Mars Burning (The Saving Mars Series-)

by Cidney Swanson

  It wasn’t even a particularly good pun, although Wu allowed he might be considered a poor judge of such things.

  During Wu’s interrogation of one of the dissenting residents of Yucca, the leader of the group had said, “You can’t go around destroyin’ everyone who disagrees with the Viceroy’s and Chancellor’s policies. It’s like tryin’ to hunt down all the rattlers in the desert. There’s always gonna be islands of resistance—pardon the pun. It’s human nature to be ornery and contrary.”

  The clue had slipped right past Wu originally. He’d put his intelligence team on the recording, looking for something he might have missed. It had been frustrating to allow the dissidents to simply leave before exploring some of the less pleasant means of procuring information available to him, but Wu knew better than to question the Chancellor’s orders. Or to deviate from them by a single degree. If she said the prisoners were to be released, they had to be released. Wu suspected this had been done in concession to the wishes of Lucca’s now–dead nephew.

  But Vladim Wu had not let the investigation rest entirely. Wu had put his best analysts on the job of examining and re–examining the footage of his initial interrogations. He knew that sooner or later, Lucca would regret allowing the escape of those who’d had firsthand contact with her nephew and the Martian—or rather, Martians.

  It was the repeated groan on the part of his assistant that caught Wu’s attention. His assistant hated puns, as she let him know whenever he inadvertently spoke one. And one day, as she’d groaned (predictably) at the point where the former prisoner asked pardon for his pun, Wu had walked over to his assistant’s desk.

  “Re–play the last fifteen seconds.” His request was spoken in his usual soft tones, betraying none of his new interest in the recording.

  His assistant backed up the footage and replayed it. And groaned on cue.

  “That’s it,” said Wu. “Islands.”

  “Sir?”

  “The dissenter is apologizing for having made a play on words, is he not?”

  “Yes, sir. The pun stinks.”

  “He’s revealed something important, though. It’s not the pun he should be apologizing for—it’s the revelation of where his associates are likely to be found.”

  His assistant stared at him, puzzled. And then her eyes widened. “Oh, I see. And he assumes we already know inciters and the like inhabit islands, doesn’t he? Hence, the apology for a pun he assumes we caught.”

  Wu smiled. “We did catch it. It merely took us a while.”

  Within two hours, Vladim Wu made a full report to the Chancellor, detailing island locations most likely to harbor Martian infiltrators. Among them, he starred several as preeminently suspect.

  Cuba. Gran Canaria. Wharekauri. Madeira.

  7

  Madeira, Earth

  As Jessamyn and Kipper entered the Great Hall, they joined the others gathered around the dining table. Zussman was making the rounds offering oatcakes, strong smoky tea, and small glasses of amber–colored liquid.

  Jess declined the whiskey, which Brian Wallace, to the one side of her, took as a signal to avail himself of two glasses. Kazuko and Ethan appeared deep in conversation, and Jess wondered if they’d discovered some new setback. Harpreet smiled at Zussman’s offer of tea as though she had not a care in the world.

  So what was up?

  Cameron Wallace, flanked by sergeant–at–arms Jamie on one side and Pavel on the other, rapped the table to call everyone to attention.

  Pavel flashed a bright smile at Jessamyn. It must not be bad news, then. Her shoulders dropped a few centimeters.

  “Thank ye all so very much for joining me this afternoon,” said Cameron. “I’ve been in conversation with young Pavel here and Mr. Zussman on a topic of grave importance. It’s to do with that nosey Chancellor,” said Cameron, gripping tightly to a small shot glass of whiskey.

  With a strained smile, Jessamyn accepted a steaming cup of tea from Zussman. The stream drifted lazily toward the high ceiling, and Jess fretted over the waste of water—a habit she couldn’t shake.

  “So,” continued Cameron Wallace, “Regarding Chancellor Lucca Brezhnaya: I’ve been puzzling and pondering as to how I ought to handle her when one day she figures out the most likely current location for the Marsians seen by her body–jacking spy is Madeira. ”

  “Brian’s never lived here before, and he’s the only real link between us,” said Jessamyn. “Maybe Lucca will never make the connection.”

