Betrothed Episode One (23 page)

“
For being so reliable. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you,” she
said when we finally reached the outside of the
building.

There
was a strong wind, and it caught the ends of her hair, sending them
tumbling over her shoulders and the collar of her plain
tunic.

I
allowed myself to get distracted by her hair so I didn’t have to
appreciate her sentiment.

“
Mark, I’m so sorry. What was I thinking? You’re the most
trustworthy guy in this whole universe, aren’t you?”

“
Hmm,” I managed.

Most trustworthy guy in the universe? She wouldn’t be saying
that if she knew I was a graft. Then again, simple little Annie
Carter would have no idea what a graft was, just as she had no idea
what a stalker was. If she’d had even the slightest clue, she would
have realized an Illuminate could never have sent one after her;
the Illuminates were sworn to track down every last stalker and
eliminate them from the universe. But that’s what would make this
mission simple, right? Annie knew nothing. She was like leading
around a deaf, blind, dumb assed sheep.

Even as
I entertained that thought, I frowned. Or some part of me frowned.
Whatever vestige of humanity remained under my graft.

“
Where are you taking me anyway?” She asked after a lengthy
pause.

“
Somewhere safe,” I repeated, dropping her gaze and pretending
to focus on the horizon instead.

“…
Where?” She pressed.

I darted
my gaze towards her, looking for any hint she’d seen through my
lie.

No, she
was just curious.

I turned to her, grabbed up her hand, and patted it. “Annie,
you’ve just got
to
trust me. Can you do that?”

Her eyes
watered with tears. “Yes, of course I can.”

“
Atta girl,” I said condescendingly.

Annie
didn’t notice, and just smiled back at me. Because that’s what
Annie was like. Sure, she knew nothing about this universe, and she
had the courage and ability of a bunny rabbit. But for all those
faults, she made up for them with kindness.

She
wanted to believe the best in people.

But
sometimes, you shouldn’t. Because sometimes people weren’t good.
Like me, they’d had the good surgically removed and the bad grafted
over whatever remained.

The wind
picked up again, whistling over the bare rocky expanse that reached
from the cluster of buildings to the security fence in the
distance.

I
glanced toward the fence, then shifted my head and looked over my
shoulder.

Why had simple sweet stupid Annie Carter gone to this
long-range communication facility? More to the point, how the heck
had she broken
in
?

These
places had secure defenses, and it wasn’t as if you could just walk
in and knock on the door.

I wanted
to ask her, but I knew the answer: the ability. The same ability I
had suppressed with the use of the so-called medication.

I wanted
to ask her what it was; I burned to know how Annie, of all people,
could hack through the security of Cluster. But I wasn’t allowed to
know, and I knew asking wouldn’t help; Annie would have no idea
what was happening to her.

Still, I
let my gaze dart over the buildings behind. The massive satellite
arrays were clustered in the middle with a high thin tower between
them.

My eyes
narrowed. I swore I could see a black dot in the distance, past the
tower, maybe a good 50 km away. Ordinary human eyes wouldn’t have
been able to pick it out, but I was far beyond ordinary.

I
stiffened and stopped.

Annie
walked several steps before she realized I’d paused. She turned,
hair playing across her cheeks as she stared at me inquiringly.
“What’s the matter?”

I
focused in on that black dot as it became larger and
larger.

It was a
ship.

Christ,
it was a ship.

Instinctively I reached for the gun behind me, grabbing it
off my back and whipping it around, thumbing the charge
button.

“
Mark?” Alarm punched through her tone.

“
Get down,” I hissed.

This gun
could take down a stalker in two shots, so I hoped like hell it
would work against that ship.

The ship
darted towards me, and I let off a shot, but despite my skills, I
wasn’t quick enough; the ship darted out of my bullet’s
path.

As the ship neared at a blistering pace, I realized it looked
like a prototype. Modular in design, it was made of sleek white
blue metal. Even though it was still a good 20 km away, I could
detect the insignia along its side: Foundation Special
Forces.

Christ.
That was a prototype ship, one with a prototype AI.

Was
somebody else after Annie?

I darted
back, shunting the gun into my shoulder as I steadied the barrel
and fired off another round.

Taking
pot shots at a prototype ship was insane, but I didn’t have any
choice.

I heard
Annie fall onto the ground beside me, I even heard her throw her
hands over her head and dig her trembling fingers over her
face.

Suddenly
I felt a tingle erupt through my body. It was one I knew
well.

Somebody
was trying to transport me.

Trying,
but failing.

I was a graft, and if I didn’t want to be transported, I
wouldn’t be. There were enough sophisticated devices grafted onto
my body and implants embedded into my brain that I could disrupt a
transport signal with ease.

The
effect would also work on Annie, as long as she stayed close to my
side.

Should
she wander off by 10 or so meters, my dampening field would be
ineffective.

“
Annie, stick close,” I screamed as I kept on trying to take
shots at the ship.

I’d been
able to tackle the stalker because it had been distracted and
hadn’t thought I’d be able to kill it in two shots.

I’d had
the element of surprise.

This
time, I didn’t have that on my side. This time, I was the one being
hunted.

I swore
again, stumbling back as I tried to use my sophisticated senses to
track the ship.

