Captivate (Alien Cadets Book 2) Page 28

  He’d never felt this way about a Rik, or another human. When he was a Rik, he’d been consumed with his research. He’d barely allotted time for rest, let alone forming a relationship. But with Claire... Sage smiled. She let them all into her life so easily, after the initial adjustment phase, of course. Plus, she was smart. She had some hang-up about being dumb, because of her past, but she wasn’t. And she had something more than that, an ability to connect with people and care about them right away, and make them care about her.

  Of course, while Sage genuinely liked Claire, he couldn’t help analyzing her clinically. Her long imprisonment had left her uniquely vulnerable. She was so starved for affection and security that she accepted him almost without hesitation. She’d also been traumatized by that business with the cadet girl who died. She thought it was her fault, which also left her vulnerable to correctly applied psychology. He’d taken advantage of that, up to a point, because her presence was undoubtedly an advantage to them. The more her loyalty was with them, the better it would be. He hadn’t had this particular scenario in mind, but he’d known that at some point she would have to decide whether to join with the real humans or to help them.

  He had been shocked to find himself standing up to Faal for her. It went against every bit of his Rik personality to give up what Faal had offered.

  In that moment, he’d considered Claire more important than himself, and that just wasn’t the Rik way. What did that mean? Did he love her? And more importantly – did she love him?

  Sage knew from his studies, when he’d been part of the national research team focused on learning about human psychology, that girls who’d been locked up for a long time were often ready to fall in love. A part of him was now disgusted at that, but all the same it was handy to know.

  Sage grimaced. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a matter of getting Claire to help them anymore. Faal’s determined pursuit of her had truly shocked him. She’d told him that she escaped, but he hadn’t realized the depth of insult Faal had taken from that. If Sage knew anything of Faal, Claire would never get off Selta alive.

  Sage walked briskly into the flat. The next few days were going to be tricky, but if they could only get to Earth... he could put all this behind him. Maybe he and Claire could be together for real. No manipulation, no past. Just two humans making a new life for themselves.

  Sage watched Claire’s face carefully as he explained the pertinent parts of his conversation with Karel.

  “So we need the ink?”she said.“And we need a token to get it?”

  “That’s the gist of it. Needless to say, no one at the embassy would be happy to see us.” Aha, he saw a flicker in her face that confirmed his latest guess. The thought of the embassy was more appealing to her now.

  “You can go back, can’t you?”Sage said gently.“Did they figure out you were human?”

  Claire blushed furiously.“Akemi…Akemi did say that they knew I was human.”

  “And that they would protect you.”

  “Yes. But I wasn’t going to go! Not unless something terrible happened. I want you all to get off Selta, too.”

  Juliet squeezed her hand.

  Sage bit his lip.“It might be the best option for you now. We can’t get off Selta fast enough, and Faal could find us at any time. Perhaps you should go.”

  Claire opened her mouth, but Sage held up his hand.“It wouldn’t be like before–you’re not abandoning us. Whatever happens to us isn’t your fault.”He didn’t want to lay it on too thick, but he wanted the association to be clear.

  Claire made a strange face which sent a frisson of fear down his back, lest his manipulation backfire, but her words relieved him.“I wasn’t going to say that. It’s not a matter of betraying you all, because I won’t go. Or if I do, it will only be to help you steal the ink. You’re my friends, and I won’t abandon you.”

  Sage smiled, though not without pain, appreciating how straightforward her mind was, how inflexible her traumatic parameters.“Thank you, Claire. I think with your help we can work something out.”

  CHAPTER 36

  Sage’s friend came to the flat during dinner.

  “This isn’t very good technology,” Mische said, waving Sage's old token. “Which means we’re in luck. The Spo have used an older type of authentication.”

  “So you think we could copy this token?” Sage asked the man.

  “This one is dead. We need one that’s actively sending and receiving electronically for us to try to crack it. We could work with a live one though, which Karel tells me you can get.”

