by Caryn Lix
I swallowed hard. That tallied perfectly with my worst fears about Cage. “That’s probably true, and I’m not going to defend it. But he is your brother. Are you going to ignore him for the rest of your life?”
Resolve settled into her brow, and she nodded. “You’re right. I’ll talk to him. If, you know, I ever see him again.”
At that moment, footsteps echoed in the corridor. Rune and I shot to our feet, me a bit unsteadily, and retreated to the rear of the cell. I clenched each of my muscles individually, loosening them, working feeling into my numbed extremities. My arms threaded into bands of steel, the strength of my posture belying the anxiety thudding through my heart. I had never experienced this kind of helplessness before: trapped in a cell, at the guards’ mercy, knowing about the oncoming alien threat but powerless to stop it.
Two guards approached, weapons drawn. “Kenzie Cord,” said one of them, holding the heavy metal cuffs they’d used to transport us here. “Come with us.”
Rune’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you taking her?” she demanded.
“None of your business, that’s where.” The guard slid the cell door open and nodded at me. “You going to cooperate, or do we have to stun you and drag you?”
Yeah, I wasn’t eager to experience that again. Resistance wouldn’t get me anywhere. Besides, maybe Yang had come to her senses and wanted to discuss destroying the damn ship. I swallowed the hope before it could spark too brightly. “I’ll cooperate,” I said. I forced a smile for Rune’s benefit. “It’s okay. I’ll be back.” I glanced at the guard. “Right?”
He sighed impatiently. Someone wants to talk to you. Drop the paranoia and come on.”
I resisted the urge to point out that paranoia felt pretty justified given how they’d broken their agreement with us and shot me with a stun gun. Instead, I stepped forward and placed my hands in the metal cuffs. They resembled giant yellow mittens, and I suddenly remembered my dad tucking my hands into similar mittens when I was young and heading outside to play. My heart stuttered. I hadn’t thought of that in years. Why did the memory have to resurface now?
I forced another smile for Rune as the guard took my elbow and led me away. Now that I was waiting for it, I felt the cool numbing gel on my arm, blocking the pinprick of the needle, and the tiny burn of some sort of power inhibitor flowing through my veins. It was temporary, of course. Not even Omnistellar had come up with a permanent solution to anomalous powers, unless you counted the chips.
The sensation faded almost as quickly as it came. As we proceeded along the corridor, I kept my eyes peeled for Cage, but I didn’t see him in any of the cells. “What did you do with our friend?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice neutral, free of either accusation or panic. God, what would I do without Cage? No matter how confused things became between us, he kept me sane. The other prisoners only followed me because he did. Without him, would they even keep me around? Not if I told them the truth, that much was certain. And I had to tell them. I couldn’t keep living a lie.
The guard ignored my question. “Through here,” he directed, taking me down a narrow hall between two cells. They opened a door and ushered me into a minuscule room. It contained a single metal desk bolted to the wall and a matching chair. I glanced at the guards, who gestured for me to proceed. As soon as I stepped inside, they closed and locked the door.
Sighing, I sat at the desk. “Incoming call,” announced a loud voice, making me jump.
I blinked. Well, they’d said someone wanted to talk to me. “Okay,” I said cautiously. When nothing happened, I tried a familiar phrase in dealing with AI: “Put it through.”
My father’s face shimmered into view in the frame above the desk, a rigid mask of fury. “Kenzie Elaine Cord,” he bellowed, “what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Dad!” I cried. I leaped to my feet, instinctively putting distance between us as my heart struggled to escape my chest. A whole range of emotions assaulted me at the sight of him: fury at his betrayal, guilt at not contacting him sooner, love and anger and hurt all bound in the messiest package ever.
His image leaned forward as if he gripped the edge of the table, his face almost purple in rage. “You’re alive,” he snarled. “You’re alive, and you didn’t think to tell me? You didn’t think that maybe, maybe, that was something I would want to know? You let me believe you’d been blown up on Sanctuary along with your mother and Rita, and instead you’ve been gallivanting around the solar system with a bunch of anomalous hoodlums? What in the name of Omnistellar were you thinking?”
