Equinox (28 page)

Rosie’s stomach muscles clenched up tight. She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a short breath.

“Rosie?” He slid forwards and put a hand on her knee. “What’s up?”

She found her voice but it was barely audible. “It was nothing, just … girl talk.”

“You’re still a terrible liar.” His eyes were filled with concern and she could tell she was going to lose it if he kept looking at her like that.

Don’t cry, Rosie Black, don’t you dare blubber like a little baby in front of him
. But it was no use. Hot tears came anyway, leaking out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. She put her hands over her mouth, afraid of the sound that was trying to work its way out.

For a brief second Pip froze, staring at her in alarm, but then he got to his feet and hugged her.

“Jesus, Rosie,” he whispered. He rubbed her back awkwardly in little circles. It was enough to break open the flood. She buried her face into the warm skin of his neck and sobbed, trying not to make much noise, the effort shaking her body. Little choking sounds came out anyway and she clung to him like a crash survivor. He sat back down on his stool, pulling her with him so she was half in his lap, her arms tight around his chest.

She didn’t know how long she cried; it felt like forever. Finally, she sniffled to a halt, her shoulders jerking up and down for a while. She still didn’t want to move though. For the first time in ages, she felt safe, with his arms fast around her and her face pressed against the pulse of his neck, steady and reassuring. She rubbed her face on the neckline of his shirt, trying to wipe the wetness off her cheeks.

“So, she called you names and pulled your hair?” Pip finally said. Rosie managed a shaky laugh that sounded more like a snuffle. He pulled gently back trying to disentangle himself. She let him, unwillingly, leaning against the stool between his legs, so they were still very close. She wiped at her nose, trying to smear snot off herself without looking at him. Her eyes felt puffy, her sinuses heavy with salty tears.

“So?” He was waiting, an anxious, half-amused look in his face.

Rosie took in a long shaky breath. “I, um, I can’t tell you.” She saw the hurt in his eyes and added, “Not yet, I mean. I can’t tell you yet.”

“Why not? You did just ruin my third-favourite shirt, so I figure you owe me a little explanation.” He was joking but the hurt was there in his voice.

“It’s just …” She couldn’t even admit it to herself right now. She needed time to think about it. “I just can’t.” She willed him to understand.

“Is it to do with the implant?”

She paused, not sure what to say.

“It is, isn’t it? What did Cassie see, Rosie? Did Riley put something else in there?”

“No.” She sighed. “I just need a bit of time to figure it out.” It sounded lame, she knew, but it was the truth. He watched her for a moment and she could see the frustration in his face, but he let it go.

“All right. Later, then?” His gaze was keen.

“Yeah, later,” she said softly.

Pip had his smile back, but he still looked scared.
You and me both
. He looked down at his hands, loosely holding her wrists. Slowly, he let his fingers drift up past her elbows then down again.

“So …” His fingers were sending little shivers under her skin and the mood between them suddenly changed.

“Wait.” Rosie grabbed his hands before she lost her nerve, and maybe all her focus. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

“Is it about how much you missed me?” He pulled her closer, putting his arms around her and nuzzling his face in her neck.
Good timing, Black
. His lips tickled her skin, making her breathless. She closed her eyes. If felt so good … But no, she needed to tell him this now while they were alone, in case there wasn’t a chance later.

“Wait.” She pushed him away, holding him off with both hands against his chest. “When I was with Sulawayo, in Capricornia, she told me something.”

“What?” A frown replaced the teasing, sleepy look in Pip’s eyes.

“
She
released that vision of me with your blood in the hospital.”

His expression darkened. “It was her fault you were chased?”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t about me.” Rosie felt him tense under her hands. “She did it to get to you. She thinks she can keep you safe from the rest of Helios and stop the Senate from harassing me.”

“She’s deluded.” Pip’s jaw clenched tight.

“I know,” Rosie said. “I would never do that. But…” She hesitated, her chest tight with worry. “What are you going to do about the MalX cure if the doctors here can’t figure it out?”

“They will. They just need more time, and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll just start bleeding myself like a stuck pig and export my blood to whoever wants it.”

She flinched at the edge of desperation in his words. “Pip, you can’t,” she whispered.

