by Jessica Gunn
At least he wasn’t running away screaming.
I wanted to apologize again, for lying and keeping all of this a secret, but the words wouldn’t come. I’d never wanted Sarah or Logan to become a part of this war, this world where ancient civilizations battled over time-travel and artifacts and territories. I never wanted them to know about my powers or my heritage. I had decided to keep those things from them, to protect them. To hold both Logan and Sarah an arm’s length away from the truth. No sense apologizing for conscious decisions.
Sarah, however… she’d kill me if I ever told her the truth.
Well, after the big concert next month. Oh god. Would I even be able to play it now? Our biggest show, and I go and get myself beat the hell up.
Logan ran a hand roughly through his hair, alternating between looking at my battered form and at the wall behind my bed. “It explains a lot.”
“I know,” I said. “I should have told you.”
He shook his head, then nodded, like he couldn’t decide what to think. I didn’t blame him. “Maybe, maybe not. So this Major Pike is in charge of the whole shebang or just the road show you were a part of in Ohio?”
“Road show?” I asked him.
“Whatever you called it,” Logan said. “I’m trying here, okay? This is a lot to take in at once.”
I nodded. “He was my commander at TAO. Well, as commander as one could get over a civilian. He wasn’t onboard Atlas at the time of the attack.” In fact, he’d been at the Naval base outside the dock. Which meant he’d gotten out alive. I allowed an inch of relief to soften the blow of tonight’s events. “Sophia must have gotten him out. She was there, too. Do you know who they’re sending for me?” And did the fact that they’d sent an officer to get me mean they knew my powers were gone?
When had they disappeared? It had to have been after I’d teleported from Atlas. I’d thought about playing arcade cabinets in Logan’s backyard.
Then I remembered: The White City soldier had taken my life force. Or something. That energy around his hand. Had that been what’d done it? There was so much we didn’t know about them and their powers. If only Dave had been able to tell us more before they’d ripped him off SeaSat5 last year.
“No, I don’t know who’s coming,” Logan said. “Major Pike was decidedly too caught up in something to do more than bark orders regarding your location.”
I snorted. “Sounds about right.”
A long moment passed before Logan stood and made for the door. “I should tell someone you’re awake so they can check you out.”
“Good idea.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Hey, wait,” I said and pointed to the headset. “Can I have that?” It was a longshot, but what were the chances that the secure channel reached SeaSat5? I knew they’d been stationed outside the Sargasso Sea outpost. I might have been close enough to reach them.
Logan picked it up off the chair and handed it to me. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter Five
CHELSEA
After Logan left, I slipped the headset over my ears and tapped the TALK button. “This is Chelsea Danning calling whoever can hear me. Repeat, Chelsea checking in.”
Nothing. Only static. I was surprised the thing even worked after the hell the headset had gone through in the fight on the Atlas and in Logan’s backyard. I pressed my lips together and swallowed the desperate sob making its way into my throat. Had the White City attacked again, had they gotten SeaSat5 and destroyed TAO, too?
“Please,” I said, hating the frantic edge in my voice. “Somebody read me. Anyone.”
“Almost to you,” said Josh.
My breath caught in my throat, jaw working. They’d sent Josh? “I don’t…”
“We’re too far out for SeaSat5 to pick us up and they’re the only ones who are safe at the moment. Be there in five.”
“Okay,” I muttered. If he was this abrupt, if SeaSat5 really was the only safe place left, something told me we weren’t leaving the hospital anytime soon, or that a happy Josh awaited me. The only surety I had was that he would be here within five minutes. But what he brought with him, I had no way of knowing.
A knock sounded on the door, followed by a soft voice asking, “Ms. Danning?”
The curtain in front of the door shifted, letting Logan and a doctor inside. A middle-aged man wore thick rimmed glasses and a long, white lab coat adorned with a stethoscope.
“Hi,” I said.
The doctor slipped on a pair of gloves and rounded my bedside and checked my vitals. “You suffered quite the number of injuries.”
