Ashley ran to Sean and squatted beside him, "Well, have they already delivered the cargo to their destination?" the girl looked at a long chain of ants moving a large green leaf on their backs.
"Almost, after we blocked their path with that branch, they laid a new route and now returned to the old path. One leaf has already been dragged over there," Sean pointed a finger at the bushes nearby, which caused genuine admiration of the girl.
"Wow, so far! I only left for a couple of minutes. By the way, where did my bug get to? It was crawling here, have you not seen it?" asked Ashley, but the boy was sitting with his head lowered and was keeping silence.
"Hey Sean, have you seen my bug?" she patted his shoulder.
The boy raised his head and looked intently at the girl, Ashley saw his pupils when they turned black several times, but this time her sensations were completely different. Sean"s eyes were so captivating and subjugating that for a moment she was scared. The girl moved back, but considering that she was not in the most comfortable position, she stumbled and fell on the ground.
Sean straightened to his full height and took a step forward, their eyes did not leave each other, as if they were two magnets attracted by the law of nature. The boy leaned a little and extended his hand to Ashley, "Are you okay?" his voice sounded, confident and even, just like adults usually speak.
"Yes, thanks," Ashley took Sean"s hand, but before she could get up herself, the boy pulled her towards himself with a force that came from somewhere and lifted her from the ground without much effort. The girl again lost her balance due to surprise, but Sean managed to catch her by the waist and hugged her.
"Be careful next time, Princess," he whispered a few centimeters from her face and smiled.
Ashley fluttered her eyelashes several times, not knowing what to say. And why did her heart suddenly pound so fast? Maybe it was the effect of some unknown superpower?
"You ... you"re not Sean, right?"
The boy let go of Ashley, making sure she was standing flat on the ground, and slyly narrowed his eyes, "Hmmm, what a shrewd little lady. If you help me with one secret mission, I will tell you who I am."
He did not need to persuade Ashley for a long time since the key phrase "secret mission" was enough to provoke her interest.
"Are you a local spirit? The keeper of this pyramid? I guessed right, right? I agree to partic.i.p.ate in your game, if you promise not to hurt Sean, he is my best friend," the girl looked with all seriousness, even in this situation she considered herself the main one in setting the rules.
Nick mentally broke into a smile, to think only, this little mischievous girl remained with her opinion regardless of her surroundings. The idea of connecting to Sean"s mind has paid off.
"Don"t worry, your friend will be all right, I won"t do anything bad to him. In the meantime, stand aside and don"t interfere," the boy turned his head and looked around. As Nick had supposed, this company climbed into some jungle, but what surprised him were these two adults sitting nearby and talking about something.
"Hmm, what a surprise," the boy signaled the girl to stand still, and he himself went toward the two men.
While Daniel was checking the time on the phone, Rick was the first to notice Sean"s unusual appearance, "Hey, does it seem to me or does your nephew have something with his eyes?" Daniel looked up and his gaze met that of Sean.
"What the? Do not look into his eyes!" he shouted to Rick, but it was too late. The man fell into a trance, and his consciousness was inaccessible.
"Oh, you arrogant boy, dare you use hypnosis on me?! Why are you even doing this?" Daniel was flipping out with rage. Not only that, it turned out that Sean had such a skill, so he still dared to use hypnosis on Daniel. The irony of this situation was simply transcendental.
"Sean, hypnosis doesn"t work on me. What do you want to achieve with this?" the man"s consciousness resisted to the last, but his logic had already begun to ring the alarm, he could no longer turn his back on the captivating gaze of the boy. He wondered if that was how his victims felt when Daniel himself used hypnosis on them for his personal purposes.
"Don"t worry, Uncle, I"ll just clarify something and that"s it, you won"t even remember it," Nick smirked, watching Daniel"s reaction through Sean"s eyes. For some time, he managed to outbattle this self-confident cousin. Who would have thought that this little boy had so many hidden abilities?
