“It’s too easy,” he whispered before deciding on the only reasonable course: Take the lift to the subterranean levels.

  However, C&C’s double doors opened. Ryllen stood in his way.

  12

  K ARA NEVER SAW A STASIS TUBE before now. Growing up, she heard rumors about wealthy Hokkis facing terminal illness who delayed death by entering a tube and paying exorbitant fees to be stored on an Ark Carrier. She thought they were fairy stories. To see one of these devices stowed away in the recesses of a refinery gave pause.

  The woman inside was a shriveled shadow of a fully functioning human. Her cheeks were sunken, her eyes recessed. She might have passed for deceased if not for digital readings that detected a heartbeat and brain waves. Kara stepped back from the gruesome sight as Exeter watched over, crying for the first time since she met him.

  He wiped his tears as the questions poured in from the five who surrounded the tube.

  “Her name is Simone D’Chinou. She was one of his first recruits. He found her on Everdeen. She was the most loyal. The things she did to win clients were …” His tone sharpened. “I don’t understand it. He would never do this to her.”

  “Sure about that?” June Serrano said. “He gave you the boot, and you were all but sucking his cock.”

  The tension ran far deeper than Kara was told. For a second, she thought Exeter might reach for his weapon and return the favor for when June shot him dead two years earlier.

  Lucas Gil, who carried his own impressive set of baggage with June, intervened.

  “Give him a break,” he told her. “She was a friend.” He smiled, but Kara thought it theatrical. “How good a friend, X?”

  “What?”

  “You know what I mean. Did you and her ever …?”

  Kara didn’t wait for Exeter’s response.

  “What for all the rings is wrong with you two?” She told the Catalan pair. “This woman was Exeter’s friend, and she is clearly dying. Why should anything else matter? Now, I have no clue how these tubes work, but I assume the general idea is to slow all bodily functions and not allow them to deteriorate. Obviously, that’s not happening here. Exeter, did you ever see anything like this in use while you were here?”

  “No. I didn’t know we had them. It’s strange. I walked every square foot of Artemis a hundred times over. I never saw this.”

  Joa Zaan and Rain Pai, the Hokkis assigned with Lucas and June, added their take.

  “It was covered in a sheet,” Joa said. “I almost didn’t bother.”

  “Looks to me like somebody wanted her to go out slow and painful,” Rain added. “Like a death sentence.”

  Exeter hovered over Simone. “We can’t let that happen. The Scramjets have proper med phasics.”

  “Might work,” Lucas said, “but it’s a fair distance, and we don’t know what happens if we open the tube. She’s liable to die before we reach the lift.”

  “We hoist the tube onto a rifter. With some luck, we can have her connected to phasics in seven, maybe eight minutes.”

  Kara understood the efficacy of phasic holotools but wondered whether the right questions were being asked.

  “Exeter, we don’t know how long Simone has been in there. Any movement might be deadly. She may have brain damage beyond repair. This used to be a medical facility. Yes? Is there nothing here we can activate?”

  “I don’t think so. Amayas repurposed and reprogrammed equipment for his experiments.”

  “He’s right,” Lucas said. “We found nothing useful. And believe me, we were looking for supplies of any value.”

  Kara was there when Cando contacted Ham. She didn’t understand why they’d yet to receive a response. She left Cando behind to study the models Jai Zaan discovered, especially to answer Kara’s question about whether the Inventor’s “miracle” ships had Worm capability.

  “We need to contact the Admiral,” she told them. “I hate to say it, but we’re here to find answers. She has them. If she knows where the Inventor went, we need to hear it.”

  Those words surprised no one more than Kara. Was she willing to risk this frail woman’s life in exchange for crucial intel? A chill penetrated her thermal jacket. The discovery of the Inventor’s designs shook her more than she realized.

  “I’m on it,” Lucas said, tapping into his comm stack. After a delay, Ham appeared alongside Leto Ahmed and Paul Ochoba.

  “Are you with her?” Ham said.

  “We are. Debating the next step.”