Understatement of the decade. “So I’ve been told.”
“I’m inclined to ask how you received them.” he said. “However, I’ve been made aware your records are locked. As is the event itself. May I?” He pointed to the blanket.
I nodded and lifted my shirt away from my side. “Yeah. Sorry. I know you are just trying to help.”
He silently and carefully inspected the area, ignoring my apology. “You’re very lucky your ribs didn’t puncture your lungs. And this wound here, it appears to be healing nicely. It’ll be quite a road to recovery, but I believe you’ll make a full one.”
Physically. Jury’s still out on my mental state.
“Sounds good,” I said. But would the healing process take place at a normal human rate since all of my other abilities appeared to be gone?
The doctor slipped off his gloves and threw them into a waste bin. “I’ll leave you to rest. I’ll see about getting you discharged, per the military’s wishes, though I feel the need to express my recommendation against doing so. You need to be under observation for at least another day, if not longer.”
“I’m sure they’ll send me right to another Infirmary, doctor,” I said. “They like doing that.”
He chuckled, but it fell flat. “Have a good afternoon, Ms. Danning. I’m happy to see you’ve woken up.”
“Me too.”
The doctor left and Logan reclaimed his chair at my bedside. “That’s it?”
“The Navy probably thinks I’m fine because until today I’ve had extra-special healing powers, too,” I said. “And really, they’re going to move me to SeaSat5 as soon as possible. I can almost guarantee it.”
He frowned. “I’m still not okay with any of this.”
“You won’t tell anyone, though?” That was the last thing I needed.
“Oh no, Major Stick Up His Ass made it pretty clear that if I did, I’d be screwed for life,” he mumbled between his palms as he scrubbed his face.
“I swear he’s a nice guy. Once, you know, you break down his diamond defense.”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
Another knock on the door. This time, they didn’t wait for a response. Josh strode around the curtain and froze when he saw me. Damn. Did I really look that bad?
“Something on my face?” I asked. It extracted a chuckle from Logan, who’d grown familiar with my use of sarcasm in the face of pain, adversity, and life itself. Josh, on the other hand… his face remained stone solid, not a trace of worry present. His eyes skimmed the room, as though casing and clearing it, like enemy combatants hid behind every cabinet and IV stand.
“Josh, no one else is in here,” I told him.
Only at my reassurance did his face soften from intense action-man to the worry I’d expected. His fists curled and uncurled at his sides, and he frowned but didn’t move closer to the bed. “I didn’t know what I’d find.”
My eyebrows rose. “That bad?”
He nodded slowly. “That bad.” Josh took in the sight of Logan at my bedside. “Logan, right? We met at the Juxe show.”
“Yeah, dude,” Logan responded. His eyes narrowed as Josh moved his hand toward his hidden sidearm. Before I could vouch for Logan, he rolled his eyes. “It’s really me, man. I came with her from my house and haven’t left her bedside, except to get the doctors. As ordered.” He gave off a super-fake, super-sar
castic salute. Logan knew about what Josh had done to me, the things I’d already forgiven Josh for months ago.
“Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?” I asked.
Josh dragged a stool from the counter with medical supplies to the other side of my bed, sitting opposite Logan. “I don’t have any good news for you. At all.”
I gulped, my stomach dropping. The brown in Josh’s irises darkened to almost black, and the wrinkles and bags around his eyes made my breath catch. “No. Don’t you dare.”
“Trevor—”
“No!” I shouted. “He’s still alive. I feel it, Josh. I’m telling you—”
“Chelsea,” Josh said, his hands raised in front of him as Logan took hold of my forearm. A warning.
“No. I don’t expect you to understand,” I told Josh. “You don’t know—none of you do. The connection we have, the way I’ve always been able to feel his presence. If he died in that attack, I’d know.”
Josh’s gaze drifted from mine to Logan’s and back again, as if wondering if Logan absolutely had to be present for this conversation.
