Arachne's Web

by Elizabeth Corrigan

  While he scanned for the next shuttle to Atropos, a news display caught his eye. He couldn’t hear the recording, but the headline flashing along the bottom of the screen indicated the reporter with the idiotic mustache was interviewing the finalists for the Bellerophon Games.

  “Hey, Jack.” Cobalt pointed toward the dark-skinned interviewee. “Do we know a Gavin Ibori?”

  Jack barely glanced at the screen. “He looks like a tool.”

  Cobalt shoved him. “I’m serious. Look. I swear we know that guy.”

  He shoved Cobalt back then paid attention to where Cobalt had gestured. “Blue, he’s a finalist for the Bellerophon Games. Which means he’s been training as a soldier for his entire life. We’ve never left Daedalus until now. How could we possibly know him?”

  “You’re right. I just—”

  The sound of someone clearing their throat behind him and Jack tore Cobalt’s attention away from the screen.

  “Act cool,” Jack whispered, and Cobalt gave him a sideways look. He was not the twin known for his extremes of emotion. In unpracticed unison, they turned to see a man and a woman in blue Ariadne police uniforms glaring down at them.

  “Jack and Cobalt Zhao?” If the male officer was doing the talking, he was probably in charge. That was unfortunate. Jack was much better at charming women.

  “Is there a problem, Officers?” Jack gave the police what Cobalt thought of as his most innocent smile. Unfortunately, most other people didn’t find it innocent in the slightest.

  “My name is Sergeant Hernandez, and this is Officer Jenkins.” Hernandez reached out to shake Jack’s hand, and Cobalt was surprised the cop didn’t take the opportunity to slap a cuff on his brother. “You are wanted for questioning regarding some cargo that went missing from this train.”

  “Wow, cargo went missing? On our train?” Coming from anyone else, that would have been laying it on a bit thick, but Jack somehow managed to sound the perfect combination of quizzical and curious. “I thought it was just a passenger train. Wait a minute.” He snapped his fingers and looked at Cobalt. “Do you think it was that woman in first class with all the rubies?” He tsked. “She shouldn’t have gone on about them the way she did.”

  Cobalt grunted his agreement. He knew better than to open his mouth when Jack got into con-artist mode.

  Jenkins looked a little uncertain, but Hernandez didn’t seem to buy any of Jack’s bullshit.

  Or else he’s just following orders.

  “Our orders are to take you to the station. You can tell your story to the detective there.”

  Jack shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know anything about the old lady’s rubies, but I’m happy to help out law enforcement if they think I know something useful.”

  Cobalt closed his eyes. This is very, very bad.

  The detective slapped a datapad down on the table in the interrogation room.

  Wow, I’ve been in here, like, two minutes, tops, Jack thought. Idiot cop doesn’t even know how to let someone sweat a little. He had expected to be staring at the bare gray walls, made all the grayer by the too-bright light, for at least an hour before someone came to question him. Amateurs.

  “Jack Zhao. Arrested three separate times on Daedalus, twice for shoplifting, once for drunk and disorderly. And that’s only in the past year and a half, juvenile records being sealed and all. Charges dropped in all three cases. What? You thought if you didn’t go to jail for the little stuff, you would try the big stuff?”

  He wished they hadn’t separated him and Cobalt. Blue wouldn’t rat his brother out, but his stoic demeanor didn’t always win cops over. Also, he just felt better when his brother was around.

  “Detective—and you’ll have to excuse me, because you clearly know my name, though I don’t know yours—I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Jack wondered where the camera was in the room. He knew there had to be one, but he couldn’t see it anywhere. This is Ariadne. They could have that new hyperstealth tech that makes things invisible. Jack was dying to see that technology in action, if only to find out if he could see through it.

  “Zhao, we have a very reliable tip that you and your brother were involved in the crime, and your record speaks for itself.”

  “I told your officers when I got off the train—I didn’t take the old lady’s rubies.”

