by D. A. Hicks
“A beer, please,” I said to the bartender. She ignored me, pouring an amber liquid into several shot glasses she had lined up in front of her. “Hey.” I raised a hand when she squinted in my direction.
“She’s in a mood today.” With a chuckle, the guy in the see-through shirt turned to face me, and I fell back on the barstool behind me. Dark, tousled hair brushed his forehead above that intense green gaze I’d come to know so well.
I’d wandered into my dream, except this time I was wide awake. A raw current spread across my chest and down my legs. I wanted to tunnel my fingers through his hair and touch the stubble on his cheeks. The thought alone sent tiny flutters to my stomach. But I couldn’t go through with it, so I smiled at him instead. He returned the gesture and shuffled closer.
“Come to think of it, the whole town is in a mood today.” He stood taller, brows furrowed. “Fucking QEC.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I wasn’t QEC but stopped myself when he relaxed and flashed me a grin. Everything about him felt familiar, his chiseled jaw, straight nose, and the small wrinkles lining the corner of his eyes. But most of all, I recognized the loneliness in his eyes. The same eyes that stared back at me every night while I watched him die in my dreams.
I swallowed. “I just need to talk to her.”
The bartender set a glass in front of him and turned to me. “What are you supposed to be? Are they cloning people up there now?” She pointed toward the ceiling, as if Mars were directly above us.
“You know my sister, Ry?” I asked.
“You can say that. She comes in here when she needs to get away from her military shit. I haven’t seen her in over two years. She never mentioned a sister. Is that even possible for a Martian? Don’t they breed you in test tubes?”
“Alexa.” The guy next to me reached for her hand. “She came in peace. Here.” He pushed his glass toward me. “Have a drink. On the house. It’s not beer, but it’ll do the trick.”
I took the shot he’d offered and knocked it back. I’d turned twenty-two last month. This wasn’t my first drink, but I’d never had anything like this. The firewater cleared my congested sinuses in a rush and burned its way down to my stomach. I blew out a hot breath. “That’s stronger than Ukruum wine.”
“It’s bourbon. I think she likes it.” The hint of humor in his voice made me feel like I knew what he’d say next.
“It’s nice.” By the Titan, did I pass out in some alley? Was this a dream?
He surveyed my eyes, his all-white-teeth smile on full blast. He laughed, and I found myself chuckling along with him. “I’m Tek Dar.” He stuck out his hand.
“Catita Johns.” An intense charge passed between us when his skin met mine. The current inched up my arm and across my chest. By the look of him, he’d felt it too. I pulled away.
“Why are you here?” Alexa’s question broke the spell. “Is Ry coming tonight?” Her features relaxed when she said my sister’s name.
“She’s meeting me here. There was trouble down in the fields.” I met her gaze.
“Yeah, you can say that.” She exchanged a glance with Tek. “Try not to start up any trouble while you’re here. The uniforms will use any excuse to shut me down.”
“And then, where would we get our booze and top-notch service?” Tek braced his hands on the counter. Alexa shot him a blank stare before she walked off.
“At least she didn’t kick me out.” I sat back on my barstool.
“I thought they didn’t let the young ones download on their own.” The curiosity in his tone and the gleam in his eyes drew me toward him. I wanted to touch the stubble on his face, make sure he was real. If I tunneled my fingers through his hair, would it be as soft as I knew it to be?
“They don’t. This is my first tour.” I swallowed to clear my throat.
“Is that why you’re out of uniform?” He glanced down at my bare shoulders. A tingly current spread through me, warm and slow like honey. Or maybe that was just the effects of the firewater he’d given me.
“No.”
“Oh yeah?” He braced his arm on the bar. His musky scent dulled my senses. “Did you escape?”
“Why would I do that?”
He jerked his chin toward the window behind me on the opposite end of the room. “Uniforms’re here. Friends of yours? In my experience, whenever the QEC swarms the streets like that, it means they’re looking for someone.”
Shit. They couldn’t be looking for me. I turned around to see if I recognized anyone from Ry’s unit. One of the commandos looked familiar. I’d seen him a few times training next to Ry. Shit. He was Ry’s peer in Captain Weston’s unit. I had to stay out of sight. “Hide me? They can’t see me.”
He pinched his nose. “Of course, you’re on the run. I’m a fucking magnet for this kind of shit.”
“Forget I asked.” I turned to leave, but he grabbed my elbow. No electric shock this time, but the edgy energy between us brushed across my skin, and I couldn’t move.
“Hop on.” His tone was sharp and commanding.
I swallowed and turned to face him. “Sorry. What?”
He jumped on the bar counter, swung his legs over, and landed on the other side soundlessly. “Come on.” He gestured for me to follow before he stooped to keep a low profile.
The right thing to do here would be to turn myself in and plead for leniency. And if I’d ever heard of the QEC doing such a thing, I would have gone out to meet the uniforms. But I knew better.
With a sigh, I pressed my butt against the counter and hurled myself over to the other side. My boots hit the wet floor and splashed water on my pants and arms. The bartender continued to spray dirty dishes with soapy water, as if two of her customers hadn’t just barged into her space.
