The Star Dwellers (29 page)

“The generals?” Ben asks.

Anna shakes her head, her lips pursed.
“Unfortunately not. The others won’t support a trip to the Moon
Realm. We’ll be leaving secretly. Maybe having one star dweller
general in person will be enough to convince the moon dweller
VPs.”

“It’s a long shot.”

“It’s our only choice.”

Ben nods grimly in agreement. “How will you
get here?”

“The Resistance train line from subchapter
eight here. But to get there we’ll have to go through the tunnels.
We can’t risk using the public trains. They’re being watched.”

“Be careful.”

“We will.”

I can tell the call is wrapping up and there
are so many things I want to say to Adele, but I can’t bring myself
to do it in front of everyone. I wish we could talk privately.

“Mom, Dad,” Adele says. “Can Tristan and I
have a minute?” It’s like she read my mind.

“Of course,” Anna says. “Ben?”

“No problem from my side,” Ben says, giving
me a wry smile.

Anna and Tawni stand up to leave and I swear
Tawni flashes Roc a grin before moving out of the picture. I watch
Ben and Elsey walk out the door. Roc lingers for a minute, waiting
for them to exit, and then says, “Now, I don’t want any funny
business in here. I’ll leave a shoe in the door.”

I’m glaring at him, but I hear Adele
laughing. “Don’t worry, Roc,” she says, “no funny business—I
promise. And I’ll do some probing with Tawni, see what she thinks
of you.”

Roc’s brown skin flushes and he moves to the
door. “Uh, thanks,” he says before scrambling out.

“Thanks for getting rid of him,” I say when
Roc is gone.

“I knew that would do the trick.”

I smile at her. “I really have missed you,” I
say, feeling more comfortable sharing my feelings with each passing
second.

“I…wish you were here,” Adele says. Her words
sound sincere, but I can sense tentativeness behind them. “Look,
Tristan, something happened I need to tell you about.”

Here it comes, she’s not interested in
me,
I think, but I reply, “Adele, whatever it is, we will get
through it together.”

“There’s this guy…”

My heart sinks into my stomach. “Oh,” I
say.

“No, Tristan, it’s not like—”

“No, it’s okay. I understand. You barely know
me, I chased after you like some crazy stalker, I shouldn’t have
expected—”

“Will you shut up!”

The power in her voice makes me stop talking
and just stare at her. My heart hurts and my mind is blank. I wait
quietly to hear what she has to say about this guy.

“I like
you
,” she says, and her simple
words send tingles through my skin. I ignore them, waiting for the
but
…

Instead she says, “You, Tristan. Only
you.”

Huh?
“Maybe you should have started
with that,” I say and she laughs.

“I’m not very good with words,” she says, “a
side effect of not talking to humans for almost six months.”

“So you were talking to animals then…or
aliens?”

She laughs again, even though I know it’s not
one of my best jokes. It makes me like her even more. “Mostly
myself, and even then I only spoke in my head.”

I smile. “I’m not great with words either,” I
say. “Sometimes I just stick my foot in my mouth before I start
speaking to save myself the trouble later.”

I’m enjoying the conversation and I’m hoping
we can just keep talking like this, and not go back to the thing
about
this guy
, whoever he is. Or not. “So this guy…” Adele
says, and I cringe, waiting for the hammer to drop. “Stop it! It’s
not bad news, I promise.”

“Okay, just hit me with it quickly.”

Adele sighs.
“There’sthissergeantnamedBrodyandhetriedtokissme,” she says in a
rush.

I heard everything she said but only four
words really register:
tried to kiss me.
“What do you mean,
‘tried’?” I ask. Fire is pumping through my veins as I picture a
little squirt of a guy puckered up and leaning into Adele, trying
to sneak a kiss. And then my knuckles collide with his face,
knocking him into the next Realm.

“He was teaching me to shoot a gun—you know,
as part of my training—and then he just thought there was something
between us, so he tried to kiss me.” She rushes on, “But don’t
worry, I didn’t let him. I pulled away. It was nothing.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

“I just thought…we should be completely open
with each other. That is, if we’re serious about seeing each
other.”

