Evolved [Book 2 of the Life Hearts Trilogy]

The Ultimate Betrayal

I woke abruptly as Jimmy yelled in my ear, "WAKE UP PEARL'S GONE!!"

I screamed and sat up suddenly. My head knocked into Jimmy's. "OW!"

Scar snickered.

"Don't search for her," I said, remembering the dream. "She'll be fine."

My head started throbbing. I put a hand to it.

Scott looked around. "No, she won't! They're going to kill her, just like last time!"

I shook my head, which made the pain worse. "I talked with the Listener last night. They're going to try to recruit her. If she accepts, they'll send her back alive. If not, well, then we can worry. I just hope she takes the offer and becomes a mole."

Scott, Jimmy, and Scar nodded uneasily and looked around in silence, hoping for a hint that she was there.

She came back an hour later. "I escaped," she panted. "We need to get moving."

Then she shot us a significant look. We'll talk later, when we're not being spied on.

Or at least, that's what I got from it. So I stayed quiet.

We had our stuff packed and were walking in less than ten minutes. Pearl kept glancing around, so much that I couldn't help doing a little myself. But other than a glimpse of yellow once, I saw no sign that we were being watched.

"So, what are we going to be doing next?" Pearl said.

"Dunno," I answered, playing along. Scar and Jimmy obviously had no idea what was going on, so they stayed quiet.

We stopped in a clearing for lunch. Pearl pulled out a book and pen and started to write.

"What are you writing?" I asked her.

"Just a little story," she answered. "Pass the time, you know?" She handed me the book.

She was in fact writing a story. But I skipped to the bottom, where she had written, They offered to recruit me. I accepted and volunteered to be a mole. Don't worry, though, it was just to stay alive. They're spying on us to make sure I'm trustworthy and don't give away anything. Don't say anything important.

I passed the book to Scott. "That's really cool," I said, hoping that the Red Army, or whichever member of it was watching us, was far enough away to not be able to read the page.

Scott passed the book to Jimmy, who read the message and passed it to Scar. Scar seemed to want to read the whole thing, story included. We were going to be here a while.

Might as well flex, while the Red Army was watching.

I pulled out the Nether Star and turned it in my hands. Take that, Red Army, I thought smugly. "So what are we going to do with this?" I asked.

"It's yours," Scott shrugged. "You decide."

"Very helpful," I muttered.

"I think we should destroy it," Jimmy said.

Everyone stared at him. Then Scar said, "No!"

I looked at the jewel. "Maybe we should. We're going to be moving around anyway, there's really no place to put a beacon. If we're not going to be using it, then maybe we should just drop it into the next lava pit we find."

"There's a lot of cactus at the Shadow Tower," Pearl said. She wasn't actually trying to get us to go there, she was just trying to get our kidnapping eavesdroppers to think she was trying to bring us, and by extension the Nether star, there.

"No," I said. "I'm not going back there."

Pearl slumped her shoulders just barely enough to be noticable. She was a convincing actress.