Avalon

CHAPTER 27

JETH REMEMBERED THE DAY HIS PARENTS BROUGHT LIZZIE home from the hospital. It was one of his earliest memories, standing there beside the crib and looking down at this small, pink thing, hairless and squirmy. Sister, his parents had said. He hadn’t yet understand what that meant, but in time he would. In time he would grow to love her, despite the fights and rivalries, despite how she drew his parents’ attention away from him. Eventually he would accept the simple, steadfast truth—he would do anything for his sister.

Now I have two, Jeth thought, picturing Cora, the way she smiled and how easily she laughed. Of all the things he had learned in the past twenty-four hours, this was the easiest for him to accept. He wondered if he hadn’t known it on some unconscious level right from the start, like the way so many of her mannerisms reminded him of Lizzie. Two sisters.

And I’ve failed them both.

Jeth stood up, unable to sit still any longer. “How do we find them?”

Milton and Sierra exchanged a look that Jeth didn’t like.

“We’re working on it,” Sierra said.

Jeth put his hands on his hips. “What does that mean?” He regretted it at once, watching her flinch. She saved Cora, he reminded himself. She risked everything for his baby sister.

But why didn’t she tell me who Cora was back in the Belgrave? If he’d known, none of this would’ve happened. Jeth wanted to demand an explanation, but he held back. His mind was too full to handle anything else. Besides, he already had a pretty good idea why she hadn’t. My sister has a hard time trusting people, Vince had said. And he was a thief in her eyes, a criminal only interested in the biggest payoff.

Jeth dropped his gaze, regret a painful wrench in his chest.

“I’ve reached out to some of the contacts I made when I first decided to steal the Aether Project,” Sierra said. “They’re the kind of people who have their own spy networks and the like.”

“Wait.” Jeth raised his hand. “You really were planning to sell the Aether Project? Even with all the stuff about Cora on it?”

“No, I was going to delete anything relating to her or your mother. Anything that would put them in danger. Even without it, the project is still incredibly valuable. There’s enough in there to undermine the ITA’s monopoly.”

Jeth exhaled, feeling minutely better.

After a moment, Sierra went on, “I’ve asked these contacts to keep a lookout for Renford’s ship. We’ll hear something soon.”

“That’s it?” Jeth said. “We just wait around until we hear something?”

Sierra looked poised to argue, but Milton spoke up before she could say anything. “We’ll find them, Jeth. It’s just a matter of time and patience. And once we locate that ship, we’ll steal them back. This crew can handle anything.”

“Yeah, sure.” Jeth turned toward the door.

“Where’re you going?” Milton said.

“To check on Flynn’s progress.” It was a lie. Jeth didn’t know where he was going except elsewhere. He needed time alone to think. Milton was right that the crew had a lot of skills necessary for a job like this. Except they didn’t have Lizzie, and they didn’t have access to all their usual tools. Not without Hammer.

Hammer. He’s going to kill me when he finds out what happened here. That was the other thing Milton didn’t know, how determined Hammer was to make Jeth one of his men. When he found out that Jeth and his crew had imprisoned Dax and Sergei, he’d send others after them.

And if Hammer learns about Cora and Lizzie . . .

You mean, if he doesn’t know already?

A shudder racked Jeth’s body, and he almost stumbled as he took the first step up the ladder to the engineering deck. He righted himself, then froze at an odd, faint sound. It seemed to be coming from the deck below, someone shouting his name.

Jeth turned and headed downward, arriving moments later in the aft cargo bay. It was Dax, shouting from the brig. He stopped at Jeth’s approach.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Dax said, leaning against the bars and glaring. Avalon’s small brig was nothing more than a metal cage with a heavy, old-fashioned lock on the door.

“What I’ve got to,” Jeth said, screwing up his courage. “And that’s find my sister, and then get her and my crew as far away from Hammer as possible.”

Dax snorted. “Then I guess you really are as dumb as you look.”

“You’ve got a lot of room to talk, considering that implant you like to wear.”

Dax ran his hand over the base of his skull as if expecting the implant to be there. He grunted. “You might have a point. But my point is that if you want to find your sister, you need to let me out of this cage.”

Jeth snorted. “Why? So you can report to Hammer what happened here? No thanks.”

Dax rolled his eyes. “Not all of us live and breathe for Hammer.”

“Oh yeah? Doesn’t look that way to me. The big guy told me how those implants work.”

A cruel smile stretched across Dax’s face. “Oh yes, so I heard. He’s got big plans for you.”

Flinching, Jeth turned away. He was too tired and worried to be wasting time here. He would deal with Dax later.