  “It depends. What would we need to do?”

  Mische tapped a small tablet computer. “You would need to get this near the token for at least five to ten minutes. Maybe longer. And you would need to... um, distract the person holding the real token, so they don’t notice it buzzing.”

  “How near would it have to be?” Claire asked.

  “Within a foot, or so." Mische brought the token closer to the tablet and when it was about twelve inches away, the tablet lit up. "See, the tablet has the same software as the locking mechanisms on the embassy doors. When a token gets close enough, the tablet sends a challenge to the token. This token is dead, so it won't work." She waited about thirty seconds, until the tablet vibrated and printed, ‘Invalid authentication.’

  "If the token was working, it would receive the challenge, multiply it by the authentication code, and return it. Usually the authentication code is a super-large prime number, very hard to figure out. But if you challenge it enough...”

  Sage was frowning. “So Claire has to get within a foot of Basher, for at least ten minutes, and keep him from noticing that his token is trying to open something?”

  “You’re so skeptical,” Claire said. “This sounds a lot easier than I expected! I can do it. I was constantly lifting things off the zookeeper, you know. You have to be near someone to pick their pocket, and distract them... and this time I don’t even have to steal the token.”

  “Alright... then I guess we should get the ball rolling.” Sage seemed strangely subdued considering this was his plan.

  Claire bit her lip, her sudden confidence fading a little. “The only problem will be getting away again. If I’m that close – what’s to stop him from just grabbing my arm and cuffing me? I’m guessing he won’t just let me walk away.”

  Juliet clapped her hands. “I know! Oh, I know how to manage that part of it.” She explained her idea, and Claire’s confidence returned.

  “That’s going to be great,” she said.

  A little later, Claire went into the bedroom and turned off all the lights, as they’d discussed, making it pitch dark. Then she got the glasses out of her backpack and carefully unrolled them. She was excited about this part.

  “Can you hear me?” she said softly, putting the glasses on her nose by feel. “Um, hello, Akemi are you there?”

  Claire! Hello! Oh, I’m so glad you decided to talk to me. I was so worried when you didn’t arrive on the train. Are you alright?

  “So you did tell Basher that we were coming?”

  Um, yes. I knew you were moving and I had to alert him. He’s worried about you. Faal’s attack scared the daylights out of him. But don’t tell him I told you. ;-)

  Akemi’s smiley-face made her laugh. “You really are just a teenager, aren’t you? I feel like I know you.”

  I know! I feel the same way. I was just panicked when I saw Faal come at you.

  “Thanks. I appreciated your warning.”

  No problem. :-)

  “So, are you in the embassy? I saw a cadet girl on the news with Sam.”

  No, that’s my sister, Nat. I’m mostly a computer now. That’s why I’m in your glasses. The Rik like to do interesting experiments, and I was one of them.

  It was hard to get a tone of voice from Akemi’s written comments, but the bitterness in her last message came through loud and clear.

  Claire coughed a little. “I’m sorry.”

&
nbsp; It’s not the end of the world. In fact, there’s some decided benefits. But the Rik who did this to me didn’t know that. You need to be careful how much you trust them.

  Claire nodded, and then realized Akemi couldn’t see her in the dark.

  “Okay... but before I make any decisions, I need to talk to Basher. I thought maybe he was the one monitoring the glasses.”

  Not exactly. The glasses are mine, but I’ve been passing on what he needs to know.

  “Really? Are you right there in the embassy with him?” Sage had told her to find out more about Akemi’s capabilities and physical location. “Is that weird for you? Did they install you in the embassy computers or something?” Claire was relieved that Akemi was a talkative person. She didn’t seem to care that Claire was pushing for details.

  No, I wish! I’m just in a biobank computer in my sister’s room. The only sensory input I get is from the glasses. Yours, of course, and Sam and Nat’s. Oh, and I talk to Basher on his tablet.