“Yes, I can. It’s my body, my choice, Rosie. Not theirs.” His tone softened minutely and he ran his hands up and down her back, pulling her close again. “Or yours.” He took in a less than steady breath and said softly, “I can’t go back to them. You know that, right? I just can’t.”

“I know.” His touch was sending delicious shivers through her and when she met his gaze she saw the fear in his eyes, but there was something else in there as well. Yearning. He swallowed and his voice was unsteady as he said, “I really missed you, Rosie. You know what I said before was only ’cos I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

She pressed against his chest. “I know,” she said. Because she did. She knew what he meant because that was how she felt about him. Afraid for him. All the time. “Why do you think I get so mad when you say you’ll do stupid dangerous things?” She gave him a smile.

Relief filled his eyes and his lips twitched. “Stupid?”

She let out a tremulous laugh. “Yes, stupid.” Heart pounding, she lifted a trembling hand and dared to trace lightly the curve of his jaw. It was rough with stubble. The blue of his eyes darkened as her fingers reached his lips. He took her wrist then, stopping her, and leaned forwards to kiss her.

“Morning.” Cassie’s overly loud voice rang out. Rosie jumped and turned to see her leaning over the stair railing, a smug, all-knowing smirk on her face. “The kitchen looks so cosy at this hour,” she said. “Mind if I join?”

Rosie could have smacked her. Pip was watching Cassie with an expression verging on dangerous, and Rosie stepped away from him as Cassie sauntered over.

“Looks like your face could do with a wash,” Cassie said to her.

“Leave her alone, Cass,” said Pip.

“No, it’s all right.” Rosie realised she was probably blotchy from crying and it’d be easier if Dalton didn’t see it. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she said to Pip.

Cassie gave her a penetrating look as she passed, no doubt wondering if she’d told Pip about the implant. Rosie gave the minutest shake of her head, warning her not to say anything.

She washed her face as well as she could, poking through Cassie’s things until she found some skin tone coverer that hid the blotching. By the time she came downstairs, Dalton was up and frying eggs, and Pip and Cassie were bent over a map laid out on the bench.

“Hey, Pilot Girl, you hungry?” said Dalton.

“Starving.”

After a good sleep he was looking more like his old Immerse-star handsome self.

Cassie looked up. “Those eggs ready?”

“Coming right up.” He turned back to the fry pan and slid the last four eggs onto a plate.

“I think there’re tortillas somewhere.” Cassie scraped her stool back and rummaged around in a few cupboards.

They rolled the eggs in the bread and were quiet for a while, eating, all of them staring at the map between them. It was an expandable interactive one and Pip messed around with it, tracing routes with a finger and watching the display report the distance and time.

“So where’s the base?” Dalton spoke around a mouthful of egg.

“Here.” Pip touched a point several hundred kilometres to the north-east and closer to the coast. “The best way to get there is to stick north of the river.” He traced a route on the map with his finger.

They were all silent, looking at it. In the dark of the early morning the sober reality of what they were thinking of doing was hitting them. The base was a long way from help, protected by a squad of Helios grunts and their chance of success was slim. Rosie forced the last of her breakfast down a suddenly dry throat.

“We could still try to contact your friend Kev,” Dalton said to Cassie. “Tell him–”

“That we think the warriors should back down, that a bunch of kids think they know better than the councils or the Yalgu?” Pip interrupted.

“He’s just trying to help,’ Rosie said.

Pip exhaled roughly, some of the aggression leaving him. “I know; it just won’t work. We’re on our own here.”

Rosie sat back from the bench. “Look, if you don’t want to be part of it, you don’t have to, either of you.” She looked from Cassie to Dalton. She knew Pip would never think of backing down. “But this is the reason I came up here: to stop Helios. I owe a couple of people that.”

“No need to get all heroic on us,” Cassie said sharply. “You’re not the only one who wants to stick it to Helios. Gondwana has been my home for ten years – there’s no way I’m letting those bastards destroy it. We’re coming. Aren’t we, Curtis?” She looked at Dalton.

