Chapter 23 CLEO
CLEO
HUNTER STARTS TO CRAWL backward, away from the railing. When I glance over my shoulder at him, his golden-brown skin is pale, all the blood drained from his face.
Is this him going into shock? I think he’s going to throw up.
Wordlessly I force myself up to my hands and knees so I can crawl after him.
My head is pounding, my muscles aching like I’ve run a marathon, let them cool down, and now been stupid enough to try to stand up again.
The adrenaline of the suit rupture is killing me.
The no-slip metal grid on the floor hurts the palms of my hands as they press into it, but I grit my teeth and keep crawling.
The conversation coming in over my headset has gone silent – they’re close enough to talk to each other now, and I’m sure the Pirate doesn’t want a live broadcast of him getting his ass handed to him.
Because holy shit, the Pirate has a boss, and that boss is Rover. I can’t believe how close we got to screwing ourselves by trusting her. I nearly died getting here.
When we make it out to the corridor, Hunter continues on through the door to someone’s office, stopping just inside it and shifting to sit with his back against the wall, his arms wrapped around his knees.
Groaning under my breath, I slide the door closed behind us and settle in beside him, reaching out to rest my hand over one of his. His skin is cold for the first time, clammy.
‘It’s okay,’ I say softly. ‘We’ll figure this out. We’ll keep on surviving, and we’ll do it together.’
It’s so wrong that I want to kiss him again right now, but for sure I do. And this change of mind isn’t some unhealthy attachment because he didn’t leave me behind like my shitty family did.
This is … I saw who he is. Who he really is. And I like who he is. I trust that guy.
I want to tell him who I am, and I’m going to.
Also, I want to kiss him again because I can. Because when I touch him, it’s like sparks fly between us, and the heady rush of being allowed to just touch him when I want to is almost enough to drown out the oh shit oh shit oh shit of nearly getting caught by Rover.
Hunter tries to speak, I think, but it’s as though the words get stuck in his throat. ‘Cleo, she …’
‘Hunter?’ I try, squeezing his hand. ‘What is it?’
He closes his eyes. ‘That’s my sister,’ he whispers.
‘What?’ I ask stupidly. ‘Who’s your sister?’
‘Rover,’ he chokes out. ‘She’s Marguerite. My twin sister.’
I feel like I’m underwater trying to swim toward the surface, but I can’t tell which way is up. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘She’s in charge. This is a Graves operation.’
‘No it’s not,’ I begin. ‘It’s—’ But I cut myself off. What can I say? That I spoke to Sabrina behind his back, and she told me they’re hacking the servers to legalize a whole bunch of hitchers?
‘That’s Marguerite,’ he insists. ‘She’s my mother’s right hand. There’s no way she’s here without my mother’s knowledge. And that means GravesUP attacked the United Nations.’
My voice is too high when I speak, strained. ‘Why? Why would they do that?’
‘How the hell should I know?’ he demands.
‘They’re your—’
‘—family, oh, I know.’ His voice is low with bitterness.
I try desperately to reach for some way to make this make sense. ‘Well, it’s better than being attacked by one of your corporate enemies, right? I’m sure they’d love nothing more than to get their hands on you.’
It’s as if Hunter doesn’t hear me. He shakes his head, gazing at the wall opposite us. ‘This isn’t who we are,’ he murmurs. ‘We always say we’re rule-breakers, but we mean stuff like …’
I feel the words welling up inside me – the words I’ve been keeping so carefully bottled up.
Every time I’ve bitten my tongue to avoid an argument with him over Graves is turning on me now, and I can feel years of frustration and anger and fear rushing to find an outlet.
‘You mean stuff like breaking a UN convention so you could blast off to Mars and settle it first? Or inviting all your friends to join you while screwing everyone you left behind on Earth?’
‘We don’t do that,’ he insists. ‘We play hard, but fair.’
I can see him reaching for an explanation, for a reason that everything that’s happened here is somehow a big misunderstanding. He’s spent a lifetime dreaming about his family legacy. He’d rather twist himself in knots to justify it than face the truth.
‘Hunter, please, you’re smarter than this. Nothing GravesUP does is fair, you have to see that.’
‘I know what this looks like …’ he murmurs.
‘What this looks like is an illegal invasion of the United Nations.’
‘There are a lot of complex factors at play here,’ he mumbles, gazing at the wall opposite us. ‘Perhaps there’s some kind of corruption—’
I hang my head. Please, I’m begging him silently. Be better than this. Be who I thought you were.