  Aha. There. Up in the corner was the shadow of a small square, though nothing was there to create that shadow. He did some mental calculations to determine the angle of the camera then turned to it and waved, not really caring if it made him look guilty. Those people had nothing they could pin on him, and they knew it.

  The detective banged the datapad again, and Jack hoped he had gotten one of those ridiculously expensive screen guards or that it was some dummy datapad the cop carried around to scare interrogation subjects with. Because otherwise, the detective was going to break the thing, and that was a waste of government money.

  “You know perfectly well this isn’t about some lady’s rubies,” the detective said.

  Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “In that case, could you do me a favor and tell me what this is about so I can see if I have any information? If not, can I take a nap or something? I didn’t sleep that well on the train.”

  “The favor was giving you a chance to confess so we could handle this locally. CorpCrime division of the OBI is on its way here, and they’re not going to be nearly as friendly as I am.”

  Jack laid his head down on the table. “Yeah, okay. Whatever. Turn off the lights on your way out.”

  He hadn’t thought the room could get any brighter, but before the detective left, he flipped a switch that dialed up the wattage. Good thing I’m not actually tired.

  “Now, Cobalt, I know you didn’t want to rob the train. You never want to do anything wrong, do you? You want to have a nice, quiet life fixing things.” The detective’s voice failed to be as soothing as he clearly thought it was, and his trying-to-be-kind brown eyes held a glint of ambition that belied their intent.

  And if this cop thinks for one second that I’m going to rat out my brother, he’s got another think coming.

  “You’ve got a bit of a rap list.”

  A bit is right. For one thing, most of Jack’s chaotic tendencies were satisfied by truancy and pranking rather than actual crimes. For another, between the two of them, they were usually smart enough not to get caught.

  “But nothing so major as stealing from a megacorp. You’re in over your head now. You’re scared.”

  Cobalt almost raised an eyebrow at that. He couldn’t see his own face, but he didn’t feel scared, so he doubted he looked it. He was more curious than anything else. How did the police manage to identify us as suspects? But he couldn’t ask that without seeming guilty, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “I know you’re not the instigator here, that your brother made you do everything. If you tell me what he did, I can protect you.”

  And there it is. Cobalt wondered how much evidence they had against him and if he should ask for a lawyer. No doubt Jack would scoff at the idea of bringing in outside help. I mean, I could ask to see some evidence. But no. He was not the charming twin—or even the smart twin, intelligent though he was. Cobalt was the practical twin, and practicality told him that anything he said could and would be used against him in a court of law.

  Practicality also told him to get a lawyer, but he decided to wait and see if he could talk to Jack first. Eventually, the detective would get tired of the nothing he was certain to get out of the twins and put them in a holding cell. Hopefully the same one.

  “Help me help you, Mr. Zhao.”

  Cobalt stared straight ahead.

  After about two hours of sitting in a brightly lit room, Jack had flipped through his photographic memory to deduce from the size of the shadow on the wall the likel
y model of the camera he couldn’t see. From there, he estimated the tech level of the facility where he was being held, the type of handcuffs they were likely to have, and the best way to pick them. After all that, he was just bored. He hated being bored.

  Finally, Officer Hernandez arrived to escort him to a holding cell with a pair of cuffs of a slightly lower grade than Jack had predicted. He couldn’t decide whether to be pleased they would be easier to pick or annoyed that he had guessed wrong.

  After the cuffs were “secure,” Hernandez led Jack out into the hallway, where Cobalt was waiting in a pair of identical cuffs. Jack wished he and Cobalt were the kind of twins who had their own secret language. Instead, they exchanged looks that said they would swap stories when they got to their cell.

  As they passed by an open door, Jack heard bits of a conversation.

  “Don’t see why the OBI needs to get involved. We have things well under control.”