  “Leave her as she is, for the moment. I dispatched the Colonel to your location. We’ve had a development up here. Hand me to Exeter.” Lucas tossed the hologram, which Exeter caught on his stack.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You will be shown a vid. Your response may well determine the fate of this mission. I suggest complete transparency.”

  Exeter frowned in bewilderment. “Admiral? Sir? What’s …?”

  “Be honest, Exeter.”

  Ham cut off his transmission.

  “What’s happening?” Kara said. The three Talons and two Hokkis appeared confused. “Exeter, do you know about this vid?”

  “Maybe it’s a clue to his whereabouts, or why he did this to her.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. I still don’t understand what Simone did to earn this cruelty. Exeter, what was her role?”

  “She was a greeter. She welcomed new clients at the docking port. When Amayas thought I was ready, he promoted me to greeter. We were known by pseudos. Simone was called Missus.”

  “Did she do anything else?”

  He sighed. “Mother said she helped remind clients of their humanity.” He must have seen the recognition on everyone’s face. “Yes. She was their sexual guide.”

  “The house whore,” Lucas said. “That’s what we’d call her on Catalan. How about it, X? You tap her?”

  June nudged her ex-lover. “Not his type.”

  Exeter fumed. “I could kill you both where you stand. I’m a faster draw and a better shot.”

  June opened her hands as if asking him to try.

  “Easy to say when you’re guaranteed a reboot.”

  The hum of an approaching rifter echoed across the cavern, silencing the verbal warfare. Kara couldn’t see how they overcame so much dysfunction to survive in battle all those years.

  When the vehicle arrived, Ryllen ignored the stasis tube and its occupant. Instead, he stopped within a hair’s breadth of Exeter, looking nothing like the man’s lover. Or even a friend.

  “If there’s anything you haven’t told us yet, now’s the time.”

  “Told you? RJ … Colonel, told you about what?”

  “Your plan.”

  “The only plan I have is to find Amayas and kill him.”

  “No. The other one.”

  Ryllen backed away and turned to the others.

  “You might as well see this, too. Some others have seen it topside.” He tapped into his comm stack. “I was reviewing data in the demonstration lab. Everything had been scraped away but one hidden file.” To Exeter: “I think he assumed you’d look there first.”

  Ryllen triggered a hologram then paused the image of a bearded man with shaved head.

  “Just to confirm, X: This is Amayas Knight?”

  Exeter’s features paled. “Yes, but he’s not like I remember.”

  Kara thought the bogeyman they were chasing – the famed Inventor – seemed insignificant, a sad little man she’d pass on the street without a second glance. His left eye drooped.

  Ryllen played the vid.

  “Welcome home, Exeter,” the Inventor said. “I missed you. I apologize for expediting our timetable. Sending you off in haste was regrettable, but the Losotho Bridge was aligned. It was the hour we long anticipated. I trust you found the other immortal jumper?

  “Your return means you succeeded in winning his love and finding the allies to predicate your return. Crossing the divide with others represents a monumental advance in the greater strategy.

  “Now we have to protect the divides before they fall. I only need you and the other jumper. Leave all others behind. You will find me in that special place where the solemn bird sings to the empty sphere.

  “Until we meet again, Exeter. Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice on behalf of a better future.”

  The vid ended. No one spoke, but every eye locked on Exeter. The swagger he displayed for Lucas and June vanished. In its place was a panicked stance that said, “Don’t look at me like that!”

  Had Kara completely misread him? Were his earnest demeanor and loving side glances at Ryllen mere cover by a genius who played everyone for a fool?

  June and Lucas apparently wondered the same and took aim. Ryllen ordered them to lower their turbo rifles.

  “I don’t want to believe this is true, X. But if it is, you’re going to be worse off than the coit inside that tube. Talk.”

  13

  E XETER MELTED UNDER THE GLARE. He stumbled back against the stasis tube as if he’d taken a gut punch. If this was an act, Kara thought, he was delivering a brilliant performance. Either way, the vid must have broadsided him.

