“Dr. Carriger said a strange disease is working its way through the scientists here.” Gavin looked at the empty cots in the tent and thought perhaps Dr. Carriger had exaggerated the situation.
“Oh, yeah, it’s weird,” Raring said. “Happens to most people a couple weeks after they get here. They get this purple rash and flu symptoms for a few days, then they’re fine. We’ve isolated some of the bacteria that are causing it but haven’t had time to do much more than that.”
Gavin looked once more at the empty beds and raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t sure what Raring and his team could be doing that was more interesting than a brand-new infection.
Raring must have caught Gavin’s look, because he raised his hands defensively. “Hey, the archaeologists are short-staffed. They’ve been pulling anyone with a science background in to try to make sense of those weird glowing rocks, not that I have much to say about them. Hannah had high hopes for the new archaeologist on the team, but you’ve forbidden her from going near the things.”
“Because she took one look at them and started bleeding out of her nose!” The heat in Gavin’s tone surprised him, but he supposed it shouldn’t have. He’d known he would catch flak for keeping Roslyn away from the artifacts, as she was the most qualified to analyze them. Gavin took a deep breath. “I can promise you I’m not going to be any help with the artifacts, either, but from my perspective, a new disease is as important a discovery. Let’s take a look at it.”
Gavin spent the next several hours looking through the rudimentary notes the field medics had put together on the bacteria. It seemed to have survived on the rocky wasteland for thousands of years with nothing to feed on, making Gavin question whether it should be called bacteria at all. The few studies the medics had done on the disease in the human body indicated that it didn’t seem to attack any particular kind of cell, almost as if it were looking for something the human body didn’t have.
After several hours of reading through notes, Gavin gave a grim nod. He needed more evidence to be sure, but he suspected it was a Transient disease, one designed—and he did suspect some kind of biowarfare—to attack his people. Humans might not be in any danger from the disease, but the Transients almost certainly were.
Present Day
Gavin felt something like the butt of a gun bump against his shoulder. He opened his eyes to discover that it was, in fact, the butt of a gun held by a soldier in camouflage.
“Gavin Ibori. Archon Derring. You have failed this survival expedition. Do you surrender?”
Gavin sat up slowly, holding his hands up so the soldiers could see he wasn’t carrying any weapons. He wasn’t going to attack or kill his captors for doing their job. His knife was on the other side of camp, anyway, buried deep in trimper meat.
Archon similarly had his hands raised, though he didn’t sit up. “I know you guys haven’t been watching the feeds, but I’m in a little bit of pain right now. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t get up to greet you.”
The soldier next to Archon looked down at the gash in his side. “I wondered how we managed to find you two. We watched the feeds for the first two weeks. You two knew what you were doing.”
The one next to Gavin looked at the large lump of dead animal next to the fire. “Is that a trimper?”
“We’ll go with you.” Gavin rose to his feet, still keeping his hands where his captors could see them. “Just, please, get Archon medical attention.”
The soldier next to Gavin motioned to his fellow, who holstered his gun and picked up Archon. “We’ll take him to the holding station and call in a copter from there.”
Though the march to the holding station took over an hour, the soldier carrying Archon didn’t even break a sweat. Gavin felt a new appreciation for people in the military, but he still didn’t want to join. If the last twenty-four hours had taught him anything, it was that he was meant to be a doctor. He didn’t know where the memories came from, but they made him feel more like himself than he ever had during his childhood on Bellerophon.
The holding station was a small brick building on the edge of the survival zone. A barbed-wire fence stretched out in both directions from the back of the building, and Gavin knew the implant that let the cameras track him also contained an electrified chip to go with the fence. Last year’s victor had figured out a way to climb out of the sanctioned area and had survived in the adjacent wood. The games committee had updated the chips after that so the same trick wouldn’t work again.
The inside of the station was one grimy room with a few cells with force fields to keep the prisoners in place until the end of the games. The white cells actually looked nice, with curtained showers and cots that looked far more comfortable than the ground Gavin had slept on for the last few weeks. Prisoners occupied two of the cells, and they were eating warm meals of meat, vegetables, and buttered rolls.
Two sets of prisoners plus the team Abe managed to get disqualified. That meant one team was still out in the wild, and the winner would be chosen from them. But at least it wasn’t Abe. Gavin recognized him and his Terpischore partner in one of the cells.
“Well, hello,” Gavin said with a smile. “Who’s the weakest link now?”
Chapter 24
Present Day
Lexi insisted on this stakeout, yet somehow, I’m the one doing all the staking out. Bliss shifted in the passenger-side seat of her car, careful not to move her gaze from the window. I’m also not sure how Lexi convinced me to let her drive.
They’d been following Will for two days straight—two days of nothing but following the boy from class to dorm room to dining hall to class. He hadn’t done anything outside the norm for a university student, and in the meantime, Bliss was neglecting her classes.
She had tried pointing that out to Lexi. “He’s going to keep going to classes during the week. Why don’t we wait and see if he does anything interesting on the weekend?”
