Escape

by Gun Brooke

  “I did. May we come in?”

  Making quite a production of widening her eyes, Caya pressed a hand to her chest. “But of course. These aren’t really my quarters after all. I’m humbled that you deign to pay me a visit after all this time.”

  Thea flinched before she managed to stop herself. It was true that she’d kept her distance these last thirty-some days. Wary of Caya’s vitriol, she had been relieved that she didn’t have to call upon Caya for official reasons. Until now.

  “Stop it, Caya. That’s enough.” Thea stepped into Caya’s quarters and motioned for Diobring to follow her. The door closed behind them. “This is Lieutenant Diobring. He has some information we need to share with you. His team and others are about to go into a situation blind, and if you can shed some light on any of it, it could save lives.”

  “I see.” Suddenly looking tired and older than her twenty years, Caya motioned to the couches by the far wall. “Please, have a seat.” She looked back and forth between Thea and Diobring as they sat down. “Life and death, hmm? Nothing like a bit of pressure to make one’s day interesting.”

  Thea understood what Caya meant. To put such a burden on her narrow shoulders was inhumane, to say the least. If Caya hadn’t been as gifted as she was, but instead a normal girl about to start her courses at university, like the rest of her peers, Thea would have gladly used any other means. But now that Caya could do more for their tactical advantage than several covert units combined, Thea couldn’t allow herself to go soft.

  Caya sat down on one of the couches, one seat away from Thea. Her transparent, turquoise eyes shifted between Thea and Diobring, their expression guarded and just one degree away from hostile.

  After confirming with Thea that he really was meant to brief Caya with the latest intel, Diobring spoke for a good ten minutes. Once he was done, Caya unfolded her arms and turned to Thea. “And what does this have to do with me?”

  Thea disregarded Caya’s attitude and spoke matter-of-factly, which was how she knew she would get through to Caya. “You can imagine the damage covert groups could do to individual cubes, not to mention their inhabitants. Of all the scenarios possible, covert operatives are bad, but potential sleeper agents are worse. Is it possible for you to see anything?”

  “Excuse me, Madam President,” Diobring said. A frown marred his strong features. “What’s going on here? What is Ms. Lindemay supposed to ‘see’?”

  “I can tell that your president has conveniently forgotten to tell you that I’m a clairvoyant changer.” Caya looked expectantly at Diobring. “This is news to you, right?”

  “It certainly is.” Diobring’s expression had gone a lot colder. “I didn’t want to believe the rumors of stowaway changers. Are you telling me this girl is one?” He refused to look at Caya.

  “She is. As is her sister. You did promise me to keep an open mind. Caya has saved this ship on several occasions, and now I hope she can help us find out more about the hostile plans you have almost uncovered.”

  Diobring pressed his lips together and turned back to Caya, clearly uncomfortable. “Very well.”

  “Let me try.” Caya sighed and moved a little farther from Thea. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms against her knees. Rubbing slowly back and forth, she hummed just below her breath.

  Thea had seen Caya do this several times, but she didn’t think she’d ever seen her look this pale, her complexion transparent as the air around her seemed to sparkle.

  “Creator of all things,” Diobring whispered, and Thea shook her head, gesturing for him to be quiet. He nodded absentmindedly, clearly enthralled by what was going on.

  “Everything is blue. Dark blue, almost black.” Caya spoke with a low, husky voice, very unlike her normal melodious tone. She opened her eyes, startling Thea, as that normally didn’t happen. “The woman is fragile. White skin, freckled, hair fiery red. She’s wary, afraid, and she has good reason. Something, no, someone, knows she’s not entirely devout. Her life is in danger. She’s not going to survive longer than three days from now unless you take action.” Caya curled up, hugging her knees close to her chest. “She’s in a dark alley. I’m not sure which cube. She’s on her back, half hidden among a set of…barrels, I think. H-her injuries are extensive…oh, Creator…it’s bad. So bad.” Caya’s eyes filled with tears as she turned toward Thea. Dazed, Caya gripped her hand, which made Diobring stand, but Thea stopped him with a short gesture. She held on firmly to Caya’s cold hand.

  “Go on,” Thea said quietly.

