Power Hunt (ArcMed Book 1) (ArcOn 3)

by Erinn Price

  “It is a clean wound. Bullet went in and out, flesh only and no poison.” Matthew thought.

  “The guy following?” I asked, worried he was about to reach us.

  “He left, and the others are still on the first floor, making their way here. We have about three minutes.” He did not say anything but we both wondered why the man had broken off and retreated.

  “Let’s go, the weasel found a wooden table. Chances are, it is what we are looking for.” I thought to Matthew and then added, “What then? How do we get out?”

  “Richard has teams on the way. We just need to hold out till they get here. I activated the beacon.” Matthew said and then indicated the emergency beacon, I had not even seen him take it out, let alone activate it.

  Matthew helped me up and we continued on our way. Already the pain was gone, and my leg was feeling a lot better. I had my nanos block the pain, to enable me to think and function normally, without being distracted.

  “We can hunker down, in that room. It has one entrance and cover.” Matthew said, and I saw what he meant. The table was within a room, within a larger room. The table was towards the entrance to the room and then behind it was a raised platform with a solid looking block on it. It looked like an altar, as it had nothing on it. It looked just like a large solid, smooth block of stone.

  The outer room was ornate, with columns and once again had statues of Anubis against the walls. They gave me an idea, if I was nervous of them, it was likely some others might be as well. I had jokingly thought to myself that it would be fun to reform one using my nanos and to scare Matthew, but I had refrained. Now though, that is exactly what I planned to do. Not frighten Matthew but those hunting us. My weasels moved to the statues and I sent some of my normal nanos to join them. I had a plan to link one or two normal statues with INSL ones. The normal ones would be less effective, but they should still be able to fight. That would give us six to nine statues fighting, anyone they killed or hurt, was one less rushing Matthew and me.

  The moment we entered the inner room, I felt my necklace heat up and movement. “We are in the right place.” I thought to Matthew. Now we just needed to hunker down and wait for Richard’s people.

  My nanos were busy infecting the statues of Anubis, I was not planning on changing their form, so it was going quicker. I also found that my control and speed had increased, I did not know why, but it might have to be with me pushing myself, during the rescue of my parents.

  We both moved behind the stone block and crouched behind it. “Sounds like twenty at least, I cannot get an exact number, their footsteps echo off the walls and floor.” Matthew thought to me.

  I could hear nothing, but then I did not have Matthew’s heightened senses. I could have sent scouts out, but I felt it more important to keep what I could, to help protect us. I thickened Matthew’s and my suits. The ease with which the bullet had penetrated through my suit, still worried me. I would have to think about it and figure out how they had done it, when I had time.

  Suddenly the stone table we were hiding behind, began to hum and it seemed to get brighter. “What the hell? What now?” Matthew thought to me. Even with the unusual occurrence, Matthew had not spoken. If not for freezing in surprise, I likely would have spoken out loudly.

  “System Activating. Five minutes till powered up.” We heard from the device before us. The fact it was humming, lighting up and talking, made it obvious it was not just a stone block. I swallowed loudly, as the strangeness and unknown got to me.

  “Incoming.” Matthew said, and I linked to the statues I had reconfigured. Two INSL statues were done and four NNDs. As people filed into the room, I moved the statues to meet them. Each main statue had two statues following it.

  “Nice.” Was all that Matthew said, as he saw the statues come to life. The reaction from those hunting us was less complimentary. They opened fire on the statues, and although they did damage, it was not nearly enough yet, to stop my statues from advancing. They did not move slowly or in a jerky motion, but ran smoothly, closing in on the men quickly. The nanos had reinforced the statues, making them faster. They fell onto the first small group, using their spears. Soon there were four dead people and the statues stood poised, spears raised, waiting for the next group to enter. The following group was more careful and covered each other, they did not let their surprise cause them to become easy prey. I could hear them talking to each other and likely to those still to join our party. There were eight of them and they moved as a group, covering each other and staying out of range of the spears. The statues could not just charge in and wait to be killed, they had to look for opportunities. One of the normal NND statues got destroyed in a hail of bullets, this group was focusing their fire. My third INSL statue was ready and it also had two NND statues with it. I also began to make another NND statue, to replace the one lost. With the number of statues in this room, it would take the men a while to kill them all. I saw one of the men fall and looked to Matthew. He had shot the man, the moment he had a clear shot. He was looking through the eyes of the INSL statues and waiting for targets. Meanwhile, one of the statues had killed another man, by throwing his spear. Like the men, the statues were using the columns and items in the outer room for cover. I knew eventually the men would win, there were just too many of them, but this did buy us time. It also gave Matthew the opportunity to lower their numbers, without us being in immediate danger or having to waste bullets. He could wait for his shots.

  “System Activated, analysing.” I noticed that the voice got no reaction from the men in the outer room. They must not be hearing it, or else they would definitely have at least mentioned it.

  I kept watch on the statues and replaced them as needed. Although I could not control very many at a time, I had begun to prepare the statues beforehand, by having them converted before needed. As soon as a statue went down, it was replaced. There were now more than twenty people in the outer room fighting. The fighting continued, whittling down my available statues, but our side had also killed at least ten of them.

