Emily hated secrets. Especially after what happened the last time she shared one of hers. She'd also learned early not to trust authority either. A byproduct of being raised by her overbearing parents.
So, it wasn't surprising that a few days into life at Atlas, she was already looking for cracks in the company's shiny exterior. Director Shaw had brushed off NEMESIS's attack like it was routine, like he'd known all along how it would play out.
His seemingly permanent smile and warm personality reminded her too much of Stella. It was too neat. Sterile, even. Even in sunshine, there were bound to be shadows.
What was hidden in Director Shaw's?
If Atlas Incorporated were really what they claimed to be—a covert international defense network—then why hadn't she ever heard of them? No government leaks, no conspiracy threads online. Emily lived on forums where people thought lizard men ran the UN, but Atlas? Not even a single post.
She had to go snooping.
And the perfect place to go looking for answers was the Watchtower. During her tour of the Acropolis, she'd learned it was Atlas' brain. The tank-like room was full of supercomputers, data servers, satellite feeds, and archived intel. The place would have answers to questions she didn't even know to ask yet.
But there was one problem. The Watchtower was locked behind Level Four clearance. Emily's new Atlas badge was only Level One.
Fortunately, she'd had a plan.
Agent Dennis—the man who'd given her and the others a tour of the humongous facility—wouldn't stop bragging about his recent promotion from Level Three to Level Four. Emily wasn't quite sure how he'd achieved such a feat. After spending a few minutes listening to him speak, it was clear he was a moron. Perhaps he was better with a gun in his hand.
Either way, she settled on him as her mark.
Earlier that day, she stalked him from the cafeteria to his dwellings. She made sure to cross paths with him, pretending to be nose-deep in her phone as she bumped into him. Her hands were quicker and smaller than most. Snatching his badge—which had been clipped to his hip—and replacing it with hers was easier than she imagined. She'd been practicing the maneuver for hours, and it went off without a hitch.
Agent Dennis' shift was done for the day, which meant she'd have a few hours before he even noticed the swap. More than enough time to sneak into the Watchtower.
But she needed a lookout.
She refused to ask Stella for help—the girl would rat her out immediately. Chase wasn't an option either; she barely knew the guy. Theo was a blabbermouth, and Oscar wasn't exactly the most reliable.
That left the quietest person in the group: Andre Steel.
He barely spoke and had a knack for going unnoticed. He was the perfect candidate for this mission. When she brought the idea to him, he agreed without hesitation. She couldn't tell if he had his own suspicions about Atlas or if he was simply bored. Probably both.
Now, they stood before the Watchtower's reinforced door, just as the clock ticking on the nearby wall approached midnight. Most agents had retired to their rooms. Only a few working the night shift would be around. For the past few days, she'd been studying their patrol routes. There wouldn't be an agent in this sector of the Acropolis for another thirty minutes.
"Ready?" Andre asked her.
Nodding, she held Agent Dennis' badge to the scanner next to the door. It lit up green. The entrance slid open. They stepped into a rush of cold air.
Emily shivered. The dark room was a freezer—it was kept that way for the machines. She hugged her arms and ducked between racks of blinking servers. Their low thrumming filled the silence. Meanwhile, Andre lingered by the door, teeth chattering, watching her back.
She'd never been inside, so she took a moment to observe her surroundings. Finally, her eyes landed on the rows of supercomputers, their screens displaying the blue Atlas logo. Nodding, she slid into a chair before one of the terminals and powered it on. No login prompt. Just the desktop. She clicked open a database. Tons of file names rushed to the screen. Too many.
What the hell is all of this stuff?
She scrolled until one label snagged her: "Non-Terrestrial Genetic Anomalies."
Her pulse quickened. She opened the folder. Inside were scans, graphs, DNA sequences she couldn't make sense of—but a phrase in the header chilled her: "Subject samples contain traces of unnatural Primonium isotopes."
The Atlas agents insinuated Primonium was from somewhere else, hinting at the evidence of other worlds. Maybe Oscar wasn't being ridiculous with his constant talk of aliens after all.
Emily's head spun. If Atlas knew about this… what else were they hiding?
She kept looking.
Her fingers danced over the keys, her eyes scanning line after line of encrypted data. She expected technical jargon, half-redacted reports, maybe even Atlas' surveillance logs. What she didn't expect was a neatly organized file labeled NEMESIS: Global Operations.
