by Magus Tor
She let the subject drop. It was really none of her business whether or not Jonathon got along with his family, although Aurelia had to admit that she had grown fond of Tara. And besides, how much embarrassment could the girl possibly cause Jonathon? It wasn't like most of the other Elite kids in the City weren't doing the same thing. Aurelia filed the information away, but she was determined to do something about it. Dammit. She liked Tara.
Aurelia could feel the chill of night coming before they stopped. It had taken them a little longer than planned, but Jonathon assured them that that wasn't going to be a problem. He’d had second thoughts, however, about leaving Aurelia and Nicholas alone.
“I thought you trusted me!” Aurelia said.
“It's got nothing to do with that. I worry about you, that's all.”
“And I worry about you. There's no point in taking more risk than we have to,” Aurelia pointed out. “You, Elza, and Jason can all get back into the dome the normal way—in fact, it'll look weird if you don't, because your number will be registered going out but not coming back in again.”
“I know that. I was just going to wait with you until your escort arrives, then go in the normal way,” said Jonathon.
“That's ridiculous. I've been Out for almost two weeks on my own or with Nicholas; I'll be fine. The three of you go inside. Besides, we need to arrange somewhere to keep Nicholas safe once we're inside.”
“I agree,” said Jason, who had overheard most of the conversation. “Anyway, the less people around here, the better. You don't want to attract attention to yourselves.”
“Thank you,” said Aurelia. “So you three go in, and Nicholas and I will wait here for whoever it is that's going to take us back inside.”
Jonathon sighed but nodded. “Fine. But I'll be there to meet you when you get out of the tunnels. I know where you're coming out, and I'll find a way to get Nicholas back to my place, at least for the time being.”
“Deal,” said Aurelia.
Elza and Jason had shouldered their packs and taken some of Nicholas's equipment as well, leaving Nicholas and Aurelia unencumbered except for a small bag containing a little food, some water, and a blanket.
“You won't be waiting long, an hour or two at most,” said Jonathon, grabbing his own pack. “I should see you again around midnight, I think.”
He kissed Aurelia on the cheek, a weird gesture since they were both wearing their breathing suits and hoods. Then he nodded at Nicholas and left with the others. Aurelia watched until they disappeared around the dome, and then she sat on the ground.
“What now?” she said.
“I rescued this,” said Nicholas with a smile, pulling his small chess set out of his pocket.
If it had occurred to Aurelia to think about it, she might have thought that sitting on the surface of the moon and playing chess with a Clone was more than a bit odd. But her life had changed so much in the last month that she gave it little thought. The game calmed her mind, and since they had to wait anyway, they might as well play.
She was down to six pieces left on the board, and she had considered her next move for a good five minutes before reaching out and picking up her queen.
“I wouldn't do that if I were you; you'll be in check in three moves,” said a voice from behind her.
“Bryn!” said Nicholas, getting up and welcoming the man with a slap on the back. “What are you doing around here?”
“Thought I might find you in the area; heard through certain channels that you were coming in and thought you might need some help,” said the man.
Aurelia hid a small smile at the thought of the gruff man actually wanting to help, but then she remembered that if it hadn't been for Bryn, she'd still be enslaved by Garda and his bandits.
“If you've heard that,” she said, “then you've probably heard that we've already got an escort coming to get us inside.”
Bryn nodded. “I heard,” he said. “But there's something going on; I can feel it. More sec Workers around than I've seen for a long, long time. Thought it might be an idea to have you arrive a little unexpectedly, maybe, just in case.”
Nicholas looked at Aurelia. “Seems like a good plan to me. I trust Bryn.”
“And I trust Jonathon,” said Aurelia. She'd had enough of this competition. It was about time that Nicholas learnt to take Jonathon at his word.
“But...” Nicholas started.
“But nothing. You promised me that you would trust Jonathon, and at least learn from your mistakes.”
