Edie rolled over, exhausted and heavy-limbed, as her alarm beeped. It felt like only seconds ago that she’d climbed between the bedsheets and it was already time to get up. She was used to hearing Finn moving about in the next room, but he’d been banished to the workers’ quarters. She rolled over again and dozed.
Hours later, she awoke feeling groggier than ever from too much sleep. No one had called to ask where she was. On her way to the lift, she passed new faces in the corridor—two smartly dressed women with Crib medallions emblazoned on their suits. They nodded a synchronized greeting without breaking their conversation. Natesa’s guests must have arrived—Crib ’crats visiting Project Ardra to see how their money was being spent.
“Rough night?” Ming Yue asked when Edie entered the lab.
Edie made a noncommittal noise and pulled up the latest reports Caleb had sent her from base camp. Natesa had finally upped her clearance, and while Caleb had a tendency to downplay the situation, as if any problem was a direct reflection of his professional abilities, Edie knew it was because he was worried about the way things were going dirtside. She’d seen the error logs the children were dealing with. Things were not running smoothly.
“When is Caleb coming back to the ship, anyway?” she asked Ming Yue. She knew the conditions at base camp were uncomfortable and imagined Caleb was not enjoying himself.
“Last I heard, he was working on presentations for our visitors. The VIPs arrived on the Fortitude during the night, so Natesa’s in full-blown hospitality mode and dragging Caleb into it. He’s thousands of klicks away but still can’t avoid it.”
Edie intended to avoid Natesa, and it looked like that was going to be easy enough for a while. She didn’t trust herself not to accuse her of having Lukas killed. She had to constantly remind herself to stay quiet, keep the anger at bay, do her job. She and Finn had a rescue option now. No point making trouble.
“I bet he hates that,” she said.
Ming Yue gave twisted smile. “Actually, he’s often better at it than she is. He loves to show off, and the Crib ’crats love to be wowed.”
“I hope Natesa doesn’t want me wowing them, too.”
“Not sure. She dropped by this morning but when you weren’t here, she said it was okay to let you sleep in.”
That was a little odd. Allowing Edie to shirk off was very unlike Natesa. “Why would she say that?”
Ming Yue shrugged. “She was preoccupied with something else. Some guy was transferred under guard from the Fortitude.”
“Under guard?”
“Yeah, he was picked up en route and brought here. That’s all I know.”
Edie knew more. She’d been expecting the arrival of this criminal. She just hadn’t known until now that he’d be coming in on the VIP ship.
Achaiah.
Edie left her work without a word of explanation to Ming Yue and raced to the infirmary. She’d made it clear that she wanted to be there when Achaiah made the attempt to cut the leash—and Natesa had deliberately gone behind her back.
Expecting to find milits blocking her path, her pulse hammered with the instinct to fight her way through. Instead, she found the infirmary quiet and orderly. One milit, a young man, stood in quiet conversation with the medic assistant on duty at the front desk. In the room beyond, Edie saw the vague outlines of two figures through the frosted screen.
She was about to charge through when the screen drew back. One of the figures was Finn. His expression sullen, he grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair and stalked across the room. When he saw Edie, he gave a slight jerk of his head to signal her to follow.
As soon as they were outside the room and a few paces down an empty side corridor, he thumped his fist against the bulkhead in an explosion of anger. Startled, Edie stood back. She’d never seen him so agitated. He leaned against the bulkhead, forehead pressed into his forearm, taking deep breaths. She waited it out.
“They knocked me out,” he said at last. “Did something to my chip, I’m sure of it.” He looked at her, realized she didn’t know what he was talking about, and started again. “They called me up here for a physical—said it was a prerequisite for the job. They went through all the usual stuff, and then next thing I know there’s a spike in my neck. I saw that infojack in the room, I swear…When I came to just now, the medic told me it was for a routine check of my chip. Since when does that require me to be unconscious?”
