1942664419 (S) (26 page)

“No welcoming party?” I asked.

“It’s strange. Someone should have come, even if just to warn us to evacuate.”

“Maybe everyone else left already?”

“I doubt it. That skipper ship is waiting for someone. Stay close.”

We slipped through the door and into one of the long, dark, gray corridors. David slid his hands into the wall.

“Can you actually see anything when you do that?”

“No. It’s more of a sensory thing, like flying the ship.” He pulled his hands-free. “Detention is three levels below us.” His cheeks flushed, showing the lavender hues hidden beneath.

“What’s wrong?”

“Now I know why no one met us when we landed. They know we will go for your father.”

“And?”

“There’s only one way in and one way out of the detention area. We’re walking into a trap.”

A wave of nausea flooded me. I breathed deeply and gulped it away. Trap or no trap, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t abandoning my father again.

“We knew what we were getting into. Let’s do this.”

He slid his hands around my waist. “Stay beside me. No matter what.”

I nodded, and David tightened his grip. The floor liquefied beneath our shoes. Frigid liquid splashed my face before we plummeted into searing heat in the levels below.

Nematali had warned me Erescopian temperatures could hurt my lungs. I held my chest and dabbed the sweat from my brow with my sleeve. “Dang. No wonder you were always freezing on Earth.”

“Are you going to be all right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but let’s find my dad and get out of here as fast as we can.”

We moved down the hallway. David stopped every few yards, staring at the wall and walking a few more steps.

“What are you looking for?”

“Your father. What do you think?” He stopped abruptly and edged closer to a partition. “This one.”

This one what?
It was a wall. The same wall he stared at a few minutes ago.

“There’s someone in there with him.”

Oh, God.
Every prayer I could remember sped through my mind as David pressed his hands against the barrier separating us from my father. The wall liquefied, separated, and we stepped through.

Dad stood in the back of the room, pointing at someone in the shadows. “You’re not getting anything out of me, so go ahead and do whatever it is you’re going to do.”

“Dad!” I sprang toward him, but David grabbed my arm.

Nematali stepped out of the shadows. “Are you insane? There are guards posted at all the exits.”

“We couldn’t leave him here,” David said.

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s exactly what they were counting on. They are not interested in this human, or any human. They want you, Tirran Coud.”

Ice riddled my veins.

“You can’t keep me here forever,” Dad said, pressing against the air like one of those mimes in Central Park.

I wiggled around David, ran to Dad, and thumped against … something. A clear liquid sheen rained around my father like water flowing down a shower curtain: a million tiny, clear droplets, but solid as brick. Dad didn’t react. Couldn’t he see me?

Dad glowered at Nematali. “My men won’t leave me behind. You know that. Why don’t you just evac like the rest of your pansy-ass friends?”

“Why didn’t you let him out?” I asked.

Nematali shook her head. “I’ve been trying to, but he keeps attacking me. Something is wrong with his mind. He thinks he’s somewhere called Iraq.”

My heart fluttered. Dad’s eyes narrowed to slits. Calm, focused, and in control—Major Tomás Martinez—not Dad. He couldn’t see me. In his mind, he was somewhere else.

PTSD. Oh, God. No.

Pages of literature flooded my memories: signs to look for, forms of treatment, things Mom and I had to do to keep my father safe from himself.

He’d jump when he heard loud noises. He’d react crazily over nothing. He’d called me Natalie and grabbed his head like it hurt. He’d admitted to mourning some kid named Colin Masters who’d died under his command. How could I have been so blind?

With Mom gone, Dad was my responsibility. I’d forgotten about the dangers of being a soldier. Dad had been suffering, and I’d been so wrapped up in myself that I’d missed it.

David stepped beside me and elevated his hand to the glass. My father winced and massaged his temples.

“His mind runs too quickly,” David said. “He sees images that aren’t here.”

I didn’t need David to read Dad’s mind to see that I should have gotten him help. I’d failed my father. Again.

Tears pooled in my lashes as I clutched David’s tee-shirt. “I need to get him home. He needs a doctor.”