  “Speaking of Basher, I think I might need to talk to him. In person, I mean.

  That’s great! He’s a good guy. You’ll see.

  I assume your… friends won’t be joining you.

  “What would happen to them if they did?” Claire whispered.

  They would be held at the embassy until the negotiations are settled. There’s a temporary station on Earth’s moon for Rik criminals. It’s not a bad place.

  And that was quite enough for Claire; her friends were not criminals. But Claire said none of this to Akemi, this is where the real acting began.

  “I could consider coming in. But I need some kind of assurance of what would happen to me.”

  What would you like to do? Basher just left the negotiation room, so I can tell him you’re ready to talk!

  “Hold on. Let me think. I don’t want to come to the embassy yet. I want to meet somewhere else. Alone, no Spo.”

  I’ll make sure he understands. He’s really a very decent guy.

  “Sure he is.” Claire gave the directions to the spot Sage and Juliet had carefully selected. It was near their current hideout, but not too near, and had several distinct advantages as a meeting point.

  Sage’s idea was for her to meet with Basher and to talk about turning in the Rik. She was supposed to act conflicted and confused (which would be easy, since that’s pretty much how she felt). At some point, she would ask him to give her time to make up her mind. Of course, he would try to follow her, but they now had several contingencies for that.

  I suppose you’re going to put the glasses away again? Akemi said sadly.

  “I have to. You or Basher might see something to pinpoint our location.”

  What if I promise to be good? I’m so bored.

  Claire laughed, somewhat painfully. “I know how that feels.”

  That’s true, you do. If anyone can understand what it’s like to lose their freedom to an alien, it’s us.

  Us. The word seemed to linger on Claire’s glasses. Was there an ‘us’ between her and Akemi? She’d only just found out that Akemi existed, and she had no way to verify anything the girl told her... but she believed her nonetheless.

  “Someday I want to have a real conversation with you,” Claire said. “But that’s not today.”

  I understand. :-(

  So long.

  Claire quickly took off the glasses and wrapped them up before she could change her mind.

  “All set?” Sage asked when she came out of the room.

  Claire nodded. “It’s set.” She didn’t tell him all that they’d said, but she explained the physical set up of Akemi’s computer. She felt strangely reticent to share the rest of it.

  Sage didn’t notice, he seemed distracted as well. “Good, good. I’ll send for Francois. If this works, we’ll have to move fast.”

  He pulled out a hand drawn map of the Spo embassy. It was two feet by three feet or so, nearly covering the small plastic table. Next to the map sat the dead token and the live tablet.

  "Alright," Sage said, "If Claire can hack Basher’s token when she meets with him in an hour, we need to hit the embassy before morning.”

  At first Claire could make little of the map, just a jumble of rectangles and lines, but as Sage outlined their options she began to make sense of it. The Spo embassy stretched through three levels of Upper Selta, though they weren’t exactly one on top of the other, like a layer cake. Each level of the embassy occupied a slightly different portion of the Seltan layers - making the edges of the map an uneven jumble of stairs, storerooms, and dwellings that didn't really match up to anything else.

  The upper or highest level of the embassy, the one on Selta’s top level closest to the surface, contained the embassy's formal reception hall, the negotiation room, and the ambassador’s quarters. The second level was bigger, containing many of the offices and living quarters of the Spo and embassy guests. The third and lowest level was the one Claire had seen: containment cells, medical quarters, and storage. As Sage explained this, he drew a big H on the room that he understood was Basher’s apartment.

  “H?” Claire asked.

  Sage raised his eyebrows. “Human.”

  “Oh, sure.”

  “These are the guesting rooms…” Sage trailed off. “Most of those rooms will be empty so they might provide a good temporary hiding place. Anyway, the medical quarters are these three rooms,” he gestured and marked the last with a small ‘I.’

  “I is for...?” Claire said.

  Sage paused. “Ink. That's the room where the ink is stored.”

