The Search for Artemis

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

THE TALE OF ARETMIS


It was early morning. The purplish aura of the rising sun covering the sky in mild light, but the warming touch of its rays still lay hidden behind the mountains to the east. A light fog had come in across the lake, covering the valley and the forest in a shallow haze.

Landon and Celia hurried across the dewy grass and made their way through the woods. They sped through the trees. Landon knew the way without question. Even though there was no marked path, he knew which tree or rock designated the next step in the journey to the sanctuary hidden in the mountains.

Soon they were standing before the rock wall of the northern mountains. Landon stood silently for a moment, rethinking his decision to bring Celia there. It was the safest place Landon knew of, but it was also Dr. Brighton’s secret hideaway. His teacher had trusted him to keep it secret, but it was the only place he could think of that would be safe from prying eyes and inquisitive ears. Unfortunately, Artemis’ tale was too important and there was nowhere else to hear it.

Without waiting another moment, Landon raised his arm, gripped the boulder with his abilities and with a motion of his hand, rolled the stone aside, revealing the entrance into the tranquil paradise that was Dr. Brighton’s Secret Garden.

Landon led Celia to the arbor where he and Dr. Brighton had spent so many Saturdays training. The garden was in a state of utmost splendor. The cherry trees were in full bloom; their branches filled with a resplendent number of delicate pinkish-white blossoms. With every passing breeze, the trees would sway just enough to loosen a few of the blossoms, causing them to break free and coat the ground with little specks of their beauty.

The other trees and shrubs that were so meticulously planted in Dr. Brighton’s Japanese garden were lush and green, bursting with new growth. The creek filled the air with its soothing din as it washed over rocks and fell over tiny waterfalls. The intoxicating aroma of the living garden wafted into their noses as they sped into the sanctuary.

They hurried down the paths and over the bridges, passing the pond filled with colorful koi fish that swam under flowering water lilies, but they did pause for a moment by the pagoda to see if there was any sign of Dr. Brighton inside.

Satisfied he had actually decided to sleep in the Gymnasium, they continued to the arbor and settled there.

“God, this place is wonderful,” Celia said in admiration as she looked around the garden. “Your ability to block me from your thoughts has definitely improved. I had no idea this place existed.” Celia completed her rotation and finished taking in her surroundings. Her demeanor then changed the instant her eyes reconnected with Landon. He was standing rigidly on the stone floor, looking pointedly at her.

“Celia, what’s going on?” Landon asked.

“Hmm, I don’t even know where to start.” Celia lowered her head and stepped closer and closer to Landon, biding her time while she tried to figure out the best way to frame everything. “For starters, yes, I am Artemis and the reason you saw me last night is that I work for Metis Labs.”

Landon’s eyes widened, which forced Celia to continue, “But it’s not what you think. The Gymnasium’s been lying to you since the beginning. You weren’t brought here to become a better person, or to help the United States like they told you. The Gymnasium exists for one reason and one reason alone—to turn you into a weapon they can use.”

“Celia, you aren’t making any sense,” Landon interjected. How could the Gymnasium—his home—be bad? “What are you talking about? Why would you do this?”

“How do I explain this?” Celia turned her head away for a moment while she thought. “Landon, have you heard of a synaptic sync?”

“No.” Landon was so confused. Is this just another thing they haven’t gotten to yet in my Pantheon training?

“Well, I’ve been given clearance to show you what I know—to make you understand. But I think the only way I’m going to be able to make you see is if you see my memories. I want to show you how all of this started.”

Celia grabbed Landon by the wrist and pulled him to the ground as she lowered herself into a seated position. Looking at her perplexedly, Landon followed along and joined her on the stone floor of the arbor. As he sat across from her, he couldn’t understand what she was talking about or how she was going to make him understand why she was working for Metis Labs.

“Take my hands,” Celia ordered as she extended her hands forward, palms upward, and waited for Landon to grab hold of them. “I’m going to start from the beginning.”

Landon cautiously placed his hands in hers. He wanted to understand. The moment his fingers touched her skin, Landon felt a tugging sensation coming upward from the base of his spine, and then saw flashes of white light until he was somewhere completely different.

