by Holly Hook
“My father's standing with the Great Council,” Matt said. “I think they are here to make a deal.” He wouldn't face me. “I shouldn't have come here. I just wanted to get back at the Grounders for what they said and what they did,” Matt said. “I didn't want to roll over and take it as my father did. I'm still mad at him.”
“But he's here for you,” I said, wanting to take it back right away. "We need to try to tell him what's going on."
“Do you know what?” Matt asked. “Let's get out of here. We should go back through the vents and find another way through the spaceport. They must have exits somewhere if the Grounders are going in and out. Once we get to the vegetation, we might have some cover.”
I felt like Matt was trying to run from my words and the situation outside. For the first time, I didn't know what he had planned. He was becoming mysterious.
A tense feeling bloomed in my stomach, a new one that was growing by the minute. I couldn't pinpoint the source, but I felt like something wasn't adding up here or that I had missed something—something terrifying. My subconscious mind was screaming at me, but I couldn't decipher its message.
And now we were getting desperate.
Outside, something hummed and got louder. Matt and I stared at each other.
“Is that the pulse cannon?” he asked.
“I think so. It's about to vaporize Marv. And the cylinder.”
A woman's scream cut over the growing hum. Celeste. She knew what was coming. Matt's father wasn't messing around. He wanted to see the two people who had tried to hurt Matt burn. Celeste would follow. I could understand the feeling.
I wondered what he was giving the Grounders in return.
“What if Marv drops the bomb?” Matt asked.
The hum continued to intensify. “I'll watch.”
I barely crawled through the debris tunnel in time to witness the horror. The Grounders had rolled another pulse cannon down into the crater, and they had it propped at a strange angle on the twisted rails and other wreckage. But the reddish barrel still pointed at the cylinder, and two Grounders kept Celeste out of the way. The woman was sobbing as the cannon continued to charge, but no black vapor emerged from the hatch to suffocate everyone on the bottom. Marv still wanted to spare his girlfriend. The guy had a bit of a soul. I was watching not just for Matt, but for our mission. Things we needed were down there.
And since the Mars Identity leadership had found out about the mission, it was likely shut down on Fiona's end. It was our last cylinder.
Our last hope.
The cannon fired. A red beam emerged, which jumped back from the force and knocked two Grounders down. A horrific buzzing sound filled the air, one we hadn't heard well from inside our walker.
And the bottom half of the cylinder turned to vapor.
It was as if someone had popped a balloon.
The top of the cylinder collapsed into space below, making horrific banging sounds against the twisted rails. When the noise calmed down, Celeste began to scream again. They were screams of agony and grief. She pulled against her Grounder captors, but they held her arms tight while Matt's father stood nearby, arms folded over his chest. I caught no signs of joy on his green face, even from up here. He was not enjoying this task.
I watched for another minute. Celeste silenced, and Leader Kassam turned to the Great Council and began to speak again. For now, they were leaving Celeste alive. Maybe they were going to interrogate her until she spilled Matt's whereabouts.
I scooted back out of the tunnel, which creaked and urged me to hurry. The chair had bent underneath the debris and now resembled a half-open leather book more than a seat. It couldn't hold much longer. Matt and I would have to get through the spaceport to get out of here. Sure, we had tools, but it didn't look like the Grounders were leaving the crater any time soon. They had to guard the two tripods, one of which was still standing at the edge of the pit--
The tripods.
I had forgotten about them, even though one still stood in plain sight. Grounders feared heights and wouldn't climb into them. They might remain there for a while. Sure, Celeste's had its legs shot off, but Marv's must still work.
Just as I exited the tunnel, it collapsed.
It made a horrendous amount of noise. Debris and metal sheets scraped against each other, filling the main room of the museum with an awful grinding sound. I had to reach up and cover my ears. More dust filled the air, spreading all the way to the holographic Solar System.
The dust cleared within seconds, but one thing became clear.
