by Lola Dodge
With that bombshell, the vid cut off.
When I could finally move again, I whirled to Tair. He sat with his head in his hands, so motionless I wasn’t sure if he was breathing. I wanted to comfort him, but I was still trembling at the cold reality. I had no comfort to offer. Not even to myself.
Because how could we possibly get his sister back without trading our lives?
Chapter Four
ALTAIR
A thousand questions roared through my head, but only one of them truly mattered. “How do we rescue them?”
Knight shook his head. “We don’t.”
“We have to.” I jumped to my feet, too wired with adrenaline to sit still. If I knew where Cass was, I’d already be on the way. “I’m not leaving my sister with Doctor Nagi. Are you leaving your friends?”
“Dude.” Dex glared my way. “I don’t like this either, but you’re talking like rescuing them is an option. Wherever Nagi is keeping them, it’s not going to be a walk in the fucking park to get them out. He’ll be waiting for us. We try anything and our friends aren’t the only ones who’ll end up dead.”
Devan balled her hands into fists. “I thought they were dead this whole time. If there’s any chance of saving them, I have to try. Absolutely.”
“Shit. Dex is right.” Cipher gripped Knight’s arm. “Even if we turn ourselves in, why would Nagi let them go? We’ll all be dead. Who knows if that was live footage? If it was an old vid, they might already be—” She stopped herself before she could finish.
Good. I didn’t want to hear the rest. “Doctor Nagi knows we’ll try to rescue them rather than turning ourselves over. That’s what he’ll be planning for.” He’d had weeks to build the perfect trap for us, and that was exactly what we’d be walking into.
So be it. I’d go alone if I had to.
Guilt weighed me down like lead. This was on me. I’d thought leaving Cass ignorant of my work with the Shadow Ravens would be enough to keep her safe. If she didn’t know anything, what good was she to Doctor Nagi?
Jesus. How idiotic was I? And how careless?
I should’ve known he’d use her as collateral. Our parents wouldn’t protect her.
I hadn’t protected her, either.
“They’re alive.” Quanta’s soft voice drew every gaze in the room. She sat on the floor, knees folded, with ribbons of ghostly blue light spilling from her flicking fingertips.
“What do you see?” I knelt at her side, vibrating with too much energy to contain. I needed one piece of good news. One shred of hope my sister could survive.
“Nothing that helps. Everything’s shifted and there’s too much chaos to pick out any one thread, but I know they’re all alive. For now.” She winced at the last.
I took in a deep breath. If Cass was alive, I had to keep her that way. Even if it meant volunteering for another suicide mission.
We didn’t have long to plan. Three days. Just traveling out of the desert would take a day of that, let alone making our way to Alpha Citadel. That would be even more difficult now. “Doctor Nagi sent the video to Eva?”
“No. She sent it to us, but it’s on wide broadcast.” Knight pulled a live news feed onto the vidscreen. The sound was muted, but the scrolling bar at the bottom told me enough.
Our names and faces plastered the screen. Altair, Quanta, Hunter, Emma, and Devan. Dex was the only one left out of the manhunt. Five of us for five of them.
Now that we were universally known and wanted, facial recognition scanners were the least of our worries. We’d be recognized on sight.
“This is gonna get me fucking killed,” Dex said, “but they’re not looking for me. If I go in alo—”
“No.” The rest of us spoke in perfect unison, and the word echoed into the rafters.
“That’s not ending well.” Quanta wrinkled her nose.
“Is there any chance of freeing them in any of the possible timelines?” I asked Quanta.
She blinked rapidly, not responding. I wished I could still share her thoughts. I needed an answer.
Finally, Quanta let out a breath. “Maybe.”
I knew that tone. It wasn’t an optimistic maybe.
My gut clenched. I still couldn’t give up on Cass.
“Maybe is more than good enough for me.” Devan had climbed to her feet to get a closer look at the news feed. Now she whirled from the screen. “We have a lead. Why aren’t we leaving yet?”
