The Game of Luck

by Catherine Cerveny

  I felt an arm tighten around me and his hand cradle the back of my head. He tipped it so he could kiss me. His lips felt like fire against my chill as his mouth sealed over mine. Then I felt his body bunch and spring with uncoiled power, taking me with him as we dove over the edge of the carriage. With Alexei’s mouth on mine, I couldn’t scream. All I could do was cling and kiss him, our bodies strapped together as we fell.

  It was a kiss unlike anything I’d ever experienced, his lips on mine, my stomach in my throat at the sudden feeling of weightlessness, wind whistling around us. There was no chance for my life to flash before my eyes. It couldn’t. There wasn’t time. Besides, Alexei was my life. What more did I need to see or feel when he was everything?

  We hadn’t fallen far before we swooped up from our nosedive. I heard the snap of fabric and felt a pull on my body—it wanted to go down, but it was being forced back up. My stomach did another somersault and I had to break the kiss. My arms tightened around Alexei’s neck and I gasped, fighting to catch my breath—terrified and exhilarated all at once. He pressed my face into his chest and a beat later, a bright, searing light exploded behind us. Even without being able to see it and my thoughts creeping with an awful sluggishness, I knew the elevator carriage had just exploded.

  We had enough distance that we didn’t feel the heat or the blast wave of air pushing us out of control. We simply zipped away, zooming over Isidis Bay, moving at a measured pace. All I felt was the press of wind and Alexei’s arms around me as we free-flew to safety.

  We came to an abrupt, jarring halt. The wind, the whirring machine noise from Alexei’s backpack, the churning vertigo in my stomach all stopped as we landed. Or I think we landed. It was warmer too—so warm, it felt like I was on fire compared to the coldness of earlier. Hands moved me, unfastening the straps and placing me in a seat. I tried to follow what was happening, but my eyelids fluttered shut and refused to reopen. Everyone around me spoke Russian, but too fast for me to follow. Blankets were wrapped around me, almost to my eyes. The smart-material radiated gentle warmth that felt like a raging inferno against my skin.

  I was moved again, sitting on someone’s lap, their arms around me. From the hum of the vehicle around us, I knew I was in a flight-limo. When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I saw was the spider tattoo. Seeing it filled me with yet another wave of relief. I’d bitten Alexei there. My teeth had broken the skin, I’d tasted blood, and I thought…Gods, I don’t know what I thought. That I’d bitten the tattoo right out of his neck, that my hijacker had made me do something terrible and beyond repair. If I had any doubts about cutting out my implants, they were all gone at the sight of that spider.

  I pressed cold lips to it, kissing his throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “Don’t think about that now. I reached you in time. And you’re safe. That’s all that matters.”

  “You blew up the space elevator,” I accused, a little stunned by that.

  “A diversion to get us away from the war hawk heat seekers,” he said, as if that made all the sense in the world. “A few minor repairs will have it operational again. No one will be left stranded in space.”

  The fact that he’d thought about others besides us impressed me. I might have said something but had bigger thoughts I needed to get out first.

  Things like—“How did you find me?”

  “We received a ping from Felipe last night through a private channel. It wasn’t until then that we knew where you were.”

  “But he’s in a Renew tank.”

  “His body is damaged, not his brain. Apparently he received a regret-filled ping from Tanith about what she’d done. He passed it on to us.”

  “Then he’s okay?”

  “He will be. And when he’s recovered, he’ll join us. Right now, you’re my priority. I have physicians standing by to meet us when we make a vehicle swap.”

  I nodded. Considering what I’d just endured, a checkup was a good idea. Another thought occurred to me, one I needed to get out before my frozen brain forgot it.

  “The physicians…They need to know I’m pregnant. Don’t let them do anything to the baby.”

  I felt him go still beneath me. When I tipped my face up to his, I saw absolute astonishment. I don’t think I’d ever seen him struck speechless before, and a happy feeling zinged through me. It went a long way toward making me feel warmer. I untucked a hand from beneath my blankets and touched his cheek.

