by C. G. Hatton
Hil didn’t give me a chance to chicken out and took me in, straight over to his new buddies, Zurich kids but all on the Imperial side of the divide. Where else would he go? Hil really was from Earth-side. Maybe that’s how he fitted in so easily.
They greeted him, ignored me, and started talking about teams and games. It was all teams and games. Everything in that whole place came down to teams and games. Archaic, institutionalised sports that hadn’t changed in centuries, the same as the ones they’d made us play on Redemption. Rugby, football, field hockey. And Hil was acing it all. That was yet another reason Imogen Kilkenny’s boyfriend hated me. Akihiro Tenaka, rich boy, heir to a fortune in Aries stock and current golden boy of the playing fields, was about to be deposed, and he knew it. But Hil was untouchable, it seemed. I had no idea what he’d done. Probably not beating the crap out of everyone the way he had on Redemption, but whatever it’d been, I’d missed it and he was now untouchable. Being his kid brother didn’t extend me any privilege, leaving me fair game, with a black eye for good measure.
Tenaka was sitting over on the other side of the library. Staring at us. Glowering at us. Imogen was next to him. She wasn’t just Wintran, she was also Neuchâtel. Of course she was.
As I looked across, she cast her eyes up and at me. Right at me. With that shy kind of smile that was unmistakeable.
I couldn’t help but smile back.
Her boyfriend turned on her, speaking sharply.
I wasn’t close enough to hear the exact words but I didn’t need to. You don’t speak to anyone like that. Whatever you have going on.
I shifted my chair back to move but Hil stopped me, his hand heavy on my shoulder.
He was laughing with his teammates, even as he was starting to get down to work, but he sent to me, privately, “Don’t. This is not relevant. Stay on mission.” He grabbed me round the shoulders and said jokingly, out loud, “You should see what Fe can do.”
I had no idea what they’d been talking about. And I don’t know if that throwaway comment made it better or worse, but Tenaka and Imogen looked away and Hil’s buddies started talking about something else.
It was like nothing had happened, but it left me on edge, adrenaline pounding. I breathed through it. Stay on mission. I could do that.
I kept my head down, slid my board out of my bag, fired it up and started to hack into Hil’s. He was working on an alternate discourse for trade infrastructure across the line. I should have taken more notice. But I didn’t. I started screwing around with his connection, messing on with the stuff he was writing, changing words and being irritating enough that he had to stifle a smile and pretend nothing was going on. I got bored eventually and started working on a math assignment while I hacked into the school database.
The campus was run by an AI but I could get round that easy enough. Less than one in a billion, NG had told me my first couple of weeks on the Alsatia. Less than one in a billion people could see through AI logic strings, and fewer than that could manipulate them. I could. I always had. No idea how I knew. I just did. And the Senson made it easy.
We’d both spent the past few weeks scavenging every scrap of intel we could find on every student, every member of staff, every governor, financial transaction and sponsorship deal. It was tedious. It was only the sailing that had kept me going. That and Imogen.
She was still watching me. I tried not to notice but she had a way of tying her hair that defied gravity. I had no idea how someone could put that much effort into their appearance.
She laughed.
As if she could tell what I was thinking.
I might have blushed, threw my attention back to the board, and I don’t know why, whether it was the headache or the way Imogen and her ass of a boyfriend were looking at me, but I pushed further than I had yet into the school system, much further, aggressively wanting to be done with the whole place. Whatever the guild wanted to know about these people and their disgustingly rich families, I was fairly sure we had enough to last a lifetime.
Then it happened.
I blinked as an anomaly spun past the query I was running, so fast I almost didn’t believe what I was seeing. I chased it, hit a block and almost blacked out.
Time stopped.
Intense heat welled up, burning as if someone had lit a fire beneath me.
I don’t know how long I’d been in there but someone squeezed my shoulder suddenly, hard, and an insistent, “LC…” broke through on the Senson, Hil, sounding more than concerned.
I couldn’t break loose. It took me a second to get free of whatever was holding me in the system. I had to drag my focus back to the library, my heart pounding like I’d run a marathon, cold sweat trickling down my ribs.
I cut the link, abrupt but thorough, leaving no evidence I’d been in there.
“LC, what’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” I sent back, shrugging him off. “I’m just…” I could have just imagined it but I still should have said something. I don’t know why I didn’t. I swiped my hand over the board to shut it down and muttered out loud, “I’m done. I’m gonna call it a night.”
Hil frowned. “You want me to walk back with you?”
I shook my head, protesting I was fine and he let me go, making me promise I’d take whatever meds Matron had given me and shout him if I needed.
Imogen was watching as I made my way out of the library, trying to shake off that dark pull of whatever I’d encountered in the system, trying not to let my eye catch hers as I left, and I almost didn’t see one of her chums as the girl sidled up, bumped into me with a soft, muttered apology, and slipped something into my hand.
I didn’t look at it until I was outside. A note, handwritten on real paper, that’s how rich these kids were. Scented paper. And Imogen had signed it with a kiss. Lake, midnight. I stuffed it into my pocket, heart rate upping a notch even higher. I could handle Imogen Kilkenny.