“I already told him everything. I trust Logan with my life.” Which was more than I could say for Josh these days. But he’d risked everything to change the mission General Allen had sent him, Eric, and Mara on involving SeaSat5. They’d given everything to destroy the Atlas Room in Atlantis. Yet here he was, insinuating Trevor’s death. Or worse.
I didn’t know what to think anymore.
“Fine.” He reached into his back pocket and withdrew his phone. “Nothing leaves this room. What I’m about to show you changes what we thought happened.”
I peered up at him. Even sitting, Josh towered over me. It wasn’t so long ago I used to get lost in his eyes. But that was a lot of war ago. “What do you mean?”
He leveled me with a stare that made me want to run away, palms pressed against my ears like a child. “The White City had help. Look.” He swiped open his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and held it up. “They gave me this because Captain Marks knew you wouldn’t believe it without seeing this for yourself. He almost still doesn’t.”
I took his phone from his hands. He’d pulled up a black and white video showing the Atlas’s engineering deck in utter chaos—debris falling from the ceiling, people running around and falling. This must have been right as the attack had started. “Security feed footage from Atlas?”
Josh nodded. “What little Valerie and a tech team could recover. The station’s not in good shape.” His lips thinned. “Not good shape” probably translated to “shot to hell.”
I hadn’t expected any better.
“Valerie’s in Pearl?” I asked him. “Wasn’t she on SeaSat5?” At least, she was supposed to be there, covering for Trevor. They’d moved Trevor and me to Atlas after the events on Atlantis. Valerie had been reinstated on SeaSat5 and promoted to civilian head of engineering in Trevor’s absence.
“She was,” said Josh, pointing to his phone. “Valerie said Trevor had called her to help teleport people off Atlas when the evac order was given.” He paused, as if waiting for me to confirm Valerie’s story.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Josh. By the time we teleported onto Atlas, everything was a mess. Trevor went to engineering and I stayed on the Bridge. It’s possible. Anything is when Valerie’s involved.”
His eyes fell, my answer apparently not enough. “Just watch the video.”
“Who’s Valerie?” Logan interjected.
“Trevor’s good friend.”
I pressed play. Trevor appeared on the black and white video, directing people out of engineering and, presumably, down to the closest evac point. The other engineers followed his commands and as he rounded his desk to pick up a phone, one of the engineers even tried to get him to leave. Trevor waved the man away, yelled into the phone, and slammed it back down on the desk. Not three seconds later, Valerie appeared. Trevor bent down to pull something out of a drawer.
“What’s he doing?” I asked Josh.
“We don’t know.” I’d never heard him speak quieter, more deadly words. A nervous ball of anxiety formed in my stomach and rolled around.
I watched as Valerie waved her arms, probably asking why he’d called her to evac when no one was there anymore. Trevor came out from behind the desk, something behind his back, and approached Valerie. She backed up. He pointed the object at her, black and dangerous.
My eyes widened and I looked up at Josh. “A gun? What the hell?”
“Just watch,” he said.
I didn’t want to. Trevor pulling a gun on Valerie—he’d never do that. She’d never let it happen… unless she was the one who’d helped the White City. How had Trevor figured that out? I traced back the last few months in my head. Valerie had betrayed us all before, but she was on our side now. All of Lemuria was. There was nothing in Valerie’s actions to indicate her swapping sides. Besides, we all had a common enemy now: General Allen. “I don’t understand.”
Josh didn’t have to tell me to watch again. My eyes stayed glued to the screen, scared for Trevor’s life. Valerie could do a lot of damage if she wanted to. Fire control. Strength. Speed. Experience. Trevor only had a gun.
They argued some more and Valerie continued to back up, a very uncharacteristic action. She’d never back down.
She’s not the attacker here.
Even as the thought—and Valerie’s innocence—registered, Trevor charged her, knocking her over and pistol-whipping the side of her head.
I gasped and pulled the screen closer to my face. “What the hell?”
