by Nina Croft
“Is that Rico?” She mouthed the words, not wanting him to hear, and Dylan gave a quick nod then turned his attention to the screen.
“Milo, where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to contact the shuttle and nothing.”
“That’s because the shuttle is no more.”
“What the hell? That bastard…”
“What happened?” Milo asked.
Rico’s eyes had gone cold, his face turned to stone, and a shiver ran through her. There was something seriously scary about Milo’s uncle. Milo had said he wasn’t a demon. Destiny wasn’t sure she believed him.
“Luther Kinross contacted me twenty-four hours ago. He wanted me to hand over the release codes for the Trakis Two. I told him to go fuck himself.”
“What are the release codes?” Milo asked.
“They give access to all the primary systems on the ship,” Destiny said. “I read about them. If he has the codes, he can control anything from the life support systems to the cryotubes.”
“Yeah,” Rico growled. “He gave me a long talk about how he knew there was something off on my ship. How I wasn’t one of the captains, and I could fall in line or he’d make sure the whole fleet knew about it.”
“And what did you tell him?” Milo asked.
“Mierda! What do you think I told the fucker? That he could go fuck himself twice. He told me he’d be sending me a message. I guess this is it.”
“Christ, he nearly killed me. Some message.”
At the memory, Destiny rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
Rico just grinned. “I wouldn’t have sent you if I didn’t think you could look after yourself.”
“I’m guessing he set motion sensors. The shuttle exploded five minutes after I entered. He wanted one or both of us dead.”
“And they blew up the whiskey,” Dylan said.
“Bastards. Well, I’m glad you didn’t give the fucker what he wanted. Now tell me what’s going on down there. How much shit have you gotten us into?”
“A lot of shit,” Milo said. “Kinross had this all set up. He couldn’t have known the Trakis One would be destroyed, but likely everything else he had organized from before the fleet left Earth. He has an army, and he has the rest of the Council eating out of his hands. He’s also got the Church of Everlasting Life on his side. He’s ruthless and he’s willing to kill to get what he wants, or just to make a point. Plus, he’s got an arsenal of weapons under his castle including enough nukes to blow up a planet.”
That did sound bad.
“Dios, you’re right,” Rico said. “That’s a lot of shit. And it also makes sense of something else he said—that we needn’t think we were safe just because we were on a different planet. The bastard. So what are you going to do about it?”
Destiny held her breath while she waited for Milo’s answer.
“You’re the captain,” Milo muttered. “You tell us.”
“This was much easier when everyone was asleep.” Rico thought for a minute, a frown forming between his eyes. “Hey, how are you making this call if the shuttle is gone? For that matter, it came up as caller unknown.”
“We found an alien spaceship,” Milo said. “And Destiny got the comm unit working.”
Rico glanced toward her, and she shivered.
“Cool,” he said. “Any aliens?”
“Nope.”
“Can’t you fly back on that?”
“It’s a fucking alien spaceship. We don’t actually know how to fly it.”
“You got the comms system working. How much harder can it be to fly the thing?”
Destiny could feel the muscles of Milo’s shoulders bunching. Then he took a deep breath. “What are the alternatives?”
“Sardi is working on extending the distance of the other shuttle. We might be able to get there and back. If not, we’re going to have to come and get you on the Trakis Two. And that will be a pain in the arse. So tell me you have a better plan.”
“We could steal a shuttle, but we might have problems with the verification system—they work on biometrics.”
“I’ll get Sardi looking into overrides,” Rico said. “In the meantime, you need to find a way to remove those nukes from the picture. My suggestion would be to set them to blow once you’re safely away and solve the Kinross problem once and for all.”
Destiny frowned. He couldn’t mean that. It would kill everyone on the planet. That was hardly fair. “What about all the people?” she said.
Rico ignored her question and asked one of his own. “Who’s the woman?”
“This is Milo’s new girlfriend,” Dylan said, and Milo tensed beneath her hand.
“Pretty. How much does she know?”
“Everything,” Milo said.
Rico sighed. “Have I taught you nothing?”
“She did just save Milo’s life,” Dylan put in. “And she got the comms unit working.”
“Is she going to be a problem?” Rico asked.
Destiny opened her mouth to answer that yes, she was going to be a problem if they decided to blow up the whole planet. That would make them as bad or worse than Kinross. But Dylan grabbed her hand and squeezed. She looked into his face and he gave a little shake of his head, so she clamped her lips shut on her instinctive response.
“No, she’s not going to be a problem,” Milo said.
“Make sure she’s not.” On the screen she could see Rico get up, pace a little, come back, sit down. “So we have a plan?”
“We neutralize the nuclear bombs,” Milo said, “and we get the hell off this planet.”
“And at the very least, we need to take Kinross out,” Dylan added. “He’s a dickhead.”
“Might not be easy if he has an army,” Rico said. “I still think that setting the nukes to blow once you’re safely away is the best bet.”
