Ghost Planet (21 page)

I remembered the way he’d been talking about her in the galley. “I don’t know about that.”

Thinking about the galley reminded me that just a little while ago Murphy and I had been teasing and flirting, working up to something I’d been missing in those last weeks at the institute. It wasn’t something I could afford to dwell on right now.

For a psychology Ph.D. candidate, I was sadly inept at emotional processing. I left problems scattered everywhere, like landmines waiting to explode in my face the moment I stopped watching my step. But growing up with my mother, I had seen what too much emotional processing could do to a person.

“How is Sarah?” Yasmina asked quietly.

My gaze drifted back to her face, which had gone soft and wistful. “It’s hard for me to say. She’s zipped up pretty tight, and I didn’t know her long.”

Yasmina nodded, but I could see she was disappointed.

“She seems to be getting along okay,” I added. “I think she must be lonely. I don’t suppose she can afford to get too close to anyone there.”

“Like I said, that’s the way Sarah likes it.” Her bitterness was apparent in both tone and expression. I couldn’t get used to how beautiful she was, no matter what her face happened to be doing in any given moment. Wasn’t hard to see how a womanizer like Garvey would find her tough to live with.

“Is she … important to you?”

“She was.” Again she caressed the leaves of the plant in the instrument panel. “She is.”

“Well, I owe her. She took a big risk helping us.”

Yasmina turned her chair and gave me a frank look. “I was worried when I saw you. I rarely see Sarah, and then Garvey tells me we’re supposed to help her rescue some pretty scientist. Some ghost she’s formed an attachment to. I can be jealous, possessive, and unpleasant under the right circumstances. But then I saw the way
he
looked at you—the way he touched you—and I thought, there’s someone who’s in as deep as me. His heart is walking around outside his body.”

My own heart warmed in a way I considered mutinous.

“I don’t know,” I murmured, a tremor in my voice.

She narrowed her dark eyes. “Sure you do.”

I turned to the window, crossing my arms to stop the loosening in my chest. “He lied to me. He helped those people manipulate me.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“It doesn’t matter why.” I shook my head. “He asked me to trust him and then he betrayed me. What kind of person does that?”

“Maybe he had no choice about what he did, and it was easier doing it knowing you trusted him.”

I kept staring out the window, thinking she could be right, yet still hardening myself against him.

After a minute or two Yasmina added, “One thing you should know. The place you’re going—you’ll be safe there from these people you’ve escaped. Devil’s Rock is far from any colony. The ghosts there know how to look out for themselves. But if you love him, it’s the wrong time to be punishing him. If you want to be with him, you’re going to have a fight on your hands.”

I stared at her, alarmed. Before I could even open my mouth to question her, a crack of thunder almost knocked me out of the chair.

“Shit!”
Yasmina punched a button on the console and yelled, “Get in here, Garvey!”

So far we’d seen nothing but blue sky interrupted by the occasional harmless puff of cotton, but inky black clouds had knitted themselves together out of nowhere.

The transport bounced as I rose from Garvey’s chair, and I stumbled onto the deck.

“Strap in,” called Yasmina. “We’ve got some rough air. Where the hell is that old goat?”

Garvey came pounding into the cockpit, yelling, “Christ, have you gone to sleep up here, Yas?”

“We got no warning, Garvey, not a blip. Sit down and navigate!”

Garvey belted in and I rose from the deck, mesmerized by the sky outside the window. Lightning flashed in the bank of dark clouds, exposing the cracks and crevices. The sky let loose a heavy rain, eliminating visibility, and a moment later big chunks of ice started pelting the hull.

“What the fuck next?” bellowed Garvey. “Locusts?”

“Just get us
out
, Garvey!”

I steadied myself on the back of Yasmina’s chair as we bumped along, afraid if I moved away from the window I’d be sick. But another blast of air caused a steep bounce, tossing me against Garvey.

“Strap down or get
out
!” he barked, shoving me off him.

The ship dipped and I staggered backward into a warm body.

Murphy hooked his arms around my waist, dragging me to the jump seats.

“Let go of me!” I protested.

“You can fight with me
later
,” he muttered, thrusting me into a seat and strapping me in. “You’re going to break your neck.”

