31
Aiden
Aiden felt Darren’s bodygo rigid at the number. There were six thousand people ready to back the Valrais heir. It wasn’t that great of a number in the grand scheme of things, but it was way more than he’d dared hope.
“Darren,” Aiden whispered in a voice that seemed too low rather than soothing even to his own ears. “You have an army.”
“Not an army, I’m afraid, Mr. Kesley. As I said, most of our fighters are no longer with us. Those of us who remain are the scientists, the engineers,” George countered, a note of disappointment lurking in his voice. “We are regular people, a lot of us past our prime, too. But while we might not be able to fight for you directly, we can use our knowledge to help you stand up to Marcus.”
“Weneedan army to fight Marcus. Especially now that he knows about the evolutionary sequence,” Aiden challenged, looking between George and the woman. They’d come so far and even if these people weren’t soldiers, they couldn’t just give up now.
“And we will help you raise one when the time comes. We shouldn’t rush, even if it might seem like now is our only chance. We need to lie low for a while and let Marcus lose our trail,” the woman, Barbara, said, drumming her fingers along the shovel’s handle.
George nodded. “People are scared. Some were even opposed to us meeting today.”
“So why did you meet with us?” Darren asked, tension still rolling off him. “Why not wait this out first, as you suggested?”
“Because I’m afraid that all we have left is the calm before a storm, Darren. And I want to be ready for it. I do believe you share that sentiment.”
Darren shuddered, whipping his head back. He caught Aiden’s gaze, and his indigo eyes darkened for a split second. “I do.” He turned to the graying man who was still leaning against the pew and still watching them. The hard lines of George’s face had softened a little, his expression too, and Aiden chose to believe it was because when he looked at Darren, he saw the Valrais heir. “Okay. We can’t go after Marcus.Yet. But if he is already working on the sequence, I’d like to do the same. The ES-2 might be the only chance we have. I need your help with it and… with deciphering the data from Dr. Batbayar’s earring.”
It was their sole advantage. Aiden had no idea what her ground-breaking discovery was, but it had to be something big. Something they could maybe use to tip the scales in their favor. He tried not to put his hopes up, but it was hard when they needed a win so badly after all the losses they’d suffered.
“Agreed. We’ve been… making preparations for something like this since we found out about the rings. I own an agricultural advancement lab on Reikhei Station near Mars. It’s nothing overly fancy, but it will do the job.”
Aiden considered that. Since the lab complex George was referring to specialized in genetic modifications of plants, itmade for the perfect cover. As long as they kept the procedural documentation up to date and the expenditures around their regular ranges, no one would even suspect something was amiss.
“How quickly can we set this up?” he asked, crossing his arms. He didn’t fully trust George Matsumoto yet, but if Darren did, then Aiden was going to follow his lead.
“I have a team on standby. They have a customizable decryption device and can get it ready by the time we get the earring to Reikhei.” George pushed off the pew and gestured at the door. “I’ll get in touch with my genetics and bioengineering leads in the meantime. We’ll brief them and go from there.”
Marcus had a head-start and infinite resources, so they were already behind in the evolutionary sequence game. In fact, the more Aiden thought about it as they left the chapel, the more he wondered if they even stood a chance. The moment Marcus cracked the ES-1 and weaponized it, it was Darren’s loss, so he hoped that whatever was in that earring would be enough to give them a fighting chance.
The Maine followed George’s ship to the research station near Mars. Reikhei was a massive science hub equipped with hundreds of labs over ten levels. The agriculture section was situated along the left wing-like protrusion of the triangular station’s mid-section, just off the residential and entertainment zones.
As George had said, a team was already waiting for them in the lab. They got to work as soon as Darren handed them the earring.
“I’ll stay and help,” Kristen said. He’d joined them on the station so he could pick up a few spare things for the Maine. “And keep an eye on things.”
After Rick, they couldn’t be too careful. Since he and Darren were going to accompany George to meet with the scientistswho’d be dealing with the evolution sequence, it made sense to let Kristen oversee things here.
“Comm us if there’s anything,” Darren said over a nod.
Kristen tapped his ear. “Will do.”
Aiden turned to George. “How long will this take?”
Casting his gaze around the equipment-cluttered white room, George smiled. “With our current setup, no more than five hours. We’ll be off as soon as we have what we need.”
“What about the sequence? Won’t you need a lab for that?”
“Yes. But it’s best we use one of our other locations. They are more remote and less… public. I am having some equipment shipped as we speak.”
That made sense. With so many people coming in and out of Reikhei, there was no telling who could be working for Marcus.
An hour later, Aiden and Darren met with Margo and Jerry, George’s bioengineering and genetics leads. They sat on the balcony of a quaint restaurant, picking the corner near the emergency stairs. By the time Kristen called them with updates on the earring, they’d briefed the two scientists and had a list of additional equipment they needed to source before they could begin studying the ES-2.
“So, no one knows what’s on that earring?” Jerry was saying as they exited the elevator and headed down the corridor to George’s lab. Excitement was written across his face and the same was true for his wife, Margo.
