The Girl From Mars

by Brenda Hiatt

“Maybe Cormac—”

  “If you tell him, he’ll never let you walk into a trap. It’s his job to put your safety ahead of anyone else’s. I get it. I’d do the same thing if…if…”

  “If it was anyone but Kira?” she finishes softly. The sympathy in her eyes scares me. It implies she believes it may already be too late.

  Mutely, I nod. “Yeah.” My voice comes out in a whisper. “That’s why I can’t stay behind, not knowing if…”

  “I understand. I’d feel the same way if it were Rigel.”

  And yet she’s willing to risk him along with herself for Kira’s sake. For my sake. I know I should refuse to let them do this, that I’m being totally unpatriotic to allow it. So much for all my declarations that the good of our people should always come first. Because none of that seems to matter now.

  “How long till Rigel gets here?” is all I say.

  42

  Crunch time

  “What? You’re crazy,” I tell Lennox and Allister—or, rather, their holograms. “I’m not going to help you kill the Sovereign. In fact, I’m going to warn her right now to stay well away from here. And if you have Enid come after us with that bomb, I’ll—”

  To my surprise, both men start laughing.

  “Enid doesn’t have the bomb, my dear,” Lennox tells me, still chuckling. “You do.”

  “What do you—?” I look at the phone in my hand—the phone they gave me. “I’ve been carrying a bomb all this time?”

  Gingerly, I set it on the floor and back away. “I’ll leave it here, then. And…and call a bomb squad or something.”

  I start to turn toward the door and feel a sharp pain in the back of my neck, like when Enid deactivated my chip. “Ow!” I look back at the two holograms. “Did you—?”

  “You appear to be laboring under a misconception, Kira.” Allister looks genuinely amused. “Your phone is not the bomb. You are.”

  I stare at him in horror. “You mean this chip is…is…”

  “A powerful explosive, yes. It also allows us a certain measure of control over you, via your phone.”

  No wonder they told me to keep that phone on me at all times! I take a step back toward it, wondering if it would survive a good, solid stomp.

  As if reading my mind, Allister says sharply, “I wouldn’t. If that phone is destroyed, your chip will begin an automatic countdown to detonation. And should you leave without it, the same will happen once you’re fifty meters away.”

  “So if I’d accidentally forgotten my phone one day…?”

  “Of course we didn’t want to risk such a mishap while you were still working for us. The chip was only weaponized two nights ago, when you, ah, resigned. After that, yes, the consequences would have been quite unpleasant.”

  I glare at them both, my mind working furiously, seeking some kind of an out. They’re not here in person. They can’t physically restrain me and I can handle the pain in my neck. Their only real means of controlling me is fear. My fear. And while the thought of dying without being able to say goodbye to Sean wrenches at my heart, I’ll absolutely do that rather than be the instrument of M’s death—and possibly that of everyone on Earth and Mars, if the Grentl ever return.

  “Fine, then,” I say, my decision made. “You can kill me, but you won’t get the Sovereign.”

  With the plan of running as fast as I can in the opposite direction she’s likely to come, well away from the nearest houses, I again turn toward the door—and hear rapid footsteps approaching. Too late!

  “No!” I shout in my loudest caidpel voice. “It’s a trap! Don’t—!”

  Searing, blinding pain radiates from the back of my neck and my jaw seizes up, silencing me. I make one convulsive movement toward the door before my arms, my legs, are similarly paralyzed, freezing me in place. I stare, horrified, at the half-open door. Was my warning in time?

  Apparently not. What now sounds like more than one set of hurrying feet grows louder as M—and Rigel?—keep coming closer. With all my might, I think in their direction, willing them to hear my thoughts the way they hear each other’s. No! Don’t come in here! Go get help—it’s a trap. It’s a trap!

  It doesn’t work. Moments later M and Rigel rush in hands clasped, then skid to a stop at the sight of me, frozen, and the holograms of my two captors.

  “So predictable,” I hear Allister gloat from behind me. “Lennox was afraid you’d send minions instead of coming yourselves but I knew better.”