  Jack recognized Detective I’m-Too-Good-To-Tell-You-My-Name’s voice and snickered. The detective had been only too happy to rub the OBI’s presence in Jack’s face, but neither of them wanted the OBI involved.

  “You may think you have things under control, but I assure you, you do not.” Jack looked in as the woman spoke, and he saw a short-haired blond woman with intense blue eyes and adorable freckles scattered across her nose. “ZimmerCorp takes theft very seriously, and Jack and Cobalt Zhao are to be considered very dangerous criminals.”

  The detective made a dismissive noise. “Please. I have met these two. They’re petty crooks in over their heads.”

  “Believe what you want, Detective. The fact is, I have jurisdiction, and I am choosing to exercise…”

  As the woman’s voice faded, Jack turned to grin at Cobalt. Most people probably wouldn’t be thrilled to find a place on the OBI’s most wanted list, but Jack wasn’t most people. It was more excitement than he had hoped for. Cobalt, however, had grown very pale.

  What? Jack thought. Is he only just now realizing we’re in trouble? He’s been gloom and doom about jail since Daedalus.

  Cobalt stumbled the rest of the way down to the holding cells, and Jack wondered what was up with his brother. He was normally the cool, calm, collected one. Usually, the only time he flipped out was when he had to lie or give a speech, so judging by his bugged-out eyes and staggered steps, Jack thought the prison had required his participation in a public boasting contest.

  When Hernandez had raised the force field to secure Jack and Cobalt in their cell, Jack turned to his brother. “What is wrong with you?”

  Cobalt ran a hand over his face. “You know how I said we were going to jail?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I was wrong. We’re going to die.”

  Chapter 8

  Present Day

  Jalapeño cheese. Well, I’d better keep that a secret.

  Gavin’s odds of hanging onto the cheese from his military ready-to-eat meal were about as likely as his odds of winning the competition. His father had made him stay up the night before, watching footage of his fellow competitors, and judging by their performance in the preliminaries, Gavin had his work cut out for him. Assuming I even want to win this.

  “Ugh, I got hot dogs.” Archon’s face turned a bit green as he contemplated the package in his hand, though not nearly as green as the lush foliage of the Terpischore forest they were standing outside. “What are the chances someone will trade with me? I also have chocolate pudding.”

  Gavin had eaten his share of MREs in his life, and “pudding” was a generous term for what would result from the powder in Archon’s packet. The dessert was also infinitely superior to the hot dogs his buddy faced as the last approximation of a real meal he was likely to eat for two weeks.

  Unless we get captured, of course. Gavin did not want to imagine the look on his father’s face if he didn’t make it to the end of the survive-and-escape challenge.

  “Here.” Gavin took the precious tube of jalapeño cheese and handed it to his friend along with his noodles. “Someone will trade you for that. Give me the hot dogs.”

  Archon’s face lit up. “Man, you just gave me jalapeño mac and cheese! I don’t want to trade with anyone. Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’ve eaten worse.” Gavin decided his words didn’t count as a lie if they spared his friend’s feelings.

  Around them, the other competitors likewise compared and traded their MREs. The champion from Euterpe—Gavin thought his name was Abe—swapped his beef stew for chili from the Clio representative. Gavin saw a flash of red as Abe put the chili into his box.

  “Hey, Archon, give me your pudding.”

  “But I love this stuff! And you know I need the caffeine!”

  “Hey, I gave you my jalapeño cheese—in exchange for hot dogs. You can sacrifice your pudding to get me some Tabasco sauce to put on them.”

  Archon grumbled but handed over the pudding.

  “Hey, Calliope,” Abe said as Gavin approached. He looked even more like the poster child for a Bellerophon soldier than Archon did—blond hair in a buzz cut, perfectly tanned square jaw, and innocent-seeming blue eyes. “Saw your performance in the prelim. Talk is you’re the one to beat. Too bad they saddled you with the weakest link over there for a battle buddy.”

  Gavin looked back at Archon. “Weakest link?”