He belted into the seat next to me.

“Garvey, what the hell?” snapped Yasmina.

“I’m trying! The fucking thing is local, just a squall, but it’s like it’s moving with us. Hold on!”

The ship bucked wildly and the harness straps dug into my shoulders. I closed my eyes, releasing a prayer to the universe that this transport ride wouldn’t end like my last one apparently had.

It wasn’t long before the bouncing began to ease off, but the slower rocking of the ship triggered a wave of motion sickness. I let my head fall back against the wall, willing my stomach to settle.

My fingers dug into my thigh, and Murphy’s hand covered mine. “We’re coming out of it now.”

I flinched at his touch, pulling my hand away. “I need you to give me some space, Murphy.”

He reached for my chin and pulled it toward him, holding it there. “I have something else to say to you, and then I’ll go to hell if that’s what you want. Don’t be confused about what happened that night. I wanted you desperately. I wanted you to want
me
. I felt that way
before
the institute. I wish it could have been under different circumstances, but I did what I felt I had to do to protect you.”

I tugged my chin free, focusing outside the ship, where a gap of blue sky widened between the storm clouds. “You don’t understand,” I said quietly.

“Then help me to, love.”

I turned and fixed my eyes on him, though I thought it would kill me. “I don’t get many choices, Murphy. I go where you go. I live how you live, and according to your rules. Who I give myself to, whether or not I have a baby—those should have been
my
choices. You asked me to trust you, and then you took those choices away from me.”

On my last words his gaze dropped to the floor. I waited for him to reply.

It made it easier that he didn’t.

Devil’s Rock

“Stay strapped in,” Garvey said when we’d escaped the storm clouds. “We’ll be landing soon.”

“Can you give us a better idea of what we’re walking into?” I asked.

Garvey and Yasmina exchanged glances.

“Okay, how about: I’m not getting off this transport until somebody explains why none of you want to talk about these people.”

“Blake Kenner, the group’s leader, paid us to pick you up,” said Garvey. “If he hadn’t wanted you out of that hellhole, you wouldn’t
be
out. Since he’s our best customer, and not a man I ever want to fuck with, you
are
getting off.”

“They’re some kind of resistance group, aren’t they?” asked Murphy. But it was more a statement than a question, and I couldn’t believe this hadn’t occurred to me. No wonder no one would talk about them.

Feeling my eyes on him, Murphy looked at me. “There’ve been rumors going ’round about them for months.”

“Part of the reason we get to work for Kenner is we can keep our mouths shut,” said Garvey.

Yasmina shot him an angry look. “Sarah works for Kenner, just like we do, Elizabeth. But she wouldn’t have agreed to this if she didn’t believe you’d be safe there. The colony at Devil’s Rock is the only one on the planet that won’t treat you as less than human.”

“What about Murphy?”

Murphy’s gaze shifted back to me as Yasmina replied, “Murphy will be fine if he doesn’t make trouble.”

“That’s enough, Yas,” warned Garvey.

Devil’s Rock loomed on the horizon. They didn’t have to point it out to us. I’d never seen anything like it: a high, jutting formation of golden-red rock—one monument-sized face with two smaller formations adjacent—creating an enclosed valley with a river snaking through it. The rock fortress was so impressive it drew all my attention at first, but as we got closer I noticed something else. A swath of dry, dead forest surrounded the peaks in a nearly perfect circle. There was an inner ring of char—blackened skeletons of trees that had caught fire. It was like a reverse oasis. An island of desert in the surrounding blanket of green.

As the transport set down in the char, near the rock fortress, I looked at Murphy. “I think this was a mistake.”

Despite the angry words that had passed between us—mostly from me to him—he gave me a smile that was meant to be reassuring. “We’ll make the best of it, love.”

“Let’s go,” said Garvey, rising from his chair.

We unharnessed and followed him.

“Good luck, Elizabeth,” Yasmina called softly.

The cargo door was open, and half a dozen people had boarded the transport to unload the grain. Garvey walked over to speak to them.

A tall man with a dark beard eyed us, saying, “Blake’s waiting outside for your passengers.”

Murphy and I headed out alone into the glaring sunshine.

