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“What do you mean, she’s not there?” Exton’s voice repeated Henry’s words with startling detachment, even as there was a feeling inside of him, one that he recognized as much as he dreaded.
He narrowed his eyes, glancing around his small office, where his father’s files and different reports were scattered slapdashedly on his desk, as if he was looking for any other possibility than the one stirring around in his gut. He had been using some of the papers as an unwitting pillow, until the call from Henry came through.
“I’ve had the ship searched,” Henry continued. Over the comm, his voice was full of weariness, but there was a strong undertone of worry that was distinct. Exton was glad to see that the crew had taken to Aerie as quickly as they had; he didn’t notice until that moment how much Aerie meant to them.
Exton sincerely hoped that whatever game Aerie was playing, she wasn’t going to risk that relationship with the crew.
“I’m sorry, Captain. She’s nowhere to be found. I have some of the techs checking through the cams.”
She’s gone.
Exton felt his blood run cold with certainty. He thought about their earlier argument, when he’d been angry and upset and devastated by their losses, and even more infuriated to know it was because of Merra’s own interference.
What in the world does she think she’s up to now?
He didn’t even have to ask himself that question. He knew immediately what she was doing.
Instinctively, Exton’s hand flew to his chest, landing on his side, right over the ribs Aerie had bruised the first time he’d met her. As she pushed against her injuries and her fatigue, she’d fought with him over the fate of the Memory Tree and Moona, determined to protect what was hers. She was more than willing to damage everything that got in her way.
He reeled in a new level of indescribable pain as he realized that she was not only willing but determined to put herself in danger—even if it meant she threw away their relationship in the process.
“What should I do, Captain?” Henry asked.
Good question, he thought bitterly. Exton tasted bile as he seethed, calling on the last reserves of his self-control to keep his voice calm. “For now,” he said, slowly and carefully, “just keep an eye out for her. And let me know if the techs spot her on the cams at all. I want to know as much as I can so we can take care of her.”
If I don’t strangle her for her insolence, he thought. His fingers flexed, as if he could reach out into the empty air and grab onto her.
“Roger that.” Henry sighed. “I should’ve watched her more carefully. I know she was more upset about her family than she let on. I could see it in her eyes.”
Those eyes, Exton thought bitterly to himself. So innocent, so lovely—or so they once were.
“No need to blame yourself, Henry,” Exton told him. “I’ll have a team start searching down here, and I’ll get Aunt Patty—sorry, Director Ward—to check in with our ships. Hopefully something will come up.”
“I hope so.”
Exton felt his heart harden inside of him. “Me, too.” He clicked off his comm device before he threatened to go up there and tear the ship apart himself.
He knew he might have considered doing that anyway, if he was nearly a hundred percent sure she was there anyway.
What could she be thinking?! Running off to save her mother was all very noble, but it was just plain nonsensical, especially when she would have no support or anyone else with her to help, and she had done this right as he’d finalized his plans for getting Merra and Gerard out of the hands of the URS.
Exton turned on his feet and headed out the door. He knew he didn’t have long until Emery left, and he had no one else he could turn to.
He was hailing her on his comm when he caught sight of her heading down to the med ward. “Emery!” he called out.
“Exton,” Emery said, nodding a greeting. She smiled. “Come to try to talk me out of going to Cartagena? Did Tyler put you up to it?”
“What? No. No, I need to talk to you.” He took her arm, annoyed to see his hands were shaking slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Emery’s smile disappeared. “What happened?”
“Aerie’s gone missing from the Perdition.”
Emery’s blue-green eyes widened at the news. “Huh. Well, that’s surprising. Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure that Henry’s sure. He had the ship checked over.”
“Even the Biovid? She always liked it in there, same as I did. Maybe you can ask Henry to check with Bruce once more?”
“I don’t think she’s there.”
Emery nodded as realization dawned. “You think she left because she was angry with you, don’t you?”
“I left her there to keep in touch with the crew for me,” Exton said, dodging the observation.
“Did she leave because of her mother?” Emery pressed.
