by Nick James
“Did you kill him?” Avery huffs as we power down the second corridor.
“I don’t think so,” I say. “All I did was slow him down.”
As if in response to my words, the exit door breaks from its hinges behind us. I hear footsteps. Turns out I didn’t slow him down as much as I thought.
Avery grabs my wrist and steers me toward an emergency door to our left. My breath catches in my lungs as we barrel down another corridor. I can’t take much more of this before I collapse altogether. I’m not a marathon runner.
The Drifter’s feet pound behind us, an ever-accelerating drum pattern. He’s faster than I expected. Maybe it’s the red energy, or maybe I made him angry.
We plunge past another door and head deeper into the Skyship. Then another. I grab the pistol from my waist. With every turn we make, I expect to cross paths with a security force. But we’re good for now. This is maintenance territory—the inner workings. Unless there’s a problem with the ship itself, we should go unnoticed.
I feel the Ridium hum against my skin and wonder if Theo can feel it, too. The way he had controlled the substance, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew where I was right this moment.
I wipe the thought from my mind. I don’t need to be worrying about Theo. Not yet. Something catches my eye. A symbol on a door at the end of our corridor. I pull Avery to a stop.
“Jesse!” She struggles against me. “We’ve gotta keep moving.”
“No. Don’t you recognize it?” I point to the symbol, a bolt of lightning surrounded by an intricately bordered circle.
“Power station,” she whispers.
I nod and race to the door. Large ships like Altair have no less than four stations like this spread around the vessel. They’re what pump the Pearl Energy around. The ship’s hearts.
“It’s a dead-end,” Avery warns.
“I know.” I grab the handle. “But I have an idea.”
“You’re gonna get us killed.”
“No,” I say. “If there’s a Pearl inside, I can use it.” “What if it’s empty?”
I lay my hand on the door and close my eyes. I can feel it inside, a warm presence calling to me. “It’s not.”
I wrap my hands around the trigger of the pistol and fire into the door, just below the handle. The lock blasts away. We slip inside.
The light from the hallway outside is eaten by darkness. The floor to the station is illuminated by thin, orange diamonds running along the sides, a sign that we’re close to the reactor. A metal door lies closed at the far end of the corridor. It’s likely more than a foot thick—too much for my dinky little blaster.
I rush forward, jogging down the hall until I feel the buzzing energy of the door under my fingers.
Avery moves behind me. “I don’t like this, Jesse. He’s coming.”
“I can do it,” I whisper. “There’s Pearl energy on the other side, funneling in the reactor.” The hair on the back of my hand stands on end. “The Drifter’s gone. It’s halfway drained already, but I can use what’s left.”
She turns, surveying the dark. Her gaze shifts toward the ceiling. “This place is like a tomb. If you’re wrong ……” She can’t finish the sentence.
I run my hand along the surface of the door, feeling for cracks or holes. Anything. Already, my body feels stronger. I lay my cheek against metal, pulling.
My heart swells. I feel a waft of air brush against the back of my neck. I’m surrounded by energy. I could bathe in it if I wanted. I take a step away, furrow my brows, and grasp on with everything I’ve got.
“Jesse.” Avery turns. “Did you hear me?”
I don’t need to respond. Strands of green light coil from within the doorway, escaping through microscopic holes and cracks in the metal. They flower around me, winding above our heads. Trails of light swirl in the darkness. Some wind underfoot, curling beside my feet until they find refuge with a neighboring strand. The door rattles and hums, on the verge of pulverizing into dust. The hallway flashes a brilliant green. I close my eyes and become one with the energy, letting it wash over me like a wave of soothing bathwater. It encircles my body, cleansing cuts and bruises from the day. My lungs expand with the freshest, most revitalizing air imaginable. I feel whole.
A door slams off its hinges. The sound pulls my eyes open once more. I spin around to see the silhouette of the Drifter at the opposite end of the hallway, still and menacing. Both fists glow with a vibrant red—violent Pearl Energy ready to kill me if I don’t act soon.
