Earth Is Mine

Chapter 19

The room falls silent as General Lyra nods at one of her officers to explain. 

A tall and relatively slender Plutonian steps forward and my eyebrows knit together in a tight frown as I stare at his pale face. Why does he look so familiar?

"My name is Commander Z and I used to head the military research facilities. We had a secret division, known only to a select few where we were funded to experiment on new technological advancements. There are some devices that we were able to salvage before the explosions destroyed both our buildings on Pluto," He explains. 

"You have something we can use?" Lucian asks. 

"There were a few devices we were working on under the generals surveillance," He casts a quick glance at General Lyra and then continues. "One of them was a microfibre that could disrupt signals for a stipulated amount of time."

"Meaning if that microfibre was activated, one of our teams could fly into Pluto undetected?" Lucian's eyebrows raise ever so slightly but I notice his gaze has turned hopeful. 

Commander Z nods. "And the microfibres have the same characteristics as dust particles stuck to someones clothes. Hence, it will go undetected by our Plutonian scanners." 

"During the time the fibre is activated, every camera on Pluto will be rendered useless temporarily. Meaning several teams could fly in and destroy Central Command within that stipulated time," General Lyra explains and something finally clicks.

I stare at Commander Z and my heart rate picks up when I recognise him as the Plutonian who bumped into Rosie and I, before Lucian's and Lazarus's match. The guy who told us to hold on to our seats and it was only then that we realised there were guns strapped under them. 

If he works for General Lyra, then it only proves that she or whoever is working for her must be the 'S' from our freezer. The one who helped us escape. 

Things need to change before it is too late. Before the rot kills us all. 

Her words ring in my head like a broken recorder and I take a step back, my mind spinning. It can't be anyone else. It must be her, or someone working for her. Could it be Commander Z?

General Lyra altered Lucian's genes when he was a baby, she was also monitoring a secret research facility that were developing such technologies. The buildings housing all these experiments were somehow conveniently destroyed in the bomb blasts, erasing all evidence but these devices were aptly saved for our use?

Is this all just a coincidence or has someone been planning this for much longer than any of us can comprehend?

"You, okay?" Joon whispers from my side. He holds on to my arm to steady me and I turn to him, my tongue tied. 

"He's the one from the bleachers," I whisper after a moment, in his ears and he stiffens at the realisation.

"But we have no proof," Joon whispers back in frustration and I sigh. I instinctively turn to Lucian, wanting to catch his expression. He listens on intently to Commander Z as he explains the mechanism of the microfibre but Lucian doesn't seem to recognise him like we have.

He doesn't know anything about this at all.  

"Why has this been kept a secret from us?" Lucian asks General Lyra after a while and my fists clench as I wait for her answer. 

"We were bound to secrecy when we were sworn in as generals. You would have been too, if there had been a chance," She mutters the last few words and the disappointment on her face is clear. It's obvious she wished her son had been able to follow in her footsteps.