FREE SAMPLE (CH.1)

“Nic needs to see you.”

I groaned and dropped my luggage in the lobby of the research base. Those were my five least favorite words to hear. They usually meant I was about to get threatened, or ordered to do something illegal, or—when Nic was feeling particularly spicy—kidnapped and declared dead.

Of course, I knew we’d moved past the stage of wanting to kill each other. Nic’s time in prison had shown him that there were bigger fish in the pond, and his narcissism had become much more manageable as of late. In fact, based on what he had done for my sister, I even dared to hope he had turned over a new leaf.

But he still wasn’t my favorite person in the world, and he definitely wasn’t the person I had flown all the way to Mars to see.

I grabbed both of Cea’s hands in mine. “He wants to see me? Well, he’ll have to wait, because the person I want to see is you.”

Maybe it didn’t come out as romantic as it sounded in my head, but the effect was lost on her. She immediately pulled one of her hands back to tuck her golden curls behind her ear. “Oh no, he doesn’t want to see you,” she clarified. “But he needs to see you.”

I knew what that meant: Nic needed my help, but he was too proud to ask. No doubt he had done something arrogant and self-centered, and I needed to clean it up before he got us all killed. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it could wait while I kissed my girlfriend, whom I hadn’t seen in two months.

“I’ll take care of it. But how are you? I missed you.” I rubbed her palm and drank in the sight of her—her agile frame, her sharp nose, her heart-shaped face that seemed to have a permanent flush to it, like she was always burning with passion beneath the surface. I had missed that face while we had been on the run, and now, seeing her right in front of me, I realized I needed to do whatever it took to keep from losing her again.

Unfortunately, if Cea was having any feelings, she wasn’t showing it. She wasn’t even looking at me; her eyes wandered down the hall of the base as she turned to lead the way. “I’m fine,” she intoned. “We need to go. It’s important. Your—”

“It’s always important with Nic,” I interrupted, trying to reclaim the moment. “He’ll live for another five minutes. It’s you I care about. I was so worried—”

“Ephesus,” she yanked on my arm to cut me off, “it’s about Phil.”

I froze. I’d left Philadelphia—my sister—behind on Earth to care for our father, who had just been brought back from the dead after being cryogenically frozen. Both of them were wanted by the law, and the only things keeping Phil from being executed for starting a revolution were a haircut and a new set of fingerprints. Leaving her behind wasn’t my favorite arrangement, especially since Dad was in no position to protect her, but I hadn’t been given much say in the matter.

Just like I hadn’t been given much say in the last two years of my life.

Phil was supposed to be hiding out while Dad finished therapy, and then they would be getting on the next flight to Mars. Any news about her could not be good news.

I tensed—then closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and prayed to the count of ten. As much as I wanted it to be, my sister’s safety was not in my hands. I wouldn’t be able to fix anything by flying into a panic.

I opened my eyes and squeezed Cea’s fingers. “I’ll handle it. Whatever it is, we can take care of it. God’s brought her—and us—this far. He won’t abandon her now.”

My confidence brought her peace, like it always did. She managed a smile, and I tried to capitalize on the opportunity and pull her close.

She jerked back. “Ephesus, please, not right now. Can’t we do this later?”

I kept my hand around her wrist, briefly contemplating making her stay. It was always “later” with her.

I saw the anxiety on her face and thought better of it. “Okay,” I relented, letting go of her hand, “as long as you promise you’ll meet me for dinner. I have something to give you.”

She looked up and met my eyes.

I struggled not to get lost in the freckles that smattered her face like stars in a galaxy. “I brought you a very special present from Earth.”

My inflection did the trick. Her cloud-gray eyes sparkled with curiosity, and she squinted like she suspected I was up to no good. I winked. She had no idea.

“Deal,” she agreed, and leaned forward to give me a peck on the cheek.

I caught a whiff of her perfume—just enough to make me want more. I reached for her, but she saw it coming and sidestepped. “Later,” she snapped.

I knew better than to argue with that tone of voice. I grumbled my defeat, grabbed my suitcase, and strode down the hall towards Nic’s office.

