by Lara Morgan
“She’s a child, Riley,” Jo said. “She doesn’t know how–”
“How dangerous Helios is?” Rosie interrupted. “Yeah, I do actually.”
“You think you do.” Jo sounded annoyed.
“Jo.” Riley put a hand on her arm but she moved it away.
“Sacrificing children now, Riley?”
“I can’t do it alone. Are you willing to take her place?”
A red flush appeared on Jo’s cheeks. “Riley, you–”
“Jo,” Chris said. “Leave it. You won’t change his mind.”
“We’ll be out of your way as soon as possible,” Riley said, his gaze troubled, and Rosie had a sudden suspicion that he might be revising his promise. He had another thing coming if he thought he was going to leave her behind. She’d come too far now to go back, and there was no way she was leaving her aunt and dad at the mercy of Helios – no matter how much it scared her.
The Genesis colony was constructed as a collection of interconnected domes and covered ten square kilometres of Martian soil between the edge of the Marineris River and the soaring, craggy peaks of the Tharsis Mountains. As they approached it, Rosie glimpsed the tops of the four enormous transparent domes that edged the river, housing the public buildings and administration centres of the colony. She’d studied all the interactive pamphlets and maps Aunt Essie had on the place and felt like she knew it almost as well as anyone living there. She knew the domes were linked by a series of wide, arched thoroughfares planted with trees and shrubs imported from Earth. The scientists and top administrators had their own palatial domes east and west of the public area, all facing the river, while everyone else was housed in ordinary domes that faced out to the Tharsis Mountains and were connected to the colony by long covered walkways and cycleways.
There were four airlocked entries into Genesis: one provided access to an openair platform that overlooked the river; two others, east and west, were in large hangar-sized domes that stored rover and maintenance vehicles; and the last was at the southern end allowing access to the gardens in the valley.
It was there, behind a band of eucalypts, that Jo and Chris dropped them.
Rosie watched them drive away with some apprehension. Since Riley was wanted by the Senate, Jo had reluctantly given Rosie directions on how to get to their home in the colony. Rosie would meet her in a few hours and Jo would give her some food and painkillers, while Riley borrowed a rover and drove it around the perimeter. Rosie would then meet him in one of the farm hangars and they’d take the rover to the Enclave. Jo had used a sling from the medikit in the rover to stablilise his arm and given him some pain relief shots, but that was all, and Rosie worried about leaving him alone. What if he collapsed again?
She adjusted her breather and rubbed her hands up and down her arms and tried to convince herself she wasn’t freezing. Jo had given her a sweater and Riley one of Chris’s jackets. The sweater was dark green and slightly too long for her, and the jacket a bit tight for Riley, but they were better than nothing. By night the temperature would probably drop to zero.
They crouched behind a line of trees and scrub at the side of a dirt road and surveyed the airlock fifty metres away. The area around the entrance was clear, but between them and the airlock were patches of thigh-high greyish-green shrubs and uneven rocky ground. A dozen or so people were heading along a road that curved up from the valley farms. The road fell away sharply and it appeared as if the people were coming up out of the earth as they climbed up the steep incline.
“We still don’t have a plan,” Rosie said.
Riley was silent and she turned to him and saw something in his eyes she didn’t like. The look of a decision already made.
“What?” She spoke with caution.
“Rosie, I don’t think you should come with me.”
“Riley, you–”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” he interrupted her. “Jo’s right, I am sacrificing you.”
“She’s not right,” Rosie insisted, but he only shook his head.
“She is. I shouldn’t have got you mixed up in this. This is my fight, not yours.”
“It’s not just your fight,” she said. “And you haven’t lost. We’ve still got the codes in the diary.”
“But they’re not much use without the code key. Without that I can’t get any of the proof about what Helios has done.”
“But you can stop Yuang from blowing up the Enclave,” Rosie said.
“Not if I’m locked up, and I won’t let you try to do it for me. It’s too dangerous.”
“So you’re just going to give up? What about my dad and Aunt Essie and all the other people in there?”
“I will go to Yuang and exchange myself for them. I’ll tell him he has no need to destroy anything, that I have nothing. I can convince him of that, I know I can. He’ll release your family, then you will leave Mars and forget about Helios.”
“Just like that?” She glared at him. “Dad and Aunt Essie might not even be alive any more.”
“Yuang won’t have killed them yet – he needs to make sure I don’t have anything. Besides, he has to follow some rules as well; he has bosses to answer to.”
“But I memorised the codes,” Rosie said desperately. “I can do what Aunt Essie was going to do – I can get in and stop the selfdestruct, turn on the evacuation alarm, help people get out.”
“No.” His lips thinned to nothing more than a line. “If they catch you – and Rosie, they will–”
“They’ll kill me?” She was too angry to be scared.
His voice was firm but quiet. “They’ll torture you to punish me.”
“Right, like what happened to you?” she said bitterly. “Do you want to tell me about that?”