  M glares past me at the two holograms. “I warned the Council they were too lenient with you both before. They won’t make that mistake again. You’ve gone too far this time, without even trying to cover your tracks.”

  “There was no need to do so as there won’t be any witnesses,” Lennox replies. “Now, Allister, finish—”

  Suddenly the door slams back against the wall and Sean charges into the room. My initial rush of relief at seeing him almost instantly gives way to terror. No! Not Sean, too! Though I can’t move my mouth or shake my head, I make urgent warning noises in my throat, trying to convey that they all need to leave before it’s too late.

  “Do it, Allister! What are you waiting for?” Lennox demands.

  “Sean, get out of here!” I hear fear in Allister’s voice. “Go! I’ll explain later.”

  Instead, Sean crosses to me in three strides. “Are you okay?” he asks shakily.

  I want to nod, to reiterate his uncle’s words, make him leave, but I still can’t move or speak. All I can do is plead with him with my eyes. Frowning, he rounds on his uncle.

  “What did you do to her? Why can’t she talk? M, Rigel, help me get her out of here.”

  Behind me, Lennox chuckles. “None of you are going anywhere, I’m afraid. Ever again. Now, Allister. Do it now. They’re both in range.”

  “No. I’m not killing my nephew, the last of my blood. That was never part of the plan. Sean, listen to me. You have to go. Now.”

  “Don’t be absurd!” Lennox snaps. “We can’t let him go, he’s a witness. You can’t possibly believe he’ll protect you once we’ve killed the Sovereign, you know how he feels about her. Collateral damage was always a possibility. Detonate the chip.”

  “Sean, please,” Allister pleads. “You need to get as far away from that girl as possible. When I push this button, she and everyone within a thirty-foot radius will be instantly incinerated. The ceiling will likely collapse, as well.”

  In response, Sean wraps both arms around me. “M, Rigel, run for it! Save yourselves.”

  They don’t move. “What, and leave you two to die? I don’t think so,” M says firmly.

  “Sean, don’t you understand?” Allister sounds desperate now. “With Emileia out of the way, you’ll have an excellent chance of becoming Sovereign yourself, given your heritage. If not you, then your mother—or me. Our family can—”

  “Forget it,” Sean snaps. “If you kill Kira, you kill me, too. Go on, you two, get out of here,” he urges M and Rigel again.

  “No!” Lennox roars. “Allister, give me the detonator if you’re unwilling to do it. We’ll never get another chance like this.”

  With a mighty effort, I turn my head a fraction and out of the corner of my eye I see the two holograms struggling, Lennox trying to snatch something out of Allister’s hand. M and Rigel, meanwhile, stare at each other for a moment, then point at my phone, on the floor. There’s a blinding flash. Both holograms vanish and at once I can move again.

  “Now let’s all get out of here,” Rigel says urgently.

  But I’m staring at the blackened area on the floor where my phone used to be. “Yes, you all need to go. Right away, in case they can somehow explode my chip all the way from Dun Cloch. Lennox definitely will if he can. You have to get out of range, now!”

  “M and I should have created enough feedback at their end to at least stun them,” Rigel says. “Not positive, since we’ve never tried exactly that before, but any electronic devices near them have probably been disabled, at least t
emporarily.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Allister said if my phone was destroyed, the chip would automatically start counting down to detonation. I don’t know how long, but probably not very. I’m not worth any of your lives, you know I’m not. If you run, now, you can get far enough away before—”

  Sean tightens his arms around me. “Then we need to get that chip out of you before it explodes, that’s all.”

  “Right.” Rigel glances at M. “My mom, you think?”

  “We can ask, but it’ll be risky for her, too.”

  He frowns, chewing his lip.

  “I’m not risking anyone else,” I tell them all firmly. “It was my stupidity that got me into this and no one else is going to suffer for it.”

  “Shouldn’t that be our choice?” Sean asks, not loosening his grip on me in the slightest.

