Pisces
Chapter 6

“What’s our next move?” Mina’s voice came from my right, andI turned to see her sitting across from me. A black dress hugged her petiteframe, lips painted red, and without her mask I could see sharp cheeks accenther face. She watched me questioningly from behind a veil of straight bangs.

I hated to admit it, but she was beautiful.

Wait, I thought Mina was attractive? I mentally shook myhead. No, I didn’t swing for my team. Was this another dream? Were thesePluto’s thoughts?

“We wait,” We answered, and Mina’s lips pursed together in apout.

“I mean after that.”

Eager to know—perhaps slightly impatient, but in a good way.She desired knowledge. She liked being prepared. Again, it was attractive.

“Pisces will be drawn to the artifact after she recovers,” Isaid. No, not me. Pluto. We raised a glass of champagne to lips and I realized Plutowasn’t wearing a mask. “She won’t be able to resist the urge to replace it.”

Soft music began to play, violins maybe? Mina brushed acurtain of black silk behind her ear, and tilted her head to look down at themusicians playing exposing her neck to me. Slender and toned, my eyes rested onit briefly before flicking up in time to catch her lips twitch. She knew whatshe was doing, and I could feel the desire stirring within me.

No, Pluto dammit, not me! This was so much easier withouthis thoughts.

“What makes you so sure she’ll come,” Mina asked.

“You doubt me,” Pluto answered.

“When have I ever?” Mina’s heavy lids drew back to mine,“But she has no reason to show up.”

It felt wrong watching this conversation, but at the sametime I didn’t care. These people were responsible for so much death. Why shouldit matter if I was spying on an intimate moment? More than anything I wantedout of this, but I also knew I could learn something important.

“The artifact will balance her,” Pluto said. “It will giveher the ability to control both LED and DED abilities. She also knows I’ll comefor it. What better way to seek revenge than when you’re at your strongest andknow your enemy is coming?”

“Then why choose Pisces,” Mina asked. Though she tried tokeep her voice even, the twinge of jealousy along with concern was there. “Whynot choose a weaker LED.”

“Because only an architect can locate and access theartifact.”

“So couldn’t we replace a different architect who wasn’tinvolved with GASPR?”

“You’ll just have to trust me on this.”

Mina huffed and crossed her arms. The air between us fellsilent, the only sound being the soft strings.

“Mina, there’s something you should know.” I was surprisedby the tone leaving our lips, and the concern on Mina’s face piqued my interestfurther. “There’s a window where Pisces can recover the artifact and I can’tinterfere.”

“What do you mean?”

“The percentage of it happening is ridiculously low, butshould she succeed everything we’ve worked towards will be undone. There’s acomet that passes the Earth once every seventy years or so. It’s only for anhour—but during that time my powers will be significantly hindered while herswill rise exponentially.”

“When is this supposed to happen,” Mina asked, her posturebecoming rigid.

“In less than forty-eight hours. Odds are she’ll still berecovering from our last exchange, but there’s still a chance she might replace itin time.”

Mina relaxed, “Well those are some pretty slim odds.”

“But they’re odds nonetheless.”

Mina smirked, eyes dancing, and placed her arms in her lap.Leaning forward just enough to draw our eyes down for a beat second she askedin a husky voice, “What are the odds we go back to my room and prepare for thenext step?”

I internally rolled my eyes. How bad did this bitch wanthim?

Our lips pulled up, mirroring Mina’s own smirk and replied,“Slim.”

Mina’s shoulders slumped, and a sigh escaped her ruby lips. Weenjoyed the defeated look for a moment before saying, “But we should go, we dohave planning to do.”

Standing up, we waved our hand and the rift appeared besideus. Offering our hand to Mina we asked, “Shall we?”

A giggle escaped Mina as she took our hand, “The mostpowerful man in the world and he still dines and dashes.”

“Old habits,” we replied, and we disappeared from therestaurant.