Exton grumbled to himself before replying. “I think so. No, that’s not right. I know so. I know her, and this is exactly the sort of idiotic thing she would do.” Exton slammed his fist into the nearby wall, gratified to see the wall stand up to his pain. He gripped his knuckles in further anger. “We’ve got to do something before she gets into any more trouble.”
“More trouble?”
“She’s going against my orders, Emery. Of course she’s going to get more trouble once I’m through with her!”
“Oh, I see where this is going.” Emery sighed. “You told her there was nothing we could do about her mom, didn’t you?”
“Of course. There is nothing we can do right now. I was going to put something together, but that’s—”
“That’s not good enough for Aerie,” Emery finished. She sighed.
“I’m not going to lie to her,” Exton insisted.
“I didn’t say anything about that,” Emery replied. “But I know how you feel about failure, Exton, and I know how much Merra aggravated you. You’re the only other person that likely came close to understanding how I felt about her. I’m going to take a wild guess here and bet that you didn’t handle the situation very well.”
“Aerie knows how I feel about her mother,” Exton snapped. “The fact that she has good intentions means nothing to me, especially when her actions suggest that lives are somehow expendable.”
“But Merra is not our mother,” Emery retorted. “You don’t get to insult her in front of Aerie, even if Aerie feels the same way about her as you do. She’s still Aerie’s mother, for goodness sake.”
“Are you saying that it is my fault Aerie’s gone?” Exton huffed. “She was the one who left! I told her to stay there and I’d get back to her later about her mom.”
“It might have been her choice, but it was clearly your words,” Emery scoffed. “You can’t talk to your wife like that.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, Em.”
“You’re supposed to be on your wife’s side, Exton!”
“We’re in the middle of a war!” Exton heard his voice rise in the small corridor. “I can’t just prioritize Aerie’s needs. Not over everyone else’s. Not over Petra or my crewmembers.”
“I know it’s hard.” Emery lowered her voice as she wrapped her arm around her brother.
“She’s gone.” Exton held onto Emery’s arm, remembering how their mother used to comfort them. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“The same thing you did last time,” Emery told him. “Go and find her.”
“What about here?”
“How many times are you going to have to go and rescue Aerie before you realize we’re here?” Emery waved her free hand around. “We’re your family. We can take care of the war while you’re gone.”
“This isn’t fair to other people.”
“Life isn’t fair, Exton. We know that.” Emery shrugged. “You might as well work with what you have. Lucky for you, you have me and Tyler and Aunt Patty, and all the rest of your friends here and onboard the starship.”
“That’s true.” Exton sighed. “You’re right.” I guess we’re going to be moving up the plans we made.
“Of course I am.” Emery giggled.
“This is serious. Aerie manages to get herself into the worst situations.”
“But you always seem to get her out of them, just like she always makes your life better.”
Exton snorted. “I don’t know about better.”
“More interesting? More worth the while?” Emery offered.
“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. I’ve got to get some work done I guess.”
“What else have you found out?”
“Henry just called me with the news,” Exton told her. “I had him continue searching the cams, and he’s going to send out messages to the other ships and shuttles nearby.”
“Did anyone else go missing?”
Exton started. “I didn’t think to ask,” he said. “I doubt Henry checked on that, either.”
“If she’s missing from the Perdition, she would’ve had to take transportation,” Emery said. “Any chance she’s in the hangar on the Perdition?”
“I don’t know. I’ll call and check.”
Emery patted his shoulder. “That’s the spirit.”
“What do I say to her?” He ran his hands through his hair.
“Are you going to need me to counsel you through everything?” Emery smiled. “Come on. You can figure that out. Besides, I’ve got a shuttle to catch, and I promised I’d come and get Serena when we were leaving.”
“Yeah, you did, and I’m ready to leave.”
Exton had to stop himself from jumping as Serena stepped up beside Emery from out of nowhere, with a small med pack on her back. Between her resemblance to Merra, and her sudden appearance, Exton was caught off guard.
“Good,” Emery said. She turned back to Exton. “Are you okay if I head out now?”
