by Rebecca Rode
She allowed herself to breathe again. “Harlow. They let you out?”
He nodded quickly, glancing nervously at the driver outside. “Apparently there was an altercation last night and they needed every prisoner pod they could get. They put three men in mine and told me to stay away from you.”
The altercation had to involve Ruben’s group. “And yet you’re here.”
Harlow gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m no threat to you, Lady Flare. It’s just that I saw you were being sent off on a secret mission, and I want in.”
She eyed him narrowly. “What do you mean, you saw?”
“The signs were there. You left the Daughter’s pod system in a huff, looking stressed. They brought you here and you packed, and now they’re taking you to a ship. It’s not hard to figure out.”
She closed her eyes. Today, of all days. She wasn’t sure she could face this right now. “Fine. Assuming that’s true—which is still creepy, by the way—why do you want to come?”
He paused. “I was thinking about our conversation and realized something. If the stars have a purpose for you, maybe there’s one for me too. I should’ve died when Lillya did. It’s incomprehensible I survived at all. But if there’s something I’m supposed to do, I’ll do it. Even if it means being your bodyguard.”
“Harlow,” Ember began. “I believe you have a lot to offer the Union. But the travel team only has a few openings, and those have already been filled.” She’d decided on the ride home. Brennan for his quick obedience, Reina for her skill, and three others for their combat experience. She hoped that would round the team out well. It was also the perfect excuse to leave Syd and Bex behind.
“Let me guess,” Harlow muttered. “You’re bringing only flickers.”
“I’m sorry, but they’re best suited for this particular mission.” Ember couldn’t admit the real reason. She couldn’t afford to bring a wildly emotional soldier along, no matter how strong his determination. If Harlow did have a purpose, it wasn’t on this mission.
He slumped, if that was even possible in his crouched position. Ember glanced out the window. The driver stepped away from the conversation and headed for the hatch.
“Please don’t tell her I’m here,” Harlow whispered. “They’ll send me below again.”
The hatch opened then, and the driver climbed in. “Ready, Lady Flare?” She noted the expression on Ember’s face and her smile faded. “Are you all right?”
Ember was about to take a barely trained flicker team who didn’t trust each other into space to complete a mission doomed to fail. And she’d only hurt Harlow again by rejecting him because that’s what Ember did—hurt people. The question was almost laughable.
“Just fine,” Ember said. “Everything is great.”
Chapter 16
Stefan hadn’t lied about searching the planets for the location of the Union base. It was the most logical course of action. He had Karyl categorizing them by a list of geological and chemical factors, and she’d done good work. She’d filled a tablet with reports so quickly he struggled to keep up. The list was down to sixty-one possible locations now, a list he knew he could never share with the emperor. He had no doubt they’d send probes to investigate, and he needed more time to plan. If he did find the Union’s base, he had to be able to contact them without his watchdogs noticing. A solution was here somewhere. He just knew it.
That problem kept him up at night. In fact, he’d sacrificed the past night’s sleep for extra hours at the office. The evidence lay in his bleary-eyed reflection and the thick stubble on his chin. It was nearly black, the color of Kane’s ugly ironboar stone across the room. He’d never grown a beard before, but he didn’t care much how he looked these days.
You’re falling apart, he chided himself. He’d never convince the emperor he was taking the candidate thing seriously if he looked like a traitor deserving of a swift execution. He vowed to find the time to shave tomorrow.
Stefan finished reading Karyl’s report on planet number eleven and set the tablet down, rubbing his burning eyes. He couldn’t take one more scientific breakdown of a planet’s geography and chemical composition right now. Instead, he pulled up the network again and entered his credentials. Before he knew it, he’d wandered back to the medical-records firewall. He checked the security record. The password hadn’t been changed, which meant they hadn’t flagged his account yet. Perfect.
This time he searched the word flicker.
One file lit up with several instances. It was a private file, far more protected than the emperor’s journal had been. He frowned, then scanned the security log for the password. It wasn’t there.
“You sure know how to get a guy intrigued,” he muttered, moving on to another security log. He finally found a list of possible words near the end. Racing back to the previous file, he chose the most likely one and entered it in.
ACCESS DENIED
“Having trouble, sir?”
Stefan leaped out of his chair, knocking it to the floor. Karyl stood in front of him, a tablet clasped to her chest.
“Karyl,” he squeaked, trying to calm his racing heart. “I thought you were gone hours ago.”
“I found a few more facts on that large moon in the third sector. Thought you’d want to take a look.” She held out the tablet, eyeing his desk.
He leaned over, blocking the screen. “Thank you. I appreciate your hard work on this.”
She wasn’t fooled. The woman folded her arms and cocked her head, staring him down. “I don’t think you do. And you’re pretty good, but you have a long way to go.”
“Excuse me?”
“Covering your tracks. You leave digital fingerprints all over. You’re traipsing into territory where you don’t belong, then shouting at the techs to come and see. If it weren’t for me cleaning up your messes, they’d have locked you up long ago.”
He shot her a glare as he retrieved his chair from the ground. “So you admit it. You’ve been watching me all this time.”
