by Eliza Green
A pacing Arianna didn’t agree. ‘No, Laura wouldn’t let that happen.’
Serena nodded. ‘Something else has to be going on here.’
All eyes were on him again. Margaux’s gaze was the most intense of the bunch.
He rubbed his eyes with his hand. ‘I don’t know how to do this without my abilities.’
‘None of us do.’ Anton flashed a weak smile. ‘The virus has stripped my mind of noise. It feels like a void exists.’
Stephen nodded. ‘Where the voices used to be, yes.’
At least others understood what he was going through. But it still didn’t help him come up with a next step.
In an attempt to bolster his confidence, Serena touched his hand. ‘What’s worrying you?’
He felt her influence spread through him, softening the tension in his limbs a little. Her influence was almost an automatic reaction from her, not intentional, but it revealed her worry and need to bring things back under control.
Stephen told the truth. ‘I want to be a leader, with or without my abilities, but I don’t know how.’
Margaux poked him in the arm. Hard. ‘Use your mind, child. You haven’t lost your abilities.’
He laughed her suggestion off. ‘I can’t sense anyone. I can’t use my telepathy. I am nothing without them.’
Margaux chuckled. ‘You are still a leader without all those things. You must use common sense. You have not lost that. Or am I wrong?’
That he had plenty of, but lately it felt as if every decision he made teetered on a knife edge.
‘Margaux’s right,’ said Serena. ‘Just because you can’t sense moods or see them in colours doesn’t mean you can’t read another’s body language.’
Anton clicked his fingers. ‘I completely forgot about that.’
Stephen stared at his friend.
‘Remember in the early days, before you met Ben Watson? You used to practise human gestures and work out what their gestures meant.’
Stephen snorted. ‘Mimicking is not the same as reading.’
‘No, but you’ve also known Bill and Laura for a long time. And Ben is here now. You can’t read their thoughts, so you are forced to use instinct to interpret their moods.’
He supposed that was true. But something bothered him more than losing his abilities.
‘I never saw this attack coming. What does that say about my reading of humans?’
Serena shook his arm. ‘We still don’t know it was them. Why don’t you try Bill again?’
He relented with a sigh, not seeing any other option than to get further clarification.
The retreating warmth of her influence left his skin cold. He wondered how much it had been his decision to seek clarification and how much Serena’s influence.
Right now, it didn’t matter.
‘Okay, but I’m going to need help.
‘Anything you need, my love,’ said Serena. ‘We’re all here.’
The others nodded.
He pointed at Anton. ‘You spent time in captivity with them.’
His friend grimaced. ‘Something I’d rather forget.’
‘What I mean is you lost your abilities, or they were subdued. You had to rely on your instincts to determine what was going on.’
Anton shrugged. ‘I suppose I could give it a try.’
‘Then it’s settled. I’ll give Bill another call and you can tell me if he’s lying.’
☼
Stephen stared at the fully charged DPad sitting on the workbench in Anton’s lab. He had expected to make this call with just Anton present, but Serena, Margaux and Arianna stood off to the side, out of view of the DPad’s camera function.
He shook his head to release the lingering doubt clouding his mind, and to slow his rapid heartbeat. He wanted to believe Bill wouldn’t do this, or Laura. But his district was under attack and he needed to consider all angles, not let his feelings of friendship overshadow what difficult decisions might come next.
He dialled the thirteen-digit code and waited for the device to connect to Bill’s.
It rang out.
‘Maybe he’s asleep,’ suggested Anton.
Stephen snorted. ‘After what he’s just done? We should all be so lucky.’
‘Open mind, child,’ Margaux warned. ‘I could have been wrong.’
Stephen disconnected the call.
‘What now?’ said Anton. ‘Should we try again in an hour?’
He couldn’t sit around that long. ‘No, I have another number.’
‘Whose?’
‘Jenny’s.’
