The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,126

and the hallway looked pristine, showing no sign of anything that had transpired on the forty-seventh floor. Landon was nervous of what Cortland thought when he saw Artemis was missing. Be cool, Landon told himself. Act natural.

They moved swiftly but cautiously back toward the inner balcony, around the circle, and into a separate hall, only stopping once they reached the west elevators. The entire time Landon could still hear gunfire echoing up the inner shaft of the building from below, but the sound of each shot was far less frequent than before. The trademark chime of the elevator sounded, signaling its arrival. The doors parted. Landon sighed with relief when he saw it was empty. Cortland and Landon hurried inside.

“Sorry, man. I can’t handle going down the way we came up.” Cortland pressed the button for the lobby, and the doors closed.

The elevator hummed as Landon and Cortland silently watched the numbers count down to the bottom floor. Then when the display read “1,” the same high-pitched chime rang through the elevator, and the doors slowly parted opened.

The overpowering stench of vanilla from the Morphium-12 serum slammed into Landon’s face, forcing his head back as if he had been punched. The Pantheon had congregated in the inner circle of the lobby near the desk.

“Did you get what we came for?” Dr. Brighton asked after telekinetically pushing what seemed to be the last of the security agents into a marble wall, knocking him unconscious.

“Objective complete,” Cortland answered, and Landon held up the file folder as a visual confirmation.

“Then it’s high time we got out of here.” Dr. Brighton turned and started moving toward the glass doors they had entered through. “Ares and Pollux, grab Castor. We’re leaving!”

Landon moved as fast as he could toward the exit, but it was difficult since the floor was covered with the bodies of an ungodly number of security agents. What once was a smooth white marble floor was now a lumpy mass of black blobs. The bodies were so closely packed that it was impossible to discern where one person ended and another begin. How could they have defeated them all?

Stepping over bodies and navigating the few open spaces of floor, Landon soon made it to the doorway and watched as Parker and Dr. Brighton made their way toward him. Brock and Jeremiah hoisted Joshua Crane off the ground and carried him, each putting one of Joshua’s arms over their shoulder to hold him up. Even from where he was standing, Landon could see the metallic dart sticking out of Joshua’s neck.

Once they had all regrouped at the exit, the team moved as quickly as possible out of the compound and into the woods. Although the entire security force of Metis Labs laid unconscious inside, the team stuck to their training and moved through the shadows.

They found Peregrine just outside the gates, easily visible at the tree line with her platinum blonde hair shining in the moonlight.

“What happened in there?” she asked, her head darting from one person to the other as she searched for a response.

“Not now,” Dr. Brighton said with authority as he walked straight past Peregrine. “Right now we need to get back to the Alpha Chariot.”

Walking deeper and deeper into the woods, Dr. Brighton never stopped moving and expected the team to follow. The return trip to the Alpha Chariot was much slower than the initial run. For some reason, the two miles from the gate to the clearing was riddled with many more obstacles, from denser woods to steeper changes in elevation, and having to lug Joshua along didn’t help. Throughout the journey, the team took turns carrying him in order to keep the fastest pace possible. Landon was skipped over, being told that the protection of the file was his sole responsibility.

It took them just under an hour before they made it to the clearing. The Alpha Chariot looking just as they had left it. Dr. Brighton lowered the hatch and the team quickly rushed on board. Cortland and Parker set Joshua into his chair as delicately as possible and engaged his in-flight harness. His head lay awkwardly to the side as he sat in his drug-induced slumber.

Before long, everyone was fastened into their seats and Dr. Brighton was piloting the Alpha Chariot back to the Gymnasium. On the way back, Cortland told Peregrine all he knew of what happened inside. He spoke of their flight up the center of the tower, of breaking into the lab, and of