  Meanwhile, Rigel is already calling his mother, telling her there’s an emergency and to gather up her surgical equipment. I continue pleading with the others to keep their distance just in case, but they mostly ignore me, debating where the best place would be for the procedure.

  “NuAgra has the best facilities,” M says, “but that could put even more people at risk. Maybe we’re better off staying right here. At least this area is deserted.”

  The others agree, so Rigel tells his mother where we are. When Sean adds his pleas to mine, M and Rigel finally agree to at least wait outside the apartment until she arrives. Sean, however, stays where he is, one arm still wrapped around me.

  “I really wish you’d—” I whisper, but he silences me with a kiss.

  “Not a chance. When I thought I might already have lost you tonight, it nearly killed me. If you’re booby-trapped to explode, well…I’d rather die with you than live without you.”

  His blue eyes bore into mine, pain and sincerity in their depths, forcing me to believe him—and to realize that if our situations were reversed, I’d feel exactly the same. Though he’s only been a part of my life for a matter of days, already I can’t imagine living without him.

  Rigel must have successfully communicated the urgency of the situation to his mother because Dr. Stuart arrives in less than ten minutes, along with her husband.

  “I’m not letting her take this kind of risk without me,” he tells M when she protests. “Besides, I may be able to decipher what kind of detonator they’re using and help to disable it.”

  “Where shall we set up?” Dr. Stuart asks briskly, her manner professional. If she’s scared, it doesn’t show. “I’ve brought along everything I thought might be useful.”

  We end up staying in the same apartment where all the recent drama took place, partly so Mr. Stuart can examine what little remains of the phone M and Rigel zapped. While he’s doing that, Dr. Stuart probes the back of my neck with her fingertips.

  “Hm. I feel it, but it can’t be any larger than a grain of rice.”

  “Even smaller,” I tell her. “I saw it just before Enid injected it into me. They told me it was just to track me, to keep me safe.” The irony almost makes me laugh—but not quite.

  She nods. “We have tracking devices barely bigger than a speck of dust now. It’s how M and Rigel were traced when they, er, attempted to evade the Council’s plans last year. But this is clearly more than that. Just a moment.”

  Opening a large black case, she pulls out a pair of small instruments, one of which appears to be some type of scanner. She passes it over the back of my neck for several seconds, then pulls up a display and examines it, her frown becoming more and more worried.

  Then she gives a startled exclamation. “Surely not. I can’t believe they— Van, will you take a look at this?”

  Sean has been right next to me this whole time, but now he has to shift aside slightly, though without releasing his hold on my hand. Mr. Stuart stares at the display his wife shows him, then makes a sound of surprise similar to the one she just made.

  “I can’t believe they were able to— But that negative energy signature is unmistakable. Somehow, they managed to get their hands on a particle of antimatter, likely from one of our ships. How large an explosion did they claim this would make?” he asks me.

  “Allister said thirty-foot radius, but didn’t sound sure.”

  Mr. Stuart gives a little snort. “No, he’s no Scientist, that’s certain. He greatly underestimated what antimatter, even a bacterium-sized bit like this, can do. We’d better have her moved to Dun Cloch, or at least Chicago, where the Healers have better facilities. This is far too risky for Ariel to attempt—”

  “There isn’t time,” I exclaim. “If what Allister said was true, the detonation countdown started the moment my phone was destroyed.”

  “She’s right, Van, look at this.” She points to something else on her display. “See? The casing around the antimatter is degrading—and quickly. It’s unlikely to last more than another half hour given the rate of decay.”

  Mr. Stuart looks more closely. “Hm, yes, that would be the detonation device. Clever, if unpredictable.”

  “They set it up with my phone Thursday night, when I told them I wouldn’t help them anymore,” I volunteer. “Enid said she was deactivating the chip but instead she weaponized it. Allister said so just now.”

  “Allister is—” Dr. Stuart breaks off, frowning. “In any event, we clearly don’t have time to take you elsewhere, except, perhaps, the facility at NuAgra—”

  “But won’t that endanger more people?” I protest. “The Sovereign said—”

  “We can evacuate it, if necessary, so only you and I—” she begins, but Sean cuts her off.

