Chapter 15 #2
My sensors identified that you were three percent more engaged. This is your stop. The following two stops have incoming drones, so it is likely every stop will soon have surveillance in place.
The door opened, and I scanned the area. It looked like we’d reached a residential level. Boards on the walls listed addresses down every hallway branching out from the tram stop. “Are we clear?” I asked Byte.
We are clear. The nearest drone is in the corridor we are not going to take. But you should hurry. Drones fly faster than humans can run.
“We’re hurrying. Just show us the way.”
Try this.
A map grid suddenly overlaid my vision, and I jerked. “Whoa.”
“What’s wrong?” Lyra asked. I felt her hand on my back.
I reached out but touched only air. On the map was a dot—us—and another dot down several hallways.
“Another upgrade, I think.”
Your engagement levels spiked. It is nice when my upgrades are appreciated.
“Well, it surprises me when your upgrades are actual upgrades.”
I took Lyra’s hand and tugged her along. She’d sacrificed her shoes back at the spaceport, so she had no trouble keeping up since we were close to the same height. I guided us down a hallway, and then another—all lined with residences—when Byte said, Incoming drone. Hide immediately.
I stopped, jerking both Lyra to me, and looked around.
“What’s wrong?” Lyra asked.
“Drone.”
She blanched, then yanked me to where the hallway split. Then she shoved me against the wall. She cupped my cheeks. “Trust me.” Then she kissed me. And it wasn’t some peck on the lips, but a full-out, never-ending kiss. I returned the kiss because, you know, she’d said, “trust me.”
Drone will be passing by in two seconds.
I tried to count out the seconds, but I was a bit distracted.
The drone passed by without slowing. There is no risk in this hallway that I can identify.
I may have kind of not quit kissing right away because it felt damn good, but eventually I forced myself away. The rational part of my mind reminded me that we were still out in the open, and enforcers or another drone could show up any minute.
I released Lyra slowly. “We’re in the clear.”
She wiped her lips and looked around to double-check. After verifying for herself, she shot me a grin. “Thanks for the kissing session.”
We began walking again. “That was smart back there,” I began. “How’d you know it’d work?”
“Drones are programmed to scan faces only. They don’t scan clothing or bodies. Hide your face, and you’re safe.”
I considered. “But then why don’t you just wear masks all the time?”
“Because drones can identify masks and flag those. That’s why the resistance only wears masks at official events. Plus, social camouflage 101: public displays of affection make most people uncomfortable—and even though they don’t act like it a lot of the time, enforcers are people, too,” she said.
“It sounds like you’ve tried that maneuver before,” I said.
“One time. It didn’t go so well.”
We turned down the last hallway, and Lyra stepped ahead. “Ah, I remember the way from here.”
She came to a door that was exactly where Byte had put a flashing dot on my “HUD.” I didn’t have any tech in my eyes—I planned on asking it later how it seemed to magically display a map in front of my vision.
I wasn’t coughing, I moved as easily as I could when I was a teenager, and now this.
Exactly how far were its upgrades going?
Lyra knocked a rhythmic two fast-one slow-three fast taps. She repeated it a few seconds later.
Another drone is coming this direction from the next hallway over.
“We need to hurry,” I said, then asked Byte, “How’d you hear it from that far away?”
Once I accessed the network, I can read its data from anywhere in its wireless range.
“That’s a handy upgrade.”
Very handy. It will help keep us alive.
I thought about pointing out Byte wasn’t technically alive when the door opened. A light-skinned woman with light brown hair seemed to size me up before her gaze settled on Lyra. “We heard you might be in the neighborhood.”
“We don’t have time for pleasantries,” Lyra said and pushed past the other woman to step inside.
I followed, just as anxious as Lyra to be out of the open.
We entered a residence that looked like any other residence I’d seen through the years, except without the brown grime that coated everything in Dreswick.
It was probably because Solace Station was sealed against the outside elements, so dust couldn’t get inside.
The sofa was easily as old as me, and the plastic dining table and chairs had more scuffs than unmarred surfaces.
Two people were currently sitting at the table: a blond man in need of a haircut and a dark-skinned woman with medium-length, tightly curled hair.
They looked serious—as in “my buddy was just disappeared” serious.
“I heard about some trouble in the spaceport. Tell me that wasn’t you,” the dark-skinned woman said, her eyes on my partner.
