"Okay General Davis, what do we know?" Deputy Director Garrison asked from where he sat across the large conference table. "It's been three months since our last meeting. Tell me we know something."
General Davis watched the Deputy Director with barely concealed amusement. He knew the man had tried to infiltrate the local base with some of his operatives, but Colonel Clegg was no fool. He knew a spook when he saw one, regardless of how much they tried to dress up like a soldier. He guessed that the electronic surveillance the CIA was using to try and spy on Heidi was as ineffective as their own had been. White splotches like lens flares distorted any optical surveillance they tried to use, even from satellite. He knew that one CIA agent that had been trailing Heidi had simply vanished into thin air, only to be found a month later in the Canadian wilderness.
"Don't tell me the vast resources of the CIA haven't found anything," General Davis said blandly.
"Nothing useful," Garrison snapped waspishly. "You're the one that wanted to use people skills to figure her out. Well? What have you learned?"
"Quite a bit, actually," General Davis said smugly. "To put it simply, she's a deity from Greek mythology, and possibly Egyptian as well. It's possible that the Titans from mythology are real as well, and that they may be visiting us soon."
Garrison stared at him coldly. "Do you think this is a joke?"
"There's nothing about these Titans to joke about," General Davis replied gravely. "From what we have been able to learn, they have completely wiped out several civilizations that were even more advanced than we are."
"You're serious?" Garrison asked incredulously. "You actually believe she is a goddess from Greek mythology?"
"No, I think the remnants of the records we have of that civilization were garbled when primitive cultures couldn't understand the descriptions of advanced technology," General Davis answered with a shrug. "It's not like someone from the middle-ages is going to know what a supercomputer is, or a spaceship. They have to deify the historical characters to explain the feats they accomplished with advanced technology."
"So why is she here now?" Garrison asked doubtfully. "Why not a hundred years ago, or a hundred years later?"
"One of my top scholars that we've had studying this new information has a theory about that," General Davis replied, folding his arms. "He thinks the Titans are awoken by advanced technology. Probably not electricity, but things like particle accelerators and quantum computers. He thinks that this 'goddess' found a way to come back before the Titans in order to prepare for them. He thinks the Titans will probably wake up sometime very soon if she's here already."
"What are these 'Titans' supposed to be?" Garrison asked skeptically. "Giant robots?"
"Nothing so primitive," General Davis replied dismissively. "Some kind of artificial construct of alien origin. They are probably several miles tall and pretty much indestructible. They aren't very advanced, because their sole purpose is to go around smashing anything that looks like a civilization."
"And how did your people discover all of this?" Garrison asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That's the easy part," General Davis smiled grimly. "We just asked Colonel Clegg politely what he knew and if we needed to be worried. He's shared everything he knows with us since discovering the existence of the Titans. He also mentioned that someone has an outpost on Mars—a Mars that is remarkably similar to Earth."
General Davis saw the corner of Garrison's eyes tighten imperceptibly. Yep, the bastard knew about it.
"You would do well to ignore anything you hear about Mars," Garrison told him coldly. "You might pass that on to Clegg as well."
"I'm not worried about Colonel Clegg," General Davis replied with a smirk. "I'm pretty sure you'll be getting a midnight visit if you try to do anything to someone close to Heidi."
Garrison's eye twitched at the reminder of the warning they had all received from Heidi several months ago in the form of a dream. He knew that she could appear at any moment and burn him to a cinder if he pissed her off.
"So what is it you propose we do with this information?" Garrison asked sarcastically. "I'm certainly not going to tell the Director that a Greek goddess has reappeared to help us fight the Titans."
"I'm not sure there's much we can do," General Davis admitted, rubbing his cheek with a knuckle. "Until Heidi shares more information with us about the technology she knows about, assuming that ever happens, we don't stand a chance against the Titans. This will be her fight. Our job would be to maintain as much order as possible, when the time comes."
"You don't think a couple of nukes would take care of a Titan?" Garrison asked dubiously.
"No, I'm pretty sure plenty of other civilizations tried that already," General Davis shook his head. "You've seen the evidence of a prehistoric nuclear war on the African continent. That was probably against the Titans."
"So we're just here to babysit the population while Heidi does battle with the Titans?" Garrison said discontentedly.
"Unless you boys have any other secret technology you haven't shared with the rest of us that you think would be effective against Titans, then yes," General Davis nodded. "In case you forgot, that's what our job is."