‘—this isn’t who we are,’ he repeats.
‘Hunter,’ I snap, ‘GravesUP takes everything. Whatever they want, whenever they want it, legal or not. You’re the ones who broke NASA, who abandoned “for all mankind” and made it “for us and our friends”.’
‘It was way more complicated than that,’ he shoots back, voice low. ‘NASA used to be incredible. NASA used to say, “Dare mighty things.” But they got sucked dry of all their funding, and they got small, and slow, and somebody else had to step up. My grandfather did.’
My voice is like ice. ‘There is nothing mighty about saving yourself, and nobody else. Once you’ve decided you’re the only ones who matter, why not take Pax? Why not kill people, to keep it all to yourself ?’
‘No, there’s an explanation for this,’ he insists, ignoring my words. ‘We don’t attack bases. We don’t try to kill people.’
Oh, but you do kill people! I want to scream. I’m sorry your father died the way he did, but GravesUP kills people like my father every day. They just do it in a different way.
They took our last penny, sent their enforcers, who then sent their bounty hunters after me even when there was nothing left. They ruined my family and then they chased me all the way to a new planet.
That’s when I realize something in me has shifted.
It’s like I was asleep, having this lovely, stupid dream about kissing this boy.
But now I’m awake, and with every word he speaks, I’m remembering who he is, what his family and their company stand for.
What he would think of me, if he knew who I really was.
I swallow bitterly. I have to give up arguing about whether his family is evil and make myself focus on practicalities.
I have to get back on that exhausting path toward survival that I know so well.
‘Well, whatever your sister and her team are doing here, do we talk to them? She isn’t going to shoot you, right? ’
Hunter doesn’t reply.
My stomach drops. ‘Hunter. Your sister won’t let them shoot you, will she?’
He just lowers his head to rest it against our joined hands.
This can’t be happening. I pull my hand from his, suddenly stiff.
Either I’m going to die because his family doesn’t want witnesses to what they’ve done here, or I’m going to die because his sister wants him dead, and I happen to be holding his hand. Just when I thought GravesUP couldn’t find another way to screw me, I’m caught in the family’s crossfire.
Even my last-ditch way out is blocked now.
If this really is GravesUP, then Sabrina lied, or was lied to.
They’re obviously not here to help hitchers – this is some bigger, corporate game they’re playing – and there’ll be no deal for me.
My chance at a new name, at a new life, at freedom – that’s all gone.
One by one, my ways out of this are shutting down.
My throat is thick and it feels like I can’t swallow. Slowly I wrap my arms around myself, hands curling to fists.
I’m jolted from my thoughts when a voice rings out – too near for comfort, and raised in anger. ‘They can’t have gone far.’
Our heads snap up at the same time. Rover – Marguerite –knew we were here to meet her. Of course she’s hunting for us.
Hunter looks like he’s still in shock, his skin sallow, his gaze unblinking.
I knew better than to throw my lot in with someone else, and I did it anyway, and here I am. Every time I let my heart lead the way, this is what happens.
I let myself get pulled into their games, and now I’m going to die, while Hunter insists his precious corporation doesn’t play like this.
Hunter moves, slowly unwinding his body, trying to get to his feet. ‘We have to go,’ he says, voice husky. ‘We have to hide.’
‘Right.’ I’m used to running. I can pick it up again in a heartbeat.
He might say he wants to hide with me, but Hunter’s going to go down insisting that GravesUP Industries aren’t the assholes I know them to be, all because he can’t accept the truth about the empire his family has created.
And if that’s the story he’s sticking with – if he insists on this level of denial – then he’s not on my side. He’s not on my team.
I’m on my own, like I always was.
Still, I have to stockpile every advantage I can find. Until I know if I can trade him, I’m not going to say a word.
I make myself stand, my muscles screaming a protest. I don’t make eye contact. ‘Let’s go.’
Together we slip out of the office to jog along the corridor – or shuffle, really, everything hurts – taking corners quickly as I instinctively pick a route without cameras. We need another drone – looking around corners is too dangerous.
And then Sabrina’s voice is in my ear, buzzing from my headset.
Cleo, we should talk. Come to the bridge. It’ll just be me, unarmed. There are five exits from there – you know we don’t have the people to cover them all.
My breath catches and I nearly stumble. Hunter looks back, reaching out an arm to steady me. There’s concern in his eyes, a softness that makes me want to scream. Even after the argument we just had, he has no idea what I hear when he defends Graves. He has no idea anything’s changed.
