“Fair enough.” She looked around the room. “Do you think a Ringati is some kind of animal from Demitrius’s native planet?”
“Animal sacrifice to open the box? That’s pretty dark.”
“Yeah.” Roslyn tapped the stone against the control panel. She felt like she should know the answer, but if she forced the memory, she would risk an aneurysm. “Come on, let’s go before Hannah finds us and pumps us for information.”
Jack laughed. “She’s going to try to get answers out of us no matter what we do. I’ve never met anyone more dogged about an archaeological investigation.”
He put his arm around her waist, and she let him, and together, they strolled back to camp.
Present Day
Roslyn lay on her bed, her head too full of mush and clouds to process much that was going on around her.
The delusions still haven’t stopped. Why haven’t they stopped? A tear fell down her cheek. I’m trying to get better. I am. I take my medicine. I remind myself every morning that they’re just dreams. I’m using all the coping skills they’re teaching me. Why are the memories still coming? No, not memories. Dreams, just dreams.
She clutched her head and curled up in the fetal position. Her head felt so muddled, she could barely remember anything, anyway. Except Jack. She remembered Jack in her room on Ariadne and Jack in the camp on Arachne. She wanted to hold onto him as one solid thing to keep her sane, but her attachment to him prevented her from getting better. She scrunched her eyes shut. She was afraid to sleep but too disoriented to stay awake.
“Poor dear,” someone said. My favorite orderly. “She’s on so much Zyphonil she can’t even get out of bed.”
Another orderly spoke. “The doctor said everyone needed to get out of bed to—”
“Just let her sleep,” the first said. “At least until she’s adjusted to the new dosage.”
Roslyn slept and tried not to dream.
Chapter 37
Present Day
“Orpheus!” Jack all but sang as he pulled the ship into orbit. “Blue, do you realize we have visited every moon or planet in the system in the past month? This is amazing!”
Cobalt glowered at his brother. He couldn’t believe Jack was still excited about their misadventures. Well, yes, I can. It is Jack, after all. Jack wanted a life of running from the law, while the trip from Bellerophon to Orpheus had only helped remind Cobalt that he didn’t.
Jack hung his head at Cobalt’s response, not bothering to hide the smirk on his face. “I’m sorry,” Jack said. “We’ll use this Detrick person to get Tegan off our backs, then you can go home.”
“Then we can go home, right?” Cobalt asked. As crazy as his brother was, the thought of living without Jack left a hollow feeling in his gut.
Jack turned serious. “I’m not going home. I love it out here. I love knowing there’s more to my life than fixing other people’s spaceships so they can go off and have adventures.”
“So you’re just going to leave? Never come home again?”
“I’ll visit, of course, but I can’t stay there all the time, not now that I know what’s out here. But I also can’t make you come with me if you hate it. You’re my best brother. I want you to be happy.”
“I’m your only brother.” Cobalt turned his gaze to the engine readouts and tried to look as if he were paying attention to them, but really, he wanted out of the conversation. He and Jack had been inseparable best friends their whole lives. More than just these lives, if my dreams are anything to go by. And I’m not like other people. I can’t find a nice boy or girl to settle down with. Without Jack, I’ll be alone. “Do you know where you’re going to land this thing?”
“I’ve found a little docking station not too far from Detrick’s address.” Jack flipped a few switches, and they descended into the atmosphere. “They won’t ask too many questions, but I wouldn’t recommend leaving any valuables on board.”
“The ship is a valuable thing,” Cobalt said.
“Eh. By anyone’s standards, our ship is a piece of commercial trash.”
“That means they can sell it for parts.”
Jack cruised through the atmosphere, and the viewscreen lit up. “Docking ships is their business. They wouldn’t stay in business if they sold off their clients’ ships for parts.”
Cobalt sighed as he monitored the pressure gauges to make sure entry had gone smoothly. It had. “Sure, their properly disreputable clients with years of nefariousness. We’re newcomers on the block, prime for scamming.”
“Relax, Blue. We’ve got to start somewhere.” Jack grinned. “Weren’t the people at Eurydice nice enough?”
Almost too nice, Cobalt thought, but he didn’t want to argue with Jack anymore. He kept his silence as they landed on Orpheus. The landing spot wasn’t quite as sketchy as Jack had implied. The guy collecting the fee curled his lip in response to Jack’s effusive smile, but no one pointed guns at them, which put them above Eurydice in Cobalt’s estimation.
Jack seemed more effervescent than usual as they walked down the streets of Daphne, the capitol of Orpheus and thus human civilization. No doubt he was reveling in walking through the biggest city in the system. Cobalt had to admit he enjoyed seeing the rush of gainfully employed citizens moving through clean streets. Daedalus always looked grimy, and jobs weren’t easy to come by there.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Cobalt asked after about ten blocks of hurrying to keep up with his brother. “You haven’t looked at your datapad once.”
“I’m taking in the sights!” Jack spread out his hands and spun around in a circle. “I’m not going to tell you again how amazing this is, because you’ll scowl at me, but it totally, totally is!”
