by Harper North
“Don’t kill her!” Cho shouts. “Only she knows where the MPS system is!”
Lacy steps back. Starsen rolls onto her side and vomits into the dust before gagging again and catching a breath.
“I’ll do that again if you don’t show us where this system is,” Lacy insists.
“You Impure freak.” Starsen turns her glare up at my friend, but now her eyes shine with terror. Lacy’s breaking her.
“The MPS system.” I don’t know what that is, but if it’ll stop the SNA from taking the power it needs, I’ll go with it. “Lacy can hurt you again and again without killing you, and she can make it last for hours.”
Behind me, the hover hums louder as it rises. Who’s taken control, I can’t tell. We have to leave while the prisoners have them distracted or they’ll bomb us—and maybe even Starsen—to stop our plan from going through.
Starsen closes her eyes and takes a breath, shaking. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Elias takes her arm and yanks her to her feet. “This system. Now.”
She gulps.
An explosion fills the world, followed by deafening crashes. The hover has taken out the first barrack. The SNA has the advantage and more people will die. An orange glow reflects off the side of the tent and fades, leaving the crackling of white-hot fire.
I should feel relieved I won’t have to see Sky die. But instead, a part of me screams and wants to bolt down the hill so I can see his face one last time.
I swallow. “You heard him. Take us to the system or Lacy will make you suffer for the rest of your life!”
Starsen lets out a breath and slowly nods. “This way. Follow me.”
CHAPTER 13
DR. STARSEN SHIFTS her gaze to the tent exit and points north. “The system is that way. If we run past the barracks—”
Cho advances on her. “You want the hover to bomb us.” He levels his stare at her again. “The MPS System. Now.”
An explosion behind us rocks the world, sending a shock wave through the ground.
“We gotta go,” I say.
“Fine,” Cho growls. “But avoid the barracks.”
We race out of the tent.
“You are a fool, Cho.” Starsen attempts to pull against Lacy’s grasp, but she’s no good against her enhanced strength.
“Hurry!” Elias shouts beside me as we run.
Starsen staggers down the hill, struggling to keep up with Lacy. She rises, seething, as we race from the destruction.
“Which way?” I yell.
Another explosion resonates behind us. Firelight illuminates the cracked ground and dying weeds, along with a vapor plume rising from the ground ahead. We run through it as the light dims, and I cough on the acrid fumes.
“You heard her question.” Lacy jerks Starsen to a stop.
Dr. Starsen’s lips quirk into a cruel grin. “The Savior sees everything.” She reveals a small container in her hand, pops it open, and puts it to her lips.
I rush her, knocking the container free. A white tablet falls to the ground and vanishes inside a small crack in the dirt.
“No!” Starsen screams, lunging for the lost pill. Lacy snaps her back in place. I stomp on the crack where the tablet—probably cyanide—fell. Talen digs into her pockets but draws nothing else out of them.
“Enough!” Elias shouts. “We can’t stay here.”
I glance back at the tent, but it’s gone. The SNA hover flies away from it, returning to the barracks. Only tattered plastic and warped tables give off embers and smoke. The SNA has destroyed the information we used to get this far.
Dr. Starsen gags and stops. “Just kill me!”
Another fireball rises from the barracks, crackling and glowing a hellish orange as the SNA hover flies over it and vanishes, leaving nothing but rising smoke. Constant gunshots fill the air. The EHC prisoners must be fighting while we stand at the edge of darkness.
“The MPS System!” Cho demands from Starsen.
“We need light to proceed.” Starsen’s voice is hoarse and any light in her eyes has gone dead. “May the Savior forgive me.”
“Weapons ready,” Elias orders. “Lacy, get ready in case it’s a trap.”
I pull a flashlight off my belt and click it on now that the hover has vanished. It’s a risk, and some SNA ops could see us, but Starsen waves us close to the dry riverbed with her free hand. Behind us, the shouts and gunshots from the other fighters slowly fades.