“I can find her,” Dax said. “I know exactly where your sister is.”

Jeth stopped and swung around. “Yeah? And how’s that?”

“I marked her just before the ITA got away.”

“What do you mean, marked?”

“I shot her with a tracer. It’s what I do, you know.” Dax made a gun out of his forefinger and pretended to pull the trigger.

Jeth blinked, remembering how Dax had missed shooting that ITA soldier. It had seemed incredible that a man with his skills and reputation could miss at such close range. Now he understood. “Why did you do that? Why didn’t you shoot the men abducting her?”

Dax shook his head. “My tracer gun was the only one I had, and I figured she’d make the most worthwhile target. Besides, there was no way we were going to overtake Renford’s men. But what I want to know is why Renford wanted her in the first place.”

Jeth went still. Dax didn’t know Lizzie’s value to the Aether Project. And Hammer probably doesn’t either, Jeth realized. If he did, he would never have let her leave Peltraz. Hammer was too wise a businessman to make that kind of gamble. “I don’t know why,” Jeth said smoothly, “but tell me about the tracer.”

Dax grunted. “I started the program to run the trace on her just before your uncle knocked me out. I’m sure it’s located her by now. So long as she hasn’t gotten too far out of range.”

Jeth’s stomach flipped over. If they could pinpoint her location now, they’d have a better chance of getting her and Cora back than if they waited for word from Sierra’s contacts. “How does the program work?”

Dax laughed. “Nice try. You let me out of this cage, and I’ll show you where she is. I’ll even help you fetch her.”

Jeth folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah? In return for what?”

“Your help in retrieving the Aether Project from Renford. I still have my job to do. I’m great at tracking, but I’ve little experience pulling off a heist.”

Jeth supposed it made sense. Only . . . “How do you know Renford has it? You were unconscious.”

Dax pointed to the back of his head, a glint in his eyes. “Nah, I only looked unconscious.”

Jeth stepped nearer to the bars, watching Dax’s reactions carefully. “So, you’re saying that if we get you the Aether Project, you’ll let us go? All of us?”

Dax sighed. “It’s not so simple as that, as you well know.”

Jeth held his breath, braced for the worst.

“You’ll never be able to outrun him. Hammer must want you bad to have had you prepared for an implant before you’re even of age.”

Jeth flinched and resisted the impulse to touch the architecture.

Dax flexed his fingers around the bars. “Hammer made it quite clear that there were two things I had to bring back from this mission. The Aether Project files and you. Anything less than that, and he’ll kill me.”

Jeth gulped, unsurprised by this threat and believing it completely. “What about my crew?” he said, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice and failing.

Dax shrugged. “He wasn’t as specific about them. Not that he’ll be happy if the rest of them don’t come back with us, but he might get over it. You, though, well, that’s a different story. And you’re just a kid with no resources and nowhere to go.”

Desperation made Jeth’s voice strained and tinny. “Why? What does he want with me?”

A stricken look, so out of character, crossed Dax face. He let go of the bars, then turned and sat on the bench in the rear of the cell. “What I’m about to tell you is something I’ve never willingly shared with anybody. And if you repeat any of it, I’ll kill you, no matter if you are Hammer’s latest golden boy.”

Golden boy. The words bubbled and burned like acid in Jeth’s mind.

“I was once the golden boy, too,” said Dax. “Only I wasn’t an orphan like you. I had a big family. Two sisters and three brothers. All younger. My parents were coal miners, if you can believe it. On Gallant Prime, a rathole, backwoods world if there ever was one.” He chuckled, as if in fond memory. “When I turned eighteen, there wasn’t anything I wanted more than to get the hell out of that place. Not because of my family, mind you. They were great. But because of the mining. Dirty, dangerous shit. So I decided I would join Gallant Prime’s space fleet. Lucky me, I even scored so high on my entrance exam, I had my pick of jobs.”

He took a deep breath, all the good humor vanishing from his face. “And then Hammer found out how well I scored, particularly in the area of cognitive reasoning under pressure, or some such thing, and he decided he wanted me as one of his Brethren. I turned him down, but he persisted, and then he got nasty. He threatened to hurt my family, but I didn’t believe him. I mean, who takes the time to round up a bunch of harmless coal miners and torture them? I thought if I could outrun Hammer long enough, he’d give up.” Dax paused, the silence pregnant with unspoken emotion. “I was wrong.”

Even though Jeth could guess the answer already, he asked, “Did Hammer kill them?”

Dax nodded. “Except my youngest brother, who was only five at the time. Hammer spared him because I came back and let him implant one of these things.” He touched the back of his skull again. “The only reason Hammer continues to spare him is because I stay and do what he wants me to do.”

