The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Fourteen: For Your Information

One by one, the others turned their attention to the Newmans. Eric looked their way, too, but his mind was still racing through the information from Willow's presentation, trying to piece together theories about Scorpion. Had they been the ones to take him when he went missing? And if so, why not keep him? Especially if they wanted him again now?

Charles rose to his feet. "After all that, I suppose it's only fair we tell you everything we know," he said. "I'm a biologist, and Beth's a chemist. We've been working here on the west coast for years, sometimes on the same projects. Our work wound up veering into superhuman territory on occasion, and we made some connections with researchers working for the U.S. government.

"A few years ago, we were both given positions on a team working to develop a new drug for a blood disorder," he continued. "Unfortunately for us, a team in the same building built a computer chip that became a lucrative target for anyone who learned about it. One of those groups was Scorpion." He glanced at Beth.

Beth sighed. "Charles wasn't in that day, but I was. Scorpion sent a team of twenty soldiers to steal the chip, and anything else valuable they could get their hands on. And to cover their tracks, they decided to bring down the building," she explained. "Before they set the place on fire, I saw who was giving the soldiers their instructions: children. And when security confronted the kids, they used superpowers to defend themselves.

"Most people evacuated when the attack began, but I helped a few others on the team try to save some of our research," Beth said. "I almost made it out okay. But we kept a lot of chemicals that don't exactly do well at high temperatures. One of the explosions happened close to me. Firefighters pulled me out, but I lost the lower half of my right leg."

Beth pulled the bottom of her pant leg up a couple of inches, just enough to reveal the black prosthetic underneath.

"After that, Charles and I tracked down all the information we could on the attackers, who we learned called themselves Scorpion," Beth continued. "We talked to everyone we knew, looked through articles and incident reports, contacted any names that came up. Turns out Scorpion doesn't always burn places down." She folded her arms. "We found other people who'd they'd attacked or robbed and confirmed that they had superpowered kids working for them. But despite all this, we couldn't find anyone who was actively trying to stop them or figure out what they were planning."

Charles nodded. "Then we got a lucky break. A colleague of mine was retiring his research vessel and offered to hand it over to us instead. Some of his old team joined us, too. We've kept the ship docked ever since, and we're using it as our base of operations while we research Scorpion and figure out where the powered kids came from."

"I thought a boat that big was overkill at first," Beth admitted. "But we thought it might be useful if we were able to rescue any kids from Scorpion."

"Rescue?" Eric asked.

"We assumed Scorpion had taken them from somewhere," Charles said. "Seems we were right."

Eric frowned. "They may have been kidnapped, but they don't seem to care. All the kids I encountered were pretty happy to be working for them."

"Hopefully we can change that," Beth said.

Maybe the Newmans had a point. If the kids working for Scorpion had joined when they were young, they might not fully grasp what they were caught up in. Eric's gaze darted down to his hands, thinking again about how Ash had so easily trapped him with water. That guy probably had no intereste in being 'rescued.'

"A few weeks ago, we caught wind of a jet coming this way," Charles said. "A friend of ours believed it was one of Scorpion's, so we came to investigate."