The Pyramid Chronicles: Fortuna Guard (#2)

Chapter Thirty-Three: Ghosts

Soldiers streamed past Ash, headed for the lower levels. He watched them from the doorway to his bedroom with no idea what the hell was going on.

As the last unit passed by, Claudia entered the hallway. Other altered were stepping out of their rooms, too, searching for answers behind the chaos.

"We're under attack," Claudia announced.

"Under attack?" Seth asked skeptically. "From who?"

"The Fortuna Guard."

Seth laughed. "We can take them."

"Don't underestimate them. Their numbers have grown. And they wouldn't have made a move if they didn't think they had a chance." Claudia swept her gaze over the altered. "Your job, for now, is to stop them from getting to the upper levels. Don't stop fighting, unless you hear evacuation orders."

Ash frowned. "Why would we evacuate?"

"They want to destroy our organization. You think they'd leave the building standing?"

Ash's heart skipped a beat. Would they? The Fortuna Guard didn't think like Claudia did. They weren't as ambitious, weren't as determined to get the job done at all costs.

But if they really believed Scorpion needed to be destroyed, maybe they would resort to drastic measures.

Ash joined the altered in following the soldiers down to the lower levels. As his foot hit the last step between him and the third floor, Claudia appeared in front of him. He came to an abrupt halt and stared. This couldn't be Claudia—the woman in front of him was too young.

But it was her.

I'm hallucinating again, he thought.

Again?

"Hey moron, you're in my way."

Ash turned his head and found Seth staring at him. Altered slipped around them and spread into the hallway ahead. Ash's gaze flickered back to Claudia, but it wasn't Claudia anymore. It was a soldier, holding a gun. An older model. One of the ones that went rogue at the lab they abandoned.

A man's voice echoed in his head, taking him by surprise. Grab Ash Montgomery's file. I'll take care of the report.

Seth sighed and shoved past Ash. "Have fun getting trampled, weirdo."

Ash forced himself into motion. He could already hear the sounds of fighting in the distance. How had the Fortuna Guard gotten in from the ground?

Something moved in the corner of his vision. A small girl with brown skin and straight black hair weaved through the crowd, darting past Seth and racing around the corner up ahead.

Ash caught up to Seth and grabbed his arm. "How did she get in here?"

"What?" Seth yelped. He made a halfhearted attempt to yank his arm free.

"My sister! She just ran by!"

Seth looked uncomfortable. A rare sight. "Uh, your sister? Didn't she...die?"

Right. That was right. "Seth, do you ever see things that aren't supposed to be there?" Ash asked.

"I—" Seth tried to pull his arm free again.

"And it feels like you're forgetting something important."

Seth stopped struggling. "Not until this morning."

"What happened this morning?" Ash let go of his arm.

"I thought I saw Wren. Being dragged off by soldiers." Seth hesitated. "But she ran away, so I don't know why—"

"Whoa, what?" Ash cut him off. "Wren didn't run away."

"But Claudia told me—"

"You saw her at the warehouse—"

Neither of them got to finish. An arc of lightning lit up the hallway, and as Ash turned to find the source, a rock collided with his shoulder and knocked him onto his back.

~

Raveena had already been considering breaking away from the others to sneak inside and find her brother. If her team got called in for backup, it shouldn't have been too difficult to slip away. But it would be harder to escape their notice if they stayed by the choppers.

Then they heard the clicking sound.

Raveena scanned the trees around the clearing, searching for the source and trying to convince herself that the chill running down her spine was completely irrational.

"Team four," Summer said over the comms. "Come toward the building. If that clicking sound gets any louder, we're all going in."

Or not.

When Raveena and the rest of her team arrived, Summer, Eric, Veronica, and Sam were standing by a hole in the side of the building.

"Wait right inside while we go in," Summer instructed. "Wait to return the choppers until the signal that the bomb is ready. Unless we call you in for backup."

"Does this have to do with that clicking sound?" Raveena asked.

"Yeah." Summer exchanged a glance with Eric. "If it gets any closer, move away from it, even if you have to go farther into the building."

"What is it?"

"We don't have time to explain right now." Summer grabbed her metal baseball bat from where it had been leaning against the building.

Well, it looked like they were going inside. Hopefully, this would make it easier for Raveena to go off on her own. But she had no idea what would happen when she found the boy she was looking for. She'd had a chance to confront him back at Tyche Point, and she hadn't been able to bring herself to do it.

She had a lot of questions, and she wasn't sure she could stop herself from being angry.

It's not his fault, she reminded herself. It's Claudia's.

But Raveena had managed to fight against Claudia's brainwashing. How could Ash possibly forget that he'd seen Claudia shoot his own sister?