Chapter Twenty-Five

Quadrant One's icy air greeted us. All around us was white snow and ice.

"Where is Artek?" I asked through chattering teeth as I wrapped my arms tighter around my chest, to protect my body from the cold that felt like a thousand little knifes on my skin.

Audrina studied the white landscape. "Sorry, we need to jump again. It's too far of a walk from here."

She tapped her medallion, we all jumped on the line, and suddenly we were in the cave where Audrina and Samuel had built Station One. The temperature was still frigid, but at least it was not going to kill us quickly.

We hastened toward the station's main door and Audrina typed in the code to unlock it.

After a loud click, the sound of pressurized air being released echoed throughout the cave.

Audrina looked over at Gave, and he took the lead and stepped through first. Then she turned to follow, but ended up hitting Theo.

"Ouch!" Theo grumbled. "Watch where you are walking."

"Sorry, I'm still getting use to the idea that you are completely invisible and we have no freakin' clue where you are," Audrina responded. "It's not my fault that I can't see you."

"It's not my fault either," he said dryly. "Just be a little more careful."

"Or you could try and not be so sensitive."

"Okay, both of you need to stop." I put my hand up in the air. "Don't forget, it might actually be a good thing that Theo is invisible. He might be able to get into Artek and do some surveillance work before we go."

"Sure. Sounds peachy to me. I recall saying, I didn't ever want to come back here, and now you want to send me back into the lion's den all by myself."

"Dude, Samuel is already inside," Gave snapped. "What happened? You turned invisible and became a chicken?" Gave was suddenly picked up and pushed against the wall. "Well, obviously this new you is also a little temperamental. Now, put me down." He was slowly released. "Theo, your personality has changed since we found you. I'll be honest, I don't really like this new you."

"Your personality would change, too, if everything you had worked for was suddenly different. Yes, I'm angry. I'm angry at all of you. You allowed this to happen!"

"No, we didn't," I moved my body in front of Gave, suddenly unsure if we had made the right decision to bring this version of Theo to Artek. He was different. Angry. He sounded like Luther had when I'd confronted him at NorthStar. At the time, Luther had also been fuming at Dr. James.

Suddenly, a table at the far end of the room toppled.

"Theo! Stop!"

"Stop what?" he responded smugly. "You guys don't want me to ruin your day?" His voice had gone from smug to sickly sweet in a sarcastic sort of way.

"It's not our fault this happened," I said, biting down on my lower lip. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was close. I could feel his warm breath on my skin as he leaned in.

"Be careful," he said softly.

"Okay."

Theo must have stood back. "I'll go see what's going on in Artek. I can already tell you that Samuel is probably being held prisoner, and we will likely all be captured and then used again for another one of her science experiments."

"Wow, this has not only made you angry but also pretty darn depressing," Audrina said, glaring at the empty space in front of her.

"I'm just trying to make you all aware of our fate. Don't blame me for giving you a dose of reality."

"Just go, and let us know what you find," Gave said. He then waited silently for almost a minute before clearing his throat and nodding. "Okay, Theo's energy is gone. I'm unsure what to expect next. Theo is different," he said. "What do you guys think?"

"I agree," Audrina responded. "He's a complete jerk. It took everything for me not to give him a swift kick in the butt."

"Me too," I agreed quietly. He certainly hadn't been the same Theo who had rescued me from the Hunter not too long ago. What if we all became this angry because of the serum Dr. James had put into our bodies? Theo also no longer had a medallion, but he was able to travel through time. I knew I should probably bring up that fact, but I decided to wait until I could talk more with Theo.

"Do you guys think we should wait for Theo to get back or just go?" Gave asked. "I personally don't know if we can trust any Intel from Theo right now."

"Let's go." Audrina glanced at me and then tapped her medallion.

We ran onto the line and ended up in one corner of the massive white room.

"Great. I'm pretty sure we just blew our cover." Audrina sneered. "Sorry, guys, I was trying to land someplace where we wouldn't immediately be seen, but I guess I'm not as good as I used to be."

We crouched in the corner.

"I'm not sure it matters. This entire place probably has motion detectors. If someone finds us, jump back to Station One and we'll regroup."

"Okay," Audrina and Gave both mumbled in unison.

Slowly, we inched our way toward the door. Just as I reached for the handle, the door swung open to reveal Dr. James.

"Very good. I'm glad the entire team is here. We need to talk. Follow me."

She turned and marched of the room. Meanwhile, we looked at each other, wondering what to do. Should we jump back to Station One or follow Dr. James?

I pointed my finger, indicating that we should follow her. We walked into what looked like a large conference room and Dr. James strode to the front.

"Please have a seat."

"Where's Samuel?" I asked, looking around to see if my brother was anywhere near, but he wasn't.

"He will be here shortly. I want to have all of you together." She turned to her computer just as Paul walked through a door at the front of the room. Samuel was escorted in by armed guards, who thrust him into the room and then departed.

"What about Theo?" Gave asked and then shook his head. "Never mind, I can tell he's already here."

"I'm glad we are finally all back together. It's been a long time—too long." Dr. James cleared her throat. "Let's get a few things out of the way. Esa and I decided she needed to go into hiding three years ago, so we could both have time to better understand what was going on and find our true enemies. With the help of General James, I was able to ascertain that Troy and Luther had been working together for some time. You can imagine how upset I was, to find that someone on our own team was a traitor.

"By disappearing and building Artek, I bought the planet a lot more time. Troy has not found Artek. Trust me, he's definitely been looking, but he hasn't been successful." A little smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. It was a look that made me cautious. How could I trust her?

"Now, we have a lot of work to do, so it's time for the games to end. I have been testing each of you to see how strong you really are for our next mission. I think you are already. Troy has been working on a project called Merak. I'm tempted just to let him go and get off this planet, but we have no choice but to stop him. He doesn't deserve to get to visit Merak."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"Because, Captain James, I have been doing my homework. While you guys have been jumping through time, changing history, I have been busy working."

Samuel shook his head and laughed. "I think we all know we haven't been jumping through time simply for the sake of it. If you and General James had been honest from the start, we wouldn't have wasted so much time. We've been fighting off enemies for the past few years, trying to figure out what is real and what is not."

Dr. James stared at Samuel. "Fine. That's a somewhat fair statement, but now that I have you all here, it's time for us to clear the air and start looking to the future, not the past."

Theo's laughter filled the room. "That's easy for you to say. What have you done to us?"

"I was allowing you to take full form Theo. You should thank me."

"What!? Thank you? For destroying my life?"

"No, I have definitely not destroyed it. I have enhanced it. You can now travel anywhere without the medallion, and I mean anywhere."

"Then why didn't you test this on yourself or some other person instead of me?"

"Oh, it's been tested, don't worry about that."

"What happened to the normals you tested the serum on?"

"Unfortunately, they were casualties. This is war. People will live and people will die," she said, leaning over the table and glaring at all of us. "The one thing you all need to understand is that I am the most powerful one in this group. You will answer to me from now on. Do you understand? I am the leader and I command all of your respect."

Theo must have leaped across the table because suddenly Dr. James was thrown against the back wall. General James swung his fists several times, attempting to hit Theo, but he didn't have any luck.

"Run guys! Go!" Theo yelled at us. "This is a trap! I saw Luther and Troy in one of the other rooms!"

At the sound of those two names, my stomach dropped. They were here. Were they already working together?

"Go!" Theo yelled again as we watched him pound Dr. James and General James against the wall.

It would be only seconds before more guards arrived.

"C'mon," Samuel opened up the Jump Line. As we turned, Samuel reached back and pulled at something in the empty space. "You too."