Page 26 of Cheating Fate

The way he spoke that last sentence had all my senses on high alert. It both reassured and unnerved me that his rescued hostage was also behaving oddly. It was his way of giving me a warning not to let my guard down as he also smelled a rat. I reactivated my visor. Although it would not hide my face from my companions, I could mute the sound so that only Vahl would hear me. But that would give away my suspicions, so I didn’t.

“Same with Betty,” I replied in a non-committal fashion.

“Noted. Be safe.”

I wanted to say a lot more, but we needed to keep communications to a minimum to reduce the chances they might be intercepted.

“You too,” I replied before disconnecting.

With Lenora still controlling the snitch to monitor the safety of the way ahead, we hurried towards the exit. Just as we were stepping back through the doorway into the main area with the pit, Betty called out to me.

“How are we getting out?” she asked with a sliver of worry.

“We have a bubble for you and your other two companions to get you back to our ship,” I said in the same reassuring tone.

“Oh,” she said, sounding nervous and almost distressed. “I’m afraid of being out in space in those bubbles or just in those suits using jet propulsion.”

“I’m not a fan either, but it is safe,” I said in a commiserating tone, although annoyed having a conversation in this dangerous setting. “I feel the same, but it is safe.”

Moments later, Vahl and his team exited on the balcony before he levitated them down on the opposite side of the pit from. Sherryl also didn’t quite match the visual from the brief. It was subtle, but enough to have my nitpicking and OCD tendencies go into overdrive.

At this point, I just wanted to get Betty back to the exit point as swiftly as possible, and into a bubble out of here. The advanced technology would create an energy shield around her with enough oxygen reserves to last an hour, which was five times more than necessary to get her safely to our ship.

But even as that thought crossed my mind, Betty’s steps suddenly faltered. I slowed down to glance at her over my shoulder with a questioning look. My companions also stared at her with a similar confusion. I gestured for her to move faster, but she seemed hesitant, as if she dreaded something ahead.

Trehvus took a couple of steps towards her and extended a hand likely to gently coax her forward. The woman immediately picked up the pace, pulling her arm away to avoid his contact. It was bizarre. At least, she was moving.

Or so I thought.

Only seconds later, she slowed down again to an almost snail’s pace. The thought that she was indeed a decoy placed there to trick us returned with a vengeance. Was she trying to delay us enough so that the pirates would return and find us exposed on the main path by the pit?

Having apparently reached the same conclusion, it was the other twins’ turn to reach for her, this time looking like he wanted to pick her up to carry her like a bride. Once again, she sped up her steps. However, this time, Betty deliberately placed her palms on Dhaxius’ and Lenora’s shoulders before hastening past them. The contact had been brief but odd.

When she almost raced ahead of us, I called her back, only to be ignored. At the same time, at the corner of my eye, I spotted Sherryl rushing past Vahl with the same urgency. A powerful sense of doom crashed over me. Before I could decide on a course of action, both women stopped dead in their tracks then turned to face each other from their respective sides of the pit.

My blood turned to ice when their holographic bodies vanished, leaving only the hovering sphere of a holographic projector. Their model shouldn’t have required such a device.

The bracelets we had given them dropped to the stone floor with a clanking sound at the same time as a bright light lit up on both of the holographic projectors.

“TAKE COVER!” Vahl shouted.

No one questioned the command. We had no idea what was about to happen, but we knew it would be bad. Through neural command, I activated my suit’s protective shield and started backing away as there was no actual cover available.

A blinding light beam shot out of each hovering projector, connecting at the midpoint over the deep pit. For a split second, it felt as if all the oxygen was sucked out of the room and that gravity had taken a leave of absence. Worse still, I felt my abilities vanishing. It was as if a switch had been flicked on.

In this instance, undoubtedly some powerful psionic disruptor…

Then a violent explosion sent us flying back. I crashed against the side wall of the path before flopping onto the ground. My teeth rattled in my head. Half-stunned, I scrambled to get back onto my feet only to hear the alarmed shouts of my companions, who were also trying to get back up.

The overhead display inside my visor began glitching. I didn’t know if the force of the impact had damaged it somehow—which would be shocking as the suit was designed to sustain nearly impossible damage and environmental conditions—or if some sort of disruptor was attempting to hack the system. I suspected the latter to be the case.

A loud rumbling forced us to run away from the walls. Then a wide section collapsed in a massive pile of debris, blocking our way out. On the other side, Vahl’s team was also getting back up. Thankfully, the way out for them was still clear.

“Circle to the other side!” I shouted at my unit even as I started running back towards the detention area.

The Goddess willing, the hover platform would still function and allow us to get up to the balcony, then back down at the opposite end. I didn’t need to ask to know that their powers were also neutralized. Otherwise, Vahl would have already levitated us back to him.

But before I could get more than five steps in, another even more powerful explosion rocked the secret base. The entire wall to my left shattered, propelling large chunks of rock at me. A massive boulder struck me with such force, it would have shattered every bone in my body if not for the protection of my suit.