Looking around, Landon realized he was in some small town’s police station. He sat in a chair beside an officer’s desk, watching as men with badges and guns clipped to their belts walked around the precinct with purpose. Two men, one in a crisp, black suit and the other in slacks and a blue oxford, were in a heated discussion down the hall, and one of them kept shooting Landon a quick glance.

Their voices could be heard from where he sat, but they were too muddled with the rest of the commotion going on around him for Landon to understand what they were saying. After a few more seconds of this, the man in the black suit turned away from the guy he was talking to and started down the hall toward him.

When I was seven, my parents were murdered. Celia’s voice resounded in Landon’s mind. Something like this had happened to him before with Dr. Pullman. He was somehow experiencing Celia’s memories, trapped in her mind, listening to her narrate her own life’s story. I wasn’t lying about that, but on that day, as I was sitting in a police station, a man in a black suit came and spoke to me. He said he was there to take me to where I belonged. Where he took me was a place similar to the Gymnasium. It’s called the Academy.

Landon’s thoughts interrupted. Wait! So there really is another place like the Gymnasium? He couldn’t believe what she was saying. There was another facility like the Gymnasium for psychokinetics.

Yes. But unlike the Gymnasium, the Academy truly does strive to do what they say. A hint of contempt could be heard in her voice as she referred to the Gymnasium. The Academy trains psychokinetics, like us, to control our abilities so that we can help humanity.

When I was brought there, I was a special case. Unlike everyone else, I hadn’t debuted yet. I was only seven. Her bodiless voice spoke emphatically in Landon’s head. But they let me stay anyways, and they raised me from then on. They clothed me, fed me, taught me what I needed to know, and when I was ten, it happened. A stupid boy, Aaron Hopkins, kept pestering me and pestering me. Then one day at lunch he wouldn’t leave me alone, and I finally snapped.

The precinct disappeared from Landon’s mind and a new setting emerged. Landon was now standing in a cafeteria, holding a tray in his hands picked clean of food. The room was much warmer than the Gymnasium’s cafeteria, with rich wooden tables running down it. It had vaulted ceilings, like a cathedral, and large stained glass windows ran down the walls, which ignited the room in bright light.

Standing in front of Landon was a boy of about sixteen. He was tall, freckled and had buzzed red hair. He seemed to be intentionally standing in Landon’s way.

“Aaron, can you please move out of my way?” Celia asked while Landon watched through her eyes. Realizing he was standing in the Academy’s cafeteria, Landon’s heart beat faster for a moment. It was the day of Celia’s apocratusis.

“Uh, I don’t think I can,” Aaron snidely replied.

“Come on, let me by.” Without a say in the matter, Landon moved forward in Celia’s body, but Aaron stepped in front of him, cutting off his path to the exit.

“I think you need to find another way out,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. Aaron towered over Landon. Celia was obviously quite short at this age. “This way’s for psy-kins, not orphans.”

At Aaron’s words, Landon felt her anger surge from within. Looking down, he could see that Celia’s hands clenched the edges of her food tray with such power that her knuckles turned white. Landon could tell that at any second, Celia was going to erupt. Aaron had pushed a serious button.

Then the table to Landon’s right suddenly burst into flames. Luckily there wasn’t anyone sitting at it, because that could have resulted in a serious tragedy. With the flames reflecting in his eyes, Aaron stepped back, and the few remaining students in the cafeteria stared at Landon in fear. As Celia, he was still standing with his tray clasped in front of him. The orange and yellow flames rose high into the air as the wood of the table splintered and cracked under the intense heat. He wanted to run away to safety, but his body was frozen in place. Just like Landon’s apocratusis, Celia was overtaken by her abilities. She had no control over what was happening.

Then the table to Landon’s left caught fire. At this the students in the cafeteria all ran for their lives, leaving Landon alone in the aisle as walls of flame reached up toward the sky.

Anyways, Celia interjected. The memory faded away into nothingness. From then on, I went through training. I did fine in all the subjects they taught—Tactometry, Telekinetics, Thought Reception, the usual—but I also had some abilities they had never seen before.

Rather than full memories, images of Celia’s life flashed through Landon’s mind as a slideshow. Like stills of her life, he watched as she worked tirelessly to perfect her abilities in the training sessions she had at the Academy. Before she began to speak again, an image of her passing through a wall lingered in his mind.

