The yellow brow over the robotic eye rose. “Really? All right, you two can come in. But if the cops show up looking for you, we’re turning you right over. We don’t want trouble here.”
Jack suspected the gunrunners of Eurydice sold out criminals on occasion to keep themselves in business. If they were enough of a boon to law enforcement, the cops wouldn’t take them down. “Not a problem. The last police cruiser after us ended up with a giant hole in its hull. We rode in the wake of the train the whole way here, so no one could have followed us.”
“You got that thing up to the pace of a train?” Tattoo nodded at the Rose. “All the way from Orpheus?”
“From Ariadne, actually,” Jack said. The luxury moon was farther from Bellerophon that time of year.
Robot-eye nodded appreciatively. “I think we can do business.”
Cobalt was worried about Jack, and not just because of the guns. Jack had wanted to turn the Rose into an arsenal, and Cobalt didn’t know whether Jack thought they needed the protection or had a kid-in-a-candy-store desire to buy all the nifty toys the Eurydiceans showed them.
“I can only fire one, maybe two, guns at once,” Cobalt had said. “And you can’t fly and fire at the same time.”
“My Rose needs thorns,” Jack had said, but he had also allowed Cobalt to talk him down to a turret-mounted laser rifle and a front-mounted missile launcher.
What Cobalt was really worried about was Jack’s memory—or rather, his lack of memory. After their encounter with Tegan, Cobalt had known he couldn’t keep his weird dreams-slash-memories a secret anymore, so he had told Jack everything. Jack had laughed at first, until he had realized Cobalt was serious. He hadn’t wanted to believe Cobalt’s story, but he believed Cobalt believed it, and he hadn’t had a better explanation for why Cobalt knew Tegan than reincarnation.
“And your girl, the one you’re so sure exists,” Cobalt had said. “She must be from one of these past lives.”
“Then how come you remember and I don’t?” Jack had asked.
Cobalt didn’t have an explanation. And he really didn’t have an explanation for why, after Jack had taken a nap on the trip over, he had forgotten the entire conversation.
“Blue, you’ve been acting weird since Ariadne. Are you ever going to tell me why?” Jack had asked.
Cobalt’s body had gone cold. “I did tell you why.”
Jack had huffed. “I know you’re not just ticked about the robbery, so let me know when you feel like letting me in.”
He didn’t know what he was supposed to say to that. Jack needed more help than Cobalt could provide, not that doctors or therapists were trained in past lives.
Cobalt shook his head. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Jack had said Cobalt could go home, but he wasn’t going to leave his brother at the mercy of a killer like Tegan. They needed to find a way to neutralize her. Then they could both go home.
“Hey,” Cobalt said to the man with the tattooed head, whose name turned out to be Ant. “Do you guys know this woman?” He brought up a picture of Tegan on his datapad and showed it to Ant. He figured since those guys dealt with a lot of lawless types, they might know her.
Ant studied the picture then turned his assessing gaze to Cobalt. “I might, and I might not. What’ll it get me if I do?”
Cobalt considered offering the few diamonds left in the case but hesitated. He was loath to part with their remaining assets. “What do you want?”
Ant nodded toward the Rose. “You got that piece of junk to fly as fast as a train. I want to know how you did it.”
Easy enough. “Sure. You know anything about ships?”
Ant grunted. “I do all the repair work around here, for all the different ships people bring in. But I’m self-taught, you know? Always happy to pick up a trade secret or two.”
Cobalt shrugged. “If I tell you, you’ll tell me about Tegan?”
“You tell me everything, I’ll tell you everything.”
He hoped that Ant didn’t mean everything he knew about ships, because that could take some time. Cobalt launched into an explanation of how he reprogrammed the engine to give it that extra boost. “But you have to be careful not to let it overheat, which is why you have to add the extra coolant,” he finished. “Do you need me to show you?”
“Naw, man, that’s good,” Ant said. “Where’d you learn that trick?”