He paused, saying nothing.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Rosie, I’ve changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind! Riley, you’re hurt. How are you going to do this alone? You promised. I–”
“Rosie, stop.” His expression was fierce, pained. “When Helios caught me three years ago they shut me in a cage. They broke my ankles, stripped skin from my body and injected me with surgical nanoblasts programmed to target my vital organs …” He paused. “By the time friends managed to get me out, I was sure I was going to die. I wanted to die. It took nine months and five surgeries for me to recover. I don’t have my own liver any more – I have one that was grown in a lab – and I still have to take injections to kill any nanoblasts that may have replicated themselves and be hiding in my system. So, no, I can’t – I won’t – expose you to that. I should never have let you come this far.”
Rosie’s heart thudded against her ribs. She could barely imagine what it had been like for him but she couldn’t just give up. “What if Yuang’s already done that to my dad, or Aunt Essie?” she said.
His expression softened. “What if that happens to you? Rosie, I think your family would rather you lived.”
She looked away. He was probably right but that didn’t stop the way she felt.
“You can do one thing,” he said. “This will go better if I tell Yuang I’m coming. When you go into the colony I want you to find a public comnet and contact him. I’ll tell you what I want you to say – and you need to stick to that and say nothing else. Don’t get drawn into conversation with him.”
“That’s it,” she said, “that’s all I’m allowed to do? Then I just wait?” She couldn’t keep the resentment out of her voice.
“It’s the safest way. You stay with Jo and Chris. I’ll take a rover from the farms in the valley out to the Enclave and your aunt can bring your dad and herself back in it.”
“If Yuang agrees.”
“He will.”
Rosie wasn’t sure of that but it was pointless to say that to Riley. He’d made up his mind but that didn’t mean she had to do what he said. She couldn’t believe he was going to give up so easily and let Helios get away with it. There had to be another way – she just h
ad to think of it.
“So how do I contact Yuang – in the directory, is he?”
Riley ignored her sarcasm and handed her a scrap of paper. Scribbled on it was a series of numbers. “Enter these into the comnet, and it’ll connect you.”
“Where’d you get this?”
“Rosie–”
“All right.” She sighed with irritation. “I’m ready.”
He watched her closely. “You sure?”
“Are you?” she retorted.
“Keep your head down and when you get to the airlock make sure you follow someone in. Don’t look around. There’ll be surveillance.”
“I’m not stupid.”
Riley’s calm didn’t waver. “I’ll meet you in the hangar.”
“What if you pass out again?”
“I won’t.”
“Sure, you’re in great health – nothing wrong with you.”
Riley’s jaw twitched but he didn’t reply.
“Is the com still working?” she asked.
He pulled it out of his pocket. “Yes, do you want it?”
“No, just make sure it’s on in case you pass out and I have to come find you.”
“That won’t happen. I told you–”
“You feel fine,” Rosie finished for him. “But you don’t look fine.” There was a film of sweat on his brow and she had seen him wincing when they squatted down.
“Rosie,” his tone was even but with an undercurrent of annoyance, “just listen and I’ll tell you what to say to Yuang.”
CHAPTER 32
It was ridiculously easy to get into the colony. No one questioned her, no one did more than glance at her; she just followed some people in. Perhaps it wasn’t unusual for a young woman to be seen coming in from the farms.
Inside the hangar was a huge space topped by the high curved roof of the dome. It was filled with rovers, machinery and people going about their business. At the far end a set of automatic doors led to the rest of the colony.
Rosie took off her breather and hurried towards them, wending her way around slow-moving vehicles and groups of people. On her right were several storehouses and on her left enormous coolrooms, their metallic doors gleaming in the soft light that came from the crystal globes installed in the roof. Everyone appeared too busy with their own work to bother with her and she made it through the doors without any trouble.
On the other side was a walkway. Like in the public domes, the walkway was a double layer of curved pyloglass, sunk deep into the Martian soil. It was lined on either side with small shrubs and led towards a connecting dome and more walkways.
There weren’t many people about here, and as she walked, she kept trying to think of what she could have said to change Riley’s mind. Why couldn’t he see that she could help him? She knew the codes; they could still get in. It was such a gamble for him to think that Yuang would let her family go and stop the destruction of the Enclave because he gave himself up.
She emerged from the walkway into one of the large connecting domes and paused inside the entrance. The dome was essentially a hub connecting eight walkways that led to other parts of the colony. Four comnet booths rose from the floor in the central area arrayed around a two-metre-high, 3-D AI directory pillar. Two young boys were messing around with the AI, laughing and waving their hands through the semitransparent figure of the woman, and there was a man seated on a bench hooked into a virtual workstation. Around the central perimeter, streams of people moved purposefully in and out of the walkways. Rosie couldn’t see any sign of a Senate uniform among them. A screen embedded high in the wall of the dome was showing images of the clear Martian day outside, complete with oxygen levels and predictions for windstorms. It was eight degrees outside, but it was warm in the dome and the air smelled faintly of pollen and iron.
“Move along there.” Someone spoke behind her and she jumped and turned around. A middle-aged man with a greying beard looked down at her with a smile.
“Sorry.” She stepped to the side but he was already moving away. Her heart was racing. She had to get this done and get out.