“Achaiah was there to cut the leash—”
“If it was cut, the interference would be gone, and it’s not.”
“So maybe he tried and failed. At least you’re still alive.” She was furious, though, that Natesa hadn’t let her be present. That’s what they’d agreed to. “Let me take a look, see if I can figure out if he messed with it in some other way.”
He acquiesced, turning toward her. She touched her fingertips to his temple and programmed a quick seeker to search his chip for signs of tampering.
“Dammit,” he hissed. “We’re so close—another couple of days and we’re free. Except that they could’ve reset the boundary for all I know. I leave and I die.” His body was tense with frustration and…Fear? It felt like fear to Edie, though she’d never seen him come even close to showing that emotion before, and it terrified her now.
Questions ran through her head—nothing she needed to voice, because she knew he was asking himself the same questions. Achaiah was nothing if not unpredictable. Evil one moment, inexplicably generous the next. What might he have done while jacked into Finn’s chip? Something Natesa had ordered him to do? Something on his own whim?
Or had he done exactly what he’d been brought to do—attempt to cut the leash, nothing more?
She knew Natesa would smoothly deny anything else was going on. And she’d never get to Achaiah, who was probably already in the brig awaiting transportation back to prison.
“Okay, listen,” Edie said, forcing calm into her voice. “I’m not finding any new programming in here.” Achaiah’s after-taste was thicker through some tiers than others, leaving a trail of his linkup. “He examined the leash pretty thoroughly.”
“Why? He created the fucking thing.”
“Maybe to refresh his memory before trying to cut it. Maybe to check if I’ve tampered with it.” She withdrew her hand, satisfied with the examination. “As far as I can tell, he didn’t try to cut it. I guess he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t know how.”
“Then why the hell is he even here?” The venom in his voice made her wince, even though she knew it wasn’t directed at her.
“He probably convinced Natesa there was a chance, just so he could enjoy an excursion out of his cell for a few days.”
“Earlier you tried to convince me Natesa wants me dead. Why didn’t she just ask Achaiah to trigger the bomb by accident?”
“Because she knows I’d never forgive that. She’ll be more subtle, so I can never really be sure. So I can never blame her.”
Finn spanned his forehead with one hand, massaging his temples as though doing so might erase the lethal chip from his skull. “I want this fucking bomb defused. I’m tired of being owned.”
He pushed away from the wall and headed for the lift. Edie had to jog a few paces to catch up to him. As the car descended to the lower decks, she kept quiet, unable to gauge his mood until he looked directly at her and she saw a calm determination had returned to his eyes.
“Sorry, Edie,” he said quietly. “Didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
“It’s okay. Didn’t think you had.”
She would have said more, something about understanding how it felt to be owned and trapped and afraid. But he pulled her against him then, in a tight embrace, burying his face in her shoulder. His chest moved against hers as he breathed, deep and slow.
“I’ll ask Corinth to try and cut the leash,” he said.
Considering Lukas’s death and now this, it was time to make a definitive effort of their own.
Edie was summoned to the admin deck that afternoon. She found Natesa in the conference room of the admin suite, which had been transformed into a reception area. Gone was the long heavy table. The walls had been opened up to adjoining rooms to create a large open space. Around the outer bulkheads were large holo displays, each projecting a different aspect of Project Ardra and the terraforming efforts on the planet below. The entire effect was, presumably, to convince the visiting Crib ’crats that all was well on Prisca, and that Crib citizens were safe in Natesa’s hands.
Natesa was deep in conversation with her assistant Darian as they went over schedules. Edie hovered near the door until Natesa finally noticed her.
“Ah, Edie. I’d like you to prepare a short presentation on Prisca’s progress for our guests during the reception and banquet tomorrow night.”
Edie hadn’t expected that. “You want me to explain how things are going horribly wrong?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Chessell’s latest data from the surface is quite reassuring. He tells me the new adjustments he implemented are going according to plan.”