Cobalt didn’t answer, largely because he wasn’t sure. He had thought he’d figured it out on his own, but he suspected he had learned it from someone else several lifetimes ago. “You promised to tell me about Tegan O’Leary.”
“Sure thing. She comes by occasionally. She’s got a real eye for guns, or knows someone who does. Always knows exactly what she wants, and she’s willing to wait any amount of time to get it.”
“But who is she?” Cobalt asked. “What does she do?”
“We’ve never been quite sure, and we don’t ask too many questions here,” Ant said. “But I think she does work for someone out of Arachne. She may be a high-level government spook or something. Only government folks have anything to do with that place.”
Cobalt considered. He knew he’d had something to do with Arachne once upon a time, and he doubted he’d ever been a government spy. But Jack had a way of convincing people they were anything they needed to be. “Does she have any associates off Arachne?”
“Just one that I know of. His name’s Detrick, and he lives on Orpheus, near Chora. I can get you his address if you want. We’ve had to ship stuff to him before.”
“That would be great.”
Ant nodded. “Watch yourselves, okay? Any associate of O’Leary’s is bound to be dangerous.”
Hm. Maybe we should pick up some handguns too.
Chapter 33
Present Day
Gavin jumped as the sound of sirens filled the forest. Surely they couldn’t have just now figured out I escaped. I’ve been gone for hours.
He wished he had grabbed one of the guard’s laser pistols, but after Jesse’s harebrained scheme, he’d needed to rush out for fresh air. At least he knew Jesse and Abe hadn’t had time to grab lasers, either. If they had, they probably would have shot him, and he would be back in captivity.
“Attention all contestants!” a mechanical voice rang through the woods. “The Bellerophon Games have come to an end. Please report to the nearest camera drone, and it will lead you out of the woods.”
Gavin didn’t need to turn to see the camera drone in front of him. He was pretty sure at least two more were hovering over his shoulder. Their job was to record the games, which then got edited down into the footage the people across the system saw. Gavin wondered what people had seen of him and if they wanted him to win. Funny I didn’t think of that earlier, though the cameras have been hovering around me for two weeks.
The walk to the exit took about half an hour, and more cameras joined Gavin on the way. He wondered if they were still watching him or if they had turned off recording when the games had ended. When the exit was in sight, he saw Abe and Jesse, as well as two other contestants, already waiting by the gate. The two competitors he didn’t recognize looked as though they hadn’t seen the inside of a bathroom in two weeks. They didn’t get caught at all. Surely one of them will win.
An alarm sounded as he joined the other contestants, and the gate opened, letting them out. They stepped back out into the real world, though it didn’t look much different from the forest.
“When do we find out who won?” Trust Abe to be the first person to ask that question.
A woman in military greens approached them. “The winner will be announced at a special ceremony that will air live across the system tonight. You will all get an opportunity to clean up before the event.” She eyed Gavin, Abe, and Jesse. “Though some of you need less cleaning than others.”
“I’d like
to see Archon,” Gavin said.
“Your friend is fine. He’s in the care of the best doctors on Bellerophon.” The woman turned and led them farther out of the woods. “You won’t have time to see him before the ceremony, but I assure you, he will make a complete recovery.”
“Can’t have someone dying in the games, can we?” one of the scruffy competitors said. “Bad for publicity.” Apparently this guy wasn’t any more of a fan of the games than Gavin was, or at least two weeks of participation had soured his attitude toward them.
“Then they shouldn’t have let a trimper on the grounds,” Gavin muttered.
Scruffy’s partner whistled. “Someone faced down a trimper? Was it you?”
Gavin gave a mute nod.
“You’ve got this in the bag, then,” Scruffy said. “Too bad. I figured if I had to run around in the woods for two weeks, I would at least try to win.”
Gavin shrugged. “I got caught. I think the odds favor you.”