I let out a deep breath that I realize I’ve
been holding in my chest. I’m relieved. It really sounds like it
was nothing, and she’s just trying to be honest with me. “Thank
you. I…I’m sorry if I overreacted. I’ve just had a lot of anger in
me lately. Because of my father.”

She smiles. “It’s okay, sorry about how
poorly I handled telling you. So we’re okay?”

“Most definitely. Now if we could just bring
peace to the Tri-Realms, perhaps we could go on a proper date.”

“Oh, is that all we have to do,” she
jokes.

“Yep, that’s it.”

The door opens and Ben says, “Sorry, we’re
out of time.”

“Adele, I have to go, but I’ll see you soon,
right?”

Her jaw is as firm as truth. “You can count
on it.”

M
y heart is beating
with all the strength of a miner’s sledge. Talking with Tristan was
incredible and reminded me all over again why I almost kissed him
back in the Moon Realm.

Tawni and my mom are waiting outside of the
conference room, chatting like best friends. My mom’s telling
stories of me as a kid and Tawni’s laughing. “There were mashed
beans all over the ceiling,” my mom says, her words mixing with her
laughter.

Tawni shrieks with laughter. “Somehow that
doesn’t surprise me,” she chuckles.

“Ha ha. I can hear you, ya know.”

“Oh, hi, honey,” Mom says, pretending she
just noticed me. “How’d everything go with…Tristan?” She raises her
eyebrows twice.

“Fine,” I grumble, wishing I’d never opened
up to her about my feelings for him. For some reason I thought now
that she’s a general she’d be cooler about boys. But no, she’s
still just acting like a mom.

“Well, you two are very cute together.”

“Mom! You haven’t even seen us together.”

“Call it Mom-dar. There are some things that
a mom just knows.”

“She’s right, you know,” Tawni says, not
helping things.

“Whatever,” I say, trying to brush them off
the subject. “When do we leave?”

“Anxious to go see Tristan?” Tawni says,
refusing to let it go. But this time I’ve got the perfect
comeback.

“How did I miss the sparks flying between you
and Roc?”

The crimson on Tawni’s face is worth every
word. “What? There’s nothing…we’re just friends.” Her voice is
about as believable as a politician’s.

My mom’s tone is back to business. “We’ll
leave immediately. There’s no point in trying again with the
generals—they just won’t budge. Go get your things and don’t tell
anyone where you’re going.”

“What about
Trevor
?” I say, not trying
to hide my sarcasm.

“He already knows and will be coming with us.
He’ll help you get ready and escort you to meet me.”

My face feels like it’s about to explode. How
can she trust that creep? I’ll be shocked if all the generals and
half the army aren’t waiting to arrest us. “Let’s go, Tawni,” I say
coldly.

I grab her hand and leave my mom without
saying bye. I’m just too angry.

We pass a few soldiers in the hallways but
they don’t speak to us, barely look at us. We’re just a couple of
random girls. We make it back to the bunkrooms, which are empty,
with all the female soldiers off doing whatever it is that they do
all day. Training, I guess.

For us, packing is like a thirty-second
process. Tuck everything into our small packs, fill our brand new
army-provided canteens, splash a little water on our faces, and
we’re ready to go. As we head for the door, I realize I’m missing
one important thing: the gun. The gun my mom gave me, the gun I
hope I never have to use. I’d rather just leave it hidden under my
pillow, forget it ever existed, that my mom ever thought it wise to
give it to me. But I can’t. It’s got her name on it. My name.

“One sec,” I say.

I throw the pillow back and reach for the
gun, but—

—it’s not there.

I pull back, alarm crossing my face. “What’s
the matter?” Tawni asks.

“My gun—it’s missing.”

Tawni’s brow furrows in that way that could
only look cute on her. “Maybe you already chucked it in the bag and
just forgot.”

I know I didn’t, but I check anyway. It’s not
there. Or in Tawni’s pack. Someone took it. No, not
someone
…

“Trevor!” I exclaim. “He must’ve stolen it
when he realized I was on to him. We’ve got to tell my mom right
away!”

Squinting, Tawni says, “Hold on a minute. We
don’t have any evidence. I know he’s been acting strangely, but
it’s quite a leap to say he’s stealing weapons now.”

