“Ten years ago, I tried to save your son.” Turret didn’t rise to the challenge aside from a slight narrowing of his eyes. “We lost a lot of good people that night and a lot more every night since. And that’s just Parole, before Tartarus devastated everywhere else. Now if I were you, I’d want to put that far behind me and make sure it never happened again. I’d leave someone experienced in charge.”
“You do not need to remind me about any of this.” Rishika’s voice dropped as well, every word slow and deliberate. “I am well aware of how it began. And I am aware of the cost. My…experience…in this area is beyond compare.”
“With all due respect, you’ve been out of the game a long time, Ma’am.”
“Thank you for your input, Major.” She put the slightest emphasis on the title. “It’s noted, believe me. But it’s also long past time I rejoined play. Before we all suffer quite a penalty.”
“Ma’am—Rishika—”
“David…shut up.” She crossed the room and took the microphone in hand.
* ☆ *
Shiloh sprinted down the corridor, panic growing with every step. It seemed like xie’d been lost since the moment xie’d burst out of the hidden crawlspace. Every single hallway and corner looked the same down here and, with each turn, xie got more confused, more lost, and more desperate. Xir footsteps clanged on the metal floor, echoes repeating until the noise was a jangling mess just as disorienting as the labyrinthine maze itself.
"Bri?" Xie risked a shout, voice only adding to the confusion. "Bri, I'm here!"
The P.A. system was still going, Turret and Rishika's voices yelling over one another in unintelligible, garbled messes of words xie doubted made much sense even in person, much less in metal ship interiors. Finally, completely turned around and frustrated, Shiloh came to a stop outside a large door—and at the same time realized exactly how bad a choice xie'd made. There were soldiers on this ship. A ship xie still got lost in about every ten minutes. And xie'd just yelled xir presence to everyone within earshot, echo-chaos or not.
But here was one tiny piece of luck: xie did recognize this door. It led to the central tree tank. Couldn't get lost in there and it would make a good place to hide until all this was-
"What the hell are you doing?" Shiloh almost jumped out of xir skin as someone slammed into xir from behind, and almost took off running again before xie realized it was Annie's voice, and her hands grabbing onto xir shoulders.
"Brianna—she's here, I have to—"
"So you just run around yelling with SkEye everywhere?" Annie at least kept her voice down to a furious whisper. "Are you actually trying to get caught and killed? We have to get back where-"
"No!" Shiloh shook off her hand. "You heard her on the P.A.! She tried to help me and now she's somewhere on the ship, so I have to help her!"
"No, you have to get back where it's safe and let someone who knows what they're doing—"
"She'd do it for me!" Shiloh almost abandoned whispering again, feeling a mild electric surge run up xir spine. "I can't just leave her here!"
Annie's eyes widened and her mouth fell open, but no sound came out for a second. When it did, she wasn't whispering anymore either, voice low but resolved. "Okay. Let's go get her."
They opened the door to the tree tank together and stepped quietly through.
Brianna was the first thing Shiloh saw. She was under the tree. It was as if they'd planned to meet here, as if she'd somehow known where to wait. Shiloh smiled immediately and Brianna was running toward xir almost as fast. They threw their arms around one another, nearly falling over and taking Annie down with them.
"Shiloh!" she cried, laughing, but crying at the same time if the tears Shiloh felt on xir cheeks were any clue. "You heard me!"
"Yeah, I did!" Xie squeezed her, and thought maybe not all the tears were Brianna's after all. "I can't believe you're here!"
"I'm so sorry for saying those awful things, even for a second, I didn't want to-"
"I know, don't worry, I know you didn't! That's how I knew it was a trap after the first second, because you'd never say that, this is super basic kidnapping logic 101 stuff."
"But you came out anyway!" She laughed, shaking her head. "I think you fail that class."
"We're all gonna fail.” Annie's warning tone brought them both back to the present. "If we don't hide and shut up right now. There's SkEye troops sweeping the ship still, remember?"
