Thanatos

Chapter 4

Location Classified

Olympus looked exactly the same as Megan had remembered it since the last time she was around, not that she was expecting that there would have been any significant changes within the previous year to be honest.

Located within a mountainous island, the entire structure boasted of a size so massive that Megan was yet to fathom just how big it really was. Throughout her first employment on the mountain, she seemed to encounter new spaces and areas at every turn that never failed to leave her in awe.

However, the office centre where she stood now waiting for Dennis was a much simpler layout compared to the rest of the building. A two-floor glass structure, it was surrounded thickly by rocks on all side, almost as if the mountain had been deliberately carved out just to accommodate the glass-enclosed space which opened up to the morning sunlight through a dome above.

The ground floor of the office held the reception, numerous conference rooms of various sizes and functionalities, and the Director's office at the far end of the floor. The top floor, on the other hand, was a large expanse of open space that held the countless workstations from where the in-house operatives coordinated various teams around the world on missions to meet the objectives of the organization.

Just as it had been every time Megan had walked into it, the office centre was a beehive of activities as each operative went about their business, stopping just enough to send a "Good day, Miss Months" her way with a smile without breaking their strides or concentration on whatever thing they were doing.

They know I'm coming, she realized, immediately recognizing the unsurprised vibe they had all about them when they met her. It was almost as if they had already expected to see her standing in that exact spot at that time, like it was as normal as the sunlight coming in through the dome above their heads.

Dennis probably has something to do with this, she mused. He must have informed them of my coming long beforehand.

That was something about the director. There was nothing like a new step with him. It was either a long-planned step, or a newly revealed part of a long-planned step. Her first coming to Olympus was like that. In fact, her recommendation and recruitment were like that too; although a large part of the latter she would rather not recall.

To be honest, Dennis' confident forethought was a quality Megan admired about him. It was a mark of a good leader, and one who was never caught unprepared.

But she detested that same quality about him too – mixed feelings, she knew – especially when she felt like a pawn in one of his many forethought plans, which happened more frequently than she would like to admit.

"Are we good to go, Miss Months?" Megan suddenly heard Dennis' voice and she snapped out of her thoughts to see him standing in front of her with a business smile on his face. She wasn't sure how long he had been standing there but she figured it couldn't have been that long since she could still see the back of the last operative that greeted her just before her thoughts took not far from where they stood.

"Of course, Director," she answered with a smile, stepping aside for him to take the lead in their walk.

Dennis led Megan to the side of the wall where he pressed his touchscreen wristwatch and both the glass and rock slid open to reveal an elevator.

"Are you ready for the second tour of Olympus?" he asked as they stepped inside and he pressed the button for the ride to begin a descent.

"Where to first this time?" she asked.

"Somewhere new." He smiled.

It didn't take long before the elevator came to a stop with a silent hiss, the doors sliding open to reveal a long narrow corridor that Megan was quite familiar with. It was the same corridor that the elevator had deposited them on when Dennis had taken her to some places on the mountain on her first tour.

Just like the first time they had come, fluorescent lights above lit up the moment the duo stepped out of the elevator onto the rock path that laid the corridor, revealing large numbers in red on either side of the wall.

Dennis walked up to the mark 12, the numbers shimmering as the artificial intelligence technology which formed a crucial part of the setup on Olympus responded to his presence. He tapped the number and it disappeared to be replaced by a virtual hand scanner.

"Confirm your identity," an AI voice said through no particular point in the wall.

"Care to do the honours, Miss Months?" He turned to Megan who was standing behind to watch him the whole time.

"Umm, okay." She stepped forward, a bit unsure of why he wanted to make a ritual of such a mundane task. Anyway, she placed her right hand on the scanner and said, "Megan Months."

A quick scan and the AI recognized her. "Welcome, Miss Months, Superteam Leader," it announced. "Please proceed into the training centre."

So, that's what this is all about, Megan shook her head with a smile. Dennis was announcing her promotion to her in the most Dennis way possible; and while she didn't exactly know what a "Superteam Leader" promotion meant on Olympus – she was already the leader of the superpowered teenagers' team before her resignation after all – she trusted that would mean she would be more informed of the crucial stuff in the organization before they degenerated to a point where she no longer had a say over them or could effectively control their outcome.

"Thank you, Director," she said anyway and he smiled in return.

The training centre, as the AI had called it, turned out to be a large sports facility. From the vantage point at the entrance, Megan could see a small slope descend into a large space that constituted the facility. It had been split with glass walls into various layouts such as gym, basketball court, lawn and table tennis courts, a swimming pool, an indoor football pitch, what seemed to be an arcade, and many other places that her eyes couldn't yet make out the functions.

Dennis pointed to the basketball court and she followed the sounds from it for a while before her eyes were finally able to settle on what had made the training centre a vital part of the tour this time.

Of course, we just had to start this from the hardest part, Megan groaned as her brain supplied to her images from the past she had buried a little more than the others; the memories of Kei.