"He doesn’t control her."
Sarah stood very erect, almost as if she was exaggerating her stature. "I’m Gwen Arwell’s reflection. If anyone knows how she is feeling, it is me. If my father turned toward a different path, I would be devastated, but I have no doubts that I would eventually follow him."
Parker’s eyes opened wider. "How can you say that?"
"Because it is true. The Cortez legacy is a pride that I fight daily. And much of the time, it wins."
"You think Gwen has turned to the MSA."
"Probably not yet. But she will eventually."
He stared at her, hoping to find some crack in her sincerity. He found none. She believed her words, and he found them oddly compelling and honest. "Why didn’t you fight for Chloe and Seth?"
"They are guilty. It is my purpose to prosecute them."
"I meant, why didn’t you fight for them to come to Mars? You could have ordered Ty to give them to us."
Sarah moved to the bathroom.
He rushed to her and stood in the doorway. She washed her face gently, as if the question hadn’t been posed. "Why are you ignoring that question?"
"I don’t want to talk about them. They are on Lunara and can’t provide any help to the Alliance."
"They could have, but you didn’t fight for them."
She dabbed the water on her face.
He felt the steam from the hot water brush against his cheek, her aromas filling his nose. It weakened him. Though he struggled with her ideology, his infatuation and love kept peaking for her.
She glanced over at him. "I didn’t fight for them because they can’t be trusted."
"They aren’t MSA."
"They aren’t Alliance, either."
Parker granted her that point. Seth was a major wild card in this war. He could either greatly help or hinder their chances of victory. If Seth believed any course of action would help Chloe, he would take it and leave others to pick up the rubble in his wake. Parker let out a long grumble in his throat. "Why did the crew have to be so involved in this war?" he mumbled. "I don’t like it."
"I’m grateful for your crew. I have you and Eamonn at my disposal. There aren’t any better warriors."
He smirked. "I thought I was a dumb mechanic or a criminal."
"Oh, shut up," she said playfully. "I don’t fall in love with criminals."
He laughed. "We are a rebellious alliance, fighting against the controlling government of Mars. We are criminals."
She moved into his arms. "Controlling government and lawful government are two different things. We’ll make it right."
Parker pursed his lips, wondering about Eamonn and Shannon’s hasty departure a few days ago. "Where did you send Eamonn and Shannon?"
"His mission was clearly spelled out."
"Eamonn and I are the best warriors in the solar system. You just mentioned that. Why send him on a mission to escort Fenor Davis to Mars?"
"We needed speed."
"Fenor isn’t that important. He is a great communications officer, but not that great."
"Eamonn is conducting his own business for me. We have a score to settle." She pulled out of his arms and sat on the bed. "It is getting late."
"Did you send him to assassinate the chancellor?"
"There might be bugs in here!" She put her finger to her mouth.
"This room is clean," he said. "I quintuple-checked it."
Sarah let out a quick breath. "I did what I needed to do. Eamonn agreed, and whatever happens, it should happen before we arrive."
"I don’t like it. The chancellor is a known element. The MSA might turn out worse with a new leader."
Sarah threw her hands up. "Are you and Shannon using the same book?"
"Whatever she said, she was probably thinking about this from a rational point of view. Not some deep-seated quest for vengeance."
"Sometimes vengeance is justice. How would you know what I’m feeling?"
"I don’t, but I expect you to behave with the Alliance’s interests in mind."
"Eamonn is doing what needs to be done. Don’t lecture me."
Parker bit his lip. He didn’t want any conflict with Sarah on this issue. She needed her head clear for the return to Mars. But he hated the idea of Eamonn trying to assassinate the chancellor. Only trouble could come from it, and Gwen’s influence would be in jeopardy, not to mention that the new leader of Mars would schedule her execution. If what Seth said was true, Gwen committed treason against the MSA, which meant death to any person, aside from the chancellor’s daughter. If he was gone, she would soon follow.
Still, he thought, the crew remains in my heart.
Chapter 19
Eamonn scanned the crowd, cheering for the third time as the chancellor waved from the podium of the Trivium Port market and enthralled them with his bravado. The propaganda—posters, holoimages, and video screens—plastered around Trivium Port told of the supreme chancellor’s bravery in saving them from the minister’s plan to rule the planet and his unlimited vision of the future of Mars.
Most of the people didn’t seem to care about why the minister had been overthrown. One would have expected a general resentment about the war, but Eamonn discovered that the overall murmur indicated that people’s daily lives had improved since the MSA invaded Lunara and seized Mars. In exchange for their allegiance, credits poured into their accounts and food into their bellies. Actual food, too: tomatoes, carrots, and a dozen other fruits and vegetables. Algae paste had become a secondary food source now, and this pleased everyone. Even Eamonn had to concede he had enjoyed the larger selection of food.
"Short-lived, though," he murmured as he gazed from his spot in the upper tiers of the marketplace’s vast structure. Hidden from the prying eyes of the intense security force, he crouched behind the rails along the walkway. So far, the MSA had limited the patrols to the lower levels of the marketplace, screening people for weapons.