"Right, come on, Bri!" Shiloh couldn't stop smiling. "We'll wait this out, then we'll introduce you to everyone on board, the whole crew's really great. We have this one mission, I guess, but we're heading to Parole when it's done—for real, Bri, Parole! I still can't believe it!"
"Shiloh, wait." She stopped as xie tried to take her by the hand and lead her toward some thick rose bushes, looking overwhelmed and troubled.
"What?" Shiloh looked back, trying to hold onto the swell of joy xie felt slipping away as xie saw the look of doubt in Brianna's eyes. "This is what we wanted. And now it's happening. We couldn't do it before but now we can, this is real!"
"I still can't," she said, hand slipping out of Shiloh's as she took a small step back. "I'm sorry."
"I don't understand," Shiloh said, throwing Annie a slightly desperate look, maybe a plea for help. She gave her head a little shake as if to say she didn't get it either, but then, there was a lot she didn't get about these things. "Why'd you run away just now if you weren't coming with us?"
"I just wanted to see you..."
Shiloh stared for a second, incredulous. "You're staying with your father? After all this?"
Her eyes fell to the ground. "I'm not with him. But I don't know where to go either. If I stay with you he'll just follow, he'll never leave me alone, he'll never leave you alone! I can't stay here."
"Parole is still there, Bri," xie tried to infuse every word with conviction, get her to believe it even a fraction as strongly as xie did. "We've all seen it. It's alive. Gabriel is alive."
"I can't believe it," Brianna whispered, though she looked like she was beginning to. "What about my family, everyone my father said was dead? Are they alive too?"
"Liam's there," Annie said, giving Brianna a contemplative but not suspicious look. "Not the most popular guy in town, but he's—"
"So my brother really is alive?" Brianna turned to look fully at her for the first time, eyes wide and hopeful. Her next words came out in a rush. "I can't--I thought he was dead all these years, everyone told me he was dead, him and my mom and whole family and friends and everyone, and then my father says Parole's there but destroyed and has to stay destroyed, but I don't think that's right, that can't be right, and Shiloh's the only one who says different, but I can't just..."
"You can't get your hopes up on something so good," Annie said slowly. "Because letting yourself hope and then getting hurt is so much worse than never hoping at all."
Brianna didn't say a word. But shakily, she nodded.
Annie smiled, crooked and slow. "I don't know about everyone, but Liam's there." Her smile grew as Brianna let out a sob, but she was smiling too. "A lot of us are. Parole's a mess, especially now, but people are still hanging on. And we don't turn anyone away... even when we probably should. So are you coming or not?"
Brianna didn't answer right away. Her expression was one of intense concentration but didn't reveal a decision either way. Finally, she opened her mouth to answer—and gasped at something over Shiloh's shoulder.
Cold dread gathering, xie turned around. Standing where Brianna had been beneath the huge, starlight-filled tree was a perfectly average-looking man. He wore a SkEye uniform and the same scrutinizing, somehow predatory stare he'd had when he'd passed Shiloh, Annie, and Indra coming out of Radiance Headquarters several days ago.
But he didn't move and neither did they. Shiloh couldn't if xie tried. It was a wonder xie could even breathe under his penetrating gaze.
"This is Rishika Chandrasekhar, CEO of Radiance Technologies. All SkEye p
ersonnel, withdraw immediately." Her voice issued surprisingly loudly over the P.A. and all three of them jumped—but not the man in the uniform. He continued to hold perfectly still, focus unbroken. "Yes, that is an order and, yes, you do answer to me. Since I was the original authority over the 'Parole Situation,' as it's apparently known to everyone but me, I'll be rescinding the Major's temporary position and retaking my own. Isn't that right, Major?"
"Orders confirmed," Turret replied, voice neutral and controlled as ever. "Follow them as if they came from me."
"Thank you. We will disembark in an orderly fashion and return to your—our vessel at once. You are then to hold position here on the ground while I continue to Parole, where I will evaluate the ground status and oversee an appropriate response. Repeat, all SkEye personnel stand relieved, both here and Parole. FireRunner crew... carry on."
