Lie to Me (Pearl Island Trilogy #4)(59)

With a deep breath, Chloe followed him down the dark passage. As they neared the source of noise and colored light, she saw red laser beams streak through the darkness, heard male voices shouting taunts. Reaching the end of the hallway, she gaped in wonder at a high-ceilinged space crisscrossed with rope bridges. Moving beams of light made the area feel like a prison compound during an escape attempt. Before she could take it all in, someone charged out of the darkness, nearly knocking her over as he ran past.

An explosion of noise, like blasts from a ray gun, filled the air as the figure dove over an object that looked like a sofa.

“You die, troll!” someone shouted from across the room.

“Up yours, scumbag!” The first figure popped up from behind the sofa and fired back, driving his opponent behind a column. More blasting sounds came from overhead. Chloe looked up to see a third figure firing down from the railing on the second floor. From what she could make out, the industrial-looking rail ringed the open area on three sides while a rock climbing wall took up the fourth.

More blasts were exchanged until the first figure popped up, clutching his chest as his vest went crazy with blinking red lights. Emitting an agonized cry, he collapsed out of sight behind the sofa.

“Victory!” the figure on the second floor lifted his weapon in celebration.

“Not so fast, Martin.” The figure who had taken cover behind the column fired a round of blasts toward the second floor.

“You dare break a truce?” The combatant on the second floor growled as he aimed. “Die for your impudence!”

“Come and get me,” the guy behind the column shouted, then darted to a new hiding place in the darkness.

The guy named Martin on the second floor jumped over the rail onto one of the rope bridges. He raced along it until he reached a rope that hung from the center of the ceiling. Holstering his ray gun, he grabbed the rope and swung down, rappelling off the rock climbing wall. He finally dropped to his feet on the ground floor.

“Halt!” someone shouted from above before Martin could retrieve his weapon. Martin stopped with his hand halfway to his weapon, moving only his head to glance upward. Chloe looked up as well to the third floor railing directly above her, where arms extended past the rail, training a weapon on the man.

“You and Eddie have broken the rules of the game for the last time with your secret deals and truces,” the man overhead declared. Luc? Chloe wondered. With the voice distorted for drama, she couldn’t tell, but her pulse drummed at the thought as he intoned, “Beg for pity, or die!”

Drawn by the voice, she stepped forward and tilted her head up to see. Her breath caught at the sight of Luc looking so menacing, with a gun held in both hands.

Movement from below caught Luc’s eye. He jerked his weapon downward, preparing to fire, then froze in shock.

In that split second of distraction, Martin whipped his weapon from its holster and fired. Luc’s vest erupted with flashing red light and the shrill noise of a hit. The vibrations surrounding his chest felt like a heart attack, and he nearly dropped his weapon.

“Blade dies!” Martin shouted, dancing in victory.

Luc ignored him as he stared down at the woman who had materialized in his inner sanctum. “Chloe?”

“Dude, I killed you!” Martin complained. “You’re supposed to die.”

“What are you doing here?” Luc asked in shock.

“I—” Chloe glanced nervously about, then back up at him. “I came to see you.”

“Man,” Martin groused, “talk about breaking the rules of the game.”

Luc couldn’t move. Of all the scenarios he’d run through his head for the next time he saw Chloe—if he ever saw her again—having her walk into Vortal Headquarters in the middle of a game of laser tag hadn’t even made the list. Embarrassment started to engulf him but he shoved it aside. He was who he was. If she considered laser tag dorky, so be it. He was one badass dork!

Just then, the Bonus Power Panel on the second floor lit up. A computerized voice started counting down to detonation. Everyone on the ground floor ran to the opposite side of the room, firing up at the blinking panel, hoping to knock it out and claim the super powers. If no one knocked it out, everyone within its destruction radius would die. Zeke charged out from the same passage from which Chloe had emerged, his death time over.

Chloe covered her ears, flinching as if she stood in the middle of a real gun battle.

Luc started to run for cover to avoid permanent death for this game, but a quick calculation stopped him. Since Martin’s shot had only hit his shoulder, his current death time was brief enough to expire almost simultaneously with the detonation. Deciding to stand his ground and chance it so he could end this game and focus on Chloe, he trained his weapon on the blinking center of the Bonus Power Panel.

“Four. Three.” It was going to be close. “Two.”

Luc squeezed the trigger an instant before the voice said “One.” A red beam shot from his laser, hitting the panel dead center. Chloe shrieked as the panel emitted an explosion of sound and light. His gun beeped, letting him know he’d gained the bonus power of rapid fire. The others heard it and tried to dive for cover as he opened fire, blasting away with the speed of a machine gun. Vests lit up all over as Zeke, Martin, Farrell, and Bobby clutched their chests. They screamed dramatically, their bodies jerking and spinning as they fell to the floor, all of them “dead.”