Behind us, I heard horrific screams I wasn’t sure I’d ever live to forget. I clung to Brody’s hand and let him pull me after him. We ran headlong down badly lit concrete hallways that forked in multiple directions. The lower gravity on Phobos made it difficult to control where I ran, with my steps launching me in directions I didn’t want to go. Brody was constantly yanking me after him, and pulling me back into place. To me, it felt like he chose pathways at random, darting down each with little warning. I jump-ran until my body ached as much as my bruised cheek. Eventually I stumbled and fell, tripped by the stupid canvas slip-ons.
Brody caught me before I could face-plant on the concrete. He pulled me up and against him, holding me hard to his chest.
“This place is a shifting maze,” he explained as he stroked my back. “In the event of a prison break, the AI queenmind shifts the pieces to control prisoner movements. There’s no such thing as a perfect jailing system so breakouts do happen, no matter what One Gov tells you.”
“Then how do we get out?” I panted into his chest.
“Vieira gave me the access override codes to hack the queenmind and the floor plan to the maze. I’ve essentially shut down the whole prison and we have ten minutes before the queenmind automatically reboots it. In that time, we need to get to the launch area where the prisoner transfer jet is docked. Then I fly us out of here. Easy.”
“And if it takes more than ten minutes?”
“Then we’re crushed when the maze shifts and repositions itself.”
“Why not just create a system to put everyone back in their cells instead of killing them?”
“Because if you can escape Phobos, you don’t get a second chance to redeem yourself. Death is the only option,” he said, pushing me back onto my feet. “Can you run? I estimate we’ve just lost a minute on this informative chat.”
I nodded grimly. “Can you really fly a jet?”
He grinned, apparently high on adrenaline. “Babe, I can fly anything.”
We resumed running down more hallways, Brody leading us unerringly. At last, the screams behind us faded, either because we were too far away or Alexei had finished whatever he was doing. But then I could hear other sounds: the grinding of cement sliding against cement. In the distance at first, then much closer. Brody swept me up over his shoulder since I wasn’t fast enough and kept bouncing everywhere in the awful low gravity. He put on a burst of speed that made me gasp and cling to him. I heard more walls shifting, sounding like it came from behind, beside, then on top of us. The floor beneath us began to tremble, then buck like a wild animal.
Abruptly we spilled out into another cavernous space. I saw yellow, red, blue, and black lines painted on the floor from my upside-down vantage point over Brody’s shoulder. Then it felt like we were running up steps and into a darkened, confined corridor. Along the way, Brody smashed into every wall and conceivable piece of furniture in the universe, bumping me with him, both of us swearing like sailors. Eventually he dropped me then pushed me hard enough that I fell. I shrieked until my fall was abruptly halted by a cushioned chair under my butt.
“Strap yourself in. This is a one-way trip to Mars, taking us directly to the Under-Secretary’s backyard. If we’re lucky, no one will shoot us down.”
“I’m not sure my luck’s holding anymore,” I muttered, searching for my shoulder strap then securing it in its buckle. I was in the cockpit of a jet, sitting in a high-backed black leather pilot’s chair, surrounded by dials, buttons, and levers. In front of me was a pressurized window. Outside, I saw a launch bay door beginning to open. Beyond, the blackness of space and the blue-tinged Martian horizon.
“I was kind of hoping you’d be lucky enough for both of us.” He flicked some switches and I could feel the jet rumble to life around us.
“Don’t AI units do the flying?” I asked as he punched buttons.
“I want to be ready in case the weapons system outside the launch bay doors isn’t offline and they start firing.”
Great. “Just when I think I can stop worrying, up pops another disaster.”
He grinned at me. “Hold on. It might get bumpy.”
And he launched us into blackness.
I passed out from the g-forces pressing down on me. Not that Phobos had a huge escape velocity, but Brody wanted the speed to evade any automated weapons. Made sense, but it was damned uncomfortable with all that pressure squeezing me into my seat. Passing out had been a lovely blessing. I came to when I felt something being smoothed across my throbbing cheek. The pain faded to a dull ache until even that disappeared. I opened my eyes in time to see Brody plunk back in his seat.
“Web-compress and skin renewal patches,” he said, scanning my face with a critical eye. “I found some on board and figured you could use them on that hit you took.”
I touched my face self-consciously. “Thanks,” I said. I looked out through the window to see Mars looming ahead of us. “How soon until we land?”
“Two or three hours. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s giving pursuit. I’m not picking up any chatter either, so we’re clear.” He tossed a hair band at me, both of us watching it float by in the zero-g. “You might want this. Your hair’s all over the place.”
“Oh, sorry.” I took a few minutes to braid and secure my out-of-control hair. Then I tucked the braid into the back of my shirt. “Lotus keeps telling me to cut it.”
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I’ve always liked your hair,” he said, eyes on me.
I looked away, watching Mars get closer, uncomfortable and not sure what to say. I checked with my gut, surprised to find no reaction. There we were, utterly alone together, with at least two hours before we landed, and nothing. Not one twinge, pull, tug, or kick. Absolutely nothing. Apparently now that I didn’t need a knight in shining armor anymore, the pull had faded. The intense attraction was gone, tucked back into whatever box inside me it had escaped from. I was embarrassed by my own feelings and the fickleness of the luck gene.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” he asked, tone deceptively neutral.
