Alright then...I've had this on my computer a while, and I figured I'd publish it. It will be a three part story, and the following three chapters are the complete epics of Book 1. Book 2 is in process of being written, and Book 3 is vaguely planned out. Anyways, I rather enjoyed writing it, so enjoy reading it!

Chapter 1: The Commission

Kade Cruz

I sat at my desk, my fingers tapping away at the keyboard in front of me. The room was overly hot and sticky, and the sound of the computers around me buzzing was driving me mad. I stared at the computer screen in front of me and smiled. Someone had commented on my Youtube page!

"Wow the things people believe. He thinks I live in Peru, am 33, and am a model. Stupid!" I laughed as I typed a message on his page.

As I waited, I reached into my jean pocket and pulled out my new cell phone. I began typing messages a mile a minute and still glanced up at the screen waiting for my cyber friend to answer. I gazed down at my black fingernails and crinkled my brow. A piece had chipped off! I slammed my cell on the desk and began to curse. A message popped up on the screen of my computer. "So you live in Peru? I'm visiting right now, so where do you live?" my cyber friend asked.

I stared blankly at the screen, thinking of many things I could say.

The door opened slowly. I turned in my chair to see my best friend Briana standing in the doorway, holding a brown paper bag. "Having Youtube trouble I see? Nothing good will come from that you know." Briana said as she placed the bag on my desk. "Oh shut up! Nothing bad will happen. He thinks I live in friggin' Peru!" I snapped as I ran my hand through my spiky dark brown hair. She shrugged it off and sat in a chair next to me.

"How long have you been in here?" Briana asked as she pulled out a dirty looking handgun.

"Um, about 48 hours. I've been on Youtube and texting, my eyes are killing me," I laughed as I noticed yet another comment appear on the screen.

It read, "Hey babe what's up?"

I laughed and began typing my message; Briana laughed and got to her feet, holding the gun in her hand. Once I was done, I opened the brown bag to find a large salad waiting for me. "Thank God, food! How did you know I was hungry?" I said as I popped open the lid.

"You've been in here for 48 hours and haven't eaten so I guessed! Duh!" Briana said; she looked at the gun in her hand, and threw it on her desk next to mine. I watched her sit down at the desk and pull out a set of headphones plugged in to the computer. She logged on and began typing. I turned back towards my own computer to check my Youtube page to find that my favorite website was having trouble with the server. "Shoot!" I exclaimed as I hit the monitor.

"What?" Briana snorted as she turned to me.

"Youtube crashed! My life is on there! Fudge!" I screamed as I hit the keyboard. As I did, another piece of my nail polish broke off.

"Fantastic! I hate today," I mumbled as I grabbed my phone and flipped it open.

"Well why don't you get to work on that new program you have to write. They hired you a week ago and you still haven't done anything. Why do you think everyone hires me not you?" Briana said matter-of-factly.

I glared and went back to trying to make Youtube work.

6 hours later Briana's voice cut through the silence.

"I got it! I hacked into NASA!" Briana shouted as she jumped out of her chair.

"Oh, let me see!" I said as I raced over to her desk. As we gazed at the secret pages of NASA, my cell began to ring.

"Oh my gosh, maybe it's—"

"He's not going to call you back, stop dreaming that he will."

I glared at my best friend as I reached in my back pocket for my phone. I pressed the answer button and put the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I said as I paced back and forth, hoping it was the person I wanted to speak to.

"Hello, my name is Maxwell Stafford." A male's voice sounded from the other end. I glanced over at Briana, only to find her fixing the gun she had brought in earlier.

"Um...that's nice. What do you want?"

"I work for Mr. Charles Bishop Weyland. I'm calling to make a proposition. Mr. Weyland has taken an interest in you and your business partner, and would like to meet with you tomorrow."

Unsure of how to react to this new information I stuttered back, "Umm...t-that would be really c-cool?"

"Good. I'll send the chopper to pick you up in two minutes. Good bye."

The line went dead, and all I could do was stare off blankly. Briana cleared her throat, effectively getting my attention.

"So, who was it? Another stupid person trying to actually hire you?"

I glared back, "Actually, it was some guy who worked for Weyland, and he wants to meet us."

Her eyes widened, "Well what did you say?"

"Yes, duh. What do you think I was going to say, 'Thanks, but I would much rather stay here and sit around all day?' Hello! There are big bucks involved if it works out. God, use that big brain of yours."

