Pegasus and the New Olympians (7 page)

Alexis’s green eyes sparkled and she smiled demurely. ‘Thank you, Earl. It is a pleasure to finally meet a human who appreciates true beauty.’ She shot a look at Emily. ‘Some people only regard me as a …’ She paused. ‘What were the words you used, Emily? Oh yes, now I remember, “an overgrown, green eyed, flying house cat”.’

Emily’s face reddened. She didn’t think the Sphinx knew what she’d called her.

Earl turned to Emily in shock. ‘You didn’t!’

Emily shrugged. ‘Well, I …’

‘It is all right,’ Alexis said as she patted Earl’s hand with her large paw. ‘I understand fully. She is jealous of me. She knows I am the better woman.’

Emily inhaled sharply. ‘I am not jealous!’

Alexis looked up at Earl and nodded her head. ‘She is.’

Beside them, Pegasus nickered as his eyes sparkled.

‘It’s not funny, Pegs,’ Emily shot.

Suddenly Joel appeared in the room. His face was ashen. ‘Em, you’ve got to see this. We have a big problem!’

Emily followed Joel into the small office.

Chrysaor was deeply troubled. The large boar was shaking his head back and forth and fluttering his coarse brown wings. Agent T was at his laptop computer furiously tapping away on the keyboard while Paelen was tearing through a scrapbook. Joel approached a large bulletin board on the wall. Newspaper articles were pinned all over it.

‘What’s that?’ Emily asked.

‘We’ve been keeping a record of Olympian sightings,’ Earl explained.

‘What sightings?’

‘Look.’ Joel pointed at a newspaper clipping. There was a blurry photo at the top of the article that looked like it had been taken with a security camera. The headline read:
Woman wanted for murder
.

Emily peered closer and her jaw dropped. ‘That’s Diana!’ She looked back at Earl. ‘Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?’

‘I started to …’ Earl defended himself.

‘But I stopped him from mentioning it,’ Agent T finished.

‘Why?’

‘I wanted to know why you were here first.’ Agent T stood up and walked towards Emily. ‘But if this isn’t the real Diana, these sightings and the clone theory must be linked.’

‘It can’t be Diana,’ Emily insisted. ‘What’s this woman done?’

‘She is wanted for robbery and murder,’ Agent T said.

Pegasus whinnied loudly while Emily cried, ‘What?’

Agent T nodded. ‘I saw this article a few months back and thought Diana had returned to Earth. Earl and I have been searching for any unusual stories that suggest it could be Olympians.’

‘Until y’all came back today, we really thought this was her,’ Earl added. ‘I ain’t never met the lady myself, but Tom has. He says she’s strong and mean enough to do this.’

‘Tom?’ Emily asked.

Agent T nodded. ‘My real name is Thomas. I know what Diana is capable of. I was the one who supervised the tests on her when we had you at the Governors Island facility. When I saw this article, I was convinced she was back.’

‘We swear it wasn’t her!’ Joel said. ‘Yeah she was here for a quick trip with Apollo and Emily’s father, but there’s
no way
that’s her. They were being inconspicuous and, anyway, she just wouldn’t!’

Agent T rubbed his chin. A troubled expression crossed his face. ‘Then this may be further evidence that the CRU have created clones. But if it’s true, how are the clones on the loose? First there was Tornado Warning and now these sightings. I know for certain the CRU will not be releasing them into the community. That would be too dangerous and raise far too many uncomfortable questions. The clones must be escaping somehow. But how are they getting around CRU security systems?’

Emily turned back to Pegasus, who was standing at the threshold. ‘It says the mysterious woman and her large accomplice broke into a jewellery store. They killed the owner and several employees and then stole a lot of jewels. The article says there was a walk-in safe at the back of the store. They don’t understand how, but the heavy door was ripped off and the contents taken. It also says that there was one survivor of the massacre. He claimed that the woman’s accomplice was a monster. It had four arms. Its face was covered but it was huge and super-strong. It ripped the door right off the safe. He said he got a look at one of the creature’s hands and it was dark grey.’

‘That’s a Nirad!’ Paelen said.

Earl looked at Agent T. ‘I told you so! You wouldn’t believe me when I said it could be a Nirad.’

‘When you told me, Olympus was still at war with the Nirads. It wasn’t logical for Diana to be working with one. That they could be clones was never a consideration.’

‘But it is now,’ Joel said.

