by L O Addison
Jaxon flinched at the sound of Lio’s voice and eyed him suspiciously. But then he bit his lip and murmured, “I’ve seen… a group of street kids who came in early this morning. They were captured trying to break into the base. The Shepherd hasn’t decided what to do with them yet.”
Adrien’s eyes widened at this news. “How many?”
Jaxon considered a moment. “Five.” The corners of his mouth pursed into a frown as he realized the significance of this number. “That’s…”
“That’s the exact number of my siblings who were captured,” Adrien said, nodding sharply. He let out a derisive scoff. “Captured trying to break into the base? You honestly believed that?”
Jaxon’s cheeks flamed with anger, but he had no retort. He just stood there, staring between the three of them, not seeming to know who to look at.
“Where are they?” Adrien demanded, his voice cracking like a whip through the silent hallway.
Jaxon flinched, but he shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not permitted to.”
“They will die,” Adrien growled, his hand clenching into a fist. “If I can’t get them out of here now, they’re never leaving here alive.”
Jaxon shook his head. “No. The Shepherd doesn’t kill kids.”
“He does,” Adrien insisted. He gestured sharply to the door Jaxon had just walked through. “Go ask my siblings what happened. Every single person will tell you the exact same story I just told you.”
Unease creased Jaxon’s face, and he took a step back. “I should report you,” he said, his voice shaky. “You’re intruders. Criminals. You have no right to be on this base.”
“If you report us, the rest of my siblings will be killed,” Adrien said.
In the corner of his eye, Lio spotted Matteo shifting his hand closer to his holster. In his confusion, Jaxon seemed to have entirely forgotten that he was facing off with armed opponents.
“Do it,” Lio said. “Report us.”
Jaxon turned to look at Lio, his eyes darkening as soon as they landed on him. “What did you say, alien?”
Lio pointed to the comm unit on Jaxon’s wrist. “Report us. If you’re so entirely certain that the Shepherd would never hurt those children, then report us and be done with it.”
Jaxon froze for a long, tense second, just staring at Lio with disbelief. The boy glanced down at the comm unit on his wrist, and his right hand shifted closer to it. But right as he was about to activate it, his hand fell away, along with his gaze. He stared at the floor, his shoulders sinking low.
“Hallway C, holding cell eight,” Jaxon whispered, his voice so quiet Lio could barely hear. “That’s where they’re keeping the street kids who were captured this morning.”
Adrien cleared his throat. “Thank you,” he said in a choked voice. “You’re saving their lives.”
“What about the Virtue?” Matteo asked Jaxon.
Jaxon’s shoulders suddenly tensed, and he snapped his gaze up to Matteo. “What about it?”
“It’s going to cause the death of millions if we don’t retrieve it,” Lio said.
He shouldn't have spoken. Lio realized that as soon as Jaxon turned to him with a furious glare, but it was too late. The boy had been taught to fear and hate aliens, and as far as he knew, Lio was here to capture the Virtue and use it to kill humans.
Jaxon slapped the comm unit’s screen, activating it. But he didn’t get to say a single word before Matteo fired at him. The stun shot struck the boy in the chest, knocking the breath out of him. He had a single moment to give Matteo a pained, incredulous look. Then he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Matteo rushed over to the boy and snatched the comm unit off his wrist, strapping it onto his own arm. Then he nodded toward the open doors in front of them. “Let’s move,” Matteo said, “That stun setting isn’t going to keep him down for more than a few minutes.”
Lio cast a hesitant glance at Jaxon. Simply abandoning him in an unconscious heap felt wrong. Although he knew Matteo was right—time was limited, and if they were going to make it to the Virtue in time, they needed to move.
Lio followed after Matteo as the soldier strode through the doors to the East Wing, which Jaxon had left open. But Lio made a mental note to come back for Jaxon, if he was given the chance.
They’d barely made it through the doors before they slid shut, the thick steel lock thunking closed. A moment later, a siren went off, the deep blaring ringing through the hallway.
