Pandora (Book 3) (The Omega Group) Read Online Free

the sky. The red clouds rolled
in all directions, pierced by the black smoke tendrils. The only cloud that
didn’t appear to be moving at all was stationed directly above the palace
ruins. “That’s a little ominous, don’t you think?”
    “According to Julian, that was the first cloud to form, and
it hasn’t moved since,” Greco said.
    The closer they got to the palace, the more apparent it
became that the group of tourists milling about weren’t admiring the ruins.
Police tape stretched across the entrance to a tunnel that ran beneath the
foundations of what had once been an outer building.
    Mirissa and the rest of the team blended in with the other
onlookers. “What’s going on?” she asked a middle-aged man wearing a T-shirt
with an American flag emblazoned on the front.
    “They found the body of an archeologist down there. Looks
like murder,” the man said, eyes fixed on the scene.
    “Really? What happened?” Mirissa tried to sound like an
average teenager in search of some excitement.
    “I don’t really know. People have been saying there were
four of them down there, secretly excavating some new tomb or something. They
think the guy got killed for the treasure, but I don’t believe it.” He turned
to face Mirissa and had to raise his eyes to meet hers. “You sure are a tall
one.”
    “Yeah, it’s a curse.” Mirissa paused. “Why don’t you believe
them?”
    “Because, if there was something worth killing for down
there, we would have heard about it. Don’t you think?”
    Although Mirissa knew all too well that there were many
things the general public wasn’t aware of, she nodded her agreement. “Thanks
for letting me know.”
    Her mother leaned in. “Let’s go.”
    As they walked down the hill, Mirissa shared what the man
told her. “If Daedric really took part in that excavation, I think it’s safe to
say he got what he wanted.”
    “But what did he want?” her mother asked. “We need to get
past the police line and see where they were working. There might be a clue.”
    “I can probably help with that,” Mirissa said. “If we come
back after dark, I’ll teleport in.”
    “Then that’s what we’ll do.” Her mother turned away from the
ruins and headed toward their car.
    Mirissa didn’t follow. She needed to see one of the ruins
first. At least, she felt compelled in that direction. Not so much a conscious
thought as an instinct.
    She made her way through the grid lines of the ancient city
toward the Agora in the center. Incredible mosaics surrounded her, but only one
attracted her attention. When she reached the remains of what the pamphlets
called The House of the Abduction of
Helen, she stepped over the rope used to keep tourists back and onto the
floor of one of the antechambers.
    “Mirissa? Are you okay?” Greco called to her.
    She turned to answer but stopped short. Greco and the rest
of the team still stood there against the backdrop of the ruins, but another
image had superimposed itself on top of them. Trees with lush foliage now
encircled them from afar, stretching to the sky. Below their feet lay a thick
blanket of grass, the scent of which barely registered. What the hell?
    Bit by bit the details of the scene filled in around her—deer
running into the woods, passing through the ruins like ghosts; a group of birds
taking flight, squawking angrily at whatever disturbed them. A thunderous noise
emanated from her right, getting louder by the second. Are those horses?
    “Mirissa?”
    The voice belonged to her mother, but Mirissa couldn’t bring
herself to speak, as she struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. The
action played out before her like a video sloppily recorded over another,
without quite erasing it.
    Angry cries pierced the air as hundreds of female warriors on
horseback burst through the tree line, long hair flowing from under their
helmets. Beautiful armor protected their shapely bodies, and their bows were
held at the ready. Mirissa gasped