The speaker shut off and the first hint of anything besides cold calculation or a smug smirk crossed over the SkEye officer's face. His eyes narrowed and his hands curled into his fists, as if he wanted to lash out at the sound of her voice despite having no target. But, just as suddenly as it had come, the flash of anger disappeared and the silently intimidating man turned to go.
As he did, something caught his eye. He stopped mid-step, pale blue eyes zeroing in on the chain around Annie's neck that had come out of her shirt as she and Shiloh ran. On the large shark tooth on the end. Like the flare of temper, his hesitation only lasted for a moment and he was soon striding away from them toward the other end of the tank.
But before he left, he smiled. This time, he showed teeth.
They seemed too large to easily fit inside a human mouth.
And they were very sharp.
"No..." Annie's whisper was barely audible, but it still cut through Shiloh's shock, and xie turned to see her staring with the most haunted, horrified look xie'd ever seen on her face, even in a journey full of horrors. She didn't move except for her shaking legs, which looked like they couldn't decide whether to propel her forward in a desperate sprint after the man or buckle under her, leaving her in a heap on the ground.
"That's him?" Shiloh asked, immediately frustrated because of course it was, it could be no one else. And he was walking away, further all the time. In another minute, he'd be off the ship and gone. "We have to tell someone, we-"
Another sudden noise—rapid footsteps—made xir turn back around. The man with the shark teeth was gone and Brianna was running again, this time in the opposite direction from where he'd disappeared.
"Bri!" Shiloh cried, helpless panic surging back with a vengeance. "Stop! Don’t—”
"You were right, Shiloh!" she called back, sounding happy of all things, excited, alive. "Parole is still there! Liam's alive! My family, Gabriel, everyone! I have to find them—I have to see what my father tried to hide!"
"So you're going with him?" Shiloh took one frantic step after her, then saw Annie, and took two back.
"No!" Brianna laughed. "With her!"
More confused than xie'd ever been and sick to xir stomach, Shiloh looked up at Annie, who looked even worse than before. Tears streamed down her paled face and she was hanging onto her—Ash's—chain again.
"We can probably still catch them," Shiloh said, though xie was believing that less by the second. "Both of—all of them. Bri, Turret, and Sharpe. We tell everyone right now and if we hurry we can catch that whole ship, with the guy who killed Ash on-"
"Let him go," Annie said in that same faint whisper, shaking her head. "We don't stand a chance without Aliyah and Rowan. We never really did without Ash. We're hurting so bad, going up against him now... no." She sniffed, and let her hand drop. "There's enough blood in the water already.”
* ☆ *
As promised, they left the ship unharmed. On the ground, Brianna watched the FireRunner’s lights disappear into the inky night with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. Then, all at once, every light disappeared, as if dropped behind a cloak of shadow. There was no chance of catching them now if they didn’t want to be caught.
“So, the queen returns,” Turret rumbled from where he stood beside her, staring out after the receding lights and engine hum. He glanced down. “And you demonstrated your capabilities and intent very clearly.”
Brianna sucked in a breath and tensed, standing at attention before she even looked up to see the angle of her father’s squared jaw above her. "I'm not one of your soldiers."
"No, you're not. Mine know how to follow orders and show the loyalty their position demands."
"Like how they're all loyal to Radiance now?" Brianna wasn't sure where she found the guts to say the words, but she did, and braced for the fallout. "If I was one of your soldiers, I'd be obeying Rishika Chandrasekhar. Would that be better?"
"They won't listen to the first thing she says." The corner of his mouth gave the faintest twitch.
"You said they should follow her orders like they came from you."
"Exactly. I would never hand down the disasters she's about to. If I did, it would mean I wasn't fit to command. Or I'd been otherwise compromised."
"So then what...?" Brianna almost didn't want the answer. She shivered, and it wasn't because of the suddenly bitter cold after sundown.
"They'll rebel." He let out a rush of air through his nostrils, the closest to a chuckle she'd heard from him in years. "She wants to wear the crown? Fine. She can have it. And everything that goes with it."
