Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
When Rebecca left Scorpio—who really took the whole Zodiac theme to the limits—she truly believed she dreamed. None of what he said made sense. Men didn’t appear out of nothing. Or wrestle seals barehanded. Or claim they needed her to help them on a quest that would save the world.
Any second she’d wake up, and realize she was alone, that the whole thing had just been a vivid hallucination. Only, the next morning, she walked into the dining tent and saw him, clad in a ridiculous outfit.
Did her libido care his T-shirt molded his upper body and left his naval uncovered or that the track pants ended mid-shin? Nope. She saw the hunk of man and suddenly had a hankering for another kiss.
Despite her less-than-pleasant greeting, Scorpio smiled. “Do you always wake up so cheerful?”
She glared as she stomped for the coffee pot already full and steaming, obviously set on a timer. “Only when I have uninvited guests.”
“I’ll leave as soon as we find?—”
“The artifact. Yup, I remember. But I hate to break it to you: I’ve got work to do, so you’ll have to go scrounging on your own.”
“What will you be doing?”
“Checking my messages from Cetus then extracting some glacier samples for analysis.”
With that said, she grabbed her cup of coffee and left for her work tent, noticing her chair had been moved. She pursed her lips as she eyed her computer. She’d not bothered putting a password on it because she worked alone. It also wasn’t as if she kept state secrets.
Sipping her coffee, she pulled up her email and found a new message from corp. Essentially, a demand for her to grab samples from a specific area of the glacier she’d only just started cataloguing. She printed out the coordinates and wondered who on the other end decided where she’d be poking. Did they have an image of all the glaciers in their office that they threw darts at to decide where she’d work next?
Whatever. They paid her well to do so, and when she returned, she’d write an article, which would hopefully bolster her prestige in the field.
While the printer spat out the sheet with the diagram showing where to dig next, she went and layered on her clothes. The tent heaters only barely kept occupants from freezing, and it had been quite some time since she’d been fully naked. Even the quick changes of clothing had her shivering and her skin pimpling from the cold. Yet Scorpio acted as if he were somewhere balmy.
Maybe he really was superhuman.
Shouldn’t she be more curious? He’d probably think she flirted if she asked questions. Still, if he truly was who he claimed—and it was beginning to seem that way—she might be missing out on a discovery of a lifetime.
That she could never tell anyone. She’d not forgotten what he’d claimed happened to those who spilled their secrets. Mind- wiping and discreditation were bad enough, but he’d also mentioned death. Would he really kill her?
She didn’t know him well enough to tell. Although she took the fact she woke uninjured as a good sign.
Still, given she’d not imagined his existence, she should be more cautious. To that end, she tucked a folding utility knife into her boot to go along with the one in her belt. Snowsuit, boots, hat, face mask, and goggles—because the forecast called for sharp winds—and finally her heated gloves.
She trudged outside to find Scorpio standing there, barefoot, stretching. One leg up, the foot resting on his thigh. His hands stretched to the sky. She couldn’t help but snort, “Someone’s watched The Karate Kid too much.”
“A cute movie, although I liked the TV show more,” he stated, putting his foot down.
“Zodiac Warriors watch television?”
“What else would we do in our downtime?”
“Go bowling in the sky? Race Martians in space?” She joked, but he shook his head.
“Aliens are more about enslaving and conquering than playing games, and we try to avoid Earth’s atmosphere, lest we launch an unexpected climate event. Pisces got in so much shit when he accidentally punched a hole in the ozone layer back in the eighties.”
She blinked.
He didn’t crack a smile.
“I’m going to work,” she stated. “Feel free to leave while I’m gone.” She entered her work tent to grab her equipment cases, lugging them out one at a time to load on a sled. He remained outside—still barefoot!—flinging spears at a mound of snow.
Wait, she recognized those metal rods.
“What did you do to my tripod!” she screeched.
“Made it useful.” He replied without turning to address her.
“It already had a use,” she grumbled. “And just so you know, you can’t kill the seals. Or anything else for that matter. The animals here are protected.”
“Not worried about the wildlife.”
“Expecting company?”
“According to Sage?—”
“Ah yes, the woman who sees the future. Did she see me walking away from you?” Rebecca grabbed the rope to her sled and began trudging toward the glacier west of her camp. According to the map given by her employer, she’d be tapping into the far side, which she’d not yet explored.
It shouldn’t have surprised that Scorpio kept pace with her. Actually, he ranged ahead, trotting as if this were a pleasant summer day in a grassy field. Her own toes curled at the sight of his bare feet running along the ice.
Definitely not human.
Then again, people could do incredible things when determined. Look at those who walked on coals without injury.
“You’re pretty spry for an old guy,” she muttered under her breath.
He still heard. “I like to keep fit.”
“Are all these other Zodiacs built like bodybuilders?”
“Yup. In our line of work, we can’t afford to be weak, or it could spell our demise.”
“So, you’re not invincible?”
He flashed her a grin. “No. But I wouldn’t recommend plotting my death, as I am tougher than most.”
“You aren’t affected by the cold, but you definitely feel pain,” she observed.
“Yes, but we recover more quickly than a regular human. Heal faster. Most illnesses have no effect on us.”
“But some do?” she questioned.