“We're not getting out that way,” Matt said. “The Grounders might have just figured out that more people are up here. Even if they think that stuff collapsed on its own, they'll still want to check it out.”
“The vent,” I said. The Grounders might do a more thorough search this time.
They might even gas. The only reason the Task Force hadn't last time was that they knew that no one could get out through the wreckage.
Matt reached out and took my arm. We had to get back to the projector room. I hated the thought that we'd have to get closer to the Grounders before we hid from them, but our other option was to stay here and wait. I didn't trust that same hiding spot again. Sure, the Grounders might take Matt to his father, but the man had no reason to care about me. Matt would fight for me, but the Grounders didn't care about what we wanted. I might join the old man.
“We need weapons,” I said.
Matt shook me off and ran to the storage room. I seized the backpack that held my mother's tablet. I knew it was a dumb thing to do in that situation, where every second counted, but I had the sense that I should not leave it, for many reasons. It was my only piece of her. My mother was Luis Volker's daughter—and she might have some intelligence on the Grounders which I hadn't found yet.
Matt emerged from the storage room with the electric saw. “I hope I don't have to use this,” he said as we broke into a run.
Our footfalls echoed through the main chamber. We passed under the holographic sun and bolted for the entrance to the Mars Exhibit. The cold air wrapped around us, but it was still clean. I ran too fast to shiver. We rushed past the model tripod and through the pop culture area. Then we fled through the past-life-on-Mars section and around the curve to the double doors. They had closed now that the old man was no longer watching his movies.
But the doors remained unlocked. Baton in hand and gas mask over my face, I pulled one of them open. I bolted into the theater and made for the vent. I could feel Matt's breath on the back of my neck.
And I stopped.
Standing right in front of the vent was a young, green man and a spider-like robot. Concrete dust and dirt covered them both. The mining robot stood as tall as a large dog, straddling a large hole in the floor that it must have dug out. The air smelled of soil, even with my gas mask.
“What's going on?” Marv asked, fixing Matt and me in a shocked gaze.
“Huh?” I managed. My mind made the connections in a split second.
Marv had mined his way out of the cylinder and the crater—and wound up in here.
Chapter Eleven
“Marv?” I asked, holding my baton in front of me.
All Marv had was a heat ray—which was useless against Matt and I. He also wore a terrified expression. He was a man who was running for his life.
Oh, I was sure that he still wanted to kill us, especially after Matt's father had nearly shot him. But right now, it seemed like the Grounders were his biggest problem.
“Where am I?” he asked, looking around the room.
“The Mars Exhibit,” I said. He needed to move away from the vent. I realized that Marv had the same objective as us: getting out of here. “We need to go. Tell that mining bot to dig another tunnel that doesn't lead here. We need to hide this one.” I brandished the baton and took a bold step towards him. Now wasn't the time to mess around. The bot remained still, its mission completed.
“I programmed it to take
me to the nearest place without Grounder life,” Marv said. “I was in a hurry. I didn't care where it went. The Grounders are going to vaporize the cylinder that I dug out of--”
“They already have,” Matt said. “We saw. Now we have to go. Tell that thing to dig away from here, and block the tunnel behind it. Tell it to get us outside.”
“Celeste,” Marv said. He took a step towards Matt. Tears rimmed his eyes. “What have they done with her? I couldn't stay. If the Grounders think I'm dead, I might be able to save her.” Marv's thirst for killing us had vanished, at least for right now. I thought he'd turn on us since it was our fault that Matt's father had arrived. That would come as soon as the thought hit Marv.
“She's alive,” I said. Maybe the three of us had the same mission, at least until we got outside. Then all bets were off. “Dig us out, and we might get her back. Now!"
Then Marv turned his hatred on Matt. “Your father tried to kill us. His followers.” Marv puffed out his chest like he was trying to show off his Mars Identity patch. “The Movement needs new leadership.”
