Herculean (Cerberus Group Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

working to correct that deficiency, with a regimen of exercise and mixed-martial arts training. It was slow going, but evidently it was possible for an old dog to learn a few new tricks.
    He bounded up the stairs, shaking out the mild pain in his shoulder. As he rounded the landing, he saw no sign of pursuit. The watchman was either still recovering or knocked out cold. Pierce’s elation faltered a little as he considered the possibility that he might have seriously injured the man.
    Nothing you can do about it now , he told himself. Focus on the mission .
    The mission.
    Burglary and brawling weren’t the only new tricks he’d had to learn since taking on his new role as the leader of the Herculean Society.
    As an archaeologist and a historian, he had been committed to advancing the cause of knowledge. Only by learning about the past could mankind chart the course to a better future. Or so he had always believed. But experience had taught him a lesson that no textbook ever could. Some secrets needed to stay buried.
    Six years earlier, this point had been driven home when the truth he had wanted so badly to discover had nearly cost him his humanity.
    Ultimately, only the intervention of the Herculean Society had saved him. Alexander Diotrephes had pulled him from the brink. Only later would Pierce learn another astonishing secret: Diotrephes was the immortal Hercules, and he’d created the vast organization, which had literally rewritten history over the course of thousands of years. Pierce had made a career of uncovering history, but it had now become his job, his mission, to conceal it. The old saying about being doomed to repeat history if you didn’t know it, wasn’t always true. Sometimes the only way to not repeat history was to have no idea it had ever existed.
    The second floor of the museum was laid out in a sideways H-shape. The gallery where Pierce now found himself formed one side of the H, with stairs at either end. Two parallel rooms bisected the exhibit hall and provided access to the rooms that comprised the other side of the H. There was an emergency door in the far corner of one of those rooms. The only problem was the door alarm. He could use the induction field generator—his black box—to fool it, but that would take time.
    The alarm!
    Pierce’s guts twisted into a knot of dread as he realized that Fiona would be facing a similar problem, and without the black box to help her. He imagined her standing in front of the door through which they had entered, wondering what to do. This was something that had not come up during their rehearsal.
    Damn it. I screwed up .
    He briefly considered trying to send Fiona a text message, acknowledging the problem, but it occurred to him that there was a more direct way of communicating with her. He just hoped she would be able to interpret the message.
    He ran headlong through the galleries, following the illuminated signs to the emergency door, but he did not take out the black box. Nor did he slow down. Instead, he hit the door at a full run.
    A piercing siren shattered the deceptive stillness. A moment later, a second alarm joined the shrieking symphony.
    Fiona had received the message: Screw the alarm. Just go for it .
    Now it was time for him to do the same.
    Ignoring the commotion, Pierce flipped on his flashlight and scanned the corridor in which he now found himself. An illuminated arrow on an overhead ‘Exit’ sign pointed the way to a door marked in both Greek and English with the words: Fire Stairs.
    He weighed his options. The fire stairs would be the most direct path to freedom, but that also made it a dangerous choice. Would the guard be waiting for him to emerge? Were the police already on their way?
    Too risky , he decided. But maybe there was another way out of the building. He dashed down the corridor, checking each door until he found one marked with the word:
     

     
    Roof.
    Perfect .
    He twisted the doorknob but it refused to turn.