Claryce tightens her grip on my leg. There are startled cries all around the room.
In the noise I’m shouting, “No!” and I claw against Masi’s arms, struggling to get free. I can feel that he’s moving us slowly toward the south exit, keeping our backs to the wall and our faces toward the front.
“I think this girl will be next,” the commander says, looking at the supervisor. “And here I thought humans protected their young.” He laughs, waving his weapon toward our group until we form shaky lines again. The prince shifts uneasily, but he does nothing to stop this. In that moment I hate him.
The mech commander waves his hand at the drone, sending it zooming down the lines again. We watch in horror as the metal monster hovers closer, snapping its pinchers and making a high-pitched whine. Then every block of its body suddenly lights up.
“Now we have something,” says the commander. He drags the girl along behind him as he strides back over to our group.
I feel a vibration through the floor. I look around to see if anyone else felt it. Everyone is too focused on the drone overhead or the commander coming toward us. Except, Elan. He’s looking directly at me and I see his head make the smallest of movements.
The drone is now emitting a series of beeps and clicks as it hovers over me. But there are still a few dozen people around my immediate vicinity, and I’m half-hidden behind the taller miners.
“Very good,” says the commander as he towers over us. Then he raises his weapon, holding the whirring coils against the girl’s head until I can smell her hair burning. She screams and cries, kicking her legs. Tears roll down my face and I think I’ll never get the sound out of my head.
“Last chance for this little one,” he yells. “Come forward, now.”
Hatred boils over inside me, and I release Claryce’s grip on my leg and push her away. I then drop my full weight straight down, dislodging Masi’s grip on me. I have to end this. I push through the two men in front of me before someone grabs my shirt and yanks me backward. My head hits the wall and I cry out. But a gloved hand is back on my mouth in seconds. Breathing through my nose I see Masi’s helmet. He holds me tight.
I hear another yell from the girl, but it cuts out sharply. I squirm to see through the bodies in front of me. I see her dangling from the commander’s grasp. Then she’s nothing but ash.
***
I scream into Masi’s gloved hand. For a moment, glowing orange embers swirl like fireflies, but then those snuff out as well. I’m nearly blinded as hot tears crawl down my cheeks and wet Masi’s glove. The ground next to the commander is blackened with the girl’s remains, and he lifts one foot like he’s stepped in something gross.
I hear a loud shout and the drone backs off, hovering near the general. I realize I’m shaking even though Masi has me tight against him. I glance at Elan. He nods at my hands. Shit, the implants.
I scramble to press the bracelet over my wrist. I hear a faint pop and feel a stinging sensation. I can smell my flesh burn. I grab Claryce’s wrist and do the same thing. Her big eyes look at me with a tear running down her cheek. I mouth to her, “I’m sorry.” Then I motion for her to help the other girls.
I think about Masi. I don’t think they put one on him. The day he came in they bypassed the implant table.
I hug Claryce to my side and press the other girls behind me as we hide behind the wall of miners. I look over at the commander, who is exchanging angry words with the prince. The supervisor is standing still watching them both.
“But is this really necessary?” I hear the prince’s voice. His hands are behind his back, his glittering mask inscrutable.
“The king entrusted this task to me, and I will not fail him. If it’s too unpleasant for you, I suggest you retire to the palace.”
The commander’s voice gets loud right before he storms away from the prince and the supervisor. I slouch back down into the crowd as he stalks back toward us.
“All of you move forward. Now.” His voice booms across the cavern.
The commander orders the drone moving again. Dirt and small stones pelt us as the wind from its rotors tear into the cavern wall. We duck and cover our heads as it flies directly above us.
“The machine says the artifact is in this section.”
He’s looking at a digital readout on a display on his arm.
The prince comes to stand next to the commander, reading the data with interest.
“Last chance.” The commander steps toward us, and our group leans backwards as one, as if there’s actually a way to get out of the commander’s deadly grasp. He snatches one of the younger boys hiding behind a large miner. The man grabs his arm, but he’s shoved away.
The commander is holding the boy up by one arm, and he screams as his thin shoulder is wrenched painfully out of its socket. He reminds me so much of Jamie I can’t breathe. I know Elan says he has a plan, but I can’t stand seeing another person killed because of what’s hiding inside me.
My vision blurs, and I see a vision of the cities that have been decimated by the Kreons, land taken from us and recolonized by them, the humans torn from families and reeducated in compounds. My chest burns as I think of Jamie’s stubborn face just after he turned me in.
They must pay for what they’ve done.
Maybe it’s too late to save my brother, but I could stop this. I was here, and I was armed. Probably the only one here with a weapon. I reach into my boot and feel for the handle of the ornate dagger, drawing it out slowly.
It might be useless against the mechanical sentinels, but I thanks to Masi I know the prince’s flesh is soft and vulnerable beneath all that armor. I just need to find a weakness. The armpit maybe, or the neck. Find an access panel, sever the wires, cut out the battery. It was just like hacking a drone, but a lot messier.
