by Rachael Wade
My reaction was automatic. I slipped my arms around his firm back and let him hold me, breathing in his masculine scent. Sweat, the sea, and lime. Incredibly soothing.
“Then let’s take the plunge together,” he said. “Screw it. Let’s be the best Shepherds we can be, and show these alien bastards our species is worth saving.”
I grinned into his chest. “Do you think they can hear everything we’re saying?”
“What, you think they have our rooms bugged? You think we’re miked? Let me see.” He pulled back a bit and pinched my side, then behind my ear, his fingers jumping from place to place, launching us into a full-on tickle fest. In seconds, I was pinned beneath him on the bedroom floor, waving the white flag.
“Please!” I screamed with laughter. “Stop it!”
“Uppp, they heard that, Skylla Warden. They’re coming for you right now. Your punishment for laughing your ass off is two hours on the hamster wheel and twenty laps. And a Hail Mary.”
“Get off of me, you crazy man!”
“What if I don’t want to?” He hovered above me, steeling himself on his fists. “I happen to really like the view from up here.”
My laughter slowed and I gripped his shoulders, feeling the strong, solid muscles of his bare skin. His suit was still rolled halfway down his body, leaving me with a view of just a sliver of the sharp cut of his hipbones. My gaze crawled down his torso and sprang back up to his brown eyes. “The view’s not bad from where I’m at, either.” I lifted a hand to his dirty-blond hair and tugged, letting the soft strands run over my fingertips.
His eyes went dark and he slowly dropped his head, bringing his mouth inches from mine. “I bet we can make it even better.”
I stilled beneath him and let my eyes drift shut. The brush of his lips burned—sweet, soft, and intoxicating, all at once. My lower lip parted from my upper, giving him the green light. Which changed to red when bone-shaking bass rumbled against the ground, causing my entire body to rattle from the inside out. “Is that—?”
“—an alarm?” Kale pushed himself up and pulled me to my feet. “Grab your weapons, come on.”
I didn’t blink before my finger was on the trigger and a string of Aqua Bombs were snapped to my suit belt. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice said, Finger on the trigger. Someone had taught me that. I chased the voice away, adjusted my weapons, and dashed out the door after Kale.
SEVENTEEN
A rush of sharp blue text bombarded my vision while I jogged down the hallway outside the Shepherds’ rooms with Kale. I scanned it as fast as I could, but my mind was too frazzled to focus. “Something about a security breach?” I panted.
“Yeah, an escaped recruit making a run for the Capsule hangar deck on the west end,” Kale answered me, zipping up his suit and adjusting his gun.
“What are we supposed to do about it? Don’t the Invaders take care of this stuff?”
“Don’t know. Elara’s ordering us to report.”
We were supposed to play security guards now, too? What, saving the human race and helping build a new planet wasn’t enough?
I managed to zip my own suit back up, pummeling right into Kale’s back when he came to a dead stop to meet the others at the end of the hall.
“What good is it to have us running after the dumbass trying to escape?” Lorie asked, looking as if she’d been awakened from sleep.
“I second that,” one of the other women Shepherds said.
Ray’s eyes bounced from left to right as he worked to read his text command. “Looks like the Invaders have already tried stopping him, but nothing’s working. Elara wants us to intervene.”
“Well, let’s hurry it up before Robo Sally gets her panties in a twist,” Lorie said, launching into a sprint toward the west end. We all raced after her, banking a right and flying down a stairwell, following the directions being fed to us via text command.
We approached the west-end glass tunnel and zipped through it until we reached the Capsule hangar deck. We were met by a wall of Invaders surrounding a row of Capsules. Elara was stationed in front of them, staring down the genius who was trying to escape.
“There you are,” she said when she saw me, pointing to the back of the recruit’s head. He was lifting something into the Capsule, but I couldn’t see past all the commotion. Elara grabbed my arm. “This is your concern now. It is you who brought these humans here, and it is you who must put a stop to this.”
“What?” I craned my neck and struggled to get a better look at the scene.