“Really? That’s what you picked up from what I said?” She chuckled and walked around to his side of the desk. “Look, you don’t have to search for those passcodes. You just have to convince the server you’re somebody you aren’t, and it’ll grant you access.” Her fingers flew across the screen.
Stefan leaned over to watch. Her command of the system was impressive. He should have known Karyl had more experience in the network than he gave her credit for. Her reports were far too extensive to be gleaned from public records. Some of the things she’d noted had to be from scientific expeditions and private information.
“There,” she finally said, tapping the screen with a decisive finger. Then she stepped back.
The file opened, listing all the documents containing the word flicker.
“I don’t quite understand why you’re searching there when we’re supposed to be finding your girlfriend, but who am I to question a candidate?” she muttered, starting to walk away.
“Wait,” Stefan said, truly seeing the woman for the first time. “Why did you help me?”
She shrugged. “Assistants follow their superiors. So if you’re awarded the position, I become your assistant. We both win.”
“Is that really it?”
“What other reason would there be?”
He shook his head. Karyl was setting her sights too low. She was the one who deserved to be the candidate, not him. “Thank you.”
“Just don’t waste both our time. Sir.” She was nearly to the door.
He scanned the first record, which was full of old photos, then gripped the desktop with both hands at the captions. “Uh, Karyl? I don’t suppose you have a medical background.”
“No.” She paused at the door. “Why?”
He hesitated. The woman was watching his every move; she had finally admitted it. She wasn’t proving to be the most trustworthy person. But it was becoming clear he couldn’t do this on his own. If she’d really cleaned up his digital fingerprint
s, maybe she wouldn’t object to helping him further. The worst she could do was take information to the emperor once he failed, and his death would be sealed by then anyway.
“Come look at this file,” he said. “Please.”
She paused only a moment before returning to the desk. When she saw the photo, she raised an eyebrow. “Photos of patients? Nothing unusual there.”
“But look at this caption.” He pointed to the words beneath a woman wearing a medical gown, sitting on a medical bed and staring at the camera as if taken by surprise. Several figures in lab coats stood in the background, all looking at her with pleased expressions.
Karyl started to read aloud. “‘The Ultrium X2 strain, discovered in flicker patient 109, was initially believed to degenerate flicker DNA. But after two months of progression, the strain was found to actually enhance the abilities of the patient. She was found to be pregnant shortly after the discovery of the strain. Patient 109 gave birth to a stillborn infant at thirty-seven weeks’ gestation. She was weak from the disease and unable to recover from the rigors of childbirth. Patient 109 died six hours later.’ So they found an illness that affects flickers. Interesting, but it has nothing to do with our purposes here.”
He flipped quickly through the photos and scanned the captions. The mysterious strain seemed to bother the physicians. They had exposed five flicker patients, all of whom were eventually infected. While it did appear to enhance their abilities for a while, each patient had succumbed to the disease within weeks.
He scanned the last photograph, an image of patient 109 right before her death. She lay in an inclined position, her belly swollen under the blankets. There were heavy bags under her eyes and a sadness Stefan couldn’t fathom. He ached for her. Nobody deserved that kind of life.
Stefan found the caption and scanned it. Conclusion: the Ultrium X2 strain is too unstable to continue experimentation. File closed.
He moved on to the next file and nearly knocked his chair over again. A photo of Ember appeared at the very top. She eyed the camera suspiciously, her glare all too familiar. The image was so lifelike, so real, he longed to stroke the soft skin of her cheek. Her hair fell in black waves over her shoulder.
“That’s her, isn’t it?” Karyl asked, looking over his shoulder.
He’d nearly forgotten she was there. “Yes,” he managed. Why would Ember’s medical file be associated with the Ultrium X2 strain notes? None of the other flickers’ information was there.
“She’s very . . . exotic,” Karyl said. “Pretty in a wild-animal kind of way, I guess.”
He ignored her comment and scanned through the record. Then, shaking his head in disbelief, he read it again. There was a detailed account of her cleansing session. Stefan remembered the very day. She’d been stumbling down the hallway, her face white and sickly. He had offered to help her to her room, knowing full well that she’d refuse. She hadn’t.
While Stefan helped her down the corridors, the medical staff had taken her blood sample and tested it. And they’d found something unusual.
An assistant had tested the anomaly against the Ultrium X2 strain. A perfect match.
The flare gene, Stefan realized with awe. They had discovered what made her different from him. She was still a flicker, just with a little something extra.
Something that had killed several flickers a generation earlier but didn’t appear to affect her. Why?
He pulled up the previous woman’s file and examined her face—first in the younger photo, then the one before the birth. Only one mention of the child, an explanation that it was stillborn. No gender, no testing to see if it carried the gene. Nothing at all.
A crazy idea occurred to him. It was nearly outlandish, but it gripped his mind all the same. “Karyl, do you think a high commander could bribe a medic to falsify the status of an infant at birth?”
She gave him a puzzled look. “A high commander can do pretty much whatever they want. Now I’m intrigued. Does this have anything to do with your exotic girlfriend? Is there a baby involved?”