She grabbed a couple of clean glasses and bent over to stuff them in a cooler. When she met Tek’s gaze, she shook her head. “Here we go again. You just can’t help yourself. Can you?”
Tek shrugged. “She asked. What am I supposed to do?”
“How about let it go?”
“How ’bout we discuss it later? We’re in a hurry.” He grabbed my hand and led me toward the back.
At the end of the hallway, he ushered me into a small room with tottering boxes on one end and a row of shelves on the other. The single bulb in the middle of the ceiling shone bright and hot on my face.
“This will buy us a few minutes.” He killed the light, and adrenaline shot through me.
I hated the dark. One of those irrational fears I could never explain. “Is that necessary?” Tiny feet crawled up my back and into my hair. I took a deep calming breath. Not real. Not real.
“Just trying not to call attention to us. We can’t stay here. If the QEC decides to come into the bar, they’ll do a thorough search.”
“I’m up for getting out of here.” My voice quavered.
He squeezed my fingers, and the knot in my stomach unraveled. His scent and the warmth radiating from him were like a light at the end of the tunnel.
“I have a boat. If we can make it to the end of the pier, you can hide there.”
“Sure. Let’s do it.” Anything was better than this room, which seemed to be shrinking by the second.
On the other side of the door, a QEC unit stormed in. By the thrashing sounds and yelping, they’d come in full-commando mode with way more force than was necessary.
“This way.” Tek pushed one of the shelf units out of the way and opened a door that led to the outside.
The gentle sea breeze calmed my nerves. And finally, my instincts kicked in. Once outside, I helped Tek pull the shelves back into place and lock the door behind us. We stood in an alley between the bar and some warehouse. Water sloshed against the pier not too far from us. No one ever got away from the QEC. But if Ry found me first, I stood a better chance of getting back to the pod unseen. Or at the very least, I’d get a less severe punishment. I had to stick to Ry’s plan.
Staying flush against the wall of the warehouse, I
padded back toward the storefront. When more boots appeared in the circle of light at the end of the alley, Tek caged me to the wall, his hard body pressed against mine.
“They can’t see very well in the dark.”
“I know. It has to do with the virus.”
“Shh… Don’t move,” he whispered.
Even if I had wanted to, I didn’t think my body would have responded. The now-richer scent on his skin and the magnetic pull between us had my full attention. My eyes fluttered closed.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” His breath ghosted the curve of my neck.
4
We’re Out in the Open Here
Tek
“Feel what?” Catita glanced up at me.
Talk about misreading the room. “Nothing. Looks like the uniforms decided not to chance it in the dark alley.”
Her gaze stayed on mine for several beats before she turned her attention to the commotion at the top of the street. Alexa had been right to be annoyed with me for getting involved in QEC affairs, especially after what had happened at the fields tonight. But the way Catita looked at me when she asked for help, as if we were friends, as if she trusted me blindly, I couldn’t say no.
“You can’t save them all, Tek.” Dad’s words echoed in my head. He wasn’t wrong. But it would be a long while before I felt as if I’d made any kind of atonement for what happened to Mom, before this guilt buried in my chest went away.
“They’re going to come back. We should go.” She pressed a hand on my stomach and pushed me away.
“How do you know?”
“They might’ve chosen not to search the dark alley, but their lieutenant won’t let them get away with that. At least that’s what Ry would do.”
“This is your sister who apparently is friends with Alexa?”
“Yeah. Did you ever meet her?
“I don’t think so. If she looks like you, I would definitely remember.”
She opened her mouth, brows furrowed. “Let’s go before their superior shows up.” She took my hand in hers and pulled me toward the docks on the other side.
Familiar.
The word bounced in my head as I followed Catita down the platform. She peered at me over her shoulder. “Which way, Tek?”
My name on her lips stopped me in my tracks. Below us, water sloshed against the swaying catamarans as the moonlight skimmed her features and her utility pants.
“Is this some new tactic?” I shook my head to focus on the situation.
“A tactic for what?” She craned her neck to survey the area.
The papers on my ship weren’t exactly in order. Just because Catita wasn’t in full uniform, it didn’t mean she wasn’t with the Martians. Hell, just because she looked at me as if she were a long-lost friend didn’t mean she was my friend. In my experience, the Martians were no one’s buddy.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” I braced my hands on my hips.
“I see. You think I’m one of them.”
“And you’re not?”
“Well, I am. It’s just…I need to hide until my sister comes back. I promise I won’t tell anyone you helped me.”
And there it was again, that blind trust. “Fine. Come on. It’s the one at the end. First one out, last one in.”
“What?” She darted across the wooden planks, shadowing my lead soundlessly—the way I’d seen other highly trained uniforms do. Catita might not be lying about being a first-year, but she was still one of them. I had to remember that.
“I stay out on the water longer so I can be the first one to leave in the morning.” I ushered her in front of me. “One hiding spot as requested.”
She stepped onto my boat with sure footing, but after turning in place for a couple of rounds, she met my gaze. “We’re out in the open here.”