It was early morning on Mars, and the base was still waking up. The distant sun had just peaked the red-dirt bluffs and was casting soft light through the glass dome of the central wing. I slowed my pace as the familiar sights and sounds set in—the clap of my shoes on the metal floor, the quiet whir of gravity augmenters, the slightly stale taste of the oxygenated air. I wanted to love it; I felt the same excitement and trepidation I’d experienced when I’d arrived on base for the first time, the glorious anticipation that I was about to be part of something amazing. But I also felt fear and loneliness—the helplessness I’d suffered through while I was trapped in Wing 74, never knowing if I’d make it home alive.

I suffocated the feelings, intending to detangle them later. I opened the gate to Wing 2 and navigated to Nic’s office.

I heard him cussing and ranting through the walls while I was still three doors down. I winced. Nic avoided talking to himself—and others—as much as possible. Cea was right; something was very wrong.

Holy Spirit, give me strength. I braced myself and pressed the doorbell.

He took a breath between expletives to bark, “Go away.”

“It’s Ephesus,” I said, knowing he’d never get around to asking. “Cea said you needed to see me.”

His sharp laugh made the speaker crackle. “I never want to see you, Ephesus.”

“I wasn’t asking,” I returned, and waved my hand over the sensor on the door panel. By sheer providence, he’d forgotten to lock it, and the door whooshed open.

He whipped around to face me from where he stood by the desk. “Get out.”

I stepped in. “You look terrible.”

He did. He’d clearly slept in his clothes, if he’d slept at all, and his hair was a crunchy mess of day-old styling gel. His mustache hadn’t been trimmed in a day or two and was slowly creeping down the sides of his face, threatening to merge with his scraggly goatee.

A quick glance around the room showed that his office had fared no better. It wasn’t unusual for Nic to live in a little bit of chaos, but this was disturbing. There was trash scattered on the floor, and every flat surface had at least one plate of abandoned food on it. It looked like he’d ordered a dozen dishes and refused them all. Dried coffee stains streaked his desktop, and something was splattered on the far wall. There was a dent in the plaster and a pile of broken ceramic on the floor—like he’d thrown a mug of coffee into the wall in a rage.

I kicked a piece of dirty laundry out of my way and approached him. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with Phil?”

“You want a list?” He tipped his head to the side and squinted at me with bloodshot eyes, like he was debating whether to kick me out of his office. He decided I wasn’t worth it and instead took a swig from the mug he had in his hands.

I grabbed the trash can and started dumping dried food into it. “Is she safe?”

He scoffed. “I’m done trying to keep that stupid girl safe.”

That wasn’t what I had asked, so I narrowed the question. “Where is she?”

“How would I know?” He took another gulp.

I dropped the trash can. “What do you mean, you don’t know? You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”

He shrugged. “Haven’t talked to her.”

“How have you not talked to her? She talks to you more than anyone.”

It was only after the words left my mouth that I realized how much bitterness and rejection was attached to them.

He was too absorbed in himself to notice. “I can’t talk to her,” he enunciated like he was breaking down a chemistry equation for me, “because I blocked her.”

I struggled to stay in control as adrenaline flooded my system. “You blocked her?”

He had absolutely no appreciation for how depraved that confession was. “She wasn’t listening to me anyway.”

I grabbed his tablet off the desk. Phil’s messaging profile was still on the screen, her avatar grayed out. I skimmed the chat history and saw that they’d had a call the day before—a call that had, apparently, ended abruptly.

I threw the tablet down. “Nic, what were you thinking?”

He flicked his fingers like he was seasoning a filet. “I don’t have to put up with her disrespect.”

I pinched my nose and gave myself three beats to channel the Holy Spirit before replying. “First of all, you sound like a teenage girl. Second of all, yes, you do. You’re the adult in this relationship.”

He paused and reconsidered whatever insult he had been about to fire. “At least someone recognizes that.” With a grunt, he tipped his mug back and chugged the contents.

I snatched the cup from his hands. A splash of clear liquid sloshed in the bottom. I sniffed it and grimaced; it definitely wasn’t water.

Nic was unashamed. “If you want to ask for a raise, now would be a great time.”

I walked over to the bathroom and rinsed out the mug in the sink. “Well, I was going to ask you if I could marry your sister.”

“What?” he shouted over the running water.

“Never mind.” I turned the faucet off and came back out into the office. “Sit down.”

He surprisingly obeyed, flopping dramatically in his desk chair.