Avery backs into my shoulder. The Drifter holds out a hand. The corridor rattles. The scars on my chest burn, though it’s quickly countered by the bolstering cocoon around me.
Before he can make a move, I let it all go. I thrust my hands forward and feel everything leave me. The green wave shoots through the hallway in a turbine, twisting and swirling so fast that the strands blend together, one undecipherable from the next.
I watch the energy slam into the Drifter. It knocks him back in a violent pulse. He flies across the connecting corridor and slams through the neighboring wall, pushed faster and farther by the oncoming energy.
The ground drops beneath us as the Skyship lurches downward. The thick metal of the door cracks behind me. Avery slips. She holds her head in her hands, protecting herself from oncoming rubble. The rows of orange lights blink frantically before settling. The ground stabilizes as the ship corrects itself. One power station deactivated. If I hit all of them, we’re going down.
I watch the last of the Pearl energy dissipate through the distant hole in the wall. The Drifter’s gone, knocked way off course. I pushed him away, maybe even killed him.
I help Avery to her feet. “Are you okay?”
She nods, visibly shaken. “I thought what you did last spring was something. That … that was amazing, Jesse.”
“Yeah?” I take a deep breath. “There’s more where that came from.” I glance behind me. I can see the empty generator through the cracks in the thick door. Scraps lay at my feet. “Come on,” I say. “Let’s go break some Pearls.”
37
Cassius gunned the accelerator, arcing the Academy ship high into the stratosphere, far enough from Skyship Altair that it seemed a distant dot below him. He’d never driven an agent’s ship before. The controls were remarkably similar to those of a cruiser, but the speed was amplified. He could work wonders with this. He’d need to.
Last time he’d engaged Theo, the boy had the upper hand. He had control of the environment, even in his unstable mental state. The trick this time was to hit him first, draw blood before he could react. He knew precious little about Ridium, but it was certainly dangerous, especially under Theo’s control.
Cassius took stock of the weapons available to him. Cannons, mounted on the front underbelly. Tractor beams—useful only if he had the chance to pull Theo into the ship with him. A pair of missiles, though he doubted that human weaponry would be of much use against an alien substance like Ridium. If the black vessel was anything as strong as the bracelet around Cassius’s arm, he’d be fighting against the indestructible.
As he piloted the ship, his mind kept coming back to one thing. Pearls.
Matigo obviously feared them, or feared how they could be used. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have went to the trouble to send his own son to Earth as some sort of sting agent. He wouldn’t be after Fisher, either. If Fisher succeeded in finding more Drifters, Cassius hoped they knew what to do.
He took a deep breath and began to bring the ship down. Theo’s vessel appeared on the radar as a dark blotch, like a storm cloud ready to belch thunder and lightning. Cassius was directly on top of it now.
First, he’d unleash a volley of cannon blasts. If that didn’t work, he’d have to get closer. One way or another, he needed to engage Theo directly. If he couldn’t kill him, he’d hurt him. Weaken him until the Drifters could finish him off.
The ship gained speed as it cut through the air, descending like a dagger piercing the sky. The
black, spherical vessel neared closer. Cassius waited until he could see it clearly before letting loose.
He fired a round right into the surface, spinning sideways to avoid crashing into the vessel. Explosions lit up the atmosphere around the sphere of darkness but left no mark. As soon as the smoke faded, Theo’s ship remained untouched, floating silently in the sky.
He rounded in a wide loop, ready to test the missiles. He doubted they would be any more effective, but he had to try everything before risking a closer encounter.
As he turned to approach the vessel, he noticed a quiver of movement from the darkness. He pulled a pair of specs from the cabinet overhead and slipped them onto his eyes, magnifying his vision twofold.
The blackness stirred in front of him like a monster ready to attack. He slowed his approach.
Out of nowhere, the vessel developed a long, snakelike arm. It flew from the darkness, extending a winding tendril through the sky, directly toward his ship.
Cassius cursed. In one motion, he released the missiles and pulled up, cutting a vertical climb back into safe territory as the black extension wound after him.