  “Maybe I’ll step down from leading the clan tomorrow,” replied Cameron.

  It took Jess a moment to realize the clan leader was employing sarcasm.

  “She’ll figure it out,” said Brian, draining one of his glasses. “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually she’ll come storming in, demanding the immediate surrender of the lot of us.”

  “Or worse,” said Cameron.

  Jess stared into her cup of tea. When it came to Lucca, worse could be very bad indeed.

  “And while I’d like to be prepared for that eventuality,” said Cameron, “What I’d prefer is to head it off completely. ”

  She turned to Pavel. “With this young man’s help, I believe we may have hit upon an idea that will turn everything in our favor. What I’m proposing is that the time for keeping Mars hidden is past.”

  Jessamyn’s eyes shot upward to Cameron.

  “Just look at how thrilling it’s been for those of me clan who were formally in ignorance to learn ye are well and thriving on that cold planet so far away,” said Cameron.

  Jessamyn’s grip tightened on her mug. Exposing Mars was not part of the plan.

  “Hear her out, Jess,” said Pavel. “She’s thought this through really carefully.”

  Jess glared at Pavel. Was this his idea? Why hadn’t he come to her first? She would have shot any such plan down right away.

  Cameron stood, placed the flat of her palms on the table, and leaned toward the Marsians. “Ye’ve no idea how completely the world—sorry, that’s our world—would welcome the news that Mars is alive and thriving. Ye’d be more beloved than Saint Nicholas himself. And a good deal more popular than the Chancellor. She’d have no choice but to make concessions. She wants to remain well–liked, and that would mean adopting a pro–Mars stance.”

  A brief laugh escaped Jessamyn. “Of all the things I can imagine Lucca doing, taking a pro–Mars stance is the least likely.”

  Cameron shrugged. “She’s a politician. She’d have no choice if she wished to remain popular.”

  Jessamyn thought briefly of Mei Lo, and of the strategies she was employing even now to retain her position—to be able to win the vote happening in a few weeks. Politicians had to be nimble; they had to know when to stick to their policies and when to flex. But Lucca would not change. Jess felt it in her bones.

  “I don’t like it,” said Jess, trying to keep her tone calm. “We’ve done just fine for over a century keeping ourselves hidden. The fact that the Terran government wants to sweep our existence under the rug is a good thing. The last thing we want now is someone interfering with how we run our world.”

  Cameron shrugged. “I’m not proposing anything that would result in interference—”

  “Holy Ares!” interrupted Jess. “If they know we exist, they’ll interfere.”

  Cameron continued, her voice calm. “Not everyone wishes to interfere, me dear.”

  Jessamyn crossed her arms, unsettling her cup of tea. Zussman was at her side in a moment and she felt her face flare with embarrassment.

  “The world will fall in love with ye,” said Cameron. “All we’d need to do would be to document the fascinating struggles and challenges of life on the red planet. It would be like exposing a new–discovered species, as it were.”

  Jessamyn glowered. “Mei Lo would never authorize it.”

  “With all due respect, lass, Mei Lo is a bit far away at the moment. She has not the insider understanding of the situation that we have here. And
she assuredly does not wish for ye to be handed over to the Terran Chancellor for questioning. This can prevent that from happening.”

  A frown furrowed Jessamyn’s forehead. It was probably true that nothing short of a return trip to Mars would ever place them out of Lucca’s grasp.

  Her brother spoke. “The distance between ourselves and the Secretary General is immaterial. What matters is that her orders—the orders of Mars Colonial Command—are clear: we are not to reveal ourselves under any circumstances.”

  “Me dears, it’s a bit late for that, is it not?” asked Cameron. “Besides, I am convinced that by presenting ye to the planet, we’d increase the chance that ye might someday return to Mars.”

  “Our own return is irrelevant,” said Jessamyn. Her flat tone belied her. But she knew it was the truth, and she would not disobey Mei Lo for the sake of increasing the odds she’d get home. “It’s wrong. Exposing Mars goes against every policy MCC has had in place for the past century.”