Stefan was too excited to answer. He was sure of it now. Commander Kane could have easily stolen the child, raised him under his jurisdiction, then presented the boy as a miraculous product of Kane’s breeding program. No wonder the emperor had allowed him to transport flickers back home. Kane produced extraordinary results, like Ember’s father, the first flare who’d ever existed. Or so everyone thought. The strain that had killed his mother had made the boy nearly invincible.
If only he could find out more about Ember’s father. If he could confirm his theory, it would prove the Empire had accidentally created the very flare that threatened their safety. The emperor would hate to have that kind of evidence against him—he’d do anything to prevent it. Even negotiate with traitors.
“Karyl,” he said. “You’re a much better researcher than I am. I should have seen that from the beginning. I need your help, but it has nothing to do with planets.”
“All right . . . ?”
“I need you to look up everything you can on the first flare. His name, his origin, what he could do, and where he ended up. Anything you think will be helpful.”
“And that will help you find the gypsy?”
“More than that. I think it’s the key to everything.”
Chapter 17
Your glare is really quite charming, you know,” Ruben said in an amused tone.
Ember rolled her eyes. The man was the opposite of Stefan in every possible way. Where Stefan was open and honest, Ruben was fake and flamboyant. Stefan’s humility made him seem stronger somehow, while Ruben’s arrogance made him annoying.
To her chagrin, he stood and made his way over, settling himself into the empty seat next to her. “Now, what have I done to elicit such a look from you?”
Ember raised her chin. “I don’t understand why you’re here.” She’d arrived at the ship and issued Amai her list of chosen flickers only to find that the Daughter insisted Ruben go along as well. Apparently he’d visited with her after Ember and pleaded his case.
“The success of this mission means the freedom of my people,” he said. “Where else would I be?”
“With them, for one thing. I hoped you would watch them, intervene if things went bad while I’m gone.”
“It’ll be fine. The Daughter gave me her word they’ll be looked after. She was more worried about you.” He leaned over to speak quietly in her ear. “I am too, honestly. You look positively ill.”
It wasn’t just the mission. Syd had hidden herself in the cargo bay for the first hours of their journey, revealing herself only when it grew too cold for comfort. By then it was too late to send her home. The girl wasn’t apologetic about her actions at all. She lay curled up like a cat in one of the larger chairs near the back, completely oblivious to Ember’s glare. Not only was their mission precarious, but now she had a teenager to protect as well. Amai would be furious.
There were so many steps to this mission, so many things that could go wrong. They’d trained already and discussed every step in meticulous detail. It was a decent plan written up by General Pyne himself. But he hadn’t allowed for alternatives should things go wrong, and that worried her.
For flickers, there was something worse than dying at the end of an Empire weapon.
“Ember,” Ruben said when she didn’t reply. “It’s just that I feel we have so much in common. Here we are, so far from home, taking on the impossible. It’s a privilege to be here with you.”
Discomfort flooded her as his hand inched closer to hers. She clasped her hands together on her lap, looking around the cabin. Everyone else was asleep. Even Brennan lay reclined in his seat, a large duffel bag at his feet. His weapon collection, he’d called it.
“I thought you said I was above all this,” she whispered.
“I stand by that. I’m hoping you’ll see it too, before you get yourself killed. It’s not too late to run.”
She went cold. “Run from the mission?”
“From the war. From being ordered about and used by senseless leaders. We could steal the escape pod and be far away from here in minutes. I see how you chafe under that woman’s rule, Ember. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“You really think I would—would run from the cause?” Her words burst from her mouth far too loudly, and she forced herself to calm down before she woke the others. “Never. I refuse to abandon these people when they need me so much.”
“But do you need them? What has that Daughter woman ever done for you? Belittled you, contradicted you, made you look like a fool when you performed your mission brilliantly. I suspect you know this mission will fail. It has all the signs of a trap.”
She clenched her jaw and looked away. “We have to try.”
“You don’t have to do anything. You’re a flare. You’re above the entire human race, like a god.”
Ember shifted, turning to face Ruben straight on. “Is this why you came? Because I get the sense you’re here for yourself. Not for your people, and certainly not for me.”
He stiffened, then appeared to calm himself. “I thought we could eventually become good friends, and friends protect each other. Despite our disagreements, we do share a mutual hatred for my sire, do we not?” His fake smile was back. She recognized it now.
She examined him for a long moment. “Know this. I don’t want you here. You’re here at your own risk. I will not be responsible for whatever you plan to do.”
“I plan to help the Union win. If not the Union, then my people.”
“And if not them?”
“Me, of course.”
She snorted. “Very gallant of you.”
“It’s what you expected. Because I’m so self-absorbed and all.” He stood, his smile replaced by a hurt frown, then stepped away to reclaim his seat across the aisle.
Ruben had asked her to run away. She’d dismissed his behavior in previous conversations as nonsense, but this—this definitely crossed a line. Lazarus Kane’s son. How had she missed it? He hadn’t approached anyone else on the ship since their departure yesterday. Come to think of it, he rarely approached any other women that she’d noticed. He seemed to have eyes only for her despite his initial boasting about women flocking to him so willingly.