  “It happened ten sols ago,” I added helpfully. “We’re going to have a baby. You and me. Us.”

  “Ah,” he said, the single word seeming to encompass everything. Cupping my hand in his, he pressed his lips to my palm, then my fingers. He even kissed the wound left behind from the fake citizenship chip. “The luck gene’s very fickle.”

  “It likes getting its own way,” I agreed. “When I was in medical on the Martian Princess and the men running tests on me discovered I was pregnant, they wanted to abort it. Then they wanted to conduct experiments. Caleb said he planned to sell it. No one is touching our baby. We need to do everything we can to keep it safe.”

  “You sound like you have an idea in mind. What are you proposing?” he asked, very still, and very focused on me.

  I nodded. In my head, it seemed simple. In real life, I had no idea.

  “We need to overthrow One Gov. Let’s take over the tri-system.”

  The focus sharpened, his blue eyes narrowing. “Is that really what you want?”

  I didn’t even need to think about it.

  “Yes. I’m not saying we’ll do a better job than One Gov. All I know is we need to keep our family safe. People like Caleb Dekker and Rhys Arkell and even Tanith Vaillancourt-Vieira need to get out of our way. The tri-system needs change.” My eyes flicked out the window, seeing the morning sunrise over Mars and how it bathed the whole world in light. “It looks so pretty in the sunlight. Like a diamond. That’s the tri-system too—it’s a jewel but with a flaw in its center. We need to grind out the imperfection until it shines. We can fix it. I know we can make it better.”

  My eyes went back to him. The smile he gave me was slow, sexy, and confident. It was a smile that could change the entire world. I felt a rush of excitement looking at him. Saw that same excitement mirrored in his face.

  “I knew you could see the problems with One Gov, but weren’t ready for change. I just didn’t want to press you unless you said the words.”

  “I’m ready now. I want to change everything. Can we do that?”

  His smile softened and he rested his forehead against mine. “Yes, we can do that.”

  24

  We arrived at our destination in Olympia by the end of the sol. During the vehicle swap—a flight-limo for another jump jet—the Consortium physicians treated me for mild hypothermia and frostbite, properly tended to the wounds I’d inflicted when I’d hacked out my implants, and confirmed that, yes, I was in fact pregnant. Alexei remained at my side, alternating between thunderstruck awe and ice-cold fury. Awe because he’d believed a baby wasn’t possible. Fury because someone had tried to take what was his and remove all of us from the game board. It was a Konstantin Belikov­–like move in its machinations but done without the Russian drama and homegrown treachery the Consortium seemed to thrive on. I suspected that pissed him off too.

  I may have dealt with Caleb Dekker, but there were others involved in his master plan. I knew Alexei would find whoever else was involved. He’d snipe Caleb’s memory blocks and dismantle them until he had a list of suspects. Heads in One Gov would roll, starting with Secretary Arkell, and for once I couldn’t think of a single reason to dissuade Alexei—not when I thought of my father and what he’d endured. My cousins had shared the same fate. I could have shared it too. Or Lotus. Or my baby.

  Caleb had said when One Gov moved against Soyuz Park, the Consortium had disappeared and dropped off the grid. In reality, they’d ditched their CN-net connections and abandoned Elysium City. Then they’d scat
tered themselves over Mars. The majority had gone to Olympia and the Consortium stronghold there—an underground city of six square blocks located beneath the main business and financial district of Mars. A stronghold I’d just heard about for the first time today, I might add.

  We’d been in low-street orbit and around us were countless towers and skyscrapers, as if built in homage to Olympus Mons that towered over everything. The ancient shield volcano was nearly fourteen miles high and dominated the landscape. You couldn’t help but feel tiny and overwhelmed by the sight. Then the flight-limo had veered into a large bay door that opened up in a nondescript-looking office building. The bay became a freight elevator that took us—flight-limo included—down into the bowels of Mars. When we emerged, we continued driving as if the elevator ride had never happened and the underground base built into an enormous cavern, filled with buildings and overhead lights and people scurrying about, was no big deal.

