“No!” I scream. “You saw what Pious wanted you to see.”
“The General wants you dressed for feeding,” it says again, gesturing toward the metal armor.
“You’re all a bunch of sheep.”
“The General wants you dressed for feeding,” he demands loudly.
“What the hell does that mean?” I yell, stumbling against the bunk, head swimming.
“Get dressed.”
“Yeah, becausethat’sthe confusing part. Thanks for clearing that up, assmunch.” I steady myself and slide along the wall, making my way to the armor, pushing dozens of buttons and slamming my fists into a dozen more.
I think the thing laughs at me.
“Turn around and face the wall,” I screech when I reach the cold steel fabric. “You do not get to watch me get dressed.”
I step into the armor, dropping the wool blanket to the floor, hoping these idiots don’t have eyes in the back of their masks.
* * *
The creature forcibly escorts me into a long oval room with walls covered with curved video screens from floor to ceiling. In the center of the dark room stands a shiny onyx slab of rock that juts out of the floor. Its surface glows with a strange light and a confusing display of numbers and flashing diagrams hovering above it in midair. Pious leans over a kind of three-dimensional map, swiping neon-colored icons through the air with his hands. Hundreds of armored men gather around him, all their attention captivated by giant screens playing footage of the destruction of my planet.
I hold the mask I was given in my cell at my side—refusing to put it on. No one, not even Pious, notices when I walk in.
“Sir,” a mask with intricate green scrolled through it asks hesitantly, “everyone is saying that General Rune survived and is still among the ground humans. His faceplate is missing—”
“We have his faceplate now. We acquired it during the attack.If he survived… This man is an enemy of his own people. He won’t be able to function for long on the ground.”
“What if he does, sir?”
“Ifthe coward is still alive, we’ll lure him out.”
“Sir?”
“We seem to havesomethingto bait him with.The girl.”
As soon as the gasp slips past my lips, all those deep-set endlessly black eyes turn toward me.
