The Athena File

By Rebecca Reader

This thriller is about Athena, an ex-secret agent trying to protect her younger brother, Jack, from her psychopathic ex-boyfriend, Alex. Little does Jack know of her past occupation and Alex's intentions of kidnapping him. Athena is forced to go save her brother, and faces her past while trying to prevent her image of the future from becoming true. When she arrives on the scene where Alex threatens to kill Jack, Athena is stuck between choosing one of them to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca Reader
• Release date: Aug 28, 2014

Book preview

Sabrina Martinez
 2/3/12


The Athena Files

The noise of clock gears and pendulums fill the air with suspense. The moon sheds its light unto the face of the clock, with a gentle touch of silver rays. The fog floats and seals the sky. Ticks and tocks, clinks and clanks saturate the atmosphere.

Athena grabs the pistol on her belt. She stares at Alex with unblinking eyes. Her voice almost lost in the foggy air of the clock tower. She is breathing hard and is close to losing her mind.

"Alex put the knife down," she says calmly.

Alex is holding a Swiss army knife to Jack’s throat. His grin is that of the devil. Jack starts to groan. Athena feels beads of sweat roll down her cheekbones. She panics, I know that you are obsessed with me, but hurting Jack won’t get you what you want. Actually, I will hate you if you give him the slightest scratch.

Athena looks anxiously at Alex, waiting for him to come to his senses. For years she had imagined that the scene in front of her eyes would take place someday; now the day has come. She tried to prevent it from happening but now she is uncertain about what to do. Her brother is in a chair tied up with ropes around his body; bruises on the face and arms; his head hangs to a side as a result of the overdose of sedative.

She is ready to lose herself to fear and fury. First she is furious with Alex for kidnapping her brother and second she is scared at what might happen next. Her mind is racing to find a solution to end this problem; all she wants is to save Jack and go home.

Athena looks around the clock gears and pendulums. If only there is something that could solve all her problems. Maybe she could shoot Alex with her gun and free her brother, but that wouldn’t work because, Alex could just as easily slit her brother’s throat at the mere gesture of her raising her gun. She rapidly thinks a number of plans, but none of them comes through as the fast, efficient and simple solution to the problem at hand.

Alex has his eyes set on Athena. His black suit is covered in blood and dust; his hair is still combed and he wonders if he has impressed Athena with his handsomeness. His lips start to part and show glittering, yellowish teeth.

*************

It all started when Athena was reclined on her brother’s couch, dreaming of what her new boyfriend would be like. She was laying on her belly, her head on her arms, twisted to the left. Her chest heaved in a slow, lazy tempo.

She was facing the huge plasma screen in front of her that hung on the pale blue wall. There were books on the various bookshelves around the TV set. Right in front of her stood a coffee table with a bowl of fruit. Athena had eaten an apricot. She had fallen asleep and the bitten fruit was ruining the amber colored couch. It rolled off one of the jade green pillows that had woven little lizards on them.

Baggy PJs hung loosely around her slim body. Her eyelashes twitched as her dreams occupied her mind.

The relationship with her last boyfriend didn’t go so well, he was a psychopath. He secretly stalked her brother, Jack. She had worked with her boyfriend in the secret agency called The Dragon Flies. They had gone together on secret missions all over the world, when they were in love.

Her brother was a problem. She didn’t want him to know that she was an undercover spy. She thought he might get scared, and would never speak to her again. Athena had to lie to her brother and told him that she was a social worker to cover up why she would go out all the time.

She’d say to her little brother, I have to go and help some people who are having money problems, or We need to protect the elderly people from those who are after the little money they have. Jack believed her, he trusted her every word and was proud of and amazed by her. She did feel guilty about lying to her brother, but it was for the better.

Alex seemed like a normal guy, but secretly when Athena left to go on solo missions, which was some of the time, he would visit her brother’s house in Philadelphia, and terrorize him by haunting him with noises such as chains being dragged across his roof, to make Jack believe that he had a ghost in his house. Alex would also put on a werewolf mask and look into Jack’s window and stare at him when Jack was about to go to bed.

Jack, however, never thought these pranks were comic. One time, as a result of being startled, he bumped into his wardrobe and fell to the floor with a bruised head. Alex felt his jokes were successful. Nevertheless, he took his pranks and jokes to a different level.

Jack never came to Athena for help because he thought that she would think him a coward and a Scaredy Cat. On the other hand if word got out that he needed to complain the person that was scaring him would find out and, never stop tormenting him. Jack felt hopeless, he went to speak to his psychiatrist and asked for his advise, but the psychiatrist told him to not worry about it. That it was probably some kid in the neighborhood who had nothing else to do. That didn’t help Jack at all because the jokes and pranks didn’t stop.

**************

In Athena’s head she looked at a man with no face. She peered into the man’s anonymous features. The man started to develop a nose, bent to his dominate side. He had black hair that was starting to grow shorter by the second. The face moved as if it’s segments were being assembled by calymation. As the man’s face came together, he took her hand and kissed it with pleasure. His lips were thin and smiled at her. The background was so white it appeared that they were floating in midair.