The Pyramid Chronicles: Fortuna Guard (#2)

Chapter Six: Another Change of Plans

Even before the Newmans announced that they had important news for the altered, Sam was having an interesting day.

And not exactly in a good way.

Over the past few weeks, he'd grown increasingly frustrated with online classes, even though all he really had to do at this point was pass. He tried working on art in his spare time, which usually cheered him up, but wound up tearing page after page out of his sketchbook and tossing them out.

He'd been hiding all of this bubbling exasperation from Veronica. Normally, he'd have vented to her about school trouble, but she already hated being here on the Fortuna. He didn't want to give her another reason to run from all this. And they only had another month and a half of school left, anyway.

Outside of school, Sam's mood changed with recruitment missions. Successful ones left him feeling optimistic for a day or two before the reality of facing Scorpion sank back in. The reality that unless the Fortuna Guard came up with a way to beat them soon, passing high school and getting accepted into college could very well wind up being completely pointless. And of course, failed missions left him wondering if they had a chance of winning this fight at all.

The passing time and rising tension was starting to make Sam want to do something, anything to take his life back. Even if it were reckless.

Something like talking to Malcolm.

He'd been seriously considering it for nearly a week before bringing it up to Eric. He'd even considered going to the cell block alone but decided company would be better—for his first visit, at least. Veronica was definitely a no-go. If Summer were out and about, she'd surely have been eager to come along, too, but she apparently didn't have the strength for walking around yet.

Sam also considered asking Raveena, given her ability to stay lucid when she was put under. But he still didn't have a good read on her. She seemed the type to say yes and not tell the Newmans, but he couldn't bring himself to fully trust her yet. Or read her mind.

Maybe Sam hadn't known Eric for much longer, but Eric was an open book.

All in all, the trip to Malcolm's cell had sparked something in Sam. Determination, he supposed. Even if Malcolm insisted on making things difficult, Sam felt he'd made some progress, and Malcolm's intel could very well be key in taking down Scorpion.

Or maybe Sam and the others could do it without him, if Sam could only figure out this secret from his past. The things Malcolm believed he'd forgotten. Even though he claimed not to have any details, Sam was sure Malcolm knew something else about him. He had to have had a good reason for singling Sam out back at the motel in Tyche Point.

Regardless, Sam didn't want to take Eric back down to the cell block. Eric insisted he was fine afterward, but the brief terror on his face after Malcolm put him under sent a pang of guilt through Sam whenever he recalled about it, even the next day. Eric's eyes had only been closed for a second, but whatever he'd experienced had lasted longer than that.

From here on out, Sam would pursue Malcolm's intel alone.

The morning after the visit to the cell block, the Newmans announced that they wanted to hold a meeting after Adam returned from his campus tour. That would give Sam time to pursue another piece of information Malcolm had shared: the Serum-A doses on the altered list.

So, after eating breakfast and assuring Eric and Veronica that he'd join them for training in an hour or so, Sam headed to the ship's computer lab. While the room was usually used for working on online classes, a digital copy of the altered list had been uploaded to the ship's server. No one really looked at it, since the technicians were the ones tracking kids down, but it was technically available to them.