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  “Looks like the Cordovan’s found us,” Saskia said, heading to the cabinet for more weapons. She tossed pulse rifles to Hawk and Corin, but Chase refused, veering toward the crew quarters instead.

  “Where are you going?” Saskia hollered.

  “I’m going to hide and pretend I’m not here,” Chase retorted, holding up his formerly injured hand as the reason.

  “You can hide in my quarters with Hero,” Tray said, passing him at the hatch. Tray accepted a pulse rifle from Saskia, but he concealed it under his suit jacket in a holster, preparing to play diplomat. “How many?”

  “We only see one, but our intel suggests their expeditions have at least three, and you’ve witnessed their people-cloaking skills firsthand,” Saskia said, leading the way down the stairs. When they entered the bay, Hawk heard frantic knocking and shouting coming from outside. But then the knocking stopped. Saskia pointed to two bulkheads, indicating that Hawk and Tray should take defensive positions. Tray didn’t seem to notice. He just strode past her and opened the door.

  “Tommy?” Hawk exclaimed in disbelief.

  Tommy sat cross-legged on the ground, holding an animal in his lap. He rocked back and forth, sobbing, his voice carrying above the wind and rain.

  “Get a blanket,” Hawk ordered, setting his weapon aside and running to Tommy. Winded, he fell to his knees and crawled the rest of the way. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  “George is sick,” Tommy said, rocking the animal in his arms. George’s fur was matted with mud and vomit on the side facing Tommy, and his backside was soaked by the rain. Hawk was still amazed to see such a beautiful animal.

  “Come inside,” Hawk said, putting an arm around Tommy’s waist. “What are you doing here?”

  “I ran away,” Tommy said, his chin quivering as he choked back fresh tears. He stopped short of the door, resisting when Hawk tried to guide him inside. “We don’t have to stay long.”

  “I can’t leave you and George in the cold or you’ll both be sick. Come inside,” Hawk insisted, keeping his arm firmly around Tommy.

  Tray stood at the door, towels and blankets ready. He’d stocked them there so that Chase wouldn’t track mud through the ship when he came back from his daily walks.

  “I take it this is the other brother,” Tray said, holding a towel open. “What have you brought us?”

  “This is George,” Tommy said. “Can you help him?”

  “I don’t really know how to treat animals,” Tray said.

  “He’s not an animal!” Tommy shouted. “He’s a test subject. Same as me. Same—I’m an animal.”

  Tommy wilted and quivered. Taking advantage of the moment of weakness, Hawk dragged him out of the rain. They were already inside before Tommy fought back, but Tray closed the door and Tommy gave up the fight. Hawk took one of the towels and wrapped it around George to sop up the water on his fur. He put a second around Tommy.

  “What is he?” Hawk asked, tentatively touching George’s shoulder.

  “Looks like a monkey,” Tray said. “Forest animals. Is he local?”

  “It’s an ape. Monkeys have tails,” Corin spoke up, keeping his distance. He still had a weapon in hand. “My people have forbidden medical testing on apes for centuries. Of course, we don’t drop humans into the test subject category, either.”

  “I humanize them all. I can’t be trusted. I can’t work in that lab,” Tommy said. He rubbed his cheek on George’s head again. “They’re going to cut him to pieces.”

  “No one’s going to cut anyone to pieces here,” Tray said. “How did you find us?”

  “Amanda gave me this,” Tommy said, handing Tray a Virp. “I read all her books, and then I found the map.”

  “You walked fifteen miles?” Hawk asked.

  “I think the word you’re looking for is borrow,” Tray said. “She probably wanted it back.”

  Tommy sighed. “After tomorrow, she won’t remember she ever had it. If I’m wrong, she can have it back.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Saskia demanded.

  “Nothing,” Tommy mumbled, hunching over and burying his chin on George’s shoulder. “You can’t trust me. You can’t trust anything I see. Michael changes it all.”

  The shower area of the passenger dorm was even more cramped than the shower in the crew hall, and Hawk felt bad for invading what little personal space Corin had on the ship. The dorm had become an overflow infirmary when Corin was too injured to navigate the stairs but it had morphed into his quarters at some point in the week.

