"They are doing well. I’ve been busy. so I haven’t spent much time with Parker."
"Take an afternoon off." He smiled. "Shannon and I have just had our first break in a week, and we are enjoying it."
"I hope I haven’t interrupted anything."
"No, not at all. You always have my audience, Minister," he said. "What did you message us about?"
"I wanted to make sure my guests were comfortable. I was surprised you didn’t arrive at the Aethpisian Air Command facility a week ago. I was afraid the MSA had captured you."
"The messages you sent guided us nicely. Though to a different destination."
"Why did you go to Aethpis?"
"Travel along the surface is tedious these days. Before we return to the AAC, a personal agenda has come up, and we must accomplish it. That is why we are in Aethpis."
"I think I understand," Sarah said. "I want to congratulate you on a mission well done. I knew you could pull it off."
"Thank you, but remorse is forefront in my mind. I’m sure it will pass."
"These are tough times. Warriors do things we don’t want to do."
"Do the MSA know who assassinated the chancellor? Are they hunting for us?"
"My sources have been unable to penetrate the inner circle of the MSA. Hopefully, they will by the time I arrive so we’ll understand better what we are dealing with and how we need to protect you."
"You are still coming to Mars?" he exclaimed. "I don’t know if that is such a good idea. What if they try to retaliate against Aethpis by killing you?"
"I’ve no doubt they already have been. My security force will do its job. The MSA don’t intimidate me."
"But Lunara is safer."
"Mars has many more caverns, hidden fortresses, and ship holes I can hide in than Lunara. Besides, Lunara doesn’t have the resources to house the Alliance fleet."
"Point taken," he said, biting his lip, wondering whether the minister’s return would spark new tensions around the planet or push the MSA farther back. Undoubtedly, the former would be the case. If the MSA caught wind of Sarah’s arrival, the ever-vigilant border inside of Aethpis could become impenetrable. They needed to act fast. "I will see you when you arrive, and thank you for the suite. From Shannon and me."
"I personally owe you a debt I may not be able to repay."
"It is my duty to Mars. Farewell and safe journey."
The screen went black. Eamonn stood and moved over to sit on the side of the bed. He grabbed his datapad from the end table, opened it, and then showed it to Shannon. "I have a plan for rescuing Adol. The apartment complex will be easy to penetrate. Our problem will be how do we hide a small boy and cross a dangerous border. Are you sure you want to risk him?"
"Yes, if they find out it was us who killed the chancellor, he will be used as bait," she said. "Don’t you think it is a bit odd for the minister to return to Mars so shortly after the chancellor’s death? Why would the minister want to disturb Mars after things have finally settled down?"
"The minister needs to be here so the Alliance doesn’t fracture. Our will to unravel the MSA holds us together. Albeit we are in a lull, we are still at war. The minister has to be here to oversee our forces." He sighed. "This war is the weirdest jinxed thing I have ever witnessed. The revolutionary war was so straightforward, the settlers versus the anarchists. We needed to set laws and regulations for the people of Mars, and the anarchists wanted to continue in utter chaos."
Shannon laughed.
"What is so funny?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "The news reports make it appear we are the anarchists this time."
"No," he said. "That is the frustrating part. We are both the settlers."
Not far from the Aethpisian royal apartment complex, Eamonn and Shannon turned off the side streets and headed down a normally busy trading center. But the Aethpis Market and Bazaar, a thoroughfare heading straight toward the MSA side of the colony—a good place they thought to walk unnoticed to the other side—was empty. No one walked the streets or traded goods. Eamonn remembered when the market was filled with vendors trading goods and selling services to all sorts of people from all the surrounding colonies. The stores were now bare. The sound of music and strolling bands had disappeared, and the extra credits he had brought for gratitude would remain in his pocket. The aroma of the restaurants and cafes was gone, too. He was left only with the stale odor of what had been.
"Adol is there," Shannon said, pointing in the distance.