For some reason, I’m able to manipulate things on an atomic level. Celia paused for a moment. I haven’t been able to set things on fire since my debut, she added offhandedly. But that’s the reason I can walk through things.

The scientists at the Academy did all sorts of tests and experiments to try and figure out what was odd about me, but they never could figure out why I was different. The best explanation they came up with, though, was that I am able to excite the atoms that make up an object, as well as those within my own body, to the point where I can pass right through them. There are some issues with denser stuff, but for the most part, I can go through anything.

The images faded away and through white light, Landon found himself sitting in a chair in an office somewhere. With nothing but a glass desk in an expansive room, the place exuded power and strength. Sitting at the desk was a woman in a black skirt suit. She had a powerful demeanor as she sat poised in her high-back chair with her head raised. On her desk was a nameplate with “Ainsley Ross-Harper” etched into the metal.

“Celia, welcome to Metis Labs,” Mrs. Ross-Harper began. Her voice was warmer than Landon expected it would be. “I’ve heard a lot about you and am very pleased to meet you.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Landon could hear the nervous energy in Celia’s voice.

“Please, call me Ainsley,” she replied. “I have a proposal for you Celia, but first I want to ask you a question. How much do you know about the Olympia Corporation?”

Celia looked at Ainsley for an extended moment before replying. “I know that it was founded in 1958, and that you and your husband ran it while you worked on Project Prometheus. I know that they created the Prometheus gene that gives all of us our abilities. And if I am remembering correctly, the Olympia Corporation was disbanded in 1996 after Congress decided the projects were . . . ‘ethically deplorable,’ I think was the term they used in orientation.

“We were told that you and your husband were given amnesty because the projects were initially sanctioned by the government, and after that you decided to create Metis Labs and the Academy.”

“Yes, all of this is true,” Ainsley said. “When Congress presented us with our transgressions, it was the first time I realized what I had done. Ever since, I’ve been using my resources to help mankind and correct the mistakes I made out of blind ambition. That’s why I created Metis Labs and the Academy. . . . I was ashamed, and I needed to make up for the part I’d played. My estranged husband, however, did not feel the same remorse.

“So when the Olympia Corporation was destroyed, he left me, taking his capital, and went off to fund a new venture, the Pallas Corporation. This company was very much like the Olympia Corporation, but with more noble intentions. It was to fund the scientific advancement of the United States and bring technology into a new age.

“On the surface, my husband stayed true to his intentions, but what no one realized was that his scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements were not of his own work. Drake Harper went into league with the CEOs of two other giants of industry and secretly developed the Triumvirate of Titans.”

Ainsley Ross-Harper stood up from her desk and began to pace along the back wall of the office. She sounded strange, as if her conscience was torn between despising and pitying her husband.

“This alliance entered into the business of organized crime, particularly in the trade of intelligence, weapons and blackmail to strong arm governments into carrying out their agenda and instigating conflicts that work to the Triumvirate’s benefit. Before anyone could stop them, they had created a network of influence so strong and tightly woven that there appears to be no destroying them.

“The Pallas Corporation, in particular, deals in the acquisition and study of military secrets, industrial intelligence, scientific developments and technological advances. And their client list is extensive; not only being hired by wealthy citizens and families, but also corporations and governments.

“This is where you come in Celia.” Ainsley placed her arms on the back of her chair and leaned forward, looking at Celia determinedly. “We need your help. The Triumvirate is growing stronger every day, and the United States has asked that we somehow help in dismantling my former husband’s empire.

“You see, like the Academy, Drake Harper has created a facility to train psychokinetics. He calls it the Gymnasium, but through that facility, he’s manipulating teenagers like you to become his personal army of supreme soldiers.

“As far as we know, only the highest operatives of the company know what the Pallas Corporation truly is. They tell everyone else that they are under the employ of the United States government, in the business of acquiring and understanding intelligence from around the world to ensure the continued safety and superiority of the nation. The majority of the students, however, think of the place as nothing more than a school.