“Yeah, go ahead. But put your pilot on standby. We’re going to have to redo some of our plans, but the lead team and I will go ahead with them for now. I’ll let you know if I hear anything about Aerie.”
“Are you looking for Aerie?” Serena asked. “She was here earlier. Haven’t you seen her yet?”
Exton and Emery exchanged surprised glances.
Seeing their expression, Serena started laughing. “Oh, I get it. Aerie’s causing trouble for you again. I knew something was off when she came down here looking for Cal last night.”
“Why didn’t you tell someone you’d seen her?” Emery asked. “She wasn’t supposed to be here at all.”
Serena shrugged. “I watched her as we came here with Brock in that cargo ship,” she said. “She’s a lot more determined than I would’ve thought. Last night she wanted something, and I didn’t want to be the one who stood in her way.”
“Where is Cal now?”
“I thought he was still in his room,” Serena muttered, as she turned down the hall and started walking in the direction of the med ward.
Exton and Emery followed behind her, but Exton had a feeling there was no need to check and see if Cal was there or not. He had a feeling he was gone.
His comm beeped, and he quickly answered it, hoping against all hope that Aerie had been found in some obscure location onboard.
“Captain,” Henry’s voice greeted him once more. “I have some bad news.”
“Let me guess. You found proof Aerie’s not onboard.”
“Good guess, but that’s not everything,” Henry said. “She left here last night with General St. Cloud.”
Exton felt another round of frustration run through him. “I guess that means our earlier plans are going to have to be significantly revised,” he muttered.
“Yes. She left in one of the smaller shuttles. I’ve checked in with Petra, and it seems there are some shipments missing this morning.”
“I could’ve guessed,” Exton said. “Great. Can you put a tracker on the ship?”
“Thora’s working on it now,” Henry said.
“Alright. Thank you.” Exton clicked off his comm and turned back to see Serena and Emery arguing as Brock was standing up in the doorway of his room.
Brock was fastening the sleeve of the new uniform. He kept his attention away from Serena, who was trying to tell him he wasn’t ready to get out of bed, and Emery, who was trying to order him back to bed. He focused on Exton.
“Aerie’s in trouble, isn’t she?”
Brock’s question made Exton even more irritated. As he looked at Brock, he saw nothing short of resignation in his eyes.
“Yes,” Exton admitted. “Big trouble. She’s gone to try to rescue her mother from Gerard.”
Brock sighed. “Not a good idea.”
“She has General St. Cloud with her.”
“Still not a good idea,” Brock said, “but at least it’s better than nothing. I guess taking Cal was a good idea. He wanted the chance to make the URS pay for making us look like fools.”
“How do you know about Cal’s role?”
Brock shrugged. “I went to go see him earlier and he wasn’t in the room. I knew he wouldn’t have gotten out earlier than me. Not with his arm wounded as badly as it was.”
“You’re right,” Serena said. “He shouldn’t have left. And you need to get back in bed too. You didn’t have as much damage, but we are still monitoring your condition.”
“Go monitor someone else, Serena,” Brock said. He glanced over at Exton. “I’m going with you.”
“What? No,” Exton snapped. “Aerie’s my wife, and I’ll take care of her. You need to get back to your room and listen to the med techs.”
“Believe me, if you want her back, and you want her to be safe, you’ll take me with you,” Brock said. “I’m the only one who will be able to find her.”
“Why?” Emery asked. “Why only you?”
Brock seemed to realize he had an audience all of a sudden. He seemed to struggle for the words as he finally said, “Because ... because I can get in contact with the URS and their forces.”
“What are you talking about?” Exton’s voice went low and dangerous.
Brock looked at his feet, before he unbuttoned his uniform jacket, letting them watch as he peeled away a small patch of synthetic skin from the area just underneath his collarbone.
Once the skin was ripped away, there was a small, clear device revealed, one barely able to be seen against his skin. Brock pointed to it, then he ran his finger over it, trying to dislodge it. “Aerie wasn’t the only one was who was tracked by the URS.”
