by Day Leitao
“I don’t know, I fear we’ll find more questions than answers, Saytera. We’ll find complications, not solutions.”
“And yet here you are on this uncomfortable train, looking to make your life more complicated.”
Larissa stretched her mat and leaned down. “There’s nothing simpler than blind obedience. Perhaps I’m getting tired of that.”
22
The City
Saytera woke up with sun rays coming from the slit in her container. Her back ached from her hard, improvised, shaky bed. She wondered if her friend would be upset if this trip turned out to be for no reason. But then, she had a feeling that Larissa was also out there for adventure and discovery, curiosity. Saytera shivered remembering how these same feelings had led her away from the life she once loved. Nowla came to her mind, with a pang in her chest.
It turned out that unlike what her friend believed, it wasn’t as easy to make a difference and to help win that war. Saytera had traced that path and was just a number, maybe not even that. Her previous ideas about a great destiny almost made her laugh, if it wasn’t for the memory of Nowla, and what chasing that stupid destiny had caused.
There was no set destiny, there was no set path for anyone; she had to walk her own. More than ever she was sure of that. But then, what about those people who had wanted to kill her? The memory sometimes almost faded, but sometimes it came back, rich as if it had been yesterday. How would Saytera ever know? Perhaps it was something indeed about some stupid prophecy. More than ever she knew prophecies were stupid—and dangerous. No wonder Yansin forbade them. More than ever Saytera wished she could see her master again, absorb some of her immense knowledge, her power. So much that she had taken for granted.
All that she had were memories and her inability to use firearms. Unless she could also interrupt electricity and other weapons. Maybe. That thought came with the memory of Dess. Beautiful dark eyes so certain, so sure, telling Saytera she was a Teren—like Yansin. That past long gone.
“Hey.” Larissa’s voice snapped Saytera out of her thoughts. The girl was sitting up and stretching.
Saytera smiled. “We should be getting there, right?”
Larissa got up and stared at one of the slits. “Come, look.”
Saytera pressed her face against the opening. There were no visible forests or nature, only buildings, so many buildings, some as tall as mountains. It was hard to see from such a small opening, but she got the sense that they’d arrived at their capital. In fact, even the air smelled different. On their way here, the smell had changed from salty ocean, to a more woody, fresh scent, and now it smelled more like… stones and metal, a hint of smoke, and something artificial.
So this was it. They were really getting to Citarella. Going to find whatever secret there was to find—if there was any. The train reduced its speed until it came to a stop. There was no lock on the door, so the girls slid it open and jumped out. This was a trading station, where the train came to deposit fish from many sea villages.
Around it, just buildings farther than the eye could see.
Saytera looked at her friend. “Do you know where to go?”
Larissa looked around. “I’m not sure. We need to find the central government building. It’s a pyramid.”
Of course. Saytera had studied it in her time in the academy, and assumed her friend had done the same. There was a section there for public consultation. Since Mainland no longer sent data through wireless means, and didn’t have cables all the way to the shore bases, information was either passed hand-to-hand, or consulted in person. That’s why there was a room full of terminals for public access. The issue now was getting there.
“There are cars we can use, right? Taxis.”
Larissa sighed. “I’d rather save.”
True. Same reason they had to travel in an empty box. It was annoying that Saytera had so little to contribute to their trip and that she hadn’t given thought to money until then. But in a place where there was no food to be caught, everything probably revolved around money. She couldn’t fathom what life there would be like.
Saytera looked around, but had no sense of direction. “Maybe we could ask where to go?”
Larissa cocked her head. “Fair enough.” She walked away for a bit, approached someone pushing a cart, then returned. “I think it’s about an hour walking. You don’t mind, do you?”
Saytera smiled. “It will be fun to get to know the city.”
The area around the station had houses all stuck together, painted in white, with small square windows. People walked on the sides of the street, leaving the middle for fast cars on wheels. The cars had different colors and were mostly small, with room for two people, but carrying just one.
The triangular tip of a building showed up far away after the girls had walked for a while.
There was a question that had been unsaid all this time. “Do you really think you’ll be able to hack a public terminal?”
Larissa pressed a finger over her lips. “I’d rather not talk about this in the open. But yeah, I think so.”
“You’re so talented. Have you ever thought you could do more?”
“That’s what I’m trying right now. To do more.” She then laughed. “It’s not like I ever told my academy superiors that I was the one messing with their info. But I can see now that it’s a useful skill. That maybe it could be useful. Who knows where life will take us after this?”
Saytera snorted. “Back to Cliffbound?”
“Well, it is a magnificently beautiful place. I won’t complain.”
The weather was cool and cloudy, which was good for walking, but after a while Saytera started feeling hot and took off her coat. Or Dess’s coat. Her friend’s clothes still felt weird on her.
Silence and anticipation replaced the earlier chit-chat, especially considering that Larissa was so worried that they’d be overheard. Her worry made more sense the closer they got to the pyramid, as there were more people on the sidewalks; an anonymous multitude surrounding them.
