3.72 Undercover Operations

         Jasun scratched a line on the wall calendar marking another day. Days were drifting into weeks, weeks would drift into months, the season would be changing if it weren't for the lingering toxic smog and frigid winter that still gripped their beloved Lemuria. Love, music and wine were the only bountiful pleasures that fanned the flames of life in Anur during these dark days.

         Driven to build his new Chocolate Tribe, Josh had been keeping busy, consumed by ambition he had been sowing his seed beyond the fertile soul of Tika. However, to his dismay the Lemurian goddesses weren't used to sharing their lovers so freely and even though things started out as honorable intentions, hearts were getting broken, jealousies were evolving and Archonic energies were smoldering amidst the usual peace and harmony of the loving hearts in Anur.

         Josh wasn't the only one pondering Undercover Operations. Adon was debating the possibility of carrying out disrespectful activities, himself.

Min's figure was an endless source of fascination, the transformation taking place as her baby bump began to show was magical. He didn't really deserve her, if she knew all the things he had done, if she knew the way he felt about their wasted human flesh would she still lay down by his side? Would she still want to bear his child?

         "I want to start a business" he finally dared to air his thoughts.

         "That’s great news!" Min was supportive, it was a good sign he was moving forward. "What sort of business?"

         He ran his fingers through her hair, there was no doubt in his mind it was a solid solution. Marrying their need for beauty and embellishment together with their desires to celebrate the end of a life would be a brilliant disguise for alternate agendas. "A Salon… Type business…"

         "A Hair Salon?" Min was skeptical, she knew Adon thought differently, this was an unusual and absurd proposal.

         "A Funeral Salon."

         "A Funeral Salon…" Min tried to picture it. He wanted to style dead people’s hair… Was he struggling to separate from the evil in his past? Was he subconsciously longing for the glamour of the Anunnaki sacrificial ceremonies? He hadn't been interested in listening to their ancient story of the planetary gods, nor had he participated in any funeral gatherings. Was he just trapped behind the cold stone walls of his manufactured story of Medel?

         "Yes" he assured, gently lifting a crimson lock away from her face. "Imagine if there was a service that made our loved ones beautiful for the funeral pyre?"

         Min wanted to believe in him, that his spirit would fly free once he opened his mind and let his Phoenix rise. He was under a dark spell, she knew where he had come from; the same lab they had all came from. The fact that he told the truth about Finias suggested the horrors had troubled him somewhere deep down, though, and that he did have a Phoenix Flame, somewhere within, even if merely an ember.

         "Our beloved ones look so wretched when they're carried up to the pyre" he lamented. "Their Funeral is the last chance we ever get to see them before they are gone, forever! I want to make them beautiful for our last memories." He pushed the rebellious lock away again, tenderly. "Wouldn't you want to look your best on your last day?"

         Keeping a relationship secret wasn't easy in Anur, especially a steamy one. Bell had discovered a good spot to make out while hunting for deer. A hollow in the embankment of one of the hillsides skirting the town, obscured by a charred old tree trunk offered a den-like scenario with a look out over the village. He had gathered blankets and supplies out of the temple to furnish it, there were basics like water and wine stowed away beneath the roots of the old tree and a spot where he could kindle a small fire.

         He ran his finger across Dena's baby bump and kissed her cheek, hot and flushed from their lovemaking. She was beautiful, perfect in every way, even with a baby bump. He didn't need Josh or Adon to make him a tribe, he had his own ideas for the future. Dabbling in a lovers triangle wasn't something they planned, it just happened, all on it's own. It was all good except for the fact that it was disrespectful towards Nepheus and all his Lunies. It bothered Bell, being watched by judgmental eyes.

         "I'd like to figure out a way to get to Finias."

         Dena gazed out across the sea, below the heavy blanket of smog she could vaguely make out a blip of land where Finias was supposed to be. "Fina must be a ghost town" she concluded.
         "There could still be food in the cafeterias." Bell leaned over and kissed her forehead, squeezing her tummy teasingly. "Just think, Foooood, real fooooood."

         "Shut up!" She slapped him playfully.

         "Imagine this?" He was only getting turned on again. "You could be the New Medena, you can even have her old office!"

         "Ha!" Dena chuckled, the idea was amusing but hardly realistic. "I doubt the buildings are still standing, you saw what the bombs did to Anur!"

         "Yes, but our buildings were properly built" Bell reasoned. "Orius designed them."

         "Like Atlan's buildings" she reminded.