The missiles detonated along the shell of Theo’s vessel with little effect. Cassius brought the Academy ship upside down, spinning so that he could make a quick escape.
Too late.
The black tendril grabbed onto his stern with an awful clamp. Metal squealed behind him. He laid on the accelerator. It was no use. Within seconds, the entire ship yanked backward.
He slammed into the console, then forced a glance over his shoulder. He was expecting to see the entire ship tear away from him. Instead, a violent thud on the windshield sent him flying with enough force to snap his seatbelt. He hit the ground sideways and rolled to catch a glimpse of the windshield. A black film of Ridium blots out the sky.
All at once, the backward pull intensified. He tried to grab onto something, but it was too quick. He flew forward through the air and collided with the console again. The speed of the movement forced him into the windshield, dangerously close to the Ridium outside.
His bracelet clamped onto the wall of black, craving to rejoin the element. He stared at the doorway to the cabin, wishing he could escape. Theo had hold of the entire ship now. He could do anything he wanted. He could smash him like a piece of tin.
Cassius closed his eyes and succumbed to panic. He was miles above the Earth, closer and closer to a lunatic who could control everything around him. And all Cassius had was fire. Fire wouldn’t do anything up here, not against Matigo’s son.
A deep rumbling sounded underneath him, then a violent tearing as the Ridium ripped the Academy ship to pieces. The cabin door splayed open, eaten by an enormous black mouth of jagged teeth—a razorblade funnel that sucked Cassius in and spit him back out.
He landed hard on dark flooring. The familiar sheen gave the entire room a pristine feel. His bracelet sunk to the ground, forcing his arm with it.
Then, Theo’s voice. Nowhere, and everywhere all at once.
“So you lived,” he said.
Cassius flipped over so that he could stare at the ceiling. It was the same color as the floor, of course. Everything was. Smooth. Black. Alien.
His eyes darted around, searching for Theo. His right wrist kept him pinned to the ground, but he kicked his legs anyway, struggling to get up. “Where are you?” His voice sounded smaller than usual. He didn’t want to sound like this, not in front of Theo.
“You shouldn’t have been so nasty to me.” The boy’s voice rang out from somewhere behind him. “I remember everything. It doesn’t change what’s going to happen, but I could make it easier for you if we’d have been friends.” Cassius squirmed on the ground, trying to pull his hand free. “I know who you are. You’re not some poor junkie’s kid from the Fringes.”
“Surprise.”
Cassius heard footsteps. Then, out of nowhere, Theo appeared beside his left leg, arms crossed. Cassius tried to kick him, but Theo quickly fashioned a coil of Ridium from the ground, keeping his ankle in place.
Cassius glared at the kid. “Did you know the whole time?”
“Not before the swarm,” Theo responded. “Not before the crimson.”
“The red Drifter?”
“Matigo’s herald.” He nodded. “Sent to Earth to kick things off when my father was ready.”
“Where is he?” Cassius strained to look up at Theo. “Where’s Matigo?”
Theo crouched, one leg on either side of Cassius’s. His smile widened—that same sick expression he’d worn when they’d first met at the Lodge. “Anywhere. And everywhere.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A broken world like this one is so much easier to conquer.” He paused. “My father knows this. You’re all at war with each other, and you don’t even know what’s coming.”
“I saw you,” Cassius spit. “On Haven. I saw what he was going to do to you. Bring you down to the pits. Submerge you … or something.”
Theo nodded. “We’re Shifters, me and my father. There aren’t many of us on Haven, and even less that can manipulate Ridium as well as we can.” A spout of blackness emerged from between Cassius’s feet, like the eruption of a volcano. Theo grabbed hold of the top and formed it into a perfect sphere. It hovered over his hand, spinning like the model of a planet. “It won’t mean a thing once it’s all gone, but for now it’s going to help us take over this planet.”