  “Her throat is slit. She’s lying in a large pool of her own blood.” Caya shook now. “And the police and the military surround her now. They begin to move her when—oh, no! No!” Arching her back so violently it had to be a spasm, Caya sobbed furiously, pressing her eyes closed. “Her body…her body was a trap. Thea. Something around her, or underneath, exploded. So much destruction and death. You have to stop them. Save them.” She gasped with each breath. “And save her. If you don’t, there’s no turning back. People will once again blame the changers.”

  “Changers are behind this?” Diobring rose, pulling at his communicator.

  “Sit down, Lieutenant.” Thea heard the crack in her voice and so did Diobring, who sat down as if she’d whipped his ankle with an energy rod.

  Caya sat up straight. Her tears ran all the way down her neck, but her voice was once again fierce. “I don’t think so. I don’t know. It really doesn’t matter at this point if you don’t find this woman and save her. Once they get to her and her secret is out, it’ll be too late.”

  “Can you describe her more than red hair and freckles?” Thea slid closer and tried to take Caya’s hand. To her dismay, Caya flinched and pressed her back against the armrest behind her.

  “Maybe. She is thin. Very thin, almost emaciated.”

  “Wait. Let me record your words.” Thea reached for her bag and pulled out her personal, highly encrypted recorder. While working with the settings, she glanced up briefly at Diobring. “Get your team together again, Lieutenant. Only use the core officers, as we cannot afford to bring anyone not properly vetted.”

  “Certainly, Madam President.” Diobring stood and bowed toward Thea and Caya. “I hope we meet again during less ominous circumstances, Ms. Lindemay.” Diobring smiled cautiously and then left the guest quarters. It didn’t escape Thea that Caya had returned his smile. She couldn’t remember when Caya had last reciprocated any of her smiles.

  “All right. It’s recording. Please continue.”

  Caya tore her longing glance from the door as it closed behind Diobring. “Right. Yes. So, she’s very thin, has shoulder-blade-long, copper-red hair. Her freckles are evenly distributed across her face, neck, and lower arms. As for the rest of her body, I have no idea. In my vision she wore a soft-grey trouser suit with white hems, lining, and lapels. I got the feeling she was dressed quite formally. Perhaps she holds some official capacity?”

  That was an astute observation. “Anything else. Lips, teeth, eye color?”

  “Brown eyes. Short, straight nose. Narrow, peach-colored lips. Didn’t see the teeth.” Caya rubbed her temples. “Short, well-kept nails.”

  “Thank you. That’s a good start. If you have any more visions, regarding this woman or anything or anyone else, please let me know right away.”

  “Sure. I’m at your beck and call as always, Madam President,” Caya said, her lips tense. Standing up, she began rounding the table between the couches as if she couldn’t stand to be in close proximity with Thea a single second longer.

  “Caya. Please.” Without realizing her intention, Thea gently grabbed Caya’s right wrist.

  Chapter Four

  Caya stopped instantly and glowered down at Thea, who looked up at her with narrow, ice-blue eyes. The woman wielding such power over every single person aboard Pathfinder—including Caya—gazed at her as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to begin. This was of course ludicrous, as there was not one single day in the year wh
en Gassinthea Mila Tylio wasn’t the smartest, shrewdest person in the room. She exuded intelligence, and that trait, combined with her brilliant and calculating political prowess, was enough for Caya to know for certain that Thea always held the winning cards in any game.

  This didn’t stop Caya’s skin from tingling where Thea held her in a firm but gentle grip.

  “Sit back down, Caya. It’s been too long since the naming ceremony.” Thea rubbed her thumb against the back of Caya’s hand. “I know I’m hardly your favorite person at the moment, but I still want to know—”

  “What I’m up to? What my days are like? What if I were to tell you I’m going insane, little by little, cooped up in here? Would that matter to you at all?” Caya slowly sat down, close enough for their knees to touch.

  Thea leaned closer. “If you were to tell me you’re not faring well here, I would do anything beneath the stars to change that, short of endangering your life.”

