by Lola Dodge
“That’s fair.” If encrypted messages started flying from the middle of nowhere, the Seligo would notice and flag our location. The waiting would be torture, but we couldn’t set ourselves up to fail before we started. “How many hours until we close in on Algiers?”
“Not until morning,” Dex answered from the front seat. “Why? Little boys’ room? Isn’t there an empty bottle back there?”
“Gross.” Cipher shot Dex a dirty look, but giving Dex more attention would only encourage him.
“We should rest while we can,” Knight said, patting his shoulder to Cipher. “I’m happy to be your pillow for the night.”
A few days ago, she might’ve jostled him or started another long round of banter. Now Cipher just sighed. “I can’t sleep. Not right now.” Our vehicle’s uneven roll would’ve been enough to keep me awake as Dex tried to speed us toward the coast, but until I knew Cass was safe, I wouldn’t be able to rest either.
Eventually, Cipher leaned against Knight and they both dozed. I stared out the dusty window, willing us to go faster. Every grain of sand that pinged the glass felt like another fallen to the bottom of our hourglass. Another moment Cass suffered because I’d been too self-involved to watch out for her.
“Tair?” Quanta’s soft voice turned my head. She touched my cheek and then sidled closer to me as the vehicle bounced. Her presence eased some of the pain and guilt twisting inside me.
“Will you rest?” she asked.
“I can’t.”
“Me neither.” Quanta wiggled, pushing packs out of the way until she could lean against me and prop her feet up.
I slipped an arm around her and pulled her against my side. The sounds of her even breaths brought back a measure of calm.
Sunrise felt ages away, but at least I didn’t have to wait for it alone.
By the time we neared Algiers, the sun was boiling and I couldn’t stop tapping my feet against the floorboards. It was taking too long to make progress, but we had to find a safe place to pull over before we could contact Eva.
The city looked like every other dilapidated Void. A handful of sleek skyscrapers clustered in the blocks partitioned off for Seligo use. The buildings beyond that stretch sprawled in a dilapidated slum that rambled into the scrubland at the edge of the city.
We stuck to the edges, avoiding the Seligo area. As we drove toward the coast, huts made of salvaged siding clustered closer and closer together until they formed a dense shantytown with narrow, garbage-filled streets. Dex drove a convoluted route around the disorganized buildings until he found a road wide enough to fit the Humvee, but every turn he took made my blood pressure rise. If we kept moving this slowly, we’d never make it to Alpha Citadel.
I was on the cusp of grabbing the wheel when Dex turned off to park next to an abandoned-looking garage. Knight hopped out to make sure the coast was clear.
As soon as he declared the structure safe, we piled out of the back to set up communications. Eva had better have good news for us.
Devan passed around protein bars while Cipher and Knight arranged a secure satellite uplink. I passed my bar to Quanta. I had no appetite.
Dex leaned against the garage’s entrance, scanning the outside. “You want to keep an eye on the back door?”
I nodded. I’d rather stick close so I could question Eva myself, but hovering wouldn’t help Knight and Cipher set up the uplink faster.
The garage was empty enough to echo, but footprints scuffed through the dirt, pushing aside shards of discarded serum vials—so the building wasn’t totally abandoned.
Its back door opened to a narrow alley. No one was outside, so I heaved the door shut and took my guard position. From the back, I had a full view of the garage. My gaze slipped straight to Quanta.
She sat on the gritty floor, legs folded, with her palms spread on her knees as if she was opening herself to the universe. I kept hoping for a breakthrough. A lead. Anything.
“I’m ready.” Cipher unfolded a portable satellite dish as she turned to Knight. “Eva first?”
“Yeah. Let’s hope she has a better plan than we do,” Knight said.
He was being generous. From where I stood, we had nothing. Just hope and a few weak clues.
Cipher dialed the call. After a moment of static, Lady Eva’s face appeared on the mid-air projection. “You’re all safe?”
“So far. Any developments on your end?” Knight asked.
