by Caryn Lix
“Very dramatic,” said Alexei dryly. “Can we bind that arm now?”
Mia rematerialized behind him. “Knock yourself out.” She stretched. “God, that feels good. Like working a muscle you forgot you had. Who’s next?”
“Matt?” Cage gestured.
Matt made a face. “Do I have to sit in Alexei’s lap?”
“I will cut you, little man,” snarled Mia. The threat lost some of its impact because of the pallor of her face, though.
Mia and Alexei pinned Matt between them, and Cage made short work of his chip too. He took a moment to bind the wound after and said something that made Matt chuckle. In spite of myself, I was impressed at Cage’s care of his friends—he might be a criminal, but he obviously wasn’t inhuman. That meant there were ways I could reach him.
But then he turned on the boy still hunched in the corner.
The kid’s already pale skin went even paler. “I can’t,” he squeaked. “I . . . I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”
“Tyler,” Cage sighed, “we need you more than anyone.”
“We all survived it,” Rune pointed out gently. “You will too. It hurts, I’m not going to lie—but not for long. You’ll be okay.”
The boy shook his head frantically, scrambling to his feet and backpedaling—right into Mia, who caught him by the shoulder and shoved him forward. “Get in there,” she snapped. “Or I’ll show you pain.”
Tyler glanced frantically between Mia and Alexei, who advanced on his left. His gaze took in me, Matt, Rune, and Cage with the knife, and then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” said Mia, who, instead of catching him, actually stepped aside and let him hit the ground.
“Perfect. Let’s work fast,” Cage replied. Mia and Alexei restrained Tyler. I prayed he would stay unconscious through the whole thing, but he didn’t, waking at the first cut of the knife. The other three, their agony tore me to shreds—but at least they’d signed up voluntarily. Seeing Cage forcibly cut the chip from this poor kid’s arm drove home something I’d almost forgotten: I was dealing with ruthless criminals. Seeing them suffer had awakened my compassion, but these were literally some of the most dangerous people in the solar system, and I needed to remember that.
They dumped a sobbing, shivering Tyler on a corner of the couch near where I was perched on the floor. Rune promptly took him in her arms, murmuring softly in his ear. Attention turned to Cage. Mia extended a hand. “Oh, please. Let me.”
Cage handed her the knife. She arched an eyebrow, and he shrugged. “You’ve got the nimblest fingers. And you’re not going to get distracted by all the blood and screaming.” He paused, then smiled. “Also . . . as it happens, I trust you.”
Mia made no reply to that, nodding instead to Alexei. “Hold him.”
Rune made a strangled sound in her throat as she let go of Tyler, and her fingers closed over my arm—not to restrain me this time, but in search of support. In spite of my resolution of a few moments ago, I reached back and took her hand.
Cage screamed just like the others, and Rune gasped in anguish, the blood draining from her face as she clenched her free hand into a fist at her side. I put my arm around her and held her close, ignoring the pain where her grip seared my wrist. I had four little cousins—children of my dad’s sister, the only family we were remotely close to—and Rune was starting to remind me of them. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “They’re almost done.”
Sure enough, in spite of her threatening demeanor, Mia was quick and deft with the makeshift surgery. “That’s all of us,” she said, bandaging the wound on Cage’s shoulder. “Tyler, you’re up.”
Tyler, who couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old, shook off his lethargy long enough to glare at Mia. “I really hate you.”
She beamed, seeming to take that as a compliment.
Something beeped in the server room. Rune and Cage exchanged a glance, and he turned to Mia. “You okay here?” he asked.
Mia nodded. “I’ve got this.”
Cage glanced at her dubiously, tugging his bandage into place. “All right,” he said, with a look in my direction that I couldn’t quite interpret. He and Rune ran for the server room. I stared after them, my fingers twitching. Part of me wanted to follow. Sure, Cage had grabbed me and dragged me in here, but given a choice between him, Mia, and Alexei . . .