  Abe laughed. “Yeah, you know. Didn’t actually win a champion spot in his own right.”

  “According to his scores, he placed higher than the champions from Erato and Urania.”

  “I mean, sure, if you want to look at it like that.” Abe took the red container out of his MRE and tossed it in the air. Apparently, he knew what Gavin had come over for. “The way I see it, Erato and Urania put forth as much effort as they needed to. And your friend over there? He didn’t.”

  Heat rising to his face, Gavin felt guilt washing over him. He wondered, not for the first time, if he should have let Archon win the competition. The general would have been disappointed, but the contest meant so much more to Archon than to Gavin, and hearing his friend belittled shook him more than he cared to admit.

  “Look, I came over to see if you’d trade your hot sauce for this pudding,” Gavin said. “I got the hot dog package, and you know that’s the least edible of all of them.”

  “You got hot dogs? Or you traded your buddy for them so he didn’t have to have them?”

  Gavin closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking. Apparently, Abe had paid attention to the trades around him the same way Gavin had. “Either way.”

  Abe put his hands behind his head then stretched back against them. “Tell you what. I’ll give you the hot sauce—for free even. No need to steal your friend’s dessert.”

  Looking Abe up and down, Gavin took in his relaxed position and subtle sneer. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there.”

  “It’s a simple condition. All you have to do is admit that the second stringer over there is the weakest link.”

  Gavin felt his lip curl. He didn’t know who Abe thought he was, but Gavin had no intention of giving him anything he wanted. “Forget it.” He gave Abe one last glare before trudging away.

  “Enjoy those hot dogs!” Abe called after him.

  Gavin sat down on the ground next to Archon and tossed the pudding at him.

  “No hot sauce?” Archon asked.

  “The price was too high.”

  “What’d he want? The jalapeño cheese?”

  Gavin thought back to how Abe had paid attention to his and Archon’s conversation from the same distance and had the brief, traitorous thought that Abe might be right about Archon. But no… Archon was just a trusting type who didn’t feel the need to spy on other people’s discussions. “It doesn’t matter.”

  Archon shrugged and looked about to say something, but before he got any words out, an authoritative
voice rang out from an invisible loudspeaker.

  “Attention, soldiers!”

  Not soldiers yet, Gavin thought, but that didn’t stop him from jumping to his feet and standing straight with his hands at his sides along with the other nine competitors. The glory of a Bellerophon education.

  “You should all know the rules by this point, but I’ll repeat them for you, anyway, just to make absolutely sure. The challenge is simple. We will release you into the wilds of Terpischore for two weeks, and your goal is to survive. You’ve all been given one meal to sustain you, and if you want to eat after that, you’ll have to find something with which to feed yourselves. Cameras will track your progress, and your performance will be broadcast throughout the system. Congratulations! You’re going to be famous.”

  Just what I always wanted. The desire to not be famous was ingrained pretty deeply in Gavin, probably because of his father’s countless lectures about a soldier serving his nation before all else. Fame felt too much like serving himself.

  “But we don’t want to make this too easy for you.” Of course not. “After you’ve been out there a week, we’re going to send an elite team of trackers out to find you. They’ll watch the cameras for the first week to get a feel for your behaviors. They’re going to try to capture you, and let’s be honest, they’re probably going to succeed. You’re welcome to try to escape, of course. The winner will be selected from among those of you who are free at the end of two weeks. If that’s none of you, we’ll probably pick a winner anyway.”

  Gavin took a deep breath. He’d been on survival exercises before, both as part of his education and as part of his father’s idea of fun family vacations. He knew how to survive and escape in the wilderness. Two weeks is a long time, though, and they’re not sending out some hapless mooks. I’ve seen the Bellerophon Games in the past. They send out highly trained trackers. Few escape.

  “We have assigned you a battle buddy. You are not to leave your buddy at any time. You will be scored on loyalty to your buddy as much as your other performance.”