by V. St. Clair
Reya looked uncomfortable when she said, “Gareth was supposed to meet with the Viceroy tonight, but he got there right after Parl cut his throat. Parl must not have known Gareth was supposed to be there or he would have waited…”
“Parl attacked the Viceroy?” This time Topher didn’t have to feign his shock. He had known Fox was part of this whole thing, but Parl was one of the last people Topher would have considered. In fact, he only now realized that Parl was one of the two people he had forgotten to account for only moments ago.
Parl has always been by the book. How could I have misjudged him so severely?
He had been little more than a background figure to Topher for years now; neither the most vocal, nor the most ambitious, with middling performance in their evaluations.
Lorna figured out the full meaning of Reya’s words while Topher grappled with Parl’s betrayal. She grabbed Topher’s arm to stop him from running off. “How is the Viceroy?” Lorna asked into the silence, while Topher struggled to refocus.
“The Viceroy is dead,” Reya said finally, looking haunted.
“What?” Topher’s voice was eerily calm, though in the silence his words echoed hollowly around the High Chamber. By the looks on the others’ faces, he could tell he wasn’t the first to take the news badly.
Somehow Topher had never allowed himself to believe the Viceroy could actually die in all of this. A compression of his lips was the only outward sign of emotion he permitted himself, inhaling deeply through his nose and shoving his thoughts on the Viceroy into the depths of his mind.
He just realized he wasn’t listening to what Reya was saying, and it was vital for him to understand what was going on as quickly as possible.
“—so long to down him that by the time he got back to the Viceroy, it was too late.”
“Gareth killed Parl?” Topher interrupted. Reya didn’t look surprised that he hadn’t been listening the first time.
“I’m not sure if he’s alive or dead at the moment; he was critically injured and hauled off to medical. They were both armed and armored, but apparently the comms weren’t working and it took too long for Gareth to defeat Parl and get back to the Viceroy,” she explained again.
“Well good on him for stopping that traitorous son of a bitch—eventually,” Jora put in. Kristoff was sitting beside him, slumped forward with his face in his hands. He appeared to be in shock, staring blankly ahead of him.
“Where is everyone else?” Topher changed the subject, looking around the room. “A few of us are missing, including Jessamine.”
At this, a few of Topher’s peers seemed unable to look him in the eye, and it was ultimately Kristoff who said, “Jessamine didn’t respond to the emergency call, and we haven’t been able to get into her room to check on her. That’s where the others are.” His voice was deadpan and he still didn’t meet anyone’s gaze.
“Why haven’t you been able to get in and check on her?” Topher asked indignantly. Everyone would expect him to take the news of Jessamine’s absence quite badly, possibly even worse than news of the Viceroy.
“None of us have access to her room–”
“Shellina does,” Topher interrupted, pointing to the Vicerina for emphasis.
“We can’t take the only Viceregal we know is alive into a place where there might be an attacker waiting to finish her off,” Andro spoke now, incredulous. Where Kristoff seemed shaken to his core by his friend’s betrayal, Andro was even more obnoxious than usual.
“So if Jessamine’s in there fighting for her life, we’re just going to leave her to die because her sister can’t open a door?” he asked in disbelief, startling Shellina and Darius with this small display of emotion. A few of the others looked like they had also made this argument before his arrival.
Andro stood his ground.
“We’re all worried about Jessamine, but we can’t take foolish risks with Shellina until we know the building is secure again.”
“Fine, but Shellina could have just told you the emergency override code and stayed down here where it’s safe.”
“I don’t—remember it!” Shellina cried, bursting into a fresh round of tears. Darius scowled at Topher for his insensitivity to her feelings. “It’s so long I was never able to memorize it—I always used my biochip to get in!” she sobbed horribly.
“Hanna, then,” Topher insisted. “Where is Hanna?”
“She was injured trying to protect the Viceroy,” Reya explained patiently. “She was stabbed, and is receiving treatment downstairs. We aren’t yet sure if she’ll recover.”
“Wait—Hanna was with the Viceroy?” Topher was diverted, sure he was missing something. When had Hanna ever spent time with Jessamine’s father, and why would she have been in his room tonight, of all nights?
Reya shrugged, and it was Dred who said, “With the comms down, nothing but the emergency beacons are working right now and we have been waiting for you to get back.
“Why were you unable to act before my return?” Topher asked, genuinely confused.
Andro coughed and said, “None of us know who has access to Jessamine’s room, but some of us assumed you would.”
Oh, right.
Topher shook the thought of an injured Hanna away and said, “I do. Who’s up there now?”
“Gareth and Lara are trying to bring down the door. Nate and Pierce are still in Tech, trying to talk them into overriding the access code, but they’re saying they can’t do any overrides until they get the comm systems up again. Apparently our personal communicators aren’t the only things down. We’re lucky they were able to get the emergency beacons going at all.”
Topher exhaled his frustration and said, “Lorna, Reya, you’re with me. Let’s go.”
He turned and walked swiftly back to the elevators, slamming his hand against the call button to vent his rage. The Viceroy was dead, Hanna was critically wounded, Parl was a traitor, and the most critical building on the planet had lost its entire communication system.