I’m shoving my way forward when something rams into me from the side. An elbow hits my stomach, knocking the air out of my lungs. I bend over, gasping for breath. It takes me a moment to realize my hands are empty. Shit. I must have dropped the dagger. I drop to my knees, searching for it frantically, until I hear Elan’s voice. My head snaps up and I see him cut through the lines, approaching the general and the prince. What’s he doing?
When I stand up, Masi’s holding me again. I struggle against his grip, watching in disbelief as Elan makes his way forward through the men. The guards tighten their circle around the prince defensively. I hold my breath as Elan faces off against the commander, his chin up and his shoulders pulled back. My own blood is pulsing loudly in my ears. I can’t hear exactly what Elan’s saying, but I recognize the gleaming blade he holds up.
That bastard.
The prince strides forward and snatches the dagger out of Elan’s hand, leaning over to inspect it. He doesn’t see Elan’s other hand reach into his pocket, until something round drops out of his palm and rolls between the Kreon commander’s mechanical feet.
We hear a loud pop and bright pink smoke comes roiling out of the small ball. Soon we can’t see Elan or the commander, the prince, or the supervisor. I can barely see a few feet in front of me. Masi lets go of my mouth and pushes me toward the closest tunnel. I hold tight to Claryce’s hand and look back to see the girls following, and soon other miners appear through the smoke behind us. Everyone is scattering, and I hear shouts and screams as the mech guards begin blasting their lasers blindly.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Masi shouts without slowing down.
“No, Elan just said we need to head down this tunnel.”
“I hope he has a way out. They’ll kill us for trying to escape.”
I frown. I hope so too. I’ve never had reason to trust Elan before. But a lot has happened since I found him stealing the rabbits out of my traps.
I can’t get the image out of my mind of him walking right up to the vicious sentinel. The balls on that kid. It was either the bravest or dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. I was still angry at him for stealing
my dagger, but if I’d gone through with my hasty assassination attempt, I was 100% sure I’d be a pile of ash right now.
I nearly crash into Masi when he stops suddenly. Three sentinels are blocking the tunnel in front of us. They raise their laser canons, but before they can fire, an explosion rocks through the tunnel, shaking dirt loose from the ceiling.
Elan must have more than just smoke bombs.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a man toss something that rolls past me and the girls towards the sentinels. “Down!” I shout, just as I’m thrown to the side by the blast. I crumple against the wall, covering my head. Rocks fall around us, but this time Masi protects me from the worst of the danger.
We scramble to get up, and I see that two of the guards are pinned under the rubble, while another is twitching and shooting off sparks. I can feel Masi behind me and I hear the soft cries of the girls nearby. Shouts and footsteps behind me urge me forward despite the danger.
I ease to the far side of the tunnel and start climbing over the dirt and stones. Then I recoil in horror as my palm touches something wet. I glance at the nearest sentinel. His hands are twitching, but he’s not moving. His faceplate is split and components and some sort of gel oozes out.
I recognize the mismatched metal plate on the side of his head. It’s my cell guard. Masi kneels down with me as the girls and the men from the cavern hurry over the rubble past us.
“The guards are more than just mechanical robots,” I say, pointing to the gel.
“More than you realize, Rya.” He nods down next to the sentinel’s metal body.
A large caterpillar, covered with ooze, is writhing in the dirt like a fish out of water. Revulsion washes over me as I stare at it.
“What is it?”
“That’s who you call Edward. We conquered their world centuries ago, and appropriated their biomechanical tech. Now we use them as our soldiers.” Masi’s voice sounds sad, and the light inside me flares in anger.
“So all the guards have beings in them, and are just slaves like we are? Well, like us humans are?” I hiss as I watch the bright yellow creature try to crawl back toward the mech body.
I practically feel Masi nodding, with his helmet so close to my head.
“But we can’t have him calling for help, Rya.” He stands up and lifts his foot over the helpless alien being.
I grab his leg. “No, Masi. Then we’ll be just as bad as the rest of your people.” I reach out and scoop the caterpillar thing back into the helmet. I wipe the slime off my hands with a shudder. I watch in gross fascination, as it seems to melt right into the space where the crack is. Suddenly, the arms and legs of the fallen sentinel start moving again and I scramble backwards.
Masi pulls my arm to lead me away, but I hesitate.
The guard stands to its full height. Even though the faceplate is cracked, it looks as if the mechanical body works fairly well. It wobbles a bit, and it takes a few seconds for the red eye lights to flicker back on, as the alien critter works the controls.
I flinch as it raises its gun arm, but it only fires its blaster at the two fallen sentinels behind him. They stop struggling and fall still, half-covered in rubble.
“Go.” Edward’s mechanical voice comes out of the cracked helmet.
“I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
Then he turns and heads back toward the cavern, leaving us alone in the tunnel.
TWENTY-ONE
I TURN AND RUN WITH Masi toward the others. We find them hunched down just outside a wide, empty cavern full of Kreon tech, pressed against the walls.
Masi creeps ahead of me to look around the corner, before waving me forward. We’re safe, for now. My skin prickles as I search for another exit, but the thick, flat walls offer no comfort. There are no guards, but no escape routes either—except for the wide, round hole in the ceiling, streaming down a beam of sunlight on the smooth, empty floor.