“This is bigger than us,” Quanta said. “If Eva loses us, the Shadow Ravens lose everything. Nagi wins. The end.”
Quanta might be right, but I was siding with Devan. I’d risk my life for a maybe.
Knight shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Lady Eva’s weathered worse than this over the years. Not that I’m ready to die, but I don’t believe that losing us would tip the scales.”
“Believe it.” Quanta balled her hands in her shirt. She didn’t offer specifics if she’d seen them, but her haunted look told how serious she was.
“I’m ready to take the bait. Are we all agreeing to do this?” I’d still go alone if I had to, but we had the best chance at success if we combined our resources.
One by one, the others said their answers. Yesses across the board.
Six of us against the entire Citadel. The odds were long.
Impossible.
But the truth couldn’t sway my determination. And as I watched everyone else firm their resolve—squaring shoulders and standing up straight—I clung to my one hope.
Maybe.
Maybe would have to be good enough this time.
Chapter Five
QUANTA
While the others talked logistics, I tried to dig for a future that didn’t end ugly.
Cipher and I sprint an empty corridor echoing with gunfire; someone lifts a sheet to cover Mona’s dead-still face; two guards drag a sobbing Cassie from her cell and strap her to a lab table; Black Helixes perp-walk Lady Eva from a cell. She wears handcuffs and a white prisoner’s jumpsuit, never glancing up from the ground.
Blood. Screams. Capture. Death.
Repeat ad nauseam.
I hoped no one noticed my full-body shiver. When Eva locked up wasn’t even the worst possible timeline, we were in serious calamity land.
“Can everyone be ready to bug out in twenty?” Knight’s voice brought me back to the present, and the six of us clustered in mission control. A wrinkle grew on his forehead as he read from his com. “Eva just messaged. She’s running down leads. If we hit the road now, she should have intel for us by the time we’re clear of the desert.”
There was a little upside to all this mess. When we died, it wouldn’t be from the food packets.
Everyone agreed to the meet-up time, and we scattered to grab our gear from around the hangar. Cipher, Knight, and Dex started unplugging their tech from mission control. Devan hurried off to the bunks, and I knew Tair would book it for the tables by the kitchen where he’d spread out his few pieces of science stuff. I waved him off. “I’ll grab clothes for both of us.”
“Thanks.” Tair jogged away, looking a little more hunched in on himself than his perfect posture usually allowed. I’d have to catch up to him for a minute alone before we actually left.
After grabbing two empty packs from storage, I gathered up our few clothes and my tiny collection of pencils and scrapbooks. Tair’s footlocker had a few knives and weapons stashed inside, so I put those at the top for easy access when this all went south. Which it would.
The timeghosts marched an endless parade as I worked, always ending in someone’s death. I wasn’t giving up now, but odds-wise, we weren’t getting out of this one unhurt.
I swallowed down my dread. If that was the price, that was the price. I wasn’t leaving Cassie to Doctor Nagi.
And Kiri and Aliya… I knew better than anyone what they were going through right now. They didn’t deserve it any more than I had. Or any Red Helix who ended up on Nagi’s table.
At least Oliver had sign
ed up to fight for the Shadow Ravens. He’d known he could end up a captive. I felt the worst for Mona. She didn’t have a Helix, or powers, or even an anti-Seligo crusade. Her crime was making friends with the rest of us.
My hands shook as I fumbled with the cords on Tair’s pack. There was only one way I’d ever volunteer to go back into Alpha Citadel, and that was to stop anyone else from going through what I’d survived. At least seeing a thousand versions of their future deaths meant they were still alive in the present.
And as far as I knew, I could still reverse time. If we got screwed, I’d hit the rewind button and try another way.
So easy.
I laughed to myself. Manipulating space-time was only slightly easier than lifting an aircraft carrier with my pinky finger. But why not? I’d done it before and I’d do it again. End of story.
