Equinox (6 page)

By the time she got home it was after dark. The strain of keeping up happy conversation had left her exhausted and she just wanted to sleep. There wasn’t any sound coming from the apartment and no lights were on. Aunt Essie must still be out.

Rosie swiped the lock and pushed open the door. Something had been shoved underneath. The toe of her shoe hit it and sent it skittering across the floor. What was that? She kicked the door shut and turned on the light. A sliver of opaque plaspaper was on the floor. She picked it up, blowing off the dust. It was palm-sized and, as she looked at it, words materialised, generated by the electric charge of her hand.

Play me
.

Rosie frowned. Play me? Play what, the thing she’d kicked a moment ago? She peered around, searching the living area with apprehension. Something metallic caught the light just under the leg of the sofa. She dropped her bag on the coffee table, got on her hands and knees and pulled it out. It was a small vision storer, disposable, barely the size of her thumb tip.

Who would shove this under the door? Her heart began to beat too fast. She went to the digi unit in the wall opposite the sofa and pushed the vision storer in. A holo screen sprang up. Her mouth dried. A 3-D image of her dad appeared. He was lying in a hospital, a medibot beside him and the red rash of the MalX spreading over his chest. Then she saw herself come into the room, and her chest contracted.

She knew what this was.

This was the hospital they’d fled to with her dad after they’d got back from Mars. She knew what was coming next.

She watched herself carry a bag of blood to her dad’s side. Then she saw herself attaching that bag of blood to her dad’s drip. It was Pip’s blood. He’d come back to the hospital to give it to her and it had been the last time she’d seen him. It was Pip’s blood that had cured her dad.

Rosie took a trembling step back. Her legs hit the couch and she slumped on it, her gaze fixed on the vision. Whoever had sent this must know what it meant. They would know that if the Senate saw this they would ask her questions she couldn’t answer. And worse, if Helios got hold of this, it would be bad, very bad. It was clear proof that Pip was around, that he was using his blood to cure and that Rosie might even know where he was.

The image wavered, then it blanked out to be replaced by words.

The Senate hasn’t seen this
.

Helios haven’t seen this
.

Yet
.

Rosie hugged her arms around her chest, feeling cold. The words vanished and more appeared.

I’ll be in touch
.

The holo disappeared and Rosie sat staring at the space.

“You’ll need all of these, plus you’ll have to put in an application for a zero-g suit. We don’t loan them out any more, too much damage.” The Academy assistant glanced briefly at Rosie as she handed her the stack of research download tags. “That will be five thousand and sixty-five. Are you charging or do you have an account?”

“Account,” she said. The woman’s expression didn’t change as Rosie pressed her thumb to the pad. This was the second lot of research material she’d had to access this week and the continuing cost made Rosie queasy.

It was Thursday and the resource shop was crowded with students loading up on their course requirements. Since she’d received the vision, Rosie had been checking her com for the promised message every five seconds. But she’d heard nothing. Riley hadn’t contacted her either. Apparently, he’d meant it when he said he didn’t want her to do anything. She hadn’t had a chance to tell her aunt about the anonymous threat. Aunt Essie hadn’t come in until well after midnight on Monday night, and had been out late and gone by the time Rosie had woken up every day since. She’d been trying to stay awake for her each night, but exhaustion had taken over. What could Aunt Essie possibly be doing that kept her out such long hours? Fear and anxiety were starting to send Rosie crazy. She couldn’t use her com to tell Aunt Essie; it was too risky, even with the fail-safes against tracking Riley put in it. The day before she’d left a note to say they had to talk, but her aunt had only pinged her com again to say she couldn’t make it. Tonight, she was going to stay up all night if she had to.

She left the shop, already late for her next class. The building was one of a number spaced out around an open recreation area. There were benches, which were almost always filled with students socialising when they should have been studying. Rosie saw a group of girls hanging around one bench with Dalton and two other boys. The girls were wearing see-through dresses over skin-tight short suits. They were giggling and pouting. One of them was sitting on a boy’s lap playing with his hat.

Rosie walked past them, annoyed that they were all so carefree and could play such stupid games.

“Hey, Rosie, wait!” Dalton called. His boots scuffed the gravel behind her and she glanced back at him.

“So you remembered my name,” she said as he caught up. He loped alongside her, a bag slung casually over one shoulder.

“Hey, I think Pilot Girl’s a cute nickname, but if you don’t like it–”

“I don’t.”

“Okay then.”

He gave her a smile that could have lit a stadium and her anger faltered under the wattage.

“What are you so happy about?”

He leaned in close and lowered his tone. “I think I figured out how you landed the ship in flight class.” He looked seriously pleased with himself.

“You did?”

“Sure. Genius move, by the way. How did you come up with it?”

“It’s in the text.” There was no way she was going to tell him she’d got the idea of switching the power relays from the time she’d crashed her aunt’s pod on Mars.

“Oh, the text, yeah, of course.” He nodded, sceptical. “Except it’s not. But that’s okay. You don’t have to give away all your secrets. I mean, we’ve all got secrets, haven’t we?”

A jolt of unease hit her, but before she could answer, he said, “So are you coming to my dad’s famous welcome-to-the-rest-of-your-life party on Saturday? It’ll be worth it. You’ll never see anything like it, really.”

“I haven’t decided.”

“Seriously?” He raised an eyebrow. “But where else can you be surrounded by overdressed, self-involved rich brats ingesting insane amounts of illegal substances and grinding against each other on the dance floor? It’s a spectacle worth your free entry.”

“It does sound amazing,” Rosie said, “but I’ll think I’ll pass. I’ve got nothing to wear. It’s really hard to find something that suits a grinding-rich-brat fest these days.”

