Mom! What are you—”
“Quickly, shut the door.” Mom’s voice was barely audible.
Grey rushed around her and obeyed. She returned to find her mother crouched down by the fallen guard, her fingers pressed against his neck.
“Is he?”
“Yes. We have to move now, Grey. Take his weapon.”
Mom placed the guard’s violetflare in Grey’s trembling hand, and for a moment their eyes locked. It was hard to believe it had only been hours since she’d found Mom standing in that cave, the confident leader of a group of refugees.
“You weren’t supposed to come after me.”
Mom checked the levels of her own laser and scanned the huge containers surrounding them. “How many times have you needed me and I haven’t been there?”
“They’ll kill us.”
“You knew that when you came.”
She swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice down. “I couldn’t just let them—”
“I know, sweetheart. I know. But we don’t have a chance standing here talking. Do you know where the prisoners are housed?”
Grey tried to describe where she thought she’d been held with the Lenoirs. She showed her mother the skelette. “If we free enough of them, maybe they can help us.”
But her mother was already shaking her head. “They’ll be shot before they can get out the doors.”
“Then what—”
“How many drones have you seen?”
“I’m not sure.” She thought back to when she was inside Genesis. There had been dozens. “Fifty, maybe?”
“Mazdaar cosmoships are equipped with servers.” Her mother stepped over the dead guard, edging toward the door he’d come through. “But when they get down here on Jupiter, they probably transfer to something more permanent. If we can locate and destroy that, the prisoners might have a chance. It will at least eliminate some of the guards.”
“But won’t they just switch the drones back to the server on the ship?”
Mom reached for the door handle, holding her finger to her lips. “There might be just enough of a delay. And shipboard servers would have severely limited range. If they can run fast enough, they might make it.”
Grey was acutely aware that her mother said they, not we. Which meant she knew as well as Grey did that their own chance of survival was minimal. Because of her foolishness, she’d just sentenced her mother to die along with her.
Without thinking, she quickly grabbed her mother into one last desperate hug.
Mom smelled like the dusty Jupiter field they’d both crossed to get here.
“I’m sorry,” Grey whispered.
Mom held her tight. Then they both pulled away and re-gripped their weapons. There was no time to cry, no time for good-byes. No way to make up for the years they’d lost and the future they’d never have.
“We’re together,” Mom said. “That’s what counts.”
***
“Tanner is here?” Dana asked.
Evangeline Yurkutz stood rigid and in control. “He turned himself in yesterday. Smart man.”
Rin wanted to crumple to the floor. If Dad was here and thought Grey’s life was in danger, he would’ve done anything Yurkutz asked. Mazdaar had all the equipment, and they no doubt knew what supplies he’d need. He would have given them the chip to save Grey.
She felt sick staring at the bio-drone. And now that Yurkutz had it, how long before Rin had to watch the cruel leader kill her family and Mrs. March?
When three drones marched into the medical room, her father between them, Rin ran to him.
“Dad!”
He lifted his bound hands, and she threw herself under them and into his embrace. For a moment nothing existed but the two of them, and Rin held on as her father silently rocked her. He’d make everything okay, wouldn’t he? Things would be all right now. They had to be.
“My little Rinny,” he whispered. “They got you, too.”
She stared up at his bearded face. “Grey got away.”
His eyes widened, probably wondering how much his daughter knew, before one of the drones yanked her away from him. Its metallic fingers pinched Rin’s neck, contorting her head at a painful angle.
Yurkutz approached. “Tanner Alexander, we meet again.”
“Yes,” was all her father said.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”
“I had no choice.”
“Because you had to save your daughter,” the general mocked.
“Exactly like you planned it.”
A smile that was anything but kind tugged at the general’s lips. She waved toward Hertzog’s body. “The fruit of your labor.”
Rin saw her father view the corpse lying motionless on the steel table. “Let my daughter go.”
“Which one?” The general reached over and tried to stroke Rin’s cheek with the back of her fingers.