I had the least amount of stuff to prep, so I was fully packed while everyone else was still running around the hangar. I dragged our packs over to Tair’s mini lab, which was only two rusty lab tables and whatever ancient gear he’d found in storage.
He bustled gathering his notes, dumping stuff out, and packing the useful sciency supplies into travel pouches. He didn’t seem to notice me nearby, so I leaned against a table to wait.
Tair jumped when the table creaked. I’d never seen him do that before, and since I’d been in his head a little—before my psychic blowout—I knew just how much of the world he saw and cataloged. Pretty much everything. Someone as unstealthy as me shouldn’t be able to sneak up on him. So I flipped out the question he was always asking me. “Are you okay?”
“I will be.” He zipped pouches and packed up little vials, flitting around like he’d lose it if he stood still.
I was tempted to throw out a super optimistic breadcrumb like we’ll get her back, don’t worry. But it would only sound hollow, and Tair didn’t like flubbing the truth any more than I did.
He liked planning.
I could help with that. “So. Best way into the Citadel? What’re you thinking?”
“We won’t find a smuggler’s entrance this time. If we try anything covert, we’ll run into surveillance drones and—”
“Then no climbing over the wall.” I cut him off before he started skipping down the worry path. We needed to focus on things we could actually work with. “What about fake IDs? Do you have any old friends who could hook us up?”
Tair pressed the bridge of his glasses. “No one who’d risk contact after my fall from grace.”
Not really unexpected. Once we were on the road I’d bear down and dig for better leads in time, but right now, I just wanted to keep talking Tair away from the dark place. He couldn’t ask his parents for help, and now with Cass… “What about your sister’s friends?”
“The gamers? I doubt they could get us in.” But he frowned thoughtfully, which was a big attitude improvement. “I would like to know how the Seligo found her. If her friends saw anything that could help us find her…”
He was grasping at straws, but who knew? “Where’s their base?”
“Cassie wouldn’t say.”
“You know who could probably find us a den of VR gamers?”
“Cipher.” As usual, Tair followed my thoughts as fast as I could think them.
“Bingo. We might as well Cassie’s buddies some questions.” These people hadn’t protected Cass very well, but if any of them were still alive, they had to be feeling the guilt. Even iffy help would be better than nothing, and if I poked around the timeghosts at their headquarters, I might be able to find us a juicier lead.
“It’s a start. Assuming they’re not based inside Alpha. Cass only told me they were underground.”
“How literal did she mean the underground part?” After spending the last ten years in a senate building sub-basement, I knew that Alpha Citadel had a whole lot of nooks and crannies below ground level. It wouldn’t be impossible to hide there—just wicked insane.
“If I’d thought she was staying inside Alpha, I never would’ve left her.”
I hopped off the stool and made my way around the table. “You would’ve brought her with us to Eva?” I might have insisted she come along if I’d been in any shape to ask, but I’d spent most of our mad dash to Eva’s compound passed out.
“No. I never wanted her mixed up with the Ravens.” He scrubbed his forehead, and I wrapped my arms around him, wishing I could do something better to help.
“I’d turn back time if I could go that far, but the past is past. Let’s just worry about the present.” We had more than enough on our plates without the heaping side of guilt.
Because even if we found all the captives, managed to sneak in and rescue them, and miraculously escaped Alpha Citadel with our lives, it still wouldn’t be the end. Nagi would keep coming after us again and again. Not just Tair and me, though we’d always be at the top of his list, but all of us. Every Shadow Raven and every Red Helix, including the ones who hadn’t been born yet.
It would never end as long as Nagi was alive. I’d always known that, but this kidnapping threw the truth into an even uglier light than usual.
I pushed that thought down deep. I’d come back to it later when I could do something more permanent about Nagi. Right now, he had us playing his game, and all we could do was react.
I wouldn’t give up until I was dead or Cass was free, but the chaotic futures whirling at the edge of my consciousness weren’t pulling any punches.
And those death options looked a lot more likely than I was comfortable with.
