Chapter 14 #2
I intentionally tried not to look at them and instead focused on taking in the facility so I’d look like a tourist landing on Solace Moon for the first time rather than a low-towner on the lam.
Softbiotics owned rights to TerraSoft-11 and its moons, so they’d probably built this spaceport.
Because of that, I’d expected the spaceports to look the same, but Solace Station was a different design.
Where the spaceport on TerraSoft-11 was tall and massive, this one was only a single story, narrow, and long.
It looked like just a single hallway lined with airbridges.
The opposing side of the hallway had no doors—it was just solid windows, not even doors to a city beyond.
The moon was small, but I still expected more.
“Is this all there is to Solace Station?”
She shook her head. “This is just the entry port. Solace Station is below the surface. Underneath all this silica is solid bedrock. It was cheaper and more stable for them to build underground than to build on the surface since the silica is constantly shifting.”
“Oh.”
About then, it was time for us to pass through the scanner. I said to Byte in a low voice, “Keep it lowkey this time, got it?”
You will not even know I am here.
Lyra stepped to enter and glanced over her shoulder. She pressed her forefinger to her lips.
I closed my mouth and tipped my chin in her direction in acknowledgement.
She then turned and walked through the scanner first. When she cleared, I entered. It was the same process, and I held my breath as the light descended over my body. This time, it didn’t stop, and I stepped out of the scanner the instant it flashed green.
The scanners here are calibrated to identify electrical impulses in addition to artificial equipment. Fortunately, my physical design must fit within standard parameters of existing amp models.
Lyra gave me a wink—I supposed it was her version of a smile since we were wearing masks.
She grabbed my hand, and we stepped up to the entry agent’s counter together.
I was glad to have my face somewhat covered by a mask to hide the surprise at noticing an enforcer sitting behind the agent.
From more than a few feet away, the kiosk had concealed him.
The enforcer was watching a video on his armlet.
It must’ve been a comedy because he chuckled.
The entry agent looked like he needed a good comedy. His expression was one of pure boredom. He didn’t even glance up from his screen when we stopped at his counter.
“Scan your tickets,” he ordered.
We held our armlets under a goose-necked black scanner the diameter of a pen.
I noticed our pictures and IDs displayed on his screen. He looked up then. “Are you traveling together?”
“We are,” Lyra answered.
He read from his screen. “Your name is Mara Kincade?”
“It is,” she replied.
“Your name is Dennon Kincade?”
“Yep,” I answered.
My answer snagged his attention, and he looked at me more closely. “Where are you from?”
“Uh, like everyone who just got off the shuttle, from down there.” I pointed, though I guess I didn’t really know where the planet was in conjunction with the moon right now.
He looked at me for a moment longer, but then his boredom won him back. “What is your purpose for coming to Solace Moon?”
Seeing Lyra’s look, I drew on my fine command of language and said nothing.
“We’re here on our honeymoon,” Lyra said. I could practically hear the smile in her voice. Hell, I almost believed she was telling the truth. That woman could act.
He tapped his screen. “You’re approved. Enjoy your visit.”
Lyra helped keep me from hustling as we left. “You’re pretty good at this,” I said.
“And you’re not.”
She is right. You need to work on your deception skills.
She continued. “Which direction do we head?”
We travel northeast. That is to your right, Cal.
“I know which direction northeast is,” I lied. I had no sense of direction on this moon.
“Which way’s northeast?” Lyra asked.
I pointed to our right, and we began walking.
Back home, I could tell direction and time by looking up at the moons—there was always one visible every hour of the day and were more precise at telling time than our single sun.
But here, everything was different. The planet loomed huge in the distance, which made me realize just how close the moon was to TerraSoft-11—and how small Solace Moon really was.
High-towners would’ve known all this stuff, but my education was limited to what Grandmother had taught me, and she’d focused on stuff I could use, like math and logic.
There wasn’t much need for a guy like me to learn about anything beyond the slums as if there was a snowball’s chance in hell that I’d ever leave the three square miles of dirt that comprised Dreswick.
Look at me now, Grandmother , I thought to myself, and then my heart panged.
Was she okay? Had the enforcers come to her house looking for me?