I set the mug on the coffee maker on the bookcase—one of three brewers Nic had in his office. “I’m going to need you to explain this to me nice and slow. What happened?”

He gestured sloppily with his hands. “Oh, Phil’s just got it in her head that she’s the hero of the universe, and she’s going to China to assassinate the General Secretary.”

There were way too many stimuli in that sentence to process in one breath. “I’m sorry, what?”

Unfortunately, Nic decided to elaborate on the least important part of that revelation. “Yeah, I guess they rigged up some sort of kill switch in her palm—”

“I don’t care,” I cut him off. “She’s going to China?”

“I know, right?” he crowed. He looked delighted that we finally agreed on something, like this was a breakthrough in our friendship. “She got invited to the state gala, because apparently ‘Andromeda’ is a celebrity now, and so Jayde’s decided that this is their opportunity to save the world. So they’re going to have her assassinate the General, which is an absolutely ludicrous plan if you ask me, because—”

I put my hand up. “Just stop.” I punched the button on the coffee maker and took a deep breath. Jesus, please help me.

I looked back up at Nic. “We’re going to start from the beginning.”

It took an hour and three cups of coffee—two for him and one for me—before I had what I thought was the full story. Apparently, in the four days I had been offline while on the transit from Earth, my sister had gone rogue. With the help of our friends in the underground, she’d broken into our old containment camp and freed our neighbors. The government had retaliated by ordering the relocation of all the unassimilated to Chinese prisons, and Jayde, Phil’s military contact, had decided to escalate the conflict by attempting to assassinate the General Secretary, the leader of the United.

And he was using my little sister to do it.

I agreed with Nic: It was a ludicrous plan. Phil was in grave danger, and I knew that killing the General would not bring the change Jayde thought it would. There would be chaos, yes, but chaos was just an excuse for lesser men to seize power. Philadelphia was going to start a war, and we’d all be lucky if a greater evil didn’t take the General’s place.

I was furious, but I didn’t blame my sister. She was seventeen, for crying out loud. If anything, I blamed myself. I never should have let her start recording propaganda for the underground. Our dad never should have created the weapon that started this whole conflict in the first place.

And Nic never should have let her go back to Earth.

I sighed and gathered my courage. “Nic, do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

He glowered. At least he had started to dry up and was processing sentences like an adult. “Enlighten me.”

I got up to refill our mugs. “First, you let her go back to Earth by herself to look for our father…”

“Oh, we’re blaming me now? Love that.”

I ignored him. “And then, instead of explaining to her why she shouldn’t go to China, you alienate her by calling her an idiot.”

“It wasn’t a lie…” he said, but more quietly this time.

I walked back to the desk and slammed the mug down in front of him. “And then, to top it all off, you block your seventeen-year-old dependent on all your accounts, stranding her on a hostile planet with no way to get ahold of you.”

That finally got through to him. He stared at the liquid sloshing around in his cup for a long moment before he replied. “Thank you for summing that up,” he mumbled.

I sat back down across from him. “So, what are you going to do about it?”

He grunted and grabbed his coffee. “Not my problem anymore. I don’t care.”

That was a lie, and if we were going to save Phil, I needed him to see that. “Could’ve fooled me.”

He contorted his face. “Excuse me?”

I shrugged and swirled my mug to disperse the creamer. “Could’ve fooled me. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be shut up in your office trying to drink your way out of feelings.”

He flushed and looked down at himself, noticing, perhaps for the first time, what a state he was in.

“Hate to break it to you, Dr. Nic, but it sounds like you care an awful lot—which, granted, is really unusual for you.” I slathered the accusation on thick. “Since when did you start caring about other people?”

“I don’t,” he said haltingly, as if trying to convince himself that it was still true.

“So why’d you agree to be her legal guardian? Why put yourself at risk like that?” It didn’t make any sense to me either. This couldn’t be the same conniving mad scientist who had locked me in a basement for two years just to protect his secret project.

“Because…” Nic squinted at the steam rising from his mug. “She cares. She cares about everyone. Which means someone has to care about her.”

He looked back up at me, and in that moment, I was convinced the mad scientist was gone.

Or at least he was on his way out the door, even if he was getting dragged kicking and screaming by Nic’s better self.

“Okay then.” I set my mug aside. “Fix it.”