Briana glared at me. She was about to speak, but the loud noise of a chopper landing not too far away cut her off.

"Well, that's our ride. Let's go!"

I walked over to a large desk directly behind mine, filled with my favorite tech toys. Grabbing a simple black backpack, which also had a protective case inside for my laptop, I jammed my things in.

"My laptop, my cell phone, my backup cell phone, my iPod, my camera, my nail polish, and some snacks."

I slung my bag over my shoulder and waited for Briana. She too had a desk identical to mine, only filled with tech toys and many weapons. Not just guns mind you, she fixed anything and everything she could get her hands on.

"Whatcha' gonna' pack?" I asked, smiling at myself.

"The usual...let's see, iPod, cell phone, my gun, and my Palmpilot."

She shoved the things she had just named into a bag identical to mine, only without the laptop case. Slinging it over her shoulder, we walked out to the chopper. The man who called me greeted us, and we sat down in our respective seats.

12 hours later, I looked out the window and panicked. "Briana, did you notice that we are currently flying over ice covered water?"

She looked out the window and shrugged, "Looks like Antarctica to me."

I was panicking now, I hated being cold. "How can you be so calm, what if we actually have to stay here? I hate the cold, and there's like, no electricity."

Briana shook her head, "He's a billionaire. He probably has some secret hideout here. Chill out, were not going to die or anything."

Glaring at her, I turned my gaze back to the icy waters beneath us. Snuggling up to the blanket on top of me, I continued to glare out at the icy sea. Another 2 hours later, we landed on the top of a large cargo ship. Following Mr. Stafford, we met up with another small group of people, and he led us all into a large room. The room was filled with chairs and had a large picture projected onto one of the walls. From the looks of it, it was a picture taken by a satellite.

Briana sat down and said softly, "That looks like Antarctica."

I glared at her, I was cold and grumpy. "Does everything look like Antarctica to you today?"

She glared back at me; I turned my gaze away from her. She always made me feel small when she glared at me. Mumbling something to herself, she pulled her long black hair up into a ponytail. Apparently, Mr. Stafford had started the meeting already, and was introducing Mr. Weyland.

He started giving some stupid speech, which of course I paid no attention to. Turning my cell on silent, I started playing games on it. I was off in my own little world until I heard someone talking. They had an obvious Italian accent. Looking up, I saw one of the hottest guys I had seen in a while. He was talking about the pyramid's features.

"Thank you Sebastian."

"Sebastian...cute name." I said quietly to myself as he resumed his seat. I caught his eye, but turned away--didn't want to look creepy. Before I knew what was happening, Mr. Stafford was leading us to our rooms. According to Briana, we had just lost our guide and were now royally screwed. This whole ordeal was quickly becoming one big mess. I wondered why we were here and silently scolded myself for not paying attention more.

Briana was lying on the top bunk in our room. I settled into the bottom bunk and quickly fell asleep; I was exhausted from that 14-hour copter ride. I woke up to the sound of voices outside the door.

"I'm really am glad you decided to stay Lexi," said a distinctly Scottish voice—Graeme.

"Thanks, but you should get some sleep. It's late and we're going to be leaving very early."

I stood up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Opening the door, I was greeted with the sight of Lexi, Graeme, and Sebastian.

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to wake you up," said Graeme.

"It's ok. So you're staying?" I said to Lexi.

"Yes, you all stand a better chance with me than the guy Weyland wanted to hire as a replacement."

"Good, I'll have to tell Briana that we aren't royally screwed anymore."

Lexi smiled and left with Graeme, leaving me alone with Sebastian.

"I don't suppose that you'll be going to sleep again?" he said with his sexy Italian accent. I couldn't help but smile.

"No, I'm good until tomorrow, you?"

He returned my smile, "I'm still on a different time zone, so I'll be good until tomorrow as well. Want to go for a walk, it'll kill some time?"

I smiled even bigger, "Of course."

We climbed to the deck and walked all around the cargo ship. He told me about growing up in Italy, and he told me about his life as an archeologist. I told him about my job, what I did in my free-time, and some other facts about myself; I didn't mention my family or life when I was a kid. As we walked, our hands brushed every now and then. I was lost in memories, and didn't notice that he grabbed my hand until I saw the Northern Lights.

I felt a light prickling of warmth on my cheeks and was glad that my skin was dark enough to conceal it. We just stood there, on deck watching the Northern Lights illuminate the sky and holding hands. I must admit, I was in heaven. His hand was warm, and kept my unusually cold hand warm. I was so lost in my own little happy world, that I was paying no attention to the time.