  Cameron shrugged. “Why not present the facts to the Secretary General?”

  “She’ll never agree,” replied Jess.

  “It seems unlikely,” said Harpreet, speaking for the first time. “But it also seems prudent to present her with the idea. Especially in light of the upcoming election on our home world.”

  “A message to Mars’s Secretary General, then,” said the Scotswoman, rising and good naturedly raising her remaining glass in a toast to her friends. “I’ll just go record it now. With any luck, we’ll have a response by supper. And then we shall see, me dears!”

  Jessamyn watched as the large woman made her way to the far end of the Great Hall, disappearing down a corridor Jess had yet to explore.

  Harpreet turned to Ethan and Kazuko, engaging them in conversation. It looked to Jessamyn as though the meeting was at an end.

  “Come with me,” she said to Pavel, rising without waiting to see if he was following. She crossed the hall and exited to the stone–flagged forecourt of the castle.

  She could hear Pavel’s feet as he ran to catch up to her. Crossing her arms solidly over her chest, she turned to face him. “What was that?”

  Above their heads, the castle flags flapped noisily in the wind, which also kept her voice from carrying to the guards stationed along the outer wall of the castle.

  Pavel’s smile faded from his face. “I think the answer’s pretty obvious. That was a ploy to keep all of you alive.”

  Jess swore, the wind bearing the words aloft.

  “Jess,” said Pavel.

  She turned her back to him.

  “Jessamyn.”

  She was too angry to speak at the moment. Pavel knew how important secrecy was to her world.

  “Jess,” he said again, “Come on. Talk to me. I’m right here. I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong.”

  She spun around. “I think it’s pretty obvious.”

  “You don’t like that I sided with Cameron on this?”

  “I don’t like that it didn’t even occur to you to talk to me first.”

  “Oh,” said Pavel. He was silent for a beat. “Listen, Zussman approached me this morning. He’s been keeping an eye on the movement of one of my aunt’s chief spies. Zuss doesn’t like what he’s been seeing, and he asked what I thought.”

  “What did Zussman see?” asked Jess, her gaze flicking to Pavel.

  “Vladim Wu—that’s my aunt’s main henchman du jour—has been visiting islands around the world. There’s a very good chance Madeira’s next.”

  Jessamyn felt her heart skip a beat. “You might have mentioned this in Cameron’s little summit meeting just now.”

  “Cameron thought you should all be free to make a decision without having to factor in that Wu might threaten Madeira. I disagreed, but I let her present it the way she wanted to.”

  “Obviously,” replied Jess.

  “Zuss could be wrong.”

  “It doesn’t change anything,” said Jessamyn, crossing her arms once more, this time because the wind was beginning to chill her. “I am an officer under orders, Pavel, and it is not my place to question my orders or disobey them or demand my government change them.”

  “Since when have you let orders stand in your way?”

  The words stung like an insult, but she had no response. Pavel was right. “I’m trying to learn from my mistakes,” she said coldly.

  Pavel’s eyes told her plainly she was hurting him, but Jess offered no apology. She would not continue to make the same blunders over and over again.

  “Rules are there for a reason, Pavel. And ‘No Contact’ is a pretty important one. Even if Wu is coming, it changes nothing.”

  “Jess, it changes everything. If Zuss is right, my aunt is on the warpath looking for any Marsians she thinks are still alive. She knows who was in Yucca. She thinks you and I and Zuss are dead, but that leaves it open season on your brother and Harpreet and Kipper. Not to mention Brian and Kazuko.”

  “Lucca thinks Kipper’s dead, thanks to the report you filed through Doctor Ruchenko.”

  “Fine,” agreed Pavel. “But my aunt’s snooping around on islands, Jess. Islands. Someone let something slip. Or Wu is just that good. I’m telling you, she’ll find us.”

  “So we run,” said Jess.

  “I’m not willing to let my aunt get her hands on you again, Jess. I can’t let that happen.” He turned his eyes out over the forecourt. “I’m not prepared…I’m not…” His brows folded in pain, in shame. “I’m not strong enough to face that again.”

