The Game of Luck

by Catherine Cerveny

  “Stay close and hustle,” Caleb said, taking my upper arm in a firm grip. “We only have a minute.”

  He made a quick scan of the empty corridors before stepping us out into the open. I felt like I should protest, but since my gut wasn’t worried, I let him tow me along. We raced across the hall—me in my ugly yet sensible shoes—and stepped through the open door into the elevator. It was so easy, I was disappointed. It felt even less dramatic when the door closed behind us without anyone jumping out to stop our progress. It made me wonder why I needed Caleb in the first place.

  In the sparsely lit carrier, all the seats looked the same—gray and covered with a nubby fabric that might have been comfortable once, but time had taken its toll. I picked a seat in the middle, away from the windows. Caleb sat beside me. I strapped myself in; he didn’t. It bothered me, but I said nothing.

  Recently, I’d discovered I had a fear of heights. No, that wasn’t quite true. I’d always known I had an aversion; I just hadn’t realized it bordered on paralyzing terror. That was a new discovery, and gods, who didn’t love learning new and terrible things about themselves? Looking out the tiny windows and seeing Mars spread out below me was the last thing I needed. I could easily imagine falling and the sudden stop at the bottom. My mind was full enough. I didn’t need to clutter it up with more horrifying images.

  The elevator’s locking restraints released, and we were off. Since this was a maintenance run, none of the automated system warnings came on to tell us the elevator’s safety features and so forth. I hoped that meant everything still worked as normal, though I couldn’t imagine why it wouldn’t. I eased my death grip on my seat’s armrests and folded my hands in my lap. I wondered if I could get CN-net access through an onboard terminal or if that had been turned off. Or maybe Caleb could answer my most pressing questions.

  When I looked over at him, I saw him resting his head back on the headrest, eyes closed, and a tiny half smile on his face. It seemed…odd. While he was probably relieved our escape had gone so well—I certainly was—why did he look like he was ready to be tucked in for a nap? Was he so used to covert super-spy stuff that this was child’s play to him? Then again, just because I was nearly bursting with anxiety didn’t mean everyone else was too.

  “I don’t have a lot of details about what happened when One Gov sent its hooahs to Soyuz Park. Has there been any response from the Consortium?” I asked.

  He didn’t open his eyes, still relaxing on the headrest. “No one’s heard a word from the Tsarist Consortium in sols. It’s as if they didn’t exist. One Gov arrested a few low-level members in coordinated raids throughout Elysium City, but no one of value. The ones they caught aren’t talking.”

  “I see.” My chest started to ache and I rubbed at it with the palm of my left hand—the one that hadn’t been chipped. “What happens when we reach the surface?”

  “I have a vehicle waiting to take us to a safe house. Then we lie low until the heat’s off.”

  “What heat?”

  He opened hazel eyes to peer at me. “Secretary Arkell’s decision to blame the Consortium for the reboot was a mistake. He thought he had the perfect scapegoat, but he underestimated the tri-system’s fascination. Now it’s pure chaos out there and all hell’s broken loose.”

  That had me frowning. “What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t see it because you’re in the middle of it, but it exists. On the one hand, we have a shadowy, secretive organization on the cusp of cutting-edge tech. Then there’s you—a fortune-teller from Nairobi who grew up with nothing. Suddenly there’s a shift in the dynamic and the new head of the Consortium is chasing you across the tri-system. Not only does he chase you, he marries you. Few people get married anymore, so what you did was significant. It resonated with a lot of people and added fuel to the fairy tale. One Gov’s stats even show an uptick in the marriage rate these past few months.

  “Then throw in the fact you’re the long-lost granddaughter of the Under-Secretary. Now One Gov and the Consortium are no longer enemies. You single-handedly dragged the whole organization out of the shadows and turned them from thugs into the good guys. They’re the underdogs: the David to One Gov’s Goliath. They’re proposing changes and getting people to think in a new direction. It’s a threat to One Gov, and now the people who thought they were in charge are running scared.”

