The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Seventh

A van had been left by the side of the road not far from the Delta Labs parking lot, and more vehicles were scattered around the lot haphazardly. Raveena guessed that all the cars that weren't black with D.C. plates belonged to Scorpion.

The first wave had already arrived.

Once she'd left the streets of Tyche Point and hit open desert road, Raveena had pushed the car she'd stolen to its maximum speed. Now, sitting on top of the hill, she could see more cars leaving town in the distance. Coming toward the lab. That had to be the second wave that Wren was leading.

Raveena took the car the rest of the way to the parking lot, stopped as close to the building as she could get, and jumped out. She ran as fast as she could into the lobby but came to an abrupt halt when she reached the stairs to the sublevels.

Who all was down there? SCI agents? Scorpion soldiers? Ash and the other altered? How many of them could she count on not to kill her? Scorpion would undoubtedly take her prisoner if they caught her, but what would SCI do? And what would happen if she ran into—?

She shook her head. She'd come this far. And she had nothing else left.

Nothing to lose.

The first hall Raveena passed through was eerily quiet. When she turned a corner, she was greeted by the sight of four agents lying on the ground. Scorpion's work, no doubt. She knelt next to one, careful not to touch him. She could see his chest rise and fall, but he was out cold.

The agents around her all probably had concussions. SCI had to have a good medical team, right? Should she heal them herself? Were they good people? Even if she did help them, she was still an intruder. They wouldn't just let her walk around free because she saved them.

Maybe she could help them on the way out instead.

Raveena rose to her feet and kept going, taking random turns and flights of stairs until she finally picked up the sound of distant voices. She recognized them as she grew closer. A minute later, she stood next to the slightly ajar door to a computer lab, listening to Willow and Adam talk on the other side. She pushed the door all the way open.

"This is ridiculous," Willow said. "Their online servers have an absurd level of protection."

"It is a government agency," Adam pointed out.

"Malcolm got in. We should have just made him hand over his USB."

"He said he wouldn't talk unless we release him."

Willow's icy gaze could have frozen the whole room over. "Well, maybe we should make him talk."

Adam's mouth opened. Before he could respond to Willow, Raveena stepped in. Surprise crossed his face. "Raveena! You're—here?"

Raveena looked around the room. "Where are the others?"

"They went ahead to find the fragment."

"Well, we've got about fifteen altered and thirty soldiers to deal with," Raveena told the two. "Some are still on the way, but most have already arrived."

Alarmed, Adam looked at Willow. "We have to go help the others. The online servers aren't important right now."

Willow glared at the computer screen for a long moment before pushing her chair back and standing up. "Fine."

Raveena watched her storm across the room. "Also, I went back to Scorpion, and—"

Willow was already out the door, and apparently didn't hear a word. After throwing an uncertain glance at Raveena, Adam ran after her.

Raveena stared at the empty doorway they'd left through, annoyance briefly flaring in her chest. Now probably wasn't the best time to look for the list of altered, but if the others knew it existed, they could at least keep an eye out for it. Or maybe try to find it after they got the fragment.

Well, Raveena could search for it now. She couldn't fight anyway, and Scorpion had taken care of most of the SCI agents. But even the Director and Claudia had been concerned the list would be difficult to find.

Raveena looked at the computer Willow had left on. In addition to pages of code that Raveena didn't have a hope of understanding, Willow had pulled up camera feeds from around the lab. Raveena sat down. If there was a hard copy of this altered list somewhere, it was probably in a filing cabinet or desk. And with a quick look at all the rooms SCI was monitoring, she could at least narrow down her options.