  “I don’t know why he’s saying those things, RJ.”

  “I’m Colonel to you. Tell me why I shouldn’t believe him.”

  “Because he makes no sense. We never had a plan. It was all Amayas. I only knew about the Alliance.”

  “Exeter, you told me how he sent you through the Splinter without warning. In the vid, he says he’s sorry for sending you off in haste. But he sure makes it seem like you knew it was coming.”

  “No. That day, he shot me. When I woke up, I was in the chair and he told me I was immortal and he was sending me away. I …”

  Ryllen stopped the defense with a raised finger.

  “The other immortal jumper. I assume that would be me. How did he know?”

  “I can’t explain it. That last day, he said I was special because of my genetic variance. He said only people like me could make a point-to-point jump across the divide. I didn’t understand he was talking about immortals until after I met you.”

  “It all fits together.” Ryllen faced Lucas and June. “You remember the night we found X? The Battle of HanBae?”

  “Never forget it,” Lucas said. “That was the worst night of the war. We lost thirty Talons in seven hours.”

  June nodded. “We were in full retreat. Lanner’s forces were shredding our lines. That’s when the Colonel …”

  “When I saw Exeter standing in the middle of a battle zone. A civilian with about ten seconds to live. Remember, X? I said, ‘Run, asshole.’ You grabbed my hand.”

  “Colonel, it wasn’t a plan. It was …”

  “Don’t say luck. It was plotted. All the spots in the universe, and you landed where I’d find you. Once we got you to safety, you didn’t leave. You weren’t a soldier. We didn’t know your story. It was time for you to go. Why did you stay, X?”

  “I … I felt safe. I was on a strange planet. Everything was on fire. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Follow orders, apparently.”

  “Which was what? To be a spy? You were losing. The Talons were being slaughtered. I saw whole squads incinerated by Forsythe battle drones. But I stayed and fought for you.” He turned to the Catalan pair. “And you. How many times did I save your lives over the years? And what did I get out of it? June, you accused me of turning Lucas against you then shot me in the head. Both of you mock me because I fell in love with the Colonel. I’ve done everything you asked of me, Colonel. And more. Now, you hear a few words from Amayas Knight, and suddenly, nothing I did matters.”

  “You’re wrong, X. You’re an incredible soldier. You fought as hard as any of us. But you didn’t tell us the whole truth.”

  “Please give me a chance. We should go over the message point by point. I can explain why you shouldn’t trust him. Colonel, he’s setting me up for something I never did. Why? I don’t know. That man said I was like a son to him.”

  Kara saw Ryllen reaching for his side pistol. OK, he was furious. Understandable. But the more she heard Exeter’s plaintive tone, the less Kara suspected duplicity. She stepped forward.

  “He makes a good point, Ryllen. There are other parts of the message I think need to be discussed. And while we’re talking about who to trust, tell me again: How did you find the vid file?”

  He relaxed his trigger hand. “Scouring directories in the demonstration lab. The vid was camouflaged inside a map.”

  “So, if the Inventor went to all the trouble of disguising it, he wanted it to be hard to find. Maybe a place only Exeter would look.”

  “My theory.”

  “But he didn’t look, and he was on the station for hours during the restart. If he knew where Amayas left a message, why not find it before the entire team arrived?”

  Exeter mouthed the words “thank you.” Ryllen shaded his eyes for a moment, as if considering the plausibility of Kara’s assertion.

  “He couldn’t risk being discovered.”

  “OK. Fine. So, why leave the message in the demonstration lab? Why not in Exeter’s old room? It’s private. No one would question him going in there.”

  “Maybe he did. Maybe we can find copies all over the station. Maybe he was just making it easier to find.”

  Rain Pai, who earlier theorized someone was trying to give Simone D’Chinou a long, painful death, raised his hand.

  “I have to say this. I’ve only known X for a couple days, but he seems like a standup guy. For an immortal. And a killer. Those weren’t crocodile tears when he was crying over Simone. That coit on the vid? He’s playing us.”