Jeth didn’t say anything. He didn’t trust his voice to speak. In the back of his mind, he remembered how Dax had called him “test baby” when they’d first met. He understood the term all too well now.

Even worse, Jeth didn’t have any trouble imagining Hammer doing the same to the people he loved. I’ve never been afraid of doing what needed to be done, he heard Hammer saying. Images flashed through Jeth’s brain, of the starving man on Peltraz, the dead, hopeless look on his face, of Trent Danforth, unrecognizable, little more than a machine, and of himself, broken and beaten when they’d placed him on that operating table.

“So,” Dax said, his voice far too casual for the topic of conversation, “I’ve been in your place before, and I learned the hard way that if you try to deny Hammer, your loved ones will pay for it in the end. But if you submit to him now, you’ve got a chance of saving them.”

Jeth wanted to scream and rage and beat his fists against the wall. He hated being so helpless, hated being so trapped. So owned. But he would hate watching Lizzie die even more. He would do anything to spare her. And the others, too. They’re all my family.

“And not that it should matter to you,” Dax said, almost as an aside, “but if I fail to bring you and the Aether Project back, Hammer will kill my brother first and then me. It’s that important to him.”

Jeth forced his hands to his sides, keeping his voice calm. “I could just kill you now instead.”

Dax nodded. “That you could. And Hammer might just leave my brother alone. But if you kill me, you lose your best chance of finding your sister.” He tapped his wristwatch. “Better make your decision soon. It might already be too late as it is.”

Jeth drew a breath and released it slowly. “So, I help you get the Aether Project while we’re rescuing my sister. Then what?”

“Simple,” Dax said, crossing his arms. “I turn a blind eye while she and your uncle and whoever else disappear into the unknown. We can tell Hammer they got killed or whatever you like. So long as you come back to Peltraz and so long as we can give Hammer the Aether Project, I don’t believe he’ll ever go hunting for the rest of them.”

Jeth thought hard, his mind churning. Then he spotted a new problem, one he should’ve realized earlier. He couldn’t just hand the Aether Project over to Hammer, not with all the information it contained about Cora and Lizzie. No matter what Dax believed, Hammer would pursue Jeth’s sisters to the end of the universe if he found out about their value.

Then he remembered that Milton already had a copy of it. A copy that Sierra could modify, deleting all the dangerous information off of it like she had planned to do before selling the original to her buyer on Olympia Seven. If Jeth could get back Renford’s copy of the Aether Project, it would be a simple thing to switch it out with the modified one before turning it over to Dax.

Satisfied by this part of the plan, Jeth turned to the other part, the one where he would willingly return to Hammer. Bleak and terrible as it was for him, it would be better for everyone else.

And that’s okay, he decided, finally giving into the urge to touch the hole of the implant architecture. It was starting to hurt less, his nerve endings adjusting to its presence. He’d known he was damned from the start.

“What about Sergei?” Jeth said.

Dax tilted his head. “Where is he now?”

“Unconscious and locked in a cabin.”

“Good. We’ll keep him right there until we’re done. Then once we revive him, I’ll smooth things over. I’m sure I can come up with a story that he’ll swallow. And don’t worry.” Dax winked. “He may be the general, but he was never the golden boy.”

Jeth didn’t smile as unease settled into the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to trust Dax, despite believing his story. Dax was still Hammer’s man. And yet he’d given up everything to save his little brother. Not so different from me, Jeth realized. And he has a line on Lizzie. For the moment, that was all that mattered.

Jeth stepped toward the cage. “Okay, it’s a deal. But you’re not getting your implant back.”

Dax grimaced. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. If I don’t put the implant in, Hammer will know something’s wrong. He won’t wait long before sending someone to find out what happened.”

“But won’t he know what we’re planning when he reads your thoughts?”

Dax shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. I’m Brethren, not Guard. I can turn the communication link on and off, and I control what information I send him.”

Jeth thought about it, remembering what Hammer had said about wanting his Brethren to retain a measure of free will. “But how will I know what you’re sending along and what you’re not?”

Dax stared at him, unblinking. “You won’t. But I gave you my word to help you. That’ll have to be enough. And obviously Sergei won’t be doing any communicating while he’s unconscious. I’ll tell Hammer we ran into a little bit of trouble at Moenia and that he got injured. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Jeth gritted his teeth, hating the risk involved. But what choice did he have? “All right,” he said. “But just remember, this is my ship and my crew, at least for the time being. If you even think about betraying us, somebody will shoot you, I promise.”

Dax grinned. “I hear you, Captain. Now let me the hell out of here so we can find your sisters.”