  “Security breach noticed. Security cleansing protocol activated.”

  I noticed that the stone block was now pure white and as I glanced over the top, I saw that now there were pictures on the surface of the block. They showed the rooms of the underground temple. I saw what looked like a blue light begin to sweep through the rooms. I saw even more soldiers in the rooms above us, making their way here. They had sent a lot of men to kill us, by the look of things. I gasped as I saw the blue light pass through a room with people in it. The people simply disintegrated as the light hit them. Even items belonging to the soldiers disappeared, even items not held by them. Anything, not belonging to the temple was destroyed. It seemed that although I could clearly see the light, others could not. I looked to Matthew and saw he must have realised something was up at my gasp. His eyes were glued to the screens on the table. We were trapped, we could not get out. All we could do was watch as the blue light got closer to us. The only chance was if the system recognised my necklace in some way, but I could not count on that. Even if it did, what about Matthew? Wide-eyed, I looked back at the screen. It was now about two rooms away. It was then, that my eyes got caught on something left behind in one of the rooms. It took me a while to process what I was seeing and the moment I did, I reached for the knife strapped to my leg and turned to Matthew.

  Chapter 16

  I pulled Matthew closer to me, using the hand holding the bloody knife. Matthew’s eyes were large, and he seemed frozen like a deer caught in headlights. If the situation had not been so tense, I would have been killing myself laughing, at seeing that too-human expression on his face. My left hand was still pressed tightly against his right. The blood from the two wounds I had cut, one on his and one on mine, mingling freely. Still, I feared it would not be quick enough. I pressed my mouth to his, which fortunately opened in surprise. Using that to my advantage, I pressed my tongue into his mouth. I felt Matthew’s left arm wrap around my wai
st and pull me tight against him. The sound of the humming block, gun fire, fighting and shouts, faded into the background. Matthew had taken over the kiss and I forgot about everything. His lips were warm and hard beneath mine, as he kissed me fiercely, his tongue playing with mine.

  I forgot that this was all just to get my nanos into his bloodstream. I had feared the nanos in the blood from the cuts, would not multiply fast enough and that kissing him would be the next best thing. It was another way to get my nanos into his system. As I looked at the screens, my eyes had been caught on a piece of shirt left behind, not disintegrated like everything else. A shirt, which had my blood on it, from when Matthew wiped the blood off my leg. For some reason, my blood was not seen as an intruder and that is why that piece of shirt was still there. The security system had seen that shirt as belonging. Since the shirt had just been a normal shirt, it stood to reason that it was my blood which gave it immunity to the security protocol currently cleansing the area. It was what I was counting on, as I cut and then kissed Matthew.

  “Area secure. Transportation activated.”

  Even the voice, did not break Matthew and me from our kiss. We likely would have continued for a long time, if a loud hissing and the sound of scratching, did not distract us. We both broke away from the kiss and looked towards the sounds.

  We were no longer in the inner room, we had been moved to a completely new room. A room filled with scorpions and snakes. They were bigger than the ones I was used to, some as big as large dogs. Matthew immediately stood up and pulled me up as well.

  “Looks like that part of the myth is real.” Matthew said. “I will take care of the little guys, you get the big guy.”

  I swallowed deeply as I looked to the end of the room, to where a huge snake waited. I still had my backpack with me and had my nanos detach from it. Forming twenty spiders, I had the spiders pass over my cut hand and take some of my blood. The blood I changed and transformed into a deadly poison. I knew poisons as well as I knew healing medicine, it had been necessary to perfect my healing nanos. If it did not work on these things, my spiders would analyse their blood and develop a poison that would work. Matthew took out a weird gun and I saw him nod to me. The area around the large snake or guardian, was clear and that is where I was heading.

  “I will clear a path as best I can, you just head for that thing and kill it.” He looked at the knife still clutched in my right hand as he spoke, then he reached in his bag and handed me a gun. I placed the knife back in its sheath and took the gun, not that I believed it would help, but I had to try. The scorpions and snakes had made no move towards us, only hissing. This changed the moment Matthew moved forward. Suddenly, a flame shot from the item in his hand and burned anything in its path. He moved the flame backwards and forwards as he pushed forward. I saw the creatures move clear of the path of the deadly flame. My spiders had also gotten to work, attacking what they could. After we moved forward a bit, I saw a path open towards the guardian. Without stopping to second guess the extremely stupid move, I rushed forward. Fortunately, the creatures seemed focused on Matthew. I made it to the area the guardian was and stopped to study it.

  It was huge and deadly looking, bright green with a red pattern of triangles running down its back and sides. A solid red triangle was on its forehead. The snake had made no movement and was just watching me. I honestly had no idea how Matthew expected me to kill it. Just because he believed that a woman had to kill it, did not mean I could. I thought about the myth, to see if there was any clue as to how I was meant to defeat it. Cutting it in half, seemed a bit impossible for me, even if that is how this snake was supposedly beaten in the story. “No man can defeat it.” Rang in my head, running in a loop. Making my decision, I placed the gun in my bag and approached the snake.

  “Evening guardian, I have come seeking the Book of Thoth.” I said loudly.