Ainsley came around her chair and sat back down at her desk. Clasping her hands and setting them on the tabletop, she continued, “Celia, there is something else I must tell you. . . . something about your—”

The memory randomly faded into black for a moment, but then resurfaced.

“Celia,” Ainsley said as if nothing had happened. “We would like you to go to the Gymnasium, undercover, and help us determine how deep this pit of deceit goes. We also need you to find something—anything—that will show us how to destroy them.” Ainsley’s voice was now impassioned. “We need you to find the chink in their iron-clad armor.”

White light absorbed the memory, and Celia began to speak to him telepathically.

So that’s how it all happened. That day I became Artemis. That day I found a purpose greater than myself. As my apocratusis occurred in the Academy, we were able to stage a false one publicly and wait until the Gymnasium found me. Just like you, they brought me here, and ever since I’ve been working to find a way to take them down, all the while posing as a normal student.

How could this be the truth? Landon thought. What scared him the most was that he saw the logic in her argument. Ainsley Ross-Harper had used almost the identical words that Dr. Brighton had used when Landon was told about the Pantheon and what it did for the country. Was everything a lie? Were they really deceiving everyone? How far down did the deception go? Dr. Brighton can’t know this is going on. No, he couldn’t believe it—he couldn’t allow himself to believe it. The Gymnasium was his home, and the Pantheon members . . . his brothers. No matter what, this was where he belonged.

Unable to see anymore, Landon fought to reject Celia’s hold on his mind. He painfully yanked his consciousness back into his body, straining to sever their connection. Then, with a peculiar feeling in his gut, Landon felt his mind clear of Celia’s memories, and he opened his eyes.

They were still in the Secret Garden, sitting on the cool stone floor of the arbor. Celia had opened her eyes too, and was now looking at Landon with a needy expression. She needed him to understand.

“Landon, what you just saw—it’s the truth!” she said.

“But why?” Landon asked loudly. Landon rose from his feet and began to pace in a small circle. He ran his fingers through his hair as he continued to process everything Celia had showed him. “Celia, why? Why does the Gymnasium have to be the liars? What’s not to say that Metis Labs is the one who’s lying? How can you be sure that they aren’t deceiving you? That everything you know and believe isn’t just half-truths they’ve spun up to trick you rather than the other way around?” Landon questioned.

“Because I know when people are lying,” she said in a calm, resolute tone as she stood up and walked toward Landon. “It’s for the same reason I can pass through things. When someone lies, the atoms in their body act differently than when they’re telling the truth. It’s like wavelengths. Tell the truth, your signal is flat.” Celia went over to Landon to make sure he was paying attention, and put her hand up for him to see. She then drew an imaginary straight line in the air with her pointer finger. “But if you lie—” Celia retraced that same line but started to erratically move her hand up and down as she drew it through the air, forming what Landon imagined would resemble the spikes of a Richter scale readout during a massive earthquake “—not so flat, huh? . . . I can feel that.”

“This is all insane!” Landon blurted out, turning from Celia in an attempt to get a moment to think. “You’re insane!”

“Landon, please.” Celia’s voice resounded through Landon’s head as she spoke to him telepathically. When he turned and looked at her, her expression was one of desperation. She needed him to understand. “You have to believe me. Since I’ve come here, I’ve only been able to do so much.

“That night when you found me in the Library—that was my first real mission inside.” Celia continued to speak, even though Landon didn’t seem to be paying complete attention to her. “I was told that they had started a new project, one that, like Project Prometheus, was going to change everything. I needed to get the files and get them out of the Pallas Corporation’s hands before they got too far.

“Landon, do you know what that project was called? You already know it, as it’s what I was trying to stop you from getting last night. It’s Project Herakles.”

Landon twitched with surprise at hearing the reference to his mission from last night. He still was trying to work through what he believed in his mind, but with every word Celia’s arguments became more and more convincing.

“And your mission,” Celia continued. “It wasn’t to stop Metis Labs from selling the project’s results. It was to regain the research I stole in the first place so they could continue their work. I don’t know what the project is even about, but if they would go through that much trouble to get it back, then it must be important.

“And that’s only the beginning, Landon. In the past year, I’ve learned that they will do anything to get what they want. They’ll steal, kill, and torture. . . . Those people you call teammates have done horrible things.”

