Page 60 of Sawyer’s Mistake

She quietened down. Being on his lap made her feel safe.

“We’re here,” Eva said, looking at the map. Saoirse looked out the window, wondering if Eva had it wrong. The Atomium wasn’t there. She had to look down to see it. Of the nine spheres, only three remained upright. Two others had collapsed and shattered on the ground. The final four were nowhere to be found.

They stepped out of the vehicle, looking at the remains of the monument.

“I’ll hide the van under those trees,” Storme said. “Be back in a minute.”

“The spheres were meant to look like atoms, joined to make an iron crystal. Doesn’t look like much anymore, does it?” Saoirse asked sadly, standing by one of the felled spheres.

“Could the survivors be hiding in one of those things?” Prado said, walking up behind them from the other vehicle.

“That’d be ballsy, but I don’t think the structure is solid enough,” Zander interjected.

“Zander’s right,” Storme said. “They must be hiding somewhere else. We need to split up into teams and find them, before it gets dark.” He made a show of putting his laser gun on his back, keeping his hands high and visible at all times.

#

Jake

Over the last year and a half, he’d gotten pretty good at telling when he was being watched. For once, he almost looked forward to the feeling as it’d mean they were close to finding the Pangea Colony. But they made it all the way around the Atomium and back near the cars without seeing anything of interest or feeling anybody’s eyes on them.

Storme’s voice came on the mic. “It’s too exposed out here. If we don’t find it, we’ll need to look for a place to hide. Just for the night.”

Suddenly, Sawyer saw something he’d missed on his first time around. He stopped without warning, and Saoirse crashed into his back. Behind Saoirse, Kopf swore lightly, only managing to stop himself from crashing into her.

“The metro,” he said, pointing at a rust-covered sign. The entrance seemed to be covered in rubble, but if you looked closely there was something …

“There’s a path going down those stairs,” Saoirse said excitedly.

“We found something,” Sawyer said. “Southwest corner.”

“We’ll be right there,” Storme replied immediately. Sawyer tried not to think too hard about the relief evident in Storme’s tone. Everything was changing in ways none of them were able to predict.

“Heading your way,” Prado said.

“Let me go first,” Kopf said. Sawyer moved aside, letting the big man pass. Saoirse went next and Sawyer closed the line. He wasn’t going to be much use in a fight, but if something attacked them from behind at least he’d be able to act as a wall between her and any danger.

There was just enough space for the three of them at the bottom of the stairs. Concrete blocks covered the original entrance to the metro, but one of the glass doors remained intact.

Kopf pushed on the door, his arm muscles bulging under his T-shirt. It didn’t budge. He raised his laser gun as if to shoot at it.

“Stop!” Saoirse shouted. “Remember what the message said. Something about Pangea … the code is Pangea.” She took one step forward and touched the screen.

“There’s no way that’s still—” Sawyer took back his words as the screen came alive under her fingers, lighting up in blues and greens. She jumped back in surprise.

“Meir, we need you down here,” Sawyer said, speaking to his mic.

“We’re here,” Meir said, as he, Prado, and Alix made their way to them.

“Check this out. The screen must be plugged into some power source.”

Meir inspected the wall on which the screen was mounted for a second then touched the screen again. The blues and greens dissolved into a picture of the world map. He located Brussels and tapped on the city. Nothing happened.

“Maybe I can hack it,” Meir said.

“Hold on, this is here for a reason. Let’s figure out what that is.” Saoirse double-tapped and the screen zoomed out to the world map again.

Sawyer leaned back against the wall, locking his knees. He didn’t know how much longer he could stay on his feet.