Lio’s heart thudded in his chest and he raised his pistol, waiting for someone to charge at them. But no one came. The siren quickly cut off, leaving a suffocating silence in its place.
Lio glanced over at Matteo, but he was surprised to find the soldier’s pistol still holstered.
“That siren isn’t an alarm,” Matteo explained, his whisper sounding far too loud in the confines of the hallway. “That’s just an alert. Someone’s landing in the East Wing’s hangar.”
“What does that mean?” Lio asked.
Matteo’s mouth creased in a frown. “It means there’s a visitor, and an important one. The East Hangar is the most high-security hangar in the base, so it only gets opened for trade deals and for visitors who need extra security.”
“The Ascendancy,” Lio murmured, his stomach sinking.
Matteo opened his mouth to reply, but his words were cut off by a low, quiet whistle. The air seemed to fill with the noise, and a steady vibration followed a moment later, making the floors tremble.
Adrien stumbled back a few steps. “That’s the sound people keep talking about,” he said, his hushed voice barely audible over the noise. “People keep hearing some sort of whistle when they see ships over the city.”
“Kastrin engines,” Lio said grimly. He should have expected as much. Kastrin fuel was outlawed in most galaxies, because the only way to harvest it required destroying stars and decimating entire solar systems. Only the most powerful entities in the universe dared to harvest and use the fuel source.
So of course the Ascendancy would use it. Kastrin was the most efficient fuel known in the universe, and that was how the Ascendancy operated—by claiming the best for themselves and destroying anything that stood in their way.
Matteo glanced over at him. “Is that something alien?”
Lio nodded, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of the engines. “The Ascendancy is here.”
He felt strangely calm as he said the words, more calm than he’d felt since he started this mission. The enemy was at the gates, but Lio was ready for them. He knew what he had to do: keep the Virtue away from them, no matter what it took.
He reached up and touched the Fragment hanging from his neck, clasping it so tightly in his palm that it began to burn his skin. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the pull of the Virtue.
Lio snapped his eyes open. “We need to go left,” he said, nodding ahead to the intersection in the hallway.
Matteo’s frown deepened. “That’s where the hangar is. All of the guards in this sector are going to be heading there.”
Lio nodded. “And that’s where we’re going, too.”
36
Kaylin
Kaylin needed to think—about how to get out of this cell, how to get the Virtue, how to get out of the base, how to find the rest of their team, how to find Jaxon, and about a hundred other things. But she couldn’t think. She could only feel, and her emotions seemed to be crushing all the logic out of her brain.
Her brother was alive. He’d survived the Syndicate invasion. And this entire time, he’d been left to fend for himself, with no one except Nathan and his screwed-up organization to watch over him.
And now that she’d finally found Jaxon, he was probably going to die.
“Help me with this,” Beck snapped. “You’re supposed to be the one good with locks.”
He was struggling with the lock at the front of their cell, trying to break off the digital key reader. There wasn’t anything heavy in their cell,
so Beck had just wrapped his shirt around his fist, reached through the bars, and was attempting to punch the lock loose. So far, all he’d managed to do was crack the screen and make his wounded shoulder start bleeding again.
Kaylin numbly got to her feet, walked over to him, snagged one of the belt loops on his pants, and yanked him backward. He stumbled away from the lock, whirling toward her.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Helping.” She pointed to the lock. “You break that key reader, and it’s not going to unlock. It’s just going to set off an alarm.”
“Then why did you let me try in the first place?” he snapped.
Because she hadn’t noticed. Her mind was on fire with panic and pain and regret, and she couldn’t focus on anything beside it.
And, besides, it didn’t matter. The first thing she’d done when they’d put her in this cell was look at the lock, and she’d quickly realized it was useless to try to break out. It was a top-notch security device, and even if she had her toolkit and all the time in the world, she wouldn’t have had much chance getting it open.
