Chapter Thirty-Two
Gemma would’ve jumped from her chair if her legs hadn’t been so weak.
She shoved the electropad away from her. “Is this a joke? Do you really think I’m that stupid?”
“I don’t think you’re stupid at all,” Rami replied. “But I do think you were misinformed and weaponized on the basis of a lie.”
Gemma shook her head, her nostrils flaring. “No. Reymond showed me the optic. You choked the life out of my sister here in Zion. Don’t deny it!”
“I can’t admit to something I didn’t do.”
“Prove to me she’s alive, then.”
Rami sighed but turned the electropad so that both he and Gemma could see the screen. He panned out enough so that several individuals could be viewed, including Nadine.
He held his thumb on his comm and spoke. “Connect me to Training Room Eight of the Oranos Space Station.” A short moment passed before he spoke again. “Lieutenant Collins, please.”
A woman entered their view from off-screen and approached one of the older men in the training room. She handed the man a device Gemma couldn’t make out, then Lieutenant Collins spoke into the air.
Rami must not have adjusted the volume yet for Gemma to hear.
“This is Zion Director Rami Vidar,” he said. “Might I have a word with one of your trainees, Miss Nadine Proctor?”
Gemma’s entire body flushed with intense heat. This had to be staged. There was no way this was real.
Nadine was dead.
But Lieutenant Collins called for Nadine, and Gemma’s heart plummeted into her stomach as her sister walked into view.
“Turn on volume,” Rami said to the electropad.
A moment later, the device was in Nadine’s hand. “Hello?”
Gemma’s face fell into her hands, a loud sob bursting free. For how long had she begged the stars to let her hear that voice again?
Yet now that her dream had come true, the sound was like a bullet to her soul.
Everything Gemma had done was to vindicate Nadine, and she’d been alive this whole time. What else had the Dissent lied to her about?
“Hello, Miss Proctor,” Rami spoke to Nadine. “This is Rami Vidar. I wanted to let you know that your sister passed her Trials and will be joining you on Oranos.”
Gemma stared at the screen in time to see a massive grin spread across her sister’s face. Nadine’s joy poured over Gemma like acid on her heart.
“Uh, thank you, sir, for the personal call. I look forward to seeing her,” Nadine replied with a nod of her head.
Rami pulled his thumb off his comm and stared Gemma straight in the eye. “Enough proof for you?” He grabbed the electropad, turning off its power before shoving it back under the table.
Unable to speak or form a coherent thought, Gemma shook her head. She wanted so desperately to keep fighting the battle she’d been warring for so long.
But she nodded once, giving into the reality that she’d been nothing but a pawn in a much bigger game. She’d let Reymond use her loneliness to manipulate her into the pathetic fool she’d become.
The frustration in Rami’s face morphed into sympathy. He frowned, bending forward so his elbows were on the table. “Now, are you sure Reymond told you nothing of his true intentions for Zion?”
Gemma shook her head and cleared her throat. “No, sir.” She couldn’t meet his stare with her own. The shame was too much.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rami nod. “Then there’s only one way I can think of to help you. I need you to spy for me.”
Gemma’s gaze shot up. “What?” After being used as a pawn by Reymond, now Rami wanted to use her? “No. I’d rather go to prison. I’m done playing these stupid games.”
Rami stared at her like a third arm stuck out of her head. “The penalty for murder, Gemma—intended or not—is death. Not prison.”
All the heat from her body left in a millisecond. Death? Her chin trembled as she looked away from Rami once again. Reymond had sent her to her doom on a blasted lie?
Rami sat back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. “Look. We knew before you all arrived this year that the Dissent was sending an operative. Phoebe—or the Kaizen, as you like to call her—thought it was either you or Moriah, based on the intelligence we received.
“But now, it’s clear you were a decoy. Murdering me is not serious enough to warrant the level of intelligence we’ve been receiving. So, I need your help to figure out who the true operative is. And in return, I will make sure Lieutenant Commander Mehnkof’s death isn’t pinned on you.”
Gemma’s pulse spiked. “How could I possibly help? They know I failed.”
“True. But if they think you gave up valuable information to be released, I believe they’ll begin to unravel a bit.”
Gemma’s brows furrowed. “How do you know they’re even still here?”
Rami shrugged. “I don’t. But do you think the Dissent would send just anyone? Odds are, they sent someone very well-trained. If that person did get eliminated, however, we will discern that when no one reacts to your reappearance. It’s a win-win situation.”
