The Undergods (Episode 4)

By Eva Kane

Episode 4: After facing down an alter, Swiss runs into some complications in Memphis. Back in Reno, Omen receives untimely news and Bach encounters some unforeseen competition.

There are no good guys in the near-future war of the underworld. There are only gods, slaves, and undergods. The gods seek to rule; the slaves accept the rules; the undergods walk among the gods as undetected traitors.

There are only ever six undergods. When one dies, another elite candidate will rise to fill their place until the gods are destroyed. At the moment, the undergods are made up a scientist, medic, sniper, hacker, bodyguard, and smuggler with one common goal: unmask the gods before their power is solidified and it is too late for everyone.

PLEASE NOTE: This book is part of a series that is released in episodes and seasons. The seventh episode will be released once the series is "picked up" by readers.

RATING: MATURE AUDIENCES (18+). This series has graphic scenes some may find offensive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eva Kane
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310552724

Eva Kane

Writer. Wanderer. Jack of all trades looking to maybe master one. Thank you for your downloads and reviews. Your demand and your thoughts matter. Check out my website to learn more, and to sign up to get the news when episodes pick back up!

Book preview

Previously on The Undergods:

Swiss headed out on her own op while fighting to adapt to Phi’s new upgrades.

The rest of the undergods held their tongues and played their parts as Dom tortured and killed the eighth man on his kill list, Arman Aldo.

Bach cleansed his palette after a bloody day by leading foreign authorities to a shipping container of girls slated to be sold into slavery. He vowed never to allow another sadist into the undergods on his watch.

CHAPTER ONE

PHI

Phi frowned at the data points graphed out on his display. Yet again, Swiss’s field performance had proven unacceptable.

Her battle with the alter had been brief, but in those 14.28 seconds the alter had outperformed Swiss on every metric. Even after the alter had taken her to the ground, Swiss had refused to go on the offensive and put her upgrades to task. She relied on a commercial piece of tubing to incapacitate the alter while she bided her time and allowed herself to be dominated.

Her insistence to continue with this passive approach to victory frustrated Phi to his core.

No living, breathing creature on the earth surpassed Swiss in form or function, and yet the competition continuously outshined her in the field.

On average, Mike’s attacks had been 0.007 seconds faster than Swiss’s responses. If the fight had continued 20, or even 30, seconds Swiss would have been overcome. She just didn’t have the heart to make the most effective move, and she hesitated before making what few moves she did make.

Phi suspected that the chasm between Swiss’s actions and those of her opponents came down to one thing: memory. But suspecting what needed addressing and effectively addressing it were two different puzzles.

Erasing memory led to intractable and essentially incoherent subjects, like Mike and the other alters. Retaining memory resulted in a willful and ego-driven subject, like Swiss. At present the latter was preferable, but there had to be a middle ground somewhere. Phi hadn’t uncovered any such middle ground yet but he was reasonably certain he would find it in the realm of memories and their resulting self-identity.

Yet as Phi was learning from Subject I77, memories were an inexact science, at best.

Subject I77’s body was sound and fit despite being attached to life support for over six years. Its pod catalyzed all needed function, while regular stimulation served to keep Subject I77’s muscles healthy and mobile. The body shell itself was actually healthier and infinitely more pure than when it had housed Leo, yet Phi could not yet find a mind that could reanimate it…other than Swiss’s. Something about Swiss’s mind adapted to new hosts in a way that other minds did not. Subject I77 was unable to accept clones of its own original brain. Each brain had died on the vine, so to speak. Even when Phi cloned his personal brain, all memories included, Subject I77 exhibited no motor function whatsoever. Scans indicated that audio waves were received but not necessarily processed in any comprehensible way.

Memory had to be the stumbling block. But if that was so, why was Swiss the exception? Why could her mind adapt? What, specifically, was different in her makeup? If Phi could find out why Swiss was the outlier and how she assimilated then he could recreate the effect in subjects of his choosing.

The computer gave Phi a warning beep, letting him know that Swiss had begun attaching the leads to Mike’s unconscious body over in Memphis. Phi frowned, preparing himself for the futility of the next few hours. Reprogramming Mike constituted an utter waste of time and resources, but it was part of Swiss’s pathology that could not be reasoned with.

Swiss had the memories and mindset of a medic. She saved people—even the guinea pigs like Mike, who would be better served through termination. Devising means to sustain Mike’s life may seem a humane choice on a short-term timeline, but leaving known alters in play was criminally reckless. Even after reprogramming, an alter presented exponentially more risks to society than benefits.

But the pitfalls of reckless assumptions were difficult to explain to someone like Swiss. Life had trained her to do what appeared best in the moment and to let the future unfold how it would. And she wasn’t alone in this mindset. The majority of humans shared similar short-sighted morals, which was why the planet was on the cusp of crisis. Nearly everyone was living in the moment and basing decisions on emotional sensations…what felt right.

Phi suspected this same emotion-based decision making was what handicapped Swiss in battle. She resisted playing the role of aggressor because she feared becoming like her father. Swiss’s memories of watching her father kill her mother had left Swiss with a deep-seated need to protect. It was, of course, far too late for Swiss to save her own mother. She’d died long ago. But memories had the ability to overlay the past onto the present and influence current action. So as long as the trauma of the past overshadowed the threat of the present, Swiss would continue to relive the attack on her mother again and again, her adult self always choosing to protect her mother and condemn the actions of her father.

Memories and emotion were what kept Swiss from being the omnipotent creature she was. As long as Swiss kept living in the past, she would never be what Phi needed her to be. And that was unacceptable.

CHAPTER TWO

OMEN

The front door of the St. Vincent mansion unlatched and opened at Omen’s approach.

Good evening, Hale, the home’s automated hostess greeted through his comm. It’s good to see you, although it’s a little late for you to be working. Is everything okay?

Everything is fine, Mavis, Omen said as he crossed the threshold into the vaulted entryway. I’m just making sure everything is all set for tomorrow.

You mean for Sam’s return home? How exciting! Mavis replied. It’s been 452 days since Sam walked through that door. I’ve planned something special for him.

I’m sure he’ll love it, Omen said as he paused,

Reviews for The Undergods (Episode 4)

[YY Cheong · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is so gooood and am totally hooked. No overtly sexual scenes in the whole series but when the author chooses to go there, phew! Super sad I can’t find episode 5!!