He frowned at me.

I shoved the tablet across the desk towards him. “You’re the one who blocked her. Fix it.”

He stared at the device, his eyes flickering as he recalibrated his life choices.

And then he made the right decision.

He picked up the tablet—and at that exact moment, it rang.

I did an abysmal job of stifling a laugh as he yelped and nearly dropped the device and his coffee. He regained his grip, looked at the screen, and swore.

“What?” I asked.

He swore again, but it wasn’t a curse of anger. It was an oath of disbelief as he stared at the screen. The device continued to trill.

“Who is it?” I repeated.

He looked up at me, probably unintentionally. “My mom.”

I opened my mouth, then realized I had no idea where to go with that. Nic’s parents hadn’t called him in almost a decade—if only because they didn’t remember him, thanks to a botched government neurosurgery.

Nic accepted the call. “Hello?”

A female voice came through the line. “Hello? Is this Doctor…” There was a pause, and then she enunciated the name slowly, as if she were reading it off a piece of paper. “Nic Von Nieuwenhuyse?”

Nic gasped like the woman had just asked him to marry her. “Yes, it’s me,” he exclaimed with way too much emotion.

“Yes, hi,” Mrs. Von continued. “Sorry to bother you, but—”

“You’re not bothering me at all,” he interrupted. He sniffled.

“Are you crying?” I scolded.

“Shut up,” he hissed. He turned away and swiped his face on the sleeve of his dirty lab coat. He must be really drunk.

“Glad to know I’m not being an inconvenience,” Mrs. Von deadpanned. “Anyway, I’m calling because you’re listed as Andromeda Nolan’s emergency contact.”

The joy evaporated from the room. Nic straightened, sobriety instantly returning to his eyes. “What happened?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know.” Mrs. Von’s voice faltered, as if she was struggling to hold on to reality. “She didn’t make it home for dinner, and when I went up to check her room, her tablet was still here.”

Nic threw a questioning glare at me, but I shrugged. That didn’t sound catastrophic. Phil always left her registered electronics at the Vons’ so she could keep her legal identity—Andromeda Nolan—clean. She was probably just late getting home.

“It’s been two hours, and now I have no way of getting ahold of her. Does she have another device that you’re aware of?”

Nic spun his chair back around and started typing on his computer. A couple of clicks, a concentrated frown, and then he angled the monitor so I could see.

He’d pulled up Andromeda’s file. The most recent entries indicated that she had, in fact, registered a new cellphone under her account—just earlier today in Earth-time. There were a couple of shopping transactions, and then she’d boarded a nonstop flight to Beijing.

My heart plunged from my throat to my stomach. We’re too late. Oh God, help.

“Let me see if I can reach her,” Nic said into the line, voice intentionally calm. “If I can, I’ll have her call you.”

Mrs. Von took the bait of his false confidence. “Thank you,” she said, relieved. “And if I hear from her first, I’ll update you.”

“I’d appreciate that. And hey, Mom?”

I winced. Now’s not the time, man…

“What did you just call me?” she barked.

He ignored the question and leaned towards the screen. “Thank you for calling and letting me know.”

She accepted the offer of his sincerity. “Of course,” she agreed, and hung up.

He took a deep breath. I gave him a minute. I knew what it was like to lose a parent—literally and figuratively.

He blinked away the feelings and turned back to his desktop. “Something’s wrong.”

“We’re too late,” I admitted, fighting to keep the hopelessness out of my voice. “She’s already on her way to China.”

He shook his head. “No, something’s not right. There’s no reason she wouldn’t have taken her tablet with her—after all, Andromeda is the one that’s going to the party.”

He had a point, and the realization replaced the dread in my stomach with something far more sinister.

He swiped his fingers on the tablet and attempted to call her new number. The line clicked, and a computerized voice said, “The number you have dialed could not be reached. Please try again.”

“You try,” Nic demanded.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number on her file. I was also greeted with the same message.

“She has no reason to block me,” I said, stating what we both already knew. “You, I’d understand. But me?”

He grunted his acknowledgment. He yanked his desk drawer open and rooted around until he found an outdated smart phone. Wiping off the screen with his sleeve, he powered it on and tried to call her one more time. No luck.

I connected the ominous dots. “I don’t think that number is set to receive inbound calls at all. It’s a dummy device.”

