The Glorious Becoming (63 page)

This mission was important. If Earth was in jeopardy, nothing else mattered. Not
Cairo
, not the reputation of EDEN, not the threat on Svetlana’s life or his feelings for her. If there truly was a conspiracy, if Benjamin Archer truly was working with the enemy, it had to be revealed. Beginning with Natalie Rockwell.

* * *

NOVOSIBIRSK

T
HE MACHINE WAS
awash with the flashes of muzzle fire and streaking ammunition. EDEN squadrons buzzed
Novosibirsk
’s airspace. The Machine’s fighters never got off the ground—they were covered in every direction. Like ants from a ruptured mound, Nightmen poured from
Novosibirsk
’s main facilities.

Travis and the
Pariah
were in the middle of it. As the Nightmen defenses mustered around the airstrip, he, Tiffany, and Flopper found themselves in the middle of the crossfire. Bullets zinged off the
Pariah
’s hull as EDEN and the Nightmen met head on. With Flopper cowering at his feet, Travis situated himself in the pilot’s seat and commed the rest of the unit. “This whole place is under attack! We’re stuck in the
Pariah
!”

T
HE BARRACKS WERE
as chaotic as the surface. The Nightmen were in a frenzy as whole units scrambled to throw on their armor. The building shook with vibrations of explosions.

Dostoevsky burst into Room 14 just as Travis’s message came through. Everyone was already gearing up—instinct.

“Yuri, what the hell’s going on?” David asked.

The fulcrum captain had everyone’s attention. “EDEN is attacking
Novosibirsk
!”

“EDEN?”
asked Becan shockingly.

Dostoevsky switched to Max’s frequency. “Max, can you hear me?”

O
N THE OTHER
end of the line, Max and Svetlana bolted for the infirmary exit. With every earth-shaking boom, the pair struggled to maintain their footing. “We’re here!” Max answered. “We’re on our way to you!”

“I do not understand,” Svetlana said. “Why would EDEN do this?”

“I’ll give you three guesses,” answered Max, “and they’re all Strom Faerber!” Shoving the exit doors open, Max took two steps before skidding and turning around. He pushed Svetlana back inside.
“Go back! Go back!”
Seconds later, one of
Novosibirsk
’s guard towers toppled in front of the exit.

* * *

CAIRO

S
WEAT POURED FROM
Esther’s body. The room suddenly felt suffocating.

Giro watched her in silence, waiting for her to speak. When she failed to, he motioned to the guards. “Take Miss Lee into custody.”

“Okay, wait,” Esther said, reaching out with her hand. The guards drew their handguns; she raised her hands in the air. “I’ll talk, I’ll talk! My name
is
Calliope Lee, but I’m not from
Sydney
.”

“You expect me to believe that you infiltrated an EDEN base under your real name?” Giro asked.

“It’s the truth,” she said, “I was sent here by EDEN Command. I’m a security specialist. There have been concerns about the soundness of Confinement facilities in major EDEN bases. I’m an
audit
, Holmes. I’m a test.”

S
COTT SLOWED
, staring at the hills in the distance. Beneath the light of the full moon, the desert’s surface looked blue. It looked magical.

There was nothing else to think about, nothing else to consider.
Do it.
She was standing two feet behind him, silent and still. Waiting for him.
Do it, Scott.
Before his brain could wrap itself around the magnitude of what he was about to say, he began. “Natalie, I need to tell you something.” He was trembling. Even his words shook. Natalie remained silent. “If I sound nervous, you have to forgive me.”

“It’s okay,” she said, her own voice quivering. She took a step closer. “I’m listening...”

“I
’VE ALREADY BEEN
to
Berlin
and
Dublin
,” Esther said. “I was able to infiltrate both facilities, just like I was able to infiltrate yours. That you’re the first to actually uncover me speaks volumes.”

Canting his head, Giro asked, “So you’re a security specialist sent by EDEN Command?”

Esther sighed in defeat. “Yes. That’s who I am.”

“What judge sent you?”

Freezing, Esther stared across the room. Her mouth hung. It took her several seconds to reply—with the only name of a judge that she knew. “Benjamin Archer.”

Giro looked at the guards immediately. “Put a call through to EDEN Command, to Judge Archer. I want this verified right now.”