He keyed in a different code, this one sixteen digits long, and used the interstellar wave to connect with Earth. The DPad made no connection with the Wave.
Stephen thrust the foreign human object at Anton, his technological expert. ‘Can you check that the Wave is active?’
‘I’ll need to check the old-fashioned way.’
As Anton began typing commands, Stephen leaned against the workbench, grateful he’d taken the time to learn about how the pads worked. Bill had explained their workings to him.
Why would Bill have done that if he’d planned to block them in?
Stephen shook his last thought free and checked on Anton.
His friend didn’t look up. ‘The Wave might be down but there’s an open channel still active.’
‘Can you get me on it?’
‘Hold on.’ Anton typed a few commands and handed the DPad back to him. ‘I don’t know if it’s an encrypted channel, but you can try it.’
Given what was happening, it mattered not if it was wide open. He tried Jenny’s number again. This time, the device found a connection. On the eighth ring, Stephen almost disconnected. Then the screen flickered over to a tired face. Jenny’s.
Jenny rubbed her eyes. ‘Stephen? I almost didn’t answer. Why are you calling me on a different channel?’
‘I’m sorry, Jenny; it’s an emergency.’
She perked up. Stephen heard someone say ‘Who is it?’ in the background.
She whispered to them, ‘It’s Stephen.’
A person seated behind her came into view. Greyson.
‘Stephen, what’s the pleasure of this call? I hope it’s nothing bad. Is it the virus? Is it spreading again?’
Stephen shook his head. ‘I’m sorry for calling but something else is happening here. An hour ago, the entrances to our district were blocked and we believe the ITF has something to do with it.’
Jenny’s eyes widened. ‘Bill and Laura? No way. They wouldn’t.’
‘They did.’
‘Did they give a reason?’ Greyson asked.
‘No, but Bill tried to call me.’
‘And what did he say when you spoke to him?’
‘We missed each other’s calls. I can’t get in contact with him.’
Jenny glanced at Greyson. He got up and disappeared from view. Stephen heard tapping nearby.
Jenny explained, ‘Greyson’s going to check Bill’s connection from our end.’
Stephen heard the sound of a call connecting, then cutting out.
‘That’s weird,’ Greyson said off screen. He moved back into shot. ‘The interstellar wave is down. The call is ringing out.’
Jenny frowned at Stephen. ‘So how were you able to call us?’
Anton said, ‘I found an open channel.’
‘So someone is keeping one channel open and has closed everything else,’ said Jenny. ‘Any idea who might have ordered that?’
Stephen gritted his teeth, controlling his rising anger. ‘There’s only one person with the power to do it.’
‘It’s not Bill.’ Jenny’s voice was stern. ‘He wouldn’t.’
Stephen glanced at Anton, his walking lie detector.
His friend shrugged. ‘She believes it to be true.’
That gave Stephen some comfort. Not trusting Jenny didn’t sit right with him, but he had to be
sure this plan to deceive hadn’t spread off planet.
Jenny said quickly, ‘Let us check a few things from our end. You okay to hold on? If we lose the connection we might not get it back.’
‘I am.’
Stephen clenched and unclenched his fists while he waited. He looked up and saw Serena’s encouraging smile, Arianna’s worried face and Margaux’s intense glare. None of it made him feel better.
Margaux tapped the side of her head. ‘Common sense.’
He looked away, unable to deal with their emotions as well as his own.
After what felt like an age, Jenny and Greyson appeared on screen. In reality, it had been ten short minutes.
‘There’s something going on there. It’s not just the Wave that’s down. All communication in and out of the ITF is offline. And not just there, the other ITFs too.’
Since when? ‘What would cause that?’
‘A power outage, most likely. This channel is most likely running off a separate power supply.’
‘Who is controlling the channel?’
‘That we don’t know.’ Jenny came closer to the screen. ‘If the ITFs don’t have power, the cause could be coming from the base stations. Who might have an interest in doing this?’
