Olympus

Chapter 25

Chersky, Russia

"Mum, watch out!"

Megan's eyes jerked open as she felt a touch on her shoulder and her sensation returned to the sound of tires screeching against the tarmac. The Chariot's landing, she realized.

She looked up to see Ricardo standing in front of the pulled back leather armchair she had dozed off in with a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You were moaning in your sleep."

"I'm fine," she replied, shaking away his hand from her shoulder- apparently, he was the one that had jerked her awake- alongside the last cobwebs of sleep in her eyes, "just tired, that's all."

Ricardo didn't seem to buy an iota of that explanation as he still had the same worried expression on his face as he looked at her, but he didn't press it and gave space as Megan stood up to stretch her aching muscles.

"We've arrived?" she asked as she looked out the window to see the snowy landscape outside.

"Yes," Ricardo replied, going to pick a tablet from the conference table behind her. "I've been monitoring the area with an Olympus satellite since we left the mountain and so far, no significant movement has been recorded."

That's good, Megan nodded with the thought. No significant movement in the area meant that there was a high probability Item 13 was still in Chersky and they could retrieve it and put an end to the matter once and for all.

Yeah, I know, easier said and done, she thought. It didn't take powers to know that a group who had had the audacity to attack a high-level secret facility like Olympus's in order to acquire Item 13, and then made two attempts on their lives just to make sure they didn't come anywhere near finding it, wouldn't just hand it over.

But that's what the kids are for, she reminded herself, looking to the front part of the plane where Jay, Kei, and Adolf were disembarking alongside Ricardo who had gone to join them in the middle of a conversation. They'll be able to handle this, she thought, nodding again, I hope.

Not to be the drag, Megan quickly grabbed a plastic bottle of water from the holder next to her seat and gulped it down in one swig, chanting her mantra to calm her still racing heart, and grabbed a beanie and gloves from the side drawer in the plane before she started after the others.

The first thing that greeted Megan as she popped her head out from the exit door to see the private airstrip they had landed was the cold air.

Yep, this is so not New York anymore, she thought as the cold hit her and she shivered; and she wasn't the only one feeling it either as the others were huddled under thick fur coats too. Even Jay whom she had learnt could affect the temperature around him was huddled under a sweater although not as thick as the others. He wasn't showing that much reaction to the cold truth be told.

Anyway, Megan moved her mind away from the cold and concentrated on the environment instead.

For as far as she could see, everything was covered in white. It was like a blanket of snow had fallen over the area, covering everything from the high mountains to the low valleys to the horizon. But in the midst of all that white were pockets of cabins and swept roads; and those were what the team was focused on.

"The satellite has flagged a warehouse that matches the requirements of our bad guys," Ricardo informed Megan as she came to join the briefing, handing her the tablet in his hand so that she could see the satellite image of the building in discussion. "Apparently, it was abandoned until about a week ago just before the storage facility was attacked."

"Have you been able to get a lead on the people that bought the place?" she asked.

"No, nothing as of yet."

"Okay," Megan nodded as she began to move and the others followed her, "I think it's about time we went and checked out this warehouse ourselves."

Two black Hyundai SUVs were brought out from garage through the rear end of the plane just as the team reached it and Ricardo and Megan hopped in one and the teenagers the other; Ricardo and Jay in the driver seats respectively.

Ricardo connected the tablet to the car's Wifi and soon, the location of the warehouse popped up on the GPS; the central team communication network linking the first car's display with the other. "Everyone ready?" he asked over the comms.

"Ready," the reply came.

"Then let's go."

And the ride to the warehouse began.