This time Destiny could not keep quiet. “You can’t do that. You can’t kill all those innocent people. It’s…inhumane.”
For a moment everyone was quiet. Then Rico laughed. It was a sound of genuine amusement. “I thought you said she knew everything.” His gaze rose to where she stood behind Milo, and he grinned at her. Then the smile bled from his face. He snarled, lifting the corner of his lip to reveal one sharp, white fang. She swallowed and another shiver ran through her. “You really expect humanity from us?” Then the coldness left his face and he grinned again. “Never going to happen. Besides, most humans I know are total tossers.” He studied her for a moment, and she forced herself to hold his gaze, not back down. Finally, Rico nodded and looked away, his attention back on Milo. “Where did you find her? I like her. Makes no difference, though.”
What did that mean? Destiny had no clue, but neither Milo nor Dylan reacted, so she decided to keep quiet.
“We could steal the nukes,” Dylan suggested. “Take them with us. Might come in useful.”
Rico thought for a moment. “I’d rather get rid of them. Fuck. A brave new world. Maybe it’s time for humanity to bow out and let the rest of us have a go.”
Destiny considered the idea. It confused her. All her life, she’d been brought up believing humanity was something noble. That she had a role to play in their survival that was bigger than any individual could ever be. She’d been so sure. Now the doubts were building in her mind, coalescing into a solid mass of uncertainty.
She’d read quite a few novels now, and while she understood that they weren’t true, she also realized that they were a reflection of real life. And most of it wasn’t pretty and certainly wasn’t noble. Mainly the stories involved a few good people fighting against a much stronger force of bad people.
And Rico talked of them as if they weren’t part of humanity. Was that how Milo felt? Did he think of them all as some sort of Muggles? Lesser beings?
And more to the point—was he
right?
Her head hurt.
She knew what nuclear weapons were. She’d read about them. They were evil. Indiscriminating. Rico was talking of using them, but he wasn’t the one who had brought them here to their new world.
Who was this Luther Kinross? He was obviously a bad man, an evil man. But that didn’t make the rest of them evil. All the people in cryo. The children. “We have to save them,” she said. “The people who haven’t done anything wrong. We have to save them from this man, Kinross.”
“No. We don’t.” That was Dylan. “Most of them are dickheads anyway. They bought their places. The richest people on Earth. Which makes them the biggest dickheads.”
“What about the children? They’re innocent. They haven’t had a chance yet. Maybe we could wake everyone up and give them a say. Everyone has a right to be heard.”
“Mierda,” Rico muttered. “Is she for real?”
Dylan grinned. “She had a sheltered upbringing.”
Destiny opened her mouth to argue more, but Milo spoke before she could get a word out.
“Okay,” he said, “we’ll check out the other shuttles and see whether commandeering one is an option. You work on an escape plan from your end in case that doesn’t pan out. And can you send us some information on nukes? How to disarm them—”
“How to set a timer,” Rico added, with a sly glance in her direction.
He was winding her up. Though she also knew that didn’t mean he wouldn’t blow up the whole planet with her still on it. She had a feeling that it wouldn’t even give him a sleepless night.
“Okay, so we know what we have to do. I’ll be in touch. He gave her a last glance. “Gracias, for saving his life.”
“De nada,” she murmured.
Then he was gone.
As the screen went blank, the tension seeped out of her. She tightened her grip on Milo’s shoulder for support as her body sagged and her legs went weak. She hadn’t realized how frightened she had been. Milo’s uncle was seriously scary. And intense. Milo was staring straight ahead at the blank screen. Was he contemplating blowing up everyone? Would he do it? Would he kill her?
Most of her thought…not. She believed he had some fondness for her. But there was a little part of her that whispered that she didn’t know him. He wasn’t even human. He was half demon. That thought made her wonder something.
“What is he?” she asked, waving a hand at the screen.
Dylan grinned. “Can’t you guess?”
Well, obviously he wasn’t human, or he wouldn’t speak of humanity with such disdain. She remembered the sharp, white fang. Dylan was a werewolf, but he didn’t have fangs when he was in human form. So, not a werewolf. She ran her mind over the other supernatural beings she had read about. In the stories. That were supposed to be made up.
“He’s a vampire, isn’t he?”
“Clever girl,” Dylan said.
She licked her lips. “Does he really drink human blood?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
“Yeah, when he’s not drinking whiskey.”
Something occurred to her. “Well, he can’t kill all us humans or what’s he going to eat?”
Dylan laughed. “I’ll remember to point that out to him, next time we talk. I’m going to go find us some food now. You two stay out of trouble.”
Milo had been quiet since the call. As Dylan disappeared out the door, he turned his chair, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pressed his head to her stomach. They stood quietly for a moment, as she stroked her fingers through his hair. Finally, he raised his head. “Well, that went better than expected. You did good,” he said. “He liked you.”