“They are now a direct threat to our Foundation Zero mission. They could potentially expose classified information. If word spreads to the humans that only some are being selected for settlement on the new Earth, more rebellion and resistance will ensue. They are unfit for permanent settlement. They must be imprisoned. That is an order.” The recruit finished lifting what looked like another person into the Capsule and swung around, his gun aimed straight for Elara.
“Oh my God,” I whispered when I saw him. “Jet.”
“They are immune to our weapons. We have never seen anything like it. We cannot get within two feet of them.”
Lorie charged forward. “Well, shut down the launch port to Earth. Don’t let them get away!”
“We cannot divert the Capsule’s navigation, and the launch port is frozen. We cannot shut it. They have full exit clearance. Jet Phoenix overrode the system somehow.”
“This can’t be,” I said. “He couldn’t have possibly done that all on his own.” My mind fed me the memory of our trip from the Black Hole to the Invaders’ San Francisco base station. Jet didn’t like flying in that Capsule, and he certainly didn’t know how to operate one himself.
Kale’s mouth dropped open as he watched Jet climb into the Capsule and start the controls. “Well I’ll be damned.”
“What?”
“He’s got Hera with him.”
I did a double take at his words, squinting to get a look at the other passenger.
“Do not just stand there!” Elara shouted. I had no idea her voice was capable of reaching such decibels. “Stop them at once!”
“What do you expect me to do? If you can’t stop them, I can’t. And I won’t allow you to imprison them. I have final say over recruits, and I told you, they go to Foundation Zero.”
Elara stepped forward, bringing her eyes level with mine. “They are enemies. The circumstances permit me to overrule your decision. Now, Jet will listen to you. He is in love with you. Go! That is an order.” Her demand sliced into me, causing me to step back. This was it, no doubt about it.
I was serving the Invaders now.
Lunging toward the Capsule, I dashed for Jet, hearing Kale holler behind me. His words were muffled, diluted by the adrenaline coursing through my body and the blood pounding rough in my ears.
“Jet!” I screamed, signaling for him as he lifted himself into the vehicle. His eyes widened when he saw me, frozen between closing the Capsule lid and sticking around to hear me out. The struggle showered his face. “Please,” I begged, staring up at him from the ground, “don’t do this. If you go back there and tell the humans the truth … we’ll never be able to save them. We can’t risk anything interfering with our mission to get to Foundation Zero!”
Jet’s conflicted expression vanished, replaced by boiling anger. “Do you hear yourself right now, Skylla? My God, what have they done to you? Even I wasn’t this whipped when I was in service. You still have free will, you know, just like I did the day I ripped out that damn chip and took you from that prison. You can say no to this, but you’re not. This isn’t you.”
Thinking fast, I stepped forward. “This is me. I’m doing this for the entire human species. I’m doing this because I believe it’s the only chance we might have to survive, and the Invaders can give us that. You’re right. The activation only influences me. I still have free will. And I’m telling you, this is the answer, Jet. Please, get down from that thing and stay with us. If you try
to escape like this, they’ll be forced to shoot you down and imprison you.”
“They were going to kill us anyway, don’t you get that?”
“They wanted to, but I chose you as recruits for Foundation Zero so you wouldn’t be left behind. To save you. As the Seventh Shepherd, I have a say. You running like this is ruining all of that, and for what?”
“Let me ask you something, Skylla.” His glower could’ve burned my flesh right off. “Do you honestly think they’re sending those who don’t get recruited for Foundation Zero back to Prototype Seven? You think they’re shipping them all on a first-class flight back to Earth? They’re killing them. Here, in Lucenta. Putting them down like dogs in a shelter. They’re lying to you, and you’re buying their bullshit.”
My jaw clenched as his words hit me, and a sliver of doubt crept in. He was either lying himself, or his claim was true and I was just too willing to accept it because of my chosen loyalty to the Invaders. “You don’t know that.”
“I don’t?” He sneered at me, then glanced behind him to Hera. “Sunshine, give me the bag.”
