The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Fracture

Adam walked with Eric to his lunch table, listening to him rant about how much he hated the group he'd been assigned to for a history project. At least, Adam tried to listen. He was having a hard time focusing today.

"I wish I could just take classes on the stuff I'm actually interested in," Eric complained.

"And what would that be, exactly?" Adam asked.

"I don't know! Even the stuff I like is boring when I have to take notes and do homework on it."

"Hey, I agree it sucks," Adam said sympathetically. "But you have to pick something to do with your life."

"You sound like Mom." Eric tried to keep his tone light, but there was no hiding his stress.

Adam felt bad enough to back off. Eric was anxious about his looming college applications, and Adam knew what that felt like. They reached Eric's usual table, where Summer, Sam, and Veronica were already waiting.

"Oh, hey Adam," Summer said as they sat down. "You eating with us today?"

"For a few minutes," Adam told her. "I wanted to tell you guys that a kid in my geography class went missing yesterday."

"Jake Thompson, right?" Sam asked. "I heard about that, too."

Adam nodded. "I guess it's just rumors right now, but—"

A new voice spoke. "Hey."

Adam jumped and looked back over his shoulder. Willow stood a few feet behind him, laptop under her arm. "Oh, Willow!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting—"

"I was able to get into some more files." Willow pulled out the empty chair next to Adam and set her laptop on the table as she took a seat. "But you were saying something about a missing kid?"

"Scorpion must have taken him." Eric's hands tightened into fists against the table. "We should try to rescue him."

"That's a terrible idea," Willow said bluntly.

"Why?" Summer asked. "We saved Eric."

"Yeah, and now they'll be prepared," Willow said. "But, if you give me a few days, I can try accessing their security cameras like I did at SCI. Better than going in blind."

"If we can get eyes inside before going in, we should," Veronica said. Under her breath, she added, "Not that we should be going in at all."

"How long will it take to hack their cameras?" Summer asked. "Because every second we wait is another second that kid is being held prisoner."

"I don't think Scorpion's going to hurt him," Eric said. "When I was caught, their plan was apparently to keep me locked up until I agreed to work with them. And we'll have a better chance at rescuing this guy if we know as much about their setup as possible." He glanced at Summer. "We kind of got lucky. I was able to get out of my cell since they weren't expecting a power outage, and we were pretty close to the exit already when you found me."

After a long moment, Summer sighed and nodded. "Okay. Fair enough."

Willow's gaze darted between the others, her expression giving none of her thoughts away.

Adam cleared his throat. "You also said you got into more files?"

"Right." Willow opened her laptop. "I get that Scorpion's recruitment tactics are a concern, but we really need to focus on that artifact under Delta Labs. There's a reason everyone's trying to get their hands on it. It's an extremely powerful energy source."

"Scorpion must want it for all their projects and tech, then," Eric said. "Maybe it's the real reason they came here."

"Would Scorpion be able to steal it from SCI?" Sam asked.

"Easily," Willow said. "So far, that Nightmare Kid has been able to make it to the artifact chamber alone, and Adam and I were able to get into an office. If Scorpion sends a bunch of superpowered kids and armed androids? They'll be able to steal the fragment without a problem."

Adam frowned. "Fragment?"

"Oh. Right." Willow turned the laptop so that he could see it. An image of the artifact was surrounded by a wall of text that would take him forever to read, let alone understand.

"The artifact is actually something called a pyramid fragment," Willow continued. "Which is just one of several pieces of something bigger."

"There's more?" Sam asked.

"In theory."

"Okay," Summer said. "So, in addition to stopping Scorpion from kidnapping kids, we also have to stop them from stealing an energy source from a government agency whose motives may also be questionable."

"This should be the responsibility of people who aren't us," Veronica said. "Maybe we should just tell the Newmans about the artifact."

"They're in over their heads, too," Willow said. "They even admitted it." She closed her laptop. "I'll focus on getting into Scorpion's security and accessing more of SCI's files. I don't think we should move forward without more information."

Adam watched the others exchange glances. He had no idea what to make of all this. He'd only cared about saving Eric, and then preparing to fight if anyone were to come after them. When did this all turn into a 'going after the bad guys' type of thing?

"I guess that makes sense," Eric finally said. "But what will we do with the fragment if we're able to stop Scorpion? Should we leave it with SCI?"

"I mean, SCI hasn't really done anything terrible," Veronica pointed out.

"But the Newmans did say they were questionable at best, even if they're a better alternative to Scorpion," Sam said.

"Maybe we could give the fragment to the Newmans," Summer suggested. "They might know someone who could use it."

Willow's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. But we can't be certain we can trust them, either. We barely know them."

Veronica poked at her salad with her fork. "Is there anyone we can trust?"

No one answered.

After a long moment, Adam spoke up. "Oh, hey! We didn't tell Willow about Raveena." He glanced at Willow, who lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh, right!" Eric explained the story of the girl with healing powers he and the others had found at the golf course the day before.

"Wonderful," Willow said, in that dry tone that made it impossible to tell if she actually cared. She rose to her feet. "I'll let you all know once I've got more information."

Adam stood up as she walked away.

"Where are you going?" Eric asked.

"I meant to ask her something about the uh, scholarship thing." Adam grabbed his backpack and followed Willow out of the cafeteria.

She stopped in the hallway and turned to face him. "Can I help you?"

"Did you get an interview with the scholarship judges?" Adam asked.

"I did," Willow replied. "But I don't think you'll need to worry about beating me."

"What? Why?"

She turned back around and kept walking. "Because I got a pretty good job offer that I'm taking instead."