“Shit. There’s no way out. Now what do we do?”
“We fly is what we do,” says a winded Elan as he rushes past me.
I gape at him. He’s covered with black soot and pink glitter from the smoke bomb, but he’s smiling, his teeth shining brightly against his dirty face.
I step toward him, hands on hips. “And how exactly are we supposed to get out of here?” I point to the middle of the landing pad and then up the vertical tunnel. “We’re trapped down here without an anti-grav vehicle. The way we came is probably swirling with guards.”
Elan backs up, still grinning at me.
I want to slap the cocky look right off his face.
“How many times do I have to tell you to trust me, Rya?” He reaches his hand out and slaps the air, but it sounds like he’s hitting metal. He does it again, this time knocking with his knuckles on something invisible.
The other prisoners step into the cavern with us, daring to venture into the light.
“We’re stealing the prince’s ship?” asks Masi calmly.
As if an invisible spaceship is an everyday thing.
I guess it is, for a Kreon.
Elan looks at him curiously. “Yes.”
“Wait. The Kreons have real cloaking technology?” I ask.
Elan nods and then goes to the other side of the ship and I hear a loud click. The ship materializes in front of us. It’s the same design, yet a smaller version of the royal ship I saw the other day.
A door slides open in the side and Elan motions for everyone to get in. We don’t hesitate as we hear noises down the tunnel behind us.
The space is tight, since it’s not meant for smuggling dozens of prisoners out of the mines. It’s obvious that it’s the prince’s traveling ship once we’re inside. The walls and floor are covered in blue and gold patterns, and along one wall are padded furniture pieces to lounge on. The Kreon logo is everywhere.
We pack in and I push the girls toward the couch and cushions. I don’t know how this thing will fly and since it’s standing room only, there’s no way to buckle us in for the ride. Elan heads for one of the two command chairs at the front. I leave the girls and go stand beside him.
“Still got that flash disk?” he asks. I pull off my boot, and wipe the small chip of metal against my dirty shirt. Ewan plugs it into some kind of adapter that fits into a slot on the console. Snippets of code scroll down the console screen, before the dashboard lights up and the engine purrs.
“A backdoor access key?” I ask, my eyes widening. I’d always been more of a mechanic than a coder, but if New Terra had figured out how to hack into Kreon vehicles, then they were more sophisticated than I gave them credit for.
“You know how to fly a Kreon ship?” Masi asked.
Elan shrugged. “Just like riding a bike, right? Relax,” he added. “I’ve studied wrecks and we have a good idea about how these things work. At least in theory.” He presses symbols on the flat glass panel in front of him. It lights up with swirling shapes and symbols, casting our profiles in a deep blue glow. Underneath each one is a word in Kreon.
After a few seconds of watching Elan frown at the controls, we’re still on the ground and my nerves start to tingle.
“Come on, Elan.” The back of his neck is sweating.
“I’m getting there,” he swears under his breath, tapping on the controls with frustration. “Shit, that should have worked.”
I feel someone come stand next to me. I look up to see Masi, still wearing his helmet. He lowers his head toward me.
“I can fly this, but then they will know what I am.”
I look behind us at the men crammed into the small space, expecting to see a group of dangerous insurgents. Instead, everyone looks scared but hopeful. They’re counting on us, but they also know they’ve put their lives in our hands.
“We don’t have a choice,” I say. “They’d find out later anyway.”
Someone bangs on the metal outside and the cabin shakes.
“They’re here, Elan.”
/>
“I know. I know. I’m not sure why this ship isn’t responding to the commands.” His fingers fly over the console.
I grit my teeth and shove Masi into the other chair.
“Let Masi do it.” He watches in horror as Masi takes his gloves and bandages off, his blue fingers open for all to see. Elan reels back in shock, but I glare at him and push him back into his chair.
Masi runs his thin blue fingers delicately over the smooth console. The ship instantly responds with all the lights turning on inside the cabin.
“How did you—” Elan starts.
“This a royal ship. It has more security protocols. Not as easy to hack with some low-grade burner tech.” His voice is bitter, but there will be time enough for questions later. If there is a later.
Soon Masi has the dashboard lit up with flashing and circling lights. I look down and see one of Masi’s hands trembling, and purplish blood oozing out onto the console. It worries me that his wounds aren’t healing, though it’s not like he’s given them a chance with all the slave labor and tomb raiding activity.
He tips his helmet up at me.
“I’ll need some help here,” he nods at a row of switches just out of his reach.
“The second, then the fourth.”
I smack Elan on the shoulder.
“Do what Masi says so we can get out of here.”
Elan numbly nods and flips the switches on his side as Masi tells him to.
Propulsion jets lift us off the ground, sending my heart in my throat. I brace myself, clutching onto both chairs, as we suddenly speed straight up the tunnel.
We shoot into the air like a rocket and the cockpit is flooded with sunlight. Masi levels out the ship, hugging the ground. When my eyes adjust, I can see trees below and the mountains in the distance. For the first time in weeks, I’m free. I keep smiling until I notice the Kreon vehicles on the horizon, approaching fast.
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