“This is a disaster,” Lorna muttered once the doors were closed and they were moving towards the top floor.
“That’s putting it kindly,” Reya grumbled in response.
Topher hadn’t chosen the two of them at random. He needed people he could trust were loyal to Jessamine, and the list of people he was willing to bet her life on was woefully short right now. It was fortunate that Gareth and Lara were upstairs as well, since he was fairly certain of their loyalties and needed all the help he could get.
They saw sparks of light flying in all directions as they neared Jessamine’s room, where Lara was hacking frantically at the door with her ion-sword in an attempt to break through it. Gareth was sitting on the floor, slumped forward in his armor with a black eye and a split lip, looking hopeless.
They’ll never get through that door with an ion-sword. It’s meant to be nearly impenetrable.
“Topher!” Lara looked around at him in relief. “We’re trying to get in to check on Jessamine—she won’t answer the door!”
“I’ve got it,” he walked past her and gave Gareth a nod of acknowledgement, standing in front of the access pad and rapidly keying in the seventeen-digit number.
“You shouldn’t go first, Topher…” Reya said cautiously as the door locks released, placing a hand on his arm. “There can only be one reason she hasn’t answered the door or come to the High Chamber by now. You shouldn’t be the one to see her…”
Topher frowned and said, “I’m going in.”
Despite knowing Jessamine was far away and safe, he couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel if he was walking into this room with no prior knowledge of what had happened. He would think he was walking towards her corpse, and he swallowed painfully to suppress the wave of emotion the thought elicited.
The five of them passed through the sitting room and the others looked around briefly. It occurred to Topher that they had probably never seen the inside of Jessamine’s private rooms before. He wondered how many o
f his peers had.
No wonder they think I’m sleeping with her.
He led the way across the room and into her bedroom, the door thudding against Fox’s armored body as he tried to push it open.
They all exchanged a dark look and put their combined weight against the door, forcing it open and entering Jessamine’s bedroom.
“Good God, now we know where Fox is,” Lara exclaimed, clapping a hand to her chest in surprise and lowering her ion-sword once they could see that the room was empty.
Lorna knelt down to check his corpse and found the wound at the back of his neck.
“Severed spinal column. Definitely dead,” she reported. “Looks like a standard-issue knife based on the size of the incision,” she continued with military efficiency.
“Where in the hell is Jessamine?” Reya asked, stepping up to the smashed window and looking out into the night. “She couldn’t have climbed out; not from this height.”
“And how the hell did she knife a fully-armored Major in the back of the neck?” Lara asked admiringly. “The woman can fight, but Fox must be absolute shit to lose the upper hand in these close quarters…”
“She may not be here, but if she went through the window then she’s dead,” Gareth said tonelessly, looking haggard. He was standing in the doorway, the only one who didn’t enter the room and start searching for clues with the rest of them. Topher had never felt sorrier for the man and couldn’t imagine how he must feel for letting the Viceroy bleed to death while he battled Parl.
Topher motioned Gareth inside, shut the door behind them and said, “She’s alive and safe.”
They all looked around at him in confusion and Lorna said, “Are you finally going to tell me what’s going on?”
“You—how do you know she’s safe?” Reya blurted out in shock.
“I didn’t go to the Tetra tonight, though that’s the story we’re sticking to if anyone else asks,” Topher admitted. “I had a bad feeling that someone was trying to get me out of the building tonight, so I armored up and came to guard Jessamine instead. We sent Hanna away in case there was an attack—I have no idea how she ended up with the Viceroy.”
“It was you,” Gareth looked like something finally clicked for him, some of the animation coming back to his features. “I wasn’t supposed to meet with the Viceroy tonight at all, but he called me out of the blue and said he needed some extra protection. He asked me to put on my heavies and come hang out in his foyer. Hanna must have gone to him after you sent her away from here, to warn him there might be trouble...”
Topher raised his eyebrows appreciatively and said, “Smart woman. I confess, I hadn’t realized the Viceroy would be in danger as well. I was only thinking of Jessamine.”
Gareth frowned and said, “Parl must have knocked soon after the call. Roald probably thought it was me and opened the door, only to get his throat cut.” He looked disgusted with himself. “If I had only been faster putting my gear on—I got there right after Parl dragged him back into the room and was going after Hanna. That little shit fought dirty, too—it took me forever to bring him down and get to the others. I tried the comms but they must have already been down by then; Roald’s call to me was probably one of the last things to come through. Not even the emergency beacons were working for a few minutes.”
Topher shook his head and said, “You did the best any of us could have in that situation.”
“You would have found a way to save the Viceroy. You excel at everything,” Gareth grumbled mutinously.
“Actually, I nearly slept through Jessamine’s murder, if it makes you feel any better,” Topher admitted. “I was napping in the sitting room and she forgot to wake me before she went to bed. I didn’t even notice when Fox snuck in and went to kill her until he had her pinned down.”
The others looked alarmed at this and Reya said, “How did Fox even get in? Did she open the door for him or something?”