As soon as they got clear of the woods, the woman loaded them onto a bus. Gavin couldn’t remember the last time he’d ridden such a vehicle. After all, the general’s children did not take the bus to school. It wasn’t secure enough. Gavin had ridden a bus when he went to summer camp. He smiled at the idea of the woman leading them in patriotic camp songs as they headed to their destination.
Instead, she pressed a button, turning on vid screens all over the bus. “We thought you might want to watch some of the highlights of the games.”
Not really. The last thing he wanted to think about—pretty much ever again—was the games. Glancing at the others, he suspected they felt the same way. The five men who were brave enough to take on the wild forests of Terpischore lacked the courage to tell one woman that they didn’t want to watch their own feats.
The first part of the vid was easy enough for Gavin to watch, largely because it didn’t feature him. He and Archon showed up on occasion in brief flashes of motion, but the early shots focused on Abe and Jesse and their attempts to trick other players into giving up the pass phrase. Gavin supposed that kind of drama appealed to viewers all over the system.
Footage from the first week lasted only a few minutes, and before Gavin knew it, the commandos entered the forest, searching for him and his fellows. He watched as the pair he’d seen in the prison took too much camouflage from a limited area, making themselves easy to track. Then Abe and Jesse chased the commandos around using animal sounds. Those are terrible. No wonder they didn’t work. Abe and Jesse reddened in both the vid and in real life as the commandos laughed at them.
Gavin squirmed in his seat, knowing his big moment would be next. He didn’t want to watch Archon get gutted again, so he leaned forward and asked their guide if there was a bathroom on the bus.
She gave him a puzzled glance but nodded and pointed toward the back. As Gavin walked down the narrow aisle, trying to keep steady over the bumps in the road, he heard the scream of a trimper behind him. He closed his eyes and moved faster. Once he got inside the bathroom, he clutched at the steel sink with trembling hands and stared at his reflection in the mirror. In his mind’s eye, he could see the trimper running toward Archon, and he flashed back to the moment he realized his friend was going to die.
The bus jerked to a stop, and he nearly fell over. He took a deep breath and splashed some water on his face then headed back out to join his fellows.
“You killed that trimper with a utility knife!” Scruffy said as they piled off the bus. “How’d you do that?”
“It was a lucky shot,” Gavin said. “I honestly thought I was dead.” He hated not telling the whole truth, but he didn’t think they would appreciate tales of sudden memories from past lives.
“And you saved your buddy. He was bleeding everywhere!” Scruffy’s partner sounded even more impressed than Scruffy had, if that was possible. “I wish you’d been my partner!”
“Hey!” Scruffy said.
“Well, it’s true. I didn’t see you performing battlefield surgery after a trimper attack.”
“If a trimper had attacked us, I totally would—”
“Ahem.” The woman’s stern voice called to the soldier in all of them, and they snapped to attention. She gestured to the building behind her, a sleek white three-story edifice that had to be the nicest building on Bellerophon. “Inside this building, you will meet with your personal fashion consultants for the closing ceremony. You are to do whatever they say, and after the winner is announced, four of you will be free to go home. The winner will accompany the Bellerophon Games staff to Orpheus for the first of a year’s worth of public appearances representing our great moon.”
As the five finalists filed into the building, winning took on a new meaning to Gavin. If he won, his life would not be his own for the next year. They would parade him all over the system like a show pony. He closed his eyes and prayed he would not win.
Praying again? But the same part of him who had once been a doctor and who knew how to slay a trimper with a utility knife also believed in a higher power. He had a hard time believing that part of him wasn’t real.
A woman with coiffed black hair and an unfortunate nose that her makeup almost downplayed greeted Gavin when he entered the building. “My name is Endetta, and I’m here to help you get ready for the closing ceremony.”
Gavin shook her hand, but he was too busy staring at his surroundings to pay much attention to her. The place was all white-and-gold marble with the occasional black accent stone. The foyer featured a sweeping staircase and a chandelier that might have been made of pure diamonds. He had seen lobbies like it before—on vids about Ariadne. But he’d had no idea such luxury existed on Bellerophon.
