Page 158 of Victorious

A sharp pain right between her shoulder blades, the force hard enough to knock her over, punch the air from her lungs. She stumbled, skinning her palms on the split pavement.

She tried to get back up, but the world tipped, her vision blurring.

In the distance, Victor slid in and out of focus. Syd sucked in a breath to shout for him, but before she could, a gloved hand vised around her mouth, cutting off her scream. An arm wrapped around her shoulders, hauling her off the ground.

“Caught you,” growled Eli, crushing her back against him.

Sydney tried to fight, but her body had already stopped listening. Her limbs went heavy and her vision faded, taking the park and Victor with it as everything went black.

XVINOW. THEN.

EON had clearly made some upgrades, thought Victor, as the agents closed in.

He holstered his gun, and instead drew a knife. He’d have to use his powers to keep from being shot, while getting close enough to put them down in a more permanent way. His fingers flexed on the grip as he waited to see which of the three agents would attack.

But none of them did. They all stood, perfectly still, as if waiting for an order.

And then the comm on Victor’s belt crackled to life, and a voice came out.

A voice that did not belong to Mitch.

“Victor Vale,” it said, coolly. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Victor frowned. “That makes one of us.”

He noted the small black beads on the front on the agents’ vests. Cameras. He’d crushed one, back at the motel. He’d suspected, then, someone was watching. Now he knew.

“Who am I speaking to?”

“My name is Dr. Gray,” said the voice. “But you may call me Gabriel.”

Gabriel, thought Victor. Eli would have had a field day with that. “I take it you’re the one controlling them?”

“I’ve enabled them to serve a purpose. One that makes them uniquely suited to face EOs, like yourself.”

Gabriel Gray clearly enjoyed the sound of his own voice. But Victor let him speak. It gave his heart time to recover.

“I assume you’re the one running the show now that Stell is gone.”

“A fair assumption.”

Victor’s mouth twitched. “An EO running EON? How ironic. I was well acquainted with your predecessor.”

“I know.”

“Then you know what I did to him.”

Director Stell had been found dead with a gun in his hand.

Technically, he’d been the one to pull the trigger.

But Victor had given him a little help.

“I do,” said Stell’s replacement. “I also know how hard you worked to disappear. Yet here you are. In the flesh. You must care about the girl.”

Victor was good at spotting bait. “I got bored of waiting for you guys to catch me.”

“Your affected nonchalance is telling,” chided Dr. Gray. “But we’ll have time to unpack it and get to the truth.”