  “Oh, right.”

  “So our mission... ” he continued.

  Claire giggled in spite of herself.

  “What?” he looked annoyed now.

  “Sorry, you're just so... never mind.”

  Sage turned back to his map. “With a working token, we should be able to get through all these interior doors, once we get through this outer door here,” which he marked with a G.

  Claire opened her mouth.

  “G is for guard!” Sage said. “Do you want to do this?”

  Claire shook her head and smothered a chuckle.

  Sage took a deep breath. “The real problem will be getting back out, because by then someone will have noticed that the guards at this door are gone.”

  “What about that second level exit we took last time? The one that leads to the observation deck of the big spinner?” Athlete asked.

  “That’s probably our best bet,” Sage agreed. “It’s kept locked, but it’s on the interior door system, so should still open for us, even if they’ve ice-locked the exterior doors.” He put a T on the door.

  “But then –” Claire started.

  “To start,” Sage spoke over her, "we’ll have Juliet and Athlete overpower the guard here, then we’ll get the ink, take these stairs here and here, and exit to the observation deck.”

  Athlete nodded slowly, “That seems like the simplest way.”

  Claire raised her hand. “Can I talk now? Okay. If we can open the door by the big spinners, let’s just go in that way as well as out.”

  Sage looked down at the map.

  “That observation platform will be deserted all night, we'll be too obvious.”

  "Then let's not go tonight," Claire said. “It’s already getting late and I still have to meet with Basher.” She held up her hands as they all started to object. "I know, we have to go before Basher realizes his token has been hacked or has time to realize what I was doing. But what if we wait until tomorrow morning while he and the others are busy in the negotiation room? The observation deck will be crowded with people, we'll blend in and with any luck get in and out of that door without having to 'deal' with any guards at all."

  There was silence for a moment, and then Juliet burst out laughing. It was so unexpected that Claire looked behind her, to see if something in the kitchen had amused her.

  Juliet wiped her eyes, still laughing. “Sage, you look so disappointed. Admit it,
you overcomplicated things. And she saw right through it.”

  Sage laughed reluctantly, and then more freely. “Okay, okay. Claire is smarter than me. She's right. If we wait until morning, we could safely use the observation deck... But there's risks too. There'll be more Spo coming and going in the embassy during the day.”

  He went back to the map, outlining different escape routes, and how many Spo they might expect to find on each level.

  They kept planning, and the reality of what they were going to do began to dawn on Claire. They were talking about weapons and flares and guns. Somebody could get hurt, probably would get hurt. Was this worth it?

  “We shouldn’t kill them,” Claire said. “Can’t we, I don’t know, stun them or something?”

  Sage smiled at her. “Hopefully we won’t be seen, and we won’t have to hurt anyone. But I agree, we’ll try to get weapons that won’t kill.”

  Claire smiled at him too, but her stomach was sinking and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  CHAPTER 37

  Claire walked carefully to the rendezvous point, feeling appropriately nervous. They’d practiced this situation, but the plan seemed riskier and riskier the longer she thought about it. Could she really deceive Basher long enough for her tablet to get the codes from him? She wasn’t sure anymore. And should she deceive him? It was one thing to help her friends, but now that she was alone it felt a lot more like betraying Basher and Akemi.

  Now that she knew the glasses weren’t entirely automated, she’d been reviewing all her interactions with Akemi, and she could see how they’d been a little more than ‘smart.’ But what she couldn’t explain to Sage and the others was how friendly and reassuring Akemi’s presence had been all this time. Even though she had been ‘spying’ on her, Claire couldn’t feel angry about it.

  The deserted corridor was narrow here, only nine or teen feet across, and at this time of night, rather dim. The metal ribbing in the rounded walls was rusted and flaky, and a sheen of scummy moisture coated part of the floor. This corridor was scheduled for maintenance sometime in the next week, which was part of the reason they chose it.