Dr. Pullman, Landon thought. The image of the dying doctor in the medical wing seemed to randomly surface in Landon’s mind.

“You know about Dr. Pullman?” Celia asked quizzically. Through their strange connection, she felt Landon’s mind shift to him after she mentioned torture. How had he kept that information hidden from her for that long? “Well, what you probably don’t know is that Dr. Pullman was just an old scientist, and that they abducted him while he was walking in the park with his granddaughter.”

“And what do you expect me to do with all of this?” Landon asked abruptly. His mind couldn’t take any more. His mind saw sense in Celia’s words, but his heart was tied to the Gymnasium and his mission for redemption. What was he going to do?

“Help me, Landon,” she said earnestly as she looked Landon dead in the eyes. “Join me. Become a double agent. You’re a member of the Pantheon. You have access to places I don’t even know about. You can be my eyes and ears and help me find a way to destroy this place.”

“You’re asking me to betray my team! Dr. Brighton! How do I know any of this is the truth in the first place?” Landon was fighting with himself. “I don’t have your abilities. I can’t tell who’s lying and who’s not.”

“Then maybe this will convince you.”

Without warning, Celia reached out her hand and touched Landon’s face. Instantly, Landon felt the same strange pull from the base of his spine and white light flashed through his brain. Before he knew it, he was standing in a different place.

It was an empty street lined with small boutiques and shops. Snow had coated the thatched roofs of the small buildings and was piled up along the cleared streets. Christmas decorations were displayed in the shop windows, portraying festive scenes for the upcoming holiday. It was the middle of the night; the street lamps that lined the sidewalk cast an orange glow on the wintery scene.

Passing a window, Landon saw his reflection in the glass. He was a little girl wearing a purple, down winter coat. He had long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and olive skin. He was Celia. Looking to his left, he saw a man in a grey trench coat towering above him. In his hands he was carrying a few shopping bags. Next to him was a woman with blonde hair. She was shorter than the man and pear-shaped. She was wearing a black pea coat and was also carrying a few bags at her sides.

Without control of his body, Landon stopped at the window of a toy store. His eyes were fixed on a doll that stood on display. She had brown hair that fell around her face in tiny curls. Her eyes were bright blue, and she had long eyelashes and rosy cheeks. In a festive red and green plaid dress, she was the heart’s desire of every little girl in the town.

As he stood there staring at her, his fingers pressed against the window, the sound of three loud bangs rang through the empty street. Scared by the sudden loud noise, Landon let out a high-pitched scream and turned to see what had caused it.

What he saw was the man and woman lying on the sidewalk about ten yards from where he stood. A crimson pool spread out from under their motionless bodies, staining the white, powdery snow.

Standing over them both was a man in a dark hooded sweatshirt and jeans. He slid something large into his pocket before stepping over the man’s body and walking down the sidewalk toward him. His hood was up, concealing his face, but just as he passed Landon, the man turned and looked down at him. For a split second, Landon saw the man’s face clearly as the lights in the toyshop illuminated it.

The scene then faded to black and Landon found himself standing in the arbor of Dr. Brighton’s Secret Garden once more, looking at Celia as she withdrew her hand from his face.

“They killed my parents, Landon,” she said as tears fell from her eyes and streaked down her cheeks. “In cold blood. And I intend to make them pay for what they’ve done, especially the one who killed them.”

The look in her eyes was pitiful yet frightening at the same time. Landon, on the other hand, was frozen in a state of shock from what he had just discovered.

It couldn’t be. It was impossible. He could never do that. The hooded shooter had the same brown, wavy hair, the same strong jaw and the same green eyes. It was unmistakable. Dr. Brighton murdered Celia’s parents.

In seeing that memory, Landon’s world crashed in around him. Even with Celia’s memories and explanations about what caused her to become Artemis, it wasn’t enough to completely convince him that he wasn’t on the right side. Her evidence was circumstantial at best—no hard proof. He hadn’t been convinced that he was the one who had been lied to, but for some reason, in seeing Dr. Brighton on that street after killing Celia’s helpless parents, a light went off in his head.

