The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,106
Pantheon operative at one time? She was older than Landon or any of his other active teammates—save Dr. Brighton—and he knew that she had access to the Olympic Tower. She also fit the Artemis profile. She was frightening in a twisted, subtle way—the type of person who appears kind and sweet until one crosses them and then, beware.
It seemed possible, but Landon had no proof. He needed to figure out a way to confirm that Sofia was the woman he was looking for before he approached her for answers. If he was wrong, the consequences could be disastrous. Dr. Brighton was the first person who came to Landon’s mind to ask. Dr. Brighton and Sofia seemed so connected when he’d watched them playing chess in the Secret Garden. Maybe that familiarity was the result of their years as fellow operatives, but Landon soon remembered how Dr. Brighton had reacted when he found out Landon was researching Artemis. He wouldn’t of reacted that way if it was just Sofia, he thought.
Dr. Wells also seemed like a viable choice, but after seeing the memories of Dr. Pullman, Landon couldn’t even hold back his disgust for the man. In those final days as he lay in his bed, Landon came to the realization that he could never again live comfortably interacting with the resident gymnasiarch. Dr. Wells had lied to him and probably every other student at the Gymnasium about the origins of their abilities. Landon knew he’d never be able to trust a word the man said again, and without trust, there can be no respect.
When he was discharged, Landon had marked out every possible person on his proverbial list. Landon had contemplated asking his other training instructors, Professor Tzu or Professor Clemens, but he was not close enough to them to feel comfortable asking them about such a volatile subject. He weighed the possibility of asking his academic tutor, but Landon had a hard time believing she even knew what the Pantheon was. He even thought about the scientists, like Dr. Márquez, but Landon couldn’t imagine that going well.
Feeling a bit defeated and putting his faith in the hope that the opportunity to ask whether Sofia was Artemis would miraculously present itself, Landon turned away from his mission and focused on his training. For the next two weeks, he poured himself into his physical training and worked on developing his abilities. It helped that the Pantheon regiment was becoming more strategic and tactical and less fitness based, which made Landon feel like he was becoming a real member of the team rather than a newbie in training.
Case in point, that Saturday when Landon went to the Palaestra for another session of team training, the room had been arranged into a tactical simulation course littered with booby traps and dangerous obstacles intended to test their teamwork and reflexes. To succeed, they needed to rely on each other’s unique skill sets and a collective high level of physical fitness.
Dr. Brighton elected to sit out of the exercise, believing the team would learn a more valuable lesson if he was not giving the orders. Landon was relieved. Ever since the incident with Dr. Pullman, he somewhat avoided Dr. Brighton. The memories he’d seen in Dr. Pullman’s head had given rise to some groundbreaking revelations. Could Dr. Brighton be the son of Dr. Wells? He was the right age in the memory, but if that was the case, why hadn’t Dr. Brighton told him earlier? Also, why hadn’t he told Landon that he was once Apollo? It was hard for Landon to not have these thoughts roaming around his head constantly. And to strain the relationship further, Landon was terrified he might slip up and mention Artemis by accident.
With every passing day, Landon grew more and more leery of the faculty and staff at the Gymnasium. If Dr. Wells lied to his face about how he’d become a psychokinetic, then he had to accept the possibility that Dr. Brighton, or anyone else for that matter, could have lied to him about any number of things.
Waiting for Dr. Brighton to signal the start of the tactical simulation, the team gathered at the starting line. Landon stood anxiously beside Cortland.
“Is this thing dangerous?” Landon asked after seeing the series of rapidly opening and closing doors that had been activated in front of them.
“No, not really. This thing is meant to test us, not kill us. Don’t worry, what’s the worst that could happen?”