Cobalt took a deep breath and resolved not to prove Jack right. “So we’re not going anywhere—is that what you’re saying?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I memorized the route on the flight over. It was rather long, as you may remember, and you were in one of your grumpy, silent moods.”
I wonder if I’ve become taciturn as a defense mechanism because talking to Jack is so useless. “Are we almost there?”
“As a matter of fact, we are!” Jack pulled Cobalt down a side street whose buildings looked more residential than the sleek white skyscrapers they’d passed. He pointed at a building with shiny mirrored-glass windows. “That’s the place.”
Cobalt pursed his lips. “Looks like they’ve got pretty tight security there.”
Jack smirked. “I’ve got it covered.”
Cobalt closed his eyes and counted to three then followed Jack into the building.
When they got inside, Jack grinned at the receptionist. She looked like a no-nonsense security type, with her platinum-blond hair tied back in a tight bun and at least two laser pistols on her waist. Cobalt didn’t think Jack’s flirting would get anywhere with her.
Jack just greeted her as he might a friend, though. “Hey, I’m wondering if you could help me out. It’s my friend Detrick O’Leary’s birthday, and I wanted to surprise him. I don’t suppose you could let me up without letting him know.”
The woman arched a sharp eyebrow. “Detrick O’Leary doesn’t have friends.”
“Aw, sure he does,” Jack said. “We know him from school.”
“Yet you have never visited him before, in all the years he’s lived here.” Her voice was very dry.
Cobalt knew he would have to step in. Jack was never going to bluff the woman into believing he knew Detrick, but Cobalt didn’t have to bluff. Detrick’s face had appeared in his dreams alongside the others’.“He doesn’t like talking in person, so we mostly keep in touch via the datasphere,” Cobalt said. “But we were in town today, and we thought he might like some company.”
The woman still seemed a little skeptical, but she nodded. “I mean, you do seem to know him, and—” She s
wiped through a few pages on her datapad. “It is his birthday. I guess I can let you guys up.”
Jack gave the woman a grin as bright as the one he’d worn in the streets. “Thank you so much! He’s going to be so excited to see us!”
The woman shook her head but gave a small smile. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
As soon as the doors to the elevator closed, Cobalt turned to Jack and asked, “How did you know his last name and birthday?”
At the same time, Jack asked, “How in Cronos’s name did you know Detrick doesn’t like interacting face-to-face?”
They blinked at each other. Jack answered first. “It was easy research. I did it on the ride over. It was good timing, his birthday being the day we landed, so I figured I would take advantage.”
Cobalt pressed his palm to his forehead. “You didn’t think to mention his last name is the same as Tegan’s? They’re probably related! He’s not going to side with us against her!”
Jack shrugged. “So we’ll hold him hostage or something. Or just be friendly and pump him for information we can use against her. He’s still the best lead we’ve got.”
“Did you miss the part where he doesn’t socialize?” Cobalt wanted to shake his brother but knew from experience it wouldn’t do any good.
“Which brings us back to my question. How do you know about the social patterns of someone we’ve never met?”
Cobalt sighed, but the noise turned into an aggravated moan. “I told you. You don’t remember.”
“What? What do you mean, I ‘don’t remember’?”
“I told you on the Rose. You asked what was going on with me, and I gave you the full rundown. Then you went to sleep, and when you woke up, you didn’t remember. I may be pissed at you, but I’m not keeping secrets.”
“That doesn’t make any—”
Ding. “Twenty-second floor,” the soothing female voice of the elevator said.
“Okay, let’s get this done,” Jack said as the doors swooshed open. He strode with purpose down the hall to apartment 22F, and Cobalt followed, dragging his feet. Jack pressed the doorbell and placed his other hand over the laser pistol at his waist.
Motion sounded on the other side of the door, and a small peephole opened. “Who’s there?” someone with a high-pitched male voice said.
Jack gave a friendly smile. “It’s your old friends, Jack and Cobalt.”
“Jack and Cobalt Zhao? Here?” Detrick muttered. “That wasn’t in the plan.”
“Are you going to let us in?” Jack sounded almost sweet in his suggestion. If the fact that Detrick knew their names fazed him, he didn’t let on.
“Yes, I suppose that would be best,” Detrick said. The door whooshed open. “Come in.”
Jack and Cobalt stepped over the threshold almost in unison, and the door slid shut behind them. Cobalt knew that both because he heard it and because he stepped back against it, hoping he could get out. He had never seen such a pristine apartment in his life, and Jack constantly berated him for being a neat freak. The solid-white studio didn’t contain a speck of dust, and the sheets on the bed looked so tight, Cobalt wondered if Detrick lifted them to sleep.
His gaze fell on the wall of screens to the left of the door. One was tuned to the Bellerophon Games, but the rest seemed to contain data research: a list of spaceships purchased on Ariadne, the train schedule into Bellerophon, and the registry of ships docking on Orpheus. Flashing on one screen in the upper-right-hand corner was a news story with the headline “Space Train Robbery Goes Unsolved.”
In front of the screens sat a skinny man with hollowed-out cheeks, blond hair, and a smattering of freckles that reminded Cobalt a little too much of Tegan “Cuttlefish” O’Leary.