I struggled to hold back from paralyzing Marv. We needed his mining bot and his programming skills. I had to think as Mom and Dad would have said. I couldn't let my emotions get away from me. But time was ticking. Grounders could be coming right now. The only blessing was that the spaceport was big and there were no transport belts. Despite my racing heart, I swallowed and spoke. “We can save Celeste, but you need us. You can't do it alone.” I thought of the tripods outside. If we could reach them and stomp on some Grounders, we might be able to save her, as much as I hated the thought. But she was human and now a potential ally. She might be worth rescuing. “The Grounders are our enemies. They want to kill those of us who remain--”
“I know they're our enemies,” Marv said. “I thought we were on the same side. They said they wanted me to meet them here. They didn't say Leader Kassam would be waiting to kill me.” He clenched his fists. “I thought we were working together to save the Earth!”
“Huh?” I asked. What Marv said made no sense. He was falling into insanity as the old man had. Something had shattered.
But I didn't care. With or without Marv, we had to hide. The robot didn't look hard to move away from the hole, but any Grounders would notice that opening. We had to try it, even if this led out to the crater.
“Help me move this thing,” Matt said, not taking his gaze off Marv.
But then I heard footfalls, and the doors to the mini-theater burst open.
“Please, kindly freeze.”
Crap.
I froze, but only for a split second, before I turned and faced the newcomers.
I cursed Marv's presence with all my being because six Task Force members poured into the little theater and stood there, staring at us with blank expressions. The high collars of their blue-gray uniforms rose to the backs of their skulls. I raised the baton and prayed that Marv knew what the heat ray could do. Celeste had figured it out. But Marv kept the gun at his side as he backed against the wall. Why wasn't Marv raising it? He could kill all six of these Grounders in seconds, and the three of us would be free to go.
I stood there, baton in hand, while Matt held the still-off electric saw in front of him. It wasn't going to be pretty. Why wouldn't Marv just fire?
“Where is Celeste?” Marv demanded. “Where is she?”
“Celeste is safe for now,” a Grounder woman said. She showed no surprise that Marv had survived the pulse cannon. In fact, she spoke with as much monotone as ever. “We have her detained.”
“You're going to kill her!” Marv shouted. “After we helped you!”
Then he raised his weapon, shaking.
But he wasn't fast enough. A male Grounder charged him, leaping over the seats and tackling him like a football player. The heat ray fell from his grasp and slid underneath one of the chairs. I was closest. I dove after it, but a rough hand wrapped around my arm and I glimpsed a blue-gray uniform out of the corner of my eye. A big Grounder had reached me. More footfalls approached. Backup was coming.
I swung my free hand and punched the Grounder in the side, but my fist slid off the smooth fabric. The man was twice my size, and he held my hand with the electric baton. I tried to move that one, to hit him on the side, but the baton missed by centimeters. The man took his other hand and forced my only weapon out of my grasp.
“What is your name?” he asked in monotone. His gray eyes were lifeless, like a slate of deep rock underground.
Despite the terror rising in my chest, I forced my face to remain neutral. “Why do you care?”
“What is your name?” he repeated. “Why are you here? Are you one of the attackers?” Even though he was right, he spoke with no anger.
Matt cursed as he thrashed against the grasps of two Grounders. He hadn't even had the chance to turn on the electric saw, which had fallen to the floor. I wasn't sure if I was relieved about that. My baton lay on the floor, two seats over from the heat ray that could end these disgusting aliens.
“Where is Celeste?” Marv shouted. He, too, struggled in the grasps of two Grounders.
They had captured us, and all thanks to Marv's hysteria.
I could only hope for one thing, and that was Matt's father. He would want Marv dead and Matt back on Mars, but he might make a deal that would spare me.
And for what--slow starvation on the Red Planet? Besides, he might have only come to retrieve his son.
But stopping the mission meant the end of Earth and the end of our presence here.
Six more Grounders stepped into the room.
And one of them was Mr. Skeleton.