  Jaw dropping, I looked at Alexei. “You created a secret underground lair on the other side of the planet that I didn’t know about? Why would you even have this?”

  “It was a precaution in the event we faced a situation like the one we’re in now. I wanted to be prepared. I never expected it would be fully operational” was his defense.

  Clearly, he didn’t see anything wrong. Maybe I was overreacting. “How long will we be down here?” I tried in a calmer voice.

  “Only until the threat is neutralized and it’s safe to return to the surface. A few weeks at most.”

  A few weeks underground? Could I go that long without seeing the sun, knowing the weight of an entire planet lay on top of us? “Okay, great, so we’re prepared for a second round of the Dark Times, should they ever come back—which they’re not, I might add. You built a freaking underground city…This isn’t normal. Who does that?”

  “But we’re untouchable, and the Consortium’s people are safe. More important, you’re safe.” And there, he looked significantly at my stomach.

  I couldn’t argue with his reasoning, but, “You realize this is the equivalent of a supervillain’s evil lair, right?”

  “Perhaps, but being good all the time is dull.”

  He followed his comment with a scorching look that had me blushing. It also went a long way toward banishing the last of my chill. After that, I decided to keep my mouth shut and temporarily let him tuck me away.

  Alexei had set aside personal living space in the top two floors of one of the buildings. It also had an army of physicians waiting to examine me again. I was fed more warm broth and tea, then had a lukewarm shower and was tucked into bed—all done before I could study my new surroundings. But it didn’t matter as Alexei lay beside me and stroked my damp hair.

  “You don’t need to stay. You must have other things to do,” I said, then yawned as events caught up to me. “Don’t you have to make plans for world domination?”

  “We have to make plans, and we’ll do that once you’re rested. Nothing is more important than this, and I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Did I ever tell you you’re my Ten of Cups?” I asked drowsily, the words said against his throat.

  “Ten of Cups and the King of Wands? I had no idea I was so busy.”

  “It means everything is perfect. We’re a family.”

  He settled me more fully against him. “I already knew that.”

  Maybe he had, but I hadn’t. “I want it to last.”

  “It will,” he assured me. “I will see to it.”

  “Okay.” My eyes fluttered closed but I forced them open. “My cards. I need to run my cards.”

  Alexei’s smile was gentle. “When you’re rested.”

  “You have Granny G’s cards?”

  He pressed a kiss to my hairline. “Of course.”

  “How? I left them at home.”

  “I have my ways. I may not fully understand the intricacies of the luck gene, but I know how to bend the rules in my favor.”

  “You told me you didn’t care about rules.”

  “These, I do. Now sleep, moya lyubov, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

  * * *

  In the morning, I had Granny G’s cards, my c-tex bracelet, my husband, my dog, and a dozen shims from Lotus demanding I contact her right away. She was sick to the back teeth of being held prisoner in this underground Russian gulag. I was mildly surprised Lotus was there. Then again, if Stanis was in Olympia, it made sense for Lotus to be with him. I promised we’d talk soon. Right now, I had to pull myself together and get ready for a staff meeting.

  I sat on the bed, legs crossed, wearing one of Alexei’s T-shirts and swimming in the excess material. Since it smelled like him, I wasn’t in a hurry to take it off. I liked imagining being surrounded by his strength and determination, although this was probably too much to ask of a T-shirt.

  At the foot of the massive bed, in a sparsely decorated and oddly windowless room, Feodor lay in an exhausted heap, having already been walked and played with to his heart’s content earlier. In front of me were Granny G’s cards, arranged in a U-shape five-card spread. Five cards gave more insight than three, but not the in-depth analysis you got with ten. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for ten. As I drummed my fingers on my knee and considered the results, Alexei strolled in wearing a towel, his skin still damp from the shower.