She opened her mouth to explain all of this, but nothing came out. As Beck stared down at her, his frustration slowly melted away, leaving only sadness.
Kaylin wanted to be mad at him. She hated it when people pitied her. Hated it.
But as she met Beck’s stare, she realized there was no pity in his eyes. There was only concern, the real, genuine sort that melted away some of her numb horror.
He reached out with his good arm and took her hand in his. The skin of his hand was rough with callouses and hot from the blood and adrenaline pounding through him, but it still seemed like the most comforting thing Kaylin had felt in ages.
“We’re not giving up,” he said. “Not yet.”
Despite his commanding words, his voice was soft. But it wasn’t enough to soothe away Kaylin’s dread.
“We’re trapped,” she said. “And we’re running out of time.”
Beck nodded toward the door. “Your brother’s out there. Are you really going to give up on saving him?”
She yanked her hand away from his, anger flaring through her at the thought. She wouldn’t give up on Jaxon. She couldn’t.
Beck gave a grim smile. “That’s what I thought,” he said, turning back toward the door. “Now let’s get to work.”
Kaylin bit her lip and gave a tight nod. But then she said, “Targeting the lock is pointless. It’s too high-grade for us to break through.”
Beck let out a curse, but he quickly composed himself and said, “Then what are our other options?”
Kaylin rubbed her hands over her face. “Honestly? I’m pretty sure chewing through the bars is our best hope right now.”
“I’m being serious, Kay,” Beck said, frustration seeping back into his tone.
“I am, too, Beck,” she said, struggling to keep her voice steady. “We’re kind of totally, completely screwed.”
“You’re a thief,” he said, gesturing wildly toward her. “Isn’t breaking in and out of things what you do?”
“I’ve told you, I don’t have any magical powers,” Kaylin snapped. “I use alien-made tech to get past human-made security. That’s how most of my thieving ‘magic’ is done.” She gestured around the empty cell. “I have no tools here, and this cell isn’t the sort of thing I can Houdini my way out of. If we want to escape, we need to find another way.”
Before Beck could reply, a siren filled the air. It only lasted a few seconds before cutting off.
“What was that?” Beck demanded. His eyes were wide with panic, and Kaylin knew they were both thinking the same thing: if a security alarm was going off, it probably had something to do with Lio and the others.
Then a loud whistle filled the air. Kaylin winced and slapped her hands over her ears. The sound wasn’t particularly loud, but there was something oddly grating about the noise.
It was something alien. Kaylin wasn’t exactly sure how she knew, but there was no doubt in her mind. The strange whistling noise wasn’t like anything she’d ever heard on Earth.
“They’re here,” Kaylin said, hardly believing the words even as she said them. The Ascendancy was even earlier than they’d expected.
Beck cursed and slammed his hand against the bars of the cell. Panic crept back into his expression, and Kaylin had the sudden urge to reach up and smooth the lines of worry from his face.
Another sound reached Kaylin’s ears, this one quieter. It was an odd shuffling noise that seemed to be coming from somewhere in the ceiling. She looked up, tensing, unsure what she was even looking for. The shuffling came again, but this time it seemed to be right above them.
Then she heard it: a familiar chirp. The shuffling suddenly turned to a squealing, grating noise, as if something was scratching against metal, trying to claw through.
“Red,” Kaylin said. Shock filled her, quickly followed by relief.
Another chirp came from the ceiling, this one louder, and Beck glanced up with wide eyes. “Holy shit. He’s in the vents.”
A fresh burst of hope ignited in Kaylin. She searched the room, quickly finding what she was looking for: an air vent. It was about two feet square, plenty large enough for Red to squeeze through. It was time to put her mental connection with Red to the test.
She closed her eyes, trying to block out the whistling noise and the adrenaline pounding through her veins. Instead, she concentrated on a single thought: “Get the cover off the vent.”