When I came to it was late, witching hour according to theclock on the wall. The room I’d slept in glowed from the multiple machinesaround me. Movement caught my attention, and my eyes trailed left to see Mattsitting in a chair beside me. His face was grim, and like mine, his eyes staredat nothing.

“How long have you been there,” I asked, and then coughed atmy parchedness.

Matt’s head turned to me, and then handed over a glass of water.

“Since you fell asleep,” he said.

His voice sounded rough, had he been crying? “What’s eatingyou?”

Matt was silent for moment, the only noise of the room beingthe hum of machines. Then he said, “We lost a lot of good people today—Dr.Belto and Director Bishop being two of them as well as a few STAR members.”

“Oh.” What else could I say? I didn’t know anyone except forZeik and Matt.

“What’s more is the person responsible for half of thosedeaths is someone…” Matt shuddered, “Someone I don’t want to let go of.”

Sobs began to fill the room, and Matt did his best to chokethem back. I didn’t say anything, giving him time to regain his composure. Butin that time my mind pieced it together.

“It’s Mina, isn’t it?”

Matt stiffened, but eventually gave a weak nod. “We joinedGASPR at the same time, about a year ago, and ended up partners during our STARtraining. We did everything together, knew each other’s quirks and habits. But oneday the director gave an order for Mina to become a double agent in Nebula.Since I was a pulsar, there was no way I’d be able to get in. Mina accepted andmanaged to get in but after a few months she went dark. We thought they’d foundout and killed her.”

Matt’s eyes stared at the wall across the room, tearsglimmering in the soft light. “Then one day we got a report of a Nebula raid. Weresponded and when we arrived she was there. Right beside him. Fighting forhim, protecting him. She’d turned on us.”

Well I guess that explained why the chemistry between us hadbeen off. Matt had something for Mina. And I wasn’t about to tell him how shewas using every trick in the book to sleep with Pluto. He wouldn’t believe me, and I definitely didn’t need him angry atme. Not now. Not when our window of opportunity was rapidly closing.

“I think I can stop Nebula,” I said, and Matt watched me closely.I could see the fear of having his hope crushed. I didn’t blame him, but I needhis cooperation. “Look, I know it might be hard to understand, but I have thissort of…connection with Pluto.”

Matt’s face screwed together and I waved my hands, “Just listen.On the flight here I had a dream I was in Pluto’s head. I was able to see andhear what he was talking about. I heard about his plan to attack ORION, but Inever said anything because I thought it was just a dream.”

Matt watched me, but then his eyebrows rose as realizationset in, “You had another dream.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “andI learned there’s a two day window to replace the artifact he’s looking for. If Ican get it within that time-frame, I’ll be able to use the artifact to beat him.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“No, but Pluto says I should be drawn to it. So if we leavesoon, we might replace it before time runs out.”

Matt nodded, “The vice-captain needs to know about this.”

“No,” I said grabbing Matt’s wrist before he could leave. Iblinked in surprise at my own action, but then logic took over. “We don’t havetime to get everyone together. Leave a message for them and they can sendback-up. What we need are computers. Computers and a ship.”

Matt hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. “Hold on,” hesaid, and opened a drawer across the room. Pulling out a tablet, he handed itto me saying, “Start looking for what you need. I’m going to secure a ship andleave a message for the vice-captain. Meet me at the docks once you’re ready.”

Matt left the room and I logged into the tablet. I startedby looking into where the largest fields of dark energy were located on Earth.The search gave me five possible places with the strongest one located inwestern Russia. I’d found our destination. My heart sped up as I searched forwhen Halley’s Comet passed Earth, which I knew was the comet Pluto spoke of.

Thirty-six hours of visibility with its peak time betweenthe twenty-fifth and twenty-fourth hour. Twelve hours to replace the artifact.

Shit!

I tossed the tablet aside and leapt out of the bed. I ran tothe door, but stopped just outside the room. Slowly, my eyes drifted back tothe tablet. There was one last thing I needed to search.

