The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,107

took a long, labored gulp. This wasn’t the first time Parker had chimed in with something that sent a chill down his spine. For some reason, she always seemed to point out the most terrifying possibilities or surprise them with information on a subject you wouldn’t suspect someone to know off the top of their head. Like when Jeremiah Crane wonderingly asked the team how long it takes for a cyanide capsule to kill someone if ingested, she replied matter-of-factly, “2.42 minutes on average, but you’ll pass out after about 10 seconds.”

A bell sounded.

“All right team, let’s get moving,” Brock said.

It had taken a while to get used to, but Landon learned quickly that Brock truly was Dr. Brighton’s second-in-command. With Dr. Brighton sitting on the sidelines for this exercise, Landon understood he’d have to take Brock’s orders. He still had a bit of difficulty accepting them, but Landon did his best to try and remain professional with his roommate when it came to the Pantheon, even if they were nowhere closer to reconciling their differences outside of the Palaestra. Landon gave a sarcastic Whatever you say, boss look that made Cortland smile before they followed the team into the course.

The series of doors ended up being a simpler obstacle to surmount than Landon had thought. Peregrine informed them that she could sense the on/off switch hidden behind a panel just past the final door. Brock then only had to look at Parker for her to understand what she needed to do. Even with her oddities, Parker was by far the fastest, stealthiest and most agile member of the team. She navigated the obstacle with ease, effortlessly mastering the doors’ timing and reaching the switch at the end. As the team rejoined her, passing safely through the passageway, they found her leaning against the wall as if what she’d done was just trivial.

The Crane twins, known for their destructive capabilities, were asked to dismantle a series of walls to allow the team to move ahead. The labyrinthine course then led them to a sealed door. It was constructed of thick steel and reinforced with high-grade titanium rods. Brock and Landon both attempted to pull it down, unsuccessfully. That’s when Parker noticed a small triangular slot to the right of the door.

As the leader, Brock was the first to look at what they were dealing with, but after he moved away each of the other Pantheon members came forward and assessed the new obstacle. What Landon saw when he got up close was a triangular prism with a set of motion-sensor lasers reflecting off the three sides, creating an impossible web of interwoven beams of light, and a singular small hole located deep within the wall. Figuring it would result in the door unlocking, the team consensus was that they’d need to somehow get a small object to pass through the lasers without touching any of them and then have that object pass through the hole.

As Landon discussed the problem with his teammates, he imagined they would never encounter such exaggerated obstacles in the field. There was no way a facility would use such ridiculous technology as a lock, but even still, he understood the point. Brock put Cortland to the task.

Without a hint of self-doubt, Cortland moved toward the prism lock as he pulled a small case out of his pocket. It was his lock picking set, and he unzipped it and grabbed a vial of metal ball bearings. Why someone had ball bearings in their lock picking set, Landon had no idea, but this wasn’t the time to question it.

Once he’d removed the bright orange stopper from the top and extracted a single ball bearing from the vial, Cortland put the set back in his pocket and stepped up to the lock. Landon held his breath the entire time Cortland worked to maneuver a small ball bearing through the series of interlaced lasers. It was only a simulation, but if they triggered the alarm, they would have failed the exercise, and Landon didn’t want to know what the punishment would be for that.

After what seemed like an hour, Cortland stepped back from the door and everyone could hear a series of metal clinks within the wall as the ball bearing passed through the tube and performed some internal function. Following a final plink, the titanium rods sonorously released and the steel door cracked open.

Making quick work of the course, the team moved through the corridor and continued on to