The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) (37 page)

“As far as the Empire knows I am not, nor have I ever been, part of the Protectorate. So mine is in the Bus, along with Parker’s, Akiko’s, and yours,” Kiskei answered as he pushed the
G
on the elevator wall panel.

“Mine?” I said in confusion. “You can’t seriously be thinking of sending me in—”

Kiskei huffed out a sigh. “Of
course
not. But I’m also not going to leave the two of you in the Bus unprotected.”

I just stared at him. “I thought that’s why you were leaving Shawn with us.”

“In case Shawn’s not there,” Kiskei stated as he shifted his eyes sideways toward me.

“You’re expecting him to disobey orders,” I said in surprise.

“No, but I’m not betting against it, either,” he replied as he slipped his hands back into his
haori
pockets. The silver stars embroidered on the bottom of the dark blue fabric shimmering when they caught the light.

The elevator dinged and slid open, and Kiskei stepped out into the harsh light of the overhead LEDs.

As I followed after him, something occurred to me that made my heart skip a beat. “Wait, you said the two of us?” Had Parker told him?

“Yes, you and Akiko,” Kiskei called over his shoulder.

“Oh. Right.” So she
hadn’t
told him.

I continued to follow Kiskei as he made his way toward a large black tour bus that was alongside a few others. “Kiskei, there’s something I need to tell you about—” He paused next to one of the big black buses and looked back at me, and I lost my nerve. “—there’s a security code on the doors.”

Kiskei nodded as if he had expected it. “That is why you are blowing the power.”

“No, I mean one that won’t go down when the power does,” I clarified and his mouth dipped into a frown. “But I have the code. I just wanted you to be aware that there might be more traps,” I said quickly in case he was considering abandoning the plan.

“The thing you have to understand about me, Travis, is that I
always
expect it to be a trap,” Kiskei said before he pulled the door of the black tour bus, and held it open for me.

I walked up the steps in front of him, and realized that we were the last to arrive. And that “the Bus” was most definitely
not
your standard issue SF tour bus. I mean sure, it had a few seats along one side, but it also had a state-of-the-art computer station, a weapons wall, and a uniform rack.

I turned back, and glared at Kiskei. “This is not a bus.”

An amused smirk spread across his lips. “Of course it is,” he said as he passed me by. “On the outside.”

NUALLA

“F
ive…four…three…two…!”

As everyone cheered I held my breath, blinking back the tears, a strained smile plastered to my face. It was hard to be cheerful when the people who meant the most to me could be dead by morning.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder, and I turned, just as there was a loud
voom
noise and the banquet hall rolled into blackness. My heart squeezed in panic for a moment before I realized that this was just Travis’ plan launching into action.

“How are you holding up?” Alex asked with an amused smirk as he looked around the darkened room.

“If I have to keep pretending like everything is fine, I might just lose it,” I admitted flatly. “I hate this—this standing around and waiting to see if—” I couldn’t finish.

“I’m not too fond of it either,” my dad agreed with a slight frown.

“I don’t know how you do it,” I said with a heavy sigh as I looked at the Protectorate that had stepped in to assure guests that we were not under attack.

“It isn’t easy, and it never will be. But you’ll learn to do it well, just like every Galathea that has come before you.”

“But why? Why does putting on a brave face matter so damn much?”

Alex considered this for a long time before he answered. “Because
your
courage in the face of insurmountable odds gives others the strength they need to carry on.”

“So basically you’re saying we’re the only thing keeping the region from burning itself to the ground?” I asked with an ironic smile as the backup generator kicked in.

Alex barked out a short laugh. “Yes, I guess we are.”

“Maybe I should buy up stock in fire insurance, we’re going to need it when it’s my turn,” I mumbled sarcastically.

“Nualla, no one starts out being good at this job, it takes time.”

“I could have all the time in the world, and I still wouldn’t come close to good enough,” I grumbled sourly as I looked at the dancing which had started up again as if nothing had ever happened.

“
Mai chisaya astari
, I am not going anywhere yet,” my father said as he wrapped an arm around me like when I was a child.

I leaned back into his chest, and we just stood there, watching the people on the dance floor. All of them completely unaware of the danger that filled this night.

I Really Hope You Know What You’re Doing

Tuesday, January 1st

PATRICK

A
nd you’re sure she’ll get
the message?
I asked Aku as we laid on the top of the bed in the small cell-like room we had called home for twelve years.