  I never could have imagined that my meeting Alexei a year and a half ago would have such an impact on the tri-system. Nor could I have seen things would end like this, regardless of what paths the Tarot had shown me. Always the Death card, but always the Lovers too—everything changing because we fell in love.

  “That’s what Tanith said,” I echoed, feeling a whisper of fear. “She believes One Gov is ready to collapse.”

  “Tanith is very astute. She hoped to head off what she saw happening. She knew One Gov wouldn’t survive if the Consortium truly flexed its muscles. If she could convince you to leave Petriv, she thought it would destabilize the Consortium enough that even if the population turned against One Gov, the Consortium wouldn’t be powerful enough to fill the vacuum left behind. Instead, Arkell stepped on Tanith’s toes and went after the Consortium directly. Worse, he used her granddaughter to do it. All that did was destabilize the situation and alienate Tanith—the only thing propping him up.

  “Now the Consortium has vanished, which is spooky as hell. People are angry, afraid, and waiting for something apocalyptic to happen. That’s why we need to get to the safe house and wait for the heat to die down before we extract you. Believe me, Felicia, I’m going to do my damnedest to deliver you to where you need to be.”

  “Right, the safe house. Got it. But you can’t expect me to wait around for whatever Tanith has planned.” I thought of the baby I now had to protect. Dropping off the grid was best, but on my own terms. I needed to be in control of whatever happened next—not Tanith and definitely not Caleb. “I understand needing to keep a low profile, but I’m not going to be extracted and handed over to somewhere I don’t want to be. I want to find out what’s happening with the Consortium and One Gov and go from there. If our plans don’t mesh, sorry, but I’ll take my chances on my own.”

  He shot me an amused look. “Let’s table this for when we hit the ground. For now, just relax.”

  “Fine. Let’s. For now.”

  The amused look and the condescension in his tone irked me. Did he think I’d lived in a bubble of blissful ignorance the past year and a half? I wasn’t some child who couldn’t handle herself. I’d clawed through mountains of bullshit he couldn’t begin to imagine. Initially, I’d liked Caleb, but now I wasn’t so sure. His good guy standing had taken a hit since Tanith revealed he was her “guy on the ground.” Maybe he was right and there wasn’t much I could do until we were planet-side, but having him point it out like that and telling me to relax—fuck relaxing.

  I couldn’t sit still. I wanted to keep moving and get to the next stage in the plan. The pressure to move was so intense, it felt like a physical war I waged with myself, all to keep from bolting out of my seat. Caleb remained a silent, oblivious presence beside me. He may have even been asleep, which irritated me more.

  To the east was the rising sun. I could see it through the tinted glass as the darkness receded and the growing bulk of Mars came into view. We were still very high up—not my favorite place to be. Outside it would be impossibly cold and the air barely breathable. Yet I knew that at this height, being outside was survivable so long as the elevator kept descending. If it didn’t, a person would freeze to death—another random fact I’d collected about the space elevator. Funny how they all seemed so determined to pop into my head now.

  There was a flicker on the data pad affixed to my seat. Weird. I tapped on the screen with a fingernail painted Cabana Blue and only slightly decorated with my own dried blood. The screen remained black—out of service. Maybe I was so antsy I’d imagined it? The data pad on the next seat flickered as well. Odd, but n
ot significant. This was a maintenance run after all. The elevator was going to go through its regular system checks. Even when the whole row of data pads flickered—each flashing in rapid succession—I was unfazed and didn’t mention it to Caleb. He’d just tell me in that patronizing tone what I’d already guessed—system maintenance.

  Except what happened next made me freeze. On my data pad, and mine alone, up flashed a Tarot card—the King of Swords. He was on his throne, dressed in armor, wearing his crown and holding his sword aloft. Next came the Five of Swords—victory by deceit and the ultimate double cross. A hidden agenda at play and someone was lying to me. Then, the Moon—illusion and things weren’t as they appeared. That was it, but it was more than enough.

  The screen went blank, as if I’d just imagined it. But what I’d witnessed was real and a message meant just for me. I went still, thinking hard. The niggling bite in my gut came back with a vengeance, spurring a whole host of questions in need of answers.

