Chapter 4
959 Words
Chapter 4
Lucas leaned back in his leather chair and put his feet on the desk. He closed his eyes and immersed his mind in his favorite Tchaikovsky concerto. The music washed over him, a storm of melody like the drama of his life.
He opened his eyes and looked at the check on the desk—a deposit for the job he had just taken. It was like God had finally heard his prayers.
He killed for a living, and he was good at his job. He was an excellent citizen as far as he was concerned. He had a legitimate business as a facade, and he paid taxes religiously on those business activities. He would be happy to pay tax on his assassin business as well, but he suspected the government wouldn’t want blood money, so he kept the money for himself.
When he saved enough money, he’d retire and have a nice family. He would send his children to good schools, and they would, later on, contribute to society.
Lucas didn’t know what had happened, but recently jobs had dried out. He didn’t think the world had become more peaceful and people had suddenly decided to do the right thing and stop killing each other. On the contrary, the level of crimes and accidents reported on TV was higher than ever.
The only explanation he could think of was that ordinary people these days had become so skilled in killing that they could take on the task themselves, leaving professionals like him jobless.
He needed the money, and this contract had come at just the right time. Not only that, it was an easy and lucrative one.
Mya transported back to the closet at the university from which she had left Earth. She scrambled back to her office and darted to her desk phone.
“Sam, I have to leave. I have a family emergency. Can you take the class?”
“The introductory class?”
“Yes, there isn’t much content at all. It’s just an introduction.”
“Sure, I know that, Mya… Are you okay?” Sam’s voice sounded hesitant on the phone. He had been her assistant for three terms. He was competent. She never had to give him much instruction on her teaching tasks.
“Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for doing this. I owe you one.” She hung up the phone then grabbed her bag and stormed out of the office, running right into Sam.
“Sam, I thought you were going to head over to my class,” she said in a winded voice.
“You hung up the phone too quickly, Mya. You have to give me the teaching notes.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.” She pasted a quick smile on her face. “I’m sorry. Feeling scattered today. I have an emergency to attend to.” She darted back into her office, grabbed the notes, and shoved them at Sam, “Here you are.”
Sam was looking at her like she’d grown a second head.
“What’s the problem?” She arched an eyebrow.
His wide eyes scanned her body, and when they made it back up to her face, he said, “Your outfit is…interesting.”
Mya looked down. She was still in her golden bikini. She rolled her eyes and snorted.
She was tall, slim, and exotic. Exotic was the description she got all the time from male humans on Earth. Whenever they laid their eyes on her, not knowing she was a thousand-year-old deity and could read their thoughts when she was in her deity mode, the word exotic popped into their heads liked a neon billboard.
Her experience with humans had taught her that being exotic meant attractive, skewing slightly toward naughtiness, different from the common standards of beauty. Sam was one of the male humans who obsessed over her exotic beauty. Sometimes she wondered how he got any work done at all as much time as his mind spent concentrating on her.
She didn’t have time to explain it to him right now, and she really didn’t care if he thought she was coming from a sexy costume party in the middle of the day where they performed rituals and held orgies. She had a life and death situation to attend to.
She shoved him out the door and put on her running clothes. Before she left the office, she heard a ‘gong.’ That was the sound of someone trying to contact her from the court at the temple.
“Come on, not now!” she growled.
An image of Leon appeared, hovering in the air. “Mya! You left the court before seeing the Goddess. She’s very angry.”
“She sent you here to get me?”
“No. I sneaked out. Come on. Come back to court. There’s something going on there. That’s why she summoned you.”
“Not now. I have to save a subject. I’ll come back when I’m finished.”
“It’s only a subject, Mya. Your life is on the line—”
“Stuff that, Leon. A subject is a life I care about. If I don’t care, what the hell have I been doing for the last thousand years?”
“Mya!”
“Tell Ishtar I will see her as soon as my subject is safe and sound.”
“Don’t do this…”
Mya arched an eyebrow.
Leon nodded. “I’ll do my best to calm Ishtar.”
“You don’t have to do anything for me. Playing with Ishtar’s temper is dangerous. Just tell her I put the life of my subject first, as always. I understand she has important matters to see to. But the safety of my subjects is important, not only to me but for her reputation as well.”
“I can’t let anything happen to you, Mya.”
“Nothing will. She needs me here, Leon.”
Leon shook his head. “I won’t let her harm you…” His image faded away.
“Don’t— Damn it!” Mya cursed but was sure Leon didn’t hear, nor would he have understood because she cursed in English.
Save Dan first. Mya concentrated. She turned on her deity mode, and then she could run like the wind. She stormed out the door.
- Writer
