Olympus

Chapter 19

Dennis rested his back against the table as he began, "The origin of Item 13 goes back to a man named Ernest Ruskin..."

Ernest Ruskin was a chemical engineer who lived in Moscow during the time of the Soviet Union. He was closely in association with the government at that time and worked as lead scientist on a number of projects for them, including one codenamed Prevoskhda.

The project was aimed at creating a weapon that would have the capability to cause irreparable damage to the enemy at just one strike and thus, gift the Soviet Union swift victory in battle.

"With the ingenuity of Ernest Ruskin, and a lot of government funds, Prevoskhda was brought to reality," Dennis narrated, "but not for long."

As it turned out, the operation of the weapon created a blowback so powerful that it took out the secret base where it was being tested, killing all the staff on site, including Ernest Ruskin.

"But that wasn't the end to the story, was it?" Megan asked. It's only logical since there's an Item 13 to speak of today, she thought.

"It wasn't," he confirmed. "See, five years ago, Olympus caught wind of a man claiming to be Ruskin's apprentice in Kiev. According to the intel we received, this man was in possession of some notes from the original project and had used it to create an even more fearsome weapon than the engineer's, and he was planning to test it somewhere in the city."

"So, you sent a team after him," she completed, knowing exactly where the story was headed.

"Yes." He nodded affirmative. "The team landed in Kiev within a day of the report and successfully retrieved the weapon, but they killed the man in the process."

"However, word in the underground was that that kill was never confirmed," Ricardo said, quirking an eyebrow. "Or are you saying that it was, Director?"

Dennis turned to give Ricardo a very long, hard stare, almost as if he was assessing what to make of him right there.

Finally though, he sighed. "No, it wasn't," he admitted. "The team reported that they shot the man in a hotel he was staying in Kiev after he tried to resist the retrieval, and they saw him fall out of the window into a lake behind the building, but his body was never recovered.

"Anyway, they brought the weapon back to the mountain and I had it sent to one of our storage facilities in the Arctic, marking it Item 13 for safekeeping."

Dennis looked at Megan after the story and waited for her reaction, but she said nothing. She just sat in her chair and stared straight ahead with a contemplating look like she didn't quite know what to do with what she had heard yet.

However, out of nowhere, she suddenly said, "I don't understand one thing. I get that Item 13′s powerful, and dangerous, and dates back to a time and place where nothing good ever really happened, but what exactly does it do?"

"The truth, Miss Months, no one knows." Dennis shrugged. "After its recovery, UN-CADTRE gave strict orders not to touch or mess with the weapon and I complied; and truth be told, I could have had some people take a peek at it under wraps, but I didn't really want to find out what made that devil's heart tick."

Well, that sounds like Dennis, alright? Megan thought. For all of his bad habits, one area that she knew she could never find fault in him was his integrity to the organization.

Plus, if the orders really had come from Arthur Dean, the Principal Officer, then Dennis definitely had a good reason not to flout it. I met that man once and he still scares me, she thought.

"Now, while that clears me, I can't say the same for you, Mr. DiSanto." Dennis turned to face Ricardo with a stern expression.

"I'm sorry, what?" He shot him a confused look. "I mean, what part of "why in the world do you think I'll intentionally put myself within a hair's breadth of that devil's instrument?" did you not get?"