Still clothed in that black robe and hood, his face took on new shadows as he strode into the room, leading five Task Force members. Matt's father hadn't come with them. He might be the one interrogating Celeste. That was awful news for us.
No one greeted the Great Council member. He eyed me with that pasty face. Ever since I had seen him last, he had thinned more. The bags under his eyes betrayed the fact that he might have anemia. Well, his body. It was no longer a human. It was a puppet and a food source, under control by the disgusting thing hidden by his black hood. The Grounder faced me, locking me in a dark gaze.
“I believe,” he said, “that I saw you many years ago.”
My nightmares rushed back in a tsunami of fear and pain. This Grounder's taunts came back to me, along with his insistence that we weren't Earthers. I struggled not to shrink away. The big Grounder still kept my right arm in an iron grip. I could move my left arm, but he held me behind the rows of theater seats, to where I couldn't attack.
“You're disgusting,” I said, trying to draw strength from my mother's words and my grandfather's memory. “You rip people out of their homes and send them to a dead planet to die a slow death.”
The Great Council member kept fixing me in that lifeless glare.
“Tess,” Matt warned. “Don't push them. Please.” Then he pulled against his captors. “Go and get my father. He's going to take us out of here. We'll even go willingly.”
I balked.
Matt was changing his tune.
Did he know something that I didn't? The uneasy feeling exploded in my gut again.
“Your father is interrogating the radical woman,” the Great Council guy said. I didn't even know his name. “We will speak with him in a little while. We are still negotiating a deal for your return.”
“He doesn't need to do that,” Matt said. “I'm here. Go and get him right now.”
“And release Celeste,” Marv begged. “Keep me, but let her return home.”
I eyed the Grounder to see if there were any signs of a lie, but it was impossible to tell. The skeletal man trained his gaze back to me. “I see that you wish to take over Earth again,” he said. “You are a pest. You disregard fairness, and yet you refer to us as disgusting.”
“Hello!” I shouted. “You tore down our houses and deported people and then brought those gross Martian plants wh
ich are, by the way, choking off normal plants and causing a mass extinction. Then you attach yourselves to innocent people and take their identities away. Now you're planning to kill the rest of us. Who's the pest?”
The Great Council man took a step closer as Marv snapped his gaze to me.
Matt closed his eyes as if he were bracing for something horrible. He muttered a few words.
“Girl,” the skeletal man said with patience and calm. “It appears that you are mistaken. We Grounders are the true natives of Earth. It is you who are the Martians.”
Chapter Twelve
My jaw fell open. Matt sighed.
It was as if he expected the Grounder to say this.
“Excuse me?” I asked. “That doesn't even make sense. You're gaslighting. Oh, wait. You're a politician, so you're just plain lying.”
The Great Council guy shook his head, keeping his face the same. I struggled to keep my expression neutral. What he had just told me was so off the wall that it didn't compute. “It looks as if you have not seen the true story of your origin,” he said. “As we believe in fairness, you deserve the explanation, so that you may understand why we have taken the actions that we have.” He faced someone who stood in the doorway. “Do we have time to play the intro film?”
“Yes,” a male Grounder said from the corridor. “We have time. Leader Kassam is still interviewing the female radical.”
“Intro film?” I asked.
“Just bring my father in here,” Matt said. “We don't need to play this movie.”
“Um, Matt?” I asked. He was giving me no indication that what the Grounders were saying was false. “Please tell me that this isn't true.”
I needed that right now. Matt was honest. I wanted him to tell me that the Grounders were lying.
Then he spoke the worst words he could have.
He wouldn't meet my gaze. “Sorry, Tess.”
The world went out from under me.
“What?” I exploded.
Pieces fell into place, screaming. Matt didn't comment every time I connected the Grounders with Mars. He wouldn't tell me why the Identity people believed what they did. He had even torn down the Mars Facts T-shirts in the gift shop and put them out of my sight. And then there were the comments from Matt about how ironic the whole invasion plan was. If what the Grounders said was true...