“Right through there. I pointed at the glass pane on the floor.” A flutter of sorts prickled at the pit of my stomach. I had to admit, in a good way.
When her head disappeared below deck, I pulled on the rope and let the sails glide us out of the marina. Luck was on our side tonight, if I could call it that. A full bright moon and a steady breeze was all we needed for a clean getaway. My heart raced, but I kept my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the horizon. Out running the uniforms was part of life in Wharf District.
With the marina lights behind us, I let out a breath and relaxed my stance. Catita only needed to kill some time, so I figured we could do a tour around the bay. I took another minute to secure the sails, then went and knocked on the plexiglass leading to my private cabin. Catita opened the latch immediately and poked her head out. Had she stayed on the stepladder, or had she taken the time to look around my things, sit on my bed?
“It’s safe now,” I said.
“Thank you. I know I’m asking for a lot.” She rubbed her arm against the cool ocean breeze, then ran her tongue over her lips. “What is that?”
Her bright smile made me shuffle away. I cleared my throat. “What is what?”
“The air. It tastes like…”
“It’s the ocean breeze. It’s salty, a little fishy, this time of night.” I did a double take when she leaned over the rail to catch more of the water spray on her face and in her open mouth. “Right. No oceans on Mars.”
“I didn’t know it’d be like this.” She beamed at me, and I had to take another step back.
“It must be nice to have a boat and go sailing anytime you want.”
What was it about the Martians thinking we were swimming in riches and abundance? Nothing came easy here. We had to work hard for the food we put on our table.
“Not everyone has a boat. For the most part, people starve most days until they can’t go anymore or the uniforms decide they’re no longer useful.”
The creases on Catita’s forehead got deeper, as if my words were incomprehensible to her. When she met my gaze, the usual anger that boiled beneath the surface dissipated. “I’m sorry. I don’t know much about the Old Planet.”
“Earth. We call it Earth. Why are you here?”
Her eyes went wide, and her cheeks turned pink at the question. “I wanted to see…Earth. If I didn’t download today, I knew it would be two more years before I got another chance. If not more.”
“Why two years?”
“That’s how long it takes to spin back around from Mars to Earth.” The pause she took told me she’d made an extra effort not to call it the Old Planet. “The trek is only twelve weeks, but there’s a lot of prep that has to happen before then.”
“Ah, so that’s why you went rogue?”
“Right. What? No. I just don’t have authorization to be here is all.”
“Same difference.” I glanced away and kept my gaze straight ahead on the slivers of gray painting the horizon.
We couldn’t stay out here long without calling attention to ourselves. I might lose my boat. If I had a fishing permit, I’d be worried about losing that too.
“I was supposed to wait for my sister at Alexa’s bar. But with all those uniforms searching the area, I couldn’t stay and risk them seeing me. Ry asked me to give her until sunrise.”
“What happens if the uniforms find you?”
She swallowed. “Solitary confinement. It’s not a place you want to be.”
I nodded in agreement. I’d been on the receiving end of the uniforms’ punitive ways more than I cared to admit. Though I couldn’t imagine they’d be as vicious with one of their own.
Catita closed her eyes against the breeze. Strands of hair loosened from her ponytail and grazed her face. I’d never had the chance to look at a Martian this close or for this long. I had no idea.
“What?” I asked when she glanced at my arms, shaking her head.
“Men on Mars are much leaner than you.”
“Leaner?” I swallowed and the ocean spray went the wrong way. I coughed a few times while she eyed me curiously. I pressed my palm on my flat stomach and flexed my abs just to make sure. Why was I explaining myself
to her? “This isn’t fat. Most women wouldn’t say I’m on the heavy side.”
“I don’t mind it.” She grinned.
“Mind?” Not that I needed her approval, but I’d never had anyone minding or not minding me. Whatever the hell that was.
“I think it’s the gravity.” She placed a hand on my bicep.
“It’s not just gravity. You have to put in a bit of effort.” Why did I care? I peeled her hand off me. “You know, I work hard every day. That’s where the mass…muscles come from, not just gravity.” I had to stop talking or rambling, really.
“Right. That makes sense. It’s like training.”
Putting food on the table required quite a bit of effort around these parts. The process to grow and harvest the plant that hosts the Ukruum virus constantly depleted all nutrients in the soil.
Over one hundred years ago, before anyone understood the impact the Ukruum had on the planet, the reaping kickstarted an ecological disaster that killed most plants and animals. With Earth still recovering from it, and also still having to cultivate the Ukruum crops, the ocean was our main source for sustenance. From her words, Catita understood training but working was alien to her. The Martians had it so easy.
“How about you? Is that what you do? You…train?” I’d seen the Queen’s army do some respectable moves. Maneuvers that could only be achieved through intense training. Maneuvers that were also overkill with the townspeople who, for the most part, were too tired and weak to put up a fight.
“That’s literally all I do.” The vee between her eyebrows deepened. “It’s so peaceful here.”
“Are you going to tell me why you’re on the run?”
And to think it would be another two years before I saw her again. My body ached at the idea of not seeing her again. Why? It wasn’t as if I’d never been with a woman before.