She stormed into his office.
"Father, I want to have—" her words trailed off as she realized the room was empty. How do his own guards not know where he is? She moved over to his desk to locate his appointment schedule, which read:
7:30 – Meeting with Samantha about Daily Schedule.
8:00 – Secure conference call with the Council.
9:00 – Meeting until Noon with Samantha concerning Gala and other preparations.
The time read 8:10 on her watch. If the guards thought he was in his office, Gwen wondered where he had placed the conference call. The Martian Council always met in chambers. Bylaws of the revolutionary treaty required it—a direct attempt to curb corruption that occurred when officials spoke candidly amongst themselves. Apparently, the council exempted her father from those rules.
On her father’s desk, she flipped through the usual reports of economic data, population grievances, and a number of other trivial messages. She had recognized years ago that she couldn’t run the colony herself with all the bureaucracy involved. She found it altogether tiresome for someone of her nature. She was quite happy as a diplomat for him and for the people of Zephyria. Her voice inspired change, and ideas were more powerful than legislation . . . at least she used to inspire change when she was on Mars.
Scanning the reports, a report entitled Metalor intrigued her. The same substance he mentioned in the marketplace. She skimmed over the document:
Metalor is a metal alloy united with meteor dust. Meteor dust is defined as the unique substance gathered from the meteors, originating from a vector in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.
The fused material, metalor, has shown to be stronger, lighter, more malleable and ductile than any substance . . .
The substance can be coded at the subatomic level to the unique trait of the purpose of the metal . . .
Metalor is only one practical application of the meteor dust. Recent experiments have shown a bond with other nonmetallic materials, such as carbon.
The signature on the bottom of the paper sent a shiver down her spine: Thomas Cross.
Since childhood, Thomas Cross had always frightened her. For the longest time, he had been a favorite of Minister Cortez and his family and a heroic figure during the revolutionary wars to obliterate the raiders, but Mars only knew part of the whole story. She had seen and heard more about him than the rest of the population. Her father had criticized or complimented him—she could never tell which—on a number of occasions for the brutality with which he had handled the raiders and their families. He was renowned for his relentlessness and cunning, typified by the major campaign he led that had pushed the raiders into a final surrender and rehabilitation. She feared him.
The rustling of footsteps coming from her father’s private hallway startled her. Her muscles tensed. Then voices sounded against the other side of the doorway. She scanned the rest of the report as fast as she could: "fighter crafts, ground troop armor, and weapons systems" was all she could discern before the door to her father’s private entrance opened. She stashed the report under a few miscellaneous folders and moved toward the front of his desk.
"Hello, Father," she said as casually as she could, pretending she had been waiting for him.
"Gwen, how did you get in here?" her father said, harsher than she had expected. The look on his face told her that she had gotten away with nothing.
"I let myself in," she said, still trying to play innocent. "Since when are council meetings held out of chambers over voice transmissions?"
"Since when do you let yourself into offices without permission?" He stood in front of her and folded his arms across his chest. "I surely taught you better."
"I always enter your office at my own leisure. Has this changed since I left Mars?" She already knew the answer to the question, but she wanted her father to say the words. She needed to know that her standing with him had fallen.
"You should check in with Bea before you enter his office, Gwen," Samantha said. "It might be easier."
"Quiet!" she blasted back. She wasn’t going to let him dodge this question by letting Samantha talk for him. She pointed directly at her father. "I want him to answer."
"Certain protocols must be maintained when entering someone’s private chambers," he said. Then he sharpened his words. "You have to grow up and should follow them like the rest of my staff. You are not a child anymore."
"Are you ever going to get over the fact that I embarrassed you?"
"You led a rally for the release of the records from the Revolutionary War. You know what information is sensitive, even now."
Gwen glanced at Samantha, who had been the real organizer of the rally. Samantha had convinced Gwen to join her as research for her final paper, which Gwen had to write in order to complete her masters in political science and graduate from Martian University. Gwen took the blame because she didn’t want Samantha to get expelled from the school. Little did she realize the issue Samantha had picked would be so explosive in Zephyria and cause Gwen’s banishment to Lunara for "a part of her maturation process," according to her father.
"I led that rally to wake the people up," Gwen said. "The Principles of Man were violated during the war, and justice must be brought."
Her father flicked his hand at her. "The people want to forget. I see you have learned nothing during your time on Lunara. You are still impulsive."
Gwen narrowed her eyes and drew in a long breath. She knew he would say those words, but they still stabbed deep, past the protective barrier she tried to put up, into her heart. Her father had always been close to her in both business and personal manners . . . until the day he sent her to Lunara. He hadn’t sought her confidence on any level since that day. And worst of all, her best friend, Samantha Burns, had replaced her as his chief confidant. Why had he pushed her away? She looked into her father’s eyes and then into Samantha’s. Neither pair of eyes wavered.
"Fine!" she yelled. "I’ll start setting up appointments to talk to my own father and my best friend. Good day."
