Iza sat up in the bed and threw her legs over the side to look closer at Trix who’s innocent eyes stared right back.
“Are you malfunctioning again? By the time I bumped into you on the streets, I’d already been on my own for a full year, remember?”
“That is the first time that you remember meeting me, but that is not the first time that we met,” Trix said.
“How is that possible?”
“Your mother insisted that I be a part of your life when you were small. She and I were close friends once. You were so curious about the world and at times a danger to yourself as you liked jumping off ledges and putting your hands into things that could harm you, like fire.”
“You’ve never mentioned that before. When we met, you acted like it was the first time. You introduced yourself and everything.”
Iza remembered that day. She’d almost been caught again by local Enforcers for stealing. The hunger and desperation had stirred in her belly, pushing her toward the convenience store. She had known that the owner took out the trash at about the same time every day. She had planned to wait for him to leave, then sneak in and grab a few food bars. Iza had been at the front door of the store when she’d heard the kids in the alley across the street shouting.
Iza had made her way over to see if it was a fight among anyone she knew. She’d found Trix being hassled by some local street kids, no one she’d seen before. Iza had pulled out the pocketknife she kept in her boot, then strolled up to the largest of them. He’d had greasy black hair and a zit on his nose beaming like a neon target. She’d threatened to cut his throat if he didn’t leave Trix alone. She’d only had to slice at his arm with the small pocketknife to get him to leave. The other two bullies had made the smart decision to follow their zit-faced leader. She and Trix had been together ever since.
“You are correct, I did introduce myself to you then,” Trix acknowledged. “It is because, at that time, I had already experienced a reboot of my systems. The moment your father was recaptured by his people, I was set to self-destruct. Before that could happen, there was a back-door code entered into my system to preserve my life. I believe it was your mother who placed it there. At the same time, it preserved the lie and the truth about who you were and who your father was. I do not believe he anticipated that we would be separated, thus I didn’t know my protocol until we met that day in the alley.”
“So, the Gatekeepers tried to destroy you, but my mother saved you so you could look out for me.”
It all made sense, why Trix had been there when she was so young. The protocol would overrule everything else, including self-preservation. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened to them both had they not found each other again.
“Does that have anything to do with why you speak the way you do?”
“No,” Trix answered quickly. Iza waited a full minute for Trix to continue. “As I said, your mother and I were friends once. She and I took care of you when your father was away. By then, we knew who and what he was. Then, one day, he was gone. He’d warned us and prepared me for the hunters that would be looking for you. Eventually, they came. Your mother was desperate to save you. Though I tried to convince her it was a mistake, she felt that Leaving was the only answer.”
“So, why didn’t you stay with me?”
“You were a Gatekeeper-Taran hybrid child. I’m Lynaedan. I did not think I was capable of caring for you in the way necessary for your mental well-being. My friendship with your mother made me wary of forming such a strong bond with you. Seeing so much of her emotional turmoil in you, I did not think I could survive it if you also left me.”
Iza stared at Trix, not sure what to do with her hands. She stood up so they were face-to-face as she spoke. “But you came back.”
“Yes, I monitored your transition to the new family. When I saw you were too headstrong to stay with them, I restored my duty protocols and followed you. It’s been my responsibility to stand by you no matter what happened. As my attachment to you increased, I thought if you did not grow too dependent on my companionship, I could preserve you from emotional harm if anything were to happen to me.”
Iza took a step toward her and grasped Trix’s hands in her own and looked up into her eyes. She was close enough to see the circuitry behind the irises.
“Is that what you think? That because of your manner, that I would never become attached to you?” Iza took a breath and let it out, not sure how to say what she knew Trix needed to hear. “I’m pretty sure that if anything happened to you, I’d be permanently damaged along with the rest of the crew. Braedon was in love with you the minute he laid eyes on you. If not for Cierra, he might have tried to date you.” Iza laughed at her joke but Trix continued to regard her with some confusion. Iza continued, “You’ve saved us more times than I can count, and you care more than anyone I’ve ever met. You are my family, no matter how you choose to communicate. Do you understand?”
Trix nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
Iza blinked twice. Trix’s tone had changed from robotic to something more natural and Iza felt the sting of tears behind her eyes and she took a step back to gather herself.
Then, Iza was struck with a solution to her current problem. She stood up and grabbed Trix, throwing her arms around her in a hug before releasing her. “You’re amazing. Head to the flight deck, and I’ll meet you there. I think I know how to defeat Arvonen and get Joe back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Joe admired Iza as she sat on the edge of his bed looking out the window. He liked that she’d chosen a side that first night, as if she were going to stay there forever. How many days has it been? They’d been together… he’d lost track of the days they’d stayed in his apartment. Today, she had an expression on her face he didn’t recognize.
From behind, Joe wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him. She snuggled his neck and turned her head to place a light kiss on his cheek before she resumed staring out the window at the cloudless sky.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m fine.”
“Said no person who was ever fine, ever,” Joe teased, giving her a gentle kiss on her temple. “Tell me.”
“I’m worried. I feel like things aren’t over. They’re never going to be over until Arvonen gets that sphere back. He’ll never really leave us alone.”
