26

MASTER OF THE GAME

RILA STARTS COUGHING as the smoke thickens.

Think, Riven! “Maybe we can turn back and go down a floor,” I say, but Inka shakes her head.

“Too dangerous. That staircase is not going to hold much longer.”

The last thing I want is to die down here, but maybe that’s exactly what will happen. Maybe it’s just my time.

Is Caden safe? I ask the suit.

Yes. T he Lord King is en route to the hangar. T hey are clear of the building.

I feel a wave of relief—one that’s eclipsed by a sharp realization that I may never see him, or hear him laugh, or kiss him again. I close my eyes and feel the strong pull of him, deep in my center where I’ve buried all my feelings. They rise up to take hold of every part of me. And I realize that I want to survive. I don’t want to die here today. Even if Caden is bound to Inka, I’ d rather have a part of him than none at all. I want to live.

Give me all my options.

Running analysis.

As the suit prepares a list of alternative routes, I scan the room, calculating odds of escape. The fire is creeping closer, and Rila’s coughing has gone from bad to worse. Suddenly, my eyes stop on the barely visible indented space in the wall—the shaft to my father’s elevator. The doors can’t be opened from any other floor, but the access panels are there in case of emergency.

Does that shaft go directly to the top?

Yes.

“Inka, help me wedge these panels open!” I pry my ninjata into the narrow seam, grateful for the strength of the Artok-forged blade. We work together, digging our fingers into the gap, widening it until I can fit my head inside. I look up and down, locating the service ladder. I can’t see the elevator car anywhere so Cale must have made it out. “We’re going to have to climb. Let’s move.”

Inka and I drag the panels apart. Sending Rila first, we pull ourselves through, and start climbing just as the entire floor explodes, sending a blast of heat into the shaft beneath us. Fire licks at my calves and back.

“Climb!” I urge Inka.

The ascent seems like it will never end, but we can’t stop. My arms and lungs are burning. Suddenly, Rila coughs, a violent spasm wracking her body so hard that she loses her grip, slamming into Inka who falls past me, arms flailing. Gasping, I reach out and grab her wrist. My body bends backward and I lock my knees between the rungs, holding her fast as her body dangles in open space.

“Don’t let go,” she tells me, her dark eyes panicked.

As if I would. Although, a tiny part of me wonders what would happen if I did—there’ d be no alliance, and Caden would belong to me.

Our hands are slick with sweat. It would be so easy to slacken my grip. My fingers relax, and Inka’s eyes widen, but the move is only so I can get a better grasp as I swing her to the ladder beneath me.

“For a second there, I thought you were going to let go.”

My frank answer surprises us both. “Me, too.”

We start climbing again in silence, each occupied with the weight of our own thoughts, until Inka taps at my boot.

“What’s wrong?”

“So,” Inka says, her breathing echoing in the shaft as she peers up at me. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news… again… but, well, the elevator is moving. Toward us.”

I frown—there’s no one in the building, but to my horror, I look down and see that she’s right. The elevator is heading straight for us, and ascending fast. It has to be Sebba. I hiss angrily. I really, really hate that clone. There’s no way there will be enough space for the compartment and us, but I’ve come too far to be beaten now.

I engage the suit. I don’t care what you have to do. Stop that thing. Fry the entire network. Just do it.

I will no longer have access to the Neospes network if I bring it down.

Do it!

We wait a few seconds before the elevator halts a few feet away and the shaft is drowned in complete darkness. “Climb.”

“How much farther?” Rila wheezes.

“Almost there.”

We stop at the final egress panels and I swing across, my toes barely gripping the edge as my body teeters for a moment. With a deep breath, I stabilize myself and wedge apart the doors. I shimmy my body through, using my back and feet as leverage. Rila and Inka follow me to the surface level of Sector Two.

It’s a complete war zone.

I press a finger to my lips, pointing to the horde of clashing bodies—Vectors and Reptiles alike—a stone’s throw away. A Reptile grabs my foot, and I stab it in the head before skirting past two decapitated Vectors that have slick blue fluid pooling beneath them. The last thing we need to do is attract unnecessary attention.

“Stay close to the buildings,” I say in a low voice. “When we get out in the open, run.” I glance at Rila. “I gave you my word. You can go.”

“I’ d rather stay, if it’s all the same to you.” Her eyes are huge. For a second, I see myself at that same age. I sigh. This is no time to get sentimental. She’ll probably stab me in the back and I’ll regret this for the rest of my life.

“Fine. Keep up.” Inka gives me a look of approval, which I ignore.

Staying close to crumbling buildings, we move toward the hangar where I hope Caden is waiting. Twice, we run into Reptiles, but we dispatch them quickly and quietly.