Gemma pressed her lips together, fighting the urge to tell him to go throw himself off the top of Zion. She was not going to be manipulated again simply because she didn’t want to die. In fact, she’d rather die, considering all the people she’d hurt on her failed mission.
But part of her also wanted to get back at Reymond for using her as a decoy. For taking advantage of her seventeen-year-old self, pretending to be her friend then ripping out her soul and causing her to nearly take her own life.
He deserved to be punished.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Gemma asked Rami. If she was going to agree to this, she wanted every detail. She would not go in blind this time.
Rami ground his teeth before pinching the bridge of his nose. “If I tell you everything, you must swear to me—on your sister’s life—that what I share stays between us.” He glared at her. “And if I find out you have broken that promise, I will have you executed.”
Gemma swallowed. The warning in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. “I swear.”
He sighed, running a hand down his face. “I already know why Reymond sent you to kill me: I know too well how they think. I’m the one who founded the Dissent.”
Gemma’s eyes couldn’t open any wider. “What do you mean you founded the Dissent?”
Rami shook his head, the lines on his face deepening.
His hands balled into fists. “It was only a few years after I passed the Trials myself. So this was—I don’t know—a little over twenty years ago.
I’d met my wife during the Trials. They didn’t do teams back then, but we’d still struck up a friendship, and it turned into something more before our Trials were even over. ”
He shifted in his seat, pulling at the throat of his dress shirt.
“Stars—I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.
” Rami sighed. “She got pregnant. They didn’t do the sterilization back then either, but what they did do was force women to either return to Perileos if they were pregnant or send the baby back the moment it was born to be raised by another family. ”
Gemma frowned. The cruelty of the Systems’ government continued to shock her. The Gallowood family made their own choices when they left their children behind, but to be forced to separate from their child if they didn’t want to return to Perileos?
Hatred for her overlords burned deep in her gut again.
“I was willing to go back with her,” Rami continued, “but she refused. So, when our child was born, he was sent to Perileos, and we remained on Oranos.” He swallowed, his eyes reddening. “It wasn’t long after, however, that my wife couldn’t cope with her decision. And so she . . .”
Rami cleared his throat, unable to finish his sentence, but Gemma knew the ending. She understood the agony of a harrowed soul far too deeply. Where Gemma had failed in her attempt to end her pain, Rami’s wife had succeeded.
He scratched his cheek. “Anyway, a few years later, I was given this role and used my influence among the dismissed participants to start the Dissent. But what started as political opposition against the tyranny of our government turned into something more akin to a terrorist organization. And it started the moment Reymond began to gain followers, usurping me.”
“But we’re—they’re—not terrorists,” Gemma argued. “They only want the Systems to recognize Reva as a legitimate planet.”
“That’s what I wanted for Reva. But under Reymond’s leadership, there have been 564 innocent people killed on Oranos due to bombings.
Several hundreds have either been murdered or have ‘disappeared’ from Perileos—all of them with links to the Dissent.
Does that sound like someone who has his people’s best interests at heart? ”
She’d known none of this when she’d agreed to join their ranks. If she had, she may have reconsidered.
“We are not your enemy.” Rami shook his head.
“The Dissent feeds you lies. We don’t terminate people who disagree with our laws.
We don’t withhold technology from Perileos.
We just haven’t sent it to you yet, because there’s an ongoing battle within the Systems about relocating your people to a better environment.
If you’re looking for perfection, you won’t find it.
But the Dissent has become something far more dangerous than when it was founded. ”
Rami sat back in his chair. “So, what do you say, Gemma? Have I convinced you to help me?”
Her face tightened as she considered his proposition. “What happens to me after I find the operative?”
He shrugged. “You’ll be a Winner of the Oranos Trials.”
Really? He’d just let her walk free?
Her stomach fluttered. “And if we stop the Dissent, what becomes of the people in Perileos? They don’t deserve to keep suffering.”
Rami dropped his head in a deep nod. “I fully agree. The Dissent’s presence is the primary reason our fight to relocate your people has stalled. With the Dissent under control, the President would lose her leverage to keep saying no.”
Gemma tightened the blanket around her body. It was a good trade-off. She didn’t know if she could trust Rami, but at least her people would have a better chance if she did spy for him.
And she’d be able to make Reymond pay for making her believe Nadine was dead.
At last, she nodded. “What do you need me to do?”