"No more than usual," Lola said.
"Which is a lot," Chloe replied. "With the lockdown on Zephyria, everyone is getting bored."
"And coming to us," she replied. "Been that way since I got here. There was a lockdown then, too. The chancellor’s officers came in three to four times a week."
"So it will be like this for a while," Chloe said, lowering her head. "Peruzzi needs to give us a day off."
Lola forced out a laugh. "Fat chance of that—"
Chloe caught Peruzzi coming toward them.
"Lola!" Peruzzi hurried from the back of the tavern. "You have a customer coming in twenty minutes. Prepare your room for his arrival."
Lola turned and shouted over her shoulder. "I am on break. Give me an hour off between customers. Everyone else gets one."
"You are the most popular girl. Do as I say, and you will earn more credits. Don’t make me cut your percentages."
The bodyguard behind him grunted. His name was Ratchet. The blackness in his teeth gave away his past life as a Raider. Chloe assumed he was imprisoned in the harshest of penal facilities; most likely the Dyson facility to the south of Zephyria, a renowned rehabilitation prison for turning Raiders into a tamer version of their former selves. Peruzzi had warned her of his proclivity for young women, and she avoided any contact with the man.
She ignored him and looked at Theodore Peruzzi, but you never dared call him Theodore, unless you welcomed death. Her caretaker—as the other women called him—was a strong, thick man with black hair who always seemed to have stubble no matter how often he shaved. He had gained weight from the last time she knew him, and he was dumb as an asteroid. He didn’t recognize her.
Before he berated Lola again, Chloe spoke: "Give her a break. She is barely eighteen, and she can’t be at her best if she is tired."
He said in his calm voice, the voice he used when he wanted to control his desire to go berserk. "Be quiet, Celeste. This doesn’t concern you."
"And what if I want to make it concern me?" She stood and moved toward Peruzzi.
"You are new here, so I will give you a chance to step away. If you speak to me like that again, I will scar that pretty face of yours."
Chloe chuckled. "I would say the same thing, but your face might improve with scars."
Peruzzi placed his hand on her shoulder and thrust his arm outward. Chloe stumbled backward, tripped over her chair, and spilled across the floor, scraping her hand. She rubbed her hand, touching it gingerly as the sting irritated her. She popped to her feet and spun toward him.
"You shouldn’t—"
"Don’t speak," he said. He raised his hand toward her. "Lola will do as I say because I am her caretaker. Learn your place, Celeste."
"Yes, caretaker," she replied, as did Lola. She bowed her head and watched him take Lola away. Ratchet left as well, and she breathed again. She hated what Peruzzi was doing to Lola, but she had been the same young girl in the same position as Lola. Lola needed Peruzzi, even if he was a monster.
She returned to her Norse tea, waiting for her next client.
Chapter 30
Aethpis was a ghost colony.
Seth scanned along the northern face of Aethpis crater with his binoculars. Zooming into the distance, he focused on the ruined governmental building. It smoldered as the wind cleared the last of the thick black smoke that had consumed it only minutes before. The balcony to the apartment of the McClouds—once stretching from one side of the building around the front and down the other side—was erased from the skyline, and in its place, a deep hole pushed itself into the front half of the building. Parker and Sarah had once lived there, in times of peace and in times of war. How the MSA left it intact during the initial battles was a small wonder to Seth. He thought it should have been bombarded a long time ago.
He shifted his view to the left. The apartment complexes running along the western edge of the colony were toppled, aside from a few, which had been firebombed until only a hollow shell remained. Their smoldering was less significant than the governmental building, but it was no less devastating. A small smirk curled his lip upward. Several weeks ago, they had abandoned the governmental building, but up until this morning, the apartment complexes housed the families of the frightened, peace-loving Alliance sympathizers. They were traitors to the MSA and deserved to die. If he saw any of them, he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
Seth had heard Samantha Burns’s transmission, coming from high orbit and filled with static, ordering the destruction of much of Aethpis colony, save one location: the reservoir. He listened covertly as Samantha relayed the message to Gwen, and using his own nefarious means, he intercepted the transmission as it came in. Unsuspected by the pair, he knew they underestimated him.