“Don’t worry about him, he can’t bother us here.”
Iza pulled away so she could stand with her back to him as she leaned against the window’s edge.
“We’re not going to be safe until we have the sphere back and he can’t touch it.”
“I promise, the sphere is someplace he’d never find it.”
“You’re smart, Joe, but you don’t have many places to hide something like that sphere. Any place you kept it would be discovered once the electrical systems started acting up.”
“The sphere is safely hidden in a box like the one it came in. With no one to activate it, there’s no danger of it affecting any of the computer’s systems in Headquarters.”
Iza turned and moved to sit beside him on the bed again.
“You left it in TSS Headquarters?”
“Of course. Where else could it remain hidden and protected at the same time? There’s no chance that Arvonen can get through the Agents there or the High Commander. Now, will you stop worrying and come over here and let me love you?” Joe pulled her back onto the bed. Only, instead of the soft give of the mattress, there was a clunk like metal on metal. “Wait, did you hear that?”
Iza’s eyebrows drew together. “Hear what?”
Joe inched up the bed and when he didn’t hear the sound again, he threw himself on top of Iza, and she giggled. Then, he heard the clank again.
“You don’t hear that?” Joe asked again, sitting up.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you can describe the sound?”
“It’s like someone dragging a heavy piece of metal on the deck of a ship.”
Iza let out a giggle that she reserved for their time in bed before she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him in for a kiss.
The kiss started slow and gentle before it went hard. Then her teeth bit down hard on his lip. Startled, he pulled back. She was smiling at him, but he reached up and touched his lip with two fingers pulling them away again and saw she’d drawn blood.
“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded.
Joe raised his eyes from his fingers to see what had possessed her to bite him so hard when the room around him shifted and what had been his apartment was now a laboratory. Clean metal lines on every surface. The room was cold and when he looked down at himself, he saw he was wearing nothing more than a medical gown. His legs and wrists were held down with restraints.
“What’s going on here? Where am I?” His tongue was heavy in his mouth, slurring his words. His throat hurt as if he’d been yelling for days, making his voice sound far away even to his own ears. There was no one in the room and though it hurt to move his head even a centimeter he took in everything around him and tried to listen for people in the vicinity. His telepathy was off, as he couldn’t make out anyone else near or around the area until the door swung open, and a technician—presumably not expecting to find him awake—came in, took one look at him, and ran back out.
“Somebody better bomaxed tell me where I am and what I’m doing here!” he called out. This time, though his throat was scratchy, the sound carried further than it had before.
“Agent Anderson, you’re going to be fine,” Raquel said as she slid into the room. Her eyes were heavy as if she hadn’t slept, but she was carrying a food tray filled with vials of liquid and a large syringe.
He narrowed his eyes at her, then tried to read her thoughts and found his own mind so scattered he couldn’t grab onto anything tangible. “What are you doing? Why am I here?” he asked out loud instead.
“You have something Mr. Arvonen wants. You’re going to be here until he gets it. I’m sorry to do this to you, but, again, it’s best if you don’t fight it.”
Raquel filled the syringe from one of the red vials and held it up to his neck. Joe whipped his head back and forth, making it impossible for her to get too close. So, she jabbed the syringe into his thigh. The pinch made him wince.
“You’re going to pay for th—”
The lab around him faded back to his apartment like brush strokes on an oil painting, revealing Iza on the bed beside him gazing up at him expectedly.
“Are you just going to sit there staring at me or are you going to hold me?”
Joe reached up again and touched his lip. It was dry and no blood came away on his fingers. He stared at his hand in confusion. Then, his eyes met Iza’s and he smiled.
“I’m going to hold you and I’m never letting you go.”
— — —
Iza and Trix came onto the flight deck together. Braedon was sitting at the helm with his comic on his lap and Skyler had taken Joe’s former position. She nodded to Iza as they entered.
“Hey, Iz, you look great,” Braedon said.
“That’s a sweet lie. Any word from your father?”
“No, but I’m serious when I say I’m glad you’re feeling better. Do we have a destination?” He swiveled in his seat as she sat down in the captain’s chair. Atano followed her in, and Trix remained standing on her right.
“Thanks, I hope so. I want you to do your coding magic on that encrypted message I received. It was from Raquel Calveras, allegedly from on board the Arvonen One.”
“What did she want?”
“To tell me something I already suspected. Arvonen has Joe, and he’s hurting him.”
“Hurting how?” Braedon asked.
“Some kind of memory experiments. I wouldn’t trust a word of anything she says, though she did send over a vid with Joe strapped to a medical bed with a metal device on his head. I want to see if you can trace the message back to where it originated. If it’s not too much trouble, also send a copy of it over to Skyler for her review.”
He glanced at Skyler a moment then nodded. Something seemed to be resolved between them while Iza had been grieving. Good. Skyler wasn’t half-bad as an Agent, and she’d need her if the plan was going to work.
Braedon cracked his knuckles. “Haven’t done a solid encryption crack in a while. This may take some time. Whoever’s working on the encryption is good enough that the authorities haven’t been able to trace them.”