“Because we need to see if he sticks to the schedule he claims he has.” Lexi didn’t need to add the “duh.”
Bliss had sunk farther down in her bucket seat. “You just want an excuse to skip.”
Lexi had grinned. “What do I need with music classes? I’m a genius without them.”
Bliss sighed. She needed her classes, because she wasn’t a genius without them. Her parents had told her corporations served an important role in society as job providers, but one of the first things she’d learned in her management class was corporations should employ as few people as possible to maximize their profits. All the other students had nodded, so Bliss raised her hand to point out the contradiction. The class had laughed at her, and the professor had suggested that if she wanted to be a philosophy major, she was in the wrong classroom. She had needed all her energy not to cry in front of the class.
I don’t even have someone to discuss this with. She’d mentioned something to Lexi, and Lexi had laughed harder than the students had. Then she’d tried calling Roslyn, but Roslyn didn’t even answer the call. She thought of her first conversation with Will and thought that he might understand her dilemma, but she didn’t trust Will anymore. Bliss had never felt so alone in her life.
Lexi laughed at something on her datapad. “Look at the kittens!” She held out the image for Bliss to see, but she pulled it away too quickly for her to catch the caption. Bliss didn’t understand the datasphere’s obsession with cats. She had always been a dog person. Snookems loved her no matter what.
Bliss gazed out the window. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in two days. Lexi insisted they stake out Will’s dorm room at night, but though they were supposed to split watches, Lexi never managed to wake up for hers. Just as well. I can’t sleep in this car.
She leaned her head against the window. Will’s class was supposed to run another two hours. Maybe she could get a few restless winks in before he got out.
Twenty Year
s Ago
“This has been the worst week of my life!” Roslyn didn’t bother with a hello when Bliss picked up the call. “Using the emergency connection to call you probably breaks interstellar law, but I can’t take the silence anymore.”
Unkind thoughts flitted through Bliss’s head. Really? Worst week ever? Worse than the first time Jack left you? Worse than every time Will has died? And Weren’t you breaking interstellar law by hacking your way onto Arachne in the first place? She didn’t say any of them, though. Roslyn was prone to exaggeration and hopelessly in love with a criminal, and finding fault with either led to arguments. Bliss didn’t want to fight with her best friend when she might not be able to talk to her again for months.
“What’s wrong?” she asked instead. “Last time I checked, you were on your way to Ariadne with Jack and Gavin. I know Gavin can be the strong, silent type, but Jack definitely isn’t.”
“Oh, I’m here, but I’m stuck on a two-person mission with Blueboy, and he won’t talk to me.”
Maybe if you called him by his real name, he would be nicer to you. Bliss half listened as Roslyn continued to explain her assignment. She didn’t understand the technical details, but Roslyn seemed more concerned about leaving Jack alone with some beautiful woman named Hannah, anyway.
“But enough about me,” Roslyn said. “Tell me about you. Are you still on Daedalus?”
I talked to you two weeks ago. Where would I have gone in the meantime? Not all of us live at the beck and call of a cute boy who treats us like crap. “Yup, still on Daedalus, running the homeless shelter. We could always use some extra funds if you’re getting hazard pay on your Arachne trip. With all the wealth we acquire, it’s not like you need it.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.”
Bliss’s datapad beeped, and Will’s face appeared in the corner of her screen. “Hey, Roslyn. Will is calling.”
“Well, I know I can’t keep you from my brother,” Roslyn said. “I should get off, anyway. Tell him I said hi.”
Roslyn’s face blinked away, and Will’s took up the entire screen. Bliss’s finger hovered over the datapad for a full five seconds before she pressed Respond.
“Hi, Will,” she said, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible, though she could hear a touch of a squeak in her timbre. “What brings your face to my datapad?”
Will flashed her a grin. “Not much. Just wanted to say hi. How are things in your neck of the woods?”
“Oh, the usual. Running the shelter. Trying to give job advice to people and hoping the economy picks up so there will actually be jobs for all of them.”
“Tell me about it,” Will said. “I’ve been reaching ZimmerCorp and EndCorp. Looks like they may be paying liberal members of Congress to vote against workers’ rights. I thought it was crazy—two megacorps working together on something?—but the more I dig, the more I find.”
Mm-hm. Will always seemed convinced of the legitimacy of his findings, but despite his alleged detailed research, no respectable media outlet ever took his work. He meant well, though, and maybe the corporations did control the newspubs like he thought.
“Well, I hope you find somewhere to publish your research this time,” Bliss said. “You’re a brilliant writer, and you deserve to be heard.”
Will flashed her a smile. “I miss you. You’ve got to come visit us on Orpheus soon. I love Lexi, but she can be pretty me-me-me. Sometimes I feel like you’re the only one who understands me.”
If I’m the one who understands you, why are you with Lexi and not me? “I talked to Roslyn today. She says hi.”
He brightened. “How’s Arachne treating her? She and Jack still the perfect couple?” He rolled his eyes.
“They’re on the rocks already, from what I understand.”
“I don’t know why she puts up with it.”