Inka grabs my arm just before we enter the cavernous vaulted building, which has its own exit out of the dome. “Riven, before we go in, I have to tell you that I did not know my father’s army was not coming.” She draws a long breath. “I told you that I would protect Caden with my life, and I will.”

“I know.” I hate the sound of his name on her lips.

“And, about the whole—”

Her words make my stomach clench and I cut her off. There’s nothing she can say, short of breaking the agreement that will make a difference. She is as much a pawn as I am. “Inka, it’s fine, just forget it.”

“But, I don’t want—” Her eyes grow round like saucers, staring at something behind me. The biggest Reptile I have ever seen barrels toward us.

“What the hell is that?” she says.

“Whatever it is, it’s ugly. And huge.” I hold my ninjatas at the ready and Inka notches her bow, but the beast is quickly swarmed by a few dozen Vectors, which take it to the ground. I exhale in relief. I have no doubt in my abilities, but getting close to a Reptile the size of a small house is nothing short of daunting. “We may not be that lucky again. Come on.”

Being extra careful to avoid further detection, we sidle along the edge of the hangar. I enter the code and step into the shadowy space, the doors gliding shut behind us. The silence is oppressive, and a spidery sensation settles around my neck. We aren’t alone. “Sauer? Caden? Anyone in here?”

“Welcome, General!” Cale’s voice booms. I freeze, turning toward the sounds and lights coming to life along the hangar track. “What took you so long? Feel free to leave your weapons at the door.”

Sauer, my mother, and Aenoh, are strung up on one side of the hangar, directly in front of our ship. Inka tenses when she sees Enola, also secured. There’s no sign of Caden or Bass. I engage my suit. Can you access their location?

T he network is rebooting from the manual override. It must complete all the security algorithms.

How much longer?

Fifteen minutes.

There’s going to be a bloodbath in five.

I force my feet forward and paste a blank look on my face. Inka trails a half step behind me, and I notice that Rila remains behind in the shadows.

“Where is Rila?” Cale asks lightly. “I’m sure Danton will want to know whether his replacement spawn has survived.”

“Where is he?”

Cale snorts. “He outlived his usefulness. He’s over there with the rest of the undesirables.” Only then do I see my father’s lanky form, bound and gagged on the floor.

“You really have no concept of loyalty, do you?”

“To Danton?” Cale sneers. “The man who tried to play us all? He didn’t have the stomach to see things through. He was intent on saving you, you see. First, he thought he could send you to Avaria where you’ d be safe from me.” Cale shudders, glancing at Aenoh. “Not sure that was his best idea. Then, desperate for his own daughter’s love, he built Rila as a stand-in. He tried to use her to destroy the lab and all his research, but you see, we have our secrets, too.” Cale laughs, making the hairs rise on my skin. “No, darling, my loyalty lies elsewhere.”

“To the Reptiles?” I scoff. “Please.”

“No, Riven. Not to the Reptiles.”

His cryptic smile makes me want to smash his face in with the flat end of my blade. “I’m done playing your games, Cale. This time, you have nowhere to run. You are no match for me, and you know it. Release my friends, and leave Neospes.”

“Or what?” He laughs. “We have everything we want. A nano-tech serum, an immunity vaccine, and an army. No one can stop us.”

“Us? What are you talking about? You and your Reptile army? The Faction will never allow it. Remember what happened last time?”

“Not if the Faction is no more,” he says smugly.

“You’re deluding yourself, Cale.”

“Am I?”

Have you located Bass and Caden yet? I ask the suit, knowing that the cat and mouse game with Cale will wear thin soon.

T he system will be live in two minutes.

Every possible scenario races through my mind in quick succession. Had they gotten separated from Sauer? Had they seen what happened and decided to hide until we got here? What if they’ d been attacked and overcome by Reptiles? What if…

I take a deep breath. I need to keep Cale talking, at least until I can locate them. Then I can figure out a counter move. Right now, our odds of success aren’t great. “So, what? You’re telling me you killed the entire Faction?”

“All but one, and she’s going to destroy herself.”

Now he has my attention. Era Taylor couldn’t withstand an attack, not in her physical state. “What have you done?”

“Replaced an old, uncooperative regime with another.”

My suit flickers against my body. We are back online. T he Lord King is in the hangar with you. Behind the ship.

I stare past Cale, trying to see beyond the Reptiles to find Caden. A patch of red hair catches my eye, and I huff a victorious breath as I spot both Bass and Caden. They’re hidden behind the landing gear. I signal to Bass, and he winks, pointing at the cannon on the top of the ship, then pressing a finger to his lips. If he can get up there, we could have a chance at turning the odds around.

“Be ready,” he mouths, gesticulating at the engines as he swings himself up and over the landing gear like a cat. No one seems to be wise to his presence, which gives us a slight advantage. I need to buy us more time.