“He planned for large areas of biomass degradation? Because I’m betting that’s what’s going to happen. Already is happening in some localized regions—”
“Degradation is a very strong word. My understanding is that we have contained regions of instability, which is only to be expected as the planet’s complex ecosystem adapts to the accelerated retroviral interference.”
“There’s no such thing as a contained region when it comes to BRAT seeds. They talk to each other constantly. And if that instability, as you call it, can’t be reversed, we’re going to end up with complete ecosystem collapse.”
“Nonsense. We’re talking about a few small problem areas.”
“We’re talking about a domino effect once the collapse begins.”
Natesa pursed her lips and shooed Darian away. “Your negativity is the last thing I need at this function,” she hissed. “I need a nice upbeat report on our new regulator technology. Nothing too technical. These guests are VIPs from Central. They support Project Ardra, and we need that support to continue. They need to see the project working, and working well. They’ll tour the dirtside facility, where Chessell is ready to show them our amazing results so far. I can’t have you contradicting the expert opinion of my team down on the surface.”
“Then you want me to lie?”
“I want you to emphasize the enormous progress we’ve made in terraforming technology with the implementation of the regulator code. I want you to explain the children’s role in handling the error logs, and how their unique team-work enables us to monitor and adjust the terraforming process in a way that’s never been done before. I want you to present a united front as we demonstrate these successes we’ve worked so hard for.”
Edie chewed her lip as she glanced around the room, surrounded by the ridiculous hype of Ardra that whitewashed all problems. If she were a ’crat from Central, eager to hear good news, she might be convinced by the flashy, reassuring holos. But she’d seen data they never would. There was a chance she was wrong about the degradation already taking place, but she didn’t think so. She and the children had spent hours on Caleb’s error logs. They couldn’t work through the logs fast enough—and their solutions only patched up a disaster waiting to happen.
Still, this wasn’t her problem. She could toe the line for Natesa. She had to, because she was only biding time.
“Okay,” she relented, “I’ll do what you want. My warnings about impending degradation still stand, though. I don’t think Caleb is being cautious enough.”
“Please don’t think I’m discounting your opinion,” Natesa said. “First and foremost, we must allay any doubts our visitors may have. However…” A glimmer of that nervousness that Edie had noticed at their last meeting was back. “I appreciate your concerns about our chief cypherteck. Ming Yue Huang has raised the same concerns—she feels his ego may be affecting his scientific impartiality. Now that he’s dirtside, I want you to double-check a few things in the lab.”
“I don’t have the clearance to look at his files.”
“I will authorize it.”
“What exactly should I look for?”
“There’s a possibility that he’s being…overly optimistic in his reports.”
“You mean less than honest?”
“No, that is not what I mean.” Natesa regarded her through slitted eyes. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have Aila give the presentation. She’s not quite so good with the technical details, but she knows enough to satisfy our audience.”
Edie shrugged. “Fine. So do I still have to attend this function?”
“Of course. Everyone knows the famous Edie Sha’nim has returned to my team. You’ll put in an appearance. And wear something nice.”
You must be kidding. Edie bit back the words. Instead, she approached another touchy subject.
“Finn told me about Achaiah attempting to cut the leash. Why wasn’t I told about it?” She masked her anger behind a forced offhand tone.
Natesa gave a tight smile of apology. “I didn’t want you involved. If something went wrong, you’d only blame yourself.” How considerate. Natesa seemed oblivious to the fact that Edie would like to have been given the choice. “In any case, it’s a great pity Achaiah failed,” Natesa went on. “What I wouldn’t give to remove that man from this ship and from your life for good.”
The words were benign at face value, but they sent a chill through Edie. Again she found herself holding back a response.
Natesa started to move away, ending the conversation. Then she suddenly turned back. “Oh, you’ll be happy to know that Pris woke up last night. So far, she seems to be recovering well.”
Then she did walk off, beckoning to Darian, who rushed over obsequiously, and Edie was left standing there to absorb the news.