She’ll get the message
, Aku stated confidently.

Okay, the sheer impossibility of this working aside, how can you be certain that she got—

With strange
hum
, the room went suddenly dark, and a loud
click
emanated from the door.

You were saying?
Aku said with a smirk to his voice.

I sat up quickly, looking over at the door as it retracted back into the wall.

“Well I’ll be damned,” I said, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

You really doubted Chan-rin that much?

Her? Never. You on the other hand…
I said as I stood up and walked toward the open door.

Aku huffed at me and then said,
Now that the power is out, you need to be prepared to run the second I tell you to.

I’m ready.

I stepped closer to the open doorway, and looked out into the corridor. A few of the test subjects—the Astari as Aku called them—peered groggily out of their doors. Apparently none of them wanting to be the first to step out.

A tall, dark-skinned guy took a cautious step out of his room, looking ready to punch the first thing that posed a threat to him.

That is Den
, Aku pointed out.

Is he our friend?

As close to a friend as you’re ever going to find in this place.

Good to know.

I stepped out of my room, and walked over to Den, shooting a glance at the others in the corridor. A slight Asian girl with a long ponytail trailing down her back. A stocky Filipino boy who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen. And a boy with blond curls who couldn’t have been more than ten. His features marking him as some variation of
happa,
just like me and Travis. All of them dressed in identical uniforms, the same uniform Chan-rin had been in when she collided with me in the lobby of The Embassy. A white, long-sleeved raglan shirt with black sleeves and pants fitted tightly to the body like a dry-fit sports outfit. The symbol that had been plaguing my subconsciousness adorning the back.

Den’s eyes finally settled on me, and he jerked his head in my direction. As I reached him, he looked around the corridor uneasily, mumbling something in Daemotic.

As I tried to figure out what he had said, a curvy girl with tanned skin and an unruly mane of black curls stepped through the open door of her room without caution of any kind. She flicked her eyes to either side down the corridor of cells, and then walked purposefully toward us.

“
Kono Aku ergo?
” she asked in Daemotic.

I just stared at her blankly. She rolled her black-blue eyes at me, and then asked with a heavy accent in English, “Is this Aku’s work? Or was it Var’s?”

“Not Var’s, though Var very much wishes it was,” a tall guy with a narrow face and pale blond hair that turned to dark honey as it reached his scalp said with an impressed smirk that made me a bit uncomfortable as he walked up to join us. But it was the mischievous glint in his eyes—one glass green and the other as black as night—that convinced me he was dangerous.

The girl looked over at him briefly before she arched her eyebrows at me, apparently still waiting for my answer.

“Chan-rin,” I mumbled unevenly.

The girl looked surprised for only a moment before she looked smugly over at Var. She said something in Daemotic to him, and he snorted a laugh.

Den scowled at the two of them before his eyes returned to me.

Who are these two?
I asked Aku.

Those are Chan-aya and Var
, Aku informed me.

Can we trust them?

I’ve been asking myself
that
for years.

So they’re dangerous?

Patrick, these are Astari, they are
all
dangerous.

And then I realized something horrible that I probably should have realized a long time ago.
Aku, these people—these Astari—they were the ones that released the titanium gas canisters in the attack on The Embassy that killed everyone, weren’t they?

He paused for a long moment before he answered,
No matter what, just remember who the
real
enemy is here.

“Aku?” Den asked uncertainly as he looked down at me.

I opened my mouth to say something, but froze when a girl stumbled out of her room right behind him. A pale girl with Norwegian blond and light-blue streaked hair cut sharply at a forty-five degree angle. A girl who
definitely
wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Oh, gods, Nikki,” I breathed as I pushed past him.

Aku, what is she doing here?!
I said in a panic.

I…I don’t know.

“Nikki!” I called out, but she didn’t turn at the sound. And that’s when I noticed the back of her head had been shaved, just at the base of her skull. They had chipped her.

I swallowed down the sick feeling rising up within me, and called out to her again. This time with the name Aku pushed into my head. “Chan-cen!”

She turned immediately, but her movements were sluggish—uncoordinated. I ran up to her, and grabbed her hand. Nikki looked up at me, her eyes unfocused and her cheeks bright with fever. She swayed on her feet, and fell into my chest. “Chan-cen does not feel so good,” she breathed out unevenly before she collapsed into me.