Emily nodded. ‘The article says the police think the man was in shock and didn’t understand what he was seeing. They say the accomplice had been wearing a costume. There is a nationwide hunt for them going on right now.’

In the doorway, Pegasus whinnied loudly. He pounded the floor with his hoof and tore a large hole in the carpet. Chrysaor squealed loudly. After their heated exchange, Paelen translated. ‘They believe this is confirmation of our worst fears. We know for certain that this wasn’t Diana or a Nirad – they would never kill so senselessly. The only explanation is that they are creations of the CRU. This world is in even more danger. If Jupiter were to find out …’

‘We know,’ Agent T shot. ‘He’ll destroy us.’

Alexis was scanning the photos in the newspaper clippings. ‘There have been multiple sightings of this Diana woman all over the country. The riddle is this: is that the same woman appearing in all these different locations, or is there more than one?’

‘It is not just Diana,’ Paelen said as he pulled a paper from the scrapbook. ‘It appears I have been up to mischief as well.’ He held up an article with a mug shot of a teenager that looked just like him. The boy was holding up a sign with a series of numbers beneath it. Though the face was Paelen’s, the expression in the eyes was very different. The boy’s eyes were wild and terrified.

Paelen handed the article to Emily. ‘What does this say?’

Emily read the story. ‘It seems this boy was caught after breaking into a chocolate shop. They found him on the floor ravenously eating an entire tray of chocolates. The police caught him and took him to the station. It says the boy never spoke a single word and appeared petrified. After he was booked and photographed, he attacked the guards and managed to escape. One witness said he was super-strong and tossed everyone around like they weighed nothing. He then seemed to squeeze himself through an impossibly small window. They are still looking for him, but think he’s left the area.’

‘I thought that was you in that article,’ Earl said to Paelen. ‘But if it ain’t, then we’re all in a heap of trouble.’

‘I swear it is not I,’ Paelen insisted. ‘Though I must admit, I do like chocolate. But had it been me, I would not have been caught.’

‘Emily, where did that story happen?’ Joel asked.

Emily scanned the article. ‘Las Vegas.’ She looked back up to the wall and the article with the woman who looked like Diana. ‘Where was the jewellery store?’

‘Salt Lake City, Utah,’ Joel read. ‘And this one has Diana in Denver, Colorado. And here is a sighting in Virginia.’

‘We’ve found articles about them from all over,’ Earl said. ‘If they ain’t the real Diana and a Nirad, where are they coming from?’ He looked at Agent T. ‘What CRU facility could be creating clones?’

Agent T shrugged. ‘I don’t know. There are multiple facilities all over this country. We also have several others scattered around the world. Any one of them could be doing it.’

‘Just how big is the CRU?’ Joel asked.

‘It’s massive,’ Agent T answered. ‘It’s larger than the CIA, FBI and FSA, combined.’

Emily sucked in her breath. ‘How is that possible? I don’t understand how they could be so big and no one really knows about them!’

‘That is the way it was set up. I was recruited into the CRU straight from university. They have been around since the nineteen-thirties. They don’t answer to the President or Congress. They are completely self-governing and independent.’

Silence filled the room as everyone tried to digest the new information. Until now, no one had any idea just how large and dangerous the CRU really were. Finally Alexis approached Agent T. She raised herself up on her hind haunches and placed her paws on his shoulders. Her claws were out as she held her furious face centimetres from his. ‘Tell me now. How do we find out which facility is creating these Olympians?’

‘There is only one way I can think of,’ Agent T answered, again meeting the Sphinx’s challenge without fear. ‘We’ve got to find that racehorse. If he is a clone, we will find his owner and demand to know where he got him.’

‘Did you find Tornado Warning?’ Emily asked.

‘Yes and no,’ the ex-CRU agent answered. When the Sphinx released him, he reached for the pages he’d printed. ‘There are countless articles about him. After the win at the Triple Crown, his owner reported that he’s retiring him. Tornado Warning is at his home stables at the Double R Ranch in California. His owner is a man called Rip Russell. He says he’s putting the stallion out to stud.’

‘Stud?’ Emily cried. ‘If he is a clone of Pegasus and they start to breed him …’

‘There could be a lot of winged horses being born,’ Paelen finished.

Pegasus went mad. The stallion pounded the floor and reared up in fury until his head struck and cracked the ceiling. He kicked a hole in the wall behind him and screamed before trotting down the short hall into the living area, where he took his rage out on the furniture in the room.

As a coffee table shattered to splinters, Emily ran up to him. ‘Pegs, calm down!’ she soothed. ‘Please, you can’t let anyone hear you!’