“We’ll get him home.” David’s gaze trailed to Nematali. “If he gets out, he has three different ways planned to snap your neck.”

She winced and rolled her shoulder. “That’s why I put him back in there. He’s quite lethal, for a human.”

“Why can’t he see us?” I asked.

David returned his gaze to the glass. “At the moment, his eyes are only processing Nematali Carash, or whoever he thinks she is.” He glanced at me. Dozens of emotions swirled through his eyes. “Your father is a seasoned soldier. A leader of men.”

“Yeah, so?”

David’s lip twitched. He gulped and looked away. “Forgive me.”

Heaviness swelled in my ribcage. “Forgive you for what?”

He turned back to the cell, and my father dropped to his knees. A scream bellowed from Dad’s lips, ricocheting off the flowing walls encasing him.

My heart pummeled. I banged on the liquid glass. “Dad!”

He clawed at his temples. His voice grew raspy.

Stunned, I stared until his screaming stopped.

David covered his eyes.

Dad dropped his hands to the floor and breathed heavily.

Shaking, I turned to David. “What did you do?”

“I enforced the dementia.”

Bile rose in my throat. “Enforced? Shouldn’t you have tried to take it away?”

He gripped my shoulders. “Nematali Carash is right. We’re going to have to fight our way back to our ship.”

“So what?”

“I’m only a scientist, Jess. I’ve never been a soldier. I can’t get us out of this.” He glanced at Dad pushing himself to his feet. “But maybe he can.”

33

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

“Release him,” David said to Nematali, backing away from Dad.

She raised an eyebrow. Her hand rose to her neck.

“It will be all right,” David said. “I just need a moment to figure out who he thinks we all are.”

Frowning, Nematali touched the wall, and the liquid glass melted into the floor. Dad lunged for her.

“No!” I shouted.

David pulled him back. “She’s not the enemy.”

“She is,” Dad said. “She locked me up in here.”

“No, she’s with us. She’s—our inside contact.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”

David nodded, and Dad turned to Nematali. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did. You were too busy trying to kill me.”

I stiffened when Dad’s gaze drew to me. “Where did the civilian come from?”

My stomach twisted. Didn’t he recognize me?

“We have orders to evacuate all noncombatants, sir,” David said.

Dad scowled and turned away. How could he not recognize his own daughter?

The floor quaked. Dad jolted to attention. “This area is insecure. We need to move.”

David nodded. “This way.”

He waved us on. Nematali and I fell in line behind David and Dad, moving in tandem. I stumbled as the shaking in the floor increased. Part of the wall shimmered and dripped to the ground.

“That can’t be good,” I whispered.

Dad plastered himself to the side of the wall and peeked around the corner. He pulled back and splayed his palm, silencing us.

My chest constricted as he leaned out a fraction of an inch and drew back. Taking a deep breath, he pointed at Nematali and me and then to the floor.

Stay here. Got it.

He motioned David forward, and they disappeared around the bend. Sounds of a scuffle filled the corridor.

Thomp.

The deep, echoing sound seeped into my bones. My heart skipped a beat. Voices cried out.

“Masters!” Dad called.

Thomp.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran around the corner.

David stood beside an unconscious Erescopian. Dad pulled a silver disk out of the limp grasp of another alien and handed it to David, then snatched a black cylinder the length of his forearm out of the arms of another.

I inched beside David. “What happened?”

His wide eyes didn’t leave Dad. “I’ve never seen a human move so fast. I was standing right here, watching everything he did, and I’m not sure I could describe it to you.” David gulped. His cheek flushed deep violet. “Remind me to never anger your father.”

Nematali knelt beside an Erescopian and placed her fingers on the center of his torso. She glanced at Dad, agape. “He’s dead.”

Dead?

“We need to keep moving.” Dad slung the cylinder thingy over his shoulder. “Masters, take up the rear. Keep the civilians moving.”

A shiver ran through me. Masters, as in Colin Masters. Dad thought David was the kid who died under his command. What had David done to his mind? Could we ever bring my real dad back?

As we scuttled down the hallway, the air seemed to darken and thicken.