“Gods, Nikki, what did they do to you?” I said as I pulled her into my arms, cradling her head against my chest.

I looked up from Nikki to see Den standing in front of me. And then I heard it—the distinct sound of boot-covered feet coming down a corridor in the distance.
Lots
of boots.

“Den, get the Astari out of here,” I ordered as I shifted Nikki in my arms to get a better hold of her.

He cocked his head to one side in confusion.

“Den, run!”
Why is he just standing—

Because Den doesn’t know English, you
mossing
idiot! Try shouting
durana
instead!

I looked back at Den as the officers turned the corner, and entered our corridor. “Durana!”

TRAVIS

I
t was only twenty-five minutes
after midnight, but already Shawn was pacing back and forth. His fingers twitching just above the holsters of his TranqGuns. Akiko was sitting at the operations station beside me, diligently watching the video feeds, and vitals from the Amurai on the large monitor display in front of us and completely ignoring Shawn. But for me, his pacing was already ten minutes past what I could handle. Either he was going to snap or I was, but either way it wasn’t going to be pretty.

“This is ridiculous,” I said as I pushed my headset off of my ears and back onto my horns. “Shawn, go.”

“What?” he asked, his fingers finally moving away from his hips.

“It’s cruel to keep you from going in. And I just can’t be that person. So just go,” I said as I gestured toward the door of the Bus.

Shawn looked at me uncertainly as if he wasn’t sure he had heard me right.

I huffed impatiently, and looked him dead in the eye. “Shawn?”

“What?”

“Do you love Nikki?”

“More than anything,” he answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“Then
go
!”

“But Kiskei said—”

“Does it look like I give a
fuck
what Kiskei said?” I asked him with slight hysterical edge creeping into my voice.

Shawn didn’t wait to be told again—he just moved to the weapons wall, removed an Amurai-issue
katana
and
wakizashi
,
shoved them into position, and then marched to the door.

Just before he stepped out off the Bus I called out to him. “Hey!”

“What?” he asked, turning.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked as I tossed one of the digital headsets at him.

Shawn caught it, and slipped the digital glasses onto his face. He pressed one of the buttons on the side and the device flashed twice, signaling that both the audio comm and the camera were live. I gave him a thumbs up, and without another word he stepped out of the door, disappearing into the night before the door to the Bus even slammed closed.

I slid my headset back onto my ears and reached for the button, then I saw Akiko’s face.

“
What
?! His pacing was making me anxious, and me anxious is really
not
a good thing at this moment,” I pointed out defensively as I slid the headset back off.

Akiko glared daggers at me. “Kiskei ordered him
not
to go in.”

“Yeah, well Kiskei isn’t here right now, and he’s not
my
kaptaya
.”

Akiko continued to glare at me before she huffed and looked away. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she grumbled as she folded her arms across her chest.

“So do I,” I said as I pulled the headset back on to my ears.

Akiko stood, and walked to the weapons wall. Pulling a dual TranqGun holster from a hook on the wall, she strapped it to her hips and upper thighs.

“What are you
doing
?” I asked as I slid the headset back off my ears and onto my horns again.

“Well, being that you just sent our protector away,
someone’s
gotta be prepared to shoot the first Demoss that tries to come through that door,” she answered as she shoved a clip of tranq darts into the gun.

“Do you even know how to use
that
?”

“Of
course
,” Akiko said indignantly. “Just because I have vision problems doesn’t mean I wasn’t the best shot in my class.”

“You went through the Protectorate Academy?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Yep,” she replied as she shoved the first TranqGun into its holster.

“
When
?! When you were
twelve
?” I yelped dubiously.

“No at nineteen, same as everyone else,” she answered as if I was being stupid. And then she paused, and turned back toward me. “Wait, how old do you think I am?”

“Twenty?” I admitted with a grimace.

Akiko rolled her eyes at me. “I’m twenty-eight.”

And that’s when I realized that her periodic snarkiness wasn’t me rubbing off on her, but her true personality breaking through the innocent girl facade. Apparently Kiskei hadn’t just assigned me an assistant, he had assigned me a bodyguard.

“So you being my friend, that was all an act?” I asked accusingly, my eyes narrowed.

“No, of course not. Nothing’s changed, just now I’m your friend who knows how to shoot really fucking well,” Akiko replied as she shoved the second TranqGun into the holster.