He sighed but nodded. “Alright, alright.” He turned to Bryn, who was casually watching the sky and pretending not to listen to them. “Thanks for the offer, Bryn. It means a lot. But like Aurelia said, we've got an escort, and I'm sure that it's going to be fine.”
Bryn studied him for a second but nodded. “Maybe I'll stick around anyway, if that's alright with you? No harm in having two escorts.”
Aurelia agreed. After all, Nicholas had made the effort, and Bryn was right—why not have two escorts?
They went back to their game, Bryn providing Aurelia with a few helpful hints that resulted in her winning her first ever match.
“You're quite the player,” she told him as Nicholas packed away the pieces.
“He should be,” said Nicholas, turning to Bryn with a grin. “He taught me all I know.”
“And you can't beat me yet,” said Bryn. “Which means that I didn't teach you all I know.”
Aurelia laughed. The two men were obviously used to sparring in this way, and it was nice to see Nicholas so comfortable with someone.
Maybe ten minutes later, a figure appeared, close to the dome. Bryn saw him first.
“That'll be your escort,” he said.
The three stood up and stretched, ready to make the final walk back into Lunar.
“I thought there were only two of you,” said the figure when he was within talking distance.
“My fault, Jed,” said Bryn.
“Oh, it's you, Bryn. Don't need an escort, do you?” the guy laughed. He sounded young and friendly, although Aurelia didn't get a good look at the face under his hood.
“Just doing a little sec Work on the side,” said Bryn quietly. “Want to keep these two safe, that's all. Personal friends of mine.”
The escort shrugged. “No skin off my nose if you want to come in too. We're taking the far exit, the one that opens into the heating shaft, and then we'll go through the tunnels and come up close to the old Crematorium building, if that suits you? It's all been arranged.”
Bryn nodded. “Fine.”
Aurelia and Nicholas were well acquainted with the Crematorium building, which often acted as a Resistance meeting place. Aurelia felt thankful that she was going to arrive in a part of Lunar that she was at least familiar with.
“Come on, then, let's get to it,” said the escort.
He took the lead, Aurelia and Nicholas following, and Bryn bringing up the rear. A fifteen-minute walk led them closer to the dome, and then the escort stopped. He leaned down and felt around the ground, which to Aurelia looked pretty much the same as everywhere else. When he found what he was looking for, he gave a short, sharp tug, and a small trapdoor opened next to his feet. He turned to Bryn, who nodded, then the escort jumped into the hole.
“It's only a metre or so down,” said Bryn, gesturing to Aurelia to make the jump next.
The heating shaft was narrow enough that Aurelia needed to duck her head, and both Bryn and Nicholas were almost bent double. Still, the escort took the shaft as quickly as possible, jogging down its length until they came to a ladder. Once down the ladder, he led them a little way down a tunnel then into a niche.
“We're going to need to be quiet and careful and fast,” he told them as they caught their breath. “For some reason, there's plenty of sec Workers around tonight. There's no need that we should run into one; there's enough tunnels for all of us, but there's no reason to bring them running. Got it?”
Aurelia and Nicholas nodded. Bryn narro
wed his eyes and then nodded too.
Starting out at a jog again, the group made their way through various tunnels until they came to a large crossroads that Aurelia recognised as the one where she had waited. They were about to make a turn when a shout echoed around them. Looking to the right, Aurelia could see two sec Workers who had obviously spotted them.
“Follow me,” said Bryn immediately.
The escort didn't question him, and as Bryn took off at a run, they all followed him. He led them through tunnels that got narrower and, by the look of them, older; most had chipped paint and cracked concrete floors. Aurelia was doing the best she could to keep up with them, but her chest was aching, reminding her of the broken rib. Finally, Bryn slowed down.
“Lost them,” he grunted.
“Me too,” said the escort. “I've got no clue where we are.”
“No reason you should,” said Bryn. “Few come down this way, and there are no escape hatches close by. We're not far from where we need to be, though.”
He walked now, and Aurelia was glad for the rest. Nicholas caught her eye and gave her a tight smile. She smiled back, grateful that he was with her.