  The King of Swords was back and pushing his agenda. I’d thought it was Arkell, but he’d never felt right to me. Sure he was a manipulator, but never the master manipulator I was looking for. Rax Garwood, maybe? He’d led the charge to arrest Alexei, but no. That didn’t feel right either. Felipe? Never. He was my King of Cups. Then who else, damn it? Who was next on my list of suspects?

  I turned my attention to Caleb because suddenly, the man who’d been everywhere and anywhere I’d needed him was the only candidate I had left.

  Caleb Dekker. King of Swords. I looked him over. His head was still back, his eyes closed. What did I know about him outside of what he’d told me? Nothing. And what had Alexei discovered about him? Nothing. My gut had pushed, but not hard enough. The need hadn’t been urgent, and I’d been spending so much time in the CN-net, my instincts were off. Luck wasn’t guiding me in the way I’d come to expect. I’d even been happy about it, thinking I’d escaped its clutches. It could play its little games without me. But now…I tried the theory on again for size. Caleb Dekker, King of Swords.

  Another niggling thought surfaced—a loose end I’d tucked away began to unravel. Before we’d escaped, Caleb and I had waited for the space elevator to dock after its trip up from the surface. If Caleb had been on the ground, waiting for word from Tanith to come rescue me, he would have needed to take the elevator up to Space Station Destiny. The elevator should have already been in space, waiting for us. But of course, that was if Caleb had been on the ground. And Tanith’s message had implied that was where I would meet him—on the ground. He shouldn’t have been on the space station. But he was.

  As soon as my brain latched onto the idea, the tiny bite in my gut turned into a full-on panic-inducing kick.

  “I need to use the facilities,” I announced, unlocking my safety harness and standing. I stretched, stiff muscles protesting. “Plus I want to wash off this blood.”

  Caleb turned to me and I met his gaze with an unblinking stare of my own. My eyes darted over him, studying, trying to fit him into his newly crowned position as King of Swords. Konstantin Belikov had held the spot for so long, it was difficult to picture anyone else in the role. But I had a good imagination, so I could slot Caleb in if that was where he needed to be.

  “Okay” was all he said. “It’s at the back.”

  “Do you think it will work all right? The maintenance override won’t knock it out of commission?” It amazed me I could have a normal conversation with him. If Caleb was my King of Swords, he was responsible for thousands of deaths on the CN-net, Felipe’s accident, Brody’s arrest, my hijacking, and Alexei…I cut the thought off there before it went into dangerous territory.

  “It should be fine. If you need help, let me know.”

  I wondered if he’d been the one who’d forced me to touch myself in the shack. Had he watched and gotten some perverse thrill from it? The idea made me feel violated and dirty. I’d trusted this man! But it also enraged me, firing up the anger that had bolstered me for so long. Had he killed my father? Had he been there to watch him die? Had he led me to the Venus Eye project so I could see my father’s death firsthand?

  Aloud, in a voice that sounded laughably normal, I said, “It’s been a shitty couple of sols, but I’m pretty sure I can handle a toilet. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  I waded down the aisle to the back of the carrier. I felt his eyes following me all the way. It occurred to me I didn’t have a lot of time to plan anything. Plan? Fuck, I had no plan. I was on the space elevator. What kind of brilliant plan could I come up with this high off the ground with nowhere to go and no t-mods?

  The restroom door was on my right. Ahead of me, the carrier’s exit hatch—a sleek, shiny silver door with a data keypad on the wall beside it. The keypad wasn’t lit up. The safety lock engagement light wasn’t turned on. AI control and monitoring were off. So far as I could tell, the door was on manual locks. I looked at the locking wheel that sealed the door. I remembered Caleb turning it when we boarded, but nothing else. I had the sense that with a little effort, I could unlock the door myself.

  Gods, it would be a stupid move on my part. Unlocking the door would literally be the dumbest thing I could do. Beyond dumb. I could fall, freeze, or both. Where did I think I could go? I was in a fucking space elevator! I couldn’t just walk out and hail an air-hack.