I do. It’s the same reason you put up with Lexi and I put up with you. Love makes you stupid. Sometimes she even rooted for Jack and Roslyn. If they could finally make it work, anything was possible.
Present Day
Will’s datapad beeped in the middle of class. The students in his periphery gave him sideways looks, but fortunately, he was sitting far enough back that the professor didn’t notice. He glanced at the face in the top corner of his screen. George. Crap. I need to take this.
Before Will returned to university, he’d had a decently paying job with a tabloid called the Orphean Inquirer. He hated having his name associated with a publication known for stories about aliens and kittens laughing at their owners’ jokes, but they were the only ones who would take his solidly researched pieces the rest of the world dismissed as conspiracy theories, and he needed to eat.
He had given his boss, George, some cock-and-bull story about how he thought the biology department had evidence of alien life. He planned to attend university on the company’s dime and meet Lexi. That he had met Bliss as well was happy coincidence. It’s not like I’m not researching aliens. I’m just not telling George I am one.
After two weeks of research, George wanted Will back in the office. His message from the previous day indicated that Will had one day to get back if he wanted to keep his job. Will was surprised George cared enough to call one last time, but he slipped out of class and pressed Respond as soon as he got in the hallway.
George’s red-cheeked, gray-bearded face appeared on Will’s screen. He did not look pleased. “Turin, I am not saying this again. Get your ass into the office in the next fifteen minutes, or you’re fired.” Then he hung up.
Will groaned and asked his datapad’s AI how far the Inquirer’s office was from his current location. A slow, cheerful voice told him it would take him eighteen minutes to walk there.
Crap, guess that means I’m running. Will took off at a trot down the hallway, hoping beyond hope that Lexi and Bliss had gotten bored with their stakeout. He hadn’t checked into the office the day before because he had seen Bliss’s little blue speeder—with Lexi behind the wheel, of course—following him around. He’d been a model student, hoping that would keep them off his tail until they got their memories back, but he doubted it.
He picked up his pace when he got outside and glanced at where the vehicle had been illegally parked when he went into class. It was still there with two girls inside, though Bliss appeared to be sleeping, and Lexi was absorbed in her datapad. With any luck, he could sneak past them. At a dead run? I don’t think so. Even Lexi’s not that unobservant. He didn’t have much of a choice, though, and could only hope their memories had returned enough that they wouldn’t hate him when he told them the truth.
He ran down the streets of Chora, past glowing signs advertising bright fashions and hot nightspots, then darted across the street at the last moment, nearly getting himself run over by a red lifter in the process. He didn’t look behind him to see whether Lexi was following. He had no doubt she was, and he could only hope that, since he was outpacing traffic, he would lose her.
Fourteen minutes after George hung up on him, Will exited the staircase and made his way into the Inquirer’s office.
“Okay.” He gasped for breath. “I’m here. What was so urgent?”
Will’s boss was standing in the office alongside his secretary, Carolina, and a bevy of reporters, most of whom were wise enough to make themselves look busy. George clapped him on the back. “Just wanted to see where your priorities were, young man. Do you have a story for me or not?”
Young man? I’m, like, seven times your age! “We-ell…” The truth was he didn’t have a story. He really should have come up with one, but he had been so distracted with Lexi and Bliss that he hadn’t bothered. He had thought he would have more time. “I’m pretty sure the university’s funding is coming from—”
George slammed his fist on Carolina’s desk hard enough to make the datapad lying on it jump. “Cronos take you, man! I don’t want any more of
your political-conspiracy crap! You promised me aliens, and I want aliens!”
“My political-conspiracy ‘crap’ has a large following!” Will said. “I’m trying to get some dirt on aliens, too, but I haven’t found anything yet.”
“Just make something up,” one of Will’s fellow reporters said under his breath. “It’s what we all do.”
“I don’t make up my stories!” Will clenched his fists, and his face became hot. “I do thorough research on them!”
“Yeah, I know, I know.” George put an arm around Will’s shoulder. “You’re a true believer, and that’s what makes you great. But aliens on college campuses? That’s not your kind of thing. I should have known better than to assign you there.”
“Sir, I promise you, I have looked into—”
George guffawed. “You’ve spent all your time hanging out with a couple of university women. I can’t blame you for that, of course, but I can’t let you do it on the company’s dime. I’m going to have to—”
“They’re the aliens!” Will regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. What am I doing? I can’t publish that. Demitrius would kill me! Like, permadeath kill! Unfortunately, the words were already out there, so he figured he might as well save his job before he got erased from existence. “Bliss and Lexi are part of a group of rare reincarnating aliens who have infiltrated humanity. I’m waiting for them to recover the memories of their past lives so they can give us firsthand experience of human history.”
“What the actual fuck!” The automatic glass doors slid open with barely a swish, but the woman storming in through the gap was as loud as a thunderclap.
“Lexi.” Will closed his eyes. He should have known if anyone could catch up to him in that traffic, it would be Lexi. No doubt she’d left the car double-parked and running so she could race up the stairs after him. She wouldn’t care if Bliss’s car was stolen.
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