I couldn’t handle Imogen Kilkenny. If I thought Anya Halligan was hard work, Imogen was something else. She wasn’t there, for a start. She left me waiting. I sat on the end of the little wooden pier that extended out into the lake and just sat there, legs dangling, waiting for the pain meds to kick in, looking up at the high red sandstone cliffs surrounding the pool, watching the stars beyond and thinking that I was an idiot for even being there, at that lake, at that school, on that planet. Mendhel had told me there was no way back. I knew there was no way back. But that didn’t make it any easier.
However incredibly brilliant the beautiful Imogen Kilkenny could ever be, she was never going to be Maisie.
I’d just about decided she’d screwed me over and wasn’t going to turn up when there was a sound behind me and hands clamped over my eyes. I recognised her perfume. Soft, expensive.
She dropped down next to me and wrapped her arms around me, murmuring into my ear, “I knew you’d come,” as if someone had said I wouldn’t.
“Who would miss this?”
She laughed and snuggled in close. “Do you know how much trouble we’ll get into if they know we’re out after curfew?”
Curfew? The way she said it made it sound as dangerous as curfew had been on Kheris, when we would’ve been shot if we were caught out in the streets after hours. She had no idea.
Her hair smelled like strawberries.
“I don’t care.” And as I said it, I realised that I didn’t. I really, honestly didn’t care.
I hooked my hand around her waist and pulled her into me. She didn’t hesitate and we were kissing before I knew it, lips pressed hard.
That was my one regret. That in the end I never got to…
Imogen pulled away as if she knew I wasn’t totally there. But she laughed it off. She shoved me and grabbed my shirt, starting to unbutton it. I didn’t stop her.
I could never go back to Kheris.
The water was warm. It was perfect. This is what money can buy you in this galaxy. A perfect lake in its perfect sandstone hollow with neat, grassy banks and
clear, warm water, as if it was kept clean and heated by some elaborate hidden mechanism that was kept just out of sight. Everything there was fake, I was under no illusion otherwise. But it was fun. Imogen was fun. She laughed when I climbed out and backed off down the pier, giving her a cocky salute before I ran, pulling off a string of double back flips and tumbles then a perfect dive off the end into the water. I’d got really good at being in water during all that time in the Maze.
I could swim better than her, swam rings around her and dragged her under, letting her go well before I needed to. I know what it’s like to almost drown. I’d never inflict that on anyone.
She surfaced with a spray of water drops and laughed again, throwing her arms around my neck, and pushing me down as she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine as if no one had ever dared defy her before.
She broke free to breathe and murmured in my ear, “Aki will kill you if he finds us like this.”
I was treading water easily enough, hardly making a ripple. “He’s not going to find us.”
Warm lake water was dripping from her face onto mine. I could feel her smile. She leaned in close and bit my ear, just enough to hurt. “You should get an earring.”
That wasn’t going to happen, not in a million years. Where I came from, metal in your ear meant you’d been caught and tagged. Maybe that’s what she meant.
I shied away with a protesting, “Im…”
“Call me Genie,” she whispered. “That’s my secret name.”
I twisted around in the water, changing my balance so I could dunk her again.
She pulled a coy smile and pressed her nose to mine. “Do you have a secret name?”
I shook my head. Secret names? Christ, I didn’t want anyone asking me if I had a secret name.
She grinned. “Kristian calls you Fe.”
“He calls me a lot of things.”
I couldn’t help the smile that snuck out as she pushed her hand against my chest. I braced myself, about to throw her, and froze as a hint of voices floated in on the breeze.
Tenaka.
I shifted my hold on her again, said quietly, “Breathe in,” and ducked down, kicking hard for the bottom of the lake.
Chapter 3
We surfaced under the main struts of the pier, quietly, managing not to disturb the water too much. I held her tight and put a finger to my lips. She grinned at me as if this was the most exhilarating stunt she’d ever pulled and leaned in to kiss me, hard, gripping the back of my neck. We could hear Tenaka and his buddies talking in loud voices right above us. I almost blew it by laughing.
“The lockers are all empty,” one of them said. “If they’re out here, they’re still dressed or they’ve ditched their clothes under a tree.”
Imogen almost choked, eyes wide. I pressed my finger against her lips and grinned at her. Our clothes were in a locker but I’d set it up to look like the lock mechanism was broken.
She whispered fiercely into my ear, “You’re insane.”
Not the first time I’d been called that.
“Face it, Aki,” another voice said above us, “they’re probably tucked up in their dorms. Kid is a frikking junior. Someone is screwing with you.”
There was a long silence then Tenaka cursed and muttered, spitting venom, “If that little shit tries for the Yaeger’s, I hope he breaks his neck.”
Imogen pulled a face in mock horror, trying to keep in a laugh.
I grinned and pressed my finger against her lips to keep her quiet as we waited, listening.
Their voices moved away, Tenaka still arguing, threatening what he’d do if he caught me.
