I am a freedom fighter.
She had gotten into this mess because she was afraid of death. Hers, Kat’s, her parents’, her friends’. She was afraid of what would come after, if anything. She was afraid it would be darkness, just as she didn’t exist before birth, so too she wouldn’t exist after death. The thought made her sick to her core, a concept that she couldn’t wrap her head around. A fear so primal that she didn’t even go to her own grandparents’ funerals.
It was a fear that kept her from killing herself all of these years in this prison, but it was that fear that had gotten her into this position to start with.
“Warning: one hundred milliliters left of daily water ratio.”
Why was she even saving money? She was never going to get off this station in anything but a cremation baggie. She slapped the water off and grabbed a towel. She hadn’t had a private shower since she’d arrived and she wanted one. Right now. With hot water. And steam. And strawberry-scented body wash with those little plastic balls that would exfoliate her skin.
The lights were dimmed, as this was still the off-shift. The station maintained planet-side rotations to help with energy conservation and consumption. Still, even now there were people up and showering.
Behind her, a familiar voice said, “Oh, hey Rebecca. Are you feeling any better?”
A chill went through her body. Zain must have her on monitoring to always be in the showers whenever she was. That was so fucking creepy. She glanced at the private showers with their fifty-credit fee, complete with thirty minutes of steaming hot water. Rebecca smiled at Zain and walked over to the shower, slapped her phone against the scanner, and smiled again at Zain when she stepped inside. She never spoke a word to him because being nice to him would never get him off her back now.
Rebecca peeled out of her clothes and put them, plus her phone, into the waterproof wall drawer. The display said the timer would begin once she turned on the water. She pressed the ON button, and lukewarm water hit her body from the various directional nozzles. She didn’t even know it would be a full-body massage, and happily pressed the temperature UP button on the display until her back burned.
She rested her hands against the wall and enjoyed the hot water rushing down her naked body. This was her first hot shower in years. Not since that week long before she arrived when she burned through most of her meagre personal credits in the shower to avoid killing herself. That was only to use the shitty showers on the transport to get to Jupiter. This was heaven.
A knock on her door interrupted her and the door swung open. Rebecca whirled around and was shocked to see Zain standing in the doorway, naked. In her private shower. “You forgot to lock the door. I thought I’d sneak in and share your water. I’ll reimburse you for half.”
She was absolutely certain she had locked the door behind her, since the display didn’t come up until she had flipped the latch. That meant he’d picked the lock or used his security clearance to get in. Rage nearly blinded her.
Rebecca tried to fold her limbs about her private areas and resulted in turning her back on him. “Zain! Get out of here!”
“You playing with yourself or something? Cock, Rebecca, if you needed some company, you should have just asked.”
She stared at him, unsure if it was horror or revulsion she felt the most. “How dare you come in here! This is my space, not yours.”
“I was teasing. I’ve seen you naked before, it’s not a big deal. Is this an Earth thing?”
“No, Zain. This is a me thing. I don’t want you in here. I don’t want you to see me naked right now.”
“Why ever not?”
“I feel uncomfortable.”
Confusion spread across Zain’s face. “Why?”
“Zain? Get out of here right now or I’m going to call for security.”
“Stop acting like I’m about to rape you.” He snorted. “Besides, it’s not like I can rape the willing.”
Before, she would have thought her translator had misinterpreted his words into a common English phrase. But she’d seen his true face now, and she knew her translator was working fine. “Get out, or I will scream.” She nearly shouted those last words.
He flung open the door so that everyone else in the showers could have a good look at her naked body. He gave her a flourishing bow, as if he’d been at her service, while the others chuckled. She was still curled up on herself, with most of her back facing out. The others just seemed to laugh more at that, like they all assumed Zain had forced himself on her and it was hilarious.
She reached out and grabbed the door from him and slammed it shut. It was then she realized the water had shut off. The display showed she had lost her credits for the shower, since the door had been opened. Zain had done that on purpose.
Then she tapped her cell on the display and ordered another shower, and thought of ways to keep herself safe from Zain until Kat was done with her.
Chapter 15
Rebecca gathered her tools and headed to the security office four hours ahead of day shift’s usual start. Kat’s timeline information was purposely vague, but Rebecca knew well enough that sooner was better than never. Her pod mates gave her wary or amused looks, depending upon if they’d seen the display with Nino or the display with Zain. For himself, Nino glared at her, but made no attempt to engage in conversation.
She skipped her morning algae bun and her usual protein bar. Instead, she stopped at the vendor Chad was still working on and ordered herself a pork-stuffed meat bun. She knew it wasn’t really pork, but it tasted enough like it that it was easy enough for her translation program to adjust it to pork. She added an imported tea to round it out to a full five credits. For breakfast.
“Heavy spender this morning,” Chad said with a chuckle. “I’ll cut you some slack, considering.”
“Considering what?” Rebecca asked suspiciously, as she waited for the bun to cook. The display showed forty-five seconds.