A short mile separated them from him, but it seemed to be a million miles to both of them. The trench splitting the colony, barricaded by razor-sharp barbwire and hulking hedgehogs, looked even more menacing the closer they got to it. Every two hundred meters a makeshift guard tower secured the MSA and Aethpisian sides, watching for border runners. A single crossing point, located a kilometer from the apartment Adol was in, was rigorously patrolled.
But to the west, Eamonn spotted the building he was seeking, an apartment complex built to straddle the trench. Above the doorway, a small label stretched across the top: The Milky Way Arms. It was home to the elder residents of Aethpis and would be of little use to either side. An oversight Eamonn hoped to take advantage of.
Entering the building, Shannon walked toward the hallway of the lower level.
"No. To the staircase," he said.
"We aren’t going through the window."
"Yes, but on the sixth floor. The ground floor will have electronic detectors and shock pads laid along the ground. We can’t walk there."
"What are we going to do then?"
"You’ll see," he said, the uneasy feeling in his gut showing in his soft tone. He pushed the doorway to the stairwell open and took two stairs at a time. Shannon followed apprehensively behind him, and they both watched their rear for any indications of an MSA tail.
Reaching the sixth floor, he waited for Shannon to catch up and then walked briskly down the hall.
"Why the sixth floor?"
"You are going to hate it. It’s the only way I know how to get across without them seeing us."
"What is about to happen? I can handle the heights," Shannon said, stopping halfway down the hallway. "What is it?"
He knew by her sharp tone he had to tell her or she wouldn’t move without making a scene or his life intolerable. "We are here. Please don’t get angry," he said, knocking on the door of apartment 6F. "It was the only way."
The door opened slowly. The safety chain pulled taut, and a face appeared in the crack. "Who is there?"
"Mr. White, it is Eamonn. I need your help."
"Help? What can I possibly do to help you?"
"We need access to your apartment so we can get to the MSA side of the colony."
"I don’t want trouble. They warned us they would shut down this building and send us to an encampment if trouble came. I don’t want that."
"This is an Aethpisian-controlled building. They wouldn’t do that."
"That’s who told me. Everyone along the border is paranoid."
Shannon moved in front of him. "Mr. White, my little boy is on the other side of the trench in the MSA portion of the colony. We are going to rescue him. He could be in serious trouble if we don’t help him. I’m begging for your assistance."
He rubbed his chin and tilted his left eye. "If this is honest, and you are helping a young chap, I can’t say no. Blast you into space if you are lying to me."
"We are sincere," Shannon said. "I won’t be able to thank you enough."
"No need for thanks," Mr. White said, his tough exterior holding strong. He pushed the door closed. They heard the rattling of the chain, and the door opened wide for them to enter.
"Those windows don’t open naturally," the old man barked. He groaned as he sat back down in his chair. "You’ll have to cut the glass."
He tilted his head. "What happened to it?"
"They welded the frames closed and took the filter screens away…shortly after the war was started
."
"That complicates things for you. I don’t want to leave you with a hole in your window," Eamonn said. "Maybe we can unscrew the frame mounts."
"No use, they welded them, too. I’m ex-military. I kept an eye on them. They did everything correctly." The old man pointed toward his closet. "Use my wife’s plasma cutter in the bedroom closet; she used to make sculptures from the Martian basalt chunks. The wall over there," he said, gesturing, "is her work. Worth a lot of money in peaceful times, but they don’t hold much value anymore. I was going to give them to Madelyn, but she…didn’t make it."
Shannon started. "She was beautiful. I wish I could have met her. Her death was senseless."
"I was glad to see that dreadful Arwell get what was coming to him last week. He deserved to die after he murdered her. If I ever meet the man who killed the chancellor, I owe him these figurines and many thanks."
Eamonn eyed Shannon before she spoke. She fingered the smooth-edged figurine and placed it gently back on the shelf.
"I will get the torch," she said flatly.
Eamonn appreciated her restraint.