“The entrance to the underground is in the valley wall,” Starsen says.
“So, opposite the drill site,” I reason.
Starsen eyes me and then looks to the explosive charges affixed on Elias and Talen’s belts. “You don’t understand what you’re doing. Bombing this system will destabilize the entire site.”
“SNA lies.” Cho keeps his pistol aimed at her, but Lacy has Starsen secured.
“You wanted to let all these workers die,” I say to her. “You don’t care if you let them all blow up.”
Starsen opens her mouth to speak, but Cho cuts her off. “There is no reasoning with the brainwashed,”
Starsen frowns at him with disgust. “The Savior was right to chip you.”
“Keep moving!” Cho shouts, nudging her hard in the back with his pistol.
Dark trees loom from the shore of the riverbed and offer cover as we run again. Without them, an SNA sniper out there might have found us already. At last, after dodging more vapor and jumping over endless cracks in the earth, the wall of the crater comes into view. Two large granite boulders stand guard over a tiny opening. My flashlight lands on a metal box mounted on the crater wall right behind one of the boulders.
“Stop,” I say. “Security.”
“I see it,” Elias says, studying Starsen.
She turns her head down. Her lips quiver like she wants to speak, but Lacy tightens her grasp on her arm while Cho stands near her, giving her a silent warning.
“I’ve seen those before,” Cho says. “They give off a force field that detects intruders whose DNA isn’t in the system. Then it tells the system to release a deadly, fast-acting virus into the air.”
“So, how do we get around it?” Elias asks.
“You don’t,” Cho answers. “You shoot it.”
I raise my pistol and fire. The box sparks, smokes, and fizzles. A single flame dances around the box’s edge before it dies.
“Is that it?” I ask.
Cho chuckles. “Oh, there are more security measures inside.”
“Don’t go any farther,” Starsen begs, cringing.
“Do not speak unless we ask you something,” Cho growls.
I almost feel sorry for Starsen for a moment before I remember how she’s treated these workers.
Cho waves us on, stepping through the small opening without fear. “I need light.”
With a pit growing in my stomach, I duck through the opening. My flashlight reveals a cave with a metal grating for a floor. I recognize the same build from the EHC power tubes. This must be an old Coalition structure.
The tunnel curves and dips ahead. We continue walking in silence. Only a faint hum sounds from below—power tubes or transport tubes for magma, maybe. Some might go all the way to Ethos.
Talen’s radio crackles. “I’m in Starsen’s hover,” Emma’s voice sounds. “We’ve killed most of the SNA fighters. Most of their survivors are in the hover, and we’re laying low until we get their guard down. We lost maybe a third of ours in the explosions. The Naturals survived. They and the prisoners are flying back with us in another hover.”
“We’re nearly in,” Talen says into the comm.
There’s a long pause on her end. “Be careful out there. I’ll broadcast the message to the entire SNA and tell them hope is coming.”
She says nothing about Sky before she clicks off. My mind runs the calculations. There’s a two-thirds shot of him having survived. My heart clenches at the thought, but at least the odds are with him.
I round the cur
ve, lagging after Lacy, Cho, and Starsen. Metal double doors wait before us, complete with a glowing red panel on the wall with an outline for a hand.
“Your palm,” Cho orders Starsen.
She looks at me, pleading in silence, but I can’t read her expression, nor do I want to. She’s loyal to the Savior and sees us as Impures. I know what she’d do to us if she got free.
“You’d better do it,” I warn her.
She closes her eyes and mutters something, shaking. Cho grabs her wrist and slaps her palm on the detector.
The double doors click and slide open, revealing a long tunnel. Lacy drags Starsen through and Cho remains glued to her side.
“Savior,” Starsen begs. “Hurry. Your b—”
Cho raises his pistol at the back of her head and fires.
Lacy releases Starsen as she lurches and falls to the grating, convulsing for a moment before going still. I leap back and bump into Elias.
“You said we needed her!” I shout in shock.
