spun around, grabbed it and pulled me towards him. The momentum forced me to glide to him so fast that I didn't have time to avoid crashing right into him. The impact knocked him on his back and I ended up pinning him down.
I shifted the spear, aiming the vicious point at his neck, when he grabbed Gungnir, pulling hard and twisting hard right. He twisted his body in the same direction, and I couldn't do anything more than roll with it.
His technique scared me a little, not because of his smarts, but more because of the power behind his thrust. I surged into the air and hovered above him as he turned to face Derek and Fen.
Fen stepped closer, beginning his transformation, his forehead flattening, nose lengthening and jaw becoming more canine than human.
The change also sparked an increase in his size, making him formidable as well as frightening. His lips lifted and he growled before rushing at Fake Derek.
But, in response, the impostor didn't avoid Fen. Instead he reached out and grabbed Fen by the shoulders, keeping his hands and body clear of the dangerous canines. Then he shoved Fen aside, the strength of the pull sending him stumbling to one side.
I gritted my teeth. He was clearing a path to the door, but I didn't intend for him to leave or to hurt the real Derek, who despite being a warrior was not a seasoned fighter. His weapons of choice were his hacking and programming skills, not the use of his fists.
Landing in front of Derek, I shoved him out the door. "Get help."
Then I turned my head to confront the impostor. I narrowed my eyes, assessed my situation and decided I needed the upper hand in terms of weaponry. This Derek looked like he'd be fully capable of de-arming me if he so chose.
Even the thought made me both sick and angry. To acknowledge my opponent's skills was a good way to begin a fight, but I didn't like that the chips seemed to be falling on his side in terms of what skills he'd shown us already.
I tossed Gungnir into my left hand and drew my sword with my right. With sword and spear aimed at the impostor, I was ready for a fight. With fury surging through me, I had to remind myself not to kill the creep.
Behind him, Fen grew larger, not making a sound as his muscles bulked and his head lengthened to become more fully a wolf and much less a man.
I sprang at the impostor, lunging and stabbing at him but each time he just batted away the sword or swiped easily at the spear. It seemed like he knew exactly what I was thinking, exactly what I was about to do.
And I didn't like it one bit.
The faster I attacked, the quicker he was to avoid the blow, jumping and twisting this way and that. And the more he got away the angrier I became.
If ever I knew the term seeing red was true, it was in that moment. He'd bested us by infiltrating our team, he'd been on the inside, knew exactly what we knew, and now he was fighting on our turf, and looking like he'd win if I didn't pull out all the stops.
I flew forward, aiming the sword at his midsection but he curved his back out of the path of the blade, then twisted on his heel to face Fen. He crouched, avoiding a swiping paw, but I gave a silent whoop when I saw claws scrape skin and let drops of blood loose.
At least Fen had landed a blow. Something I'd been unable to do. I gritted my teeth and swung my sword again but the impostor twisted around and smacked the blade off course. I growled my fury and lunged again, aiming blow after blow with him, crossing most of the empty space between us.
Then. Without warning, he began to laugh.
More infuriating than his laughter was the fact that in all this time of fighting he hadn't uttered a single word.
Then he exploded in a cloud of small black feathers.
The last thing I saw of him was a pair of gleaming black raven eyes in a human face. Then the man was gone and an oily black raven emerged from the swirling cloud of feathers and black dust.
As he headed for the doorway, a group of warriors thundered up from each side of the passage attempting to block its exit.
But the bird just sailed over them, easily escaping without even a scratch on his odious little bird body. And the last thing I heard was the echo of cackling laughter coming down the hall.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Loki.
I stared at Fen as he transformed back into human form, his body growing smaller, losing muscle and bulk, his face shrinking and shortening, jaw going from canine to human in what looked like a painful process.
He didn't even flinch as he changed, and when he finally stared at me with human eyes, they were filled with fury.
"How the hell did he get inside our defenses?" I asked, furious that the Trickster god had managed to get through all the magical blocks we'd placed on Asgard's entrances.
