The Descent into the Maelstrom (The Phantom of the Earth Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

of the commonwealth!” Isabelle said. “To its energy, its technology, its power to which there has never been an equal in the history of the world!”
    Isabelle joined Falcon in the Granville world near the oasis. She sashayed across the water, a whip in hand. She snapped it toward Falcon with a crack , but he lunged an impossibly far distance over Isabelle, up to the first platform. He crashed into it and slid backward but pulled himself up. Isabelle slapped the whip around his ankle and pulled. Falcon struggled to hold his position. She yanked harder, but Falcon didn’t fall. He twisted on the platform and shook the whip loose from his leg. Isabelle fell forward and rolled across the water before she knelt, looking up.
    The platforms activated.
    They zigzagged and moved up, down, and side to side. Falcon timed his jumps and moved with the grace of a mountain lion all the way to the orb. He held it high above his head and roared. The musings began in earnest, candidates saying, “That doesn’t mean anything,” and “We can’t let him win,” and “He’d make a sturdy comrade,” and “What a loser.”
    The rumblings didn’t last long before Isabelle called for decorum. “This concludes your first day of Harpoon instruction,” she said. “Be gone, study your Beimeni history and hone your use of the zeropoint field.”
    The chatter picked up again, and as Oriana and Pasha tore a path to the exit portal, Nathan Storm tore a path to Oriana. “Hey, nice job today,” he said.
    Oriana straightened, speechless. Was this him being clever? Was he insulting her?
    He handed her a z-disk. “A bunch of us are getting together at the Candidate Café,” he said. “The instructions are in there. Just download them before you leave the classroom and you’ll have them in your neurochip when you get out.”
    She stared at the z-disk in her hand. When she looked up, Nathan had already reunited with Desaray. They chatted with Duccio and Gaia on their way to the exit.
    “What was that all about?” Pasha said.
    “Not sure,” Oriana said.
    “You did great today—”
    “Not as good as you; you would’ve been able to reach the orb—”
    “No I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t matter. Variscan candidates develop differently, but we’ll get there. We will. Together, and—”
    “Don’t, Pash. I’m so mad at the Summersets right now, and—” Oriana hushed as a group of candidates weaved around her and her twin brother. When she and Pasha neared one of the exits, she said, “And I won’t let Falcon Torres get the first bid.”

ZPF Impulse Wave: Nero Silvana
    Hydra Hollow

    300 meters deep

    “He saved my life and rescued my father. You will release him!”
    The boy , Nero thought, must be . He heard the crank of alloy against rock outside. He leaned against the wall, his mouth as dry as stone. He’d thought himself victorious in his and his captain’s operation to rescue Jeremiah Selendia, the leader of the Liberation Front. One second, Nero had spied Gaia City with its geothermal vents rendered on the inside of the transport in which they traveled, the next, Aera’s palm. Now he enjoyed a view of his cell’s limestone walls. He didn’t know how long he’d slept. He’d lost track of time.
    He still wore what remained of his striker synsuit, the side and leg plates torn by the Janzers in Permutation Crypt, his bodysuit ripped and encrusted with dried blood on his quadriceps, where the Janzer’s diamond sword had ripped into him. The wound was mostly healed, thanks to multiple uficilin injections on the way out. Nero limped to a limestone ledge, sat, and stared at a stream of blue-green bioluminescent water that trickled down from the ceiling.
    He heard a tapping at his cell bars. A familiar face; it was Cornelius Selendia dressed in a dark green cape, hood up over his head, a sword sheathed across his back. Animated tattoos of starfish and seaweed undulated over his muscular forearms. He held chains in his