  Jess felt a tug in a Pavel–ward direction, but she was not backing down from her position. “Exposing my entire world in a bid to keep a handful of people safe is not the right answer. You should have talked to me first, Pavel.”

  “I should have,” he agreed. “But I guess I already knew what you’d say.”

  With that, he turned and walked away.

  Jess felt a bit stunned. She wasn’t about to call after him—she was the injured party here. As well as being in the one with a claim to the higher moral ground: Mars’s safety came before her own.

  She waited long enough for him to have made his way through the Great Hall and then turned to go inside herself.

  ~ ~ ~

  Mei Lo’s response, which came swiftly, was no surprise to any of the Raiders. Cameron, however, was very disappointed by the recommendation that secrecy should be maintained.

  “I still say it’s the wrong course of action,” she said over supper that evening.

  Supper, which included a new variety of pizza every night in honor of Jessamyn’s love of the Terran ration, was normally Jessamyn’s favorite time of day, apart from the hour or two she snatched to fly.

  But tonight she didn’t feel hungry. She picked at the fresh mozzarella with her fork, nibbling at the leaf of basil she’d pried out of the steaming red sauce. Basil was a surprising ration—big flavor in a small package. But unfortunately, her appetite, if not lost entirely, was certainly wandering tonight.

  Silence had fallen around the table, and Jess noted she wasn’t the only one picking at her food. Only Ethan ate normally, and Jess knew this was because he had not yet reached the predetermined caloric amount he consumed at each meal.

  At last Cameron Wallace cleared her throat and spoke.

  “I maintain what I said earlier, in spite of yer leader’s recommendation,” said Cameron. “And, keep in mind as well, she called it a recommendation and not an order.”

  “True,” replied Harpreet.

  “I don’t understand,” said Cameron, shaking her head sadly. “Ye might, by announcing yer presence, create an irrefutable sympathy that would drive the Chancellor to treat ye as ambassadors rather than fugitives.”

  Harpreet smiled. “Perhaps.”

  Ethan spoke. “The Secretary also requested that the Raiders present to her an independent assessment of Cameron Wallace’s recommendation. Shall we state our positions and cast votes?”

  Jess cleared her throat. “Wi
th the election and all, Mei Lo’s under a lot of pressure. Right now would be a very good time for us to show her that we stand in solidarity with her recommendation.” She studiously avoided making eye contact with Pavel as she spoke. “Cameron’s recommendation will have reminded Mei Lo that our individual lives are at stake here. The Secretary’s going to be feeling like she’s signed our death warrants by not going with Cameron’s advice. We need to remind Mei Lo it’s not her fault and that we knew what we signed up for as Raiders.”

  “Indeed, daughter,” said Harpreet. “Your suggestion is most compassionate. Let us state our recommendations, then, shall we?” She turned to Kipper. “As the highest ranking officer among us, would you be so good as to begin?”

  But Kipper shook her head. “I’m going to take this opportunity to tender my resignation as captain. It’s not like I have a ship under my command anymore. But if I did, I would resign command.”

  Jess was ready to protest, but Harpreet spoke first.

  “You and I have spoken of this already, daughter. If this is your final decision, I shall accept it.”

  “It’s my final decision,” said Kipper. “And I wish to abstain from voting on whether or not to forward Cameron’s agenda.”

  “Very well,” said Harpreet. “Ethan? What is your position?”

  “I recommend that we continue in a course of silence as to both our presence on Earth and the existence of the Mars Colony.”

  “Very well,” said Harpreet. “Jessamyn?”

  “I vote we don’t break the No Contact Accords,” said Jess, her tone curt.

  Brian Wallace chuckled beside her.

  “I mean, any more than we already have,” Jess added.

  “And my vote falls with yours,” said Harpreet. “I shall send our message to the Secretary at once, in hopes it will allow her an easier night’s rest.”

  “Ah,” said Cameron. “About that comm relay…Jamie tells me we’re having problems at the moment.” She looked hopefully at Ethan, as if asking for help.

  “Perhaps,” said Ethan, “I can be of assistance.”

  “Aye, lad,” said Cameron. “That would be most welcome. But for now, ye won’t be getting any sort of message through.”