"He certainly knows how to do it without tripping up the wards." Fens tone was disgusted. And I could understand why. He'd been the one to oversee all the spells and wards that had been put in place to protect our realm.
"Are we ever going to be able to keep him out?" I snapped, knowing it may piss Fen off but I didn't care. Being bested by Loki on home turf is not something that sat well with me.
But Fen didn't take my tone to heart. Guess he understood my frustrations considering he shared them.
"We will need Vanya to help reinstate the wards. Maybe she can find out how he got in," said Fen rubbing his forehead as he paced back and forth.
I sighed. "He could have been coming and going for as long as he wanted. God knows how much Loki already knows about our plans."
"He probably knows everything you told me," said Derek from the doorway. "Or rather, everything you thought you were telling me but told him instead. I was a bit confused when I was summoned to Fen's hall today. I had no idea why I was supposed to be there. So I'm guessing someone gave my doppelgänger the rest of the information."
I nodded, turning to Fen who stood beside Loki's abandoned computer on the table. "Do we know who said what to Loki? Did we provide a lot of information to the team members or were they just told to arrive here on time."
Fen glanced at me and shook his head, "Minimal information was given. Only you, Thor and I knew the full details of where we were going and what the mission was." Fen rubbed his chin. "The warriors were told it was a covert op, highly classified and that we had no idea how long we'd be so to gear up for a long trip, just in case."
Derek shook his head. "Well, all I got told was to meet here, so I definitely missed the rest."
My hands closed into fists at my side as I tried to control a rising bout of fury at Loki. "We need to prepare just in case. With him turning into birds or any kind of animal, he could have heard all the details and we'd be walking straight into a trap the moment we land."
Fen nodded but his eyes swirled black and gray, in much the same way as Loki's did. "We have doubled the manpower. At least we can try and cover our backs a little better if we have to fight off an army of Jotunn."
"Let's get at least a dozen Valkyries. They can provide the glamor for the additional warriors." I felt better knowing we would have extra fighting power along, but Fen's expression distracted me.
He stood still, staring at the laptop that Loki had left behind. The longer he stared the more concerned I got.
"Fen?" I asked, now also staring at the laptop too. "What is it?"
"I thought I heard something.""
From the laptop?" I asked.
He nodded then looked up at me. The moment he met my eyes I realized what he may have heard.
"Get out of the room. Now," I screamed and followed the warriors as they rushed for the door.
The room exploded just as I passed over the threshold. I hit the floor hard and felt someone land on top of me just as the explosion ripped into the passage, so loud that for a moment I couldn't hear a thing.
Rubble fell around me and I covered my head until I felt it stop. I raised my head and at the same time the body that had landed on top of me moved.
Fen.
He'd covered me to protect me from the full force of the blast. Ulfr were incredibly powerful creatures, almost immune to death, and thankfully he'd been there for me. I glanced along the corridor and saw that most of the warriors were fine, sitting up and holding heads or arms, looking a little dazed. More warriors were running up the corridor in our direction as Fen's hall emptied.
Aimee and Joshua stood on the other side of the crumpled heap of warriors, shocked expressions on their ashen faces.
"What the hell was that?" asked Aimee, her voice cracking.
"Couldn't have been a quake. Sounded like an explosion." Joshua put a finger in his ear and rubbed hard. I knew how he felt. My ears were still ringing.
My right ear felt sore and as I raised my finger to it, I said, "It was a bomb. Courtesy of our special friend, Loki."
When my fingers came away stained with blood, Aimee gasped. "What happened? Are you hurt?" She looked like she was about to trample the group of warriors who were rising, slowly shaking off the effects of the blast-wave.
I held up my unstained hand. "No, I'm good. It's probably just a burst eardrum, nothing serious."
Aimee snorted. "Knowing you it'll be brain fluid and you'll pass it off as nothing serious."
Joshua grinned and then was unable to hold in the laughter. From the cough that Fen let out beside me, it seemed he too was having a laugh at my expense.
I shook my head and got to my feet, wiping my bloody fingers off on my pants. The leather trousers was convenient for many things, strenuous activity, warmth and now as a towel. At this point, I was past caring.