My insides have gone cold, and I swear I can feel my heart beating in my chest, my blood pushing through my veins.
‘This is incredibly bad,’ I say slowly. ‘If they adjust the enviro controls to flood this place with oxygen, she’s right that it’ll only take a spark. Fire will rip through here like a bomb’s gone off. Wherever there’s air, it’ll be lethal.’
‘And it’ll destroy the systems she hacked, so there won’t be a trace they were ever here,’ Cleo murmurs. ‘All the more reason to get into one of those rovers right now.’ She hauls herself to her feet, climbs over the railing in a quick movement, then lowers herself down to drop to the floor below, landing with impossible lightness.
Only it’s not impossible, because we’re in about a third of Earth’s gravity. Of course.
I rise to my feet, ducking back to grab our helmets. One at a time I drop them down to her. Then I swing one leg over the railing and switch my grip before bringing my other leg over too. I lower myself until I’m hanging, and it’s the strangest feeling – I have Earth-level muscles, but I only weigh a third as much. I try for a quick chin-up, and … yeah. Mars gravity is good for the ego.
‘If you’re done admiring yourself, get down here,’ Cleo hisses, and I drop to the ground in surprise. Despite the quick flash of adrenaline that warns me I’m falling too far, I land lightly on my feet. This is going to take some getting used to.
Together we hurry across the bay to where the nearest rover is docked. I peer through the airlock window, and Cleo crowds in alongside me. The rover waiting for us is battered, but fine. And like the suits our invaders wear, it has no markings.
‘I guess we have to short the door to get through,’ I say quietly. ‘Once we do that, they’ll know someone’s here. Let’s talk through the exact steps we’ll take – quickly – so we can move as fast as possible once we start. If we can just get a few minutes’ head start and drive well, we should be able to keep ahead until we can radio the nearest settlements.’
‘Not so fast, rich boy,’ Cleo mutters. ‘I think we have another problem to solve first. Boost me up on your shoulders.’
‘You want to what?’ I blink at her, but her scowl gets me moving – she has a hot, bossy thing going on that I didnotknow I found this interesting – and I drop to one knee, bowing my head so she can climb aboard. In this gravity, she weighs almost nothing.
I push up to stand, and absolutely don’t notice Cleo’s thighs locking around my neck. I make myself recite a list of GravesUP Industries patents. Alphabetically.
‘Can I ask what you’re doing, or would that just be getting in the way?’ I venture, as she leans in to rest her hands against the window, examining the rover from above.
‘I’m getting a look at the dashboard,’ she replies. ‘No point breaking in and then realizing we can’t start it.’
‘Fair.’
She lets out a slow breath. ‘Hunter.’ Her voice is heavy.
My gut drops. ‘No, don’t say it.’
She rests her forehead against the window above me. ‘We can’t start it. It’s handprint activated.’
‘Okay, well, I don’t feel great about cutting off someone’s hand,’ I say, reaching for a way to lighten the mood as I begin to back away so she can climb down.Leadership, Hunter. We can’t afford despair.
‘Cutting off a hand wouldn’t work. The system can sense if there’s no circulation.’ She hits the ground and turns her head to catch my horrified expression.
‘And you know that why?’
‘It was a joke,’ she replies, with a roll of her eyes. ‘Also, you know. Engineers know this stuff.’
‘I’ve been hanging out with some very boring engineers,’ I tell her. ‘What now?’
‘Now we stop standing out in the open and discussing our problems. Let’s take it somewhere a little more private.’
10.
CLEO
6 HOURS, 30 MINUTES REMAINING
‘IHATE THIS,’ HUNTERmutters.
‘You’re not alone.’
We’ve let ourselves into the Yang family’s living quarters – according to a hand-decorated nameplate by the door – and are talking in whispers.
The room is small, similar to the first living quarters we snuck into. Two sets of bunk beds line the walls, coming together at a right angle. A huge shelf stuffed with personal possessions lines the third. The fourth contains the door, plus a messy gallery of hand-painted art.