“I can guess. Belikov took me to coerce Alexei into testing the homunculus. Then he planned to transfer himself into his new body using Alexei’s brain-transferring code. We’d all be dead and Consortium would have gone on to take over the tri-system, with everyone living in their new ‘Built on Phobos’ homunculus. Except you, Alexei, and my grandfather worked out a truce and got me back. Now we’re safe, with the tri-system none the wiser. Does that sum it up?” I asked, studying my fingernails. My lovely sea foam green manicure hadn’t survived all the excitement.
“No, I figured that stuff was obvious. I meant about what happened with us,” he said patiently. “You and me.”
No, I didn’t want to talk about it. I felt too brittle and confused. “You’re like Alexei. They engineered you with some off-the-charts MH Factor and t-mods, and hoped you’d be the next stage in human evolution. You were supposed to lead the Consortium to greatness, but that didn’t work out. Did I guess right?”
He sighed. “Close enough.”
“Can you pilot the homunculus too?”
“No. I was part of a different program, with altered physiological specs. Unlike Alexei, I’m closer to the base DNA.”
“So you’re more…human than he is?”
He shrugged. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. With me, you wouldn’t have the incompatibility issues that exist with Alexei.”
“Meaning we could have a baby?”
“Meaning we could have everything, if you wanted it.” And now I could see why my gut had reacted to Brody the way it had. As far as the luck gene was concerned, Brody was perfect. He could be everything I’d ever need.
“Why is there a difference between you?” I asked instead.
“My program was meant to infiltrate One Gov and take it down from the inside. Consortium, who didn’t seem like Consortium—that’s what I was supposed to be. I can snipe into One Gov’s queenmind like there’s no tomorrow. With a little effort, I could probably dismantle the queenmind and cripple One Gov.”
“Was that the plan for you?”
“Who knows? Konstantin scrapped the project. I do know I had no desire to run the Consortium. I didn’t really want anything, just sort of coasted half-asleep through life until I met you. Then I woke up and realized there was something in the tri-system I wanted. Belikov wanted you too, mostly so he could splice your luck gene into the Consortium breeding pool. However, there was no way I was letting that happen. Belikov may have pointed me in your direction but from the first moment I saw you, I had no intention of letting him get his hands on you.”
“And you ended up serving three years on Phobos for your trouble,” I said, finally looking at him. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t know. If I had, I would have done something.”
He chuckled softly. “I actually believe you. And you know, I’m not angry about it. Well, I am, but not like I was. When Belikov approached me, I agreed to everything he wanted just to get off Phobos. I lived a miserable, hellish existence there. I lost time, my life, and part of myself. But when I saw you again, I just wanted to be near you. Maybe it’s because I hated Belikov and his casual cruelty more. Or maybe not killing Alexei and taking over the Consortium makes me the biggest fool in the tri-system.”
“I want to be mad at you, but I can’t,” I admitted. “You may have created this façade in Nairobi, but you didn’t try to influence me or make me do anything I didn’t want to do. You didn’t try to recruit me for the Consortium or haul me into some secret scheme. You were there for me when I needed someone and made me want to start living again. That meant a lot to me. I don’t want to tarnish that by hating you now.”
He sighed. “You were never some task the Consortium assigned me. Being with you was one of the bright spots in my life.” He reached up and pushed a few buttons on the dashboard, shutting off some of the blinking lights. “Vieira’s offered me a position in One Gov. Maybe he did it out of pity, or maybe he has a use for me. I think I’ll take him up on it since I’m pretty sure there isn’t a place for me in the Consortium now.” I felt him look at me. “Vieira said you agreed to work for him as well.”
I shrugged. “The exotic Tarot card reader thing isn’t doing it for me anymore.”
“It means we’ll be working together then. Probably seeing a lot of each other. We could be what we were before, if you wanted,” he said softly. “In fact, it could start right now.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? Is it as good with Alexei as it was with us, because what we had was amazing. It was simple, uncomplicated, and perfect. You know it was, Felicia. And it would be the easiest thing in the world to have that again.”
I met his eyes because I couldn’t say what I needed to say while looking down into my lap, afraid. “Maybe that’s because we were both hiding who we really were. We didn’t let ourselves worry about the big issues. Maybe if we had, it wouldn’t have worked.”
“You don’t know that. How can you say that when we never even tried?”
I shook my head. “Maybe, but I can’t do this with you. I love him.”
“And you don’t love me,” he said flatly.
“Not the way I love him. I’m sorry.”
He swore, his knuckles white as his hand gripped the throttle, as if he might snap it off the control panel. “How many times has he broken your heart already? How many more times will he smash it before you wake up and realize you’re making a mistake?”
“Brody—”
“If that’s the life you want, maybe you deserve it. All I know is I walked away when I shouldn’t have and now I’ve lost four years with you because of that mistake. I can wait awhile longer because I know Alexei can’t help but fuck things up with you again, but I can’t wait forever.”
I could think of absolutely no response to that, and because there was nowhere else to go in the tiny jet, we both sat in the cockpit, neither looking at the other. The rest of the trip passed in uncomfortable silence laced with my own guilt over being such a fickle, silly creature, which I decided was probably better than I deserved.