Before my eyes had a chance to adjust, someone yanked a bag down over my head. I yelped with surprise and reached to remove it, but hands closed over my wrists. A man’s voice sounded above my ear, commanding and deep.

“Don’t be afraid. We have hidden routes into our base that we don’t share with newcomers. We’ll take the hood off as soon as you’re inside.”

“Murphy?” My hand flailed out behind me and he caught it.

“I’m here.”

“I’ll have to ask you not to do that, Elizabeth,” said the stranger.

I paused, confused. “Do what?”

The man took my arm and urged me forward. Murphy squeezed my hand before our fingers slid apart.

After a few steps the bright light vanished and I felt a cool breeze—a passage through the rock, a cave or a manmade tunnel.

“Not to do what?” I repeated.

“Bend down a little.” The man’s hand came to the top of my head. “There, good girl. Not to talk to Dr. Murphy.”

“Why not?”

“We have a protocol of our own here. Ghosts don’t interact with colonists. It’s for your own protection and the rest of the camp. I’m afraid I must insist.”

I stopped walking. “What are you talking about?”

“I promise to answer all of your questions inside, when I can see your face and offer you a proper welcome. We’re glad you’re safe, Elizabeth.”

As the man’s hand drew me forward, I felt Murphy’s fingers brush my arm, and I understood the gesture.
Take it easy.

*   *   *

The passageway opened out and sun filtered through the thin fabric covering my face. The man gave some directions about the grain, and we continued on for maybe five minutes before he removed my hood.

Muscular and bronzed by the sun, the man had a head of thick, dark hair, a couple days’ stubbly growth on his chin, and a smoky, penetrating gaze. I judged him to be about the same age as Mitchell.

He held out his hand to me. “I’m Blake. Welcome to Devil’s Rock.”

With its dramatic rock walls, the enclosed valley felt like a cathedral. From our slightly elevated position I could see that the river, five or six meters across at the widest point, divided the valley in half. There were more dead trees here, along with some stunted saplings and bushes along the banks of the river.

Glancing back at Murphy, I was startled to see that his escort had a rifle trained on him. “Is that necessary? We’re psychologists, not convicts.”

“We’re well aware who you are,” Blake said. “I have to tell you we’re all a little in awe of you here, Elizabeth. I’ve been anticipating your arrival.”

I wondered whether he was mocking me, but his smile seemed genuine.

“I don’t understand what you were saying earlier about not interacting with colonists,” I said. “Where’s your ghost?”

“He’s a ghost,” said Murphy.

Stunned, I took a closer look at Blake. “Is that true?”

“Yes, I’m a native. We’ve learned something our friends on the outside haven’t yet. You were probably very close to discovering it yourself before your separation. The protocol can work both ways. You can tip the balance in your favor, if you’re strong enough. And you are, Elizabeth.”

I stared at him, surprised and dismayed. “Where’s your host?”

Blake stepped to one side and I saw a man standing in the shade of a crisped cottonwood tree, his hands in his pockets, watching us as a breeze rattled through the dead leaves. He was thin and haggard, his dark-blond hair wildly overgrown, like the ghosts in New Seattle.

“Dr. Connolly?” said Murphy. The man’s eyes flitted in his direction.

The guard raised his rifle to strike Murphy and I gave a cry of protest.

“Easy,” Blake interceded. “We’ll give them some time to adjust.”

I stood with my mouth hanging open. I don’t know why it should have come as a shock. Yasmina had hinted we were in for something like this. Even Murphy seemed to have expected it. I think when I’d learned they were working on detachment, I’d allowed myself to hope for something better. It never occurred to me ghosts would mirror the folly of the colonists.

“I know you have questions,” said Blake. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t. I have them for you as well. But let’s get you to your quarters for now. Let you settle in. We’ll have a late lunch together and talk more then.”

As Blake started down a well-worn path, I shot an anxious glance at Murphy. He gave a faint nod, and we followed the leader in silence. I needed time to regroup. First Murphy’s revelation and now this—it was all coming at me too fast.

The sun was high overhead now, but I assumed that much of the time this valley would be in shadow because of the surrounding peaks. As we approached one of the near-vertical rock walls, I saw that a deep overhang ran its length, and that an oblong, modern structure had been tucked into the cleft, pueblo-style.