Before Exton could think to stop himself, he lashed out, grabbing Brock by the shoulders. He didn’t even see his fist as it sunk into the younger man’s face.
“Exton,” Emery said, stepping forward. She managed to grab hold of his fist before he launched it at Brock again.
“Step back, Emery,” he yelled. “He’s putting all of us here in danger, and he did it willingly.”
“That’s true,” Emery said. She used her free hand to pull out a small gun from its hidden holster at her side. “But we have other ways of dealing with this sort of thing. We don’t need you to punch him. I’m perfectly capable of shooting him.”
“Stop!” Brock rubbed his face where Exton’s fist had connected. A bruise was already forming underneath his eye. “Calm down,” Brock shouted back. “It’s a manual tracker. I can turn it on and off at my discretion.”
Serena stepped forward. “I can verify that,” she said. “I recognize the model. We put them in troops for special assignments. Sometimes they forget to schedule a removal surgery.”
Exton glared at her, and then turned his gaze back to Brock’s. “Why do you have it in the first place?”
Brock scowled at him, his expression awkwardly contorted due to his blackening eye. “You of all people should know why,” he said. “I was handpicked from my class to serve the URS in its military.”
“I know that much,” Exton retorted. “It’s one of the only reasons I kept you here after you tried to kidnap Aerie before. In fact,” he growled, “it was the only reason.”
“No it’s not,” Serena huffed. “He’s Aerie’s friend, and you wouldn’t have sent him home if you thought she would be upset by it.”
Exton said nothing to her remark, but the bitter silence surrounding them let Serena know she was right.
Brock continued. “I was approached by Osgood himself a couple of years ago. He knew I was at the top of my class. He said he wanted to mentor me.”
“Osgood is your mentor?”
“Yes,” Brock admitted. He frowned. “Just like St. Cloud was yours.”
Exton felt his frown deepen. He was glad that Emery was the one holding the weapon, because at the mention of Aerie’s father, he was more than willing to bet that if he was the one holding it, Brock would be dead—or at minimum, severely injured.
“Dictator Osgood told me he had a mission for me. He wanted me to get close to Aerie’s family. When he found out I was interested in her ... ” Brock’s face flustered over red, making his swollen cheek turn an ugly shade of purple.
“Why did he assign that to you?” Exton asked curtly. “Go on.”
“I’m trying,” Brock muttered. “When he realized I liked her, he said he would approve cohabitation for us once she was eighteen, should she accept. But he said he wanted to keep a closer watch on St. Cloud.”
“Why?” It was Serena’s turn to ask the question. “The General did all the work he was supposed to. Even Phoebe told me that he had been doing more than he had to for work.”
“Osgood doesn’t trust anyone,” Exton answered. “That’s why.”
“He’s suspected St. Cloud for years,” Brock admitted. “But I didn’t see anything that was really a concern. I mean, I know he seemed okay with religion, but I thought that was more unfortunate than terrible. I didn’t think that was a lot to worry about when I sent in my reports on St. Cloud to Osgood.”
Exton shook his head. All the connections had been in front of him, and he had not seen it. “Osgood was the one who sent you in to save Aerie from the Reeducation Center, wasn’t he?”
Brock nodded. “Yes. He wanted to know where the Ecclesia’s secret outpost was. He didn’t know specifically, but once he found out that Aerie had been in contact with them and she was determined to find them again, he had her arrested.”
“He was hoping to get St. Cloud to admit he’d known,” Exton continued, recalling how St. Cloud had been the one who signed her arrest warrant. “But he followed orders and didn’t give anything away.”
“So he had me chipped, and I went in to rescue Aerie. He knew Gerard was too happy to torture someone to be ready to defend himself, let alone win against someone like me.” Brock shrugged. “So I took her and we left. I asked Serena to come because I was actually worried about Aerie’s wounds.”
“For a military guy, you are weirdly adverse to blood and needles,” Serena said with a playful smirk.
“That’s enough,” Exton snapped at Serena. He turned back to Brock. “So you lied to her, to us, and you infiltrated Petra. Tell me why I shouldn’t just shoot you now and get you out of my way for good.”