The guard nodded. He reached for his comm.

In that moment, every ounce of hope inside of Esther evaporated. The call would go through, her identity would be refuted, and she would be apprehended. Her true identity—Esther Brooking—would be discovered. She’d be traced to
Novosibirsk
, to the Fourteenth. To Scott, to Auric, to Boris, to Jayden. Everything was about to explode. There was nothing she could do.

Except for one thing.

S
COTT’S BACK WAS
still to Natalie. “If something was right, and you knew it was right, would you do it even if the rest of the world disagreed?” Scott asked.

Natalie’s breathing grew heavier. “Yes. Yes, I would. In a second.”

It was time. “Nat.” Turning around, his lips parted to confess. But they didn’t have a chance. Scott’s eyes widened as she came against him, body to body, mouth to mouth. She was kissing him.

“No!”
He mumbled, grabbing her arms and pushing her away. “Natalie, no! That’s not what this is about!”

E
STHER DASHED AT
the rightmost guard. He flinched and drew his sidearm—the other guards jumped. Sliding and thrusting her foot forward, she dislocated his knee. As he screamed and fell, she wrenched the pistol from his hand.

Shocked, the other guards tried to train their weapons. The scout was too fast. She fired; the other inner guard’s faceplate burst open. Diving to the open door, she rolled to the ground right between the outer guards just as they fired. Flinging her leg over her head and into one of the guard’s faces, her high heel crushed his visor. He stumbled back as Esther focused on his partner, whose handgun was already trained. She dropped into a split as he shot; his bullet struck his disoriented partner. Esther whipped up her pistol and fired; the fourth guard fell. Leaping to her feet, she trained her weapon on Giro. His hand was frantically searching his desk for his panic button.

“Don’t!”
she screamed.

It was too late. The scientist’s palm slapped upward. The overhead lights dimmed as red emergency lights flashed down the hall. A ring filled the air.

Esther marched gun-first toward him.
“Get back! Back against the wall!”
The terrified Giro and Janice complied. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

“Let her go,” cried Giro, pointing to Janice. “I know you came for me.”

Water brimmed in Esther’s eyes. “We
never
came for you!” She motioned to his office closet. “Both of you,
inside
!” They crammed obediently into the closet’s small space. Breaking off the knob, she slammed the door shut.

Toward the front of the room, the fallen guard whose knee Esther had dislocated crawled painfully toward one of the pistols on the floor. A final shot from Esther ended his quest. Janice screamed in the closet.

Ditching her high heels, Esther dipped down and swapped her pistol with one that had full ammo. A black maxi dress wasn’t the best option for moving quickly, but at least it wasn’t a cashmere suit. Weapon in one hand and comm in the other, she bolted out of the office.

S
COTT GAPED AT
Natalie. She looked confused, panicked. Her face was flushed red. “I thought you were...” Her words trailed off confusedly.

Scott opened his mouth to speak, but his comm cut him off.

“Commander, it’s Brooking!”

The voice was Esther’s. Why was she comming him?

“Commander!”
she screamed again.

Growling irritably, Scott jerked up his comm. “Not a good time, Ess.”

“I’m locked out of my room!”

Scott’s eyes widened. Time slowed down. That was their code—their code for total mission failure. For immediate recall. In the background from Esther’s end, he could hear the ring of alarms. Urgent alarms, as if alerting of something serious. Like a security breach. Scott’s throat tightened.

Natalie was still flummoxed. “Scott, what...?”

How could this be happening? Total mission failure. It had to be a mistake!

“Commander, please tell me you copy this!”
Esther yelled.

Like the flipping of a switch, Scott’s entire countenance changed. “I copy, Brooking. Sit tight!”

“Locked out of her room?” asked Natalie. She was beet red. She had no idea what was going on. She was still flustered from the kiss. And probably eager to disappear. He would give her her wish.

“You don’t happen to have your officers’ keycard on you, huh?”

Avoiding eye contact, she nodded. “Yeah, it should be in my pocket.” Her voice was subdued—spinning. After a moment of digging, she felt them in her fatigues. “Who’s locked out? Brooking?”

“Yes. Yes, that was Brooking.”

“Do you want me to—”

He nodded quickly. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay. It’s okay.” She looked away from him. “I’ll open her room.”