Eyes widening and blood draining from her face, Brianna ran over everything she'd seen and heard. The logic was simple, terrifying. Finally, there was only one thing left that mattered. “I still couldn't let you do it. Shiloh’s family.”
“Our family died with Parole," he said, temperature of his voice dropping faster than a Tartarus nightfall. "That's not difficult to remember.”
“I remember a lot of things,” Brianna said through clenched teeth. “I remember Mom, and Liam, and Aunt Cass—”
He released her, not with a flash of hot anger, but the cold detachment of disdain and disappointment. Then he turned and walked away without a word, to where a silent figure waited. Before they both disappeared, she caught the flash of a sharp-toothed smile in the dark.
Brianna held very still until they were gone, then quickly switched on her shortwave radio. “Madam Chandrasekhar?"
“Yes?” came Rishika’s clear, clipped tones. “Who’s speaking? Is this Turret’s line?”
“This is his—this is Brianna Turret. Ma’am, if you’re headed to Parole…”
“Speak quickly, please, we’re about to get out of range.”
“I want to come with you. My father is wrong, he’s been wrong for a long time, and you’re going to Parole, and I just—I want to be there. I want to help. I… I have family there.”
A long pause. Brianna held her breath.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Aliyah woke up around a day later. She was weak, and could barely whisper, but from the moment she opened her eyes, she fought to stay conscious and present, refusing to rest until she’d been fully briefed on the events she’d missed. She was battered and bruised, but her ship had been invaded without her knowledge and she was still the captain—and she was now very firmly awake.
Rowan wasn’t. Not then, and not the next day.
The angry, dark handprint-scar around their neck was stark as ever and the skin around it had the same burned-paper texture and black veins that had appeared on Indra’s infected arm. But unlike his arm, Rowan’s neck didn’t seem to respond to the treatment.
“It’s because it actually grabbed them, and we don’t know how to deal with that,” Annie explained bluntly. She sprayed the antitoxin aerosol directly onto their skin every few hours and ensured their oxygen contained a mix of clean air and vaporized medicine. The burnt-looking skin did recede and heal over, but scarring remained. Even once their dark veins faded, the skin above and around them kept the marks of handprints. Both of them had only four fingers.
/> An early stroke of good luck came with Annie remembering the injection-form antitoxin prototype. Stronger than the aerosol or vapor, but untested. Thinking this emergency was exactly the right time to test it, Annie gave Rowan a small amount and continued her careful watch. Their hand showed some small improvement, but they remained unconscious, with no sign they would wake up in a day, a month, or at all. Crushed and frustrated, Annie stayed in the infirmary for a full day before she was finally persuaded to sleep with the promise that someone would always be watching Rowan, and would call her at the first sign of change, for better or worse.
That change hadn’t come by the time Aliyah was awake. She still had to spend most of her time in bed, so Annie, Jay, and Stefanos came to the infirmary and took turns filling her in on the storm aftermath, Turret’s boarding, and Rishika’s role in averting certain violence. She remained silent, though clearly troubled by the events she’d missed. Her eyes narrowed when Annie confirmed that not only the Major, but his Lieutenant, had set foot on her ship.
Shiloh came to the informal ‘meeting,’ but not for the same reason. Xie had an idea.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while,” Shiloh started, only a bit hesitantly. “It’s actually something Radio Angel said, about boosting stuff? I can’t believe I forgot to tell anyone, it’s been such—” xie broke off, seeing Aliyah’s focused stare, but exhausted everything-else, and finished quickly. “I think I can not only light up the next beacon, but all of them at once.”
Aliyah said nothing in reply. But her eyes did widen and she raised her eyebrows, prompting Shiloh to continue.
“So far you guys have been doing them one at a time, right?” Shiloh continued to talk fast, not wanting to burn through the captain’s energy on non-essentials. “Well, it’s just like when I boosted Kari’s signal—I think I can do the same thing to the beacons! If somebody turns it off, I can turn it back on and power it up to the new frequency.”
The Lifeline Signal Page 36