A further twenty minutes saw them in large, open corridors that were well lit. Bryn came to a halt next to a metal door.
“Security seems to be around the perimeters of the dome,” he mused. “Haven't seen or heard from them for a while now, so we should be safe. This door will take you to a staircase. Go up the stairs and lift the hatch at the top, and you'll find yourselves in the grounds of the Crematorium.”
The escort nodded. “This is your drop-off point,” he said.
“You're not coming?” Aurelia asked Bryn.
Bryn shook his head. “Best for me to stay down here for now. I don't like being up there much anyway.”
The escort opened the door. “I need to stay too. Good luck to you both.”
Aurelia thanked them, as did Nicholas, and as soon as they were through the door, it banged closed behind them. A metal staircase was at the end of the corridor, and they slowly climbed the steps until they reached the hatch that Bryn had told them of.
“Ready?” asked Nicholas with a smile.
“Ready,” confirmed Aurelia, anxious to get back to her real life.
Nicholas pushed the hatch open, climbed half out, and reached back to pull Aurelia after him. It was then that the bright lights clicked on, shining into their faces so that they could see nothing around them. There was a whirr of transport pods coming to a halt and the sound of marching footsteps on the gravel around them. Then a voice.
“Clone, raise your hands. You're under arrest.”
Chapter Ten
The combination of the bright lights and still being halfway down the staircase meant that Aurelia could see nothing. But she could hear the crunch of boots on gravel, and then she felt Nicholas being pulled up and away. He hadn't stood a chance. He was obviously surrounded and couldn't run, and he couldn't get back into the tunnel because she was blocking the way. He was gone in a moment, not uttering a word, and she didn't even get the chance to see his face.
With Nicholas gone, a dark shadow loomed over the door.
“There's a girl here,” said a voice.
A hand reached down and yanked her up.
“She's with me.” It was Jonathon's voice, coming from across the courtyard.
Squinting, Aurelia could see him hurrying towards her, a group of sec Workers standing back to let him pass. The Worker holding Aurelia seemed reluctant to let her go. He didn't release his grip until he had a clear look at Jonathon's face.
“Yes, sir,” the Worker said finally, surrendering Aurelia into Jonathon's custody.
Jonathon grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her along, her feet catching on stones so that she nearly tripped and would have fallen if it weren't for his support. She could barely comprehend what was happening. Inside she was screaming Nicholas's name, but on the outside she kept silent, allowing herself to be dragged clear across the courtyard to a waiting transport pod. Jonathon pushed her inside, and desperately she looked around for any sign that Nicholas was here. But she couldn't see him. Maybe that’s a good thing, she thought. At least it meant that they hadn't injected him on the spot. Jonathon pulled her security belt on, fixed his own, then sat back as the transport pod began to move. His jaw was tight and his eyes hard.
“Where are we going?” Aurelia asked. Of all the questions running around in her head, it was the banal one that had escaped.
“To my house,” Jonathon said shortly.
She wasn't sure if he was angry or just thinking. But she was sure that his house was not where she wanted to be. There was something wrong here, and as the shock and exhaustion began to wear off a little, the pieces were starting to come together.
“No. I want to go to the hospital.”
His eyes flickered over her in surprise, but he nodded and leaned forward to reprogramme the console.
He said nothing for the rest of the trip, pulling out his screen, fingers tapping furiously over it. Aurelia's mind whirled, and she couldn't make things stay still for long enough to figure out what was going on. Yet something niggled at the back of her head, something that told her there was only one way for all of this to make sense. She wasn't ready to hear it yet, though. And Nicholas was gone. Nicholas, whom she'd tried so hard, risked her life, to bring back inside, had been arrested as soon as he’d hit Lunar City territory.
When the pod entered the hospital grounds and slid to a stop, Jonathon escorted her out and to the elevators.
“I'm coming,” he said when she protested.
He deposited her outside of her quarters, told her to remain there and that he would be back as soon as he could. When Aurelia stared down the corridor after him, she saw him head to the stairs. He must be going to see Elza.