She clicked.
A map of the world unfolded across the screen. Glowing red dots were scattered across like open wounds. Paris. Lagos. São Paulo. New Delhi. Every dot marked an attack, some labeled with chilling precision—Factory robbery attempt foiled. Kidnappings successful. Containment breach confirmed.
And then she found it. The file's last page.
Her stomach knotted. Atlas were tracking everything.
No wonder Director Shaw was so calm. He already knew what NEMESIS's next mission was. Connections between all their previous jobs had been put into an algorithm, which spat out their most likely target. They even knew when they would strike. The attack was scheduled for tomorrow. The target? A manufacturing plant in Colorado.
Emily paled.
She quickly took multiple photos of the file with her phone, her hands trembling.
What were NEMESIS and Klaus planning?
"Uh, Em," Andre whispered through the silence.
She snapped her head up as she heard footsteps through the heavy door. They sounded like they were right next to her. Through the tiny window in the door, she watched an agent striding back toward the Watchtower. Agent Dennis. A replacement badge—not hers—was in his hand. She cursed under her breath.
Springing out of her seat, she moved toward Andre. "Hide!" She dragged his huge frame behind a tall server rack just as the door hissed open.
Agent Dennis stepped in with a flashlight. The sweeping beam examined the room before stopping on the lone monitor glowing in the sea of darkness. "Huh. Someone forgot to shut off the screen." He turned to see his badge—which Emily left behind during her scramble—on the edge of the long table hosting the terminals.
"I gotta stop losing this thing," he grumbled while pocketing the badge. He shut the screen down and turned to leave.
Then, Andre's boulder-like shoulder brushed a rack. The cold metal groaned. He stiffened. The boy's rich, mahogany complexion instantly mimicked the properties of the metal. His ability and dark clothing had completely camouflaged him into the shadows.
Emily wasn't as lucky. She could only squeeze her eyes shut and make herself as small as possible.
Agent Dennis faced the source of the sound. He raised his flashlight toward them. For a breathless second, Emily thought they'd been caught. Who knew what trouble they'd be in for breaking into the Watchtower?
And, worst of all, she'd dragged Andre into this.
She wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers or get anyone in trouble, but things always seemed to happen that way for her. She just wanted to find out what Atlas was hiding. Because she knew they were hiding something.
As Dennis slowly approached them, a tinny ringtone blared from his pocket. Groaning, he pulled out his phone. "Yeah…yeah, I found it. Left it in the Watchtower, again." He paused. "Might need to get the maintenance guys back in here. Server racks need tightening up." He moved toward the door. "I'm on my way back now. See you in a bit."
Then he was gone.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Emily exhaled hard before sliding down the smooth surface of the server racks.
"That was close," Andre said. The metal receded from his body, revealing his natural skin. Emily found his abilities to be the coolest out of everyone's, including hers.
"Too close."
Andre glanced at the screens across the room. "You find anything good?"
She thought of the folder and the hundreds of files. Of what it implied. Atlas certainly had secrets. And if life taught her everything, it was that everything done in the dark would eventually come to light.
She nodded, then gestured toward the door. "C'mon. Let's get out of here before someone else walks in."
Together, the two of them snuck out of the Watchtower and returned to their rooms.
###
"Let me get this straight," Theo began while rubbing his hairless chin. "You stole an agent's badge, snuck into the Watchtower, and spied on classified information?"
Emily hadn't realized how bad it all sounded until he'd said it.
"What exactly were you trying to find?" Chase asked with his arms folded. He remained near the door of her room. "You do realize how much trouble you could've gotten in had you been caught, right?"
She rolled her eyes.
Upon returning from the Watchtower, Emily and Andre called a meeting in her quarters. She opted not to invite Stella. The girl had been a hall monitor when they were in fifth grade; it was in her nature to be a snitch.
"I was looking for information," Emily answered.
"What kind of information?"
"I don't trust Atlas and Director Shaw. Not all the way."
Chase rolled his eyes. "They've done nothing but help us since we've got here."
"They've never lied about anything either," Theo pointed out.
"They've not been telling us everything either," Emily countered. She folded her legs atop her bed as she looked at the four boys. "There was a lot of information on their computers. Way too much for me to comprehend." She pulled out her phone. "But I did find something."