I’d recovered my composure after my initial shock, or at least hidden it beneath my Omnistellar-trained exterior, but I’d never seen my father so angry before. My mom was always the disciplinarian, the set-in-her-ways Omnistellar soldier. My dad, while true to the company’s beliefs and ideas, was content to sweep along in her wake, giving me the occasional wink or smile when her discipline became too rigid. They’d each had their roles, served Omnistellar in their own ways, and been content in the system. Or so I’d thought. A lot of things weren’t as they’d seemed. After all, if Dad was so happy, why had he left in the first place?
I resisted the urge to shout that the only reason the prisoners’ escape plan worked was because Dad wasn’t on station. Deep down, I knew his presence wouldn’t have changed anything, except maybe gotten him killed too. “My comm device ran out of batteries,” I said, which wasn’t exactly a lie. It currently sat dead in its hollow at my wrist. It had taken three days for that to happen, though. “How much do you know?” I continued, forcing my voice to be calm as I reclaimed my seat.
My composure seemed to startle him. I took a certain amount of vindictive pleasure in that. Even though part of me was so glad to see him I could cry, a lot of me burned with resentment and anger. I struggled not to let either side gain control. Right now, this wasn’t my dad. It was an Omnistellar official. Destroying the alien beacon was my top priority. It had to be or getting answers from my father would suddenly become a moot point.
“Mars Mining contacted Omnistellar,” he said at last, his voice slightly more modulated. “They told us everything.”
Hope surged within me. “Then you know about the aliens,” I said. “Dad. Listen to me. They have to destroy the alien ship. Whatever it takes. You have to convince them, convince Omnistellar—”
But he was already shaking his head. “Kenzie, that ship might hold the answer to defeating those things if they make another appearance. Omnistellar is working with Silver Sun Maltech. They’re the top scientists in the field. Silver Sun will shut down the signal. I promise.”
“If Rune couldn’t do it, no scientist will.”
“Right.” My father’s face twisted into a scowl. “If the teenage delinquent can’t do it, how could the professionals have a chance? What happened to your training, Kenzie? Your professionalism? Do you realize you’ve sacrificed your citizenship? It’s going to be all I can do to keep you out of a mining prison, let alone give you any semblance of a life after this!”
“I was never going to have a normal life,” I shot back. “I’m an anomaly. Was Omnistellar really going to let someone like that into their top tiers?”
His expression collapsed. “How . . . ?”
“I read my file,” I said, throwing every word at him like a knife. He recoiled as if physically stung by their force. “I removed my chip. I know everything, Dad. Everything except why you and Mom did this to me.”
He stared at his hands, not meeting my eyes, as my chest heaved with imaginary exertion. My throat constricted. This was the moment. If Dad had anything to say, anything to clear himself and Mom of my suspicions, make everything okay again, he would say it now. And even though I knew that wouldn’t be the case, I couldn’t help holding my breath in anticipation.
“Kenzie,” Dad said at last, “this is more complicated than you can possibly imagine. And not something we should discuss over an unsecured line. I’ll be there in less than twenty-four hours, and we
can—”
“Wait.” His words echoed inside my brain. “You’ll be here? Dad. Where are you now?”
“On an Omnistellar ship bound for Mars.”
I sank into the chair as my worst nightmares came true. Not only was I stuck in a prison broadcasting our location to a malevolent alien presence, my dad was on his way to join us. It was Sanctuary all over again. “Turn back,” I snarled. “And tell Mars Mining to get off their asses and destroy that ship!”
“Kenzie!” Shock exploded over his face.
“Do it!” I shouted, rocketing to my feet so fast I sent the chair flying backward. “Do it now or we’re all going to die! Don’t you understand? Why won’t anyone listen?”
The computer’s flat monotone interrupted. “Prisoner heart rate is dangerously elevated. Please calm yourself at once.”