  The shower could not accommodate two grown men and a frightened monkey. Ape. The pressure of the lukewarm shower made George screech, so they’d resorted to rags and a slowly cooling bucket of water. Hawk tried to be patient, but he was starting to feel claustrophobic, and he’d been peed on twice already.

  Tommy sat on the floor of the shower, blocking the drain with his foot. They’d washed and shampooed George, rinsed him, combed him, and Hawk was swaddling him with a makeshift diaper.

  “I’m so sorry,” Tommy murmured over and over. “We won’t stay long.”

  “Accidents happen. At least we’re in the shower,” Hawk said. He wanted to brush the tears from Tommy’s eyes, but he had wet fur stuck to his skin. “I’m just glad he’s not flailing and kicking.”

  “He doesn’t fight. He knows not to fight.”

  “Well, once the diaper’s on, we can leave the shower and sit in the lounge,” Hawk offered. He used a towel to brush the hair off Tommy’s face. “You’ll be all right, Tommy.”

  Tommy’s jaw quivered. His face was flush, and his long hair tangled with mud, twigs, and ape hair.

  “You need to clean off, too,” Hawk said. He looked at the bucket, thinking he should get some fresh water, but he didn’t want to leave Tommy alone. Maybe he shouldn’t have requested privacy. “Can I hold him for you?”

  “George.”

  “Can I hold George?” Hawk asked, opening his arms. Reluctantly, Tommy handed over his beloved friend. Despite the shampoo, George smelled gritty. It was still incredible to see and hold an animal that looked so much like a human.

  “He’s heavier than I thought,” Hawk said, setting George in his lap. George probably weighed thirty or forty pounds. He wrapped his arms and legs around Hawk and took Hawk’s finger, touching it with his lips.

  “Hello,” Hawk said, smiling. “Hello, George. Welcome to Oriana.”

  Tommy slumped against the back wall of the shower. Then he removed his shoes and socks, revealing blistered feet.

  “That looks like it hurts,” Hawk commented. He knew the fifteen-mile walk had taken a toll on Tommy’s body but had yet to get Tommy to accept more than a drink of water.

  “I just need a salve,” Tommy said, picking up one of the damp towels and wrapping his foot.

  “We don’t have that kind of medicine here. Sorry,” Hawk said.

  “It has nothing to do with being a patient,” Hawk added. “I swear, we just don’t have that kind of medicine. That’s why we came to Cordova for help.”

  “Just don’t lick my feet,” Tommy said, referring back to the offhand comment Hawk had made the other day.

  “I’ll let Libby do that,” Hawk laughed. Tommy’s face fell, and Hawk kicked himself for the comment. “Sorry. I know you said she’s just a friend.”

  “She’s not a friend,” Tommy said. “I thought she was, but it wasn’t real. It’s like you said. Michael puts thoughts in my head. He doesn’t just make me do things; he makes me believe things that aren’t true.”

  Hawk worked his jaw, at a loss for words. It didn’t seem so crazy anymore that Tommy had run fifteen miles through the pouring rain to get here. “I’m sorry he did that to you.”

  “I hope he can’t reach me out here,” Tommy said, looking around the shower, like he expected a ghost to jump out.

  “You’re not the only one worried about that,” Hawk said. “Corin, are you still here?”

  “Yeah, bébé. What do yo
u need?” Corin asked. He’d hung a curtain around his bed, leaving the rest of the space open for Tommy and George.

  “Clean water. Blister ointment. Saskia or Tray will know if we have something,” Hawk said. Corin gave a curt nod, his hand lingering on the top of Hawk’s head for a moment before he left.

  “Have you licked him all over?” Tommy asked, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

  Hawk blushed. Of all the brutally honest conversations he’d had with Tommy, he still wanted his personal life to be private when it came to Corin. “Not every part. But we’re getting there,” Hawk confessed. “Why don’t I take George out there, and you can finish showering. I’ll get you some dry clothes.”

  Tommy shivered and shook his head. “Don’t take him away.”

  “We’ll be right outside the door.”