“I’ll buy you something,” Dalton said. “We can go shopping after class.”

Rosie thought he might be serious. “Ah, no, that’s okay, and a bit weird.”

He chuckled. “I know, sorry. I have a Prince Charming complex. But seriously, why don’t you come?” His gaze was warm. “It might make it bearable, raise the IQ level to above pond algae. What do you say?”

Rosie was flustered by the way he was looking at her so intently. He was way, way too pretty. “Um, well, I’ll think about it.”

“Okay, I guess that’s better than a no.”

He checked the time on his com and whistled. “I’m late for hover hockey training. Catch you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure.” She watched him walk away.

Something felt off. Sure, he was a friendly guy, but why so friendly to her? And that crack about secrets. Now that Helios knew Riley was alive, they’d be stepping up surveillance. They could have an operative anywhere. Could it be Dalton?

It seemed far-fetched, but still … She headed towards her next class. She needed to talk to someone and Aunt Essie was too hard to get hold of, so that left one option.

Riley might not have called her in, but too bad. She couldn’t handle all this on her own. She was going to see him. Today.

The afternoon dragged and she left the Academy at a run as soon as classes finished. It seemed to take forever to get through the painful process of switching shuttles and it was just before sunset when she reached Riley’s. She pressed her thumb to the door scanner and ran up the stairs two at a time.

“Riley,” she called out as she reached the top and burst through his operations room door. “Riley, I’ve got–” She stopped. Standing next to Riley was someone she was not prepared to see. Not prepared at all. All the breath left her body and she let the door bang back against the wall.

“Pip?” Her voice sounded strangled as she said his name.

They’d been looking at something on Riley’s holo desk and they both turned swiftly around at her entrance. A weird mix of emotions crossed Pip’s face and she thought for a second he was glad to see her, but then his expression closed up and Riley said, “Rosie, you shouldn’t be here.”

She took a step into the room. There was a pulse beating so hard in her neck it was painful. “What the hell’s going on?” she said.

Riley put down the computer stylus he’d been holding. “Pip brought information about the base.”

“He’s the boy Cassie was talking about?”

Riley spoke quietly, like he was choosing his words carefully. “We thought it would be better if you didn’t know.”

We thought? The implication was clear. Riley had been in contact with Pip for some time and he hadn’t told her. The betrayal hit her hard, right where she needed to breathe. She couldn’t speak for a moment, totally blindsided. She turned on Pip.

“So Gondwana Nation,
that’s
where you’ve been?” She was surprised her voice was steady. He looked the same, but different. His shoulders were broader, his skin darker. It was more coffee than caramel now. His hair, which had been shaved close to his skull, was longer, dark waves reaching to the nape of his neck. He pushed a few strands of it from his dark blue eyes but didn’t answer right away. He looked nervous.

“Pip, is that where you’ve been?” she repeated.

“Ah, yeah,” he said, guarded.

“For how long?”

“A little while.” He glanced at Riley as if to confirm it was okay to tell her. It made her angry.

“Don’t you think I can be trusted to know?” she said.

“It’s not like that,” Pip said. “We just thought it was safer this way.”

“For who exactly?”

“For both of you.” Riley stepped forwards. “Rosie, you know Helios are watching you, hoping you’ll lead them to Pip.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“Not on purpose, no.”

“You could have told me he was working for you,” she said.

Riley regarded her like she was being unreasonable. “You know I keep things separate for a reason. For safety.”

She couldn’t believe this. How could he keep this from her after she’d asked him? “So what did he bring you?” she said. “Or is that a secret as well?”

Riley gestured to his computer tablet. “I was just about to look – and show you at our next meeting,” he added as she opened her mouth.

“It’s pretty serious, Rosie,” Pip said. “They’re building something big.”

“I’ll put it up.” Riley turned back to his desk. “Come have a look, since you’re here.”

Rosie paused. Pip, arms folded, had half-turned back to watch Riley. She crossed the room to stand behind Riley’s other shoulder. She was acutely aware that Pip was barely an arm’s length away. There was silence for a moment as Riley accessed the files. Rosie could feel Pip glancing at her and forced herself not to look.

“Here,” Riley finally said, and her attention was taken by the images on the screens.

These pictures of the base were much more detailed than before. The five habitat domes and a few smaller ones were in closer focus, but it was the massive hangar-sized shed that was most interesting. Now they could see piping fitted down the side of it, and a spherical structure on the roof, but what really got her were the parts people were pushing into it on trolleys.

“What are they?” she said. The parts were odd. Massive circular tubes, gleaming silver shards, and a lot of canvas-covered boxes. Some of the people had gloves on, as if the parts they were handling were too delicate to get dirty. Like it was serious tech.

“Whatever it is they’re making, it’s big,” Riley said. “I’ve got an idea, but …” He leaned forwards, studying the images. “I’ll have to look at these carefully to be sure. You said you had some thermal mapping as well?” he asked Pip.

“It’s all on the drive. Energy readings and a few close-ups of some of the staff. We could only isolate a couple, but Cassie’s pretty good at cleaning up the vision.” It sounded like grudging praise, but there was also another note in his voice when he said Cassie’s name that sent a jolt through Rosie. She glanced at him, but he was staring at the vision like he was deliberately avoiding her gaze.

“I’ll need some more gear to analyse this.” Riley pushed back his chair so they had to move. “I have to go downstairs to call Sun. Don’t mess with it while I’m gone.” He seemed oblivious to the tense air between the two of them. Pip walked a few steps towards the window.

Rosie had no idea what to say. The last time she’d seen him had been when he’d kissed her goodbye in a hospital corridor over three months ago. Unless you counted all those dreams. She held onto the back of Riley’s chair, scratching at the fabric.