Jarved.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Milla is yelling at him, and he slowly gets to his feet. “You can trust them,” she continues. “This is Max and Ian.”
Recognition hits his wary gaze.
“Your sister sent us,” I add. “She gave up everything so we could find you. And we’re going to get you back to her now.”
Max helps him down the hallway as we make our way forward.
“We need to get to the Starlight,” I yell as we burst through the door to the outside. “Now!”
I can hear vehicles approaching. Worse, a bunch of shuttles are flying straight for us. I’m guessing they’ll be full of troops. And if we don’t get out of here fast, then we’re well and truly fucked.
We can’t fight the guards and the whole Corporation, however much we want to. Live to fight another day and all that shit. Hopefully we gave those people in the cells a chance to fight another day, too—or maybe we doomed them all, but I can’t think about that right now. I grab Kali’s hand, and we race toward the Starlight, which is uncloaked. She shouldn’t be uncloaked.
Plus the ramp is up and the door is closed. The heptosphere floats creepily to the side as if it’s fucking laughing at me as I press the ramp button again and again. I hit the comms unit on my wrist. “Gage, open the goddamn door.” There’s no answer, and I swear. “Gage, where the hell are you?”
Still nothing. Bastard. A sick feeling starts in my stomach as I stare at the ship, seething with frustration. She’s shut up tight, and there’s absolutely no way in.
“Call Rain,” Kali suggests.
“No way she’s awake yet—she needed to rest,” I say. “I drugged the hell out of her.”
“Try anyway!” Max tells me. “We can’t just stand here waiting to get shot.”
I buzz the sick bay. “Rain, Rain are you awake?”
No answer.
I do it again. Still nothing.
I can see the vehicles now. Approaching from the right, they’re huge, armored trucks with big wheels for crossing the rocky terrain. Off to the left, the first shuttle hovers just meters above the asteroid’s surface, disgorging its content of troops before rising up again. They’re dressed in the black-and-purple mecha armor of the Imperial forces. So, this little nightmare is officially a joint venture, then. Good to know.
A sudden shiver runs down my spine, and I turn to check on Kali, then go still as a whole new horror explodes within me. “Where’s Kali?”
Chapter 97
Kali
“Kali!”
I stop running back through the hallways, where I’d headed to try to find a ladder or something to help us get into the Starlight without the use of the locked ramp. Someone is calling my name, though, so I turn and peer into the shadows. Gage is standing in a doorway, gesturing for me to join him.
I hesitate, but he gestures again, and I head over. Maybe he’s hurt and needs help.
But when I get to him, he looks perfectly fine.
“What are you doing here, Gage? You were supposed to stay with the Starlight. We can’t get in. We have to get on board. Now. We’ve got a lot of freed prisoners to help.”
He doesn’t answer, and I peer at him in the dim light. There’s something up. I take a step closer, and he lunges for me. His hand grasps my wrist, and I pull back.
What the fuck?
Brain clouded with panic, I try to remember what Ian taught me about fighting. I make my muscles relax and let him drag me against him, then raise my knee and jab him in the balls. And miss. His grip tightens, so I reach up and try to claw his face. I have no clue what’s going on with Gage, but my instincts tell me it’s nothing good. Especially when I remember the closed-up Starlight.
Thankfully, he’s not a fighter like Ian and we’re pretty evenly matched. I can do this. I make a fist and start to plunge it into his side, but before I connect, he presses something against me and a shocking pain shoots through me.
I lose control of my body and crash to the floor. And for a moment, everything goes black.
When I come back, he’s dragging me along the corridor upright, his arms around my waist, away from the Starlight. I feel as weak as a newborn drokaray.
“What did you do?”
“Stunner. There’ll be no permanent damage. I don’t want to hurt you, Kali. In fact, I’m here to save you.”
“Save me from what?” I snarl.
“There’s no chance for the others. They’re going to die. But we don’t need to.”
He pauses at the door and peers out.
Panic is clawing at my guts. Where’s Ian? Hasn’t he realized I’m missing? The man hasn’t taken his eyes off of me in days, and he chooses to start now? I have to keep Gage talking, slow him down from whatever he’s up to—eventually he’ll slip up and I’ll find an opportunity to get back to the crew. “Gage, please tell me what’s going on. Then I’ll go with you quietly.”
He licks his lips and shifts nervously. “Dr. Veragelen contacted me just after you all left the ship. She told me she’d reactivated the chip in my head. I didn’t know she could do that. That’s how she found us. She says she can set it to self-destruct and it will blow up my head. But if I do what I’m told, she promised she’ll take me back into the Corporation. And all I have to do is save your life.”
Fury fills me, red spots dancing in front of my eyes. “That’s not all you had to do. You betrayed us. You locked us out of the Starlight so we couldn’t escape. How? What did you do?”
“Shut down the systems. Then blew out the door mechanism—just in case she decided to override me.”
Bastard. “If the others die, I’ll make sure you do as well.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t have a choice.”
How many times have I thought that? How many times have I justified my actions—or more likely, my lack of actions—by telling myself I have no choice? But it wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now.
“You always have a choice,” I tell him. “You just have to accept the consequences. Take me back before it’s too late.”
“I’ll die if I do that. So will you. And the others will all die anyway. We can’t win against the Corporation.”
I glare at him, trying to raise my arms to push him away, but I still have almost no strength. A few more minutes, and I might be able to fight him off again. “Maybe you can’t, but—”
“Gage!”
I almost sag to the floor at the sound of Ian’s voice. And yeah, saving myself is all well and good, but sometimes it fucking rules to have a crew to back you up.
I stare at Ian. He’s not alone. Milla, Max, Jarved, and Merrick are behind him, plus a whole crowd of people in ragged gray jumpsuits. The prisoners.
Ian’s face is deadly as he raises his pistol. “Let her go, Gage.”
“I can’t do that. And I’ll kill her if I have to.” He presses the weapon into my side.
Ian growls low in his throat. “You harm one hair on her head, and I’ll rip off your arms and beat you to death with them.”
But I can see the frustration on his face. He won’t risk attacking Gage in case he hurts me. And I can’t allow Gage to take me out of here. I’m guessing that’s the only thing that is delaying the troops from an all-out attack on the others. They’re waiting for word that Gage has gotten me free.