Tell me when the ship’s weapons are online.

“Why don’t you tell me what you did to Era?”

Cale grins. “Remember when she got taken by Vectors?”

“That was you?”

He nods, smirking smugly. “Suffice it to say that we sent her home with a little present—an imbedded bug. We’ve been privy to all Faction discussions and the whereabouts of all members. It was easy to pick them off. We’ve left the best for last.”

“You’re bluffing,” I say horrified. “Cristobal is still alive.”

“Is he?” Cale tilts his head in a birdlike motion.

Cristobal had been alive hours before we’ d left, and no one knew the coordinates to Avaria but the Avarians. We’ve had a spy in our midst all along.

I open my mouth to confront Aenoh, but Inka beats me to the punch. “It was you,” she hisses at her father. “You snake. You betrayed us all. No wonder you wanted to kill Danton.” Aenoh shakes his head wildly as his daughter notches her bow and points it directly at him. Her body is shaking with rage. “You are a disgrace to Avaria.”

Weapons are online. The message couldn’t have come at a more welcome time, but first I need to talk Inka off the ledge. Killing Aenoh is not the answer.

“Inka, don’t,” I say gently.

“He deserves to die.”

“You don’t want his blood on your hands. Trust me, I know about guilt. It’ll eat you alive.”

A loud, drawn-out groan draws everyone’s attention. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, get it over with already,” Bass shouts from his position behind the cannon. “Just shoot him.”

Well, okay, we’re going to play it like that. Honestly, Bass is like a bull in a china shop. He must have felt the plasma cannon come online, and he has always been one for flair. I shake my head at him, biting back a laugh. Holding my gaze, he reaches to his side, pulls out a gun and shoots Aenoh in the head. Inka screams and falls to her knees.

“See?” he says. My eyes snap back to his in shock. “It’s easy to kill a traitor. That was for you, Riven. We both know about his foul plans for you. Seriously, it made me want to barf.”

“Bass, what are you doing?”

“Having fun?” he says, gesturing theatrically with his sidearm.

“Are you on something?”

He studies me, stroking the nose of the cannon. “The only thing I am drunk on is power. Lots and lots of power.” A fake-regretful smile settles on his lips as he turns his attention to Inka, who is kneeling and keening beside Aenoh’s body. “Sorry about your dad. He was a piece of work, and I’ve wanted to kill him for weeks. Only… I hate to break it to you, he isn’t the one you’re looking for.” Bass rises to stand along the cannon’s nose as if he’s walking a tightrope. He vaults off, dropping into a quirky bow on the ship’s top deck. “That would be me.”

“You?” Inka whispers, confusion and doubt flitting across her face.

Understanding hits me like a punch to the gut. The spy isn’t Aenoh… it’s Bass. The suit flutters against me as the pieces come together in dizzying, unbelievable succession. Bass is the snake in our midst. He’s been playing everyone—my father, my mother—and most of all, me.

I shake my head. “You? But why?”

“Why not?”

“You told me you wanted revenge on my father for your family. Was that a lie?”

He shrugs. “I took liberties with the truth. It wasn’t an accident. I killed them because they were holding me back. They said I was one screw short of a set. They never got me. Danton took me in, trained me, taught me. Opened up a world of amazing possibilities. I was a particularly driven learner.” Bass shoots a disparaging glance at my father’s bound form. “But no matter how much I learned and how much I did, I could never measure up to you.”

“Wait, why is this about me?”

“It’s always about you, Riven. You are the only one of your kind, and no matter how much we wish to create others, what Danton achieved was an exceptional anomaly.” He takes a breath. “I convinced him to take your DNA, to try to replicate his best mistake. I was the one who made the initial nano-tech serum work. But then he got soft. He didn’t want to go through clinical trials. We were at the end, success was so near I could taste it, and he wanted to quit. I had no choice but to give him an incentive.”

“I don’t understand. Why would you want to be anything like me?”

Bass laughs. It’s an empty, humorless sound. “I was born with a severe learning disability. My father looked down on me, called me names, never tired of telling me how ashamed of me he was. I couldn’t learn in the training sessions like the other children, so I figured out how to teach myself. And how to defend myself against those who didn’t… understand me.” His laugh takes on a wild, desperate edge. “Despite my limitations, I developed an aptitude for genetics and robotics. I watched and I learned, and then I cloned a new brain to fix the holes in mine. My first try was adequate, but I wanted to build a super-brain, and I did. When I first met you, I knew you were the future. Perfect, strong, invincible—the key to creating a super species free of flaws. Full of strength.” He scowls at me, his nostrils flaring. “You never could see how special you are.”

Something clicks in my head and I almost can’t believe it. I remember my father’s reaction in the lab when Cale mentioned Sebba, the horrified look on his face.

