The Family - Volume 2

Chapter 7

The security guard was still chasing us through the maze of the Colosseum's underground passages. Until now, I'd never believed there could be such large galleries under this monument.

I was following Zoé as best I could as she rode ahead of me, and I wouldn't have believed it possible to see her walking so fast if I hadn't seen her with my own eyes. She really amazed me on this mission, and I even had the pleasant feeling that I wasn't much use to anyone.

Behind us, the security guard seemed to be struggling to keep up and we were gradually losing him. Nevertheless, I could still hear him bellowing incomprehensible things - maybe he just wanted to invite us in for a coffee?

- Zoé! Do you realize what we're doing?

She turned around.

- Running away from the police? I think that's a perfectly normal reason to go through a forbidden passage.

- Don't talk nonsense, they're probably more familiar with the underground than we are, they'll be waiting for us at the exit and that'll be that.

- Are you afraid of vigilantes? I'm very disappointed in you, Joy.

I waited a moment for the information to reach my brain.

- What do you mean?" I said, confused.

Zoé didn't answer me.

- It doesn't matter," I continued, rearranging my thoughts. Emma had formally forbidden us to do so unless we were in real danger. And I don't think you were.

I turned right at a fork in the road to continue following Zoé. The passages were quite narrow in places, and I sometimes got my arms scratched by the old stone walls.

- Let's stop for a few seconds to catch our breath," said Zoé after a while. With all the twists and turns, unless we've had a stroke of luck, our pursuer must have lost sight of us.

- I hope so...

I sat down on the ground to recover.

- Did you find him otherwise?" asked Zoé, who seemed more concerned about my answer than our fate.

- Do you see anyone new in our duo?

- I asked back.

- That answers your question.

My patience had its limits, and Zoé had reached them without difficulty.

- It's not possible, what could I have done that was so diabolical as to end up with you? If you'd stuck to the role of the normal person, we wouldn't be in this mess. But no, you had to make your point. Now our chances of finding this boy are practically nil and we're completely lost in an underground labyrinth. Now I understand why it's not open to the public, it's so that no one gets lost and ends up here. Congratulations on this one, Zoé!

The latter brooded beside me.

- And if instead of complaining you don't think of a way out, it shouldn't be hard for One of the Mysterious.

I let out a long sigh.

- What had I said? Going on a mission with you is a load of rubbish, you can't even think straight and come up with a solution. You're always on your own.

- That's right, keep whining," mumbled Zoé, "you're nothing but dead weight and of no use to me anyway.

I was about to open my mouth to say something, but I held back. I had to put up with Zoé, just for the duration of the mission, I had to take it in my stride, I'd promised Emma. I got to my feet and took a deep breath.

- It didn't matter, the sooner the mission was over, the sooner I'd be rid of you.

I pulled the magic detector out of my pocket, hoping it would guide us to the exit and show us our target.

Zoé leaned over my shoulder and I could feel her warm breath on my neck.

- Your compass doesn't seem to be working too well," she said. You think finding north is going to do us any good?

Either Zoé was trying to sound completely selfish, or she really was. I didn't try to answer.

The arrow that was supposed to show us where our target was, was still moving all over the place, as if the instrument Emma had given us wasn't working properly.

Suddenly, I had a flash, a click formed in my head, a click I hadn't expected to be true. But as I quickly concentrated on all my senses and increased them slightly to go unnoticed, I caught a whiff of a scent, a scent I knew very well because it reminded me of Sting.

- In fact, I slowly formulated out loud what I had been thinking without realizing it. There are only three possible options: either we're looking for someone super-powered who moves at the speed of light, or our target's captor isn't far away, or both.

No sooner had I uttered those words than I bitterly regretted it; I knew very well which solution was the right one, and it certainly wasn't the best one.