“It gets worse,” Josh uttered, falling back into his chair, as if whatever was about to happen was too painful to watch a second time.
“How the hell could this get worse?”
Damn this stupid black and white feed. I wanted to go back in time, to find out what they were arguing about, to find out what had Trevor attacking Valerie like this. He’d never do that, not to anyone, much less his closest friend. Not someone he’d stood up for when the rest of us had wanted to throw her in the brig and call it a day.
But the feed did get worse. Trevor kicked Valerie once, probably testing to see if she was really out cold.
Then he teleported out of engineering.
Chapter Six
CHELSEA
“No.”
“Chelsea—”
I shook with such intensity, I thought my head might actually fly off. “No,” I said, my voice higher-pitched. “Impossible. This is impossible. That’s not Trevor. He’s not dead either.” Trevor didn’t have powers. He couldn’t teleport. The guy had been terrified of my powers, forget what he’d do if he’d ever obtained them. Which he hadn’t. He would have told me, would have asked Valerie and me for help. “This is impossible. It must be doctored. Probably by Valerie herself.” I cringed. Grasping. Valerie wasn’t at fault. That I knew, too. She’d been helping us for years. But no other explanation seemed to fit.
Except… I blinked, then shook my head. Whatever I was trying to remember was gone.
“That’s what we want to think too, Chelsea, but—”
“But nothing,” I snapped.
“Maybe he developed them recently,” Josh offered. “Or he’s hid them all along.”
I leveled him with a look. “Oh, right. Yes. Trevor has had powers the whole time, and he definitely didn’t use them to help me learn mine, or save his cousin, or save SeaSatellite5. He’s definitely lied to all of us for years. Josh, listen to yourself.”
And yet… Trevor had lied to me about his Lemurian heritage. About Valerie. About the map in his head. About many things.
To protect you.
They’d still been lies.
I let my head fall back on my shoulders as I examined the ceiling tiles, sifting through what logic presented, throwing each thought against my gut feeling. Trevor wasn’t behind this. He just wasn’t.
“For what it’s worth,” Logan said. “I don’t really like the guy. We know
this. But he doesn’t seem like the type who’d get you all in danger.”
“Regardless,” said Josh. “We need to get out of here as soon as the doctor’s back from discharging you. With the danger of more simultaneous attacks and with teleportation a factor, we can’t stay here.”
“And where exactly is safe, Josh?” If they’re everywhere, if they can teleport like we can, then… Oh. Right. I couldn’t teleport anymore. I frowned. General Allen had once more managed to make me powerless. My hands fisted into tight balls. I swore I’d never let that happen again.
“Exactly,” he said softly. “Valerie’s our only connection to the others right now.” His gaze roamed over my hospital bed. “Maybe we’ll give Weyland a call too.”
I shook my head and edged myself to the end of the bed. I’d walk out of here, and then I’d find out what the heck had happened back in Pearl. And what had happened to Trevor. He’s out there somewhere. “No. We can’t rely on Weyland to heal all of us every time we’re injured. I’ll be fine. I always am.”
Josh’s lips pressed together into a firm line. Unconvinced. Didn’t matter. The show was for Logan, who stood to help me off the bed.
“You should at least wait for the doctor,” Logan said, arm at my back. “Please?”
I gritted my teeth against the pain of putting weight on one foot. “Might as well see if I can stand now.” The dizziness that overwhelmed me once I had both feet on the ground said that was probably a no. “Dammit.”
Logan pushed me back toward the bed. “Sit, Chelsea.”
“Let me go,” I argued.
He bent down, leveling his eyes with mine. “You’re hurt. Stop being stubborn and let yourself heal.”
“I said, ‘back off’!” I snapped. “Atlas is destroyed. Trevor is missing.”
“He—”
“No!” I shouted at Josh. “Don’t you dare say it. I know what the video shows, but I also know Trevor would never, ever do that. So whatever you have to say about him, cut it out.” I shot my gaze back to Logan. “You too. I know you don’t like him.”