  “If she’s going, I’m going.”

  “And me,” M, Rigel and Mr. Stuart all say together.

  I’m touched—incredibly touched—but I shake my head. “No, that’s crazy. If it can’t be removed without the risk of killing someone else, then I’ll just…have to accept that.”

  Sean tightens his grip on my hand. “No. There has to be a way. There has to.” He looks pleadingly around at everyone else in the bare room.

  M and Rigel stare at each other for a moment, just like they did earlier—using their telepathy, I assume. Then Rigel nods. “Let us try something. If it doesn’t work, then…we’ll try something else.”

  “What?” his mother asks curiously. “Electrifying the chip could make it explode immediately.”

  “That’s why we want to try the opposite,” he says. “If we can just focus well enough, small enough, we think we might be able to create a sort of stasis field around the chip, at least long enough for you to remove it. Then we can take it someplace safe before it explodes.”

  His father looks at him doubtfully. “A stasis field? What makes you think you can do that?”

  Rigel shrugs. “We’ve been, um, experimenting, working on ways to control our electrical ability better. We were trying to create the smallest possible spark, but we accidentally went even further, made some kind of…force around us. It didn’t register at all on the voltimeter, but it stopped the clocks on both our cellphones for nearly a minute.”

  “If we could create that kind of force around the chip,” M continues, “you should be able to remove it safely, shouldn’t you? Then we’ll try to maintain it long enough to…you know.”

  Rigel’s parents both frown at them for a long moment but then his mother nods. “It could work, yes. But if it doesn’t—”

  “Please!” I insist. “It’s not worth the risk. I’m not worth the risk.”

  “Yes,” Dr. Stuart says, her kind hazel eyes holding mine, “you are. I’m a Healer. If you die, I will take it as a personal failure. Which means I don’t intend to let that happen. M, Rigel, come here. This display should show you exactly where your stasis field needs to form.”

  Because I can’t see anything that’s happening, Dr. Stuart calmly describes it for me. “The chip is clearly visible on the scope, allowing me to guide my microforceps to the exact spot. M, Rigel, is the shield in place?”

  “Yes
.” Rigel’s voice is taut, as though concentrating is taking a lot of effort. “We’ll hold it as long as we can.”

  “You’ll need to move the stasis field with the chip as I extract it,” she tells them. “Now. Slowly, slowly…”

  I feel a slight burning sensation in my neck, though not nearly as bad as it was earlier.

  “There. It’s out. Now I can apply a topical anesthetic to alleviate—”

  “No, I’m fine,” I quickly assure her. “Getting that thing away from everybody is what matters now.”

  M and Rigel move into my line of sight now, M holding a tiny instrument—the microforceps, I assume—while they both focus on it. Mr. Stuart hurries ahead of them to open the door. For several endless seconds, Sean, Dr. Stuart and I hold our breath—or, at least, I’m holding my breath. If my idiocy ends up killing the Sovereign after all—

  Suddenly a nearby explosion, much sooner than I expected, rattles the apartment windows. Terrified, we all stare at each other.

  43

  Prayer shot

  Sean

  “Oh, no!” Kira gasps, her eyes wide and scared. “Do you think they—?”

  Mr. Stuart’s jubilant voice interrupts her. “It’s all right!” he shouts. “We’re all right.”

  A moment later, he, M and Rigel rejoin us, smiling, though M and Rigel both look a little shaky. So am I. With a sigh of relief, Kira collapses against me.

  “You…you did it,” she stammers. “You saved me. I don’t know how to—”

  “You don’t need to.” M comes over and gives her a hug, even though I still have both arms around her. “I’m just glad it worked.”

  “So am I,” I tell M fervently. “Kira’s right. Neither of us can ever repay you two for what you’ve done tonight. Ever.”

  She smiles at me, her eyes moist with unshed tears. “Just…be happy together, okay? That will be a better repayment than anything else you could do.”

  I gaze fondly down at Kira, still wrapped in my arms. “That’s the plan.”