  “Ah. But of course. Naturally. You’re the judge and jury on that particular topic, right?” Caya pushed back against the much-too-old frustration. Thea had let go of her wrist, but her skin still buzzed from the unexpected touch. Normally, Thea knew better than to initiate such things. Perhaps she really was afraid deep down, thinking that Caya might affect her subconsciously?

  Not sure of her own motive, Caya took Thea’s hand in hers. It was obvious how this shocked the president. Her eyes went from narrow to wide within a fraction of a second. “What are you doing?” Thea asked in a low growl.

  “Trying to make you see reason if that is at all possible.” Caya held Thea’s hand gently. Caya hadn’t counted on her own response when Thea remained motionless with her hand in hers.

  Images began to flicker behind Caya’s eyelids, forcing her to close her eyes tight as she clung to Thea’s hand. Visions of a young woman, looking much like Thea, but perhaps at age sixteen, maybe eighteen, streamed through Caya’s mind. “What the…?” Caya gasped, and now she clung to Thea’s hand. Now the vision was clearing up, and Caya could tell the very young Thea stood by a middle-aged man, pale and upset.

  “Father. I refuse. I’m going to the capital.” Young Thea pleaded, but defiance shone from her eyes. “I was accepted to the university there. You can’t keep me here.”

  “I can cut off your funds, you ungrateful child!” The man, tall and burly as he stood up, raised his hand. Caya cried out as he hit Thea’s cheek, sending her to her knees.

  “Caya?” Thea’s older voice reached Caya through the haze of the vision, but she had already been whisked away to another scenario. This time, Thea was older, perhaps in her mid-twenties, and a much-older Hadler stood next to her on a tall staircase outside an impressive building. Caya recognized the governmental building, as no other structure on Oconodos was made of bronze-veined marble. At first Caya thought it was a vision from happier days, but then she spotted Hadler’s iron grip of Thea’s upper arm. She wanted to yell “Let go of her!” to the despicable man Thea had married, but it was futile. Instead, she saw how Thea stealthily rubbed her arm when Hadler finally let go. Another whooshing sound and Caya’s vision morphed into Thea looking her current age. She stood by her desk in her office when Hadler stormed in, apoplectic and spitting as he cursed her with foul language. To Caya’s amazement, Thea didn’t look afraid any longer. Instead, she stepped well within Hadler’s personal space and poked him in the chest with two fingers as she hissed some inaudible words to him. A white flash broke the tableau into spinning shards, and now Caya gasped out loud and wanted to stop the visions from crashing into her mind. Here Thea was on her knees in a ballroom, and before her on the floor was Caya, writhing in what looked like a seizure. Thea held one of her hands on Caya’s shoulder, the other raised to keep the shocked spectators away. “Give her enough room to breathe!” Again, the vision changed, and this time, Thea was alone in her living-room area sitting curled up in the armchair and holding a pillow as she stared into nothing. Thea’s lips trembled, and just before the last vision faded, Caya thought she heard her whisper, “She hates me.”

  As the mist disappeared from her mind, Caya became aware of still holding Thea’s hand.

  “What did you see?” Thea spoke quietly and used her free hand to stroke up and down Caya’s lower arm. “Anything about what Lieutenant Diobring spoke of earlier?”

  “No.” Caya was still shocked at her visions; she needed time to process them.

  “Then what?” Thea held on to Caya’s hand with both of hers.

  “They weren’t the usual visions. You know, of the future. These…oh, Creator of everything, these were like small scenes from the past. I’ve never had that happen before. Not even when it comes to Briar.” Caya let go of Thea’s hand, and for a moment the lack of connection actually brought her a stab of physical pain. She whimpered and curled up much like Thea had done in her vision.

  “What’s wrong? Talk to me.” Thea looked startled and slid forward, raising her hands.

  “No!” Caya flinched. “Don’t. Don’t touch me.”

  “But—Caya, I wasn’t going to hurt you.” Hurt tinged Thea’s words as she lowered her hand and placed them on her lap in a heartbreakingly awkward gesture.

  “Not your fault. Not this time.” Caya attempted some gallows humor, but it fell flat as her words made Thea go paler.

  “Then tell me what was in your vision.”

  “It was more than one. It was like a series of scenes from…from someone’s life. I think I’m not far off when I interpret them as pivotal moments in their life.”