“He did?” It hadn’t seemed that way to her. She wondered what he would have done if he hadn’t liked her. “What did you think was going to happen?” she asked.
He held her gaze. “I thought he would tell me to kill you.”
And she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask whether he would have done as his uncle ordered.
Where did Milo’s loyalties ultimately lie?
Chapter Thirty-One
“Oh, mankind, race of crocodiles! How well I recognize you down there, and how worthy you are of yourselves!”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“How are you feeling?” Elvira asked.
She glanced at the thermometer; his temperature was normal. Luther actually looked much better. He had some color and was out of bed. “I’m fine,” he snapped. “Stop fussing.”
She wanted to scream at him. Of course she was fussing. What did he expect? He held the life of her babies in his hands. He was a conscienceless monster. She wanted to ask about them, to beg him to reconsider.
Last night, she’d taken thirty minutes off to go visit the delegates from the Trakis Two, but their shuttle had been empty, and no one knew their whereabouts. And now the whole colony was buzzing with the news that the Trakis Two shuttle had exploded, but no one knew the details or whether anyone had been hurt or killed in the explosion, and she couldn’t ask Luther. He might get suspicious.
“Where the hell is Silas?” he asked. “I told him I wanted to see him.”
How was she supposed to know? She bit back the words. Her head ached and her brain felt mushy and uncooperative. She’d been watching Luther around the clock, terrified that he would die on her and then everything would have been for nothing. She clamped her lips closed and forced a smile to her face. “I’ll go see if I can find out.”
She needed to get away from him. The hatred was churning inside her and she was fighting the urge to scream at him, to rake her nails down his face. She’d sold her soul to a monster, but it wasn’t as though she’d had a choice. It had been either that or stay on Earth and meet the inevitable end. She’d done this for her children so they would have a future, and now it was all falling apart, crumbling.
Where was Destiny?
It was as if she had vanished off the face of the planet.
Could she have been eaten by some wild indigenous animal? They hadn’t actually encountered any carnivores big enough to eat a person yet, but who knew what was on the planet?
Even if that were the case, it wouldn’t explain how she had gotten out of a locked cell. How nobody had seen her.
She headed to the door, but it opened before she reached it and Silas stood there.
“How is he?” he asked quietly.
“He’s fine.”
“Good. I have some news.”
He stepped past her and she followed him back into the room.
“Do you want me to go?” she asked.
“No,” Luther said. “Stay.”
Damn. She wanted out of there. She wanted to find out what was going on. Though maybe she would have a better chance of that in here. She sank down onto a chair at the edge of the room and held her hands together on her lap to stop the tremor.
“Well,” Luther said. “Give me your report.”
“The shuttle was set to explode using a motion sensor trigger. We had someone watching from a distance and they didn’t see anyone enter. But it exploded.”
“Bloody incompetents.”
“Maybe. I’m not so sure. Anyway, we found no sign of any bodies, so whoever triggered the explosion got out.”
“And no one has seen them?”
“Not since yesterday morning.” Silas pulled a flash drive from his pocket and crossed to where a viewer sat on a small table. “Well, until now. You might want to watch this.”
“What is it?”
“A recording from the head camera of one of the men who were watching the shuttle.”
Elvira shifted so she could see the screen. At first, she couldn’t make out what it was…something burning. The shuttle?
“This is just after the explosion,” Silas said.
The scene shifted, moving away from the burning shuttle to pan out around the surrounding area. It moved slowly, then stopped, focusing on something on the ground. At first there was nothing, then a body materialized as if out of nowhere.
“What the hell?” Luther said. “Where did that come from?”
“We don’t know. Some strange shit, right? We believe he was flung from the shuttle as it exploded, but no one can give an explanation as to why he wasn’t seen.” The camera was too far away to identify the man but was moving closer. Then two more figures appeared in the frame. Again, she couldn’t make out the details. One of them picked up the unconscious figure and hauled him over his shoulder and then they were running.
“The next bit is a little boring, so we’ll fast forward. It gets better, I promise.” The film whirred forward. Silas stopped it and restarted. They were in the forest now and running fast from the look of it. Suddenly a figure stepped out from behind a tree and threw something toward the camera.
Elvira’s breath caught in her throat and she jumped to her feet and took a step closer.
“That was a grenade she threw,” Silas said. “It killed one of the men, knocked out the others. You recognize her?”
She swallowed. Her lips were dry, and she licked them. Then she nodded. It wasn’t really something she could deny, however much she wanted to.
“Who the hell is it?” Luther asked, leaning forward in his seat and staring at the screen.
And she realized he’d never seen her, not even a picture.
“It’s Destiny,” she said.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Destiny, please come home.
You are in the hands of mercenaries who are working to destroy our new colony. Whatever they have told you, they are not who they say they are. They murdered the Chosen Ones on the Trakis Two and took their places. Now they are seeking to take control of the Trakis system.