"We should start getting ready, the suns rising."

I looked into the sky, and sure enough, the sun was just rising into the sky.

"Yea...I guess you're right. I had a nice time, thanks for keeping my company. It would have been extremely boring without someone else."

He smiled, and I could have sworn I saw his cheeks tint red, "No, thank you. It was definitely fun. I'll see you when we leave?"

"Definitely, I'll meet you back here in an hour."

He smiled, and let go of my hand. Turning he walked back under, most likely to get ready to leave. Following suite, I headed back to my room. As soon as I opened the door, Briana snapped at me.

"Where in God's name have you been all night? I was waiting for you, but you never came back!"

"Sorry, chill out Briana. I was walking around because I wasn't tired. Remember, I fell asleep as soon as we got in."

She grunted in response, and went back to messing with her gun. As I started double-checking everything, she said something totally out of the blue.

"Did you have fun with Sebastian?"

I dropped my bag and spun around, "What's that supposed to mean?"

She smirked, "Nothing, just don't let him get in the way. This is a job, not a vacation."

I chose to ignore her comment and went back to packing. An hour and a half later I was walking with Sebastian and Briana to the trucks that would take us to the site. The ride there was silent; everyone was lost in his or her own worlds. Twenty minutes passed before they stopped. The location where the team was going to drill was dismal-an abandoned whaling station.

"Great, could it have been any creepier?" I muttered angrily.

"Don't worry; I'm sure Sebastian will protect you." Briana said, clearly trying to tease me.

Again, I ignored her comment and followed Sebastian and Alexa. After all, one of her stupid rules was never go anywhere alone. When I turned around to make a snide comment to Briana, I froze. She was nowhere in sight. Completely forgetting about the rules and the mini-feud we were having I bolted back towards where I had last seen her. I lit a flare and looked in all the close buildings, paying no attention to the cold that was slowly numbing my fingers and toes. I didn't know how long I was looking, but before long I was exhausted. I was cold, tired, and panicking because I couldn't find Briana. I entered yet another building and lit my fourth flare. If I didn't find her soon, I'd be out of flares; and I seriously didn't want to be alone in an abandoned whaling station with no light source. Hearing movement, I walked farther into the building. It looked like where the whalers ate.

"What are you doing here Kade?"

I spun around and saw Briana standing in the doorway, holding an unlit flare. I dropped my light source and ran over, hugging her tightly.

"God, Briana, you gave me a heart attack. I looked back and you were gone. I thought you were following me!"

"I thought you were following me. I went off to see what they found. It was very cool. It's a tunnel drilled in 24 hours, at a perfect 30-degree angle, and it goes all the way down to the pyramid. We're going down in ten minutes, I was looking for you."

I smiled and let Briana lead me to the site of the mysterious tunnel. Lexi briefed us on how to properly use the equipment down to the pyramid and safety precautions. Once we were all hooked up, Lexi started going down. I was concentrating on not slipping or losing my grip. All of a sudden I heard shouting from up ahead. Looking up, I saw someone sliding down the tunnel. I gasped when I realized it was Weyland. He came closer; getting a good grip on my lead, I leaned out and stretched my arm out. He was sliding fast, and people tried in vain to stop him. As he slid by, I grabbed his arm. What I didn't take into account was that his force would knock me down, which it did. I landed hard on my stomach and gasped as the wind was knocked out of me. I saw that Lexi had managed to stop Weyland and relaxed. Sebastian reached me in no time and helped me stand up. I smiled and thanked him, before we continued on down. It was a good fifteen minutes before we reached the end. By then some of the team had already set up lights and equipment, one of them being Briana.

"Overachiever..." I muttered to myself, but somehow she managed to hear.

"Lazy butt." She growled back. I swear, sometimes she could be so aggressive, she would fit right in with a killing-oriented society--too bad ours wasn't one. It was weird how violent her imagination was. We stood at the edge of a large ledge and Lexi shot a flare into the air. It illuminated a huge pyramid and I heard Sebastian murmur, "It's beautiful..."

Wasting no time, we headed to the pyramid and began the climb to reach the entrance. It took much less time to reach the pyramid then it took to get down the tunnel, but it was still longer than I would have liked. By the time we reached the top, my legs were sore. I looked over and saw Briana examining one of the statues.

"Come on Briana, let's go."

She looked up and nodded, following the group into the pyramid. Our adventure was about to begin.