  “So it was about someone you know.” Thea studied Caya’s expression, and it wasn’t very hard to detect the moment Thea figured it out. “It was about me? My life. My ‘pivotal moments’?” She tightened her hands into fists.

  “I can’t control where my visions take me, Thea. You know that. If I could, I’d stay as far as I could away from you and your life. I would never invade anyone’s privacy, least of all yours.”

  “Yes. You’ve made it bloody clear that you don’t want anything to do with me.” Thea stood. “I want you to tell me everything about your visions about my past. I need to know if it is something your mind conjured up or not.”

  After that volley of hurtful words, Caya only wanted Thea to leave. “I don’t—”

  “No! What you fail to understand is that I need to know. This is not optional, Caya. Tell me.” Thea sat down again, back straight and her hands clasped. Two bright red spots burned on her cheeks, which was rarely a good sign.

  Reluctantly, Caya gave a brief recount of the tableaus she had witnessed. With each one, she received confirmation about their accuracy by merely watching Thea’s expression and how she grew increasingly ashen. “I take it you really did live through those moments?” Caya winced at her words, but she had to make sure.

  “Yes.” So tense now, she looked like she might shatter at the slightest touch, Thea rose and walked over to the food and drink dispenser. Punching in a few commands, she grabbed a glass and placed it under the spout, filling it with a green-tinted liquid. After she knocked it back, Thea put the glass on the counter and returned to Caya and sat down. “This is a first? Seeing someone’s past like this?”

  “Yes. I’ve only had visions of future events so far. I’m not sure what I did different this time.”

  “You held my hand.” Thea gazed down into her lap and untangled her fingers. “Can that be it?” She examined her hand and then looked at Caya’s.

  “I don’t thi—wait.” Frowning as she tried to remember if she’d ever had any physical connection apart from with Briar when a vision hit, Caya had to conclude that she hadn’t. Back on Oconodos, while being homeschooled by first her parents and later Briar, her changer status had been a well-kept secret. It had taken her family quite a bit of time to realize she wasn’t just having seizures. Initially, they were afraid of her having a brain tumor or some other cerebral illness, but when they learned that she had the genetic makeup of the feared mutation, her par
ents almost wished she had been ill instead. As she grew older, Caya realized her parents had to have suspected the mutation as they had the test done in secret. When the Exodus operation commenced years later, Caya’s genetic results would have made it impossible. Briar had promised their parents to get them to safety, and when the time arrived to get the tests done, she used the same contact that had once helped her father to have them both changed. They didn’t know even Briar had the mutated gene, as her tests had given a false negative when they were younger. If Briar hadn’t been as meticulous as she was in changing both their test results, as they were sisters and had to look like sisters even genetically, she would have been found out long before she herself knew.

  “Caya?” Thea broke through Caya’s reverie. “Can it be the case?”

  “I think so. Yes. Damn it.”

  “There’s only one way to figure it out.” Thea extended her hand. “Try again.”

  Caya didn’t want to. She really, really didn’t. Mustering courage, she slid forward. “If we’re going to do it, let’s do it properly. If holding your hand gave me so much…” She shrugged as her cheeks grew warm.

  “What do you mean?” Thea tilted her head. “Oh. Right.” She lowered her proffered hand. “How do you want to do this?”

  “Want?” Snorting, Caya scooted even closer and wrapped her arms around Thea. She found it so ironic that she was holding the woman she had such conflicting feelings about for scientific reasons and nothing else. Thea was softer and curvier than her strict dress code and commanding persona suggested. Where Caya had expected to find a thin, wiry frame, she instead held full breasts and a narrow waist above slender hips. Just as Caya was about to let go since she had never felt more self-conscious in her life, Thea slowly raised her arms and wrapped them lightly around Caya’s shoulders.

  “Anything?” Thea murmured.

  “Please, Madam President, give a girl a chance to adjust, will you?” Perhaps it was their close proximity that made some of Caya’s hostility dwindle. That first month or two of Caya’s protective custody, they had been able to banter and enjoy each other’s company. Back then, Caya had just been relieved that Briar and Adina were all right, and in love, and she’d thought her stay in the guest quarters would be temporary.