“Jack.” Cobalt’s mouth was dry. “We need to get out of here.”
“Oh, no,” Detrick said, his reedy voice surprisingly calm. He pushed a button on his datapad, and two of the largest laser canons Cobalt had ever seen descended from the ceiling and pointed at the twins. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Chapter 38
Present Day
Gavin marveled that the gigantic ship he was riding in had the sole purpose of escorting him to Orpheus. The sleek silver vessel didn’t resemble the military transports he usually saw, which solidified for him the fact that for the next year, he wasn’t in the military at all. Not that I was in the military before, but school was training for the military, and it was supposed to be my next step. Now maybe I’ll get to do something else.
He stifled a laugh at his idealism. He would get a year of fame and fortune before being sent back to the trenches. I’m as trapped as ever, and fame and fortune weren’t my dream, anyway. What I wanted was…
Until he had saved Archon in the forest of Bellerophon, he had never known. Gavin wanted to be a doctor. Healing people was his calling. His father might go for it—after all, the military had doctors. He could go to Chora for medical training with the understanding that he would return to Bellerophon when he was done. It wasn’t a perfect solution. Gavin got the impression that his past self, the one who knew how to slay a trimper with a survival knife and perform life-saving field surgery, wanted to do charity medicine. But he thought that Gavin had also seen war and come out of it stronger and more determined to make the world a better place. Gavin wanted to be that Gavin, but he would settle for being his people’s champion. When his year was over, when the people had another games champion to fawn over, he would talk to his father.
The door to the lounge swished open, and Endetta walked in. Gavin stood up as she entered.
“Hello, Gavin,” she said. The silky, false sincerity in her voice reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t place whom. “We’ve got a bit of time before we reach Orpheus, and I would like to talk to you about what people expect from you for the next year.”
“Okay,” Gavin said. He sat down, and Endetta took the chair opposite him.
“Now, as you are aware, as a participant in the games, you would be contractually obligated to appear in public at a number of events if you were named the winner. We want to make this as easy on you as possible, so we’ve arranged a team of stylists and speechwriters for you.”
“Oh,” Gavin said. “I actually received top marks in school in my speech and debate curriculum, so I imagine I could—”
“That won’t be necessary.” Endetta smiled as she said it, but Gavin heard the command in her words. “Here is a list of questions you may be asked on Orpheus. We would like you to memorize the answers. Please try to make them appear extemporaneous. The reporters and presenters are under strict orders not to deviate from the approved question list, but if they do—” Her expression made it clear what she thought of people who dared ask a question she hadn’t foreseen. “Try to answer in character.”
In character? Gavin scanned the questions.
“Did you always know you were going to win the games?” appeared in bold print at the top of the list.
“Absolutely. I came to win and would have accepted no other alternative,” the response read.
Okay, Gavin thought. That’s not so bad. He skimmed farther down the page.
“How did you feel when you were assigned your partner?” jumped out at him.
The answer read, “Terrible. I couldn’t believe they saddled me with a guy who hadn’t even won his region. And it turns out I was right. He nearly lost me the competition.”
Gavin lowered the datapad. “I can’t say this. It’s not nice, and it’s not true.”
Endetta sighed, as if to say she’d expected to have this conversation but had really hoped Gavin would be reasonable. “We do extensive studies on the type of image the public wants us to cultivate in our winners, and we have to give the public what they want. Bellerophon relies on the money we earn from the games, which in turn depends on their continued popularity. This year, the most popular
contestants were Abraham Lander and Jesse Engels. People simply loved watching their underhanded tactics, and our intention was for one of them to win. However, you killed a trimper, saved your buddy’s life, escaped from custody, and took your enemies with you. We simply could not choose another winner.”
“If I won because of my actions, shouldn’t these answers sound like me?”
“The datasphere is full of people unhappy about your victory. We think that if we can make you look more like Lander and Engels, the naysayers will come around. We can’t have support of the military fading, not in an election year.”
Gavin’s face must have appeared intractable, because Endetta sighed again and pulled up a vid on her datapad. She thrust it in Gavin’s face, and for the next few minutes, he had to watch the interview he’d given when he won the title for Calliope. Even he had to admit it was not very compelling. He looked like he was there out of obligation, not out of a sense of pride or accomplishment. Which is true.
“You can see that this is not the image of a winner.” She gave him a smile he imagined she intended to be kind. “But that’s okay, Gavin, because we’re going to make you into one.”
“Surely there’s a compromise to be had here,” Gavin said. “We can craft an image together, one that looks like both me and a winner.”
Endetta gave yet another sigh. “Really, Gavin, I need you to be reasonable about this. The perception of the games affects all of Bellerophon. There is a machine of people working on their publicity, and you are one tiny cog.”
Gavin couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. He had expected to serve in the military, and he knew that would mean following some orders he didn’t like, but he never expected commands like this. “I won the games. Doesn’t that make me at least a big cog?”
“We are rewarding you for your victory. Your name will be known across the system, and for the next year, you will be living in luxury that almost no one born and raised on Bellerophon will experience.”
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