by SJ Moquin
“You’re right, Knox, but what? There’s not enough of the puzzle to piece anything together yet.”
“All I know is you two were on that trip too. What if they want you dead as well?” Lark’s question left a cold chill that slithered up Gwelle’s spine.
It was a very good question. One she’d asked herself while they sat at the festival enjoying the laughter around them. One she refused entry into her brain as she, Raiden, Jexxa, Knox, and Lark laughed over who looked more ridiculous during the pie eating contest. One she’d shoved aside watching her mom dance with Wyn Maxon following the feast. One she’d ignored as Raiden held her in his arms swaying to the music. The rest of her day had been fun as long as she’d pushed that nagging question aside. Now it was back and hanging there between them. And it couldn’t be ignored.
“Then we will have to be careful and keep our eyes open. And…” Raiden paused looking between Lark and Knox. “It’s best you stay clear of us for a while, for your own safety.” Before he’d even finished speaking Lark was shaking her head, but it was Knox who spoke for them.
“No way. We’ve always been in this together. Even if we failed to see it.” He glanced to where Raiden and she sat beside each other.
“We’re in this together now. Just tell us what we need to do, and we’ll do it.” Lark said.
Raiden looked at Gwelle, his expression so tight, so tense. He looked the way she felt, wound tight, confused. Which way they’d turn next was unclear.
“We should tell someone,” Lark whispered, her voice tiny and unsure.
“Yeah, but who?” Knox said. He realized the dilemma they now faced as he raked his fingers through his shaggy blonde hair, bits and pieces standing on end as he did.
“Whoever did this knew what they were doing. Until we have further proof, we should keep it between the four of us.”
Slowly, one by one, the four friends agreed. This wasn’t a game. It wasn’t breaking into secured areas like when they were kids. This was very real and very deadly.
The heaviness of their circumstances weighed on each of them as they walked home that night. Suddenly Gwelle felt as if she’d aged overnight. Gone was her carefree side. She said goodnight to Lark and Knox, who’d walked her home, and climbed back in her window. She felt weighed down and very old. She touched the small bedside light letting its soft glow fill her room as she slid the glass panes shut and turned around.
“Gwelle Airda, do you know what time it is?” Her mom’s slim figure filled the opening of her bedroom door she hadn’t noticed was slid open.
“Late?” Gwelle asked pasting a much to wide smile on her face which lightened her mom’s frown despite the older woman shaking her head as she walked further into the room. She was no longer considered a child according to Nova-Zera laws having entered her internship at sixteen, but she knew her mother still looked at her as her little girl. So, sneaking out to meet a boy wasn’t the biggest no-no she’d ever done, but the question was would the very strict Nia Airda see it that way.
“Were you with Raiden?” The question surprised her a moment. She supposed it was fairly clear, even to her mom he was back in her life although not even she understood the nature of their newly patched relationship.
“Yes. And Lark, and Knox,” she tacked on, hoping it wouldn’t sound too bad. It was the truth, after all. Her mom’s brows rose a little, but she didn’t question her. Instead, she sat down on the edge of the bed and patted the empty spot beside her. Gwelle sat next to her mom, much the way she had done anytime something bothered her. Only this time, it was her mom who looked worried.
“I know things at the clinic have been crazy since… Well, since you returned from the expedition. We haven’t had much of a chance to talk about it.” Gwelle saw the turn of this conversation and where it was heading fast and started shaking her head before her mom finished speaking.
“I’m fine, Mom. Really.”
“Gwelle, is it so hard to ask for help when you need it?”
“But really, I’m good. Better than I thought I’d be. This doesn’t stop me from wanting to lead expeditions, explore, discover everything we can about our home. To make a difference.” A sad smile tugged her mom’s lips up as she took one of Gwelle’s hands in hers.
“I know. And I’m proud of the strong young woman you’ve become. You sound so much like him.”
“Dad?”