He glared at his desktop, scrolling aggressively with his mouse. “These purchases—they were all made at stores at the transit hub. That’s where she got the phone, too.”

He looked back up at me. We both ruminated in horrified silence for a minute before I finally had the courage to declare, “She didn’t go willingly.”

He rolled his eyes. “Better late than never, sis.”

“Excuse me?” I yelped.

He shoved the chair back and strode across the room to the closet. “I mean, she’s clearly had a come to Jesus moment and realized this is a terrible idea—better late than never.”

I stood up to follow. “Now is not the time for your nihilistic sarcasm, Nic. She’s going to get herself killed.”

“She’s certainly trying.” He grabbed a duffle out of the closet and started taking a lap around the room, shoveling electronics and personal effects into the bag. “She probably told Carrot-Top she wouldn’t do it, and he pulled a gun on her.”

I knew he meant Jayde, and he was most assuredly right. My sister was a compassionate person who was more in tune with God’s heart than she realized. She would have known, deep down, that killing the General wasn’t His plan for her. She had clearly figured that out—a second too late.

And now we were a second too late to save her.

Nic stopped, his hand on the knob of a cabinet drawer, his eyes on the floor. “What?” I prodded.

“I just came to the uncomfortable realization that—if she had this change of heart this morning—it means she was listening to me.”

I folded my arms. “Of course. If I were a teenage girl, and the man I looked up to told me he was ‘disappointed in me,’ I would definitely have a come to Jesus moment.”

His whole face simmered in guilt, and I let him. He deserved it.

He yanked the drawer open and grabbed an electric pistol. “Well, let’s see if I can’t get there before she pulls the trigger.”

I caught up. The transit I had just gotten off of would be returning to Earth in a few hours. If we hurried, we could make it. I grabbed my suitcase from where I’d abandoned it by the door. “I’m still packed. Let’s go.”

“No, I need you to stay here.”

Absolutely not. I’m not sitting by the sidelines this time. “She’s my sister!” I argued.

“No one’s debating that.” He stepped into the bathroom and grimaced at his disheveled reflection in the mirror. “But you’ll just get in my way.”

“Didn’t realize I was such a nuisance to you,” I snapped.

“Really? Because I feel like I’ve been pretty clear about that fact over the years.” He tried to comb a hand through his crusty hair and only made it worse. He gave up and walked over to me. “Ephesus, put your ego aside and think logically about this. You’re riding on a temp file—if you try to walk into Beijing, they’re going to flag it and arrest you.”

He was right, which left me with no ground to stand on.

“Besides, I have an invitation to the party.” He rooted through the stack of papers on his desk and pulled out a gilded envelope.

I sighed my defeat as a coldly familiar emotion seeped into my soul.

You’re useless. Again.

I threw my suitcase back on the floor with more force than was necessary. “Surely there’s something I can do.”

“Of course,” he said, and it wasn’t patronizing. “Call the transit station and tell them I’m coming. Then call Stanyard.”

“What can he do?” Stanyard was a childhood friend of the family and one of Phil’s contacts in the underground. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her while she was earthside, but if she’d already gotten on a plane to Beijing, he wouldn’t be of much help.

“I have a hunch.” Nic tossed his soiled lab coat on the floor and fetched a clean one from the closet. “I don’t know how well you know your sister…”

“Better than you,” I snapped, even though I wasn’t sure it was true.

He let me have it. “…But if she’s doing this against her will, then Carrot-Top probably has a hostage. Seeing as your dad is basically dead—no offense—Pizza Boy is the next logical option.”

I had to admit that was another astute observation. Stanyard himself had confessed to me that he would love to be something more than friends if Phil would ever give him the chance.

At least he had the grace to talk to me before he talked to Nic.

“Call Stanyard, call my parents back, and see if you can’t get ahold of Mrs. Nolan. If she went with Phil to Beijing, that might help us.” Nic zipped up his duffle and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ll call you when I land.”

So that was it—I’d make three five-minute phone calls, and then I’d go back to being an NPC, stranded over a hundred million miles away while someone else saved my sister and the world.

I collapsed against the wall. God, where did I go wrong?

Nic brushed past me on his way out the door, then hesitated. “There is one other thing you can do for me.”