"Don’t worry, Chancellor," he said. "I will never forget that you were a part of that crew. It rests in the back of my mind, right between my definition of disloyalty and dishonor."
"And that is what I thought," she said, raising her sonic pistol.
Bang!
Admiral Juncon slumped to the floor. He tried to speak, but he only coughed. The bullet had pierced his chest near his throat. With one large spasm, he jerked and fell to the floor with a thud. He was unmoving.
Gwen stood, walked over to him, and squeezed the trigger one more time, sending a bullet through his skull into his brain.
He was dead. And with him, his future failures.
General Greenway stiffened. Gwen heard him gasp.
"You are admiral of the fleet," she said as she sat back into her chair. "Sean, I have known you since I was four years old, and I know I have your loyalty."
"Loyalty to the Arwells has always been a personal pride with me and my family. I will serve you faithfully until the end."
"Until the end? You have little confidence in us."
"On the contrary," he said, a slight smirk curled along his left cheek. "‘The end is my death in an MSA-controlled solar system. There is no other course for humanity."
"I see," she said, and then stood and walked in front of Sean Greenway. "We need to do something about Samantha Burns. She has become a liability."
"I understand."
"Do you? She had been my best friend and my closest confidant within the MSA. You should question my motives for wanting her dead."
"It isn’t my place to question your decisions. It is obvious that the vice chancellor has become a threat to your leadership in some way. I will follow your orders without question and with full obedience."
Gwen looked at her officer. She didn’t trust him either. Samantha has gotten to him. What was his ploy? No one rose to the position of general—and now admiral—with absolute obedience or the ravenous vultures of the MSA’s military hierarchy would trample them to death. He was placating her, she thought. Samantha must have gotten to him.
She stepped away from him and looked out of the window.
She had killed Juncon for his failures. Sean Greenway would also have to die. She didn’t want Samantha’s collaborators within her inner circle. How had Samantha gotten to Greenway? She would never know.
Gwen spun around, aimed her pistol toward Greenway, and fired three shots into his chest. He slumped to the ground beside Juncon. She moved over to him and finished him off with a single bullet into his skull.
Looking at Greenway, she wanted to know why he betrayed her. Whom could she trust anymore? The answer was no one. She had no way of knowing who was, and who wasn’t, loyal to her. Perhaps Greenway had been loyal to her, and she had just killed a man for no reason.
No, of course he needed to die. Her gut told her he was a collaborator, and she had to believe her instincts. The MSA, Mars, and her family’s legacy were at stake. She had to eliminate Samantha as soon as possible to shift the loyalty back to her.
After all, she was the rightful heir to Mars, and that was what mattered to her now.
Not even Seth’s pleas for Chloe influenced her anymore. She would not placate her toy. The only thing of value to her was the power she wielded from her seat atop the MSA. It allowed her to carve her family’s legacy in Mars for their eternal remembrance.
The companionship of Seth Smith meant only the possession of him over Chloe Jones. The Battle of Phobos taught her one thing. Seth had distracted her from the goals of the MSA, forced her to make decisions based on nothing more than emotion. Her father would have been appalled. For the MSA, there was only one way to straighten her mind.
"Seth has to die."
Chapter 32
"I want you now," a familiar but disturbing voice said. Chloe cringed as the man, who was in his early fifties, hurried up to her. He had been a customer before—several times, and it was never an easy experience.
He threw a handful of credit chips toward her.
She deliberately kept her eyes from looking up at the man or the chips. "Don’t you know it is against the tavern rules to offer the credits in public?"
"I detest rules."
"Well," she said. "I’m unavailable until tonight, so you will have to blast off."
"I’m not here to debate it. I want your services."
"You will have to use your own services until tonight. I’m not going to say it again." She looked up at the man and kept her face as rigid as possible.
His face turned a deep Martian red. He grabbed her under her arm and yanked her to her feet. "I want you now."
"Let go of me," she said, pushing her hands against the man’s chest. He held firmly.
"Your caretaker told me you were available. Let’s go to the back."
"Peruzzi wouldn’t say that. He knows when I work," she said. She squirmed but she was unable to break his grip. "You have been with me for the last six nights. Give me a rest, will you."
"I don’t care," he said, and then he leaned into her ear. "Stop struggling…Chloe."
She halted immediately and looked at the man with her brown eyes. They flared brighter than the sun as her anger festered. "I don’t know who that is."
"I remember your touch and your smell. When you left, I was heartbroken."
Chloe thought back to fifteen years ago. Her desire to live a normal, peaceful life blocked those haunting memories. Time fogged the despicable faces and wicked acts. She didn’t remember this man, nor did she want to. She wanted him gone. "Let’s go to the back room, then. I didn’t realize you were with me before. My caretaker tells me loyal customers are the most valuable."
"And we are." She led him past the bodyguards, who were there ostensibly to protect the women of the establishment, but in reality, to protect the credits. Chloe was not disillusioned. She nodded toward them, indicting she was about to make a transaction. They confirmed with a simple nod back to her.