  I frowned at the scar high on his left side, where the dragon tattoo began to encircle his waist. Though he’d said it would heal and disappear, seeing it upset me. It reminded me that I’d almost lost him, how I’d almost let despair swallow me when I thought of my life without him, and how I’d lost control of everything and been used by Caleb.

  He dropped a kiss on my shoulder, the skin exposed by the too-large T-shirt. Then he stretched out next to me and propped his head up with his hand. He lay on his left, the move hiding the scar from view. It wouldn’t surprise me to know he’d done that on purpose.

  “How are you fingers?” he asked, watching my hands move over the cards.

  “No more pins and needles, but I feel like I might never be warm again.”

  “And here?” He put his free hand on my stomach. The brush of his fingers was both tender and careful, as if a miracle had been placed in front of him and he was in a state of reverent awe.

  “I’m fine. My body barely knows it’s pregnant. If you keep asking how I am for the next nine months, it’s going to get annoying.”

  “I prefer you annoyed and livid with rage than traumatized and broken by what you endured.”

  When I’d told him what Caleb had done with me and why I’d cut out my implants, Alexei had been so furious, he couldn’t even speak. He’d just gone all scary and cold, and I could only imagine what he might be thinking—definitely crime-lord crazy. But he set it aside while he held me and let me cry all over him. What I’d done when Caleb was in charge—almost killing Alexei, the forced voyeuristic nightmare—was going to take time to put behind me.

  “Knowing you’re alive has kept me going. And the baby—having to fight to protect this new life helps too,” I admitted honestly, meeting his eyes. “I still feel betrayed and dirty like I can’t get clean no matter how many showers I take, but mostly, yeah, I’m really mad. And honestly, being mad actually feels like a good thing. I was so angry at what was happening and so determined to figure out a way to escape, there was no opportunity to feel much else. No therapist in the tri-system would ever condone what I did, but I don’t feel remorse for pushing Caleb off the elevator carriage. I know that should make me a terrible person, but I don’t think I am. In a way, maybe it helped because I could take control back. I had something to protect. I fought for it. I won. It’s over.”

  “And that’s one of the many reasons why I love you—I know you have the strength to endure anything. I will always want to protect you with everything I possess because I never want to see you hurt, but I also know you’ll survive. You will always fight and find a way.”

  “Gods, for a bad boy crime lord, you can be
really sentimental and mushy,” I said, swiping at my eyes with the back of my hand before I could cry again.

  “Apparently my wife brings out my mushy side,” he said, smirking at me from where he still lay with his chin in his hand, propped up on his elbow. With his free hand, he gestured to the cards. “What does it mean?”

  “Since you seem to know it all, you could research their meaning on the CN-net yourself. The cards you flashed at me on the space elevator were perfect.”

  “That’s because I knew the exact message I wanted to convey. It doesn’t make me an expert. I don’t have the luck gene to ensure the future unfolds the way I want. That’s all on you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So that’s how you think luck operates—I’m manipulating the future? If that’s the case, why do I make so many sideways decisions to get where I need to be? Why not just head there directly?”

  He grinned. “If that was how the game worked, we’d all die of boredom. Come on, tell me what the cards show you.”

  “Personally, I wouldn’t mind more boredom,” I said. Then I pointed to the cards, moving from left to right.

  “I want to know about today’s meeting, and what we can expect. First up: Four of Pentacles, the present,” I said, touching the leftmost card. “This is guarding your possessions and holding on to what you have, but also a fear that you might lose what you’ve gained. The second card: the World, what we hope will happen next. Frankly, I wished this was at the end instead of in this position. It means we succeeded and achieved everything we’ve worked toward. But it’s a hope, not a reality.”

  “And the third card?”

  “I’m not sure how I feel. We’re seeing what’s hidden behind the scenes. Two of Wands, reversed. In this case, opposition or possible obstacles. We might start to doubt ourselves and be afraid to move forward because we haven’t planned properly. The fourth card: Temperance, what’s going to happen in the coming sols or week. It means patience. Be diplomatic and impartial, and basically hurry up and wait. Things will happen in their own time.”