Read Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files Online
Authors: Pittacus Lore
Tags: #Adventure, #Science Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Juvenile Fiction, #Survival Stories, #Action & Adventure, #Young Adult, #Fantasy, #Love & Romance, #Social Issues, #Adolescence, #Suspense, #Azizex666, #Fiction, #General, #Romance
Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files (62 page)
I know where I’m going before I get there. The steady incline of the floor lands me in the wide room lined with prison cells.
There they are. Setrákus Ra is standing in the middle of the room. He is
huge
and truly revolting looking. And there’s Sam. He’s suspended inside a small spherical cage next to him. His own private torture bubble.
© HOWARD HUANG
PITTACUS LORE
is Lorien’s ruling Elder. He has been on Earth preparing for the war that will decide Earth’s fate. His whereabouts are unknown.
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THE LORIEN LEGACIES BY PITTACUS LORE
NOVELS
I AM NUMBER FOUR
THE POWER OF SIX
THE RISE OF NINE
THE FALL OF FIVE
NOVELLAS
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #1: SIX’S LEGACY
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #2: NINE’S LEGACY
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #3: THE FALLEN LEGACIES
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #4: THE SEARCH FOR SAM
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #5: THE LAST DAYS OF LORIEN
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES #6: THE FORGOTTEN ONES
NOVELLA COLLECTIONS
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: THE LEGACIES
(CONTAINS NOVELLAS #1–#3)
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: SECRET HISTORIES
(CONTAINS NOVELLAS #4–#6)
I AM NUMBER FOUR: THE LOST FILES: THE LAST DAYS OF LORIEN. Copyright © 2013 by Pittacus Lore. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © 2013
ISBN 978-0-06-221878-0
EPUB Edition March 2013 ISBN 9780062218780
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Contents
MY EYES FLY OPEN, BUT I DON’T SEE ANYTHING. Just darkness. My lungs feel weak and heavy, like they’re coated in a thick layer of grime, and when I cough, a cloud of dust swirls around me, making me cough more until I’m about to hack up a lung. My head is throbbing, foggy and immobile. My arms are pinned to my sides.
Where am I?
As the dust settles, my coughing finally subsides and I begin to remember.
New Mexico. Dulce. Wait—did all that really happen?
I want to believe it was all just a dream. But by now I know enough to realize that there’s no such thing as
just a dream
anyway. And this was no dream. I was the one who brought this place down. Without even knowing how I did it, I took the power that One had given me and brought a whole government base crashing down to its foundations.
Next time I pull a stunt like that, I’ll wait till I’m not
in
the place before I tear it apart. It made sense at the time. I guess I have some things to learn about having a Legacy.
Now everything around me is silent. I’ll take that as a good sign. It means that nobody’s trying to kill me anymore. Which means that they’re either just as buried as I am, or they’re dead. For now, I’m alone. One is dead. Malcolm and Sam are gone—they probably think I’m dead too. As for my family, they’d prefer it if I
was
dead.
No one would even know if I gave up here, right now, and there’s part of me that wants to. I’ve fought so hard. Isn’t it enough that I came this far?
It would be so easy just to stop struggling here, to stay buried. To stay forgotten.
If One were still here, she would toss her hair impatiently and tell me to snap out of it, to get over myself. She’d tell me that I’m not even halfway finished with the job she left me with and that there are bigger things to worry about than myself. She’d remind me that it’s not just my life that hangs in the balance.
But One isn’t here anymore, and so it’s up to me to tell myself those things.
I’m alive. That in itself is amazing. I’d triggered the explosives in the armory with the full knowledge that it might be the last thing I did. I’d done it so Malcolm
Goode, the man who’d started to feel like some kind of dad to me, could escape with his real son, Sam. I figured that if they got away, at least I would have died doing one good thing.
But I didn’t die. For now, at least. And I figure that if I’m still alive despite everything, there has to be a reason for it. There’s still something I need to do.
So I try to slow my racing heart, breathe steadily, and assess the situation. I’m buried, yes. But there’s air here, and I can move my head, my shoulders, even my arms a little. Good. My breathing stirs up more dust and that shows me which way is up, and also that there’s a little light seeping in from somewhere. And if there’s any light at all, it means I can’t be too far from the surface.
There’s no room for me to move my arms, but I struggle anyway, trying to push against the shattered stone and concrete I’m trapped under. It doesn’t do any good, of course. I’m not a vatborn with genetically enhanced strength or even a natural powerhouse like my adoptive brother, Ivan. I’m tall but slight and built like a regular human, with only moderately more physical ability. I’m not even sure if the most highly trained of the vatborn would be able to dig his way out of here; there’s no way
I
have any shot at all.