“Nice, isn’t it?” Endetta gave him a wink. “Wait till you see the bathrooms.”
She led Gavin to his personal suite, where, she told him, he could at least stay the night if he didn’t win. A fluffy tan comforter lay atop what Gavin imagined to be the softest mattress he had ever felt, though he didn’t get a chance to try it out. Endetta urged him into the bathroom, where she had already started a bath in the whirlpool tub.
Gavin had a long soak, during which time he allowed himself to think only of how nice the warm water felt after two weeks in the woods. He had gotten a shower in his cell, of course, but that had nothing on the tub’s massage jets.
Though he could have stayed there forever, eventually, Endetta came in, bearing fluffy towels and a robe the same tan color as the bed. She offered to give him a shave, but he confessed he didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of other people holding sharp objects that close to him at the moment. After he had shaved his head and face, he put on the outfit she had left for him: a brown cadet’s uniform from Calliope.
He barely had time to admire his appearance in the mirror before Endetta rushed him out the door. “Come on! We don’t want to be late!”
Gavin, who had not seen a clock in two weeks, decided to take her at her word. He hurried after her until they came to a hallway with Abe, Jesse, and two men he barely recognized as Scruffy and his buddy.
“You two clean up nicely,” Gavin said to them.
“Tell us about it!” Scruffy said. “The winner gets to live here for a year. If I’d known that, I would have tried harder to win.”
Gavin clapped him on the back. “You’ve still got a good shot.”
“I didn’t take out a trimper.”
The woman from the bus emerged from the door next to them, and Gavin heard the dull roar of an audience anticipating a show from the other side. He realized they were backstage from a massive auditorium, and his parents were probably in attendance. His palms began to sweat.
“Are you ready?” She looked each of them up and down in turn. “Good. Now, walk out when they call your name, and for Cronos’s sake, smile at the crowd.” She opened the door again so they could hear. Only a moment later, an announcer beg
an calling their names: Abraham Lander of Euterpe, Jesse Engels of Terpischore, Sander Kyoto of Thalia, Martin Hernandez of Urania, and Gavin Ibori of Calliope. They paraded out on stage and stood at perfect attention. Gavin did his best to smile, but he worried his expression was more of a grimace.
He wanted to look out at the crowd to see if he could find his parents, but the lights shone too brightly in his eyes. A speaker droned on about the importance of the games and the glory and honor they brought, but Gavin couldn’t hear very well over his pounding heart and heavy breathing.
Red and green lights blinked as vid stations from all over the system took his picture, and a deep voice chastised him in his head. “You must never, ever draw attention to yourself. Don’t allow any public pictures to be taken of you, and above all, never become famous.” His heart pumped so fast, he thought it might explode. I have to get out of here.
Before he could run off the stage, he heard the words that would doom him forever: “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your champion, Gavin Ibori of Calliope!”
Chapter 34
Present Day
Will watched Bliss sleep and wondered if he was being creepy. She was lying on his couch with an old orange heated blanket covering her. Her only pillow was the cylindrical throw pillow that matched the couch and was as hard as a rock. Nonetheless, she looked peaceful, especially considering the load of bombs he had dropped on her.
She had handled it all surprisingly well, then she had kissed him, something she’d never dared to do in all the years he had known her. Though he’d known she had something of a crush on him—he wasn’t that dense—he was in love with Lexi. He figured someday Bliss would find the perfect person for her, and she would forget all about him. Given the limited Transient pool to pick from, he didn’t know who that person could be, but he hadn’t spent much time thinking about Bliss Bhanushali’s love life.
The current Bliss, though, the one who had kissed him, seemed somehow different from all the Blisses who’d come before. She was bolder, somehow, and more in command of herself. She’d argued with him about megacorps, though she would probably regret her views once her memories came back. He’d never seen her argue with anyone in any of her past lives. The current Bliss had also done something to piss Roslyn off, so she wasn’t the super-agreeable girl he’d known before.
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