I
suddenly realized that if Annie hadn’t been by my side, this ship
would have transported her away long ago.

I’d been
an idiot.

Walking
her across open ground, that was a rookie’s mistake.

The
prototype ship was now close enough that I could smell its
propulsion drives.

I
watched Annie shudder back, practically banging into my side. Then
her terrified expression slackened. “Isn’t that … my
ship?”

My head
swung around as I stared at her. “Your ship?”

The ship
kept circling us at a distance.

It was
waiting for a clear shot, wasn’t it?

It may
be a prototype ship, but its weapons were too high yield. It
wouldn’t be able to take me out without threatening Annie at the
same time.

I darted
towards Annie, grabbing her by the wrist.

“
What are you doing?” She squealed.

“
Keeping you safe,” I lied.

I was
saving my own ass.

“
Annie,” a voice boomed out from the ship. “I am the AI of
this vessel.”

“
The computer?” Annie stuttered.

I held
onto Annie’s wrist tighter and tighter.

“
You programmed me to warn you of Lieutenant Mark
Havelock.”

“
Warn me?” Annie’s voice shook.

“
Don’t listen to it,” I shouted, “I’m the only one who can
keep you safe, Annie.”

“
He is dangerous,” the AI repeated as the ship swung above
us.

I
brought my gun forward and took a shot at it.

The
blast sailed past its hull, not even searing the
paintwork.

I tightened my grip on Annie’s wrist again, until she
squealed. “Mark, you’re hurting me.”

“
We have to get away from here.” I kept her right beside me as
I walked backwards, gun pointed at the ship.

Rather
than head towards my own vessel, I backed away towards the
long-range communication facility.

“
You cannot trust him,” the AI repeated. “You must
escape.”

Annie’s
eyes were open wide, her irises shaking with fear and
surprise.

I pulled
her along. If I could make it inside the building, maybe I had a
chance. The ship wouldn’t dare bombard it while Annie was
inside.

“
Annie, you’ve got to trust me,” I said through bared teeth as
I pulled her along.

“
You must escape,” the AI retorted.

On the
word escape, I felt Annie shiver.

So I
pulled her along harder.

I wasn’t
going to lose.

…

Anna
Carter

What was
going on?

What was
happening?

Mark’s
grip dug into my wrist like it was steel beams pushing into the
flesh.

He kept
pulling me along like he was dragging dead weight.

“
Hurry up,” he hissed to me, “run.”

That
ship – my ship – kept circling us.

The AI
had told me I shouldn’t trust him.

But …
Mark was my rock, wasn’t he?

Suddenly
my mind filled with doubt, the same doubt that had seen me escape
that makeshift hospital.

If Mark had only ever been trying to keep me safe, why had he
pretended I was Miranda? Why not admit the truth back then? Why not
tell me I was Annie Carter, I was betrothed to Illuminate Hart, and
it was imperative I be kept
away
from that man?

No.

Suddenly I remembered the look in Mark’s eyes every time he
lied to me. That distant cold calculating
look
.

And the
way he twitched every time I’d mentioned my betrothal
contract.

Could I
trust this man?

He kept
pulling me forward with a vicious force.

He was
so strong.

So incredibly strong. This didn’t feel like fighting somebody
twice my size; it felt like fighting a ship.

And come
to think of it, the way he shot so blithely at my vessel defied a
keen eye. Several times he’d almost struck it.

It hadn’t been potluck; he’d been aiming.

An
ordinary man couldn’t aim at a darting ship.

What was
going on here?

“
You must escape,” the computer told me, its voice echoing
over the rocky terrain as Mark dragged me towards the buildings.
“He is employing dampening technology and I cannot transport you in
his presence. You must escape, you must escape.”

Dampening technology?

“
Annie, trust me,” Mark said through clenched teeth, his voice
sounding like a hiss of steam.

Trust
him?

I had to
decide, didn’t I?

Could I
trust Mark?

I suddenly realized why it was I’d escaped that hospital in
the first place.

It
hadn’t been me; it had been the vision.

But now
the vision was gone. No more pain, no more shadows darting before
my eyes.

In fact,
the vision went when Mark had appeared.

Could
those two facts be connected?

If the force behind my hallucinations
was
still present, wouldn’t it be
telling me – no forcing me – to run?

As I
questioned that, as I pushed myself into that thought, I also
pushed myself into that sense. The strange one. The one that went
beyond the fluxing visions in my mind. That deeper, wider, longer
sense of premonition that sat right within my middle.

The one
that had warned me something was coming every time I looked up at
the horizon and those three perfectly shaped moons.

I
settled my awareness on it.

Fear
sparked out of it, traveling fast through my belly like electric
shocks to the flesh.

I
suddenly stopped, trying to pull myself back against Mark’s
grip.

He
stiffened, turning his head over his shoulder as he glared at
me.

I’d never seen an expression like that. Not on Mark. It was
hatred, anger, some cold terrifying violence.

And it
answered all my questions.

“
Let me go,” I said, voice pitching into a scream. “Let me
go.”

“
Fine, I can drag you,” Mark snapped.

Then he
brought his hand around in a punch.

It
didn’t connect.