The Elite came to mind. According to Bill, they were dead. But what if they weren’t? Stephen had merely taken his word for it. Maybe he should have checked that for himself.
‘Other than the Elite, nobody.’
‘What about Harvey Buchanan?’ said Greyson. ‘Has he been sniffing around lately? Bill was worried about his involvement in matters there.’
‘No, he helped us out with the vaccine, but he hasn’t been back.’
Jenny nodded, her smile tight. ‘Trust Bill. He may have placed the blockades to protect you from what’s going on out there. We’ll keep trying to make contact.’
‘In the meantime, what should we do?’
‘What you do best—lead your charges. Have faith, Stephen. Things are probably not what they seem. We will do what we can to help from here.’
The connection ended and Stephen stared at a blank screen.
Serena said, ‘See? It might not be Bill.’
He nodded, wishing he knew for certain. Wishing he knew how to lead his charges out of this mess.
14
His backside ached from sitting in the chair for hours. This was bullshit. Marcus hadn’t come to Exilon 5 to be anyone’s whipping boy.
He stood up and grazed his smooth neck along the line where his old scar had once been, given to him by the only man he’d ever respected. The scar from Gaetano Agostini had been a test—a dangerous one that Marcus had passed. Harvey’s work on his appearance had erased the mark for good, but his look was stuck between two people. Much like Marcus’ thoughts.
But beggars couldn’t be choosers. At least he was alive.
Enzo screamed inside his head: You’re nothing but a worthless piece of shit. The men know it, Harvey knows it. Even Ben knows it.
Marcus shook the voice of that psycho from his mind. Even thirty light years away, Gaetano’s son was still getting inside his head. He missed his old life. He missed showers and heat and real food, not prison-guard slop or leftovers. Gaetano had never had to scrape. Gaetano had been feared.
Marcus would be feared.
He stretched out his back and did a lap of the docking station, mostly to kick Enzo’s grating voice to the kerb. Soon enough, Gaetano’s smooth voice, simmering with controlled rage, replaced his son’s. Marcus stood taller.
He walked over to the red-haired man who looked like Carl and said, ‘I need someone to tell me what’s happening out there. We’ve got a target in here, and that makes us all targets.’
The man laughed. Hard.
Marcus slipped his Buzz Gun out of his holster and pointed it at him. ‘Find something funny?’
The man’s laugh softened to a chuckle. ‘You’re funny.’
‘Even with a Buzz Gun pointed at your face?’
‘You look like a friggin’ school teacher. Bet you’ve never fired one of those things in your life.’
Marcus pointed away at a wall and fired.
The man jumped with fright. ‘What the fuck’re you playing at?’
‘You said I couldn’t shoot. I was proving you wrong.’
‘You trying to kill us all? Shooting those things indoors is dangerous.’
Marcus sneered. ‘I know what these can do. I used them all the time on Earth.’
The Carl lookalike shrugged at him. ‘So you’re a school teacher who can shoot. You think I’m gonna talk to you after that?’
Damn this meek face.
His old face and neck with the nasty, puckered scar, had drawn stares and commanded respect. The residents in Waverley had quivered beneath his tactics. Problem now was the people were neither fearful nor desperate. The people on Exilon 5 had hope. And hope made people harder to break.
The Carl lookalike walked away, leaving Marcus seething with anger. Enzo was in his ear again, goading him, telling him what a worthless sack of shit he was.
His skin tightened at the insults. He tightened his grip on the gun.
Marcus returned to the holding room with Ben inside and entered it. His gun still sizzled with power and was primed to fire once more.
He must have looked terrifying because Ben’s eyes widened the second he stepped closer. The teen pulled back.
‘The men out there don’t know power when they see it,’ Marcus spat out. ‘But you do. You’ve seen what I can do and what happens when people cross me.’ He pointed the gun at Ben. ‘You’re a troublemaker. Yeah, Harvey told me how you got kicked off this planet. And here we are, together again. Now what would Harvey say if he found his precious target dead?’