Rin recoiled.
“I’d hate for anything to mar your daughter’s pretty face.”
Dad struggled against his captors, but they held him back firmly.
“You aren’t quite finished,” Yurkutz said in a low tone. “And if you aren’t willing to oblige, I will force you to watch things happen to your daughter that no father should ever have to see.”
***
Grey silently crept out into the empty hallway, crouching behind her mother. Mom used hand signals to direct their way.
They slipped past two doors with fingerprint sensors. Mom waved them forward, right as a door beside Grey flung open and a drone with a metal forehead stepped out into the hallway.
Grey didn’t hesitate this time and fired directly at its chest. It had no time to speak before it dropped, its twisted body propping the door open.
Shouts erupted from the room, and Grey gave Mom a frantic look. They took off down the corridor at a dead run. She heard someone yell—a girl—and her heart almost stopped. She knew that voice!
Grey took no time to think. She dove back toward the metal heap of a drone, knowing it would haunt her forever if she didn’t. She pushed aside the body, green fluid oozing from its chest, and burst through the door even as her mother shouted for her to stop.
Her gun in both hands, Grey thought she was poised for anything, but what she saw almost didn’t register.
Dad.
Rin.
And standing with their own weapons drawn and pointed straight at her were two more drones, their dilated eyes fixed and ready to kill.
“Hold your fire,” a woman ordered, and that’s when Grey spotted General Yurkutz standing next to a stainless-steel examination table where a naked Captain Hertzog lay sprawled, his limbs shaking. The horror of what was happening sunk in.
“Grey!”
She jerked toward the voice. Rin stood helplessly beside the general and another girl Grey didn’t recognize. She looked unharmed, but Grey suddenly knew all she’d done to try and protect her little sister had been for naught.
Mom rushed into the room just behind her with her violetflare outstretched.
“Well, well.” Yurkutz stepped forward. “A family reunion.”
* * *
Chapter 38
General Yurkutz moved toward Grey. “I would suggest you lose the lasers.” The general had an MI pistol aimed at them. “Or I guarantee I will kill someone you love today.”
If she took a shot at her, would Mom get the drones? Grey glanced at Dad, and he shook his head ever so slightly as if he could read her thoughts.
She reluctantly set her weapon on the ground, and her mother did the same beside her.
“Rinny. Tanner,” Mom whispered.
The Alexander family faced each other, two on each side of the room, separated by a chasm that was Mazdaar. Mom’s body shook, as if it took all her energy to keep herself from running over and holding Rin and her husband.
“Looks like you finally got what you wanted, Evangeline,” Mom said.
The Mazdaar general chuckled. “Not quite.”
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“It’s me you want.” Dad tried to take a step forward, but the drone’s massive arm crushed around his torso. As a little girl, Grey never doubted for a moment he would protect her. And that’s exactly why he’d come here, wasn’t it? Now the only man she’d ever felt safe with was as trapped and helpless as she was.
Yurkutz studied each of them. She turned toward the girl Grey didn’t know. “They make a unique study, don’t they? Archaic, yet unique. Perhaps we should test their loyalty further.”
“Mother, I don’t—”
Mother?
“No,” Dad said. “I will do anything, but just let my family go.”
Grey was surprised at the strength in her father’s voice.
“You’re right, Tanner. You will.” The general cocked her head toward the drones, probably sending them orders through her Dot. “But do you honestly think I will release them now? I thought you knew me better than that.” She turned toward the girl Grey realized was her daughter. “Dana, you will take Tanner and lock him up with the other prisoners. I want to have a chat with his little family.”
Dad struggled futilely against the drones as the young woman named Dana brushed past Grey. Mom’s eyes were full of rage as she watched them restrain her husband. She took one step toward him but then stopped herself as if she realized it would only endanger him.
The drones shoved him toward the door. “I love you, Sue!” Dad said over his shoulder, straining to keep his wife in view. “And you girls! Stay strong.”
