Chapter 15 #3
“That’s because of the whole faction-breaking-apart ordeal. Really,” Selene argued.
He shook his head. “That was three days ago. You’ve been acting weird for a week or more.”
“The only people who knew about Lyra and Cal are in this room,” Maris repeated her earlier statement, this time with a different meaning. “Selene.”
Selene is guilty.
I didn’t need Byte telling me that Selene was guilty of something. The young woman looked like she was about to bolt, and I made a small step to block the door.
“You know I believe in the cause. You know they disappeared my parents,” Selene pleaded.
“I know,” Maris said, confused at the statement. “I was the one to take you in.”
Selene scanned our faces, and finding no support, she clasped her hands like she was about to pray and turned back to Maris. “They took Melene.”
Maris remained confused. “Who’s Melene?”
“Yeah, who’s Melene?” Xander asked.
Selene gulped. “She’s my sister.”
Maris’s brow knit. “You have a sister?”
“She’s my twin sister,” Selene answered firmly.
“The day my parents disappeared, they told us that they’d only registered one of us, so that it would be easier for us to hide from the enforcers.
If the enforcers tried to disappear one of us, the other would be safe.
They made us swear never to tell anyone. ”
Maris looked offended. “And you didn’t tell me?”
Selene shrugged guiltily. “She’s my sister .”
Maris clenched her jaw. “And they took her.”
The other woman nodded. “And they somehow found out about me. They even knew I was in the resistance.”
“Jesus Christ, Selene,” Xander huffed.
“They said they’d release her if I fed them information. But I only fed them small bits, and never anything that would put either of you in danger, I swear it.”
Lyra scoffed. “And you believed them?”
Selene scowled. “She’s all I have left. She’s my family.”
“We’re your family,” Maris corrected, and Selene flinched.
Xander cursed. “We have to assume that this place is compromised, same with us. We’ll need new identities. We need to hop a shuttle.”
“I didn’t tell them about you, I swear it,” Selene said.
“If they knew about you, they know about us,” Maris said.
Lyra turned to me. “We’re not safe here.”
“Understatement of the century,” I agreed.
Selene’s armlet chimed. She glanced down, then stiffened, and a pained look crossed her face.
“It’s them, isn’t it?” Maris asked.
The younger woman gave a tight nod.
Lyra gestured to the armlet. “If they can call that armlet, they can track it.”
Maris nodded. “Which means they know everywhere Selene’s been.” She turned to Xander. “You’re right. We need to get out of here.”
The armlet chimed again.
“Don’t you dare answer that,” Maris said.
Selene stammered. “If I don’t?—”
“If you don’t, they’ll threaten to disappear your sister. If you do, they’ll threaten to disappear your sister. Don’t worry, they’ll call again. You’re their asset,” Maris said.
Selene seemed unconvinced, but Xander’s blaster swayed her to lower her armlet.
Maris then looked at Lyra and me. “I’m sorry about what happened at the spaceport.” She shot a quick glance at the now cringing Selene before turning back to us. “I’ll make things right; you have my word.”
“You’d better.” Lyra headed to the door but turned back before opening it. “And you need to tell Kynan about what’s happening up here. He deserves to know.”
Maris gave a tight nod. “I know.”
Lyra went to open the door.
There is an incoming threat. I hear multiple footsteps outside the door.
I grabbed Lyra’s wrist. “Stop. There’s someone out there.”
Xander moved to grab Maris immediately, and she said to us, “This way.”
We hustled to the other three, toward the hallway at the back of the room when the front door slammed open. “Hold it right there, Maris!” a man shouted.
I would’ve run. I think Lyra would’ve too, except that Maris and Xander were standing in our way. When they turned to face the newcomers, we did, too, though both Lyra and I pressed our backs against the wall, making ourselves as small of targets as possible.
I surmise these are the other resistance members.
They wore plain clothes, and the seven people ranged in ages from roughly late teens to mid-sixties. They were obviously not enforcers, but were these newcomers any better? Since they’d all pulled guns, I had a feeling they weren’t.
“Nikolai,” Maris said steadily. “You could’ve knocked.”
I sense animosity from Maris.
The oldest of the group—a pale man with a shaved head and too many scars to count—snorted and took a step forward. “And give you time to run off? Nah, I don’t think so.”
“We had a truce. We keep out of each other’s way until we’re ready to talk. Are you ready to talk, Nik?” Maris asked.
He chuckled. “Talk? Nah, I’m here for one of yours.”
She raised a brow. “Well, since you convinced the others that working together with our brethren was less fun than running blind, I only have Xander and Selene left. You want them now, too?”
He pointed his blaster at Selene. “Nah, just her.”
Selene gasped, and Maris moved to stand in front of the younger woman. “That’s not how truces work, Nik.”
He sneered. “The truce was over as soon as we found out Selene here was playing for the other team.” His eyes narrowed. “But you knew that already, didn’t you.”