“Yeah. He talked constantly of finding a new world, a place to raise a family and discover life and fun. Sometimes I think he missed his calling being a protector. He could have been a scientist with his keen mind and drive to discover. I think that’s where you get it from. Much more than me.”
“So you’re not going to stop me from going back out?” Gwelle wasn’t sure she’d be ready for another expedition anytime soon but needed to hear what her mom thought about it.
“Like I could stop you, huh?” They both chuckled before her mom continued. “When the time’s right, I won’t stop you. But, Gwelle,” she paused looking over her only daughter, “be sure it’s what you want.”
“I will.” Gwelle wasn’t sure if her mom’s message was about work or something else. There was a sadness in her words and voice. A sadness that hadn’t been there earlier when she was with Wyn. “It was nice hearing you laugh again. Wyn’s a good man.” Nia let the words hang between them for a moment before answering.
“He is. He’ll never take your dad’s place.”
“Mom, it’s okay. You’re allowed to live and be happy. Dad would understand. And I understand.” She felt her mom’s strong, loving embrace pull her close. For a moment she was a little girl again, and her mom’s hug could make everything better. Then snippets of the information they’d uncovered and the conversation they heard came flooding back. She opened her mouth, wanting to tell her mom but caught herself. She’d promised they’d not tell anyone until they knew more. She wouldn’t drag her mom into something they couldn’t prove and understood even less. It wasn’t fair to involve her with all the troubles she’d faced, after all. This was something Gwelle could handle, or so she chanted inside her head.
“Go to bed. You’ve work tomorrow, young lady,” Nia ordered slipping back into her role as caretaker as she walked to the door before turning back. She sent Gwelle a tender smile she tried returning. “Is there anything else?”
“No. Just tired,” Gwelle quipped as a yawn tugged at her lips.
“You know you can talk to me. About anything. Even boys,” her mom added. Her mom must think the only problems Gwelle had were the ones on the surface. Deep down, so much more haunted her, she thought. Long after the lights were off and covers tucked up around her, Gwelle remembered the cries of the dire lyx, the broken body inside the rover, Kana and Rix laying alone in the clinic, and the how everything had gone topsy-turvy in her world since a certain green-eyed boy entered it again.
***
Gwelle walked into the lab the next morning, and everything was quiet and still. After yesterday’s celebration, she supposed more than one of her co-workers was a bit under the weather or running late. She switched on the computer. A holoscreen popped up, hovering in the air above her workstation. It flickered off and, a minute later it warmed up, before stabilizing in thin air as she turned to pull a few specimens from the work shelves behind her. She’d stay busy on some ongoing observations before going to see if she was needed elsewhere. It’d give time for the stragglers to come in.
She turned back around, three tiny plants balancing in her arms as she reached to set them down gently. Flashing yellow letters appeared on her holoscreen startling her, one plant toppling out of her arms before crashing to the floor.
Bold letters flashed on the screen, daring her to open the incoming private message.
Three words dared her to move. To know more.
Just three.
‘You’re not safe’.
With trembling hands, she sat the other two plants down and punched the screen. She watched as the small re
ctangle box grew, revealing even more frightening words. No sender appeared on the top bar. There was no computer code. It was anonymous. There was nothing to tell her who wrote the message she stared at far too long. Her hand reached out to tap the screen again, but before she could close it the message disappeared. She tabbed through her folders and inbox but couldn’t find it. It was as if the warning had never been sent at all. But the words that had flashed at her still filled her mind. ‘You’re not safe. You’re being watched.’
Wyn walked around the corner of the dividing wall which separated the botany lab to the other side of the building whistling a tune. He stopped just as he noticed Gwelle, his eyes sweeping over the plant on the floor, her face pale, too pale for the days she’d recently spent under the warm Varax sun, and her trembling hands. Gwelle jumped and looked down at the spilled soil and small plant lying in the mess of the broken crockery.
“I… I’ll clean it up. I didn’t mean…”
“Are you feeling alright, Gwelle? You don’t look good. Don’t worry if you need to go over and see your mom at the clinic. I’ll get it.”