“While rare, it happens. The most recent case being from a crypt discovered in Egypt. Pisces got hit by a lingering curse. Took him a few weeks before he didn’t look like a walking pustule.”
“Now you’re telling me curses exist?”
“Oh, yes. Magic is real, but those who can wield it are rare. It takes a very gifted person to wrangle the esoteric forces around us.”
“I take it you can do that?”
“Me? No.” He chuckled. “The best I can do is starbeam, which, for lack of a better term, is astral physics. Although I know Virgo likes to call it magic.”
“Do none of you have real names?”
“We give those up when we become a warrior. Our meld with the constellation erases our connection to our past lives.”
“You don’t remember who you used to be?”
He shook his head. “I do, but I had to leave that behind. In order to serve, we need to sever any emotional ties.”
“But you said Libra had a wife and baby.”
“He does.”
“Doesn’t that compromise him?”
“It does. Those who commit to a partner have a weakness that can be exploited.”
“In that case, why make you forget the past if your future can reform emotional bonds with new people?”
He shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”
She noticed he didn’t offer to pull the sled, not that she needed help, but for an alpha male, he sure lacked in some respects. She huffed as she heaved her load over a rocky patch. Some areas were windswept and flat. Others? Humped and bumpy.
“I’m going to climb and see what’s around us,” he suddenly stated before clambering like a goat up the glacier. No rope or picks, nothing but his hands and feet. The spears dangled down his back in a sling made from the blanket she’d given him.
Let him play king of the mountain. She was almost to the spot. She skirted a pool of water and rounded the sizeable mountain of ice. A shiver went through her as the new angle blocked the sun, leaving her in the much chillier shade.
Hopefully she wouldn’t be there too long—if her equipment cooperated. She parked her sled and began unloading and setting up. Soon, she’d forgotten Scorpio as she took measurements and pictures. She set up her radar and had it scan the ice, only to frown as it blipped.
She leaned over the screen and eyed the spot. In the shade, and with the ice so thick, she couldn’t actually see anything. Not yet, at any rate. Could be nothing, or simply a rock or an animal frozen in the glacier. Still, her mind went right to Scorpio and his mysterious object.
She tapped, chipping at the area of interest. Unlike other research sites, Cetus had not provided her with a thermal drill. When she asked why, she’d been told they preferred more old-fashioned ways. Hence why she had a hammer and a chisel. Ridiculous, but the paycheck made up for it. She’d tried to argue that the drill would get much deeper samples, but Cetus maintained its firm stance.
The ice chips fell into a bucket she’d placed to capture falling fragments, although she would dump the first one that held only the top layer of the glacier. That ice would be too recent to tell much.
As she kept tapping, despite what the radar indicated, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. The ice fractured as expected, revealing more ice. What a surprise.
As the hole she chiseled deepened, she began dumping her bucket, bagging only the largest, most promising pieces for study back at camp. She hated that part, since she had to turn off the heat lest she melt the sample before she could observe it under the microscope.
Tap . Tap . The gap widened, and she still hadn’t found what caused the blip on her radar. Only when she heard a sudden hissing escaping from the newest chiseled crack did it occur she might have picked up a trapped pocket of gas.
The recoil from the glacier didn’t just occur because of her sudden fear of poisoning but because of the smell. Kind of like a cleaner but hinting of something else. Not rot, nor methane. What was that stench?
The hissing ceased, and she dared to venture close once more. She sniffed. Nothing lingered that she could tell. She lightly tapped the crack and braced to jump away. A chunk fell out, widening it. Another smack and more began to crumble, revealing a hollowed space in the glacier.
She almost opened her mouth to call Scorpio. Had she perhaps found the hiding spot of his mysterious object? Even if she had, she’d meant what she said. It belonged to Cetus, not him.
With that thought, she kept widening the hole, yanking ice away and tossing it, only to freeze. She blinked, but the anomaly remained: Rock.
There was rock inside the glacier, and not just any stone. A smoothed surface engraved with symbols. As she began to excitedly uncover more, it took a moment to register she’d found a facsimile of a door.
For a second, she debated telling Scorpio because this definitely went beyond the scope of her job. This shouldn’t exist, not here, the most inhospitable place on earth. Antarctica was known for never having been inhabited, but this indicated otherwise. This was the discovery of a lifetime. A game changer.
Who carved it, and why?
On a whim, she removed her glove for a moment and placed her bare hand against the surface. After all, she’d discovered it, she should be the first to touch?—
A sudden vibrating hum had her recoiling. Under her disbelieving gaze, the stone shifted, moving sideways into the wall of rock, just like a pocket door would. It should have been utterly impossible, but before she could pinch herself, she found her gaze captured by the sight of stairs descending into the glacier.
Exactly what had she discovered?
Warm air wafted upward and brought a sweat to her brow that had her removing her face mask as it kissed her skin moistly. Heat vent? Again, should have been impossible.
She eyed the stairs. Should she go down them alone?
Who knew what hid down there.
Discovery.
Danger.
Hearing a crunch of snow, she whirled to tell Scorpio what she’d found.
Only it wasn’t a big, tall hunk coming at her, but that damnable leopard seal.
It lunged and barked.
She startled and recoiled. In doing so, she lost her balance. Her arms windmilled a few times before she lost the fight with gravity and went tumbling down the stairs.