On the far side was a shuttle station that provided transport within the colony. Four carriages were lined up next to the low platform. They looked like elongated eggs with the tops sliced off. After using the comnet, Rosie was to take the blue line to Arcadia where Jo would be waiting for her; then they would take another to the western hangar.
Rosie walked as calmly as she could to the comnet booths, choosing one partly concealed by a potted plant. The com had a wide flat screen and a sound’n’speak device slid out of the booth as she put her palm on the screen. She slipped the fine curl of wires over her ear and waited impatiently as the five-second intro advertisement played. The screen faded to pale red with an array of options. She ignored them all and called up a virtual keyboard then typed in the contact override Riley had provided that would divert to Yuang’s com. She started sweating as she watched the screen suddenly flick off then come on again. There was a soft crackling sound in her ear then a blue tinted image of Yuang filled the screen. His expression was aloof and suspicious.
“How did you …” he said then stopped as he saw her. “Miss Black.” He smiled in a way that made her scalp tighten. “What an unexpected development. I was worried about you – both of you. Where’s Shore? Is he in one piece?”
“He’s fine,” she said quietly.
“He always had a knack for survival.” He was behaving as if they were old friends. “So what can I do for you?”
“I want to see my aunt and my dad,” she said, repeating what Riley had told her to say. “Show me they’re alive.”
Yuang raised his eyebrows. “Manners, please.”
“Show me!” she hissed through her teeth.
“No.” His tone was flat, his smile gone. “But you may have my word they are alive – for the moment. Do you have something for me?”
Riley had assumed he would say that. She was supposed to tell Yuang that Riley would come to him, and that if he released her dad and Aunt Essie in exchange, Helios would be in the clear. She was supposed to just set up the meeting and switch off the com – but she hesitated. What if that wasn’t enough leverage for Yuang? What if, when he got Riley, he still detonated the labs?
“Miss Black?” Yuang eyed her with some amusement. “I don’t have all day.”
Rosie took a breath. He didn’t know what had been in the box. He couldn’t be sure if she was lying or not. “Release my dad and aunt at the north gate of the Enclave. Riley will meet you there.”
“Will he?” Yuang watched her. “Giving himself up for them, is he?”
“Yes.”
“How noble.” His tone was condescending but the look in his eyes was not.
“Him in exchange for my family and an end to plans to destroy the Enclave,” she said.
“Interesting,” Yuang replied. “And the other contents of his parents’ box?”
“He will bring them,” she said, then added, “all that he has.”
Yuang frowned. “All that he has? Are you implying something, Miss Black?”
Rosie swallowed hard. “I took something out, before, on Earth. He doesn’t know about it but I think it’s important.”
“What?” His tone was cold now.
“A piece of plaspaper,” she said. “It was some kind of shipment order for stuff going from Mars to Earth around ten years ago. Something about malaria vaccines and new test doses. I hid it before I met Pip.”
“Where?” Yuang’s expression was frightening, even through the screen, but Rosie kept talking. She had to make him think she had something, even though she had no idea if a record of the shipment that had brought the MalX to Earth even existed.
“It’s safe,” she said. “But if someone found it …” She let him think what he might.
He watched her closely, his gaze narrowing. “And why should I believe you?”
“Because you can’t afford to have any information leaking out,
can you? And if someone saw that document, they might wonder about how the MalX really got to Earth.”
He smiled, a slow scary smile. “That’s brave, Miss Black. If you’re telling the truth. Brave but stupid. Does Shore know what you’re up to?”
“Let my dad and aunt go and stop your plans to destroy the Enclave or someone might see it,” she said.
“Oh, I was planning to let them go,” he said. “They are of little use to me now since they’ve brought me what I need anyway. Shore is a big fish, Miss Black, and we will talk when he comes to me. But as for you,” he smiled again, “there was a reason he told you to deliver your message to me fast and then shut the com off. A reason a smart girl like you should already know.”
Rosie felt a leap of fear as she realised he was right. She had taken too long.
“Miss Black,” Yuang said, “meet Gerry.”
The hairs on the back of Rosie’s neck lifted. Someone was standing behind her. She heard nasally breathing. “Need a ride?” a man said.
Her heart boosted like a rocket ship. She ripped the earpiece off and sprang forward, pushing past a couple using the next com, but he had hold of her arm before she went more than a step.
“I don’t think so.” He pulled her so hard, her head snapped back and she bit her tongue. He was big with clammy hands and white-blond hair, cut short against his skull.
“Let me go!” Rosie shouted. “Help!” She looked at the couple, but they were moving out of the way.
“Now, come on,” Gerry said, “I told your mum I’d catch you next time you ran off.”
“My mum’s dead!” Rosie squirmed and twisted in his grip. “Help me,” she pleaded to the couple.
But their eyes were set on the golden insignia of Helios on his breast and they backed off fast.
“She always gets like this,” Gerry was saying to them, a smile on his face as he dragged her away. “Hates astrophysics.” He chuckled.
“I do not!” Rosie shouted furiously. “Probably know more about it than you. He’s kidnapping me!” she screamed, but no one wanted to interfere.
He pulled her close, leaning down to whisper in her ear, the smile still on his face. “Don’t be bad or you don’t get to see Daddy.”