Gwelle almost cried at the soft-spoken man’s kind words.
“I can get it. And if I still feel bad, I’ll head over there in a minute.” He nodded, still offering to help, but she’d pulled herself back together by then already starting to clean up the mess. After a moment of making sure she was truly alright, he wandered on, and went about whatever task had brought him over to this side of the lab sending her a glance now and then.
After she’d repotted the small, leafy green plant and cleared the broken pottery and soil, she took a deep steadying breath. She’d leave, at least for a minute, but it wouldn’t be to see her mom. She needed to find Raiden. She needed to ask him what the warning had meant. Had it merely been a warning, or was it a threat from some unknown enemy? She didn’t know, but she couldn’t shake the chills crawling up her spine as she stepped out into the late summer sun a few minutes later.
Chapter Eighteen
Haven
Gwelle rapped on the door for the third time, shuffling from one foot to the other. It was still early, but most of the homes on Raiden’s row looked empty already, everyone headed to work or school. She’d hoped to catch him before he left for duty, not sure which shift he was on this week. But the more time passed without an answer, the more she realized she’d have to hunt him down and the most likely place this early would be near the command center across the settlement. Her talk with Raiden the night of the dire lyx attack made her see that she couldn’t continue to blame her father’s chosen profession for his death, but she’d still rather not be reminded just yet.
Turning, she stepped from the shaded porch into the early morning sun. Today would be warm, a contrast from the cooler evenings they’d began having as of late. Shading her eyes with one hand, she looked both ways down the long winding road, barely wider than the rover which drove in front of Raidens’ house at that moment. She hoped she’d just missed him, but it didn’t look that way. She’d just stepped back in the path heading towards the colony center when she heard a voice call out from behind her.
“You looking for Vargas?” A tall blonde man stood on the porch of the house next to Raiden’s. He looked a few years older and slightly familiar. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was a protector as well, but was now leaning over his porch railing in simple tan pants and a black shirt.
“Yes. Have you seen him this morning?” She kept her tone casual despite the fast-paced pounding of her heart in her chest. She still hadn’t forgotten those flashing words or their cryptic message.
“He left about ten minutes ago. I believe he had escort duty outside the gates today, but you may still be able to catch him.”
“Thanks,” Gwelle yelled giving the man a smile, her feet already moving towards Nova-Zera’s large front gates. He nodded in reply throwing a friendly wave her direction in acknowledgement. She ducked behind houses, taking every short cut she knew. There weren’t many vehicles which used the roads inside the colony, only work-related rovers and small flatbed trucks in the agricultural and construction zones. Her only concern was the foot traffic on the main thoroughfares once she got nearer to the center of town.
After several minutes of dodging children and slow-moving patrons that were heading to the market, she saw the staging area for expeditions which sat just off to one side of the main gates. Two open rovers sat there with several protectors milling about. Her pace slowed as the message replayed in her mind. She was being watched. Now? Was this what it intended, to catch her running off to warn someone? If so, she’d fallen right into the trap.
Frowning, she stood on the edge of the busy area a moment searching for the boy she’d rushed here to find. No, not a boy. Not anymore. She watched his tall form move about the clearing, rifle slung on his back, uniform pulling taut over his chest. He’d grown up so much in the past couple years and she just now saw it. Whatever trouble she was in, it was time to handle on her own and not drag him into it any further. Gwelle turned and faded back into the morning crowd but hadn’t gone a few steps when a hand grabbed her shoulder. Her heart raced swinging around ready to strike out. The hand that had been flying through the air dropped at the smirk on his face.
“You just can’t wait to strike me every chance you get, can you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t have to if you didn’t sneak up on me.” The words came out soft, not filled with any bit of chastisement like they would have been a couple months before. Raiden’s smiled widened into a genuine, beaming gleam of white. For a moment she forgot her resolve, but the flashing message replayed in her mind, and wiped away her smile.
“I saw you leaving the staging area. Did you need something? You seemed upset.”