She whispered in my ear, “What are we waiting for?”
I shushed her again and distracted her with a kiss. I wished I’d known it could be that easy when I’d been with Maisie.
Once I was sure it was quiet, I shifted my weight and eased my hold on her.
“What’s Yaeger’s?” I whispered.
She gave me a mischievous grin. “You won’t be able to do it.”
“Do what?”
“Yaeger’s – it’s the record for climbing the waterfall and diving in. It has to be a perfect dive or the time doesn’t count.”
I glanced up. The waterfall was backlit by sprinkles of silver beams that shot through the cascading water droplets, sheer water-smoothed sandstone surfaces in places but plenty of pocks and holes to use as handholds. It was no harder a climb than the Wall in the Maze. I reckoned I could do it in less than twenty minutes.
“What’s the record?”
“Nineteen minutes thirty four,” she murmured. “Yaeger was one of yours but we took it years ago. Some kid who was a Neuchâtel legend. No one’s beaten it since. Aki did it in nineteen thirty two last term but he fluffed the dive.” She grinned. “There’s no way you can beat that.”
Yeah, I could.
I laughed and ducked her under the water.
Once we climbed out and got dried and dressed, I said we should go back but she opened another locker, took out two sodas and beamed at me, holding them up with a flourish.
“It’s not champagne,” she murmured, “but…”
How could I resist?
We ended up heading back to the grassy bank under the pier. There were little lights under there, and all along the edge of the lake, emitting a soft ambient glow, as if they knew kids would sneak out for a midnight tryst.
“So what’s the deal with your brother?” Imogen said as she sat, patting the neat, perfectly soft grass beside her. “He’s not even looked at anyone since you got here.”
I sat, stretched out and she snuggled up against my shoulder, so close I could feel her breath on my ear as she whispered, “He turned down Kari Obaya,” dramatic, as if it was shocking that anyone would ever refuse to date Kari Obaya. “What’s his problem?”
We were sitting there in that intimate a position and she asked me about Hil? It felt like Anya all over again.
“Bad experience with his last girlfriend.” I couldn’t exactly say he’d shot her after she’d tried to kill us.
“Too bad,” she murmured. “He’s cute.”
Cute? I’d never heard anyone describe Hil as cute. “He’s great but he can be an ass,” I muttered. Like her boyfriend, but I didn’t say that.
She laughed softly and whispered, “Don’t be jealous. I’m asking for a friend.”
I stifled a laugh. I wasn’t jealous.
She popped open the sodas and passed one to me, looking at me with curiosity burning in her expression, her perfect mouth holding in a smile.
“What?”
“You don’t look anything like him.”
I set the bottle down by my side and sat back with a flippant, “I’m adopted.”
She sniggered as if she didn’t believe me.
I gave her the dismayed big eyes and she caught herself.
“Really?”
It was part of our cover. If anyone, in whatever circumstances that could ever happen, happened to get hold of me and Hil and test our DNA… That was how deep the guild went when it was establishing deep covers. The guild was thorough. Beyond thorough. We’d been told that whatever records had existed for us before, whatever biostats were on file anywhere, the guild had made sure they were obliterated. When Mendhel had said I had to leave and never go back, he’d told me I would cease to exist. He hadn’t been kidding.
“So are you from Earth originally?” she said casually.
I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“No.” She stared me straight in the eye as if she was rethinking that answer before cocking her head and conceding, “Yes.” She leaned forward, murmuring, “My mother would be horrified.” She sounded delighted at the idea. She sat back with a gleam in her eye. “You should come stay with us for the holidays. I always have a bunch of friends come stay. We go skiing in the mountains, skating on the lakes, swimming… You’ll love it. My little sister is going to adore you.”
Her family home was on Winter.
I’d seen her file. It was exactly what I wanted but I played it cool, just murmuring, “Might be a bit awkward if Aki is there.”
She screwed up her face, nose wrinkling. “Don’t worry about Aki. The only reason we’re supposedly an item is that his family and mine want some kind of alliance…” She trailed off.
UM and Aries. That was a match made in hell.
I shouldn’t have said anything but I couldn’t help it. “I don’t know why you let him speak to you like that.”
“You don’t know our families.”
I didn’t want to. I stroked a strand of wet hair from her cheek. “Well, you’re not with him right now.”
She looked up at me. “No, no I’m not,” and she kept her eyes fixed on mine as she snuggled in again and put her hand on my thigh. “So what about you? No girlfriend at home I need to worry about?”
Home? That made a hollow knot twist deep inside. “Would it make a difference if I said yes?”
She leaned back a moment as if she was trying to figure out if it did. I wasn’t going to lie. But whatever I’d had going on with Anya, it was over. Mendhel had made that clear. Maisie however… she was firmly in the past, firmly on Kheris, but always there. Always.
Imogen smiled and squeezed my leg, sliding her hand higher. “No, no it wouldn’t.”
“What about Aki?” I leaned close, keeping my voice low. “We shouldn’t even be talking.”
She pressed her nose against mine again. “No, we shouldn’t. Are you scared?”