Hera reached up and handed him a backpack, passing it over the seat. As she did, the flap opened and out fell a teddy bear. It tumbled down the side of the Capsule and dropped to the ground, landing at my feet. My brain registered the memory of it, and how I’d found it in the woods on mine and Jet’s journey to find Hera.
I bent down and slowly lifted it from the ground, staring at the ratty stuffed animal as if it could unlock some explanation for why I’d once felt so strongly for Hera and her brother. I broke the distraction and handed the bear back to Hera.
“See for yourself,” Jet said, tossing a flat device to me from above. “The proof is there. We took photos of the execution sector, right here in Lucenta. Humans are being herded there, told they’re being transported back to Earth, but they’re actually being sent to their graves.”
My fingers fumbled with the flat screen, sliding the images from left to right as they appeared before me. A picture of a mother and her daughter being shoved forward into a metal, bloodstained room made my stomach roll. I looked away. “How did you get these? And how are you invincible right now?” I chucked a glance over my shoulder at an impatient Elara, the Invaders, and the other Shepherds.
“We have these,” Hera’s voice called my attention to the backpack. She held it open, revealing a heap of vials that looked similar to those Kale gave us when we arrived at the base station. “One of the guards at the execution sector helped us rig the Capsule, and gave these to us.”
“Yeah,” Jet said. “And the risk he took with his life to help us get out of here will be for nothing if we don’t leave right now.”
“Come with us, Skylla,” Hera said, her beautiful eyes boring down at me. The dark wisps of her straight hair framed her innocent face. “I know you don’t feel it, but you love my brother. And he loves you. Please, we need you.”
My eyes flitted to Jet’s, and he looked away, his expression cold and guarded. “Well?” he asked, keeping his gaze trained straight ahead. “What’s it going to be?”
Kale called my name again, and I couldn’t help looking back. His expression was full of concern, his body arched and ready to spring toward me. The others restrained him, muttering things I couldn’t make out. My fingers clenched tight around the photo viewer Hera had handed me, and I turned to give it back to her, my thoughts solemn. “What are you going to do when you get back to Prototype Seven?”
“Going back to Rico. Going to show everyone these photos, then keep fighting these things until every last one of them is gone. And then find another way off the planet.”
Now it was my turn to ask. “Do you hear yourself, Jet? You’re on a suicide mission.”
He still didn’t look at me, but I could tell my words stung him. “At least it’s my choice. I won’t let them decide my fate. I’ll go down fighting.” He adjusted his harness and directed Hera to do the same. “Leave, Skylla. Now.”
Hera straightened in her seat while Jet’s fingers danced over the Capsule’s control panel. The vehicle’s lid began to slide shut above them, and my arms flung forward, lifting me up the side.
“Jet, wait!” Hera yelled, garnering her brother’s attention.
“Hurry,” I said, slipping in behind Hera. One look out the Capsule window as it clamped down over our heads, and my stomach dropped. The anger and disbelief etched on everyone’s faces fueled my desperation. “Go!” I screamed, urging Jet to move faster.
“Hang tight,” he said, launching us off the ground.
“Drink one of these, Skylla.” Hera passed an invincibility vial to me over her shoulder, along with a knife and bandage. “And you should cut your chip out so they can’t track us once we’re out.”
“You’re sure about this?” Jet said, his intense stare finding mine in the rearview mirror.
“Not at all. Just go!” I caught a glimpse of Kale’s anxious face as we shot forward and entered the hangar pad’s launch-port tunnel, and then we were gone, surging away from the hangar and en route back to Earth.
What the hell was I doing? I didn’t care about these humans, no matter how much history my memories told me I had with them. My fellow Shepherds and my Creators were back there, waiting for me. Trusting me to do the right thing. Not just for them, but for the entire human species. And Kale … God, what must Kale think, after what we’d just discussed?
Only one thing boomed loud in my mind as we rocketed into the tunnel’s darkness. The Invaders were executing those innocent recruits instead of sending them back to Prototype Seven.