Maris lifted her chin. “I just found out, and I’m going to deal with it. Since you clearly knew before me, you could’ve sent a message rather than keep us all in danger. Despite our current difference of opinion, we still want the same outcome.”
“I came here as soon as Ferrin found out. She called me after she, uh, serviced her informant who just so happens to be an enforcer,” Nikolai said.
“Men will say almost anything when they’re in the throes of passion,” the woman next to Nikolai agreed.
“Please,” Selene jumped in, stepping out from behind Maris. “They have my sister.”
“You have a sister?” the same woman asked.
“We just learned that tidbit, too,” Maris said.
“Well, well, well, it seems our little Selene is very good at keeping secrets,” Nikolai said. “But you’re done keeping secrets from us.”
Maris raised her hand. “Nik, don’t!”
He shot Selene twice in the chest, and the girl bore a surprised expression before collapsing in a heap.
“Damn it, Nik!” Maris yelled. “She’d been blackmailed into spying.”
“Blackmail or not, she was a spy,” Nikolai countered.
“And I was going to silence her, but not until after I used her to our advantage. After today, her contact would’ve believed anything she told them. You’re a fool, Nik. Always thinking with your trigger finger and not with your head.”
I would not want to gamble against Maris. She seems quite astute at strategy.
Nikolai shot Maris a crooked smile. “I think with my head plenty, both of ’em.” He then looked at Lyra and me for the first time. His eyes narrowed as he took me in. I felt like a fish being picked in a barrel.
I recommend we evacuate this residence at your earliest convenience.
“Are we done here, Nik?” Maris asked, stepping over Selene’s body as if the dead woman was a pile of laundry. “Because if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to minding my own business and you minding yours.”
“Almost done. I also want him.” Nikolai pointed his gun in my direction.
“Sorry, you’re not my type,” I said.
Violence is imminent. We need to escape.
No shit, I thought, my body fully tensed and ready to jackrabbit the hell out of there. I felt Lyra sidle up closer to me, and I noticed both Maris and Xander stepped so that they stood between Nikolai’s people and me.
“That’s not going to happen, Nik. He’s with me,” Maris said.
The hallway is open. You should run.
I didn’t. If I ran, there was a one hundred percent chance that Nikolai’s people would come after us.
Maris was a strategist. If she could talk Nikolai down, there was a lower chance of being chased by the resistance.
The odds weren’t great, but they were at least somewhat less than a hundred percent.
Why are you not running, Cal?
“He’s not either of yours. He’s Kynan Kade’s. You try to take him, and you’ll have to answer to Kynan,” Lyra said.
I bristled. I didn’t belong to anyone, but it sure seemed like everyone thought they owned me.
Nikolai said, “I hear that it’s some new Softbiotics prototype that you stole, and they are very, very interested in getting it back. If they’re so interested in getting it back, then that got me a thinking that maybe it could prove valuable to us.”
I clenched my jaw. If anyone stole it, it was the doctor who’d stuck Byte in my head.
I am also not the property of Softbiotics, but they certainly like to believe otherwise.
“It’s time for you to leave, Nik,” Maris said.
“I’ll leave… with him,” Nikolai answered. His people were slowly spanning out in the room.
“Ah, so that’s the real reason you came,” Maris said. “You used Selene as an excuse.”
He shrugged. “Pretty obvious someone on the list landed with all the ruckus at the port. Figured it might’ve been the guy who’s got Roman Voss’s panties in a bunch.”
Lyra grabbed my arm. I glanced at her, and she motioned to the back door with her eyes.
After all this, I was going to have a talk with her about how I didn’t have anything to do with Kynan Kade, whoever the hell that even was, but out of this room, she was the only person I came close to halfway trusting. Maybe more like forty percent trusting.
Lyra and I took a sidestep, and Nikolai raised his blaster. The rest of his people did the same, along with Maris and Xander.
“I just need the amp,” Nikolai said. “I don’t need the rest of you.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I said.
Now is even a better time to run, Cal.
The problem was, there were currently seven blasters pointed at me.
“Put your guns down,” Maris ordered.
“You first,” Nikolai countered.
Maris glanced in our direction. “Go.”
“No, you don’t,” Nikolai said.
Maris moved to block, and Nikolai shot her in the shoulder. Xander lunged, covering Maris while shooting. He hit two of Nikolai’s people before taking a shot to his leg. He moved fast for his size and ducked into the hallway.
“Go!” he yelled at us even though we were already running.
Lyra seemed to know where the back door was because she cut straight for it, through a bathroom.
Behind us, we left a cacophony of blaster fire, yelling, and cries of pain.
We burst into the hallway, not even thinking of drones or enforcers—though I was counting on Byte to be doing that—and we took off running.
Go the other way. I have processed Solace Station’s maps and have identified the location of the lab.
I grabbed Lyra. “This way.”