“Well, ya know, since you and Nino were apparently having a big affair behind all of our backs. Damn, Rebecca, none of us knew. We all assumed you were banging Zain. He was so pissed last night.”
She stared at him. “Nino? What?”
Chad waved his wrench in the air. “Don’t worry, we all know. Nino told us after you tried to strangle him in the pods. Well done. We used to be a couple, back before you got here. I wanted to strangle him at the end, too.”
Rebecca hadn’t wanted to engage in small talk, but even this tidbit of gossip appealed to her. “Seriously? You and Nino?”
Chad blushed a little. “Yeah, well, we’re all young and stupid some times.”
“Fair enough,” Rebecca said. She grabbed her bun and her mug of piping hot tea. “Well, off to the salt mines.”
Chad looked around and said, in a lowered tone, “Be careful, okay?”
“What makes you say that?”
Again, Chad scanned the busy crowds around him. “I saw Zain heading down to security and he was in a foul mood. I heard he was planning to get you re-assigned. Back to him.”
Rebecca bit her lip and glanced down at the giant SECURITY sign that would lead her down to her job, or now a confrontation with Zain. “Oh.”
“Like I said, he’s pretty pissed.”
Rebecca nodded her head. “Yeah, he was…inappropriate last night and I got angry at him.”
“Good. Never liked that prick. Anyway, I gotta get this thing working before it explodes hot tea on everyone.”
She forced out a smile that she was sure looked more like a muscle spasm than anything genuine. She did not want to think about anything exploding. She had to get her work done.
Rebecca was grateful for her conversation with Chad because she was prepared when she strolled into security and saw Zain shouting at Nate Lowell.
“Listen here, Ensign. She is under my repair squad and I get to reassign her.”
“I’m sorry,” Lowell was saying, “but Captain Andrewson was very specific.”
“I d
on’t give two shits what Captain Andrewson said. I want Rebecca St. Martin’s security access revoked now, and I want her reassigned to my repair squad.”
“I’m sorry, sir. The answer is no.”
Zain leaned forward and said, in a low growl, “Do you know who I am?”
“Someone who is interfering with my job,” Rebecca interjected in a loud voice. Everyone turned to stare at her, which made her heart pound painfully hard. “Zain, why the hell are you pestering poor Nate? He’s got nothing to do with this. And, Nate, what are you doing in security?”
Nate gave her an eager smile. “I just got a promotion!”
“Good for you,” Zain said in an unimpressed voice. “Rebecca, you’re needed to help with upper level repairs. There’s still brain stuck in the fans up there and we’re tearing the entire upper enviros apart today.”
Rebecca glanced at Nate before looking back at Zain. She leaned forward and whispered, “Why are you here?”
“Aren’t you happy to get out of the pits and back with your friends?”
She ignored his little jab and said, “I have a lot of work to do. Excuse me.”
Zain grabbed her by the forearm and yanked on her. She protested, but he pulled on her harder until she followed him out of Nate’s hearing range. “Come with me.”
Zain hauled her outside of security, still gripping her arm, and though she made futile protests, she followed him out of the doors and to a semi-secluded corner just beyond. Zain finally let go of her, giving her a small shove in the process. “Do you have any idea what you’re involved in?”
“I’m involved with a man who thinks it’s fine to sneak into a woman’s private shower,” she shot back.
He grabbed her arm again and pushed up against her. “You know what I mean. Who is Captain Andrewson? Is that Katherine? It’s her, isn’t it?”
“Get your hands off me,” Rebecca said, struggling against him. She noticed some of the foot traffic glancing in their direction, but everyone continued on with their jobs.
“Is Katherine still alive?”
The shock Rebecca felt wasn’t fake. In that moment, she realized Zain had known about Kat all of this time. She’d figured out he’d have to know she was alive, but it hadn’t occurred to her that he would have read her files to connect them. But of course he would have, if he was monitoring her. He’d have known about her parents. He’d have known about Kat. He’d have known it all.
“I’ve never mentioned Kat to you.”
Anger flickered across Zain’s face. “Is she Katherine Frances or not?”
“Kat is dead. That’s how I ended up here.” She snorted. “I should have known, ya know? All of this time, and I should have known.”
“Known what?”
“You’re a fucking Corps spy. Get your hands off me or I swear I’ll start screaming.”
He let go of her and put his hands up. “Hands are off.”
“You were never my friend,” Rebecca said through the tears that stung her eyes.
“I’ve been your only true friend here,” Zain said quietly. “I’m worried about you and I’m trying to protect you. There is something going on here and I’m afraid you’re going to get dragged into it.”
“You’re worried about me? Seriously? How can you have time to be worried when you’re always staring at my ass and fucking me in your mind?”
Zain growled under his breath.
“That’s what I thought. Look, Captain Dags asked me to do this before he died. Okay? Not Andrewson. Dags. She’s only getting me to do it until either his replacement shows up or I find whatever it was that Dags was worried about. That’s it.”
It bothered Rebecca how well the lie had come out. That was a Kat-level lie. Just the smallest twist of the truth so that she could easily remember the lie in the heat of the moment.