No matter my desire to be loyal to them, some instinct told me this was the truth, and I didn’t need Jet and Hera’s photos to get on board with the claim. The truth was written all over Elara’s enraged features when she ordered me to stop Jet and Hera from escaping. It was plastered all over this place, and the secrets lurking in its depths. Didn’t I at least owe it to the other Shepherds—to myself and the remainder of the human population—to see if the Invaders really could be trusted?
Right and wrong, black, white, and gray, all swirled through my mind at a dizzying pace. Who was I to believe, and who could I trust? Even more importantly, could I sleep at night once I’d chosen a side? I shook my head, staring down at the knife and bandage in my lap.
Hadn’t I just chosen a side?
That was the thing about goodness, about truth and honesty—sometimes what seemed right was wrong, and sometimes, what you were so sure was wrong was actually right. The Invaders were identified as the enemies from day one. Yet here they were, with the very key to our survival in their hands, offering us a new future. That had to count for something good, right?
The Capsule jerked and jolted as it sped forward, and I could feel the gears shift as Jet guided us up and out of the tunnel, into a vertical shoot toward a blinding light.
“Jet, be careful!” Hera screeched, her knuckles turning white on the back of Jet’s headrest.
“I’ve never flown one of these things, kiddo. Just hang on, we’re almost there.”
I gripped the knife and bandage tighter against my thighs. Now certainly wasn’t the time to go cutting a hole in my neck. But Hera was right. I’d have to do it soon, or the Invaders would track us the second we made it out of the San Francisco base station. Jet and Hera said they’d rigged the Capsule, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Invaders were already working on a way to track it right now. What would I do when I made it out of here? I was a traitor to the humans now—the very worst kind. Would Jet still protect me, as he had in the past? He had no reason to trust me, but it seemed he did, or he never would’ve let me escape with him.
“You with me, Skylla?” Jet called from the front seat.
“Yeah,” I managed, my teeth chattering as the Capsule shook our bodies to a pulp.
“I’ll protect you when we get to Earth, you know.”
“How did you know what I was—?”
“I know you.�
� His brown eyes jumped to mine. “You’ll remember that soon enough.”
Before I could respond to that, a fierce flash of light—gunfire—zoomed by on the left. Hera cried out, and something bumped us from behind. More fire rained at the Capsule’s sides, our visibility lessening as we blasted vertically toward the wall of light.
“They’re going to shoot us down,” Hera screamed, throwing her head into her hands. To see this girl who once seemed so fearless terrified now made my heart clench. I never liked to see any child suffer, let alone a stranger who was blindly putting so much faith into me and whatever bond she thought I shared with her brother. My hand found her dainty shoulder, and I clamped my fingers down to grip it while I whispered words of assurance from behind.
“Son of a bitch,” Jet barked, his voice rippling with the Capsule’s shaky ascent. “Drink that damn vial, Skylla!”
The vial. Which sat buried beneath the knife and bandage. I popped open the top and tossed the liquid back, feeling it drip down my throat.
Next came the knife, and the certainty that it was now or never.
I braced myself on Hera’s headrest with one hand and brought the knife to the back of my neck with the other. Pushing my hair out of the way, I pressed the blade to my skin and made a small, horizontal slice, feeling the warm blood ooze down my fingers. The vehicle bumped again before I could dig out the chip, and collided hard with the tunnel wall. The knife was knocked from my grasp, and I heard it clink as gravity tossed it to the back of the Capsule, behind my head. An alarm sounded and blue light flashed throughout the vehicle’s enclosure.
“We’re hit,” Jet said. “We’ll have to evacuate as soon as we make it out of this tunnel. Check your harnesses and weapons, now!”
I could hear Jet and Hera scramble as they prepared for emergency ejection. I forced myself to ignore the steady flow of crimson dripping onto my cheeks from the back of my neck, and hurried to adjust my own harness and weapon holsters. “I’m good,” I said, planting my feet tight against the floor to gain traction before we were hauled from the Capsule and sent soaring into the sky. Just as Jet told us to prepare for launch, a face came flashing in the side mirrors. “Kale! It’s Kale shooting at us!”