  “I don’t want him to go!” Tommy said, jumping out of the shower, snatching George from Hawk. Despite the beds and chairs that had been folded down, Tommy sat cross-legged on the floor. George wheezed and heaved, and the towel caught a stream of clear vomit. Tommy used the corner of the towel to wipe George’s mouth.

  “He’s more like me than any human I’ve known. I don’t care if it’s real or something Michael made up. I wish there was something I could do for him,” Tommy said. “I wish he could live longer.”

  Hawk’s heart broke and he brushed Tommy’s hair away from his face, biting his tongue to keep from spilling worthless platitudes.

  “When they dissect him, will you stay with me?” Tommy asked.

  “Dissect?” Hawk asked, shaking his head in horror. It was bad enough learning that people killed animals for food or medical experiments, but to desecrate the dead for curiosity? “You’re taking him back to Cordova?”

  “No. I— that’s what you do with a dead test subject. You dissect and learn,” Tommy said.

  “Well, George is free now,” Hawk said, petting George’s face, already feeling the eerie chill of George’s skin, wondering if he was imagining the slow puffs of breath. “And he’s not dead yet.”

  28

  Morrigan’s accusation left Sky feeling conflicted. The revelations of Dr. Schon’s abuse and Jack’s claimed ignorance further confused the issue. Sky had such positive memories of this place. The door to Jack’s apartment hung open, and Sky braced herself for an unpleasant welcome, but she didn’t hear anyone talking inside. Seeing an overturned chair, she reached for her grav-gun. Staying close to the wall, she peeked in then ducked out of sight again.

  “Jack,” she whispered. Jack lay crumpled on the floor, her body bent around the leg of the table, the corner of the overturned chair near her bleeding cheek. The curtains were ripped from the window, and the there was a hole punched in the wall. The door to Michael’s bedroom was broken and hanging off one hinge. Lula’s story about Michael’s dangerous birth mother came flooding back, but there was no sign of Michael.

  Holstering her weapon, Sky knelt to check on Jack. There was blood in Jack’s hair, and a growing knot around the wound. Either Jack had been hit with the chair, or she’d been thrown over the table and landed headfirst. She stirred when Sky touched her cheek.

  “Easy, Jack,” Sky whispered. “Stay still. I’m going to call for help.”

  “Don’t,” Jack whispered, turning up her palm, showing a glowing medical alert on the embedded device. “I told them not to come.”

  “I think that might have been a bad decision,” Sky said, grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom to close the gash. She slathered salve over the wound, but couldn’t apply pressure without causing Jack pain. “What happened?”

  “Michael.”

  “He hurt you?” Sky asked, her worry growing.

  “No,” Jack said, gripping Sky’s elbow and trying to sit. After a few false starts, she decided to stay on the ground. Sky used a wet rag to blot the blood from her hair. It was the only external bleeding.

  “He wanted Morrigan,” Jack said, her eyelids drooping. “I told him what you said—that she’s sick and needs a few days to recover. So, he started calling for Tommy. He started screaming. I’ve never heard him scream.”

  “He broke his door,” Sky said. “Has he ever done anything like that before?”

  Jack paused mid shake of her head, neck tensing as a ripple of pain went through her. “No. Tommy has.”

  “Wait, did Tommy do all this?” Sky asked, her eyes widening.

  “No. He never came,” Jack said. “He always comes, but today he wouldn’t. He didn’t. Michael ran out to find him. I tried to follow, but I’m not allowed to leave. I ran and the shield knocked me back from the door. Knocked me off my feet.”

  “And no one thought to put one of these confinement things on Michael?”

  “He has one. He walked through like it wasn’t even there.” Jack’s legs twitched and she tried to sit again. “I tried calling Tommy, but he won’t answer. The network says he’s nowhere.”

  “We’ll find them,” Sky promised. “Can Michael be tracked? Did any alert go off when he got out?”

  Jack grabbed Sky’s wrist, her glassy eyes wide. “If you tell anyone he’s missing, they’ll kill him on sight. This was his last chance.”

  “Jack, his power isn’t working. He can’t summon Tommy, and he’s starting to destroy things,” Sky said matter-of-factly. “It’s only a matter of time before he turns that power on a person.”