By showing him that memory, Celia had expressed the dire nature of her situation. It’s hard to lie when the truth is the only way to keep you alive. He believed her. If Dr. Brighton was capable of murder, then everything else she showed him had to be true. The Pallas Corporation was evil, the Pantheon was a lie and the Gymnasium was nothing more than a clever ruse. They had to be stopped. There was only one thing to do.

“I’m in,” Landon said. “What do you need me to do?”

• • • • •

On the penthouse floor of an eighty-six-story high-rise in the middle of Boston’s city center, Dr. Wells stood outside the doors of an office, waiting to be granted an audience with the man inside.

In his hand he carried a pale blue file folder with an owl holding a branch embossed into the cover and “Project Herakles - Top Secret” was printed on it. He had taken off the moment the Pantheon had returned with the research and flown through the night to report.

When the large walnut doors opened, Dr. Wells headed inside. The office was an ode to minimalist design with only a small seating area composed of a collection of sleek Scandinavian furniture and a long streamlined desk. The floors were a dark hardwood and floor-to-ceiling windows lined the back wall.

Standing at one of the windows was a muscular man in a grey European suit. The white in his salt-and-pepper hair shined as the morning sun rose in the distance. He casually carried a crystal, lowball tumbler filled with a deep amber liquid in his hand as he looked pensively on the bustling city below.

“Good morning, Dr. Wells,” the man said in a strong, deep voice. He turned from the window and walked to his desk.

“Good morning to you, Mr. Harper,” Dr. Wells replied. Before continuing, he stood awkwardly on the hardwood, waiting for Drake Harper to sit in his chair and give a signal for him to commence with his report. “We were able to retrieve all the stolen materials for Project Herakles.” Dr. Wells handed Mr. Harper the file he held in his hands. “Samples and all. But there was another breach. Our operatives were ambushed when they entered the compound. They knew we were coming.”

“Who knew of the operation?” Mr. Harper asked.

“Just Verne, myself and the operatives,” he replied. “Given the recent incidents and the sensitivity of this project, I thought it wise to only involve the pertinent parties.”

“Yet still they know of our approach.” Mr. Harper drew a long draft of the amber liquid from his crystal glass. “It would appear, Dr. Wells, that we have a mole in the organization.”

“Yes, it would appear so.” Dr. Wells spoke with trepidation.

“Any idea who it might be?”

“Not at this time. But I’ve already alerted our best Sentry and we should know who the traitor is shortly.”

“Very good, Harold.” Drake Harper rose from his chair and strutted back to the window. As he walked along his desk, he slid the project file across the wood with his hand before picking it up. “And what of the Wicker boy? Have you gotten any closer to determining his limits? We need to know what kind of results we can expect if we are to proceed with Project Herakles.”

“Landon has greatly improved since beginning the Pantheon training regimen, but we have yet to adequately gauge the limits of his anomalous strength.”

“We need to push him harder, Harold. We must understand the full extent of his abilities if we are to replicate them.” Mr. Harper began to pace along the window, sliding the file folder delicately between his fingers.

“And what of his parents?” Dr. Wells asked. “Have we seen any results from them?”

“No. The mother proved to be very uncooperative, so we’ve had to sedate her while the scientists work.”



END OF BOOK ONE



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

If you asked me two years ago, I could never have dreamed of coming to this place, and looking back I know it would have been impossible were it not for the love and support of my friends and family and the business acumen of my colleagues. I especially have to acknowledge my parents and siblings, who support me no matter what endeavor I decide to pursue; my friend, Katie Benson, who has been my soundboard and confidant; my friend Jeffrey Mulcock, who’s talked me off many a ledge and has supported me wholeheartedly; Maurice Becnel, who I am sure is tired of hearing about this book; Alex Walford, who encouraged my writing; and Bonnie Garcia, who always knows what to say to cheer me up and seems to expect greatness from me even when I don’t. I also have to thank Pam Langsam, author of the Vegas Dazzle series, who has helped me navigate this crazy world of publishing; and Collin Earl and Chris Snelgrove, authors of the Harmonics series, who have been irreplaceable as I worked through the technical and legal aspects of publishing. Finally, a special thanks to Michael Webber, my illustrator; my early readers, Jessica Turon and Liz Wortley; and to everyone else who has supported me in the process.