“I… just heard you were leaving on an expi and wanted to say good-bye, but you seemed busy.” Raiden’s brows shot up, the look on his face stating clearly, he didn’t buy the lie she’d just told.
“Really? You think I’m gonna fall for that. Come on, Gwelle. You delivered a better line when you were ten. What’s wrong?” The bravado she’d felt at telling herself she was doing the right thing now slipped into a puddle at her feet. Glancing around at the crowd-filled paths, she felt much too in the open to speak.
“We can’t talk here. When do you leave?” Raiden’s face tensed at her whispered words.
“It’s just a day trip. I’ll be back this afternoon. Why? Are you in trouble?” Raiden looked around them his eyes narrowing before returning to her upturned face.
“It may be nothing, but it’s best we talk in private, somewhere quiet.”
“Okay. Give me a few minutes. Specialist Lawrence owes me a favor. He’ll swap with me.” Relief flooded through her.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.” Raiden tucked a loose piece of her hair behind her ear giving her a small smile as he did.
“Meet me at the haven? We can talk there without interruption.”
“I’ll see you in a few minutes.” Leaning down, he placed a kiss on her brow before turning back in the direction he’d come just a few minutes before.
She turned towards a small, rectangle building sitting off beyond the shops and government buildings, almost forgotten. She wasn’t sure what made her think of it, maybe the peace she’d felt the day she’d visited it recently. She knew that she needed a little peace after the past couple days.
She slipped into the quiet, darkened sanctuary, and sat near the back. As with most public buildings in Nova-Zera, there was little need to lock the doors here. Long, wooden pews filled the sacred place in two neat rows. The front of the long room held a small stand where the shepherd spoke to those who gathered when it was the first day. Now the room sat in shadows, the only light filtering in through the windows in long narrow shafts of sunlight. The door creaked open, and heavy boots echoing on the wooden floor just as Raiden entered from the small foyer. He gave her a tight smile, sliding in beside her wasting no time asking why
they were there.
“Gwelle, what’s wrong? Did you see something else?”
“No. I mean, yes. But not like before.” She drew in a shaky breath, hating how much fear that one small message had filled her with. “When I got to the lab and turned on the computer a private message popped up. It said, You’re not safe. You’re being watched.” Raiden’s brows dipped as his frown deepened.
“Who sent it?”
“Anonymous. No tracings on it.”
“A warning.”
“Or a threat.”
“Hmm. It sounds more like a warning. Who’d take the time to warn you if they were going to hurt you?”
“Then why anonymous?” Gwelle asked, still shook from the message.
“Because they know something we don’t. If word got out, they’d be in the same place we are.”
“I wish they’d shed some light on what else they know then. I’m still lost as to why?” Despite their hushed whispers, their voices still carried in the empty building.
“Maybe we can retrace it, find out at least from which computer station it was sent.”
“If only we could. It disappeared. Deleted, just like the files.” Raiden rubbed a hand down his face. “This means… they want me dead too. Just like Kana and Rix.” Gwelle’s voice cracked at the thought.
“You don’t know that for sure,” Raiden said, putting an arm around her tugging her closer to him, but they both heard the uncertainty in his voice.
“Thank you for switching shifts. I wasn’t sure who else to talk to. There’s Lark and Knox but…”
“But you don’t want to involve them more than necessary,” Raiden said. “We’ll figure this out. And if we have to, we will go to someone who can help.”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know yet. But you’re not alone. Just remember that.” Warmth at his words flooded her chilled body.
She glanced up, his deep green eyes filling her with a calmness she hadn’t felt since reading that message. Raiden hadn’t moved to kiss her again since the night of their so-called date. Not a real kiss. Nothing more than a peck or two, but he’d definitely sent signals every chance he got, that he was here for her, that he wanted them to be together. Maybe she was reading more into it than there was. Maybe he held back because of all the pain she’d caused between them. She didn’t know which was true, if either. Even knowing now in the middle of this crisis wasn’t the best time to bring it up, she couldn’t help it. Her eyes darted to his lips and back to his eyes.