The Pyramid Chronicles: Tyche Point (#1)

Chapter Eight: Conflict of Interest

The drive to Tyche Labs was quiet. Adam kept throwing glances at Willow in his passenger seat, trying to guess what she was thinking. Her face held no emotion, only concentration as she fiddled with her radio and occasionally tapped keys on her laptop.

Outside the car, the pale desert landscape stretched in every direction, only interrupted by the old road leading them to the lab. As Adam neared the top of a hill, Willow looked up. "Stop here," she ordered.

Adam pulled over to the side of the road. "Why?"

"I've got their exterior cameras." Willow turned her screen so that he could see and pointed to one of the boxes. "That's the other side of the hill. Once we hit the top, they'll see us."

"So, how do we get in?" Adam asked.

"I'm going to blind them," Willow replied. "But we want to avoid tipping them off for as long as possible, so I'll swap the live feed for a loop."

"Can you figure out where Eric is?"

"If he's in there, then maybe. But we have to get closer." Willow frowned and leaned forward. "I'm having a hard time getting a lock on any signals below the surface. There's some kind of interference."

Adam drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. Minutes passed, each more agonizing than the last.

Willow finally straightened up. "All right, drive over the hill. Once we get to the parking lot, I'll try accessing their interior cameras and communication signals."

Adam drove forward. The car reached the crest of the hill, and Delta Labs came into view.

"Wow," Adam muttered. He knew there'd been an accident, but it was still a strange sight. The road they were on continued down a slope and into the crater that housed the building. Cars sat in the parking lot. Some were nothing but rusted frames, while others were sleek black cars. With D.C. plates.

Adam's grip on the wheel tightened.

The damage around them made Adam nervous, even though the lab accident had been so long ago. He couldn't help feeling a little worried on behalf of his car. The old red sedan wasn't in great condition, but he wanted to avoid adding any more dents.

As soon as he'd put the vehicle in park, Willow was throwing her door open. Adam jumped out of his side. Willow climbed onto the hood of his car and held the radio up in the air. Apparently unsatisfied, she moved up to the roof.

"Hey, be careful!" Adam exclaimed.

"Your car's fine." Willow turned around and tried pointing the radio's antenna in a different direction.

"I meant you."

"Oh." Willow paused. After a few seconds, she asked, "Could you hand me my bag?"

Adam grabbed the backpack from where she'd left it sitting on the passenger seat and held it up to her. She reached into it to pull out her laptop, opened it, and held it up with one hand to study the screen.

"Their lower cameras are impossible with the time we have." Willow set her laptop down and slid off the car. "But I've got a few upper-level ones. Go ahead and take a look. I'm going to try to get into their comms."

Adam studied the screen while Willow worked with the radio. The cameras all showed white hallways, and while they were mostly empty, a few boxes showed people walking through. The people all wore either plain black suits or black lab coats.

"Here, listen to this." Willow turned up the volume on the radio and set it on the car's hood.

"—tell HQ we need more agents to replace the ones we had to transfer out," a man said. He sounded upset.