Desperation tinged his voice. When the door slammed shut behind them, Grey glanced at Rin. Her lower lip trembled.
Yurkutz moved toward Grey, the MI held loosely in her fingers, the remaining drone a stoic guard beside her. From the moment Mazdaar had snatched Grey from the Preserve, this woman had used her for one thing—to find her parents. She knew they would do anything to save their children, and by the looks of Captain Hertzog, Dad already had. If the general threatened Grey or Rin with the MI now, Mom would be putty in her hands too. Grey had to take a chance the MI was set to stun.
It was now or never.
Grey lunged at Yurkutz, shoving her with all her strength. Muscle thunked against bone, and the general stumbled backward. Grey fought to grab the MI, but the general overpowered her so quickly she barely knew what was happening. This time, instead of throwing Grey to the floor, Yurkutz twisted her closer and jammed the MI against her chest.
Grey kicked and floundered against her.
The MI hummed.
Yurkutz fired.
The shock Grey felt was nothing like the tortuous pain she’d experienced with the cuffs. It zapped straight to her core and seemed to permeate every tissue, every muscle, every cell, even her heart itself. She felt herself shudder and fall as the room blackened. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
“Grey!”
It was Rin’s voice, and Grey’s confused consciousness couldn’t place where she was. Was she back in the Preserve in a deep sleep?
“No! What did you do to her? Please don’t die, Grey. Please.”
She tried to inhale. She could breathe. Where was she? As her eyes began to function again, she tried to get up. Rin quickly helped her to her feet.
Suddenly, an explosion rocketed through the room. The glass panels on the medical cabinets shattered, and Grey and Rin fell back to the ground as a wall caved in and filled the room with white smoke.
Grey choked and tried to blink away the dust and make sense of the chaos. What was happening? Had Mazdaar blown something up?
Through the haze, Grey could see the drone and Hertzog’s body crushed under a piece of concrete wall and Yurkutz and Mom struggling in hand-to-hand combat, punching and parrying and drawing blood.
Mom blocked a kick from the general with both hands, then spun and shot a drop-kick of her own. It connected with Yurkutz’s side, sending a guttural oath through her teeth. Yurkutz ducked to the side to avoid another kick and thrust a fist toward Mom’s nose.
Jumping backward, Mom avoided the punch, but seconds later, took a crushing boot to the side of her head which sent her stumbling backward. She tripped on a piece of plaster that had fallen from the ceiling, landing on the cement floor with a thud.
The Mazdaar general was on her in a second, throwing another punch at Mom’s face. But Mom rolled away just in time, pouncing back to her feet. A crimson stream flowed down her temple, but her eyes were on fire.
Grey frantically searched for a fallen weapon to help her mother, even as Rin flew toward Yurkutz, screaming bloody murder.
“Rin, no!”
Grey spotted a violetflare next to the medical table where Captain Hertzog’s body still lay. She dove for the weapon, then pivoted back and fired at Yurkutz.
Yurkutz cried out as the beam hit her thigh, but she didn’t drop.
“The next one’s straight through your head!”
Another explosion shook the room from somewhere outside the dome, but Grey kept her aim steady. That’s when she saw Rin lying crumpled on the ground. Mom, her chest heaving, blood and sweat dripping down her forehead, knelt beside her.
Her sister wasn’t moving.
* * *
Chapter 39
Is she okay?” Grey yelled to her mother.
Mom held Rin’s face in her hands. “It was a heel kick to her chest. If it hit her heart, it could cause cardiac arrest. And she’s not breathing!”
Grey lowered the gun to General Yurkutz’s knee and pulled the trigger again. Her shot met its mark, and this time the Mazdaar general fell, cursing. The only thing keeping Grey from killing her right then was that it was exactly what someone like Yurkutz would do. She wouldn’t allow herself to stoop to that level, but she wanted her to suffer for a few minutes. A medic could patch up her wounds later, and someone else could decide whether she lived or died.