He’d affected her. The worst part was that he didn’t have time to care. “Nat...”

She waved his words off. “Scott—I’m so sorry. I’m...” She looked on the verge of tears. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Turning away with her face down, she walked hurriedly away.

I’m the one who’s sorry, Nat. I hope one day you forgive me.
As soon as she was away from him, Scott whipped up his comm and queued in the others. “Auric, Jay, Boris, get on private channel.” Seconds later, the three signed on. “Where are you guys?”

“Boris and I are in our room,” Jayden said.

“I’m in mine, too,” said Auric.

Scott’s voice was shaking. “Esther’s locked out of her room.”

There was a distinct pause, until Jayden said alarmingly, “Holy veck, are you serious?”

“Esther, where are you?” Scott asked, queuing her in.

The scout’s voice was panicked. “I’m in Confinement!”

“Auric, gear up and go after her.”

“On my way.”

“I need a sodding plan!” Esther screamed. Gunfire erupted over her comm.

Scott growled. “Boris, you’ve got network access. Help her out!”

“Da, captain!”

Everything was happening too fast. He needed to focus.
The slayers Antipov sent to Cairo to help us evacuate. I need to contact them. Antipov wrote their frequency on...

...on a piece of paper. On top of his dresser. Back in his room. Scott stuck his fingers through his hair. “Boris,” he said through his comm, “can you unlock my room with your stuff?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Do that, then start heading to me. I’m en route to one of our ships to start getting it prepped. Jay, I want you to go to my room and look on top of my dresser for a little slip of paper with a frequency on it. Call that frequency and tell them we need immediate evac—tell them who you are and that you’re with me.” He didn’t want Jayden to relay the frequency to him over the comm in the outside chance that someone was listening. Their current chatter didn’t matter—it was the frequency itself Scott wanted to protect. He had no choice but to trust Jayden to come through.

“Yes, sir!” the Texan answered.

“Everyone still has their weapons, right?” They affirmed. “Don’t leave them behind! Forget your armor unless you’re geared up already—we don’t have the time.” Raising his comm to his lips, Scott queued up The Machine; he needed to get them scrambling to
Cairo
. “Remington to Nov-Com.” Nothing. “Remington toNovCom.” Where were they? “Remington to Thoor!” Still, no response came. Grinding his teeth, Scott adjusted his comm. “Travis!
Veck
, someone come in!”

The comm crackled. Travis’s voice emerged amid the sound of chaos. “—attack, man!”

Attack? What? “I did not receive, come again!”

There was a burst of reception. “I said we’re under attack!”

“Under
attack
? What’s under attack?”

“The base! The base!”

He didn’t have time for them to be under attack! He needed someone en route to
Cairo
! “
Novosibirsk
can handle Noboats, Trav! We need someone here now!”

“It’s EDEN, Scott! We’re under attack by
EDEN
!”

Slowly, Scott’s stomach fell.

* * *

NOVOSIBIRSK

B
ACK IN ROOM
14, Dostoevsky rallied the Fourteenth. “Everyone here and on channel, listen! The four main turret towers have been destroyed, as hasNovCom. Multiple units have confirmed the presence of Captain Faerber and Vector Squad on the surface, and emergency stations have verified radio traffic from Jon Mariner and his squadron, the Flying Apparatus.”

“Why the hell would EDEN attack its own people?” asked Becan frantically.

Max answered over the roar of explosions near the infirmary. “This is retaliation, Becan. Why do you think Faerber’s here? You and I are collateral damage.”

Before anything else could be said, Travis chimed in. “Guys, I just got a comm from Scott in
Cairo
asking for immediate evac!”

Svetlana answered from the infirmary. “Evac? Why?”

“I don’t know—I didn’t have a chance to ask!”

Raising his hand for silence, Dostoevsky adjusted his comm for Scott’s channel. He placed the call on speaker. “Scott, this is Yuri. Come in!”

* * *

CAIRO

S
COTT WAS RUNNING
full speed toward
Cairo
’s hangar when Dostoevsky came through. “Scott here! Talk to me, Yuri!”

“All of
Novosibirsk
is under attack. Faerber is here with Vector Squad. This must have something to do with his son.”