  “And what makes you think, you are worthy to receive such power?” The snake answered back. It spoke out loud, not in my head. Then it gave a loud hiss and I heard a scrambling noise behind me. Keeping my eyes on the snake, was the hardest thing I had ever done. I expected to feel the sting of a scorpion or bite of a snake from behind me at any moment. Instead, I heard footsteps coming up behind me, Matthew.

  “I do not think I am, but I have to. Evil people are trying to get it for themselves.” I replied.

  “Who are you to judge what is evil and what is not?” The Guardian questioned me.

  I was trying to think how to answer, when a different voice interrupted. “Gryph, stop fooling around and let them in already.”

  I gave Matthew a startled look, only to find that he was watching me in a weird way. I quickly turned back to look at the snake called Gryph.

  A long hiss came from the snake before it said, “Fine, but you could have let me have a bit more fun. I am bored.” With that, the snake slowly disappeared before our eyes, breaking into what looked like sand and rushing towards the far wall. The sand covered the wall and an opening appeared. Matthew and I walked to the opening and stepped through.

  The room we entered, can only be described as a command centre and a transparent entity floated before a bank of several devices. The whole room held an assortment of screens and devices. What drew my attention was a series of about twelve consoles, which had pictures above them. Three of the consoles had a flashing red button and their screens showed nothing.

  “Welcome Morgan and Matthew, I have awaited you a long time.” The entity spoke.

  “You know who we are?” I asked, surprised.

  “Of course. I have awaited you a long time.” It repeated itself.

  “Where are we?” Matthew asked.

  “You are in compound eight. We are 500 km beneath your earth’s surface.”

  “Compound eight?” I asked.

  “Yes, twelve other such compounds were built around the world.” The entity informed us.

  I looked to the consoles with screens and then back at the entity. “What are the compounds for?”

  “They are to ensure the survival of the human race and in extension our own.” The entity informed us.

  “Why thirteen compounds?” I asked.

  “To increase the chances of humans reaching the necessary level to reach one of the compounds. Only if you are at a sufficient level of intelligence, would you be allowed safe entrance into a compound and gain access to its knowledge.” The entity answered.

  “What of the three blank screens?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, we lost contact with those compounds and are unable to reach them. My brethren and I can only exist in these compounds, our forms would fade, if we left them. For security, there is no link or transport between the compounds, so I was unable to investigate what occurred.”

  “We? There are more of you here?” Matthew asked.

  “In this compound no, but each compound has a co-ordinator and a guardian.”

  “What happened to those lost compounds?”

  “Atlantis and Eldorado were destroyed when humans betrayed and attacked them, for what we could discern. Bermuda’s time dilation device was damaged through sabotage. It is still there but because of the damage it is unreachable, we have brief moments when we can communicate, but we have no idea when those times will be. The last message we got from Bermuda, was more than eight hundred years ago.”

  “Time dilation device?” I asked, intrigued.

  “We live in your world, but separate. We have technology, which allows us to exist at a slower time than you. It is how I have been here for millennia of your time, when only a few hundred years have passed for me.” The entity answered.

  At his words, I thought of the virtual reality pods. They increased the time ratio, not physically but mentally by a ratio of four to one. Four days spent online would be one day in the real world. It sounded like this device did the same, but physically. Those in its field were sped up, compared to those not in it. So, one hour here could be four hours in the real world. Then what
he said, really hit me, millennia to centuries, hours to a few minutes.

  “How long have we been here?” I demanded.

  “About forty-five minutes.” Matthew replied.

  “No. I mean in real world time, how long have we been here?” I asked.

  “Just over five days.” Came the reply.

  “Hell.” Matthew said. I calculated that the moment my necklace had been fully formed, we must have entered the time dilation field.

  “We need to get back to our time and contact people there. Can we come back if we leave?” I said.

  “Of course.” The entity moved close to us and as he walked near, a wave of pain hit me. I cried out as I collapsed to the floor, writhing in agony. Matthew was on the floor next to me, though he made no sound. “You both will now be recognised by the system and will be granted entry into any of the compounds. For this compound, just place your hand on the entry console and you will be transported here.”

  The entry console had to be the device in the inner room. Not sure exactly what had been done, I stood up on shaky legs, Matthew helping me stand. “Thank you. Can you please transport us to back to real time?”

  “Of course, stand by.” The entity said, and the next instance there was a flash of light and we appeared back in the inner room.

  We began moving immediately, making our way back to the entrance. I noticed my three Anubis INSLs were still around, though the NND ones had disappeared. Not sure what would be waiting for us, I had the three Anubis INSLs move ahead of us. The connection to them seemed different, but I did not have time to figure out how.

  “MORGAN!!! Where have you been??? Where did you come from? How could you disappear like that, without letting us know? Why did you not contact us?” Came Scarlet’s frantic voice, once we reached the first floor.

  “Matthew, we will talk about what happened later. Right now, I need you to get Morgan to the German Main Court. If you leave immediately you should make it.” Richard told Matthew over the communications link. “I have teams at the entrance, they will escort you. The ArcCorp Board is already in Germany, we will meet you in the courtroom.”