Tyler and Mia crossed to me, Mia’s face settling into an ugly scowl. “Okay,” she said. Up close, I could see the sheen of sweat covering her features. “Last chance. You are going to give us that code. You want to do it friendly, or do we have to take it?”
I trembled, recoiling against Matt, who’d appeared behind me. “Come on, Kenzie,” he said, not unkindly. “Let’s make this easy, huh?”
Sinking my teeth into my lip hard enough to taste blood, I shook my head. What was I getting myself into? After what I’d just seen them do to each other, who knew what they’d do to me?
Alexei snorted at my expression. “Relax. We’re not going to hurt you. Doesn’t mean you’re going to enjoy this, though.” He nodded to Tyler.
Tyler sidled up, not meeting my eyes. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“For wh—?”
I gasped as something cold rifled through my brain, and I clutched at Matt to remain upright. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but it wasn’t comfortable—like suddenly realizing you had a spike driven through your hand. You stare at it, knowing that it should hurt, that it doesn’t belong there, but you’re in too much shock to register the agony.
No pain followed the spike-in-my-brain sensation, though—just the slimy sense of fingers crawling down my neck, of someone rummaging through my innermost thoughts.
Oh my God. He was inside my brain.
I recoiled, frantic to escape the intrusion, but there was nowhere to run even after I shoved Matt aside. Alexei jumped behind me to block my flight. He caught my wrists when I balled my hands into fists, preventing me from attacking Tyler.
The sense of someone in my brain grew. I ground my teeth and closed my eyes, focusing all my attention on the sinister presence. Blackness overwhelmed me, Tyler a blinding flash of light. Without quite knowing what I was doing, I pressed back, straining against his presence in my mind. I remembered they were looking for my code. Unbidden, numbers and letters surged through my head. Desperate, I sang the alphabet song silently, a mental wall of noise to hide the rest.
“Tyler,” said Mia sharply. Her voice rattled my concentration, but I tightened my shoulders, clenched my jaw, and braced myself. The physical actions seemed to help, and Tyler slipped back a bit—or I hoped he did.
“I’m trying!” Tyler’s voice took on a hysterical edge. “She’s . . . fighting me, somehow.”
That encouraged me, and I pushed back harder. I stood stock-still. Sweat tickled my brow, but I didn’t dare wipe it away. The least movement would disrupt my concentration, and if that happened . . .
Pain rocked through my shoulder. My eyes shot open with a cry, and Mia released the pressure point. I fought to reestablish my hold, but there was no resisting now that my concentration had broken. And then, just as suddenly, Tyler was gone. I sagged in Alexei’s arms, furious, my breath coming in short, sharp gasps. My brain felt . . . empty. Pillaged, like an army had swept through, took what it wanted, and left devastation in its wake.
Tyler staggered. “Got it,” he muttered, and rattled off my code. At Mia’s gesture, he flew for the server room.
I tore free of Alexei’s hands and stumbled behind the couch, putting a barrier between us. “What the hell is wrong with you people?” I seethed, forgetting my earlier plan of playing nice.
“What’s wrong with us?” Mia shouted. She lunged for me, and I dodged around the couch again. I was strong and could take care of myself, but that girl didn’t have a bit of compassion in her eyes. I wasn’t going to go up against someone as rabid as her, especially with my hands still shaking from Tyler’s assault on my head.
Alexei ca
ught her and held her back. “Take it easy, Mia mine.”
She punched him in the chest. It looked hard enough to do some damage, but Alexei didn’t even change expression, let alone stagger. “Listen,” she continued, leveling a finger at my face as she strained against his grip, “we are not the ones locking people up in some godforsaken space station for the rest of their lives without so much as a trial!”
I scowled. “I’ve read your files. Every single one of you had a trial.” Besides, give them back their powers and what was the first thing they did? Force their way into someone else’s mind. I shuddered, thinking of the damage someone like Tyler could cause out in the world.
“Yeah? If you want to call that farce a trial, great. Good on you.” She yanked free of Alexei and came at me again.