“Come on, Rinny,” Mom begged. “Come back to us!”
Her mother’s tone sent panic straight through Grey. She edged closer to them, still keeping the weapon trained on Yurkutz, who was trying to clutch her bloody leg and knee at the same time. She was no doubt calling for reinforcements through her Dot. How much time did they have before the general’s daughter or more soldiers returned?
A third, fainter explosion reverberated through the walls. Were those the redflare cannons? If Mazdaar was firing them, what was going on? Was the settlement under attack? They had to get out of here before another wall caved in.
Grey knelt on the floor, reaching for Rin’s neck. Pressing her fingers against the carotid artery, she prayed her worst fears weren’t coming true. God wouldn’t let it end like this, would He?
“I can’t feel a pulse!” Grey’s words came out in a shriek. When Yurkutz tried to get up, Grey pulled herself away from Rin and hovered over the general. She knew it was wrong to hate like this, but the feeling roiled up inside her with the intensity of a solar flare.
General Evangeline Yurkutz raised herself up onto her good leg and stared at Grey. Even wounded, venom spewed from her eyes. “You Alexanders think you’re invincible. But you know what? You’re a bunch of weak, bleeding hearts.”
Grey looked back at Rin. Her sister lay motionless on the dirty floor of a Jupiter medical lab. Her mother, who’d spent five years praying for their reconciliation, was desperately performing chest compressions on the daughter she hadn’t seen grow up. And Dad? He was locked away, maybe even dead.
Grey raised the laser to the woman’s head, her finger twitching on the trigger. “What did we ever do to you?” She was practically screaming.
Yurkutz didn’t have time to answer.
The door to the lab exploded open, and a team of masked soldiers clad in body armor and brandishing thick blueflare rifles shot through the door and methodically fanned through the room before Grey could shoot. The symbol of a yellow rising sun was stitched on their black uniforms, and white stripes ran down their sleeves. She’d only seen this symbol one other time—on Jet—in the High Council chamber
where he’d defended her.
“Stand down, girl.”
It wasn’t the order that stopped her. She hated this general enough to send the beam on its deadly course, but Grey suddenly wondered what Rin would think of her if she took an unarmed person’s life.
“Grey, don’t!”
A soldier came toward Grey. How did she know her name? Was this some sort of trick? Grey backed up, not taking any chances. “Stay where you are!”
“Hold your fire.” It was the apparent leader who approached Grey.
“I said stay where you are, or I will kill her!” Grey aimed for Yurkutz once more.
Setting her rifle on the ground, the leader ripped off her face mask. White hair spilled to her shoulders. “Grey, it’s me. You’re safe.”
The sight of Mrs. March was so unexpected that Grey didn’t believe what she was seeing. Surely, this was just someone who resembled their elderly neighbor back home. Grey looked into the woman’s kind face and gasped. She didn’t know how it was possible, but it was Mrs. March. What in the world was she doing giving orders to Yien soldiers?
“Mrs March?”
Covering the ground between them with confident strides, Mrs. March quickly took the gun from Grey’s hand.
“We’ve got to get you all out of here,” Mrs. March said. “Yien forces are still securing the compound.”
“Rin, she . . .”
But Mrs. March had already seen. As two of her men restrained Yurkutz, Mrs. March rushed over to where Mom was still trying to revive Rin. Mom breathed into Rin’s mouth, then frantically began the compressions again.
“I need a medic over here,” Mrs. March ordered. “Now!”
Mom shook her head, but she kept on. “It’s too late.”
Mrs. March knelt down beside her. “Don’t give up, Sue. Don’t.”
Soldiers rushed over with a stretcher of some kind and scooped Rin onto it. Grey tried to push past Mrs. March and follow them as Mom rushed with them from the room still giving compressions. Mrs. March held Grey back.
“Let them do their job. I promise they’ll do everything they can to help her.”
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