De Luca appears first, on the other side of the window. His mouth is moving but I can’t hear anything. The transparent wall is soundproof. I glance at Mia, who’s watching him intently, and my heart swells with admiration. Even now, even exhausted, she’s still gathering data, still desperately trying to figure out how to get these people to listen to us. I know she’s terrified of what they might do to Evie if she gets on the wrong side of them, but she’s not letting it stop her.
Suddenly her lips peel back into a snarl. “You!”
My gaze snaps across. There’s a woman outside, and she—
Mehercule.
It’s Charlotte Stapleton, the IA operative who recruited me to go to Gaia in the first place, pretending to work for Global Energy Solutions, a ruse so sophisticated that she created an entire corporate front—she hired my cousin Neal for an internship, just to impress me with her imaginary company’s resources. If I haven’t lost track of time, he was supposed to start the thing this week.
Mia knew her as Mink, and I think I prefer that name—I’ve no doubt bothMinkandCharlotteare fictitious, but the former seems more fitting.
Mink knew that with my father in IA detention after his outburst to try and warn the public about the Undying, there was no way I would voluntarily lead anyone from the International Alliance through Gaia’s mysteries. I didn’t trust them to share what they found, to preserve the learning, to interpret it properly. I knew they were too desperate for the power sources they might find there. I must have heard it a thousand times—one small piece of Undying tech was enough to power the fresh water plant for the whole of Los Angeles, and send power up the grid to what’s left of the west coast. Imagine what else we could find.
She counted on the fact that I’d search for evidence to confirm my father’s theories only if I didn’t know I was being followed—if I thought I was on my own. She seeded the planet with scavengers to give me the impression that more than one company had found a way to smuggle people through the portal to Gaia, that I’d need to hurry if I wanted to get to that evidence before the scavengers did.
She sent me to meet with a nonexistent party, and then watched to see what I would do when I thought I was alone and unobserved. She was sure I’d lead her to the tech she needed. Except Mia found me first, which wasn’t part of Mink’s plan.
Only once we were well inside the temple did she send her hired guns to find me. A group led by Liz, who’s dead now—we’ve seen firsthand what Mink does with people she doesn’t need anymore.
This is the woman who realized how I felt about Mia and forced me to decode the operation of the ancient ship with Mia’s life as collateral. The woman who launched the damn thing, despite my desperate warnings.
Now, Mink walks into the room alongside De Luca, with Captain Abrantes bringing up the rear.
Brilliant. Now we’ve got the IA’s European security, ground forces, and … skullduggery represented in the same room.
And the interesting thing is that the air is singing with tension—it’s in every line of their bodies.
But though Mink has been utterly ruthless every moment I’ve known her, she’s never been stupid. She may be our last hope—even though I wouldn’t trust her for a second.
“You have to convince them that we’re telling the truth.” The words are out before I choose them.
Mink turns her gaze toward me, brows lifting slightly, but she doesn’t get a chance to respond before De Luca speaks.
“She doesn’thaveto do anything, Mr. Addison.”
What is it with this guy and making sure he enforces every possible subtle nuance around rank? Insecure much?
Mia speaks. “Why are we all back here? I thought the two of us were liars, out to cause trouble and get rich.”
Good question, Mia. This is a lot of attention for two kids they’ve already dismissed.
Captain Abrantes folds his arms. “You are both more than that. There’s a massive alien ship in orbit, and until the IA has analyzed and divided the technological advancements onboard, you are a danger.”
I glance across at Mink, hoping she’ll join the conversation, but she’s still studying Mia and me more intently than she ever has.
Mia nods. “So everybody wants a piece of the shiny new thing. What else is new?”
De Luca’s brow lowers disapprovingly. “World governments are not the same as scavengers, Miss Radcliffe.” He pronouncesscavengerswith careful articulation, as though he doesn’t want his mouth to come into contact with the word a second longer than it must.
Mink leans against the wall at her back, folding her arms casually—though the sharpness of her gaze is anything but casual. “But she’s right. Everybody does want a piece of it.”
De Luca exhales, nostrils flaring. “Had the ship not been placed in orbit so precipitously, the IA would have been in a better position to anticipate the response of the major players in this game.”
Mink’s expression is stony.
Oho. There’s tension here indeed. All is not well between our captors.
I glance sidelong at Mia, whose expression is speculative—she hasn’t missed the friction between the various branches of the IA represented before us. I can almost hear her thoughts turning over, searching for a way to turn them against one another and to our advantage. But finally Mink’s joined the conversation, and I can’t waste the chance.