Eamonn went through the security checkpoint without much trouble. Security cleared his remote control with the passing interest given to a CommUn or a breathing mask. However, clear across the market area, the long cylindrical barrel of his auto-rifle pointed out of a wire hub in the superstructure, enough wire and bolts jetting out to camouflage the rifle from any passing eyes.
His palm-sized control display unit fit neatly in his palm, and he adjusted the scope of the sniper rifle, focusing on the stage where—at that moment—Gwen Arwell was waving to the crowd.
The lens moved over the podium: Gwen, Thomas Cross, and then his target, the chancellor. The urge to push the button instantly rushed through him, but he knew better than to shoot at a moving target. He had to wait for him to address the podium and stand still.
As he watched the prolonged ego-drenched pep rally, he tried to stop his hands from shaking. It took as much determination as he had to quell the unforgettable fire. Madelyn had gone to the gala only because she was still in love with him. She wanted to come to Lunara and live happily. Instead, the man in the gun sights murdered her.
Finally, the chancellor moved toward the podium to address the crowd. Eamonn steadied his hands on the control stick and adjusted the target toward the chancellor. He took a deep breath.
"Excuse me," a voice barked from behind him. "What are you looking at?"
A security guard stood over him. Where did he come from?
"I’m watching a broadcast of Chancellor Arwell on my CommUn," he said, swallowing hard after saying the chancellor’s name.
"Let me see that." The guard thrust his hand toward him. "It doesn’t look like a CommUn."
"So you are a technology designer in your spare time, or do you work as a security guard for fun?"
"Don’t get wise with me," the guard said, prodding his rifle toward him. "I’m ordered to detain anyone acting suspicious."
"I’m not doing anything wrong." Eamonn held a defiant sneer. "Buzz off and bother someone else."
The guard thrust his hand out. "I want your Co
mmUn."
"Fine." He turned onto one foot, his other leg in a kneeling position.
"Come on. Stop wasting my time," the guard said, grabbing his shoulder.
Eamonn thrust his bent elbow into the man’s solar plexus. In the same motion, he grabbed the guard’s head and drove it into railing, sending him unconscious to the ground.
He scanned the area and saw no one other than a single man on the other side of the walkway, who was far enough away not to notice and was still focusing his attention on the chancellor.
He knelt to the ground and saw on his CommUn’s screen that the chancellor was standing at the podium. Eamonn adjusted the targeting scope, centering it on the chancellor. His mind shifted from Madelyn’s face to Shannon’s, as beautiful and peaceful as a Martian sunset. He was doing this for his future.
Click. He pressed the button.
Gwen looked proudly at her father as he strutted up to the podium. She smiled from ear to ear as the crowd chanted his name and cheered when he raised his fist in triumph—
The next instant changed her life forever. The change was palpable. A streak of blue light zipped across her field of vision directly into her father.
Without thinking, without hearing the cries from the crowd, or without feeling the warm blood of her father cool against her face, her only impulse was to be by him. Something terrible was happening. She lunged toward him as he dropped to the ground, and she caught him in her arms. He had a stunned expression on his face. Sadness, numbing all other emotions, consumed her. She felt only utter sorrow for what had happened. The bullet had ripped his chest open. He would be dead in the next few moments, and the medics could do nothing for him. Too much blood was flowing through her hands. His face turned a frightening white, and his eyes sank. Death was snatching his life.
"Gwen," he muttered. "I did this all for you. I wanted your children to be safe and healthy. To live a life of peace and tranquility."
"I know, Father," she said. The moment was so intense, so overwhelming, and so surreal. Tears fell down her face, her nose ran, and the lump in her throat swelled to the size of a Martian moon. A piece of her was about to be lost, running away from her body, and she was powerless to stop it. "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, too," he said. "I want you to take over the MSA, Gwen. You are the right person to succeed me. Right the wrong that was done to me."
Those were his last words. His eyes rolled upward, and he fell limp in her arms.
"I will, Father. I will," she mumbled.
As her mind digested what had just happened, a rage built up within her, something so concentrated it scared her, consuming her sadness like a virus, and she couldn’t do anything to resist the temptation it offered. Her father had been savagely murdered, and she wasn’t about to let anyone get away with it. She wanted revenge on the Alliance.
Yes, she wanted revenge. Justice would be too lenient on the assassin.
Abruptly, she was composed, and all the cluttering squawks around her took shape. She could compartmentalize it all; the screams of the crowd, the orders from the security guards, and the attempts of the diplomatic aides beside her to grasp what had happened. She was in command of the solar system now.
Her eyes locked on the head of security. "I want you to lock down this entire port, and I want you to find the person who did this right way. I don’t care if you have to strip search, torture, maim, or kill half the people in here. You will do it, and you will do it now. You have already failed the MSA once today, and you don’t want to know what will happen if it happens twice."
"Yes, Lady Arwell. We are in the process of locking down the port as we speak."
Eamonn dashed across the market and leaped out of the hangar pad doors. He sprinted across the docking pad with two hundred or so other panicked people toward the port’s hovercar landing area.
MSA soldiers were setting up positions around the port area, and he knew he had about thirty seconds to find Shannon and leave the port.