“If I did, I would be lying,” Lyra said before looking across the small residence. “Where is everyone?”
“We’re it,” the woman replied, gesturing to her two friends.
Lyra’s jaw slackened. “Impossible. What happened?”
“There was a difference of opinion. We voted to continue to follow Kynan Kade. The others decided Solace Moon didn’t need to follow anyone who never lived on a moon.”
“Just you three?” Lyra sounded aghast. “How are we going to carry out?—”
The woman held up a hand. “How about you introduce us to your friend?”
Lyra gestured toward me but kept her eyes on the other woman. “Kynan would’ve briefed you before Cal and I stepped off the shuttle.”
The woman didn’t speak, and Lyra sighed. “Fine, Cal, this is Maris, leader of the moon faction. Her right hand, Xander, and Selene’s behind you. Quit standing behind us, Selene.” Lyra cocked her head. “But there’s no longer a moon faction anymore, is there. When are you going to tell Kynan, Maris?”
“We’re still dedicated to the cause, and we’ll be ready to fight when Kynan gives the signal.
We’re just going through some growing pains right now, is all.
He doesn’t need to know the details,” Maris said as she stood, and Xander stood a split-second later.
He evidently took his job very seriously.
Selene had come to stand on Maris’s other side, which made it feel very much like it was us against them.
Lyra approached Maris. “The faction—or lack of—is between you and Kynan. But one of those growing pains involves a traitor who I plan to track down and have a nice, long conversation with.”
Maris’s lips thinned. “There’s no traitor here.”
“Well, someone tipped off the enforcers,” Lyra snapped back.
“It could’ve been lousy luck,” I offered. “The enforcer from the alley saw me.”
Lyra eyed me as if I was an idiot. I instantly regretted saying something.
She turned back to Maris. “The enforcer he’s talking about was a TerraSoft and not a Solace Station enforcer.
So, even if someone identified us at the planetside spaceport, they would’ve had a squad of enforcers standing at the airbridge waiting to take us.
And they definitely wouldn’t have had time to pop an enforcer up here before we arrived.
He was coming from inside the station, not from the docks.
And that squad standing around? They looked like they’d been standing around for a while.
The most logical explanation is that someone tipped them off but didn’t have the full details.
Your team didn’t have the latest updates, Maris. ”
As Lyra laid it out, I suddenly didn’t feel nearly as safe as I had a minute earlier.
Maris lifted her chin. “Everyone on this moon who knew about your mission is standing in this room, but I can promise you, none of us tipped off the enforcers. We all believe in the cause.”
She believes it, as does Xander, but Selene is fidgeting. She is hiding something.
That’s when I focused on the third member. I wouldn’t have noticed before, but she didn’t hold eye contact very long. I’d assumed it was because she was shy. But what if Byte was right, what if she knew something? “How about you? Do you believe in the cause?”
She guffawed. “Of course I do. And who are you to talk to me like that?”
“I’m the guy who almost got killed by a squad of enforcers not even an hour ago.”
Actually, it was one hour and twelve minutes ago.
Maris eyed Selene for a moment and then took a step closer to me, only to be blocked by Lyra. “That’s close enough, Maris.”
The moon faction leader peered around Lyra’s shoulder to scrutinize me. “What is it you think you know?”
I tapped a finger to my chest. “Me? Nothing?”
“Okay, then how about that amp of yours? Kynan didn’t tell me what model it was, only that it was cutting edge.
Yes, he trusts me enough to have told me about that.
With how badly Softbiotics wants it back, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s a military model.
That’s their most lucrative line. Am I right? ”
I didn’t respond.
She seemed to take that as an answer. “So it’s a military model then. What did it just analyze? Did it identify Selene as an enemy?”
Lyra glanced over her shoulder at me, seemingly also curious.
“It just thinks she’s hiding something, that’s all,” I answered.
All eyes turned to Selene, who seemed to shrink. She’d seemed mousy before. Now she seemed like she was about to cry. “What? I’m not hiding anything, really. I swear.”
Maris stiffened. “What did you do?” The girl didn’t answer, so Maris pressed, “What did you do, Selene?” Meanwhile, Xander had taken quiet, steady steps toward her.
“Nothing!” Selene cried. “You know I believe in the cause as much as anyone.”
“You’ve been acting funny lately,” Xander spoke for the first time. His voice was low and quiet, and I noticed he had unholstered his blaster.