With that, she turned to leave.
Samantha grabbed her elbow as she passed, but with a twist of her shoulder Gwen evaded her grasp and hurried out of the room.
Gwen was still fuming as she entered her apartment complex. Her father and best friend had all but disowned her. She had told Seth of her love, and he had denied her. She had nothing left.
She opened the door and froze. A rustling sound came from the kitchen. She grabbed a small sculpture of a Martian horse from the table near the door and crept forward. Father isn’t going to get away with more spying on me, she thought. Her heart started to pound again, and she felt the intruder would surely hear the palpitations thump against her chest.
As she sneaked toward the doorway, the intruder continued to rustle the dishes and utensils as if he were looking for something. What did Father think I was hiding? She was about to peer in when at the same moment the intruder walked out and bumped into her.
She started to swing at the intruder’s head but stopped short and dropped the horse to the floor, where it landed with a clang.
"Gwen, what is the matter?" Jan said.
"Jinx! You scared me."
Jan put her hand on her shoulder. "You are safe."
"I’m sorry. I thought my father was spying on me." She moved away from Jan toward the window and stood with her back to Jan. "I almost hit you."
"Come, let’s sit down," Jan said. "Why is your father spying on you?"
"I had a major blowup with him. I yelled at him, he yelled at me. I yelled at Samantha. I have never yelled at her before. I haven’t been myself since we returned to Mars." Gwen tried to stop her lower lip from quivering. "All my obligations to Zephyria prevent me from being with the crew."
"The crew is taking the return a little hard. The way we fled Lunara, and how they explained the attack to us. I should have never left you alone."
"No. I’m fine. I can handle my father. Zephyrian and Arwell mat
ters stay within colony," Gwen said. "Anyway, what are you doing in Zephyria? We were to meet at the gala."
"I had to check up on you. The crew misses your comforting words."
"Some aren’t." Gwen turned her head away.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing at all," she mumbled. "Zephyria is boring me. That is the reason I got into a mix-up with my father. I hadn’t seen Samantha or him since the afternoon we arrived. I went to his office to look for him."
"How did that cause the fight?"
"Well, I was waiting for him, so I started poking around the papers on his desk."
"Gwendolyn—" Jan said, firmly.
"I know. I know. I probably shouldn’t have. I will apologize later, but he was so defensive. He was upset for no reason. He told me to grow up, which boiled my blood. After I’ve represented Zephyria on Lunara, he has some nerve."
"We aren’t on Lunara anymore."
"I understand," she said. "But what happened on Lunara isn’t being treated with any kind of priority."
"That is part of the reason I came to see you. Have you any information about the invasion?"
Gwen shook her head forcefully. The frustration of the day was eating into her hardened self-image. "Nothing past the briefing. I also poked my nose around the medical databases to see why Bauer is so interested in Seth and Chloe. I couldn’t find anything. I was going to ask my father about it." She chewed her cheek. "I don’t like how this whole colony has changed. Have I been gone that long?"
"No, you haven’t," Jan said. "I came to see you because something is wrong on Mars. I wanted to ask you if you had seen anything suspicious since you arrived."
Gwen immediately thought of the metalor report on her father’s desk . . . but she trusted her father was doing the right thing and thought it possible that she had misinterpreted what she read. Maybe the report wasn’t even a Zephyrian document. With Thomas Cross’s signature, the report might be counterintelligence stolen from Aethpis. But still, if her father ever found out she had read it and relayed the contents to anyone, their relationship would be sundered perhaps beyond repair.
Besides, her father—or at least his security staff—was probably bugging her conversations, and when she conveyed any of the information contained in the report, he would catch her. She swallowed. "Just that I can’t be trusted anymore," she said, using her diplomatic tactics to conceal her apprehension. "I’ll keep an eye and ear open for you."
"Thanks," Jan said. Over the next few minutes, she told Gwen about Seth and Chloe having a close run-in with some strange men the night before, her time in Aethpis Colony with Sarah and Kyle Cortez, and her bad feeling about having no contact with Ty.
Gwen rubbed her slender chin and let out a deep breath. "So you think something is up on Mars?"
"Yes, well, maybe. I want to look around. We should run our own investigation, too."
Gwen stood, moved toward the radio and turned the music up loud. She identified the orchestral piece as the First Martian Symphony. Jan was about to ask her to turn the volume down, but Gwen put her hand up to silence her. "We need to be certain no one is listening," she whispered. "I guess you are right. Maybe something mysterious is happening around here. I would help you, but I can’t leave Zephyria."
"I understand," Jan said. "I only came to ask you for any inside knowledge. Your connections dwarf the rest of the crew combined."
"I don’t know who has the power or the leverage anymore to share secrets with me—although I can give you something to help you out."