The scratching above her abruptly stopped. Red let out another chirp and then trotted over to the vent, his pawsteps shuffling over their heads. Kaylin held her breath as she watched the vent. Red stomped on the grate, making it tremble, but not moving it an inch. He let an annoyed growl and then slid his claws across the slats, hooking them on the grate. Then he yanked.
The grate ripped out of place, its broken screws falling to the floor and pinging against the concrete. Red shoved the cover out of his way and stuck his head through the hole, staring down at Kaylin. He let out an excited trill as he spotted her, and his entire body wiggled with excitement, nearly making him fall through the hole. Red quickly regained his balance and leaped down to the ground, spreading his wings to soften the landing. He rushed over to their cell, and Kaylin reached through the bars to scratch him under the chin.
“Good boy,” she crooned. But even as she praised him, she was looking around the room, searching for something—anything—that she could use to get them out of the cell.
There weren’t many options. The room was sparsely furnished, with only the two cells, a locked metal cabinet in the corner, and a table near the door. On top of the table was some bottled water and canned food—probably dinner for whatever unlucky souls got trapped in these cells long-term. Aside from that, the room was nearly empty, except for a mounted comm unit by the door.
“You could have him breathe fire again,” Beck said. He rapped his knuckles against the nearest steel bar. “It might be enough to at least weaken some of these bars.”
Kaylin shot him an annoyed glance, and Beck frowned, seeming to realize the issue with his suggestion.
“And it’ll flambé us alive,” he muttered.
“Yeah,” Kaylin said. “Let’s try to avoid that.”
She paced up and down the length of the cell, wracking her brain for a way to escape. The whistling sound suddenly cut off, leaving the room ominously silent. Kaylin wasn’t exactly sure what the whistling noise was, but her gut instinct was that it was an alien aircraft of some kind. Some of the Syndicate ships had made a similar sort of high-pitched hum, so it would make sense if the Ascendancy had related kinds of aircraft.
And if the whistling had just cut out… That meant the engine was off. The ship had landed, and the Ascendancy was officially here.
Kaylin began shoving at the bars of the cell, testing each of them for any sign of weakness. Red had an incredible amount of muscle for his small size, and if she could find even one weak
spot, he might be able to exploit it.
Red shadowed her outside the cage as she tested each bar, anxiously nudging at the cage with his nose. But she couldn’t find a single weak point. She looked back toward Beck, desperately hoping he had other ideas. But he just shook his head and gave a frustrated curse.
Time was running out.
Red suddenly turned toward the door and growled, his tail swishing back and forth anxiously.
“Someone’s coming,” Beck said.
“Red,” Kaylin hissed. She waved toward the corner of the room. “Hide!”
Red jumped into action, obeying the familiar command, and scurried into the empty cell beside theirs. He dove under the cot, camouflaging his scales and pressing close to the ground. It was far from perfect cover, but hopefully it would be enough.
Kaylin turned back toward the door, her heart thudding wildly in her chest. Footsteps neared, and she unconsciously took a step back, wanting to distance herself from whoever—or whatever—was coming.
She was going to meet a member of the Ascendancy. It suddenly dawned on her that she had no idea what this person would look like. She’d always thought of the Ascendancy as a looming, giant menace, like the threat of a plague or a nuclear explosion. She’d known there were people involved, of course, but she’d never actually bothered to try visualizing them.
A hand rested on her shoulder, and she nearly leaped out of her skin. She whirled around to find Beck standing there, staring down at her with an intense look of sadness and regret.
“I’m so sorry you got dragged into this,” he said, his voice a ragged whisper. “I should have realized what Nathan was a long time ago. If I’d known, he never would have been able to set you up, and you—”
She reached up and clapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t you dare apologize for getting me killed,” she said. “For one, none of this is your fault. And for two, we’re not dead yet.”
Beck reached up and took her hand away from his mouth. But instead of letting it fall away, he threaded his fingers through hers and clasped their palms tightly together.