He had learned a few tricks in his two years within the MSA, especially how the systems worked. Case in point, he gained access to the clearance codes for Gwen’s watchdog programs. The communication sifter was one program he found invaluable, from its ability to tag communications based on content to its ability to decrypt even the most heavily encrypted files.
Using those systems, Seth knew Samantha Burns was here somewhere. Her security logs showed her departure from the MSA cruiser Versus three hours ago aboard her personal yacht. And she hadn’t left. His CommUn hadn’t alerted him. Another useful tool he had borrowed from Gwen.
Now, he stood knee high in mud and dirty red water. The pops and cracks of the ice splitting along the edges of the pools stabbed in his ears. Nightfall would freeze the pools over. Until then, he moved through them, slowly edging toward the reservoir’s gapmarshing hole. He wanted to see for himself what the Alliance had done to the MSA a couple of hours before.
The reservoir had been devastated. The Alliance had successfully penetrated the perimeter surrounding it and destroyed the corner to the north of the building. He understood, more than most, that the Alliance had done more to the MSA than destroy the Aethpisian reservoir. They had destroyed the single water source of the western terrariums. Soon the caves would dry out, and the crops would die. Starvation would strike the people of the MSA, and a return to algae paste would be a step back for the people, causing further revolts against the MSA.
Setting his teeth, he thought about squeezing the life out of the Alliance leader Hannah Rohen. He smirked, and then he shifted his thoughts to Parker McCloud, and smiled. How much he wanted to kill his former best friend. It was incalculable to him. He would give up almost anything in exchange for Parker’s death. Parker had kept the Alliance alive, corrupting the MSA’s order of things. Parker had humiliated him during the asteroid battle, leaving him alive when Parker should have done the honorable, logical thing and destroyed him. And he had stolen Chloe from him, polluted her mind regarding the truth and turned her against him.
He had to find Samantha Burns to right Mars and avenge what his former friend did.
It came to him so suddenly after the Battle of Phobos. Samantha Burns had always been the path he had to take. Clouded by his hatred of her, he ignored her potential. Samantha Burns could bring him to the brink of total power over Mars, and then he would throw her off and take the planet for himself. It was truly the only way he could make the society he wanted; the society where everyone was safe and living in peace; the society he envisioned; the society for him, Chloe, and Alexandra.
"Seth Smith."
His body stiffened. She still sickened him. He turned to his left, reaching slowly for his sonic pistol.
"Don’t let that hand get too far down," Samantha said. "I don’t want to shoot it off."
"Hardly," he said, turning to her. She was up a small embankment, clear of the pools and to the side of the reservoir beside a pile of rubble. Guards surrounded her, training their rifles on him.
She smirked. "You are in the muddy water, and I have half a dozen snipers trained on you. Grenade launchers as well. You aren’t fast enough to avoid that, especially if you don’t see it coming."
"Try me," he said firmly. He
pushed his chest out, facing her. "I have escaped more dire situations."
"And so have I. Your girlfriend, Gwen, the glorious leader of the MSA, has been trying to kill me. I never thought in a million eons she would send you."
The claim took Seth aback. Gwen trying to kill Samantha wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, but he had a hard time believing it, considering their friendship and the damage such an act would do to the MSA. Separating them into two factions was more devastating to the MSA than the reservoir explosion.
In plain view, as he realized what Samantha had said to him, he believed her. Since the Battle of Phobos, Gwen’s mind had been preoccupied. She had racked her brain over the simplest of things, such as whom to put in charge of the cleanup of Zephyria’s Dome Two, an insignificant sector within the colony, blasted by a sabotaged train packed with explosives. Why had it been such a difficult decision? Why had she tormented herself with it? Was her paranoia prompting her to distrust everyone around her? Perhaps Samantha’s admission that Gwen was trying to kill her provided the answer.
