[ COMPLETED ]
German Translations Provided By @vanessanats
BOOK 1 of the ORPHIC series
ZEITGEIST
/ˈtsītˌɡīst,ˈzītˌɡīst/
the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.
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"There are lines you don't cross."
North Dakota, America January, 2004
VERFALL NOTICED THE SOFT PITTER patter of snow increasing as she and Winter crouched beneath a thicket of bushes and forestry. It was cold- not below zero but right at the edge- and if they were normal people, then they probably would've caught hypothermia by now.
Of course, they were anything but.
They'd arrived at a creaky old cabin, one that looked abandoned. Agent Westfahl had started groaning and complaining about how terrible their home would be for the next day- Agent Rumlow told him to shut his trap and Agent Martinez had told him to 'just wait, the insides hella cozy'.
And it was.
Warmth had burst from within as soon as they'd opened the door, and Agent Westfahl actually felt obligated to help his fellow teammates with moving their gear. The two weapons hadn't milled about- Volya had immediately sent them to their target's snowy mansion.
That's how they ended up here, snow piling around them like ice cold pillows. Winter had a mental clock ticking in his head, and he wouldn't move until their time for surveillance was up. If it was up to her, Verfall would've already deemed the mission dangerous to complete. Snow was falling fast, and the trudge back to the cabin would be borderline dangerous.
She wasn't interested in being buried alive.
Verfall didn't take her eyes off the target's wife and kids as they sat at the dinner table, waiting for their mother to bring them food. She guessed she was thankful for the little things- there'd be no killing today, at least, not of innocents.
A few minutes passed before Verfall realized Winter was shivering. Concern flickered between her eyes because he shouldn't have been affected by the cold. She placed a hand on his arm, feeling the thin sheet of ice that'd formed from the snow that melted over his skin. Goosebumps had unfurled across his chilling skin- he felt dead. He inhaled sharply at the warmth of her hand, pulling back to stare at her.
Her body had been wired to resist temperatures, and the pain that came with it. She'd assumed Winter had experienced something similar, but maybe sitting through drastic temperature changes in a room was too kind.
Maybe they'd only done it once or twice and the technicians had decided he'd be fine.
"We're done." She said with a tone of finality. "We're done."