Cage appeared out of nowhere, catching my arm and tucking me behind him. I grimaced at his back. Great. Now he showed up? The sense of betrayal surging through me was completely unreasonable. He was my captor, not my friend. And yet somehow, I’d expected more from him and Rune.
“Alexei, get Mia out of here and calm her the hell down. Kenzie and I have a call to make.” Cage glanced at me and gestured toward the server room. The unspoken choice was clear: walk on my own, or have him drag me around some more. All things considered, I’d rather move under my own power. I didn’t mind putting some distance between myself and Mia anyway.
The others retreated into the hall, Tyler with another mumbled apology. I spun on Cage. “Was this the plan all along? The second you get your powers back, you use that kid to rip information out of my head?”
He shrugged, but there was a tinge of discomfort in his expression. “We gave you every chance to tell us on your own.”
“So I left you no choice, is that it? And what about Mia? I’m pretty sure she just tried to kill me.”
“She wasn’t going to kill you. She plays up the attitude.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, unconvinced. I was still shaking from my encounter with Tyler, and as soon as they were out of sight, Cage took my arm—not to restrain me, but to support me. I wanted to resist, but Tyler’s attack had taken a physical toll. My knees were weak, and his grip was steady, almost friendly, as much as I hated that thought.
“Look,” he said. His voice was slow, unwilling, as if I was somehow dragging it from his throat. “What just happened, it was . . .”
“Disgusting? Violating? Illegal?”
“Necessary,” he replied sharply, glaring at me. “Like I said, we gave you every chance to help us voluntarily.”
“Knowing the whole time that I couldn’t.”
He closed his eyes as if in pain. “Is Omnistellar really that important to you? What would you do for them, huh? Would you die because of rules and regulations?”
Mom’s voice answered in my head. She’d always drilled it into me—do whatever you can to protect yourself, but if it ever comes down to you or the company, the company’s mission comes first. It had to. As Omnistellar citizens, we had a responsibility to the entire solar system. We lived knowing that our deaths might one day be required to keep everyone else safe, though we did everything in our power to keep that day from coming.
So why wouldn’t my mouth form the words?
Cage’s expression went from challenging to thoughtful, and after a moment, he shook his head. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Let’s hope,” I agreed dryly, and we set off toward the server room, my brain racing to figure out what had just happened.
Rune awaited us, her fingers phasing in and out of the console. Unlike before, when she’d plunged in all the way to her elbows and set her eyes fluttering like a woman possessed, this was a more casual interaction, like she was petting a small dog. “I’ve got the cameras ready.”
Cage set me in a chair, the only one in the room. “Don’t talk unless I tell you to,” he said.
I nodded with no intention of obeying. He twirled the chair to face him and leaned forward, trapping me between his arms. “We’ve spent a long time planning this,” he said, his voice low and cold. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m not going to let you mess it up. You understand?”
I shivered, remembering everything they’d been willing to do so far. “Yeah. I get it.”
He nodded, apparently satisfied, and turned me to face the camera.
A second later, Mom’s face appeared on the screen. Relief flooded her expression when she saw me. “Kenzie,” she cried, dropping her tablet and lunging forward. “Where are you?”
Cage leaned over my shoulder. “Good evening, Commander,” he said.
Mom’s jaw tightened, and she folded her arms over her chest. “I don’t speak to prisoners,” she told him.
“You’ll speak to me. I have your daughter.”
Mom’s chin trembled. “Regulations are regulations for a reason. I have nothing to say to you.”
All at once the knife was in Cage’s hand, resting lightly against my throat. I tensed involuntarily. “You sure about that?” he asked.
“Don’t touch my daughter.”
“I have no intentions of hurting her. Not if you do what I say.”
Agonized indecision played across my mom’s face, but I knew what she’d say before she opened her mouth. “I can’t let you go, no matter how much you threaten my daughter. As much as I love her, the safety of the solar system comes first.”
“If you really do love her, you’ll listen to me.” He increased the pressure but didn’t draw blood. Still, it was enough to make me cringe.