Justified paranoia. There was no better catalyst for going insane. Gwen had been constantly watching her back from the woman in front of him now, chasing the shadows Samantha was undoubtedly casting.
Although, as he looked at Samantha stare down at him, he wondered if his strategy was sound. Maybe Gwen’s paranoia should have told him something about Samantha and the help she provided. He bit his lower lip; he needed Samantha.
"I’m not here to kill you," he said. "I came here to be your ally to the end."
"To the end. Like gaining my trust and killing me when I don’t expect it. You are learning too many lessons from your girlfriend."
"She isn’t my girlfriend," Seth said, taking a step forward through the muddy water. "I was wrong. Two years ago, when this started, Lunara was taken from me. It pained me, and I just wanted payback. I was ignorant of Mars because my life on Lunara was distracting me from everything that had gone wrong in my life on Mars before. I shielded myself from the truth and my destiny. This is why Chancellor Damon Arwell was able to trick me."
"He was able to trick you because you were stupid."
"No. Though that is more appealing then the truth," he said. "I wanted an excuse to hurt someone, and the chancellor saw that within me. I was a patsy because I allowed it to happen. If my heart or my mind were thinking, I would have stopped myself. But there was something more driving me. It was vengeance, and it felt good to pay back the minister. At least, when I thought it was him…" He shook his head. "And then when I knew it was the chancellor’s fault, I wanted to hurt him and the MSA."
"Helping me will strengthen the MSA," Samantha replied. "I am pure MSA, unlike your girlfriend, who can only see her family’s legacy. She has been clouded."
"I know," he said. "I want to be part of the MSA forever. I have come to offer you assistance."
"And what makes you think I need it?"
Seth smirked. "Because you haven’t killed me yet…and I haven’t killed you, so you know I am sincere."
"Granted you could kill me at anytime. I have seen your abilities, but self-preservation is more likely the biggest factor in your restraint."
"How can I prove my loyalty? I have nothing to offer you aside from my services." Which wasn’t entirely true; he did have Gwen’s access codes and the ability to log into her secure systems, but telling Samantha that would only lead to a more complicated relationship. He looked at her, holding onto his story and hoping he wouldn’t let anything slip that wasn’t necessary.
Samantha stepped forward, past her guards. "You are the perfect person for a particular job I need done."
Seth laughed. "You want me to kill Gwen?"
She waved her hand in front of her face. "No, I can’t have her dead and reclaim the MSA. It is too difficult for the people to accept me. She has intoxicated enough people to become a formidable foe."
"What then?"
"I want you to travel to Castor and Pollux. The Alliance has its headquarters inside of the hill to the north of the colony. The cave system is extensive, and I need you to lead an assault team in and destroy it."
"Wouldn’t a military commander be more appropriate?"
"He will be there, but I need you to infiltrate the security center. They have a triple-door system that only a single command post can access, and another door system guards the command post. It would take months for my men to gain entrance with a direct assault. I need you in the security center to man the controls and open the doors for my troops."
"How could I enter without being seen? My face is too well known."
"As a single entity, I can smuggle you into the low-security sectors of the base with ease. But the command level will take special skills, which in this solar system, only you possess."
"I understand," he said. This was a good opportunity to kill Parker and find out where Chloe had gone. Her disappearance had been kept well hidden this time. The communications had been mute, and it worried him. It angered him as well. She had fallen silent to him since her attempt on his life. He wanted to shake her, drive her hostility out, and show her why his MSA was the right one to find a cure and bring them to the paradise they both desperately wanted. If only he could talk with her, without the distractions of Parker McCloud, the rest of the Alliance, or their daughter. He decided she had to be at the Alliance base. "I will go."
Chapter 31
The guards lifted the heavy bars of the doorway and swung it inward with a great creak. The door opened, and Admiral Juncon and General Greenway entered. Resting high atop the Majestic Tower, the long, narrow conference room was as dark and disturbing as Gwen Arwell had become. She tapped her fingers along the table that stretched across the middle of the room. Sitting with her back to the window, she trained her eye on the two officers walking toward her.