“None for the positive. I’ve lost contact with the agents sent to investigate the disappearances of Oliver and Mona, and none of my plants inside Alpha Citadel are responding to messages. We’re all in danger now.” She looked as shaken as I’d ever seen her, pressing a hand to her chest. A cold jolt of fear ran through me.
“We?” Devan leaned into the cam’s frame. “What are you even doing to help?”
Knight shot her a disapproving frown. “Lady Eva can’t just—”
“It’s all right, Agent Marquez. There’s no need to defend me.” She rubbed her temple, punctuating the exhaustion that showed in the dark circles under her eyes. “I’ll do what I can, but my entire network has been compromised. There’s just not as much intel coming in while we focus on moving our people to safe houses. Once we reestablish our base and see to everyone’s safety, I’ll be able to offer more assistance, but by then you’ll be past your deadline.”
I hadn’t expected Eva to come through with a miracle, but I had been counting on basic support. With the Raven network under fire, we had even fewer options than before, and barely two days to figure out a solution.
It wasn’t enough.
I moved away from the door. “Do you have any contacts at Roboloco?”
“Roboloco?” Eva typed a series of rapid-fire keystrokes, and I hoped that indicated a yes. Her gaze flicked across lines of data on her side of the screen. Finally, she shook her head. “They’re a subversive gaming group of outcast Seligo scions. I tried to place an agent with them last year, but they saw through him before he met any of theirs in person. They’re known to be skilled, but skittish.”
That tracked with what I expected, but it didn’t advance our cause. My jaw clenched with frustration. For the first time, I regretted the bridges I’d burned by defecting to the Shadow Ravens. I absolutely knew people who’d be able to locate Cass in the system, but my parents were more likely to send me to Nagi than help, and none of my former lab coworkers were friends. If only.
“I can shoot them a message, but this is all really iffy.” Cipher glanced to Knight. “I’m the last person who’d ever want to turn myself in—”
“No.” Quanta cut her off. “Nagi wouldn’t honor the deal. There’s zero point in sacrificing ourselves for nothing.”
“What’s the other option? Do nothing and leave them to die?” Cipher shook her head. “I can’t do that to Mona.”
“Exactly.” I wouldn’t condemn my sister to die while I did nothing to save her.
“Try Roboloco,” Eva said. “But contact me before—”
The door behind me clanged open before she could finish.
A man stood outlined by the desert sun. Draped in rags, he held a bottle in one hand, and a bulky pack in the other. Coated in dirt. Bloodshot eyes. He stank of sweat and urine.
A nomad and an addict.
I reacted before he could, twisting his wrist behind his back as I slammed him against the wall. His bottle shattered, scattering glass and alcohol. “What did you hear?”
He mumbled words in a language I recognized but couldn’t speak. “Does anyone know Berber?” Dex and Knight both closed in, ready to help. The man fought my grasp, but he was too scrawny to break free. He jerked back and forth a few more times before going limp.
“I can translate.” Knight tapped a sequence into his com before lifting the device to his mouth. “What did you hear?” The com repeated the question in the man’s language.
“You. The criminals…” His words crackled into silence.
This didn’t bode well.
I would’ve expected us to be recognized in the Citadel, but in a middle-of-nowhere Void? By a serum-addled junkie? Our mug shots had traveled farther than expected, and it was going to be a problem. “We can’t let him go free.”
“Let me check him.” Quanta tiptoed over glass shards, moving closer.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” I already suspected what she’d see. We couldn’t let the man turn us in.
“Still. I want to try.”
Knight yanked back the man’s sleeve and Quanta reached to touch his skin. Moments passed before she broke contact, her jaw trembling. “He knows who we are. He’ll turn us in for the reward.”
“I’ll handle it.” Knight’s voice was grim as he reached for his weapon.
“Just like that?” Cipher stepped between him and the man. “He hasn’t done anything yet.”
“He will,” Quanta insisted. Her gaze slipped out of focus as she watched scenes in the future. That was confirmation enough for me.