Gwen pivoted and headed into her bedroom. Minutes later, she returned with a small pouch. She unzipped it and pulled out several objects and data cards. "I made this little packet in case of an emergency. I made a universal security card for both colonies. It is like a skeleton key. No one gave little Gwen credit for her knack with computers and other technical gadgets, but I managed to piece together a data card that opens every door on Mars. Both major colonies trust me implicitly, so it didn’t take much to request IDs for each section. I put them all on this one card. Go where you need to go and get the information you need using them."
"Where do you expect me to go?"
"You said it yourself. We need to run our own investigation. You aren’t satisfied with the explanation from Mars Central. So break into the Aethpisian Security Center and find out. With most of Mars shutting down for the gala celebration, it should be easy to enter without much trouble."
"Gwen, that is highly illegal."
"Look," Gwen said, forcefully, her anger at her father and Samantha still simmering in her blood. "I want to know what is happening on Mars. More than dust storms are clouding our vision here. Since I came back, my father has severely limited my movement, and the minister and Thomas Cross’s story should be double-checked. The truth is the only way we can protect Lunara."
"And who will check Zephyria?"
"I guess I will break into the Zephyrian center. I can talk my way out of anything here."
"I will send Roche to help you," Jan said. "You can’t do this alone."
"But I must."
"No." Jan put her hand on Gwen’s shoulder. "You are a part of the crew, so you need help from the crew. I know you like to keep Zephyrian matters to yourself, but this is a Lunara matter now."
Gwen bit her lower lip. She didn’t like the idea of anyone finding out secrets, but Roche was capable, and she could use the company to calm her nerves. "Okay. I’ll send you a message about the time."
"Right before the gala. You should have enough time to return and get yourself ready."
"Sounds good."
"Thanks, Gwen," Jan said. "Are you sure you will be all right here? I can stay if you need me."
"I’m fine. My father is overprotective."
Jan placed her hand on Gwen’s. "Don’t be brave. Tell me if you want me to stay."
"Would you get going, you old space pilot?" Gwen smiled. "Don’t make me kick you out."
"Okay, okay," Jan smirked back. "But I am worried." She hugged Gwen and left the apartment.
Gwen closed the door behind her, turned the radio down, and walked toward the bedroom.
A chill in the air drifted over her as her adrenaline subsided. She rubbed her arms.
"Ouch!" she yelped. Something had pricked her finger. She twisted her arm and felt carefully along her sleeve for the sharp edge. She touched the soft cloth and at first could find nothing unusual.
And then . . .
A small knob stabbed her again. She pulled a beetle-shaped device from her upper arm, near her elbow, and inspected it. The bug had a central body containing the device’s vital parts, surrounded by several small legs to adhere to any fabric. Suddenly, she realized someone had tracked her. Her suspicions had turned out to be correct.
Her thumb and index finger rubbed along her brow. When did they slip the bug on her? She hadn’t given anyone the opportUnity during the train ride from the Majestic tower. Her obvious anger caused the passengers to avoid her.
So when was the bug planted? She rubbed it between her fingers; the legs contracted when she pushed against the body. A grappling feature used for better adherence.
Her eyes widened. Samantha! She had pushed it on her when she grabbed her arm to stop her from storming out of her father’s office. Her intention wasn’t to prevent her from leaving. She wanted to place the tracking device on her. But why? What had she seen in those reports? Or were her father and Samantha really concerned with her safety and worried that someone was after her?
Someone wanted control of Lunara for the meteor stones; and someone tried to invade Lunara; and someone was successful in doing it. Who was it? A rogue colony? Minister Cortez? She shook her head at the thought. The Mars briefing showed Ty back in control of Lunara.
Or maybe the briefing was a lie. The minister and Thomas Cross were more than eager to share the report with the council. Perhaps they had orchestrated a ploy. Their explanation required almost no corroborating
evidence, which troubled both Seth and now Jan.
She had a hunch, a big fat hunch, but it all made sense from a certain twisted perspective. The closer she got to the truth, the more convoluted the situation became. She needed to speak with Ty to know if Lunara was safe again. He would make sense of the situation. She moved toward the comm terminal.
Jinx, she thought, the communications array is still down.
Scorn for the invaders, for Samantha, and for her father writhed through her veins. She looked at the tracking device, dropped it to the floor, and with a crack, crushed it under her boot.
A part of her regretted the fact that her father had tossed her out. She would only get one opportUnity to infiltrate his office, and she had used the opportUnity in ignorance of what was going on.
Her eyes were open now, and she was sure she would discover something wrong in the Zephyrian Security Center. The truth was waiting for her to find it.
Chapter 18
Parker sat back in the crew cabin of the Protector. Jan and Roche were already sitting around the table for the meeting, and they were just waiting for Eamonn to finish some reports and for Seth and Chloe to arrive. Parker liked the idea of a meeting to mix everyone’s ideas and come to a conclusion about what was happening on Mars and whether they trusted anything they had been told.
Lunara: The Original Trilogy Page 15