I drifted back to the bed. The tablet was connected toORION’s database, which meant everything I needed was right before me. TypingBK 201 into the search bar, I held my breath as I pressed enter. A second latera single result appeared. Hesitancy washed over me in waves, my heart slammingin my ears as a trembling finger clicked the file.

I blinked when the demand for a password appeared. Thefucking bastard did that on purpose! My teeth clenched together and a breathhissed between my lips while I tried to calm myself. He gave me the keys Ineeded to answer my question—I just had to figure it out.

I typed Noah, andthe word DENIED flashed before me in bright red.

Pluto.

DENIED.

I bit my lip, my eyebrows furrowing. What else could it be?My fingers moved on their own, as if they knew the answer themselves.

Nebula.

CONFIRMED.

The file opened, revealing nothing more than a video box. Imoved to press it, but my finger stopped inches away from the play button.Hovering over it, fear of what I’d see crashed down on me. If what I’d seen inthe past twenty-four hours was any indicator, I wasn’t so sure I could handleit. But the need to know pushed its way forward, and my finger clicked play.

“Hello,” a man with salt and peppered hair greeted, and Irecognized the room he stood in as Zeik’s lab. “This is Director BishopThresher, first entry for Project BK 201. Leading this experiment will be Dr. ZeikBelto of the novae anomaly lab with help from Dr. Brady of energy research, andDr. Salen of energy consistency. Our subject is Noah Alis; male, fourteen yearsold, body weight: 50.2 kilograms.”

The screen flickered to Noah, and my throat clenched when heappeared strapped to a chair and barely conscience.

“Dr. Belto will be recording entries from here on out.”

The video cut and Zeik appeared, grinning as he motioned forthe camera to come closer. Noah lay in the chair, covered in sweat andbreathing rapidly.

“Entry twelve of BK 201. We’ve finally managed to draw outsome energy. However, upon ceasing our extraction the energy was reabsorbed intothe subject’s body.”

“Please,” Noah rasped, “let me go,”

Zeik paid no attention to him and continued, “Unfortunately,the extraction process is extremely stressful on the body. We’ll have toproceed carefully from here.”

“Entry forty-six of the BK 201,” Zeik said only this time appearingagitated. “We’ve increased the power of extraction despite the physical damagesto the subject’s body.”

Noah appeared—patches of his skin blistered, and in someareas even charred black. He was crying softly and blood trickled from hismouth.

“We still haven’t been able to extract the energy. Asfrustrating as it is we must stop for the time being so the subject mayrecover. We’ll begin again after the healers have seen to him.”

“Entry fifty-two. Our healers are miracle workers, only tookthree hours to repair the subject’s body. After multiple tests we finallymanaged to extract some of the energy! Finally some progress.”

Noah appeared again, and a sob broke from my mouth when Isaw him. His hair was gone. Dried blood covered his body and muscle showedthrough missing skin, even bone in some parts. I couldn’t hold the tablet myhand shook so hard, the other trying to muffle my cries. I dropped it on thebed and my knees gave out. Burying my face in the sheets I screamed as hardas I could. I cursed Zeik, the director, everything that had to do with GASPR.I choked my frustrations out until my voice was too raw to speak. And as I laythere, numb and hollow, I heard him.

“Nora…” I raised my face, and Noah stared into the camerabreathing in erratic gasps. “Nora, I don’t have a lot of time, so listen to me.You’re strong. I know you don’t see it, but I do. I see it every day. You neverhad the confidence I had, but the strength you hold inside is something I couldnever compare to.”

He coughed, blood dribbling down his chin, and he laugheddespite his contorted expression. “I want to tell you to move on—but we bothknow you’re too stubborn for that. So, when you replace this video know that Ilove you Nora. And if you can do one last thing for your brother…it’s makethese bastards pay.”

The video cut out, and before the next entry began thetablet imploded. I glared down at the device, tears blurring my vision and my palmoutstretched. Heaving a few breaths, I wiped my eyes and strode out of the roomtowards the docks.

I would blow this disgusting beacon of inhumanity out of thesky. But first, my brother had some questions to answer.