Her quarters seemed stale, unlived in. She pulled her shoes off and sat on the couch, not even able to make it to the bedroom. What the hell had happened? Her body was so battered and exhausted that it was numb, and her mind so full she felt like her head might explode. She had felt like this once when she was a student. Her final year of med training had contained so much information that she could barely keep track of it all. The only thing that had worked was to take one point and follow it logically until it led her through everything swimming in her brain. A focus.
Laying her head back, Aurelia closed her eyes. Nicholas is gone. Arrested. That’s the biggest problem. But why? Because someone must have told the sec Workers that he was coming. There were plenty of people who knew he was coming back to Lunar, though: Elza, Jonathon, Jason, Bryn, their tunnel escort, and whoever else Jonathon had told when he was making arrangements. That pool needed to be narrowed down, but how?
Okay, the sec Workers had known where to find him. Presuming that they didn't have patrols at every possible exit point from the tunnels, which seemed unlikely, that meant that whoever had reported Nicholas knew where he was coming out. Bryn and the escort both knew. No, wait, Bryn hadn't known until the escort had told him, so the escort knew. Jonathon presumably knew since he'd said he'd pick them up. Did Elza and Jason? That also seemed unlikely; why would they need to know?
The niggling voice at the back of her head was screaming at her now, jumping up and down, trying to get her attention. Aurelia put her head in her hands. She had to listen. She had to accept. It must have been Jonathon.
He'd reported Nicholas before, twice now; it was his career that was being threatened here, and he had known exactly where Nicholas was to be found. Who else would have reason to turn Nicholas in? She'd assured Nicholas again and again that he could trust Jonathon. She'd defended him. She'd said that there had been no underhanded plan to have Nicholas killed, but how had she known that? All she’d had was Jonathon's word that the Clone was to be taken to Earth.
Jonathon's word. That meant a lot, and she knew it did. But did it mean more to Jonathon than his career, his ambitions? With Nicholas out of the way, al
l risk to Jonathon from the Clone was gone, and he didn't need to consider the issue of helping the Clone cause either. Getting rid of Nicholas was the simple solution to a lot of Jonathon's current problems.
Aurelia rubbed her eyes, which felt gritty and tired. Her heart hurt so much that she couldn't feel it. Would Jonathon really do something like this? Before, she would have said no, but now she wasn't so sure. She'd seen the way he treated Clones; he had the typical Lunar prejudice against them. He hated them. And he had his career, his cause, and those might be enough to make him sacrifice the life of a mere Clone.
Her door slid open. Jonathon came in, followed by Elza. Aurelia stood, readying herself for a confrontation, but her body and brain simply refused. They had been through too much, Aurelia had pushed herself to the limits, and her muscles were rebelling. Knees shaking, she sank back to the couch. She barely even heard Elza's words:
“It's just a sed injection,” the older woman said, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders as she bent down next to Aurelia.
Aurelia felt a small prick on the inside of her elbow.
“She'll sleep at least until morning,” Elza said to someone. Aurelia's mind was getting cloudy.
Strong arms lifted her like a child, picking her up from the couch. The soft voice of sleep was whispering in her ear. The sedative crept up on her, silencing the thoughts in her head, seducing her with the idea of sleep. Real sleep.
She felt the softness of her bed beneath her, a blanket being placed over her, and then she surrendered herself and her breathing deepened.
She had no idea how long she'd slept. But the moment she woke up, everything clicked into place in her brain immediately. The first thing she did was to call Elza on the com. Fortunately, the woman picked up and seemed both surprised and happy to hear Aurelia's voice.
“Awake now?” Elza said.
“Yes, and I need to see you.”
“I'll be right there.”
Aurelia managed to pull herself together, take a shower, and change into a clean uniform before Elza arrived, all the while thinking about what she was going to say. She still hadn't decided by the time the door opened, but as soon as she saw Elza, she knew what she had to do.