“And, besides, I didn’t know if I could trust you anymore.”
Zain took a step into her personal space. “You thought I was a rebel?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know what you are, Zain, other than a fucking liar, of course.”
“You could have asked me.”
“Okay. What are you, Zain? Are you a Blackout operative? Corps military? Secret Service? Central Intelligence? Mercenary Contractor? Corporate Spy? What are you?”
“Your friend,” he said.
Rebecca wanted to believe him, for he did seem sincere. But she’d been lied to too much now to believe anything these bastards said to her. No wonder she was under surveillance. They’d known she would turn. They knew her better than she knew herself.
“I don’t even understand why you’re helping. You’ve never cared about anything before.”
His words stung her because they were right. She had worked so hard to stop caring. She’d failed, but she had tried. “No, Zain. I have always cared. I’ve just tried to hide it. So, are you going to let me do my job or are you going to hurt me?”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. I…” Zain reached his hand out to touch her face. “I’m trying to protect you.”
Rebecca cringed under his touch. She turned her head away and said, “If you want to keep me safe, then stop drawing attention to me and let me go do my job.”
He yanked his hand away from her face like it was laced with poison. He spat at her boots. “You want to throw your life away? Go ahead. I’m not going to help shield you anymore.”
He spun on his heels and marched off. She watched him for a few seconds, until she was certain he wasn’t going to circle back. She walked inside to quizzical glances. She nodded at Nate, who returned the gesture. Then she headed down to the lower wards and open rebellion.
*****
Rebecca didn’t have any issues getting through security once she actually got to the elevator, and she was escorted further into the depths of the place. She was close to the prison cells where Kat’s friends were being held. The chatty guard was there again, and helped her pull off the panel. He also passed her tool kit into the shaft while she crawled into the repair tube.
“I heard Zain was causing some trouble up top,” he said.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes and asked, rather pointedly even to her own ears, “Who are you?”
He chuckled. “There is a reason we wear the masks.”
“I thought it was to avoid individual retaliation against Corps crimes.”
The stunned silence between them stretched, making Rebecca wonder if she had finally given up the game. But then the guard leaned closer to her, his black helmet obscuring her ability to identify him.
“Rebecca, for your own safety, get that tongue of yours back under control.” Then he put the panel back into position, the magnetic locks clicking.
Rebecca let out a long exhalation and crawled through the tunnel. She consulted her map twice until she was certain she was at the correct junction. Then she called Kat.
“What’s taken you so long?” Kat demanded.
“Zain knows something is up. I don’t think we have a lot of time.”
“Shit. What are you doing now?”
“I’m going to try to disable the security drones near and inside the prison exit.” Kat’s startled silence prompted Rebecca to keep talking. “That’s what you want, right?”
“Yes, but…are you sure, Rebecca?”
Rebecca looked around her. She was alone. “I have been dead inside for so long that I forgot how to think for myself. I’d forgotten how to make the simplest decision for my own benefit. Zain threatened me. For all I’ve done here, they are all the same, aren’t they? They think we’re all about to rebel at any time. They’ll never trust me. They’ll never let me leave. So, do you want me to disable the fucking robots or not?”
“Please,” Kat said quietly. “And Rebecca?”
“I don’t care,” Rebecca cut her off before Kat could say something warm or caring. She didn’t want to hear it. “Call me in an hour with a new time frame. I’ll let you know if I can make it
.”
“One hour.” The line went dead.
*****
Mav watched the guard wave the scanner in front of the force field near the floor. A small rectangle opened up, allowing the other guard to slide a plastic tray across the cell floor. It bumped against Mav’s bare foot.
“Oh, my favourite,” Mav said. “Beetle bar.”
“Don’t want it? Don’t eat it,” came the feminine voice from behind the mask of the guard with the scanner. She waved it again and the small hole closed.
They did the same task with the others in the cells, accompanied by two additional sentries who stayed near his cell for the entire dinner service. Mav didn’t exercise manners. He ripped off the shiny wrapper and bit off a huge bite of the brown food with various coloured specks in it. He was surprised to discover it was a sweet, fruit bar.
He didn’t say a word, just kept chewing the food hardened from staleness. His jaws began aching from chewing, and he swallowed hard chunks before he should have, but he was starving. The others were mostly silent, too, with occasional lip smacking and moans of appreciation. He pulled open the small foil package on the tray and drank half of the supplement-filled electrolyte drink. He chewed some more.
The doors opened and in walked Rebecca. He didn’t stop chewing, but he sat up straighter to watch. He’d only guessed she was Katherine’s Rebecca when she said Earth, but he’d made a good guess. That look of horror on her face was more than confirmation enough. He’d heard the guards use her full name a couple of times, so he knew it was her.
She glanced at him as he chewed his bar and there was a heated exchanged between the sentry guards and Rebecca’s escort. She didn’t say much, but she reached into her tool bag and pulled out one of the power screwdrivers. She began removing the security panel.
“What are you doing?” one the guards demanded.
Traitor (Collaborator Book 1) Page 12