They reached the end of the second hallway and slipped into the doorway marked "Room G." The man pushed her to the bed. The sheets were sticky and wet from the sweat of the last client. She had gotten used to it and took a cleansing shower after each customer, but she still wanted to retch each time she remembered the musky odor of the men. The clank of the door behind her tightened the muscles along her shoulders.
She turned toward him—he was already unbuttoning his shirt. He smiled as he removed it, and the smile was familiar. But it was still foreign to her conscious mind. She clenched her fists to ready herself. She glanced around nervously. It was amazing how lonely she was. She shrank farther back into the bed.
She felt like the young girl again who had just lost her family. She wanted him gone. A wave of strong grief and terror washed over her. If this man were indeed from her past, he would pay for her hardships. Someone had to. So what if it had been her choice to serve Peruzzi those years ago? It wasn’t fair. She was so young, and the men were so…
Why had she gone back to this life?
She jumped to her feet, lunged toward the unsuspecting man, and thrust her elbow into his jaw. He stumbled back, smacked his head against the wall, and fell to the floor like a bag of oranges. She thought he was unconscious, but he groggily moved his arms, trying to find something to hold on to.
Chloe didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the lamp from the side table and thrust it at the man’s head, repeatedly bashing his skull. Her rage was so primal, it consumed her until the blood soaked through her shirt and touched her skin, cooling it. The sensation startled her. She threw the lamp across the room, and it rattled along the floor.
Her breathing was deep as she knelt before the man. He was dead. Her chin sunk into her chest. She looked at his blank, bloodied face. This man didn’t deserve to die, because it had been her choice to come back to this life and everything that went along with it, which meant she had to deal with people like this man and the emotions that resurfaced. Her past had caught up with her, an
d she panicked.
She put her face in her hands.
No, she was right in killing him. If this man were to have informed the MSA of her presence, they would have controlled her. She was in old Zephyria, and she was justified in doing what she did. The rules for survival were different. Besides, it was his fault anyway. He had forced her down here again.
Why had she stalled in her pursuit of Seth?
She tried to shoo the thought from entering her mind for the millionth time. She stood, looked toward the mirror over the bed, and realized that it was time. This life had to end again—running away and hiding was something he did. Not her.
She feared what Seth had become, and she swore fear would never control her. How easily had she forgotten…she had to fight the fear of him. She would face the fear that had sent her to the lowest depth of Zephyria again. She needed to tell him of his mistakes; tell him he needed to be stronger to raise their daughter; and tell him she loved him.
First, she needed to slip out of here without Peruzzi catching her. She retrieved the credit chips from the man’s pocket. She removed the bedsheet from the mattress and wrapped the man in it, hoping it would soak up enough blood to stop the expanding pool.
Moving to the bathroom next, she cleaned the blood off her face and removed her bloody clothing. She closed the door to the bathroom and opened the closet behind it. She retrieved her pants, sonic pistol, and tunic, and dressed herself. She opened the door to the main room again.
Her body stiffened, and her heart began to pound jaggedly against her chest. "Peruzzi," she said. "He was trying to use me."
"Galen Corabbee was a valuable customer. I don’t like my girls causing problems for my guests. It isn’t good for my reputation."
Chloe steadied her tone to match his; nervousness was definitely an undesirable demeanor to show a man like Peruzzi. He fed on someone else’s panic. "Drag him out the back door and drop him in the deepest chasma on Mars. I don’t care. He was attacking me, so I defended myself."
The bodyguard removed the bedsheet from around the man’s head. Peruzzi looked over at him. "It looks like you did quite a number on him."
"He wanted it rough, so I give the customer what he asks for. I did what I had to do."
"You did a lot more than that," he said, eyeing her for a reaction.
She looked at her caretaker, searching his mind for his thoughts. She knew he wanted answers to this crime, but he did not intend to turn her over to authorities. Instead, he would leverage her in the future to perform some unmentionable act or maybe to even kill a client for him. Government officials were always coming and going, and because they sneaked in and out, Peruzzi targeted those officials. It was a convenient situation for Peruzzi; the connection to the tavern was never made because the officials wanted their names out of the place to begin with. Their own attempts to safeguard their reputation acted against them.
She smiled at Peruzzi, trying to convey the innocence of her attack. Then she tried to step past him.
He put his hand on her chest to stop her. "I didn’t say you could go."
"You have to clean my room for tonight. So I thought I would run some errands before my shift begins."
"You haven’t left the tavern in three weeks. A bit odd that you would leave for the first time after killing this man."
"You aren’t my mother."
"No, I’m your caretaker."
"When I’m on the clock, which I’m not. Can I go?"
"Answer my question. This tavern is hardly Aethpis Gardens, so spending three weeks here can only mean one thing. So why haven’t you left?"
Chloe forced a laugh. "If it only means one thing, then you know why."
"I want to hear it from you."
"I wouldn’t know what Aethpis Gardens look like, so you are in luck I enjoy your establishment. Don’t read beyond my simple desire to survive this world. I have no skills other than what I do here. Now, I wish to buy apples from the market. Can I go?"
"What are you running from, Celeste?"