“I can contact the Craftcarrier near Panama,” Brock said.
“Why didn’t you do it earlier?” Emery asked. “Why did you go off to fight them?”
Brock shuffled his feet, reminding Exton how much younger and how much more inexperienced at life he really was. “I ... I sort of like it here,” he admitted bashfully. “I mean, I’m mad that Aerie’s not here.” He glared at Exton briefly, before adding, “But I like the people here. Cal and Dorian and I managed to make a few friends, and we all had more freedom here. The other day, Cal and Dorian and I all went ice fishing with some of the other guys around here, and I realized I’d never had a lot of real friends like that—people who would argue with me freely or force me to think about new ideas. It was ... weird. And nice.”
He lowered his gaze. “After the Craftcarrier went down in the bay, I realized that I didn’t really want the URS to win. I didn’t want to return to a life where survival of the State was everything. I felt bad about calling them before.”
“You were the one who contacted Osgood with the location of our post.” Exton closed his eyes. How blind could I have been?
Part of him suddenly hated how much he had fallen in love with Aerie those few weeks on the Perdition. His heart had done him a great disservice. He was a better fighter when he had his heart in cold stasis, dead to the concerns of the world and only a servant to his own inner darkness.
He even hated that he had to go and rescue her from her own recklessness. He was beginning to wonder how much she was like Merra, and what that would mean for the two of them.
Could they live with each other? She had told him she didn’t judge him based on his father’s choices, but what about his own? Exton knew he had difficult decisions to make, especially when it came to war. She didn’t seem to understand how much her mother had messed things up, and how difficult it was for him to act as both a leader and a husband in this matter.
“Well, yeah,” Brock replied, interrupting Exton’s worries. “But I didn’t think he would try to kill me along with everyone else. He told me to stay there, and when everything was over, he would send a scouting team out for me.”
“He used you,” Emery remarked. “He wouldn’t have trusted you.”
“I realize that now,” Brock said with a nod. “So I clicked off my device after the Craftcarrier was shot down. I’d hoped he would think that I was killed in action. But I promise you, sincerely, on anything that you want, I did not contact them after that. I swear. If I’m lying, you can kill me with my full approval.”
After a long moment of considering Brock’s eager, still-swelling face, and glaring into his eyes as he searched for some semblance of a soul, Exton groaned. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll take you with me to go and get Aerie. But you’re piloting the ship, and you’re going to take the fall once Osgood alerts his minions that you’re no longer on his side.”
“He might figure that out anyway,” Serena pointed out. “After all, why would you come back just as Aerie’s gone missing?”
“He might not have found her yet,” Emery said. “You have some time, but you have to decide whether or not to take it now.”
Exton felt a rush of shame as he realized he wasn’t completely willing to go. Some part of him wanted Aerie to learn the hard way how much she couldn’t disobey his orders; he even rationalized that she was stronger than most people gave her credit for. He even thought she might succeed, especially since St. Cloud was with her. And there were other things that required his attention. His father’s files, Petra’s fighter force was down, and he had no clear plan of how to rescue Merra anyway.
There were a lot of reasons to stay away. The more pragmatic side of him said there were more than plenty of reasons to at least wait until he knew the full extent of his options. It was almost too easy.
Almost.
The temptation to allow Aerie to run away from him, even for what she saw as a justifiable reason, went against everything good and principled inside of him.
He nodded. “It’s always now or never,” Exton said. “Emery, before you go, alert Aunt Patty of the situation. I’m going to go take care of Aerie and Merra. And St. Cloud, too.”
Emery gave him a small smile. “She’ll be happy to help out,” she said. “She wanted Merra back too, almost as much as Aerie did.”
Exton snorted. “Not enough to risk her life or the fate of this community, obviously. Give me your weapon, please, so I can take Brock down to the hangar.”
“I’m not going to fight you,” Brock said.
“I just punched you,” Exton reminded him, as he knocked the gun into Brock’s back, forcing him to march down the hall. “I’m not about to let my guard down now.”