In the distance, he saw a flicker of light from a hovercar and headed toward it. When he arrived, Shannon had the car hovering a foot off the ground. He jumped with a skip and caught the inside of the hovercar. He heaved his legs up into it.
Shannon turned the hovercar and brought it up fifteen feet into the air. At the same time, the canopy closed as Eamonn pulled his legs completely inside.
"I did it, Shannon," Eamonn huffed. "I killed the chancellor."
She nodded, and he was pushed back into the seat as the hovercar accelerated and surged out of the port into the safe expanses of Mars.
Part II
Chapter 20
Around the table, Gwen watched the group of MSA leaders bickering amongst themselves as they had been during the week since their supreme chancellor’s—her father’s—assassination. She mourned privately, but in public she forced herself into a stolid and unmoving posture. The population rallied behind her father’s last request for her to lead the people of the MSA. And with some encouragement from Samantha, the video clip, showing his final words, was repeated continuously on the news system. The people accepted her as the new leader of the MSA. But the group in this room remained divided.
She realized quickly that Thomas Cross was the most opposed to her becoming the leader of the MSA. Behind the closed door of his office, he cast her as a traitor, and the military supported his opinion. If she had never left Lunara, he would be the leader. Even with her support from the people, Cross still had influence. A coup was a real possibility and was foremost on her mind, although the Alliance knocked on her doorstep.
On the other end of the spectrum of her adversaries, Hans Bauer wanted her to be the leader, but Gwen saw right though his shallow attempt to be cordial to her. He expected to control the MSA through her. "After all," he had said, "the MSA was founded on the ideals of a better society," and the medical community provided it. He had the arrogance to tell her she would make a good leader only if she listened to his advice.
Samantha, her chief ally, challenged Thomas Cross to accept her as the leader, and she had more power than Gwen had given her credit for having. Samantha was her shield against Cross’s military.
When Gwen’s father first introduced her into the MSA, she figured it would take months for her to gain any real power from within the MSA. Her mission was to find a way to bring her father back to the Principles of Man and self-destruct the MSA. Now, she had all the power in the solar system, and she had to make sure she retained it, so that she could keep Thomas Cross and his savage military from claiming the solar system. Her father’s steady hand had kept Cross tame. She didn’t have that luxury. Chance had thrust her into the position. Devastating chance.
"Would you all be quiet," she said, pounding her fist against the stiff tabletop. "I can’t handle any more of this arguing. If we are divided, the Alliance will surely advance on our position. We must come together in this hour of need. Mr. Cross, I let you run the military without conditions. Is that so?"
"Yes, Lady Arwell," Cross said. "But you had no choice. The Alliance tested our western defenses, and we had to react."
"I could have easily done it my way," she said, keeping her eyes trained on him, waiting for his raptorial glare. None came. "I let you run your own investigation into the chancellor’s death, even though it was the military’s responsibility to protect him. I should punish each of you—maybe death to your security staff—but I let you redeem yourself. Also to note, our approval rating is at an all-time high. The only stumbling point is in this room. Samantha has been filling me in on all the vital information I need to know about the MSA. I have researched my father’s notes, and we are on schedule with most of his plans. The MSA is under control."
"You read your father’s notes?" Cross said.
For a short moment, anticipation jolted his face, and she found her advantage on him. He wanted to read those notes. He was ignorant where she was not, and if he plotted to kill her, it would buy her some time. "Yes. I’ll ca
rry out his plans. It is for my family’s honor."
"Thomas," Samantha said, "she is one of us. Don’t underestimate Lady Arwell’s commitment to us and to the MSA. I pledge my life."
Cross stared at her, trying to break her stance. He wouldn’t concede approval for Gwen. He had too much pride.
She stood and walked toward the window.
Across the colony, the afternoon sun revealed defense perimeter bunkers in the distance. "One positive that came out of the past few days is the support we have earned from the people. They truly loved him."
The assassination flashed in her mind. As she thought back to when she held her dying father in her arms, she couldn’t escape the horrific thoughts: his blood running down her arm and dripping on the floor; his body turning cold, losing the warmth of the man who loved Mars and becoming as cold as the unsympathetic surface.
She narrowed her eyes and twisted her head sharply, and the rage in her mind seeped through her body. A natural intoxication she was readily beginning to enjoy: the sourness pooling under her tongue, the tightening of the muscles in her forearms as she balled her hands together, and the tingling across her skin as she thought about the unrivaled power she had over her government and the planet.
Since it happened, she couldn’t control the rage inside of her. From now until forever, her father’s assassination would be her It. It had been eating at her heart. She couldn’t sleep without dreaming about It. The nightmares consumed her mind, and the hate inside her was spreading like a virus.
She turned her gaze toward the head of security, Logan. "Has your investigation into my father’s death uncovered anything?"
"We found the weapon used in the assault," he said in an unsteady voice. "A remote-controlled sniper rifle. The assassin could trigger it from anywhere."
"Those guns are controlled via line of sight identification lasers. The person must have been in the building. Did the security cameras turn up anything?"
"Nothing so far, but we are looking them over twice to make sure we missed nothing."
Lunara: The Original Trilogy Page 46