“You’re really going to kill him.” Devan stood back near the vehicle, but her soft horror echoed through the garage.
The man went still in my grasp. Knight had stopped translating, but he’d obviously picked up on the context of our argument. I didn’t have much pity for a man who’d sell us out for drug money. I was more concerned that Quanta would feel guilty for confirming his intent.
She retreated to Devan’s side and hugged her arms into her body. “If we let him go, we die.”
If those were our options, the choice was clear—even if we all regretted it.
“Maybe there’s an alternative this time?” Dex stepped forward, holding a sack filled with clinking glass.
The man jerked back into motion. He recognized that sound.
Dex drew two fistfuls of serum vials into the open, and I almost lost my balance as the man lunged. Knight added a hand to hold him steady.
“Do I want to know where you got those?” Knight asked.
Dex shrugged. “Does it matter? No way this dude turns us in if we give him this much good shit.”
“He’ll overdose.” Quanta gripped the hem of her shirt.
She’d feel guilty whatever the outcome. Given the choice between killing in cold blood and letting the man seal his own fate, I preferred the latter, but there was no real way to win here.
“At least he’ll die happy.” Dex upturned a crate in the corner and set the vials on top. “Tie him up for now, and we’ll let him loose before we leave.”
“He’ll die. Not happy, though.” Quanta shuddered.
Dex might’ve solved this situation without bloodshed, but it didn’t feel clean.
Palpable guilt hung over the garage as Knight and I zip-tied the man’s wrists and anchored him to a pipe. He twitched and frothed, more animal than human now that his next fix was in sight.
I couldn’t ignore him, but the choice was made and I had to move on. “Is Eva still on the line?”
“Lost her,” Cipher said. “Should I try her again?”
Knight shook his head. “Make the next call. Then we’ll get out of this shithole.”
As much as I wanted to leave, we needed a destination. If Roboloco was a dead end, we’d be facing another impossible choice.
Attack the Citadel head-on or turn ourselves in.
We had to find the third option. I refused to sign up for certain death.
Chapter Seven
QUANTA
The temp kept rising as the sun got higher, but even though sweat trickled down my neck, I couldn’t stop shivers from creeping down my spine. The man in rags seizes, his entire body jerking. He gurgles, and the horrific sound echoes in my ears until his body finally stills.
I shivered again. I hated playing jury and executioner.
The guy’s future was crystal. He would’ve turned us in, no question. Now he’d die by his own hands after we let him loose, and I wouldn’t feel any less stained if I shot him in the head.
I had to focus on the next snarl in our path if we were going to survive. Trying to ignore the doomed man across the room, I sat next to Cipher and hugged my knees. We really needed a plan now.
Tair kept glancing my way, but it wasn’t the time to talk and I didn’t want to anyway. If I pretended nothing was wrong, I’d be fine.
Totally fine.
Instead of dwelling on what I couldn’t change, I needed to focus on the now. Cipher was setting up a message-y thing with Roboloco, and I was hoping the call would shake something loose. All I needed was one measly timeline where we found our friends. Just one lead. One string of hope.
Cipher shook out her fingers before reaching for the keyboard. “Buckle up for this one.”
Futures swirled as she typed, and new possibilities swooped in and out of focus. Giving half my attention to the timeghosts, and half to the present, I read over Cipher’s shoulder as she typed. Need help. Cassiopeia Orpheus captive. Know her location?
Who’s asking? The words blinked onto the screen.
Cipher. And Cassie’s brother. 48 hours until N takes her out.
We both leaned into the screen, waiting for a response, but nothing helpful appeared in the present or the future. I wasn’t at full-on despair yet, but I was accepting miracles.
Cipher’s lip ring clicked against her teeth. “Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned Tair.”
“He’s her brother.” The Robofolk should know whose side Tair was on. Then again, they had to want to stay under the radar. Getting involved with Helixes, Shadow Ravens, and a crazy infamous hacker wouldn’t do them any favors.