Ben’s breaths turned more rapid. This was what Marcus needed to see—fear. A thrill shot through him.
Geatano’s voice drifted away and the psychotic Enzo stepped in.
Do it, Enzo pushed.
One shot would kill the kid. And it would make Marcus feel heaps better.
He heard a commotion outside and checked out the small viewing window. Harvey was back and he looked livid.
‘What’s got his panties in a bunch now?’
Enzo quietened. Ben could wait.
Marcus left the room and walked over to where Harvey stood by the weapons table. He was dropping spent Buzz Guns on the table and picking up new ones. Three of the men wandered over to him. One was the Carl lookalike.
‘Anything?’ Harvey asked one of the men.
The man shook his head. ‘No sign of Taggart.’
‘Any trouble here?’
The Carl lookalike nodded to Marcus. ‘This dipshit tried to shoot me.’
The hard look in Harvey’s eyes stopped Marcus cold. Buchanan might as well be Gaetano but with a different fucking face. He kept telling himself this wasn’t Earth. He’d come here to be his own boss and carve out a Gaetano-style life for himself, not to follow another with power.
Harvey faced him, forcing Enzo to the fore and Marcus to lift his chin.
‘You try to shoot one of my men?’ Harvey’s voice dripped with contempt. He rarely raised his voice—much like Gaetano in that way.
He hissed out, ‘I shot the wall. He was talking back and I was showing him who’s in charge.’
‘I’m in charge.’ Harvey slid his gun out of his holster and showed it to Marcus. ‘You try that shit again, I’ll end you.’
Marcus was sick of whatever game Buchanan was playing with him. ‘You hate me—why?’
The former geneticist squared up to him. ‘Because I know you sided with the Elite. For your own personal gain, I might add. And that means I don’t trust you. Are we clear?’
Marcus wanted to say the feeling was mutual but he kept his mouth shut. Yeah, he had sided with the Elite. And it was abundantly clear he was small fry in this operation.
In that moment,
it became clear he needed a plan of his own. There was no guarantee Harvey would keep him alive and Gaetano had taught him one thing: self-preservation.
He smiled. ‘Yeah, boss.’
‘Now go and check on Ben.’
The men snorted quietly.
Marcus gritted his teeth and returned to the room. He entered it to see the teen had worked the gag out of his mouth again. Marcus was too tired and too angry to do anything about it.
‘Looks like you’re somebody’s whipping boy again,’ Ben said. ‘I knew that’s all you’re good for.’
Marcus slapped Ben across the face. The teen groaned.
It was just like before, after he’d arrived on this planet. He’d had to side with the Elite just to get places. And he’d almost died because of it.
If Marcus were going to stay alive, he’d need a new ally.
Someone who knew nothing of his past and cared even less about his present.
15
‘We will figure this out,’ said Laura to Bill, ‘but we need to do it over there, out of sight.’
She pointed to a cluster of jagged boulders off to the side. It would keep them hidden better than staying out in the open landscape.
Bill shook off his daze and drove over to them. He parked in between the large rocks, which offered a limited view of New Tokyo’s skyscrapers in the distance. He stared at the city, with a different look to New London and its low-rise buildings; New Tokyo boasted more high rises than any other city on Exilon 5. From his seat, he also saw the outline of Base Station One, which controlled power to three cities, including that one.
Bill opened the glove box and removed a pair of magnification glasses. He got out of the vehicle and put them on. Gunnar, Laura and Jameson followed him. Adjusting the magnification, he focused on the station. The glasses only allowed him to see so far, but it was enough to confirm what he already knew.
Three vehicles were parked near the station and a dozen guards swarmed the area inside the boundary.
‘BS-1 is a no go.’
He sighed and turned his attention to the city. The same barricades as New London had were visible. The numbers patrolling were higher than at New London. He removed the glasses.
