It wasn’t until they were on the other side of the gate and past the first ornamented marble headstones and tombs that Darren realized what this place was.
A cemetery.
And not just any cemetery either, but the one dedicated to the first people who’d left Earth to make the rest of the universe a place where humans could live. The Moon had been the trial stage for space colonization and its early years had seen a lot of casualties, many of which had happened during the construction of Calisto, its capital and the first modern domed structure.
“Why are we here?” Aiden said eventually, his eyes flicking from one grave to another as their group marched along a neatly maintained path up the hill.
There was not a single weed, nor a blade of grass or a branch out of place. Whoever looked after the cemetery did an amazing job of it, even if Darren doubted the place saw many visitors.
“My associate is waiting for us in the chapel,” George answered, indicating the small stone building nestled between pines and the dome’s glass wall. Unlike the tombs and headstones, it wasn’t white marble but limestone, giving it that classical look a lot of the old churches on Earth had.
“Your associate?” Kristen followed up, halting Darren with a hand on his shoulder. “Darren, I’ve kept quiet so far, but are you sure we can trust this man?”
Slipping his hands in his pockets, Darren glanced at Aiden, who seemed just as troubled as Kristen. “George,” Darren said, “why didn’t you reach out earlier? After… Marcus killed Liu, I thought he’d gotten to the rest of you, too. I couldn’t track anyone down until… Gripwich. But we were too late.”
George’s expression clouded. “We tried to warn the station, but Marcus got there first. After the first wave of killings, we were too scared. We decided to lie low, hoping Marcus would give up. But he didn’t. And then he captured you. Things took a turn for the worse then. We’ve lost… a lot of people. If I’m being honest”—he pinned his brown gaze on Aiden—“I never thought you’d manage to escape Horizons.”
Darren clenched his hand and walked ahead, Aiden on his heels. “Getting captured wasn’t part of my plan,” he said with a bit more bite than he’d intended, pushing the heavy door of the chapel open.
Frustration budded up, annoyance too, that George had not lent him a hand when he’d needed the help, but he also understood why that wouldn’t have been a good idea. He knew how vicious and merciless Marcus was.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed his nerves down. George trying to break him out would’ve been an even bigger mistake than Darren going after Claudia, because Marcus would’ve expected it.
“Your failed attempt at retrieving the second royal ring is a much bigger concern, if you ask me,” said an authoritative female voice just as Darren set foot inside the chapel.
He scanned the wooden interior, his eyes landing on a middle-aged woman with curly brown hair and piercing blue eyes. She held a shovel with both hands and was leaning herweight on it, her penetrating gaze making Darren feel as if he was under a microscope. It was like she could see right into his very soul and it threw Darren’s senses into a state of alertness. Luckily, Aiden seemed to catch onto his discomfort, placing a hand at the low of his back in that same way he liked to do whenever he wanted to let Aiden know without words that they were together in this, no matter where it led.
“How do you know about that?” Aiden challenged the woman, distrust pouring off him in waves.
“Because I work for Marcus,” she said matter-of-factly, as if it wasn’t a big deal. “In Security, undercover for Liu and then George. I’m on leave since an hour ago,” she elaborated. “Marcus has most of the teams scouring through the data he retrieved from your hideout. I have limited access to his research department, but activity readings have been skyrocketing since the morning, so I think it’s safe to assume he’s not wasting any time.”
A surge of worry made Darren’s stomach squeeze. “He’s working on a prototype of the sequence already?”
“It would appear so,” George confirmed.
Aiden turned to the woman. “Do you have it? The sequence?”
She shook her head. “No. I told you, I’m in Security. Don’t have access to that stuff. The only reason I even know what it is, is because my supervisor put me on the extraction team. Which”—she stood upright and placed the shovel by one of the pews—“is also how we know about the scientist, Dr. Batbayar. She discovered something.”
“Yes, but… I’m not sure I am ready to talk about that with you,” Darren said, feeling Aiden squeeze gently in approval.
“That is understandable, though I hope this would change your mind and chase away any lingering doubts that you might have for me or any of my associates. Barbara.” George tiltedhis chin to the side, and the woman disappeared through a curtained opening into the wall.
When she returned, she was carrying a small box which she handed to George. Carefully, he opened it and took out a thin square-shaped sheet of platinum that Darren recognized immediately. He’d only seen it once as a child when he’d accompanied his dad to a meeting with an associate, but he still remembered the engraved feather. It was the same as the one adorning the left top corner of the sheet George held out to him, with the letters ‘V A L’ masterfully incorporated as part of its minimalistic design, little deviations of the lines along the outer side that only someone who knew what they were looking for could ever make out.
“We don’t actually know what Dr. Batbayar discovered. We have the data, but we couldn’t decipher it before… Before Marcus discovered the hideout,” Darren confessed, accepting the box containing the undeniable proof of who these people were. With Marcus hot on his heels, he didn’t have time to waste second-guessing evidence that couldn’t be faked. “We don’t have the decryption device anymore. We need your help.”
“Darren,” Aiden protested, his tone wary.
“It’s okay, Aiden. George wouldn’t have this unless he was telling the truth. These sheets were given out by my dad personally to his closest and most trusted associates. When Liu took me in, he showed me his. I buried it in his backyard after he was killed.”
“I hope that settles your concerns, Mr. Kesley. As for your request, the scientists in our ranks will be happy to help you,” George said, rubbing the knuckles of his left hand.
Darren felt his jaw tense. “You have scientists…?” he echoed back, excitement thrumming in his veins.
“We have everything, Ren.”
“Darren,” Darren corrected, because that was who he had been for the past twenty years. Ren he was only to Sara and that was how he would keep it.
George nodded. “Darren. When Liu was killed, I took over. I continued what he’d set out to do, so when the time came you would have allies on your side. Even if most of those who were fighters are no longer among us.”
“How many of youarethere?” Darren asked again. The excitement spread out from his stomach, traveling up into his chest and forming a lump in his throat that made his breaths a little shallow.
With a smile that was both sad and hopeful, George leaned against one of the wooden pews and hummed. “Six cruiser-class ships.”
Six cruisers. Darren did the math in his head, averaging the capacity at about a thousand per ship.
Six thousand.
There were six thousand people ready to swear allegiance to the Valrais and fight Marcus alongside him.
