Chapter Thirty-Three
“I do love getting the drop on you, X. A bit distracted, are you?”
Xavier said nothing in response, his body unmoving under the knife. His eyes caught Vivian’s from across the room, full of apology. The knife. She knew that knife. She’d already witnessed the damage Silas could cause with it.
“Chancellor,” Silas continued. “The ship has been sighted.”
“Excellent.” River flared their nostrils just slightly as they beheld Silas, and Vivian could detect disdain behind their mask of civility. They looked down at Delilah, still seated at the side of the bed, glassy-eyed. “Delilah, can I persuade you to stay here with us, under my protection?”
“I want to go with my sister.” Delilah’s voice was barely a whisper.
“Soon. After you do one more service for Catena today.”
“What are you talking about?” Vivian demanded. She took her sister by the arm and helped her to her feet.
“You’ll see.” River surveyed the assembled group, eyes widening when they spotted the orb. “Is that what I think it is?”
The orb beeped. “Hi River, we’re pumped to finally meet you. Catena has so much raw potential, right? You’re pushing the frontier of what’s possible here. With our guidance, you could actualize your full vision for Catena’s future.”
River whirled on Xavier, who remained motionless with Silas’s knife pressed to his throat. “You brought that abomination to my dome? I thought you despised the Intelligence.”
“There is nothing I would not do to protect Vivian and her sister,” Xavier growled. “Nothing.”
“A Martian heat signature is headed our way,” the Intelligence announced.
The far door banged open, and a Martian man strode in before skidding to a halt in the middle of the room.
“Mr. Hayes, right on schedule,” Silas drawled. “So glad you received my message.”
Caspian took in the scene: August, sword in hand, the Intelligence bobbing at his side; Vivian clutching the pale Delilah; Silas pressing a knife to Xavier’s throat. And Chancellor River standing serenely in the middle, unarmed.
“Chancellor,” Caspian said warily. “What passes here?”
“Do you have it?” River asked, stepping closer to Caspian.
Caspian lifted a small data disc from his pocket. “All of Arcadia’s collective knowledge on Martian terraforming.”
The orb zoomed forward in between River and Caspian. “Caspian, you can’t give that to Catena. We won’t allow it.”
Caspian looked uncertainly to Xavier. “Is that …?”
“Indeed.”
Caspian pressed a fist to his forehead. “Forgive me, Intelligence. I am grieved to go against your wishes, but I have an agreement with Chancellor River.”
“Give me the data disc, Mr. Hayes,” River demanded, holding out one hand.
Caspian hesitated. “After you release Xavier.”
Silas merely laughed. “Our deal hasn’t changed: House Hayes’s proprietary terraforming tech for Delilah Bowen. X is mine.” He pressed the knife hard enough to draw blood, and Xavier closed his eyes.
Vivian held fast to her sister, transfixed by the sight of the knife. She knew what it felt like to be helpless and weak in the face of a weapon.
“Mr. Gatlin,” Caspian said, looking carefully at Xavier. “I would not recommend threatening Xavier Dorsey. He is one of the most skilled and vicious fighters of my acquaintance.”
“I am intimately acquainted with all of X’s many talents. The disc, now.”
“Not without guaranteeing free passage to everyone in this room.”
“Is that how you’d like to play it, Mr. Hayes?” Into his wrist comm, Silas commanded, “Now.”
“We’re detecting incoming rocket launcher fire directed at our borrowed rover,” the Intelligence relayed in a neutral voice. “Ten seconds to impact … The rover is destroyed.”
Vivian let out a breath. Their means of escape, gone in seconds. They shouldn’t have come here with no backup. Why had they thought the Intelligence would tip the balance in their favor? All it had done so far was bob around uselessly, narrating their failures.
Caspian stiffened. “Is my ship intact?”
“Of course,” Silas soothed. “We have a deal, and I intend to honor it as long as you do.”
“If you touch my ship, the deal is off. I’ll convene the Council to declare war. I’ll level this dome.” Caspian’s cultured voice had taken on a deadly precision.
“Interesting. I do believe we told you to come alone. Who’s on the ship, Mr. Hayes?”
“No one,” Caspian replied quickly.
“Aim a rocket launcher at the Arcadian ship,” Silas ordered into his wrist comm.
“No!”
“He’ll do it, Casp,” Xavier warned, rigid in Silas’s arms.
“Fire on my mark.” Silas looked at Caspian. “Who’s on the ship?”
“Ivey,” Capsian gasped. “Ivey’s here. She insisted.”
“Ah, Ivey.” Silas smiled. “How is your viper-tongued sister? I always thought it remarkable that you were the one with the Council seat when she clearly has the brains in the family. How much further Arcadia could rise if it rewarded merit over birthright.”
“Leave my sister out of this.”
“I tried to leave out your sister. But that bitch just had to get involved, didn’t she?”
River had been quietly watching the exchange, seemingly content to let Silas handle the threats. Now, they opened their hand. “The disc. Now.”
Caspian held out a shaking hand.
The Intelligence let out a loud beep. “Please don’t do this, Caspian.” It flitted uselessly between River and Caspian, making no physical move to intervene.
River took the disc and pocketed it. “I’ll leave this to you,” they said to Silas, raising their hands as if to say, Clean up your mess. River strode from the room without looking back.
“Stand down,” Silas murmured into his wrist comm. “The Chancellor is on their way and requires a transport.”
The orb gave another long beep. “We cannot allow the Catena dome to acquire proprietary terraforming technology. August, you must go after the Chancellor before they leave this facility.”
Vivian ignored the Intelligence. “Silas, we came for Delilah. She’s all we want. We’ll take Caspian’s ship, and you’ll never hear from us again.”
“Not without the data disc,” said the Intelligence.
“Why?” Vivian demanded of the orb.
“Great question, Vivian. At the end of the day, we followed the data. We’ve conducted an analysis of the optimized approach to terraforming Mars and concluded that the project should be coordinated between the domes in consultation with Earth.
If Catena goes at it alone, they’ll fail, and that will set a coordinated effort back.
As the saying goes, ‘Collaboration is multiplication.’ ”
Silas held Xavier at knife point, Delilah could barely stand, and this was what the Intelligence cared about?
Vivian couldn’t believe her fate had been in the control of this thing all along.
How could Secretary Yarrow, Wim, and nearly the entire Council have outsourced critical decisions about the future of their community and their planet to an artificial intelligence that clearly didn’t see value in individual lives?
“You know what?” she snapped. “I don’t give a crap about your thoughts on the optimized approach to life on Mars. You’re wrong about the Red Mothers initiative, and you’re wrong here. I’m not sacrificing our lives to your calculations. River has the data. It’s done.”
Silas took a step backward, pulling Xavier with him. “Bravo, Vivian. You have a spine after all.” He took another step closer to the door, and it slid open.
“Stop!” Vivian’s voice cracked in fear and frustration. She exchanged an anguished look with Xavier. “You got your deal. Let him go.”
“Goodbye, Vivian and Delilah,” Silas said. “I’ve so enjoyed our time together, but I fear all good things must come to an end.” He stepped through the door with Xavier in tow, and it slammed shut.
Vivian parked Delilah on the side of the bed and ran to the door. August and Caspian were already there. Vivian took her fingers and attempted to pry it open. She kicked it like she’d done on the streets of Catena. The door didn’t even vibrate.
Xavier was gone.