The ambassador’s voice warbled from the walls. “Tirran, Tirran, Tirran. You’ve made me quite unhappy.”

David closed his eyes and blanched.

The walls wavered with the tone of the ambassador’s voice. “I can’t get the ingredients off this ship, but of course you knew that. I want the powder you stole, Tirran.”

A barrier rose from the floor ahead of us.

“Fall back,” Dad shouted.

I fought to control my breathing as we dashed down the hall and around a corner.

Dad nestled us into a divot in the wall. “What’s this powder he’s talking about?”

David shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s destroyed.”

“I’m going to take for granted that’s a good thing.” Dad checked the hall to the left. “Where’s the pick-up point?”

“We need to get up three floors to the hangars. We’re going to have to commandeer a ship.”

“We don’t have a pilot.”

“I’m a pilot,” David said.

Dad’s eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t in your personnel file.”

David shrugged. “I guess they made a mistake.”

“I can fly as well,” Nematali said.

“Good.” Dad leaned out and checked left and right. “We might need both of you.” He slid the cylinder off his shoulder and into his arms.

David thrust his silver disk outward. His hand trembled.

The last time I’d seen one of those disks in action was on the battlefield when the human race almost bought the farm. When a disk fired off a few feet from me, a soldier had fallen as if he’d been shot.

“Have you ever used one of those?” I asked.

David glanced at the silver circle. “I was hoping I’d never have the opportunity.”

Thomp.

The air around us swirled.

“Get down!” Dad pulled David down on top of me as a surge of heated air blew over our heads.

Thomp.

A cavern formed in the wall beside us. The molten metal seemed to moan and growl.

Dad pulled us to our feet. “Move. Move. Move. Move. Move!”

“This way!” David pulled us all into a group, and the floor gave way beneath us as David opened an alien elevator. We fell through a whoosh of tepid air and landed in a pile on the floor.

Dad checked the area, pointing the cylinder at all angles. “Clear!” He helped David up. “I’m not gonna ask how you did that, private.”

“The only problem is, now we need to get four floors up rather than three.”

Dad’s gaze scanned the ceiling. “Damnedest elevator I ever saw.”

Distant, muffled voices bounced off the walls. Stomping feet echoed through the corridor.

A grimace coated Dad’s features. “We need cover.”

“Here.” Nematali pushed us down the hallway toward the voices.

“Are you nuts?” Dad asked.

“Hardly.” She tapped the wall to our right, and a door opened. We squeezed inside, and the entrance closed over.

“What is this?” Dad asked.

“Supply closet.” She sunk her hands into the wall and pulled out canisters, handing one to each of us. “Water.”

“How secure is this location?” Dad asked.

“Secure enough, if we don’t call attention to ourselves.”

Dad eased to the floor and breathed deeply. His brow furrowed as he sipped his canteen.

Did he still think he was in Iraq? What did he see around him, if not alien tech-stuff?

He motioned David toward him. “There’s some strange crap going on here.”

David seemed to hold back a smile. “You could say that. We can’t stay here long. Conditions are—” He glanced at the wall beside him as it shifted toward the floor like melting butter. “Deteriorating.”

“I see that. You seem to know your way around. What’s the best way out?”

“Up. But the enemy knows that. We’re going to have to fight our way through.”

Dad nodded. “Give the women a minute to rest. Then we move.”

The women? My fists clenched, but I forced down my need to mouth off. I wasn’t a soldier. Not by a long shot. If we were walking into a war zone, I sure as heck didn’t mind being treated like a girl.

Just this once, though.

The room fell silent as footsteps echoed beyond the door. Dad stood, aiming that thing he was carrying at the exit. David outstretched his disk, and a red dot appeared on the door at eye level.

Please, Lord, don’t make them have to kill anyone else!

The silence bored tiny holes through my skin. David flinched as unintelligible murmurs whispered through the door.

Dad motioned to a tiny pinprick of light shining through a small hole above his head. The door was melting. How long did we have before this entire ship fell apart?

I needed a weapon—at least something to throw. My hand tightened on my canteen, A bottle to the eye might slow someone down enough to let Dad and David do their thing.