I make the decision in an instant, grabbing at the thought already on my mind when Sabrina dropped into my ear and twisting it into an excuse.
‘We need a drone,’ I hear myself say. ‘Something that can see them before they see us. I’ll grab one and meet you at the greenhouse. Keep following this corridor, you’ll get there.’
Hunter opens his mouth to protest, but I duck away down a hallway, turn a corner to shake him off my tail in case he’s trying to follow me, and make for the bridge. I wait until I’m half a minute away from him before I reply to Sabrina.
‘If you’re unarmed, I want your gun where I can see it, out of your hands.’
You got it, Sabrina replies.
When I reach the bridge, I stop to let my breathing slow before I walk carefully up to the entrance, every nerve on edge. I know this is stupid – I know I could be walking into danger. I know I’m letting my anger make decisions for me.
I keep moving anyway, pausing in the shadows by the doorframe, letting my gaze sweep over the space. It’s empty except for Sabrina, who stands at the center, near the commander’s desk.
Marguerite’s team left their equipment plugged into a bunch of displays, the screens glowing brightly, but the lights around the edge of the circular room are dimmed. I don’t think they were the first time I came here. I wonder why they did that.
Sabrina’s clearly on alert, turning in a slow circle to scan the exits, each of which leads to a different part of the base.
Her hands are held away from her sides, and her gun lies on a desk a few feet in front of her.
Technically she’s done what I asked – she’s unarmed, and her gun’s where I can see it. But it’s closer to her than to me.
I wait until her back’s turned, then dart forward on silent feet, hurrying to close the distance between me and the gun, my mouth dry.
I close my hand over it as she completes her circle, and she goes still when her gaze lands on me. She slowly raises her hands.
‘You came,’ she says with a pleased smile. ‘Let’s talk.’
‘I don’t talk to liars,’ I reply, my fingers curling around the gun’s grip. ‘You told me this job was about getting hitchers’ names entered in the registers. I know who sent you now. Like hell it’s about hitchers.’
Sabrina inclines her head in acknowledgment.
‘Okay, yes,’ she agrees. ‘It’s not just about the hitchers.
And yes, it’s a GravesUP operation. I admit I left that out.
But I wasn’t lying about the registers. I’ve got friends here I want to take care of, and associates who’ll pay, so I got them to add in some hitchers as a part of my fee.
Let the corporates fight each other if they want, Cleo.
It’s not our business. I’m still going to get paid, and you can be legal. ’
‘Right, they’re going to just let me climb aboard, because they’re my biggest fans, after all this,’ I reply, and she goes a little more still when I gesture with my gun hand.
‘They’ll do that deal to get you to stop fucking with them,’ she replies. ‘Listen, babe, I’m not on Team Graves. I’m a merc. I’ll be off to a new hustle after this, and there’s room for you on it. You’ve done plenty here to prove you’d be worth vouching for.’
I study her, wishing desperately I could read her expression. She could be telling the truth. Or perhaps all she wants is to find a way to screw me. But then again, she didn’t try to ambush me when I got here.
‘You and I don’t have to care about what this is,’ she says, with half a shrug. ‘We can just use it. Get paid, head to the next job.’
Perhaps she really does think I’m worth having on her side, especially if she’s planning on that next job being here on Mars. It’s not like the population is endless. Someone who can keep it together has to be worth something.
‘You’re right,’ I say slowly. ‘You and I don’t have to care about what this is. But I’d have to be willing to work for GravesUP if I join you now, and I don’t know if I can do that.’
Sabrina shrugs again. ‘Life’s not easy here for a hitcher. I’m guessing you’ve had enough time to work that out. Let me get you on the register, come with me to the next job, and you don’t have to think about the Graves family again.’
Something prickles at the back of my neck. She’s trying to reel me in too quickly. Is it a trap? But maybe she just has her eye on the clock. There’re only two and a half hours left on it.
Something about this doesn’t feel right.
I can still hear Hunter’s voice in my head, denying everything I know, ignoring everything I tried to tell him. This isn’t who we are.
He’s part of the company that ruined my life, that invaded the United freaking Nations, and with the evidence right in front of his eyes, he still can’t see the truth about them.
At least Sabrina’s honest about being a terrible person.
I glance back over my shoulder to gauge the distance to the nearest exit, weighing my options.
And that’s when I see Hunter standing in the open doorway, staring at me.