         Bell turned towards the void in the sea. "There's no way those bombs could have levelled an entire island!"

         Dena scanned the grey horizon, still struggling to grasp the reality herself. "I doubt a volcano could do that either." She wondered about the so-called Underworld. "Jasun says it collapsed because the Underworld was like Swiss cheese."

         "Maybe…" Bell had his own theories. "Maybe we were hit with a meteor, maybe that's why the bombs had to be timed so perfectly, so Atalon could take credit for all the destruction! Didn't you see the comet?"

         Dena wasn't listening. "Did you know about the Dogons?"

         "Ha!" Bell laughed, relieved to be confronted by that question, finally. "Only the Dog Show dogons!"

         Dena gasped, sitting up, angry now. "You knew about them?"

         The dogon Oath seemed irrelevant now. "We used to have to feed them" he confessed. "Don't you worry Miss Dena, goddess of Plentiful" he began kissing her again. "I'll protect you from the dogons!"

         It hadn't taken long for Dena and Bell to realize the volumes of secrets behind the Firmary and it's vast operations. As they exchanged secrets and Oaths, they began to draw their own conclusions amidst their love making activities in the hollow rock on the hill.

         "So what's the deal with Vikkar?" Dena asked. "He obviously played both sides, he's a Dogon and went along with the lie?"

         "Yeah" Bell agreed. "That's weird… But so is Vikkar."

         "He doesn't look like the other Dogons."

         "He's a hybrid" Bell informed. "One of the experimental Origians."

         "How do you know that?"

         "I just do" he replied.

         "How much do you think he really knew? Do you think he told his tribe all the secrets of the Firmary?"

         "The biggest secret was that Vikkar thought he knew all the secrets" Bell replied. Having worked on several undercover operations, he knew some truth about the god of Lightning. "He wasn't really a part of the Firmary, he went to some meetings, had his picture on the wall... Halios used to complain about it a lot." He stopped, wondering out loud as the thought occurred. "I wonder if he teamed up with the gods in Kergal..."

         "maybe Vikkar's smarter than King Atalon" she pointed to the empty void.

         Once again Bell was reminded of the cold hard truth. "Maybe... So much for Atalon's New Empire!"

         "What about Aquilla? Do you think he's really dead?"

         Bell had wondered about that too, Aquilla had been heard howling before the mountain blew, had he escaped the implosion?

         "I doubt it.." He scanned the countryside, contemplating his survival. "We only survived because we were inside the Crystal Temple. Do you really think he could have survived this inferno?" He pointed towards the charred land. The odds were slim but the fear of Aquilla would still be alive as long as no one knew what had become of him.

         "Neter never found him in the mountain" Dena reminded. "They said they heard him howl just before the explosion. He could have hidden in another cave up north, you know."

         Bell wondered about the god of Death and his relationship to the beast. Why wasn't he afraid to confront Aquilla? How was he so sure he wasn't inside the mountain? He knew how much Aquilla had tormented Atlan, reason to annihilate the beast had been justified over and over again. What did Neter know about Aquilla that the others never knew?

         "I think you should get close to him" he stroked her cheek, still rosy warm.

         "Get close to who?"

         "Neter."

         "Neter? Eww! Why him?"

         "I need you two to make friends."

         "Oh…" She caught his drift. Neter wouldn't be easy to handle, Eden had already failed and Eden never failed. "He's freaky. Mina's in the way and she's twice as freaky."

         "You like a challenge, though, don't you?" He ran his finger down her neck, gently wrapping his hand around her throat, without more warning he gripped hard, his thumb clamped down on her airway, tight.

         Dena panicked, squirming, barely able to breathe she struggled and tried to scream but she couldn't breathe. Bell straddled her body and held her down, easing back just enough to let her live. Stars began to flash across her eyes… "Be… Be…"

         Bell leaned close, within inches of her face. "If anyone asks you about anything to do with the Firmary, you 'don't know'. Okay?" Dena nodded as best she could. Bell released his hand slowly, cautiously. "Spit it out!"

         "Okay!" she replied, shaken but not unnerved. "I don't know anything."

         "Good!" He kissed her cheek, releasing her. "You know I love you" he kissed her again and touched her breasts, squeezing slightly, turning her on now. "You know that I've always loved you, don't you?"

         Dena giggled, aroused by his passionate dominance, his alluring confessions. "You love me?" She giggled, teasing. "Are you malfunctioning Officer Bell?"