That caught Chase's attention.
"What?"
She tossed her phone onto the bed. The boys surrounded the screen. Their eyes widened in unison upon seeing the images of NEMESIS's next project mission.
"Director Shaw did say they had it under control," Oscar said. "I mean, they figured out their next attack before it even happened."
Even Chase—who wanted to become an Atlas agent to fight the bioterrorists—nodded. "We can't do anything about it, even if we tried. You heard what Director Shaw said. He's not letting us fight."
"Plus, the attack is happening in Colorado," Theo added. "I'm not great at geography, but that's easily a day's worth of driving away from here."
"Atlas has jets," Andre said with a shrug.
Emily grinned at him. She'd always liked the big guy.
"So…what?" Oscar tossed his silver lighter into the air a few times. "We sneak onto an Atlas jet to Colorado. Then what?"
Emily frowned. She hadn't thought that far ahead. She wasn't even sure what she'd been planning to do with the information. Fighting back against NEMESIS was Chase's idea. But she wasn't completely against it.
If Atlas was able to track NEMESIS and their every move, how hadn't they been taken down yet? Blondie was right; Director Shaw and his agents were outmatched so long as the bioterrorists had Primes on their side. They had only seen Apex and Klaus thus far, but who knew how many others they had amongst their ranks?
Chase furrowed his brow. "I mean…we could give them backup. We don't have to get involved—not until they need us to." He pointed at Andre. "The two of us are practically invincible. I'm bulletproof, and you can turn into any material you touch." He turned to Theo. "If you just keep running, a bullet'll never be able to touch you." Emily was next. "With your hearing, you can alert us to any threat before we even see it."
Oscar cleared his throat. "What about me, Goldilocks?"
"You'll bring the fire."
"I can get down with that."
Emily glanced at the four of them. She hadn't expected the conversation to head in this direction. She couldn't say she was disappointed. Quite the contrary.
They'd been cooped up in the Acropolis for a few weeks now.
A field trip was in order.
"We're not seriously thinking about doing this, right?" Theo laughed nervously. "Right? I mean, that's crazy talk! Director Shaw specifically told us not to get involved. So…we shouldn't get involved. Right?" His face reddened. He took two puffs from his inhaler once he finished. Andre patted him on the back as he caught his breath.
"We have a chance to do something with these powers," Chase argued. "I mean, I can lift a car over my head. Oscar can shoot fire from his hands. Emily has supersonic screams." He shook his head. "Those Atlas agents haven't been able to handle NEMESIS on their own. But with us?" He gestured at the entire group. "We can potentially save lives out there. They need our help."
Emily nodded slowly. He had a point.
"I'm in," Andre announced. He put his hand into the middle of the circle they'd formed. Chase followed suit. Emily copied them as a grin spread across her face.
Oscar glanced at his lighter for a long moment before laughing. "Al carajo… Let's do it." Smirking, he put his hand in.
The group turned to Theo, who remained on the edge with hesitation rolling off his narrow shoulders like smoke.
"What do you say, Theo?" Chase asked.
He froze for a moment before speaking. "I want to help…really, I do. But…I just don't if it's a good idea."
"If we don't help, who else will?"
A silence filled the room.
Theo eventually took a long, deep breath. He put a trembling hand into the circle. He glared at the group as they smiled at him. "Just this once, alright? But if we die, I'm going to kill all of you!"
Chase clapped his back, nearly sending the boy to the floor. "Sorry. Still getting used to it."
"So, what's the plan?" Andre asked.
Emily thought for a moment. "Well, if the attack is tomorrow, Atlas'll be heading for Colorado soon."
"That's if they didn't leave already," Theo grumbled.
"Then we should head for the hangar," Chase said. "That's our best bet at making it onto one of the jets." Upon sensing the apprehension in the group, he sighed. "Listen, I'd prefer a more concrete plan as much as the next guy, but this is all we've got for right now."
The others nodded.
"Great." He clapped his hands together. "Grab whatever you think you'll need. Keep it light. Meet me at the elevator in ten minutes." The boys left her room to get ready for their impromptu stowaway mission.
As her bedroom door closed, she glanced at the bow resting in the corner. That and her quiver of arrows was all she'd need.
Nodding, she rose from her bed and prepared to rendezvous with the others.