"He's attached," said Scarlet, watching Thorne's podship through the
cockpit viewing window. "That wasn't too embarrassing."
Cinder propped herself against the door frame. "I hope he's quick
about it. We have no way of knowing that this girl isn't being moni-
tored."
"You don't trust her?" said Wolf.
"I don't trust her?" said Wolf.
"Wait. Is that another ship?" Scarlet jerked forward, pulling up a radar
search on the screen beside her. "Our scanners aren't seeing it."
Wolf and Cinder clusters behind her, feeding down at the podship,
only slightly larger than Thorne's, as it neared the satellite. Cinder's
heart began to pound. "Lunar."
"It has to be," said Scarlet. "If they're blocking the signals—"
"No, look. The insignia."
Wolf cursed. "It's a royal ship. Probably a thaumaturge."
"She betrayed us," Cinder murmured, shaking her he'd in disbelief. "I
don't believe it."
"Do we run?" asked Scarlet.
"And abandon Thorne?"
In the window, the Lunar podship had connected with the satellite's
second clamp. Cinder raked her fingers through her hair, her thoughts
stumbling through her head. "Comm them. Establish the D-COMM link.
We need to know what's going on—"
"No," said Wolf. "It's possible they don't know we're here. Maybe she
didn't betray us. If they didn't pick up our ship on radar, there's still a
chance they haven't had visual of us."
"They would know Thorne's podship came from somewhere!"
"Maybe he'll be able to get away," Iko chimed in, but there wasn't the
normal enthusiasm to her tone.
"Against a thaumaturge? You saw how well that worked out in Paris."
"So what do we do?" said Scarlet. "We can't comm them, we can't
dock..."
"We should run," said Wolf. "They'll come for us next."
They both looked at Cinder then she replied with a jolt that they
expected her to take charge. But it wasn't a simple decision. Thorne was
down there. He'd walked right into a trap, and this had all been Cinder's
idea in the first place. She could leave him.
Her hands began to shake from gripping the chair. Every second of
indecision was wasted time.
"Cinder." Scarlet placed a hand on her arm. It only made her squeeze
the chair tighter. "We have to—"
"Run. We have to run."
Scarlet nodded. She spun back to the controls. "Iko, prep thrusters for
—"
"Wait," said Wolf. "Look."
Beyond the cockpit window, a podship was disconnecting from the
satellite. Thorne's podship.
"What's happening?" Iko asked.
Cinder hissed. "Thorne's ship is coming back. Comm him."
Scarlet pulled the comm screen up. "Thorne—report. What happened
down there?"
The screen returned only static.
Cinder chewed on the inside of her cheek. After a moment, the static
was replaced with a simple text comm.
CAMERA DISABLED. WE'RE INJURED. OPEN DOCK.
Cinder reward the message until the words blurred in her vision.
"It's a trap," said Wolf.
"It might not be," she answered.
"It is."
"We don't know that for sure! He's resourceful."
"Cinder—"
"He could have survived."
"Or it's a trap," muttered Scarlet.
"Cinder," Iko broke it, in her voice pitched high. "What should I do?'
She swallowed, hard, and shoved herself away from the chair. "Open
the dock. Both of you, stay here."
"Absolutely not." Wolf fell in into step beside her. She could tell that
he was in fight mode—his shoulder hunched near his ears, his hands
curled into claws, his stride fast and determined.
"Wolf." Cinder pressed her titanium fist against his sternum. "Stay
here. If it is a thaumaturge on that ship. Iko and I are the only ones
who can't be controlled."
Scarlet latched on to his elbow. She's right. Your presence could do
more har than good.
Cinder didn't wait for Scarlet to convince him. She was already half-
way down the ladder that dropped into the shower lower level. In the cor-
ridor between the podship dock and engine room, she stopped to listen.
She heard the solid closing of the dock's doors, and the life system pump-
ing oxygen back into the space.
"Dock is secured," said Iko. Life system stabilized. Safe for entry."
Cinder's retina display was panicking, as it tended to do when she was
nervous or afraid. Red diagnosis flared up in the corner of her vision,
laced with warnings: BLOOD PRESSURE TOO HIGH; HEART RATE TOO FAST; SYSTEMS
OVERHEATING, INITIALIZING AUTO-COOL RESPONSE.
"Iko, what do you see in there?"
"I can see that we need to get some real cameras installed on this ship,"
she responded. "My sensor confirms that the podship has docked. I de-
tect two lifeforms inside, but it doesn't seem that anyone has gotten out
of the ship yet.
Maybe they were too inured to get out of the ship.
Or maybe it was a thaumaturge, unwilling to leave the shuttle while
there was still a chance they could reopen the docking doors and have
everything inside sucked out into space.
Cinder opened the tip of her left pointer finger, loading a cartridge.
Though she'd used up all her tranquilizer darts during the fight in Paris,
she'd been able to manufacture some weapons of her own—projectiles
made out of welded nails.
"We just received another text comm from the ship," said Iko. "It says,
'Help us.'"
Everything inside Cinder's head was screaming at her—Trap. Trap.
Trap.
But if it was Thorne ... if Thorne was inside that ship, injured or
dying ...
Clearing her thoughts, she reached up and punched in the dock's
access code, then wrenched down the manual lever. The unlock mecha-
nism clunked and Cinder held up her left hand like a gun.
Thorne's podship was sandwiched between the second pod and a wall
of cords and machinery bolted to the thick paneling: tools for loading
and unloading freight fueling equipment, jacks, air compressors, pneu-
matic coils.
She inched toward the ship.
"Thorne?" she said, craning her head. She spotted a lump of fabric in
the pilot seat—a body hunched over.
Shaking, she swung open the door before ducking a few steps back
and aiming her weapon at the body. His shirt was soaked in blood.
"Thorne!"
Lowering her hand, she reached forward, rolling him toward her.
"What hap—"
An orange light orange brightened in the corner of her vision, her optobion-
ics reminding that her eyes were a weakness.
YOU ARE READING
Cress
Novela JuvenilTheir best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being force to work for Queen Levana, and she...