"What I can’t figure out is why she was at the gala," Mr. White said in wonder. "She had a few gentleman friends over the years but nothing serious, and not with anyone who had access to the gala. Except you, but maybe there was someone else I didn’t know about."
"It was me," Eamonn said.
The old man sat up in his seat a little higher, eyeing him. "What do you mean?"
"I asked her to the gala, and I got her killed because I had to go to Lunara. I could’ve stopped her from challenging the chancellor. I loved your daughter, Mr. White. Fate didn’t like us."
"You were always a good man to her, even though my wife didn’t care for you. She didn’t like any of her boyfriends, but I always thought you were the man I saw her with…until you ran off to Lunara."
Eamonn remembered back five years ago but couldn’t escape what he had done two weeks ago. "I wish every hour that I hadn’t gone to Lunara and had saved her."
"Madelyn was always her own woman. You could do nothing," the old man said. "That was her fate. To be the face of a rebellion."
From out of the bedroom, Shannon walked up behind Eamonn. "I found the torch and the polyfibers," she said. "It’ll be an ugly circle, but the containment should hold until you can replace the pane."
Eamonn took the torch from her hand. "Can you seal this when we are on the other side?" he said to Mr. White.
"I’m old, not useless."
Eamonn smirked. "Put your breathing mask on. I will make the cut then."
He made a wide circle in the pane of the glass, around the edges of the frame. He maneuvered it delicately, making sure he didn’t heat the glass too fast, which would cause it to expand out of shape. Shannon put on one of her climbing gloves and attached it to the pane. Once he had finished the cut, the glass piece fell out of the window, and she pulled it back into the room.
As the room balanced its pressure, a light breeze flowed in. The musk of the apartment was replaced by the smoky and dusty Martian atmosphere. Eamonn took in a long breath through his breathing mask and tried to sense the sweet air of the algae farms. However, nothing came, the smoky smell persisted; a ghostly reminder of the battles to the south of the colony.
Shannon nudged him. He slid through the window and onto the ledge of the apartment complex. She passed him the gear, and he attached it to his belt. With cautious movements, she slipped through the hole, braced herself along the ledge, and stood beside him. The wind was more evident on the sixth floor than it had been on the ground. They secured their feet firmly against the building.
The old man took the cut-out section of the glass and reattached the window. Shannon thanked him with a wave and headed down the ledge to catch up with Eamonn.
"How are we getting across?" she said, looking through the hair blowing across her face toward the ground.
"Jumping," he said, flatly. "I think we can make it. It’s only about six meters, and the holding on the other side looks ample."
"Jump! I don’t know if I can make it with all this equipment."
"Take it off. I’ll jump first. You can throw it over to me. You will jump. Easy as that."
Her eyes widened. "I don’t know if I like this plan."
"I thought you weren’t afraid of heights. We must move before they see us. Think about Adol, and it will be easier."
"I’m thinking about him and his mangled mother."
Eamonn smirked. Then he peeled off his backpack and handed it to her. "You can jump two meters. Your adrenaline will be pumping."
"Jumping from a dead stop is…"
"Don’t make me nervous."
After finishing his study of the other side, Eamonn found his hold, a small metal pipe running the length of the building. He pushed off with his foot against the wall and soared across the alleyway, and before he could judge his landing, he was coming down, wedging his feet against the opposite ledge. He grasped the metal pipe with his hand. He used his other hand to brace himself against the edge of the buildings, hoping his ankle wouldn’t stiffen.
He was across. He shuffled his feet into a better position and held the pipe firmly with his hand.
The jump was a little farther than he anticipated. He wanted to tell her, but he didn’t have a choice and decided not to warn her. She didn’t need an excuse.
She braced herself on the side of the building. With a single heave, she flung the backpacks toward him. He grabbed them by the straps and tied them to the building.
He licked his lips, waiting for her to move. The howl of the wind caused her to pause.
