Too far, she realized.
With a grimace, knowing every second counted, she recalled her mental map of the museum as she hopped off the chair and raced up the stairs again, unwilling to cross the main foyer. Creeping as quietly as she could to the stairs south of her position, she descended and paused to listen when she reached the landing.
Still no one.
Take a breath, Andie.
She slipped into an area she didn’t recall from the map, full of local flora and fauna. She left that and entered the North American forests exhibit, breathing a sigh of relief when she found a window on the side of the room overlooking the corner of Seventy-Seventh and Central Park West. Just across the street loomed the dark expanse of the park, an inkblot in the center of the city.
She clambered onto the beehive exhibit and leaned over to smash the window with a side elbow. The breaking glass seemed as loud as an explosion. She tensed for an alarm that never came and kept striking the window until she had cleared enough space to pull herself through. Avoiding the shards of glass as best she could, she heard a barked command from inside the museum. She dove into a bed of rosebushes, resisting the urge to scream as the thorns tore into her arms and face. Bloodied, she lurched to her feet, pawing through the mass of shrubs. A handful of people were walking on the sidewalk. Cars and taxis and buses. The bubble of normalcy gave her a burst of confidence.
A glance to her left brought her crashing back to reality. She saw a man and a woman in baseball caps and athletic clothes running from the main entrance, less than two hundred feet away. They kept their gait nonchalant, and could have been runners out for a night jog, but Andie knew better. They were veering right toward her.
It was tempting to shout for help, but she knew that wouldn’t get her anywhere. She had to reach the tunnels. As she fled across Central Park West, a taxi slammed on its brakes. The driver shrieked at her in a foreign language at the same time Andie heard the whine of two motorcycle engines approaching. Just before she entered the park, she glanced back and saw two bikers calmly drop their motorcycles, take off their helmets, and look right at her before strolling into the green space. The pair of Ascendants in baseball caps were crossing the street farther north, trying to cut her off.
Running for her life, Andie dove into the sultry embrace of the park. She was engulfed by the sound of crickets as she wove through the trees looming above her in the darkness. Shadows filled the pockets of light thrown from the streetlamps. The lack of noise from the Ascendants chasing her was unnerving, deadly predators stalking their prey in silence.
Andie ran straight through the park, hopping boulders and benches, crashing through beds of wildflowers. Going on instinct, she cut left once she passed the edge of the lake, hoping she hadn’t overshot the castle. She ran as she never had before, telling herself it wasn’t that far, drawing on every last reserve.
That’s a turret up ahead! With a burst of speed, she darted across the paved transverse and approached the castle. All she had to do was circle the building, slip through the door in the rear she had left cracked, and disappear into the tunnels.
A pair of security lights were mounted on the walls of the castle. Hunched low and hugging the wall, she circumnavigated the stone wall until she found the door on the far side from which she had emerged earlier in the day.
It was locked.
No, no, no.
Stay calm, Andie. It’s not that surprising. A security guard must have closed it. You can do this. There’s a window right over there you can smash open, and you’ll be gone before they—
“Going somewhere?”
The voice caused Andie to stand paralyzed, like a rabbit frozen in plain sight. A man dressed all in black emerged from the edge of the building, stepping calmly beneath one of the security lights, a pair of night goggles around his neck.
Jianyu.
Andie found her courage and rushed him, snapping a roundhouse kick into his midsection. He caught her leg in midair, swept her other leg out, and held her by the arms as she fell. His grip was like iron, and he had handled her so easily it made her wonder if he was the Archon.
“There’s a passage beneath the city inside the castle, isn’t there?” he said. “It’s how you arrived at the museum.”
“Let me go!”
More people slithered like eels out of the darkness, a dozen of them at least, men and women from a wide range of nationalities, surrounding her and Jianyu with laser-scoped firearms trained on Andie.
Jianyu released her. “Do you know why my communication with my sister cut off?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jianyu studied her face with a neutral expression. “We shall see. Where is the device?”
“Here. You can have it.” Andie pulled Zawadi’s phone out of her pocket and tried to erase the text exchange before Jianyu slapped her so hard she saw stars. As Andie stumbled to a knee, he yanked the phone away and saw that it was not the Star Phone. He pulled her to her feet and gripped her by the pressure point on the underside of her right elbow. When she tried to squirm free, he squeezed harder, causing her to swoon.
“If you
