The Search for Artemis (The Chronicles of Landon Wicker) (45 page)

Landon stared at the box, wondering how he could destroy it. His prospects looked bleak; it was encased in a metal container at the front of aircraft, and Landon sat farthest from it in the back. There would be no opportunity for him to get the atomizer without someone noticing. As he focused on it more and more, he realized he could sense something—the atomizer. It fell within his tactometric sphere, and he could feel its presence through the metal. Unlike the Nitranos vault, the cargo box wasn’t coated in ichorium. And why would it be? It was in the
Alpha Chariot
, safely guarded by the loyal members of the Pantheon.

Landon shut his eyes and tried to block out the noises in the cabin, attempting to concentrate solely on his abilities and sense the device as clearly as he could. After Thought Reception, Tactometry was his worst area of training. He couldn’t get a clear picture of his surroundings unless he really concentrated and even then, the objects were generally fuzzy, not concrete and definable as they were supposed to be after extensive practice.

Even so, Landon felt the atomizer. Initially, his perception of it was blurry. He could tell it was a little, hard sphere, like a glass paperweight. He knew, however, that there must be a number of components inside it that made the invention work, but he couldn’t discern them. What he could feel was the hollow space in the center of the invention, presumably the cavity where it stored the chemical substance to be dispersed.

Being able to sense the device changed everything, but Landon had to think quickly. The flight back to the Gymnasium wasn’t very long, so his timeframe to do something narrowed with every passing second. After wracking his brain to come up with every possible option, he realized there was only one: He had to destroy it. But he needed to do it in a very specific way. If he managed to make it look like it destroyed itself, the team might very well conclude that it had some kind of self-destruct contraption build into it as a safeguard against theft. If he did it right, he would look completely innocent of any tampering.

To help his alibi, Landon slumped down in his chair and rested his head against the side of the aircraft, hoping to give the impression that the intensity of the mission had exhausted him, and he was taking a quick power nap. Then, as inconspicuously as possible, he refocused his abilities and concentrated on the hollow center of the atomizer. He took his time, making sure he was ready and able to do what he planned before setting his plot in motion. He only had one chance, and if he did it wrong, it would be evident that someone had intentionally destroyed the atomizer.

When he felt comfortable, Landon took a deep, nervous breath in through his nose and attempted to set off an explosion of telekinetic force inside the hollow area of the device. Hoping his abilities would do what he imagined, he concentrated on a point and thought of the air around that point being forced out with a massive amount of power. His shock when he heard a concussive sound emanate from the metal storage container was matched by the immediate reactions of everyone in the
Alpha Chariot
.

Landon opened his eyes and jumped as if surprised. Cortland was first to disengage his harness and rush to the box. Landon watched as the metal top slid open, eagerly yet nervously awaiting Cortland’s reaction to what he discovered inside. The smoke trail that escaped from the container made Landon feel hopeful, but it wasn’t over yet.

“The atomizer!” Cortland slouched, clearly dismayed, as he lifted a handful of debris out of the container. “It’s ruined.”

“What do you mean ruined?” Brock asked forcefully from the cockpit.

“Like I said,”—Cortland sounded annoyed. Landon was always amazed at how quickly people become agitated when a situation became the least bit tense—“it’s ruined. Nitranos must have installed some kind of anti-theft tech. I’m guessing it was proximity-based; we had to take it a certain distance from their lab to trigger the explosive.”

Landon wore a contrived look of surprise, but in the back of his mind he allowed himself a heavy sigh of relief. It had worked; he had managed to complete what Celia had asked of him. The device was destroyed, and Cortland had said, without provocation, exactly what Landon had needed him to say.

“It’s ruined?” Brock asked again in shock.

“Yes, it’s ruined!” Cortland yelled back. “It’s beyond ruined,” Landon heard him add softly under his breath as he brushed off tiny dust particles of the atomizer on his thigh and returned to his seat.