I’d already screwed up Nolan’s life—I couldn’t deal with it if Grandmother had also been disappeared.
She was smart—the smartest person in Dreswick—so she was smart enough to hide.
I had to believe she was safe. She’d never let enforcers get the drop on her.
Cal, I have detected a threat at the doorway.
I glanced up as an enforcer stepped through the large doorway we were heading straight toward.
It was a lone officer who I recognized immediately.
His partner wasn’t with him this time. Just before I could react and avert my gaze, we made eye contact.
Even though I was wearing a mask, recognition lit in his eyes immediately.
His lips curled into a sneer as he reached for his blaster.
He’d said the next time he saw me, he’d kill me. I guess he wasn’t joking.
“We’re busted,” I exclaimed, grabbing Lyra’s hand and yanking her into the direction we’d come from. The enforcer yelled out to the nearby squad to grab the Providents.
Meaning us.
The enforcers who’d been hanging out suddenly went to full attention, scanning the area.
Lyra ducked into the crowd and tore off her mask and cape, and I did the same with my mask and jacket.
At least that way, we blended in with the general population, but it also exposed my face to every camera in the vicinity.
Lyra took the lead, and I stayed within inches of her. “Byte, can you find us a way out of here?” I asked.
Continue walking away from Officer Donista.
“Really? That’s all you’ve got?” I asked as we hustled deeper into the crowd.
“We were so careful,” Lyra muttered.
“He was in the alley,” I answered. “He killed the doc, recognized me.”
She half-glanced over her shoulder as she squeezed through a family with two small children. “But those enforcers were stationed on-world.”
“Maybe he’s on vacation, too.” I looked behind me and wished I hadn’t. Every enforcer was heading in our direction, all with stun sticks in hand.
Grab the meal box and throw it at the air quality sensor. The food will disrupt its readings enough to set off the alarm.
I did what Byte asked without thinking. An old couple coming from the opposite direction were each carrying brown food trays.
The man was nearest—his opened tray contained a slice of pizza minus a single bite.
I grabbed the pizza, scanned the ceiling, and found the small red sensor.
The ceiling was twelve feet high, so it was an easy shot.
The pizza hit the sensor… and plopped down to the floor without an alarm.
The old man shook his fist at me, and his wife was cursing me, my mother, and the horse I rode in on.
I meant for you to grab the other meal box. The box with the sauce.
“You could’ve said that the first time.”
The woman was still cursing me when I grabbed her tray. Shock shut her up. I flung the tray—a noodle dish with some kind of bright yellow sauce—at the sensor.
The pasta dropped and the liquid dripped, but it’d been thick, and it coated the sensor.
Through the sauce, the color of the light changed, and an electronic alarm sounded coupled with an artificial voice that reported, This is an air quality alert.
Immediately evacuate concourse A. Follow the illuminated arrows on the floors.
Make your way to the inner terminal. This is not a test.
Back in Dreswick, people ignored sensors—especially air quality sensors—since sensors were malfunctioning far more often than they were functioning.
But when you’re on a moon without an atmosphere, sensor alarms could make anyone pretty uncomfortable.
Screams and yells rippled through the crowd like shock waves.
Most people ran. Those who couldn’t—like the old couple—were knocked to the side by a businessman in a suit.
They almost fell but managed to keep each other upright.
I grabbed the businessman by the lapels as he ran by me and punched him.
He dropped instantly, which gave me a sense of satisfaction.
“Smart thinking,” Lyra said.
You need to move with the crowd to blend in.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it already,” I said.
Lyra and I took off. How she could run in those heels, I couldn’t fathom.
Behind us, the enforcers were closing in faster than I’d expected.
They were shocking everyone out of their way.
Dicks . I had to watch where I was going, so I couldn’t look behind me long enough to find the enforcer from the alley—the one Byte had called Donista.
My amp had clearly been processing more data than I thought.
The alarms continued to sound, and the same message was repeated every ten seconds. Soon enough, we couldn’t run anymore. The crowd slowed and then stopped at a bottleneck at the doorway up ahead.
“Shit,” Lyra muttered.
Standing still is not safe.