  “How do you know?” Ryllen said.

  “I spent most of my life on the streets. There’s an asshole like him on every block. He works both sides. Gets you to buy in to his long con. Sends you to take care of the dirty bits. If the con works, he takes the Kohlna’s share of the profit and makes you feel like a million Dims inside. If the con falls apart, he makes sure the right people know who to come after. I vote we go point by point.”

  Rain surprised her, but maybe she shouldn’t have been. Kara recalled her conversation with Ham shortly after she awoke from a long slumber in a still-seat. Ham said success required a deft touch. “Small blades in wait,” he called the Green Sun agents.

  No one objected, so Ryllen tapped his comm stack and replayed the message. Twice.

  “I have questions,” Kara said. “Amayas claimed he sent Exeter through the Splinter because the ‘Losotho Bridge was aligned.’ Exeter, what is the Losotho Bridge?”

  A revelation crossed his eyes. He gazed upward and pointed across the cavern.

  “The cylinder. It must be. He never used the term, but he implied it was some type of transit.”

  “And you used it how many times?”

  “At least a hundred, but never with the Splinter. Still, it took me everywhere. I traveled across whole galaxies.”

  “But you never left the chair?”

  “Not until he linked up the Splinter.”

  She turned to Ryllen. “Before we left Hokkaido, I asked you to explain an inconsistency about what happened at my wedding. You claimed Hoija Taron moved up the date to set a trap for you. The announcement was made seven days out, yet you returned across the divide four days later. I asked how she could have known ahead of time. Remember your answer?”

  “Sure. The truth. Time doesn’t work the same way across universes. There’s a distortion in each fragment. It’s the same with counterparts. Conversations on your side might pass in hours, but to your counterpart, it might seem like days. Even weeks.”

  “Right. I still can’t wrap my head around it, but as an engineer, I’m pretty good at extrapolating possibilities – even the most insane. If the Losotho Bridge allows transit across galaxies, like Exeter says, why not universes? And if Amayas Knight has counterparts in any of those fragments, couldn’t he track what’s happening across the divide? He’d use his counterparts just like Hoija Taron did. For intel.”

  For a few seconds, she felt like a genius. The idea married perfect logic with hypothetical lunacy, much like her life during the past week. More important, it grabbed their attention.

  “Sounds amazing,” Rain said. “Didn’t understand most of it.”

  “I know. It’s madness. And it certainly doesn’t explain everything. How could he be so precise in placing Exeter at your location? Or how did he know you were immortal, Ryllen? Or that you …”

  She gasped. Suddenly, perfect logic disintegrated.

  “Wait, wait. Exeter arrived one year after you. Correct, Ryllen?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he crossed the divide first. Even if Amayas was working with a counterpart, I don’t see how it could work. There is no math or science to account for this. And it’s why I know Exeter isn’t trying to deceive us. He’s been played. We all have. Rain pegged him. The Inventor is playing a long game, using something beyond our understanding – maybe even his own. I think something went wrong, and now he’s trying to shift the trouble to Exeter.”

  “Why?” Lucas said.

  “A guess? To slow us down. Maybe throw us off course. What do you think, Exeter?”

  “It’s good to know somebody cares about my opinion.” He shot a hurtful glance at Ryllen. “Amayas was a difficult man on a good day. Mostly, he kept to himself down here. When he made appearances topside, he was all business. Shoring up the station, entertaining clients, negotiating contracts. Only he knew the whole picture.” Exeter tapped his skull. “It was all in here. He gave me the fix I needed – time in the cylinder … the Losotho Bridge. I was satisfied, so I didn’t ask questions. He never said I was part of his plan. Seconds before he cast me out, he said my journey would be long and painful, but it would trigger events to keep the divides from falling. He never gave me instructions. I never knew the plan.”

  Kara thought it a fine closing argument for the defense. She sensed silent agreement from the others, even the Catalan pair. Ryllen stood at ease as well. Kara had one more question.