“He’s got someone in Tech who wiped my biochip access and enabled his. Possibly more than one ‘someone’ if they brought down the entire communications network in the span of a few minutes, since there are multiple redundancies in place. We’ll have to hunt down the leaks fairly soon and put an end to them.”
Good lord, we’re going to have a lot of work to do to make the building safe again. “I got Fox from behind while he was leaned over Jessamine, and I took her out through the window and brought her somewhere safe. I barely got back to the Tetra in time to catch Lorna for our return trip.”
“Well thank Heavens we haven’t lost them both…” Reya exhaled heavily. “Shellina has been useless tonight.”
“She’s young and frightened,” Lara allowed graciously.
“We don’t need ‘young and frightened’ right now,” Lorna argued. “We need a leader.”
“Where is Jessamine?” Gareth asked him. “You know we’ll be sent out to look for her at some point, since it will appear she escaped on her own. We need to rendezvous with her and ask for orders.”
Topher grimaced. He wasn’t looking forward to this next part at all.
“About that…” he suppressed a wince. “She is currently enjoying Hera’s hospitality.”
Four identical looks of shock were reflected back at him, and for a moment there was dead silence in the room.
Gareth finally said, “I am not in the mood for games tonight, Topher. Where the fuck is Jessamine?”
“I’m not joking, sadly,” Topher sighed. “I was bringing her to a place I knew would be safe, and I only realized I was actually bringing her to Hera after we arrived. On the plus side, apparently Hera’s group hasn’t been behind these recent attacks on the family, and they very much support Jessamine and want to see her rule, so she is safe for the time being. This is actually a good thing for us, as it brings more allies at a time when we desperately need them.”
“You want us to ally with Hera?” Reya looked incredulous. “We’ve been trying to track down that woman for years, and now we’re suddenly working together?”
Topher said, “We must join forces for the common good. Her people support Jessamine and so do we, so our goals are currently aligned.”
“And when our goals are no longer aligned?” Lara asked the question everyone was thinking.
“That will be an interesting day,” Topher allowed, trying not to think about it right now.
“How did you just happen to stumble into Hera’s hideout after all this time?” Gareth asked skeptically. “Something isn’t adding up in your story.”
Topher swallowed and said, “As it turns out, Hera is—apparently—my mother.”
Again, four identical looks of amazement and shock were reflected back at him. It was finally Gareth who said, “You have got to be kidding me.”
Despite everything, Reya let out a snicker and said, “You left Jessamine with your mother? I hope they’re sharing embarrassing stories about you right now.”
That was a new and horrifying thought, and Topher said, “Come on, we need to report back to the others that Jessamine is missing. The sooner we begin the search, the sooner we’ll be able to meet up with her.” And the sooner I can stop my mother from poisoning her good regard for me.
Reya continued talking as they left Jessamine’s room, and he heard her muttering to Lara, “Topher is so screwed…”
3
Ana Crumb
Ana began the morning with a list of questions as long as her arm. She had been too shell-shocked the night before to properly interrogate Risa during their return to the Academy, but now that she had time to think, she was ready for answers.
Her morning classes had never felt longer, each minute its own subjective hour to her mind. She didn’t even bother taking notes, instead rehearsing the litany of questions she was going to berate her friend with as soon as they were free.
When the last bell finally rang, Ana sprinted out of Building-10 so fast that she crashed into another student and pushed him to the floor without even slowing down,
not bothering to wait for the bus to take her to the Physman side of campus. It was a long way to travel on foot, but she had energy to burn, and as she reached one of the walking trails bisecting the Academy she put on a burst of speed and ran as fast as she could.
It wasn’t until she approached the clock-tower in the center of campus that she realized she was furious.
How dare Risa and Hera lie to me like this?
All this time she had trusted Hera implicitly, trusted her to know what she was doing, trusted her to be as honest as she could afford to be. All of this faith, only to discover Hera was actually the mother of one of their most dangerous enemies.
She had been willing to work with Topher for as long as it took to inform him of Fox’s plan, but that didn’t mean she was friends with the man. He was still terrifying, still the monster responsible for crushing the resistances at Corithans and Halstead and effectively ending the fight against the government once and for all. After those devastating defeats, only Hera was willing to continue the push for justice.
And he’s her son.
Her lungs were aching from exertion, but Ana pushed herself further, determined to run until her legs gave out—which didn’t seem far off as she passed the clock-tower and crossed onto the other side of campus.
Risa is just as bad as Hera!
She had been feeling sorry for her friend for months, after hearing the tragic story of how she lost a loved one to the Provo. She said Topher killed him.
Is no one trustworthy anymore?
She was beginning to slow down, her legs heavy and unsteady as she approached the meeting point, stumbling the last few feet. Risa was already standing beneath the pink-leaved blush tree and Carl was keeping her company, though they weren’t making eye contact with each other. As far as Ana knew, they still weren’t speaking much.
They both turned to acknowledge her just as she came to an abrupt stop in front of them, collapsing to her knees in the dull red grass and gasping for air.
“Risa—you—stupid—shit—” she coughed, throat aching and nose running. “Kill—you—”