As she watched the admiral and the general walk into the room, she tightened her grip on the sonic pistol in her hand, waiting and expecting the officers to betray her. Everyone else had. Samantha—acting as if nothing was happening—had sent more than a dozen people to infiltrate her inner sanctum, but she denied each entrant. She was smarter than that. Samantha gained her power through blackmail and deceit. She did it hiding within the shadows.
There was no honor in Samantha’s attempts. Gwen, on the other hand, had made her intention to kill Samantha as transparent as possible. For no other reason than that Samantha was a liability to the MSA, she had deliberately sabotaged the orbital weapon. Gwen didn’t intend to let her senior staff choose between the two. She would execute Samantha; her staff would know who had done it and who was the true leader of Mars. But the people of Mars would know nothing of Samantha’s execution, which would be carried out under the guise of an Alliance attack. They would think she had died a martyr for the MSA.
"You wanted to see me," the admiral said, his voice quaking. His half-hearted attempt to show courage in front of her dissipated when his eyes passed over her hands and saw the sonic pistol cradled against her lap.
General Greenway stood beside him, his rigid stance trying to hide his nervousness as well, but his knees were jittering with each tap of her fingernails along the tabletop. She kept her gaze on Juncon for a long while. "Please report on the situation with the reservoir."
Juncon cleared his throat. "The Aethpisian reservoir is no more. The Alliance destroyed it. As I said from orbit, there is nothing new to report."
"You don’t report your failures to me from orbit. Have the decency to come and see me in person. I don’t care to order you to do so." She saw it in his eyes. Samantha had gotten to him as well, and that was why he didn’t report to her in person. "And what of my terrariums?"
"We diverted as much water as we could from the Trivium and Zephyrian tanks, but it won’t be enough to sustain us for more than a week. Because of our weakness on Jupiter, the Alliance destroying much of our freighter fleet has finally caught up with us."
"And what of the frei
ghter that escaped during the last Jupiter raid?"
"It has just passed the asteroid belt. Another month, and it will arrive on Mars."
"That isn’t good enough, Admiral. Your failures are becoming a habit."
"This was the vice chancellor’s fault. I told Vice Chancellor Burns numerous times to transfer additional forces to Jupiter, but she denied the request. The freighters have weak quickdrive capabilities, so they must rely on thrusters. This is no one’s fault but your vice chancellor’s and her inability to handle the situation on Jupiter."
"Maybe. But your leadership has something to do with it. It is your fleet."
The admiral shifted his feet. Clearly, he wasn’t impressed that she had found a flaw in his planning, but to Gwen it had to have been so. She could find no other reason for the Alliance’s sudden resurgence other than poor execution and complacency from her military. Perhaps she should have insisted on absolute discipline from her officers, but that had been Samantha’s job, not hers.
Gwen squeezed the handle of the gun. "Admiral, you talk as if you have done nothing wrong. Did the defeat around Phobos not shake the arrogance out of you? The Alliance won that battle, contrary to the news reports we have been circulating."
"I don’t think those news reports have been effective in changing the minds of the people," he said. "Everyone knows the Alliance was victorious."
Gwen bit her lip. "And yet you continue to shun the acceptance of your failure. That has been your problem from the beginning."
"How so? I have been nothing but loyal to the orders of my chancellor."
Gwen laughed. "You allowed the Protector to escape Lunara at the birth of the MSA. Do you realize if you had had stopped that ship, then none of this would have happened? The MSA would control Mars absolutely."
"That was Hans Bauer’s fault. How could I know a meteor would call them away from Lunara?"
"You had ample time to stop us," she said. "You forget that I was on that ship, and you only sent three fighters to escort us. You should have known the speed of the Protector and reacted accordingly. You didn’t see past your raised nose to stop Eamonn Dalton."
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