I spit toward the camera in the wall and spun on Dad, my face so hot it felt like the blood would come surging from my cheeks. The door slammed open behind me and guards grabbed my arms. “Destroy it!” I screamed at my father, at the guards, at anyone who would listen. “You have no idea what you’re doing! You have to destroy it!”
One of the guards brandished his stun gun, and I lunged at him, bringing the heavy metal cuff down on top of his wrists. He shouted in pain and the gun clattered to the floor. I hurled myself at the comm screen. “Dad!” I pleaded. “If you love me at all, if you never listen to anything I say ever again, trust me on this. That ship has to be destroyed!”
He stared at me, his face an agony of indecision.
And then the stun gun blast hit me from behind, and I knew nothing.
SEVEN
WATER DRIBBLED ON MY FOREHEAD, and I moaned in response. Two stun gun blasts in as many hours had left me disoriented and woozy. Slowly I blinked to find Cage bent over me, concern flooding his face as he let water drip from his fingers. “Hey,” he said softly. “Welcome back.”
“Cage!” I gasped, or tried to. I shot straight up, and the world lurched with me. If his strong arms hadn’t come around me, I would have kept going right off the other side of the bench.
I struggled for words, questions, but my mouth still wasn’t connecting to my brain. I closed my eyes and let my mind drift back to the conversation with Dad. That wasn’t how I’d imagined our first encounter. I’d thought I’d have to tell him how Mom died and what happened on Sanctuary, but Mars Mining and Omnistellar had taken care of that for me, really the only thing I was grateful for. Everything else about the conversation was a total disaster. Instead of understanding, Dad had parroted the company line, just like Mom. And instead of being helpful, he’d yelled at me.
Still. He had a right to be angry. I’d let him think I was dead for three weeks.
Rage crested in my throat, so sudden and powerful it sent a wave of dizziness washing over me. Yeah, I’d let him think I was dead. My survival had come about no thanks to my parents. After all, they were the ones who’d chipped me, hid my power, and lied to me about anomalies my entire life. And for what? Dad hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with answers.
And of course, none of that mattered if the aliens arrived to kill us. I groaned, pressing my hands into my eyes so lights burst behind my closed eyelids. I was starting to feel normal again, and I wasn’t sure I welcomed the sensation. “Where’s Rune?” I managed.
“Asleep.” He tilted me gently so I could see her curled against the wall. “They finished questioning me and must have brought me back shortly after you left. She was out by then. She needed the rest. I don’t think she’s stopped in days.”
“None of us have.” I coughed, and Cage tilted the glass to my lips. A few swallows of water cleared the cobwebs, and I leaned against the wall, wrung out.
A tremor shot through my body, and the muscles along Cage’s spine tensed. “What did they do to you?” he snapped.
I shook my head, sending a wave of nausea through me. “It’s only a stun gun blast. I’ll be fine.”
“Another one? Too many of those are dangerous.”
I glared at him. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
A sudden grin spread across his face. “Yeah, I know. You’re not doing it on purpose. Trouble just seems to follow you around.”
I couldn’t quite return his smile . . . or meet his eyes. “Cage, do you think the aliens are on their way because of what we did? Venting the creatures into space?” What you and Mia did, I amended silently.
He didn’t answer for a long time, and then he sighed, long and heavy. “Kenzie . . .”
“Venting the aliens. Lying about Matt. Doesn’t it ever bother you?” I asked quietly. “Deceiving everyone? Lying to your twin sister, the person who loves you most in the world?”
I could see the denial hovering on his lips, but he did me the courtesy of swallowing it. Sinking onto the opposite corner of the bench, he raked his hands through his hair. “You think I lie because I enjoy it?”
“No, of course not. But I do think you’re pretty quick to decide who needs to know the truth and who doesn’t. And I’m not sure what gives you the authority.” More quietly, I added, “Or when you’re lying to me.”
His head shot up, his eyes flashing. “I’ve never lied to you. Not once.”
“But you haven’t told me everything, either.”