“Kill her and you lose any hope of bargaining,” Mom returned sharply. Her eyes locked on mine, pleading with me to understand. She didn’t have to worry. I got it. We couldn’t let the prisoners escape, and she wasn’t wrong: they couldn’t kill me, not yet.
“I don’t have to kill her to make you both very sorry you didn’t hear me out.”
Mom sucked in a breath. She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them, they were resolute. “Kenzie . . . I’m sorry.”
And the screen went dark.
NINE
MY HEART WRENCHED AND MY stomach twisted. Shock settled over me like a heavy, prickly blanket. I stared at my boots, disguising the depth of my hurt. Of course she couldn’t let prisoners loose to murder innocents back on Earth. I knew that. But she’d just hung up without so much as attempting to argue. If our positions were reversed, nothing in the world could stop me from bargaining for her life.
“I don’t . . . ,” I began, but the words caught in my throat. I turned my head away, blinking back tears. My hands trembled, and I laced my fingers together to stop them.
After a second, Cage crouched at my side and laid a hand on my arm. He stared at it as if he’d surprised himself. “We expected this,” he said at last, raking a hand through his hair. “Rune’s been through everyone’s files, and your mom is . . . fiercely dedicated to the company.”
“That’s one way to put it,” I managed in a semi-normal voice. I shook off his hand and shifted in the chair to face them, shoving my momentary weakness aside. Even as a captive, even without cameras monitoring my every move, I was still a junior guard, and I was going to act like it, damn it. Besides, I couldn’t forget that Mom had access to the prisoner files too. Maybe she’d guessed that Cage and Rune weren’t killers. Maybe she was playing the odds. Either way, she could hardly just release the entire prison because of a vague threat to her daughter. “What’s your plan now?”
Rune shrugged. “We’ll wear her down. The longer she goes without hearing from her crew, the more she worries about you. . . .”
I drew myself up, thinking fast. “The sooner she’ll vent the prison.”
“She can’t do that,” Cage replied dryly.
Maybe this was my chance. If I could convince them we were in danger, I could help my mom negotiate my release. “You saw her. She cares about me, but not more than she cares about her duty to Omnistellar,” I said, putting on a mask of indifference. “If you�
��re counting on me to prevent her from venting this place, think again.”
“We’re not.”
I gaped at them as the reality set in. “You mean she can’t vent the sector. You control the computer—and you set off the distress signal from the supposed merchant vessel.”
Exchanging a glance with her brother, Rune frowned. “Actually . . . I didn’t. In fact, I blocked communications between Sanctuary and any outside sources. I have no idea how the merchant signal got through. It must have been seriously strong.”
Cage groaned. “Great, you’ll get Rune going again. She obsessed about this for hours.”
Rune shrugged. “I don’t like surprises. Everything went smoothly in the trial run, and . . .”
Trial run? It hit me like a slap in the face. In fact, I felt like slapping myself in the face. I settled for dropping my head into my hands. “You orchestrated that drill.” Of course. Fifty-year anniversary leading to more advanced drills . . . sure. That drill had nothing to do with probes or outside invasions. But we all relied so heavily on Sanctuary’s AI that no one thought to question it.
Cage and Rune laughed. Jerks. “I’m pretty proud of it,” Rune confessed. “Obviously I made my code a lot easier to catch that time. You did great, by the way.”
“Do not praise me,” I snapped, my head jerking upright. “How the hell did you do it?”
Rune shrugged. “Cage removed my implant a few days ago.”
I jabbed a finger at her. “So you said. But there are cameras everywhere in this station. Someone would have noticed.”
Cage swallowed a chuckle. “Kenzie, no way you monitor those cameras twenty-four seven. We took a risk and did it during a break. Everyone collected in the rec room. It was busy and crowded and Alexei kept Rune from making too much noise.”
Rune’s face paled a bit at the memory. “Afterward, it wasn’t too hard to interface with the computer. I have to be in direct contact to do anything big, but I forged enough of a connection to open the server room door without contact, and once I did that, I programmed Sanctuary to run the drill.”
“So why all this? Why not just open doors and attack us in our sleep?”
