War is raging—they’re killing more people. I take an involuntary step back from the window as a dark shadow blots out the stars; it’s a drone ship flying nearby. No bigger than a hovercycle, the Stealth-like drone flies through the wide, grassy streets that are now killing fields. Bone-white lights shine from the drone into the crawl spaces, alleys, and niches of the vacant street. Searching slowly, the evil unmanned bot passes over garbage and debris stirred up by its forced air; the rubbish skips past it in the wind like dead autumn leaves.
Trey’s mouth is close to my ear, causing goose bumps to form on my arms when he says, “We did a controlled detonation of the top floors of this building when they were bombing the area, so that they won’t be tempted to land here.”
“When did you do that?” I ask. “I never heard an explosion.”
“Just after we arrived. You were hurt—Jax made sure you slept through it. I gave the order. Hollis executed the plan; he’s quite precise with explosives. The architecture was designed with a reinforced core. The debris slid to the sides of the building, allowing the core of the structure to remain intact.
“How did you know it would do that?”
“I designed Charisma’s building with defense in mind—the way I designed all my buildings. This one has layers of sensor jammers installed in its infrastructure. It won’t show heat signatures if it’s scanned from without—the drones will detect no signs of life. It’s soundproofed to a hundred and eighty xerts—that’s nearly the same in decibels—you’d lose hearing if anything were louder than that. The glass panes are equipped with hologram imaging. We’ve been projecting a desolate interior—broken windowpanes, looted and burned-out lobby, and uninhabited rooms. Right now, it looks like a shell from the outside. We only need to maintain this façade for a few more parts, until the Alameeda extract their death drones and attempt to take over the city. When they mobilize, so do we.”
“How?” I ask, trying to be an active participant in my own survival.
“We have a few options available to us. We’ll choose the best course when the time comes.”
“When were you going to tell me all this?”
“When it was time to go.”
“Why?”
“You didn’t ask me your thousand questions—when we were in the lavare. You were different—fragile. Nothing I said then about this would’ve been to your advantage. I didn’t want you to be afraid.”
“Fear is a good thing, especially in a situation like this.” Just as I say that, a drone enters the rubble-infested courtyard of the building. Sharp, white lights pass over the fountain feature in the center of the yard. The machine creeps stealthily over the terrain; it pauses on a topiary in the shape of a spix, scanning it with a grid of blue lights before it moves on, coming closer to where we’re standing behind the glass. My heart beats so hard that it hurts.
“Wayra,” Trey says in a low voice, speaking into the com-link on his wrist communicator.
“We see it,” Wayra’s voice responds immediately. “Do you want this one too?”
“I want them all,” Trey responds with a hushed, hunterlike quality, “but we let this one go home. It’s too close to our position. We don’t want them tracking its last-known position and then coming here to investigate.”
“It’s hard to let it go,” Wayra murmurs from wherever he is.
“We don’t have to let it go unscathed,” Trey replies.
“You got something special for this one?” Wayra asks.
“I do. I’m sending it to you now.” He presses buttons on his watchlike communicator.
“What’s this program called?” Wayra asks.
Trey replies, “I think we should call this one whahappened.”
Wayra gives a low laugh, “Is it as good as your someone-elsie virus? I truly enjoyed hacking the last drone’s navigation and taking over. It felt so right flying it down the throat of that death squad.”
“I thought you’d like that. This one is a little different; we don’t get to navigate the drone, but when it gets called back to its deployment ship, they’ll wonder whahappened when it explodes upon docking.”
The drone moves closer, searching everywhere for living creatures. Suddenly, it flashes its light right at me and holds it there. I gasp.
Trey hugs me from behind. “I promise you that it can’t see you.”