“Not anymore,” Cho says, holstering his weapon. “We’re past the security measures.”
“How do you know?” Elias asks.
Cho pulls at his collar. “There’s no more need for security. We got what we needed. Her death was necessary.”
“I hope you’re right,” Elias says.
Cho exhales. “Follow me.”
My stomach lurches as heat rises from farther down the tunnel. Now that we’re free of Starsen, we break into a run. Once the Savior sends reinforcements, we might have no escape. Starsen has already sent the message.
An orange glow appears ahead and below, and I wipe sweat from my brow. Though the air’s clear down here and likely filtered, the heat is oppressive.
The tunnel opens into a large, round room complete with a humming system of clear magma tubes, grinding engines, and turning gears. Grating continues to make up the floor, and far below, maybe miles, magma seethes. Fans blow under the grating, trying to keep the heat down. An orange glow warms everything. I feel as if I’ve stepped into a universe made of machines. The setup is huge.
“Whoa,” Lacy breathes, looking at the cave’s ceiling overhead.
“This is where the EHC pumps magma to generate power for the rest of its cities,” Elias says.
“Why didn’t the SNA just tap this instead of drilling a new site?” Talen asks.
Cho clears his throat and fans himself. “The MPS System isn’t enough to power both the EHC cities and the SNA. I’ve seen the records. The main power source is under the drill site, but the SNA has been using the MPS system in the meantime.” He turns to Talen. “Now, let me see the explosives.”
Talen takes a step back. “What’s the exact plan here?”
“Bombing this chamber will stop the whole operation, maybe even for decades. It'll cut power to the drill, stopping their progress.”
“And you know this will work?” I ask.
“I headed the power distribution center back in Ethos.”
I remember how Cho feared the plume. He knows what it can do if the SNA drills and it goes off. “Give me some explosives,” I say. “Tell me where to mount them and how to set the timer.”
Cho explains the locations to us. “Set the charges to blow in three hours. That will give us time to escape the area. We'll make sure the reinforcements can't reach the charges.”
Three hours sounds like a lot, but Cho's had time to study this place. “You're setting this up to blow up the reinforcements when they get here, aren't you?”
“Yes,” Cho admits. “We'll deliver an extra blow to the SNA.”
Following his directions, I put the explosive charge on a large magma tube, which sticks to the glass-like casing. On the other side, magma rolls as it rises to the ceiling. I set the timer and it beeps.
Two hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty seconds...
As I stare at the countdown, panic rises in my chest.
I jump as Elias clamps his hand on my shoulder. “We got all the bombs mounted.”
“Out!” Cho orders from behind me, waving us back to the tunnel. “We need to clear the area before the reinforcements arrive.”
We bolt back into the tunnel and run uphill. Even with my Noble class mod, I get out of breath from the effort and heat. Lacy and Talen run beside me while Cho struggles to keep up. I jump over Starsen’s body as Elias’s radio crackles.
“Elias? Fin? Lacy? Talen? Anybody?” Emma’s shouts fill the tunnel.
Elias answers as we round the final curve to the surface. “We’re alive. Mission is accomp—”
“We’re leaving. More hovers are on the horizon. The Savior is onto us.”
“Are there any explosives left?” Cho asks.
Elias clicks off the radio. “I have five charges.”
“We blow up the tunnel, then.”
I know he’s right. If we don’t, the reinforcements will disarm all the work we just did.
Elias plucks a charge off his belt and attaches the square to the cave wall. He sets the timer for thirty seconds. “Run!”
We bolt through the boulders and into the open. I pump my legs down the dried river, putting as much distance between me and the tunnel as I can. An explosion follows. My ears ring as the ground shakes, threatening to throw me off my feet. Rocks crumble. Dust flies and chokes the air. Then a second deafening bang goes off, sending another shock wave through the ground.
I fall, absorbing the shock wave. Dust fills the air and settles over me. I turn my head, facing the tunnel. It's nothing but collapsed boulders now, inaccessible without major equipment.