She felt with her hands along the edge, searching for anything to hold. The wind was gusting in intervals, and he sensed her enthusiasm waning and her urge to go back through the window into the apartment with Mr. White.
She curled her toes away from the edge, knocking the loose pebbles.
Seconds later and much to his chagrin, the buzzing of the shock pads zigzagged its way up. The pads lined the street below, and the buzzing reminded her that a fall would likely kill her. If somehow she managed to survive, the shock pads would definitely finish her off.
"Should we go back?" he called. "I can jump easier from here to there. Mr. White will let us back in."
But he knew her well enough to realize that her apprehension was only nerves and not fear. She wouldn’t leave Adol within the sphere of an MSA threat a minute longer. Her eyes darted around, studying the other side a thousand times in less than a second.
Without warning, she was leaping toward him, approaching at a low angle. But she knew she was in trouble from the start.
She grabbed the pipe, but when her foot missed the ledge, she started to slide down. He darted his hand downward, clawed the back of her jacket, and she jerked to a stop. She let out a long drawn-out groan. He pulled her up so her elbows were level with the ledge so she could support most of her weight. She wheezed, struggling for breath. Eamonn hoped her ribs were intact, and it was just the wind that was knocked out of her.
He held her in place for a few moments to gather herself. After ten seconds, her breathing deepened, and the air flowed back into her lungs. With a kick, she swung her legs up, grabbed the ledge with her heal and pulled herself up. "I lost…my…breath," Shannon gasped. "I’m…sorry."
"You are fine. I thought you said the height wasn’t going to bother you."
"Nerves. My confidence is shot. I feel the hunt weighing on us."
"They don’t know it was us."
"Yet. I guess I have a lot on my mind…and the wind, it’s blowing harder than I had expected. Can we get off this ledge?"
"Around the corner, a service ladder leads to the roof. Can you make it there?"
"I can make it. My breath is back," Shannon said, holding her hand to her chest. "I will have an awful bruise though."
He held her by the waist with one hand and led her around the edge of the building to the service la
dder. They climbed up to the roof, stowed themselves behind a series of air filter units, and rested for their final push toward Shannon’s son.
The Martian Supremacy Authority’s side of Aethpis was similar to what the other side had been. The streets were deserted, reinforcing the deadness of the colony, and anyone noticing their arrival gave no indication.
They turned down the final street, and Shannon saw her parents’ apartment in the distance. She quickened her stride, but Eamonn held her back to regain their casual pace.
"Hey, you two," a voice called from their side.
Eamonn clenched his fist ready for a fight and turned as an MSA patrolman moved toward them. The patrolman stopped in front of their path. "IDs."
"My wife and I are out for an early morning stroll. Why must you bother us?" he said, trying to simulate the frustration of an MSA colonist.
"I’m sorry," the patrolman replied. His young face fell. "We have our orders to randomly ID civilians. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it must be done to ensure your safety."
"My safety?" Shannon replied. "I can watch myself." She pulled out her ID and handed it to the guard. Eamonn did the same.
The patrolman looked them over and gave them back. "Have a nice morning, Mr. and Mrs. White. Be on your way."
When the patrolman was far enough away, Eamonn breathed a sigh of relief. After a short walk, they made their way through the double doors into Shannon’s parents’ apartment complex.
"Which apartment did you say he was in?"
"It’s 2K. I hope he hasn’t been transferred."
"This apartment complex is still in use."
"Dust hasn’t built up on any of the arm rails or the lobby chairs. And they still are pumping oxygen into the place," she said, taking off her breathing mask.
He did the same and took a deep breath. The pure air felt good on his tightening lungs.
"Come now. It’s time to meet Adol." She moved to the stairs.
Eventually, after many stairs and hallways, she stopped in front of a doorway. "Here we are." She knocked on the door.
The echo down the hallway sent a chill through Eamonn’s body. He straightened his tunic and prepared for the worst. The door opened.
Lunara: The Original Trilogy Page 48