"Just give me your hand and close your eyes," Nick touched Daniel"s palm. Their entire path, starting from the hotel and ending with a stop at this pyramid, was reflected in his mind like a video clip.
"Hmm, how interesting," the boy let go of the man"s hand and looked at the low stone structure. "So Marcus and the others are there," Nick focused Sean"s vision on the stone structure, watching how its hidden floors level by level go underground.
Even here, in the center of the meadow, under the ground, there were tunnels leading from its central part. But it was not this that surprised Nick more, but the fact that in all this huge s.p.a.ce, which occupied an area of at least two hundred square meters underground, he could not notice a single soul.
He clearly saw in Daniel"s memory that Elena and David and the twins went inside this pyramid, but why is their presence nowhere to be seen? Hmm, that means this is the place where a great kukri knife that Marcus wanted so much to get was hidden in?
"What are you doing?" Ashley"s unexpected question turned Nick"s attention to the girl; he himself didn"t notice with what attention he began to examine this ancient structure.
"No, nothing," the boy smiled and approached her, "I found out what I needed. I give you two options - either you keep all this a secret, or I erase your memory like I did with these two. What will you choose?" he nodded his head toward the two men, whose eyes looked empty and lifeless.
Ashley, without hesitation, agreed to the first option, "But you never said who you are? Are you a local ghost?" The girl did not want to let this creature go without getting answers to her questions.
"Ahaha, yes, call me the almighty Mr. Ghost!" Nick laughed, this young pirate was definitely not the one who he could get bored with. "Do you want to be friends with me?"
"Sure I do!" Ashley immediately reached out her hand, to which the boy joyfully shook it in response.
"So be it, since I am your friend, I"ll ask your mother as a welcome gift so that she will go easy on you when she sees you again."
"Can you do that too?"
"Of course, I"m omnipotent," the boy lifted his nose with importance, emphasizing his extraordinary abilities.
Ashley looked at Sean in surprise. For a split second, she wanted it to be not some kind of ghost, but Sean himself. If he looked like this unknown spirit, how cool he would be! She would even agree to give him her captain position. However, no, that"s too much. He would just make him the second captain.
"Young lady, I have to go, take care of your friend so that he doesn"t fall, and after such contacts there may be slight dizziness," the boy winked and Ashley saw how Sean"s eyes from black again returned to their usual color.
He blinked several times, not quite understanding what had happened. They just were watching the ants, and now they suddenly were standing in a different place.
"Let"s go, sit in the shade, it seems to me that you were under direct sun rays for too long," Ashley grabbed Sean"s hand and dragged him to the nearest stone under the tree.
Daniel looked at this couple of lovebirds and yawned lazily. When will these tomb raiders already come back? It began to seem to him that he began to fall asleep from idleness, otherwise how else to explain this feeling that he had been disconnected for some time? Rick also was standing right nearby and yawning which kind of p.i.s.sed him off.
The man climbed down and stretched, although the nature around was beautiful, there was absolutely nothing for two adults to do. They will not watch ants like these two small ones, won"t they?
At that moment, the ground shook under his feet, but the sensation was short-lived and barely perceptible, as in an earthquake no more than one or two points.
"Did you notice that too?" Daniel turned to Rick, but the latter only shrugged, not understanding what made Anderson so tense.
"Something happened?" Rick went up to Daniel and asked in a half-whisper so as not to make the kids worry.
"Hmm, I don"t know, maybe it seemed to me, but there was a feeling that happens when the metro train pa.s.ses underfoot. Did it really seem to me?"
The men looked at each other, and then Daniel remembered another situation, what this feeling was like.
It was like a mountain collapse, as it was then in Tibet when the vaults of the cave were blown up, and his brother remained inside.
A chill ran through Daniel"s body, if that was the case...
The man looked at the ground under his feet, and then at the pyramid standing in front...
And at that moment he was ready to pray to all the G.o.ds, if only his a.s.sumption was false.