She smiled at Peruzzi, who kept rocking his feet back and forth. He was a little more agitated than his normally calm demeanor. That meant he didn’t want her past to bite him in the ass. "Don’t try to analyze me with the little clues you think you pick up. I’m not that deep. I am simply an out-of-luck girl trying to survive."
Peruzzi laughed. "Your hair is short. The coloring is all wrong. You don’t hide your roots very well. Something is up with you, and I intend to figure it out."
"Don’t think too hard. You might destroy the one brain cell you have left."
"Respect your caretaker, or I will find a way to make you show respect," he said, and turned toward his bodyguard. "Find someone to help you clean this up. I don’t want a peep of this to get out."
"Then I can go?" she said.
"First, you have something of mine that I want."
"And what is that?"
"The credits you took from Corabbee."
"I know credits forfeited go to you. I don’t hide them. I know that means certain death," she said smoothly.
He hand jutted toward her buttocks, and he felt the credits pressing against her pants. He caught her.
"Now!"
"I did work," she said. "I deserve the credits."
"You killed the client. You forfeit your stake. Give me the credits." He went to grab her throat.
Chloe reacted as she had with Galen Corabbee. She felt a violent surge from within. Her brown eyes flared, and before she knew it, she had drawn her pistol, shoved it into Peruzzi’s face, and fired.
The bang of the shot startled her. She stepped back as Peruzzi’s lifeless body was blasted back and landed on top of Galen Corabbee’s carcass.
The bodyguard was so surprised he didn’t make a move for his gun. Instead, he turned to the doorway. She aimed, squeezed the trigger, and sent two bullets into the side of his head. After flailing his arms, he slumped to the floor, lifeless.
Chloe didn’t wait for the rest of Peruzzi’s crew to come down the hallway. She grabbed his credit strip and was out the doorway on her way to the back entrance in a matter of seconds.
"Celeste!" Lola called from behind her.
Chloe stopped and spun around. For Pluto’s sake, she thought as she heard Lola’s voice. She knew Lola must have heard the shots. "I have to leave. Come with me."
"I heard noises from your room," the young woman replied. "Are you all right?"
"I’m fine," Chloe replied. She stepped toward Lola, coming to within a few meters of her.
"You don’t look fine," Lola said. "Why are you in such a hurry to run out? Did Peruzzi hurt you?"
"Peruzzi is dead. I have to leave before his partners come looking for him and discover I have taken his credit strip." She held up the long, thin wafer.
"His credit strip," Lola said, reaching her hand for it. Chloe pulled it back down and into her pocket.
"I am telling the truth," she replied. "Come with me, and you can start a better life."
"I can’t start a better life by helping you. It would only lead to retribution from Peruzzi’s partners."
"And they would kill you for talking with me now. You have a choice, Lola; you can choose the safe path, staying here and telling Peruzzi’s partners where I went, or you can take a risk and trust me. I know your life has been horrible so far, but I promise I will never let you do this stuff ever again. I did it once before and swore I would never go back. You can make the same decision as I did when I was young, but you can choose never to come back. I let myself down. Provide a better life for yourself, better memories."
"Celeste, why would you do this to me? I can’t leave," Lola said, tears welling in her eyes.
"My name is Chloe Smith," she said, placing her hand on Lola’s shoulder. "The woman Mars has been searching for months to capture."
"But your face is different from the posters," Lola said.
"Because I choose to make it that way. I have this ability," she replied,
deciding it better not to bring more complication to Lola’s choice. "I am leaving to find my husband and then my daughter. I know your heart is pure. I can sense your thoughts."
Lola lowered her head. "They will hunt us until we are dead."
"Seth Smith and Parker McCloud will never let anything happen to us. Don’t worry about others who will chase us, only yourself and your future. You have to believe in yourself, or you will live in fear and mediocrity your whole life. You don’t want to have a caretaker for the rest of your life, do you?"
The sound of boots exiting a room from down the hallway startled Lola. Chloe seized the chance and pulled on the young woman’s hand. She offered no resistance.
As she flung the door open and headed with Lola down the back alley toward the main market area, Chloe knew the rest of Peruzzi’s gang would be coming after them.
Reaching the market area, they blended in with the crowd, at least for a short time. Soon everyone would be looking for them. Chloe knew she had a better chance of mingling with the MSA in the main dome. With Lola holding tightly against her hand, she headed toward the elevator and triggered the car to exit old Zephyria.
The life she had once led had ended again. Hopefully, this time it would lead her to the paradise she had thought she was going to last time. And for Lola, a new life that wouldn’t be as horrible as hers had been.
Chapter 33
"Rev it up again, Airin," Parker called up to the top of the Asterfighter. "I think I corrected the problem."
Parker stuffed the wrench into his pocket and took a few steps back from the engine hood of the Asterfighter nicknamed Luscious, an anxious look across his face. It had better work this time, he thought. He was out of ideas when it came to this engine’s power converter. The regulator was surging the negative power to the wrong systems. He saw the canopy to the Luscious lower, and as he fiddled with the systems, young pilot Airin Flander looked as though he was struggling to level the power systems once again. Parker rumbled deep from within his throat in frustration.
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