I engage the suit, shaking. Is Sebba physically in this room? The one who made you? I ask the suit.

Yes.

It feels like the floor has disappeared beneath me, even though I think a part of me already knew.

“You’re Sebba,” I say slowly. “You built the super-brain in Sector One.”

“Can’t get anything past you, can I,” he says. “My name is Sebastian—Sebba when I was a child, Bass as an adult. Reinventing yourself can be so liberating. You should try it. And Sebba is a two-part process—Cale’s body, my brain.”

A distant memory of Era Taylor calling Bass Sebastian flits through my mind. Caden had, too, after the scuffle in the Outers. How had I missed it? I frown, staring down, as something else registers. “You built this suit.”

“No,” he says with a wry smile. “That was all Daddy Dearest. I let him. It was kind of sweet seeing him trying to make up for everything he’s done to you, trying so desperately to atone for the past. Not up for the Father of the Year award, is he?”

I shake my head, my eyes flicking to Danton’s motionless form. “Bass, you’re wrong about me. I’m the furthest thing from perfect.”

“You don’t appreciate your gifts. You never have. I watched you, leading the Vectors at fourteen. You were a natural. I saw you in the Outers and beyond… the way you fought, the way you flew this ship. You are flawless. The suit was one of Danton’s best creations, only I made a few adjustments. Couldn’t let him have all the fun, could I?” He waves theatrically. “Imagine a suit modeled on the Vectors, designed to work only with your own DNA, enhancing all of your strengths and allowing you to communicate, to focus. It made you better. Stronger. More you. Less like them.”

Now I understand my lack of emotion over the last few days. The suit doesn’t just enhance my robotic abilities—it suppresses my basic human ones. “Neither of us is better than they are, Bass. Humans deserve to live, too. To live and love as they wish.”

“And what about the reverse? To hate and ridicule as they wish?”

“We can’t choose our parents. We can only choose who we want to be, and I know deep down, this isn’t you.”

Bass walks over, sliding his fingers down my face. My fingers twitch on the hilts of my blades, and I fight the desire to use them. “You don’t know me at all,” he murmurs.

“Don’t I? It was all an act then? Everything on the ship? Our friendship?”

He stares at me, a smile playing on his lips, saying words he’s said before. “I’m good at what I do, Riven.” Of course he is—he’s an assassin with a brilliant, engineered mind. My gaze flicks to Cale and I remember what he’ d said about the Faction.

“Did you kill Cristobal?”

“Cristobal met an unfortunate end over that lovely precipice in the jungle. You remember the one, don’t you?”

“I trusted you. We all trusted you.”

“As you said—I am a master of deception.” He gestures at his injured side. “All it takes for you to believe are a few well-chosen words and a few well-placed wounds.”

“You stabbed yourself in the lab?” I deduce slowly, and Bass nods. I remember how in awe I’ d been when I’ d complimented him on his ability to blend in. He’s right—I hadn’t exactly made it difficult for him to fool me. “Why do you need him anyway?” I jerk my head toward Cale. “I don’t see the connection.”

Bass spreads his palms wide. “Cale, like me, tries to make something out of his very unfortunate circumstances. I respect that. He is a means to an end. He had an army at his disposal, and I needed one to breach Neospes.”

“And the Avarians?” I glance at Inka, who hasn’t moved from the floor. I’m not sure what she’s doing—meditating or mourning—but I’m going to need her help if we’re going to get out of this situation that’s worsening by the second.

“Danton had something Aenoh wanted. When Aenoh told the Faction that he’ d offer his aid in return for Danton, it was a no-brainer. And then, of course, your father jumped at the chance to trade his life for yours. I planted the idea of an alliance to strengthen the deal. The rest took on an eerie life of its own. And here we all are.”

“What about Caden?”

“What about him?”

“You plan to kill him, too?”

With a flick of his finger, one of the Reptiles walks forward, holding a lethargic Caden by the scruff of the neck. “No, I made a different deal with Cale for him. You know the drill… everyone has to pay the piper. And the Reptile piper wants his due.” Cale’s face ripples with pleasure as Caden is thrust toward him. I have no doubt what he’s going to do to Caden. The thought makes me sick.

“Bass, this is insanity. You cannot mean to create a cyborg species. It’s unnatural. I am unnatural. What my father did was wrong. I shouldn’t exist.”

“But you do exist, and I am so close to re-creating your genetic strain.”

“Is that why you needed Rila?”

“Rila was your father’s pet. He’ d always wanted to re-create the daughter he’ d lost, but never had the guts. Until I came along.” Bass leaps off the ship to land confidently on the floor of the hangar. My eyes grow wide as understanding registers scant seconds before his revelation.

“Rila was test subject number one.” Bass’s irises flare acid green. “I am test subject number two.”