Olympus

Chapter 7

To Megan's surprise, Dennis's office was as normal as would be expected of the head of an organization, not that she was sure she could imagine what an abnormal office would look like in relation to Olympus to be honest.

Maybe a direct phone line to the Justice League, she thought, or perhaps a photograph where Dennis is posing with Santa Claus- she meant like the real Santa Claus there.

Whatever it was though, she knew it would be something that would really blow her mind into several pieces like everything in the organisation had been doing all day.

However, the office was just that: a standard workplace with nothing out of the ordinary sticking out.

The elevator Dennis had called dropped him and Megan back on the floor they had met earlier in the day. Immediately they stepped out, a woman came to meet them. She was Indian, of an average height, in her late twenties, wearing a white turtleneck underneath a blue blazer and pants that adorned her lithe figure.

"D3 and D4 have reported back in, sir," she said when she reached them. "The threat in Hong Kong is neutralized."

"Good," he replied, nodding in approval. "Tell the teams they can return to the mountain now. I'll inform the Covert Affairs department of the development and they'll relay it to the Chinese intelligence committee."

"Yes, sir." She smiled and nodded her understanding as she turned her attention down to the tablet in her hands to presumably inform the teams in discussion over a Bluetooth device in her ear.

"Jasmine," Dennis called her just then and she looked up. "Thank you."

She smiled again. "Just serving Olympus, sir," she replied before the Bluetooth beeped and she began to speak in rapid-fire Mandarin as she turned to walk away.

He's loved, Megan realized. The operatives, the teenagers, the doctor in the lab; everybody in the building really. They all loved Dennis and wanted him to be pleased in them every time, which was supposed to be normal since he was the big boss around there, but she suspected that it was a lot more than that; something that bordered on loyalty and a sense of reverence.

Anyway, nothing else occurred as Dennis led her to the far section of the ground floor right at the end of the building- his office- and she let her thought go.

The first thing Megan actually noticed when she entered the office- besides its surprising ordinariness, that is- was that unlike the building itself, not many things in it were actually made of glass. In fact, besides the table top and some other items that could be unavoidably glass, nothing else was.

An hexagon-shaped space, the table took the head position of the office, situated directly opposite the door so that Dennis would presumably be able to see whoever came in through the door the moment they did; and perhaps see the other operatives at work too as the position guaranteed him a vantage point to do that.

To the left side of the office stood a small cream-coloured ceramic shelf holding everything from a jar of cowries to a figurine playing the African talking drum, to even an almost life-size ivory mask that if Megan's little knowledge of the African culture served her well was from the Benin Kingdom of Nigeria. He's an avid collector, she noted as she perused through them with her eyes for a couple of seconds before she looked away.

But all the things Megan saw, while they showed who Dennis was at heart, she knew they weren't a true representation of what his role was in Olympus; all but one.

Thing is, on the wall just a little adjacent to the right side of the table was the largest monitor Megan had ever seen; like it was the combination of three of the world's largest monitors mounted on the glass wall without any strain to it. It displayed a map of the world; every continent, country, and region marked with an algorithmic assessment of different threat levels in numbers in relations to the various current events occurring in them in real-time.

Now, that's Dennis Ahmad, Director of Olympus, she thought. The monitor showed the extent of his true power; and she couldn't help but be awed by it for some seconds.

"Tea or coffee," Megan suddenly heard say and she snapped out of her thoughts.

"Uh?" She made a confused face.

"Which one do you prefer, Miss Months?" he clarified. "Tea or coffee."

Somehow, Megan became unsure of what she should say and she stopped for a few seconds.

Thing is, it wasn't that she was confused of her preference- she was a coffee person through and through- but the suddenness with which Dennis had asked and the reading that she was getting from him- gone was the friendliness he had shown earlier when they met and throughout the tour, and in its place was something much different; a sort of demeanour she had only seen on the strange man in her apartment, Arthur Dean.

And that unsettled her.

"A cup of water will be just fine, thank you," she finally replied after a while of wrestling with her thoughts.

Dennis quirked an eyebrow. It was obvious he hadn't expected that answer from her. "Alright then," he said anyway as he pointed her to a chair opposite his table and went to a mini-counter by the side of the door where an array of drinks lined the table, "water, it is."

Megan didn't have to wait very long before he brought back a tray with a glass pitcher of water and cup on it. He poured the water into the cup right in front of her, making sure to let her see the lemon he had brought with him before he sliced it and added two drops into the water before handing it to her.

He knows I'm apprehensive of him, she realized. Somehow, he had caught on to the fact that the trust between them had reverted back to zero since they entered the office and he wanted to rectify that.

But the fact that he even had a reason to need her trust so importantly in the first place made her apprehensive the more.

Dennis watched as Megan took a sip of the water before going to sit in his chair, straightening his suit and folding his hands on top of his crossed legs. "Ask me question," he suddenly said.

She stopped halfway with the cup to her mouth. She looked up at him and saw that there was nothing but a stony seriousness in his eyes. "I'm sorry, what?" she returned.

"Ask me a question," he repeated once again. "Anything on your mind."

Megan was confused by the turn the events were taking; and she hated being confused. "Director, you said we were going to your office to give me answers, not add more riddles and mystery." Her patience was at its end and it showed.

"Then ask a question, Miss Months," he reiterated, his calmness the same even at the sight of her lurking fury.

A moment of silence ensued in the room as Megan tried to get a read of the situation and Dennis let her.

"Alright then," she said after a while, dropping the cup on the table to straighten her coat and fold her hands on top of her crossed legs just like he had. "Tell me, Director, what is Olympus really all about and how does it involve three superpowered teenagers?"