As they approached the center of the city, there were large displays with images. Some of them said, “Enough is enough”, others said, “No more truce.”
Saytera turned to her friend. “Do you know what this is about?”
She shook her head. “Something that still hasn’t reached us. We’re so isolated.”
“It’s as if… they don’t want the truce anymore?”
“Sounds like it. We’ll check.” She winked. “Get to the root of it.”
Saytera almost wanted to ask someone about it, but it was true that it was better to get the information straight from the source.
They reached the pyramid a lot sooner than Saytera had expected, perhaps because she’d been so entranced by her surroundings, seeing a city for the first time, perhaps because her mind had been whirling, wondering what that stuff about the truce meant. The building had a large hall with glass walls. They followed signs and then waited in a line to cross a metal door.
Saytera could hear her heart pounding in her ears, and she wasn’t sure if it was fear of what they would find—or fear of what they wouldn't. Maybe it was the fear that the whole trip had been for nothing. Disappointment was much easier when not shared. If there was disappointment. There could be something scarier out there.
The door opened and Saytera and Larissa walked to a very long room with booths on its side and went to the one where a green light blinked. It had a large display connected to a terminal. There wasn’t a lot of privacy for talking, since the booths on both sides were also occupied. Without windows anywhere, the place vaguely reminded her of the dark area in Academy Seven, only illuminated with artificial lights.
“What do you want to check first?” Larissa whispered.
A crazy idea came to Saytera. “Terens. Are there any records?”
Larissa rolled her eyes. “You can find this stuff in the entertainment library. You can ask Cynthia and Zack to bring more, if you’re into it.”
“Huh. Worse than the one I went to. Now, we didn’t come here to research stories, did we?”
Saytera had been thinking that maybe there could be something hidden about Terens, but she should have explained it earlier. She shook her head. “No.” Then she whispered as low as she could. “Let’s check Somersault.”
Larissa nodded and entered that name. Photos popped up, and it was horrific. They didn’t make any effort in hiding the bodies with bullet holes and blood. A lot more holes than necessary to kill them. It had been a massacre. Saytera felt revulsion in her stomach. At the same time, if it was true that Lunars flew in pairs, it couldn’t have been their work, and it couldn’t have been Dess. He hadn’t been lying. And yet, there it was, proof that something horrific was happening in the bases.
“I guess they were killed all right,” her friend whispered.
Saytera nodded while looking away. As much as she should be tougher, she just couldn’t keep looking.
“I know,” Larissa added. “Seeing it…” She sighed. “And this is public. Let’s find out more.”
She inserted her master key in the slot for the info stick. Whatever she was doing seemed complicated, as some numbers appeared on the screen, and the screen changed to a black background, demanding a password. Seconds and seconds passed while a light blinked on top, until the screen opened again with a red border around it. Top security. But there were only the same images with the caption: Classified - Project Zeta. Larissa frowned, then tapped her nail on the machine and bit her lip. “It’s like we stumbled on a wall.”
“A wall hiding something.”
Larissa nodded and tapped Project Zeta. Again, it said classified. “I don’t know if I can…”
The fact that something about Somersault was hidden proved that it was important and that there had been more to learn about it. Her gut feeling had been right. But at the same time, checking this information directly and quickly didn’t seem like it would be easy even for Larissa. “Let’s check the truce. We’ll come back if we have time.”
The girl grimaced, probably disappointed she couldn’t get through a security protocol, and then typed “truce renewal”. Somersault pictures popped up, together with a strong headline: “Enough is enough”.
Suspicious. Saytera and Larissa exchanged a glance. So her friend had a similar opinion. The text urged citizens to vote for a breach of the truce, claiming there were newfound allies and supplies who would help Mainland win this war for good.
“Allies?” The thought had come aloud, louder than she expected.
Larissa frowned, and her voice came in a whisper. “And voting?”
Saytera read the text. There would be voting in eight days. She looked at her friend. “Neat that they don’t even inform us at the bases.”
Larissa shrugged. “Maybe they will.”
She then turned to Saytera and put a finger over her lips. Her expression was tense.
The screen with the red frame opened again, then other numbers popped up. Saytera wanted to ask her friend what she was trying to do, but it would be hard to discuss it when they had people in the booths next to them. She typed words like “Zeta project”, “Zeta agreement”, then “Weapons supply”. Nothing was showing up. She went to a screen that had “Government information.” And then something that seemed interesting. “Tahari Moon Agreement.”
The text was long and Saytera scanned it for the important information. There it was: a shieldbreaker ship in exchange for 200,000 kg of Ilanium, or gravity stones. It meant that Mainland would be able to win the war, for a high price. And destroying shields? Shields like the one protecting Shapphirlune city? If that was the case, it would be a massacre. Larissa seemed to have guessed Saytera’s thoughts, as she searched “shield destroyers”, but nothing happened. The screen was frozen. Then a deafening sound, as if seagulls were being tortured, startled Saytera. Fast steps came in their direction.