Pegasus snorted and continued to pound the floor, shattering the white tiles beneath him. Chrysaor ran up to the stallion, trying to calm him down.

‘I promise you we won’t let that happen,’ Emily said. ‘We’ll go out there and stop them.’

‘We will,’ Joel agreed as he and the others followed. ‘We won’t let them do this.’

Emily looked desperately to the others. ‘Should we go now? We could use the Solar Stream to get there.’

Alexis shook her head. ‘That would not be wise. We have been here longer than expected already. If we enter the Solar Stream, it may arouse Jupiter’s suspicions. If you wish to protect this world and remain hidden until we solve this riddle, we must travel by other means.’

‘But we can’t fly over three thousand miles in one night,’ Emily said.

‘No we cannot,’ the Sphinx agreed. ‘We must avoid being seen.’

‘That’s easy for you to say,’ Emily challenged. ‘Pluto gave you his helmet of invisibility. But that won’t help Pegasus or Chrysaor.’

Pegasus nickered. Paelen said, ‘He says we have no choice. We must find Tornado Warning before he reproduces. We can fly by night and hide during the day.’

‘So it’s settled,’ Agent T said. He turned to Earl. ‘Pack up, we leave tonight.’

Everyone turned to the ex-CRU agent.

‘What are you all looking at?’ Agent T challenged. ‘You don’t expect me to sit idly by while you kids determine our planet’s future? I may be ex-CRU, but I still care for this world. I have skills and specialist knowledge you will need. If the CRU really are behind this, who better to help than me?’

After much arguing, it was finally agreed that taking Agent T and Earl with them would be the best option. With the CRU still pursuing them, it was time for the two men to move on anyway. Agent T also voiced deep concerns that the Olympians may have been spotted in the Florida skies before they arrived. He drew out all his weapons and prepared to fight. While Agent T guarded the inside of the house, Alexis put on Pluto’s helmet and prepared to guard the exterior.

When she first donned the helmet, Emily feared it didn’t work. She could still see the Sphinx. But when the others couldn’t see Alexis they concluded that this was another one of Emily’s hidden powers. Emily watched the Sphinx go into the backyard. Alexis spread her wings wide and launched into the air and flew up to the roof of the small house. There she settled to watch for any approaching danger.

Exhausted from the long night, the others settled down for some much needed rest. Pegasus was too upset to settle, but stood watch over Emily and the others as they slept on the sofa.

At sunset, Pegasus woke Emily and Joel. Paelen was already up and eating ambrosia cakes smothered in honey, cherry jam, half a bag of sugar and chocolate syrup. Emily was surprised to find the Sphinx working closely with Agent T. The two had laid out maps on the dining-room table and, using Agent T’s compass, they were plotting their course to Ramona, California, where the Double R Ranch was located.

As she rose from the sofa and stretched, Emily studied Pegasus. The stallion had calmed some, but his eyes were still too bright and alert. The news of Tornado Warning going out to stud had badly affected him.

‘Are you all right, Pegs?’ she asked softly as she stroked the stallion’s neck.

Pegasus looked at her. Deep in his eyes she saw the vision of the two of them soaring in the night skies over Olympus. This was Pegasus’s dream: to be back safely home with her.

‘I wish we were back there too,’ Emily agreed. ‘I hate what the CRU might have done. But we’ll stop them, Pegs. I know we will.’

Pegasus nudged Emily and she hugged his neck tightly.

‘Is he all right?’ Joel asked as he came up.

‘He will be,’ Emily said, ‘once this is over.’

Joel reached out and patted the winged stallion. ‘Pegasus, we could be wrong, you know. Tornado Warning could just be a very fast racehorse. And that woman the police are looking for? She may just look like Diana. Who knows, we could be back in Olympus in a day or two and laughing about this.’

Emily knew Joel too well. He was saying this for Pegasus. Deep in his heart, he didn’t believe it. But she was grateful to him for trying.

‘Joel’s right, Pegs,’ she agreed. ‘It could all be a strange coincidence.’

In the dining area Agent T was marking a course on the map. He looked up at Emily and Joel. ‘Good, you’re up. Earl’s in the kitchen. Grab yourselves something to eat, we’ll be leaving shortly. We’ve got a long flight ahead of us.’ He reached over and picked up a large sweatshirt and then a pair of gloves. ‘Joel, I’ve got these for you. Put it on and wear the gloves.’