Chapter Six
ALTAIR
We bumped over the dunes on our way through the desert. Dex had the wheel. He and Devan sat in the front of our Humvee, navigating through the thick darkness with a combination of night-vision goggles and her power over light.
The rest of us were crammed into the four seats in back. We’d piled our packs into a makeshift table in the floor space between the two narrow rows so we could pore over maps as we tried to agree on approach into Alpha Citadel.
Quanta leaned against me, but she hadn’t spoken in hours. She was lost in her own realm, and bluish wisps of light spreading from her fingertips as she flicked the air, trying to find helpful leads. I would’ve expected her to have at least a few crumbs of information by now, but she seemed to be struggling.
Maybe because so many people we cared about were in danger.
Knight leaned over the tablet perched on the bank of packs separating he and Cipher from Quanta and I. He tapped the map south of Alpha Citadel. “Lady Eva had an agent at the harbor who could help us getting through. A sea approach is our best chance in.”
Cipher shuddered. “I’m not sold.”
I’d be sorry for any plan that forced her into sea travel, but the mode of transport wasn’t what worried me. The clock did. With the distance between our current location and Alpha Citadel, we’d already be down to forty-eight hours before Doctor Nagi’s deadline when we arrived. We were cutting it too close. “Getting in isn’t the problem.”
“No? You been holding out on us?” Knight’s frustration made my jaw clench.
“This is my sister.” He thought I’d hold out information? At this point? “I’m saying that getting in and out in of the Citadel are irrelevant until we figure out where the prisoners are being kept.” The Citadel was massive, and if we didn’t know where to head, we couldn’t choose the smart entry and exit points.
The vehicle rocked as Dex launched us over the crest of a dune. I grabbed Quanta before she could tip, and Cipher caught the tablet as it fell off its perch.
Cipher jammed the device back into place so we could keep focused on the map. “Then where would they be?” She asked. “Is there a place Red Helixes are usually locked up?”
Nagi wouldn’t keep Reds in a location that had already been breached, so that should knock out the senate, but other than that, his prisoners could be anywhere. The more I stared at the map, the more I wanted to crack the tablet in half.
&n
bsp; There was no easy answer.
The only weak lead we had Cassie’s friends. They must have had security cams. If we could identify the Black Helixes who’d taken Cass, we might be able to track her to her final destination. “I’m wondering if we can follow my sister’s trail. What do you know about less-than-legal gaming setups in and around Alpha Citadel?”
Cipher chewed at her lip ring for a moment. “I only knew your sister by her rep, but Cassiopeia programmed full VR. Mostly room escapes and RPGs.”
I knew that much. I QA’d most of what she developed. “Does that pin her to a location?”
“It narrows them down. VR games mean a shitton of servers, which is why nobody in the Voids runs them. The equipment is pricey and takes serious juice, so unless you’re into organized crime, it’s not happening.”
“I don’t know Cassie’s contacts, but I got the impression they were all from similar backgrounds—the black sheep of their Seligo families.” People exactly like Cass and I.
“Then they either have a tricked out bunker somewhere, or they’re set up close enough to leech power from Alpha and have balls of titanium. Devil’s Playroom?” Cipher nudged Knight. “Where would you go for an underground gaming fix if you were still in the system?”
“There’s the Treehouse, but that’s too mainstream.” Knight scratched his head. “Uh. Bandwidth Bordello. Roboloco—”
“That one!” Quanta snapped to attention so hard that she almost fell over the bank of packs at our feet.
I held her steady. “You saw something?”
“Cass.” She scrunched her eyes shut. “As soon as you said Roboloco, I got a flash of her. I just can’t follow…” Her brows drew together in concentration.
A sliver of hope was more than we’d started with. I’d run with anything if it led to the smallest chance of rescuing Cass. I turned to Cipher. “Do you know how to contact them?”
“Yes, but I can’t until we get to civilization.” Cipher peered through the window to the moonlit desert.