Larissa pulled her stick and stared at Saytera, her face ashen. They had seconds before someone came in. If they saw their frozen terminal, they’d know it had been hacked. Perhaps the girls could run. Before they could decide anything, a guard had a zapper pointed at them.
“Security protocol,” he said.
He didn’t examine the terminal. There was probably someone else who was coming to check. More steps around them revealed that they probably didn’t know where the breach was coming from, and were probably keeping everyone in place and then checking terminal by terminal. This would buy them time. Not much. More steps were coming in their direction.
But this place had no natural light—like Academy 7. Perhaps Dess had been right that Saytera could tamper with electricity. Eyes closed, she focused on darkness, just like sometimes she did it to flicker a lamp in the academy.
Another man came in front of them. “Step away, I just need to check the terminal.”
The lights were still on. Damn it.
But as Saytera looked back, the terminal’s screen was dark.
The man looked behind it, to check cables. “When did it turn off?”
Saytera didn’t think she had to disguise her fear. “I thought the alarm… What’s happening?”
“Nothing to worry about. You’ll just have to follow me.”
Perhaps they were detaining everyone in the public archives, perhaps they suspected them. Saytera wasn’t sure what was going to happen and was about to panic, when all the lights went off. They were immersed in darkness. This was their chance. Perhaps it was reckless, perhaps, unnecessary, but she couldn’t shake the thought that staying would be dangerous. “Run!” Saytera yelled.
She passed the two men and dashed toward the backdoor. Larissa was running, too. For a moment Saytera had feared her friend would stay behind, perhaps thinking this idea was too outrageous. But there was no way to stay back and wait for whatever consequences they would face. Her fast beating heart pushed her forward, even if steps behind them told her they were being followed. Without electricity, the back door was unlocked, of course. They opened it and came to a dark place. Stairs.
“Lean on the wall,” Saytera whispered.
Soon the door was opened, and in the darkness, some pursuers went up and others went down, without seeing them. “Let’s go back, now.”
They opened the door and got back to the terminal place, still shrouded in darkness. They stepped slowly towards the main entrance, but bumped someone on the way.
“Hey!” a woman screamed.
Saytera got back to running. They got to the front door, opened it, then before anyone noticed them, dashed to a side door, leading to stairs. They got out at a side street.
Saytera was about to run, when Larissa said, “Let’s walk slowly, mingle with the crowd.”
This was a back alley and there was no crowd, but perhaps her friend had a point. Archive guards were probably still looking for them in those dark stairs.
Then she heard the sound of a zapper and a cracker hitting the pole in front of them.
“Halt or I’ll shoot you!” A woman’s voice.
Saytera turned and saw someone on a roof, a gun in each hand. A gun in each hand? With that freaking insane aim? Could it be?
“Kiki?” Saytera’s voice was incredulous.
“The name’s Christina.” Then she jumped down and faced them.
23
Finding Out More
It was indeed the short girl from Academy 7, the girl Saytera had once thought was her friend. “What are you doing here?”
“You know each other?” Larissa asked.
“Not sure,” Kiki replied.
“Please,” Saytera pleaded. “We need to hide.”
Kiki stared at her for a few long seconds, then finally put down her weapons. “Follow me.”
“To hide or to be detained?” Larissa asked.
“It depends.”
They followed her to a car. Larissa sat in the front
and Saytera crouched in a small place on the back. Kiki took off.
Saytera had never been in a car, other than that refrigerated truck, and the twists and turns almost made her nauseous. Relief washed her when they opened the door. They were in another back alley. Kiki led them to a metal door leading to decrepit stairs. After another door, they were in an apartment, with a table, kitchen equipment and a bed all in one room.
“I’ll listen,” Kiki said. “And you’d better have an insanely good story.” She stared at Saytera. “You can’t imagine how happy I’ll be when I take you to prison.”
She then pulled both pistols and pointed at them, as if to prove that she wasn’t kidding, or not to give them any ideas.
Saytera stared at the girl. “We once were colleagues, Kiki.”
The girl frowned. “Christina! And you were the one who didn’t want to train with me.”
That had to be a joke. “You pretended you didn’t know me.”
“I told you it wouldn’t be like that forever. But no, let’s just ignore everyone.”
“You can’t be upset, Kiki.”
“Christina!”
Saytera exhaled. “Christina, then.”
“So you guys are friends?” Larissa asked.
“No,” they both said at the same time.
Larissa nodded, then turned to Christina. “Right. So… are you a guard in the archives?”
“City police. Why?”
“You know about the voting, right?”
Christina rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t?”
“We come from a shore base and we didn’t.”
“Well, information travels slowly. Now get to the explanation. Were you involved in the breach in the public archives?”
“No,” Larissa said. “But we were scared, so we ran. We don’t know the procedures in Citarella.”
Christina raised an eyebrow. “Likely story.”
Larissa shrugged. “We’re shore sentinels, you think we can hack a terminal?”