  Yet now that the idea was in my brain, I couldn’t shake it free. It landed with all the sturdiness of a cement wall and wasn’t coming loose. The reckless anger roaring through me that wanted to destroy everything in sight liked it as well. And my gut…Well, my gut was all on board with this fantastically stupid plan, as if opening the space elevator door was the greatest idea in the history of great ideas.

  “Felicia, what are you—”

  Before Caleb could say the words, I reached out and turned the locking wheel. It stuck only a little before twirling easily. To turn it faster, I used both hands. The thick metal spokes dug into my skin and peeled off the skin renewal patch, but it wasn’t a huge loss. The skin had mostly grown back anyway. I heard Caleb get out of his seat, heard him yelling. It made me move faster, spinning the wheel until I heard the bolts sliding free. A light flashed on the keypad, so I hit it with my fist. And with a whoosh of icy air as the seals gave way, the space elevator door slid open.

  23

  The cold tore the breath out of me. For the first few seconds, I stood on what felt like the precipice of forever and couldn’t breathe. Before me was absolute darkness without end. I knew the sun rose somewhere behind me, but this sky was untouched by light and held nothing but night. That, and stars resembling diamonds. It was an abyss of blackness so vast, so similar to the yawning emptiness that had threatened to swallow me since Soyuz Park, I almost let myself fall into it just to put myself out of my misery. Only my hand holding the side of the doorframe kept me from tumbling free.

  With effort, I refocused where my gut directed. It urged and I followed—pushing aside my questions and fear. Now was the time to trust that feeling and let it be the voice guiding me, rather than the one wanting me to fall down into forever. When it directed me to reach outside the elevator, I did. My hand searched for a handhold, and when I found one, I grabbed on and let my body follow.

  It was the rung of a built-in ladder, one technicians used to climb up the elevator carrier to perform routine maintenance. The metal felt like ice under my hands and as I began my climb, it didn’t take long before my skin was numb. And gods, it was so damned windy. The wind whipped my hair around my face, making it nearly impossible to see. It bit through my pantsuit with the same chilling ferocity. The smart-matter fabric couldn’t generate enough heat to counteract it, as it wasn’t designed to reach the temperature I needed to keep warm. At least my shoes stayed on, even if they slipped on the frigid metal.

  On the roof, I ducked to a crouch, feeling exposed and windblown. Above me were the six massive spindle legs that protruded from the carrier. They gripped the nanotube cable that ran between the landing pl
atform floating in Isidis Bay and Space Station Destiny overhead and moved in concert to ease us down. I’d never been this close, and their immensity left me awestruck. The engine noises were loud, a grinding howl that nearly blocked the shrieking wind. Between the protrusions, I saw an alcove where I could tuck myself away from the wind and headed for it.

  Caleb popped up before I could settle in my alcove and he looked…I didn’t know a word that meant more furious than furious, but whatever it might be, he was that. Gods, was he ever.

  He stood on the top of the elevator, braced against the wind like he could hold his own forever. He looked around, searching. When his eyes landed on me, his expression twisted further, like he couldn’t believe what I’d dragged him into, and when he yanked me off this roof, he was going to kick my ass all over Mars.

  Well, we’d see about that.

  “Who are you really working for, Caleb? Do you report to Tanith or are you manipulating everyone around you?”

  “Get back inside, Felicia. It isn’t safe out here.”

  “I bet it sucks when the hostage starts to assert control, doesn’t it? Bet you hate not being in charge,” I yelled instead. When I spoke, the wind leaped down my throat, so cold I almost choked on my own taunts.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re doing but you need to grow up, get off this roof, and back inside the damned elevator.”

  “No. I’m not going anywhere with you. Know what I think? You’re not working for Tanith. You’re not even working for Arkell. Or One Gov. They might believe that—that you’re their man to order around—but I don’t. You’re working your own plan and using them against each other, trying to pull their strings.”

  Caleb advanced. His hands were clenched into fists and the wind tore at his clothes and hair.