Theo shot the black sphere into the air, where it exploded in a hundred sideways raindrops that diffused into the walls around them. “A skilled Shifter,” he continued, “can program a task—or several—in specific order, and the hunk of Ridium will carry that information until it’s completed its mission.” He stepped to Cassius’s side and sat, staring down at his bracelet. “I can feel it now. That chunk around your wrist was given a set of three tasks by a traitor to the Authority.” He ran his hand over the surface of the bracelet. “Task one: Transform from the shape of a cube to a pair of bracelets, one for the Pearlbreaker, one for his brother.”
Cassius remembered when Madame had first presented him with the mysterious black box. It had taken Fisher’s key to activate it. His wrist hadn’t been bare since.
“Task two,” Theo continued. “Relay your mother’s recording from Haven. Reveal all of the amazing things you can do to save your world.” He laughed for a second. Then his smiled faded. “Task three won’t matter much longer.”
“Tell me.” Cassius squirmed.
Theo nodded. “Your parents thought they were smart. The bracelets, even back when they were some boring box, have been programmed by a Shifter to transmit a constant signal to the stars.”
“So what?”
“So … ” He smiled. “They’re a filter. They let in the good Pearls and keep out the bad.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “Green, red … it’s different energy. It’s a frequency game, Stevenson. Like a radio blocking a certain station.” He lifted his finger. Cassius’s bracelet lifted into the air, stopping half a foot from the ground. Frozen. “Like I said, Ridium’s a powerful substance. I don’t know how the Resistance found a Shifter willing to undercut the Authority, but this little thing, along with Fisher’s, was their last great hope.”
He let the bracelet fall to the floor again. It landed against the Ridium without a sound. “There are thousands of them, Cassius, right at the edge of space, circling your planet. Red Pearls, everywhere. More than I can even imagine. This far up, you might even feel them if you close your eyes and concentrate real hard.” He smiled. “And all I have to do is get rid of you and your brother.”
Cassius winced as the coil tightened around his leg. “What about the red Drifter? He was in a Pearl. He came through okay.”
Theo nodded. “He wore a tiny piece of Ridium around his neck—the last remaining treasure in my father’s collection. It was a gamble, but Ridium attracts Ridium. The natural bond between the objects was enough to break through the tra
nsmission.” His brows raised. “That’s how I came to Earth, after all.”
Cassius craned his neck to see around the room. “You came here in this?”
Theo laughed. “Are you kidding me? All I had was enough Ridium to get me safely through space.”
“Submerged,” Cassius said. “You were submerged in it.”
“Exactly,” he replied. “And I shifted it into a kind of ship. A barrier between me and the stars. Like a Pearl, but better.” He paused. “It was supposed to be untraceable, but Madame’s radars must have picked me up when I landed. I don’t know … I guess she had reason to search the skies after you and Fisher showed up.”
A ripple coursed through the ground as he continued. “I had no memory when I got here, wandering through Fringe Town after Fringe Town until she picked me up. An accident, she’d said. I’d had an accident. That’s all.” He turned away, eyes focused on the distant wall. “But Ridium’s everywhere. It came down with the Scarlet Bombings that destroyed your cities. It’s been seeping underground ever since, waiting for Matigo to use it. Every last bit of the stuff that was on Haven is now on Earth. The entire planet’s a weapon for those who can use it.”
Cassius felt a pain in his chest, like the wind had been kicked out of him. “I thought the Scarlet Bombings—”
“Were a pre-strike,” Theo interrupted. “Yeah, they were. They set everything in motion. The warming of the environment, the fighting. Skyships. Chosen Cities. And Ridium. Everything’s been counting down to this moment.”
Cassius winced. “So what are you going to do?”
Theo grinned. “First, I’m going to let the rest of the Authority in. Then, oh great Cassius Stevenson, I’m going to kill you.”
38
Altair’s in full freak-out mode. I’m sure of it, even though I can’t hear the sirens anymore. If the destruction in the shopping center wasn’t enough, the lurch from the disrupted generator would send everyone on edge. We’ve stabilized now, but sudden drops in altitude don’t make for a very subtle sneak attack.