“That was the deal. Besides, I’ve been thinking about how to do this.” He moved the tablet with the base plans Rosie had drawn between them. “I was looking at these last night,” he said. “I couldn’t see any way we could get into the base unseen
and
have time to destroy the gate project in the hangar before the guards got us. And what would we do it with anyway?” He folded his arms across his chest. “What we need are bombs.”

“Now that I do like.” Pip’s eyes shone. “Not bad, Curtis.”

“Wait, a bomb?” Rosie said. “But there are people there, scientists who might not really know what Helios is planning.”

“But we only have to threaten to destroy it; we might not have to actually do it. Last night you said that the best way to make them leave is to take away their reason for being there. Their reason is the gate project. We use it as leverage. Either they pack up and go home, or we blow it up.”

It might work. Rosie couldn’t think of any other scenario where a base full of Helios personnel would leave. But still, a bomb …

Rosie scanned her drawings again, but she didn’t need to look too hard to know he was right. None of them did.

“Even if we get past the guards, whoever is running the base might be happy to let us blow things up, then capture or kill us anyway,” she said.

“Or they might not,” Dalton said.

“It’s worth a shot,” Pip said. “I vote yes.”

“Rosie?” Dalton said. Everyone was looking at her, waiting.

She let out a slow breath. “Let’s try it.”

“Helios will pick a bluff from a real threat easily,” Pip said. “We’ll need explosives.”

Dalton smiled. “I know how to make them. My old school had chemistry labs, and an engineering department with old ship parts, including weapon systems. A group of us used to mess around. Call it a bored rich boys’ club.”

“It sounds like you might actually be useful after all.” Pip sounded impressed. “What do you need?”

Dalton rattled off a list of chemicals and equipment that had Pip nodding his head.

“I think we’ve got most of that. But how big an explosion will it make, and are you sure it’ll work?”

“Oh, I’m sure. We used to practise in the old city sometimes – take our boats and go out there and set them on the ruins. You get the mix right and –
boom
.” He pushed his hands together and spread them apart fast. “Nothing but rubble.”

“Hang on,” Cassie said. “We can’t just walk into a Helios base with a couple of bombs and say, ‘Put up your hands and surrender.’”

“We won’t need to.” Rosie scrolled through to display the base floor plan. “The gate project is housed in here.” She tapped the hangar. “And this vent here” – she pointed out a small square low on the south wall – “is how we can get in.”

It took her a little while to go through her idea, and to argue with the boys over who did what, but eventually they grudgingly agreed. She and Cassie would crawl into the hangar and place the bombs while the others kept watch. When they were done, they’d hide in the dense grass that circled the base, just within the range for the detonator signals but far enough away to run back to the bikes if they needed.

“But how do we tell Helios either to leave or we blow up their precious project?” Pip said.

Rosie’s mouth went dry. “One of us has to surrender and get taken to whoever is in charge. Have you got coms here?” At his nod, she said, “We each have one so we can contact each other and convince them we’re not bluffing.”

Pip’s expression was all tight angles, his eyes angry. “And I suppose you think you’re going to volunteer.”

“It makes sense. You can’t, and they would be more than happy to put a bullet in Cassie’s head, so I’m doing it.”

Pip’s mouth went so tight his lips lost their colour, but it was Dalton who spoke.

“Actually, it should be me. I’m the most expendable.”

Rosie stared at him. “Dalton, no–”

“Good, we’re agreed then,” Pip said.

“I don’t think we are agreed,” Rosie said.

“Tough.” Pip folded his arms and shrugged.

Cassie said, “Rosie, you’ve got all Riley’s files in your head. He’s the better choice.”

Furious, Rosie glared at her. “You’re not expendable,” she said to Dalton. “Not to me, anyway.”

“Thanks.” Dalton exhaled a sharp breathy laugh. “But I mean it in a purely non-literal way. I don’t intend to get myself killed over this.”

“There is such a thing as shooting the messenger.”

“That’s why we set the bombs,” he said. “So we have leverage. Besides, we make letting me go a condition of us not destroying their gate. Especially if I tell them who my father is. You never know, that might give more leverage than we think.” He gave Rosie a significant look. She knew what he was thinking: if his dad was Helios, like he suspected, it might work in their favour.