He didn’t deny it, and the knife in my chest twisted a little further. Cage moved restlessly, as if he could physically pluck an explanation from the air. “Kenzie . . . it’s not that I don’t want to tell you things. It’s just . . . I’m so used to being careful. Sometimes it doesn’t even occur to me to volunteer information, and I don’t know if that will ever change. But I can promise you that if you ask me a question, you’ll get the truth. It’s the best I can offer.”
I examined him thoughtfully. How far could I trust that promise? What happened if another situation arose, something like the moment I’d shot Matt, and Cage decided it was safer to keep me in the dark?
Well, he could prove himself to me at this moment, anyway. I’d been wondering what he’d meant when he said he’d killed to protect Rune before. He could at least explain that.
But before I could ask about what had been bothering me for weeks now, Rune shifted, moaning, and sat up. Cage and I pulled apart as if we’d been caught doing something wrong. Another broken moment, another missed opportunity.
Genuine happiness filled her eyes when she saw me. “Kenzie!” she cried, jumping to her feet. “I was worried. When they brought Cage in and not you . . .”
“Thanks,” he interjected dryly.
She shook her head. “You know what I mean. I . . .” Her voice trailed off, and she tilted her head to the side like a curious bird. “You hear something?”
I couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears and said so. Rune shot to her feet and paced to the bars, craning her neck and pressing her face against them, tilting her head at what looked like an uncomfortable angle. “What is it?” I demanded. She didn’t answer, just flapped her hand at me behind her back. I wasn’t sure whether she was telling me to shut up or to come look. I chose the latter, struggling to my feet and crossing the room. My legs bore my weight, even if my muscles shook. Cage hovered behind me, ready to catch me if I collapsed, although he didn’t move to support me. I appreciated both gestures.
We joined her at the bars, and I grasped them to keep myself upright, straining to hear around the ringing. I wasn’t used to being out of the loop. In training, I’d always been on top of things, and as much as I was coming to hate Omnistellar, I missed that feeling. “Cage, do you hear it?”
He frowned. “Maybe. I don’t—”
The exterior wall of the corridor flew apart in a deafening cascade of metal and wire. The three of us dove for cover instinctively, even though the destroyed wall was a good fifty feet away. We landed at the rear of the cell and stared in mutual disbelief at the resulting disaster.
Mia’s face shimmered into view outside the bars. Rune yelped, and I swore. “Which way’s the
exit?” she demanded without preamble.
“Th-that way,” stammered Rune, pointing.
Mia bolted down the corridor, leaving us still trapped. “Great,” I called after her. “Thanks.”
But the words had barely left my mouth before Alexei jogged into sight. “Rune, the cells are locked electronically. Open yours.”
“The dampening field . . . ,” I began before realizing I’d just seen Mia use her powers.
Rune seemed to catch on at the same moment. She shoved her hand through the cell door, and a moment later it popped open.
We ran into the hall to find Imani clutching a stun gun of her own. I resisted the urge to hug her, settling for a wide grin, which she returned. I’d known that whatever happened, Imani and probably Reed would return for us. I hadn’t been certain about anyone else, not even Alexei, because if Mia decided to turn her back on us, nothing in the world would tear him from her side.
But Alexei was here and so was Mia, jammed against the far door as if she could keep it closed through sheer force of will. A tall, stocky boy I vaguely remembered from the ship stood beside her. He braced himself with his feet and arms spread wide, his hands directed toward the massive hole I assumed he’d blown in the wall. Now he held it shut with a mishmash of debris. “Quick!” he shouted when he saw Rune. “Disrupt the other locks before—”
The door at the end of the corridor flew open, sending Mia smashing to the floor. She flipped to her feet and into a fighting stance as three guards raced inside, weapons drawn. Imani raised her weapon, but before she could fire, Alexei pivoted and hit them with a blast of flames, driving them back. He dove after them and kicked the door shut, throwing his weight against it. “Rune!” he bellowed.
“Right!” She raced to his side and plunged her hand into the electronic lock. A moment later, something spluttered, and sparks flew around the door’s edge. Alexei stepped away, revealing a long burn against his right arm. He must have superheated the metal door. I couldn’t imagine how much pain he’d been in holding it shut.