  “You’re wrong about him,” Jack said. “He’s not hybrid. He has no power.”

  “Calla used some kind of mind-control on Danny,” Sky said. “We know there are powers in the dome. The sooner you admit it, the sooner we can help Michael.”

  “You’re wrong,” Jack whispered again, her grip on Sky going slack.

  “Okay. Lie here and deny it. I’m going to call Avery for you.”

  “You can’t,” Jack whimpered.

  “Jack, you’re hurt. You’ve been lying on the floor for who knows how long while Michael is running around the city alone. Does he even know his way around?” Sky didn’t wait for an answer. Going to Jack’s bedroom, she grabbed a blanket and pillow, and tried to get Jack comfortable on the floor. She called Avery and begged for discretion, but she knew it wouldn’t last. The Prime Minister would find out that Michael had escaped his confinement and his caretakers could not control him. Sky gave Jack a kiss on the lips, and Jack’s body relaxed with the unspoken promise. There was no time to wait for Avery.

  “Danny, we have a problem,” Sky said, hurrying down the stairs. She updated Danny on the situation, and Danny said he’d call if Michael showed up there. Morrigan was still unconscious, and he hoped that made her safe.

  With no way to track Michael, Sky headed for the city’s capitol building to find Calla. They needed to talk to their people on Oriana. The capitol building included thirteen stories of administrative offices and meeting rooms. The first floor involved a mild security pass-through and a sign-in. The guard recognized Sky and handed her a face mask. Everyone on the level wore masks. The Prime Minister’s office was on three, and a spiral ramp in the middle of the building made the level accessible for wheelchairs like the one Lula had made. They also had elevators, but in the event of an emergency, they wanted all the elder cabinet members to have an escape.

  “Where’s Calla?” Sky asked the assistant on duty. Her skin was dark, and her hair white and coiled. A nameplate at her desk identified her as First Aid to the Cabinet Linda Meyers.

  “The Deputy Prime Minister called in sick. There’s a new virus going around,” Meyers said, giving Sky the barest of glances while her fingers clacked away on a keyboard.

  “Do you have a picture of the virus?”

  Meyers paused her work long enough to raise an eyebrow.

  “Hey, either it’s new to both our people, or it’s something my people brought in. We can compare it to Oriana’s medical database and, if we’re lucky, we can offer a treatment,” Sky said.

  “I will put you in contact with Dr. Clarke,” Meyers said, reaching s
ideways for a small tablet, and stacking it on a collection of tablets in front of her.

  “And you will let us contact our ship?”

  “We have informed them of the quarantine,” Meyers replied mechanically.

  “And how did they react?”

  The woman paused again, giving Sky a questioning glance.

  “They need to hear from us or they will assume the worst and break through the gate,” Sky said.

  “That seems a little excessive.”

  “We’re travelers. We’re far from home,” Sky said, her patience waning. “When you send an expedition out, the team is expected to maintain contact. If one of them were taken in by a native tribe and that tribe didn’t allow communication…”

  “I will speak to the Prime Minister,” Meyers allowed, taking another small tablet and moving it across the desk onto her stack. It must have been some kind of to-do list, and it was tall. Sky pulled up a chair and sat across the desk.

  Meyers’ hands lifted off her keyboard and she focused on Sky in exasperation. “Was there something else?”

  “The matter is urgent. I will stay until it’s resolved.”

  A vein on Meyers’ forehead throbbed and her cheeks puffed in annoyance. She grabbed the tablet from the top of the stack and went down the hall to the executive offices. Five minutes later, she came out again, opened a cabinet, and traded her small tablet for a larger tablet. Sitting at the desk, she made a fist, and her palm glowed. Her head cocked as she made a sub-vocal call, and then she entered a code on the large tablet and handed it to Sky.

  “This will activate in fifty minutes and allow you to contact your vessel. If you have issues, contact Garcia at Oseshen Tower 37878.”

  Sky thanked the woman and left with the tablet, heading straight for the Eastwind. Danny kissed her the moment she arrived, and they filled their fifty long minutes with frantic love making and fearful cuddling. Morrigan woke, and she sat by the window wrapped in her blanket, crying and thumping her head against the glass.