The future wasn’t cluing me in on what to do, but staring at the blinking cursor definitely wasn’t going to fix our problems. “Can we video chat them?” If the Robofolk could see us—and confirm that we were who we said we were—then maybe they’d talk.
“I can share our cam. Why? Does that help?”
“Maybe.” Convincing people to do things was kind of my forte. Whoever these people were, they’d risked themselves by sheltering Cass in the first place. Odds were, at least somebody over there cared about Tair’s sister. That told me enough to wind them up a little, assuming they actually listened. Might as well give it a shot.
“Knock yourself out.” Cipher tilted the cam so I’d be the only one on the screen. Then she hit a key and a green light blinked on.
“Hi. It’s Quanta. I’m guessing you’ve seen my picture floating around.” I waved at the screen, fully aware how awkward this was, but I was committed now. “I’m here with Tair and Cipher and a few others from the news. We don’t want to drag you guys into our mess, but Doctor Nagi has Cass. I don’t think I need to run you through what he’ll do to her, but I can. In detail. Like, a decade worth of bad memories, detail. And I can actually read your minds right now.”
If they’d heard anything about me, they might believe the lie, but I couldn’t tell if anyone was on the other side of the cam, let alone dig into their timelines. Even though the future showed zip about how this conversation ended, I kept checked in with the timeghosts just enough to kick up the wispy blue glow around my hands. A little show couldn’t hurt.
“You’re sick over losing Cass, but you’re sure it’s too late for her and there’s no point in losing anyone else. That’s not true. We’re willing to take the risk and go after her, but we have no idea how to find her inside the Citadel. We thought you might be able to help.”
Staring deep into the camera, I hoped I was pulling off my act. Compassion and self-preservation made a powerful little sundae, and a hint of future-seeing was the perfect cherry on top. If these people—whoever they were—had intel we could use, then now was the time to spill.
I held my breath.
And a single word appeared on-screen.
Wait.
I looked to Knight. He tapped his wrist.
Yeah. If Roboloco was going to help, then we could spare a few minutes while they gathered resources, but if they were making us wait for the hell of it, we couldn’t hang around.
>
“I’ll give them ten minutes,” Cipher said. “We’re already pushing it transmitting this long.”
Two words popped up on the screen: Keep waiting.
Somebody over there had a lot of attitude.
I flexed my mental muscles, focusing on the fuzzy futures. Was this a real lead? Or was I making something out of nothing?
I needed another glimpse of Cass or even a flash of whoever was on the other side of this communication. Instead, a future that had nothing to do with either of those snapped to the center of my brain.
Bodies grind together in time with thumping music. A blonde Cipher nudges her way through the crowd in a glittery backless top, tugging me behind her. I wear a sheer white mini dress with extra see-through mesh stripes, and my long hair hangs uncharacteristically neat, falling down my back in a silky curtain, but both of our faces blur, slightly distorted.
What future was that supposed to be? The haziness of the timeghosts’ lines said this scene wasn’t for sure yet, but it was solid enough that I’d consider it likely.
Which made no sense at all. Curious, I flicked ahead, following the page in time.
Cipher breaks through the crowd of dancers and I pop out at her side. We make our way to the bar, where clustered people call out and wait for drinks. She jerks her head toward the group of built guys at the closest table. “Those are our guys,” she shouts into my ear, but I can barely hear her over the music.
I nod, then grab hold of her arm as she struts toward them. I look like I’m trying to strut, but my heels are getting the best of me. Only my death grip on Cipher keeps me from tipping over.
The guys turn toward us and—
The timeghosts vanished like smoke. I strained, trying to grab the moment again, but it was lost, and not knowing exactly where or what I’d seen, I couldn’t try to find it from another angle.
I just couldn’t imagine a future where we saved the world at a dance club? Let alone in pointy death shoes.
Then again, we hadn’t been approaching those guys for fun or free drinks. Their faces had been hazy, but I knew what Seligo muscle looked like. Broad shoulders, thick necks, and a habit of wearing all dark clothes… Textbook Black Helix.