She’s the voice of reason, as usual, but I
won’t be deterred—not this time. “I know it’s him, and I’m not
going to sit by while he screws up everything for us.”

I whirl around and storm toward the door, not
caring if Tawni follows.

I gasp and my eyes widen when I see him
standing before me, gun leveled at my head.

I freeze, my heart thudding in my chest.

Time seems to stop for a moment and I wonder
if it will be my last.

“Adele, you shouldn’t just jump to—” Tawni
starts to say and then stops, letting out a tiny squeal.

“Hello, ladies,” Brody says, standing in
front of the open door. I didn’t even hear it open when he came
in.

“You?” I breathe. I’m in shock. Why is Brody
of all people pointing a gun—no, not
a
gun,
my
gun, I
realize—at my head?

He laughs, deep and not at all friendly. Not
at all like the kind laugh I’d heard from him over the last two
days. “For being the daughter of such a smart woman you’re pretty
dense,” he says, sneering.

“I don’t understand,” I say.

“How could you?” Brody says. “I’ve had you
wrapped around my little finger from the moment I laid eyes on you.
I tend to have that effect on women.”

The arrogance on his face is chilling. Even
when faced with rejection, he thinks I was into him. “You’re the
spy,” I say, as I finally realize what’s happening.

“Obviously. You’ve been thinking Trevor the
whole time, right? You really should have trusted your mother’s
judgment more. But alas, hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I’m not a complex person, Adele. The sun
dwellers just pay more, that’s all. They buy weapons, food,
clothing, all of it.”

“You work for the sun dwellers? But why would
they want to fund a rebellion?” My mind churns through the facts,
trying to fit them all together.

“A rebellion? Ha! Hardly. The only thing
that’s happened so far is the Star Realm fighting with the Moon
Realm. A perfect opportunity for the Sun Realm to come in and
reestablish peace, stabilize the Tri-Realms, play the heroes. And
at the end of it all, the Sun Realm is stronger than ever and the
others…well, they’re more pliable than ever.”

My mind is racing. All along I thought we at
least had a chance if we could just agree on a common enemy. The
sun dwellers. The President. But now I find out the entire thing
has been orchestrated by the Sun Realm? I’m in complete shock—and
angry at myself for not putting two and two together; I knew
something wasn’t right about how well-supplied the star dwellers
were, if I only had more time I could have figured it out…

But I don’t—and I didn’t.

My feet are frozen to the ground. They may
never move again. And even if they could, what could I do against
Brody and my gun? If I tried anything he’d just shoot me between
the eyes. Suddenly it all makes sense why he offered to train me to
shoot. I thought he was being nice, trying to help me; but no, he
just wanted to show me that he doesn’t miss his target, so that
when the time came for this confrontation, I’d be afraid, frozen,
exactly like I am now. How could I be so stupid? So trusting?

Brody laughs again. “I see those cute little
wheels spinning, Adele. Have I blown your mind? I had no choice.
You were going to ruin everything with your rogue trip to meet with
the Moon Realm leaders, so I thought I’d just stop by and share
some information. You know, like any good friend would. And guess
what? There’s more, and this bit is for Tawni too.”

“This has nothing to do with her,” I say, my
jaw clenched. Despite the gun in my face, I’m feeling fierier all
of a sudden. He can do what he wants with me, but not Tawni. I
won’t watch another friend get hurt.

“Au contraire, my moon dweller friend. You
see, Tawni’s been beating herself up for a while because her
parents turned your parents in to the Enforcers, right? I mean,
that’s what started all of this. The Enforcers kicked down your
door, blah blah blah, grabbed your parents, blah blah, threw you in
prison, blah-blibbety-blah.” My fists clench and my leg muscles
tighten. The pleasure he seems to be getting from all of this is
really starting to piss me off.

“Get to the point,” I growl.

“Now, now. Temper, temper. My point is: Do
you really think Tawni’s parents figured it out all on their own?
I’m sure they’re very smart people, but no one knew your parents’
true identities except the Resistance. Well, it just so happened
that I’ve been an honored member of the Resistance for more than a
year now.”

I freeze. He did it. He tipped off Tawni’s
parents. I’m two seconds from rushing him, from taking my chances
with the gun, when I realize something.