“Just do what you can, the sooner the better. Skyler, I want to talk retrieval options. I know not all Agents are equal or whatever, but I’m hoping you can use some of your TSS training to get us onto the ship unnoticed once we’re within range.”
“I can’t make your ship invisible,” Skyler said, holding up her hands, “but I’ll do what I can. What did you have in mind?”
“There’s another call coming through,” Trix interrupted. “It’s coded for Cierra.” The others turned to look at her. She’d used a more natural-sounding voice, and though Iza understood why, the others had no idea why she’d made the change. When there was no response, Trix added, “It’s marked ‘urgent’.”
“Um, sure, signal her cabin and tell her to come up here if she doesn’t want to take it there,” Iza said at last.
“Wait, what just happened here? I’ve been trying to get you to— Then all of a sudden— When did this happen? I mean I can’t believe it.” Braedon stood up waving his hands in circles then slapping them on either side of his face. His amazement was so comical it made Iza laugh.
“I’ve decided to make a change,” Trix responded. “I hope that’s all right with everyone. If not, I can always return to speaking the way I did before.”
“No!” they all said at once.
The flight deck door opened, and Cierra rushed in. For a woman who was normally well put together and calm, she looked harried and about ready to cry.
“Do you want some privacy or…?” Iza gave her a moment to take in the bodies on the flight deck.
Cierra waved it away. “It’s fine, I don’t care if the crew knows.”
Iza glanced at Skyler, wondering what she thought of being called crew. Her expression gave nothing away.
“Are you expecting any news?” Braedon asked.
“No, which means it can only be bad,” Cierra replied.
“Trix, bring it up on the main display,” Iza said.
The stars of the viewport turned to white and Cierra’s parents filled the screen. Her father had the same greenish eyes and her mother the curls. Today the curls were wild, framing her anxious face. Their expressions, tight and filled with worry, reminded Iza too much of her aunt just before— Even mentally, she couldn’t finish the thought.
Cierra’s eyes were pleading. “Mama, Baba, what’s wrong?”
Her father was the first to speak. “You must come home, now. Something is happening here. We can’t explain it.” He waved his hand in the air as if looking for the words. That’s when Iza noticed his shoulders were covered with a blanket, as was his wife’s.
“Our world is so cold. There isn’t a location that’s not covered with snow,” her mother added. The camera panned to the window and they all gasped at the sight of all the white snow falling. They would be covered in a matter of hours.
Cierra’s eyes widened in horror as she turned back to Iza.
With a nod to Trix, they would be ready to leave on her mark.
“I’m on my way,” Cierra said.
“We can’t get a hold of your sister.” her mother’s eyes filled. “We love you, Biscuit. Please, tell your sister we love her, too.”
“You’re going to tell her yourself. Hold on, we’re coming,” Cierra said holding her hands up to the viewscreen as if she could keep them there.
“One planet of ice, another wracked with storms, and a desert blossoming into a paradise,” Skyler mumbled. “What’s the connection?”
Iza was doing a mental count of the planets altere
d so far; and, the TSS seemed to know about more than she’d heard about. The only common thread she could see was that the worlds were ill-equipped to handle the changes. In particular, Leveckis wasn’t equipped for extreme cold; the snow would destroy all the plant life they spent decades growing.
“Trix, get a message out to Douketis and put in the coordinates for Leveckis. Tell him there’s a job in it for him if he hurries.”
“Wouldn’t the truth be better in this case?” Braedon asked.
“No, it would not. He wouldn’t go to Leveckis just for Viper. And, worse, he might ignore the message altogether. Better yet, get Karter to send it; he can still pull Douketis’ strings. Trix, as soon as that message is sent, jump up to Leveckis.”
“Wait!” Skyler shouted, looking at the faces on the flight deck. “You’ve seen what Arvonen is doing to my brother. He won’t make it much longer, from the looks of things. We need to find him.”
“Without a lead on Arvonen, we can’t do anything other than wait,” Iza said. “Whatever he’s got planned it involves me. He’ll find us. We’re not trying to hide.”
“How can you be so sure?” Skyler asked.
Iza shrugged. “You saw the message. Something has that lying archaeologist scared. She thinks if I show up, Arvonen will be able to make a play. So, he’ll find us; he’s done it before. While I’m arguing the point with you, Cierra’s parents are freezing to death. Do you mind if we get on our way, or would you like to have another discussion about how you haven’t been there for your brother in years and you want to use my ship to make up for lost time?”
The two women glared at each other unblinkingly.
“Message sent, Captain.”
Iza didn’t flinch as she continued to stare down Skyler. “Jump!”
—
Everyone was on the flight deck when they reached Leveckis. From the captain’s chair, Iza watched Cierra pacing back and forth. She couldn’t blame her; after her own recent loss, it seemed too soon to be losing anyone else. The Gatekeepers had to be stopped, but she wasn’t sure she could tackle that particular problem on her own. Her cousin and Joe were at the mercy of Arvonen in some unknown region of Taran space. When had she stopped running and become the pursuer?
On the Run (Verity Chronicles Book 3): A Cadicle Space Opera Adventure Page 20