“Up,” Cho demands. “We need to return to the bunker. Now!”
I push myself off the cracked ground and cough, studying the sky. A row of stars shine near the horizon. Then I blink and realize it’s not a row of stars at all, but distant hovers. I count at least twelve of them, and they’re coming from the direction of Ethos. Cho’s right—the Savior must have ordered all the soldiers occupying the city to the Monster’s Nest.
Lacy slaps me on the arm. “You heard Emma. We need to get back.”
“We have less than half an hour,” Cho adds, panting.
We break into a run again, following my bobbing flashlight beam. We crest hill after hill and pass the smoldering remains of the command tent. The barracks spread out in front of us, a mixture of black smoke and glowing embers. Bodies lay everywhere, many in green, but others in plain clothes. An SNA hover lies on its side on the ground nearby, crashed and smoking, two more bodies leaning out of the cockpit. The air reeks of burned flesh, dust, and volcanic vapors.
I won’t look for Sky.
“Hurry!” Emma’s voice shouts from Elias’s hip.
Starsen’s hover waits, and so do the remaining five SNA hovers, lights on and ready to take off. The door to Starsen’s is open, and with my heart racing, I pound up the ramp as Lacy and Talen pull Cho in behind me. Elias boards last.
Emma’s in the front passenger seat while an EHC op pilots. Sky stands in the back, grasping the edge of a central table with a ring of glowing laptops. Each plays a screen saver of a rotating SNA logo.
As I board the hover, Sky turns away and faces the wall, but he’s alive.
The door closes, but not before I glimpse the approaching hovers. The row of lights has brightened.
“Go!” Cho shouts. “They’ll attend to the site first, so we have a chance!”
Emma raises her radio. “We’re clear to take off!”
The hover rises. I stagger to a row of leather chairs that line the edge of the cabin while Sky sits on the opposite side. A touch display in front of me brightens and comes to life. A screen filled with clickable icons takes its place, and I recognize a folder labeled MPS System.
Everyone takes a seat as the hover rises. The craft levels off, fleeing the Monster’s Nest and leaving our explosives behind.
Sky says nothing, and I won’t let myself feel anything.
“Keep going towards your bunker,” Cho says. “It attac
hes to a cave system. There may be an entrance there to the deeper underground.”
“How do you know?” I ask.
Cho points to his wrist. “Downloaded the maps of every cave that leads to the underground settlement. I can retrieve the information at any time.”
“I'd be very interested in that,” Emma says.
Cho says nothing.
“We can retake the perimeter if the SNA has diverted all its ops to the Nest,” Elias says. “Then we can drive them out of Ethos for good.”
Cho rises and paces around the hover, lost in thought. “We could, but a network of secret underground settlements was built at the start of the Flip. We can use them until we know more.”
I’ve seen one of those before; homes built for the rich but never occupied.
“Cho, how do you know about these?” Emma asks. “The Savior must have blocked all information about them from its citizens.”
“I know more than the Savior wants me to. The Self-Contained Underground System spanned the world when its builders first invested in it, but groups like the EHC and the SNA stopped construction. Humanity never needed genetic mods or chips to survive naturally. The EHC and the SNA gained their power by making everyone think otherwise.”
“We don’t need to go underground,” I say. “We’ve got the advantage.”
Cho continues to pace on the other side of the hover, not answering. I rise and click on the folder marked MPS System. A notice pops up in the form of a gray box with bold lettering:
WARNING!
This folder contains information about the MPS System (Magma Plume Stabilization System). The MPS protocols prevent eruptions at the Monster’s Nest/Gonglu site and damaging this system may cause a catastrophic eruption capable of rendering the Earth’s surface uninhabitable.
CHAPTER 14
CHO SITS, WATCHING the EHC pilot and the night beyond the windshield.
I march over to him and, from the side, knock the pistol out of his hand. He jumps, stunned, and whirls on me, but I grab his collar before he can reach for his weapon.
“What are you doing?” Sky shouts.
