Liberty (20 page)

“Girls are weird.”

“Especially those two. Intense little maniacs. I think the reason they didn’t get along at first is because they’re so much alike. Anyway, I knew Bell from primary school, so eventually she introduced us. During the Riley fiasco, I was the one she confided in, and I’ve been her go-to guy ever since. She’s everything to me,” said Hobson.

I smiled. I
won the lottery with Hobson,
I thought.
Not many have such a great best friend.

“She’s lucky to have someone like you in her life,” said Berrett. “She was really worried about you guys when she got shot down. Almost went crazy over it.”

“Yeah, well, we were worried about her too. We knew we had to wait for her to contact us. It was too risky to try to get a hold of her with the monitored communication. It was hard to wait, not knowing whether or not ... you know ... whether or not we’d see her again.”

Berrett must have nodded, because I didn’t hear a response before Hobs started talking again.

“We’re good for each other. A lot of things have just always made sense for me, but girls? Not so much. Dix could tell you horror stories, in fact.”

“I dunno, Hobs, you were pretty smooth with Alice Johnson.”

Hobs laughed. “Yeah, the one girl at the Académie who found me attractive, and I just never felt the same. No zing. And there has to be zing.”

“Agreed.”

“Anyway, I’m sure there’s a very legitimate scientific reason why girls are so confusing, but I could never figure it—or them—out. ‘Cept my Dix. She’s amazing. Totally overclocks my processor.”

“What?” asked Berrett.

“What?” I cried. I slapped my hand over my mouth, but it was too late.

“What?”
cried Berrett and Hobson.

I swore under my breath and marched into the other room.

“You guys have something you wanna share?” I asked.

The pair of them shook their heads at me, their eyes as wide as saucers.

“Right.”

Wait
—my
Dix?

My head tried to wrap around the meaning of that statement. He probably meant that in a Hobsy sort of way. I
was
his the way sisters belong to their brothers and ... suddenly I was feeling awfully uncomfortable.

“Well, uh, fasten your seatbelts, boys. Takeoff’s in five minutes.”

I walked—okay, fine, I ran—out of the room, and then ducked just outside the doorway and put my ear against the wall.

“That was close,” said Berrett.

I heard the smack of a fist on fabric.

“Ow! What was that for?” asked Berrett.

“You seriously think she’s not outside the door listening?”

My face flushed as I turned and ran as silently and quickly as I could down the corridors.

Later that night, after the four of us had something to eat, I walked the crew quarters and checked in to make sure everyone was happily settled. CiCi was already fantasizing about how she was going to upgrade the guts of the
Liberty.
Pictures of her plans were strewn about her quarters. Hobs was doing whatever it was Hobs did in his lab, and Berrett was asleep by the time I made it to his room.

He hadn’t even managed to change. He had fallen asleep on his back, his cabby hat covering his face, his arms folded across his chest and the tiniest of snores accompanying his slow and steady breathing. I couldn’t help the smile that came out of nowhere and spread itself across my face. I snuck in, took his hat off, and turned his light out.

“Night, Jordan,” I whispered.

“P
APERS?” ASKED THE SUN AGENT.

We held our collective breath as CiCi hit send.

“Headed your way,” said CiCi. She looked up and smiled sweetly at the communications monitor. Hobs, Berrett, and I huddled on the floor of the cockpit, every muscle in our bodies tensed and poised, waiting for any intimation of trouble. Hobs tipped his Cuff up to catch the view on the comm monitor. Berrett and I strained to see the reflection. The jump gate hovered in front of the space shield, a giant, curving metal archway. I ached down to my bones to bolt through it, but there wasn’t a flarking thing I could do until the SUN agent stationed at the gate gave us clearance.

The seconds crawled as we waited to know whether or not Max’s papers were legit. We had a backup plan in case they weren’t, but none of us were thrilled at the prospect of ditching
Liberty
and tearing back to Williamson’s Dive in one of the shuttles.

I crossed my fingers, my toes, my legs, and my eyes.

“What are you doing?” hissed Berrett.

“Shh!” whispered Hobs.

CiCi kicked at us from the captain’s chair.

“Okay, you’re clear,” said the agent. “You can now use all the jump gates, and I went ahead and got you permission to land at Giverny airstrip on Earth.”

“Thank you!” said CiCi.

“My pleasure. Congrats on the purchase of your new cargo vessel!”

She reached up and switched off the communications monitor. “You guys need to seriously work on your stealth skills. You are
so loud!”

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry, Ceese. We’ll try to behave better next time.”

“Hmph. I don’t like lying to people in order to explain away random whispery noises coming from underneath my chair.”

Berrett snickered.

“What?” cried CiCi.

Berrett instantly pulled himself together. “Nothing.”

CiCi narrowed her eyes. “I’m gonna go play with
Liberty
,” she said.

“Okay, Ceese, have fun!” yelled Hobs.

“Who’s running this ship, anyway?” I muttered.

“Good question,” replied Berrett.

I glared at him. “You know what? I have a job for you. Why don’t you and Hobs go to the galley and get some lunch for everyone?”

Berrett shot me an irritated look, but he and Hobson trotted off to the galley, whispering back and forth.

A sudden thought occurred to me.

“Don’t be spitting in or doing anything else weird to the food, either!” I cried.

“Okay!” yelled Hobs. He and Berrett started laughing out loud.

Dangerous combination, those two.

I took my seat and flew
Liberty
through the jump gate. I shook off the sensation of my stomach dropping as we were launched through the portal, across the solar system and into the atmosphere of Earth. The rest of the flight down to earth was, mercifully, far more uneventful than my last. Nevertheless, every second of the flight, the nerves in my stomach wound tighter and tighter until I thought there was a reasonably good chance that my guts had tied themselves into a giant knot. Before we started the landing process, I ran back to the galley to try to eat something. However, as I rifled through the storage units, everything we had sounded awful. Instead of foraging for food, I spent the last few minutes before landing raiding the cabinets for some medicine to quell my stomach.

Fortunately for everyone involved, I found some, popped it into my mouth, and ran back to the cockpit. I was a nervous mess until we landed in Giverny, a small village about fifty miles outside of Paris. Once upon a time, the town of Giverny had probably been quite beautiful. Hints of that beauty peered through the dark, steam-rolled landing block nestled into the right bank of the Seine. At the edge of the block were the ruins of a very old church covered in moss and ivy. Red poppies poked up through a couple of cracks in the asphalt. A large landing tower had been erected, but the ivy was starting to claim it as well. Giverny seemed to refuse on a fundamental level to give in to the SUN’s visions of standardization.

Suddenly, I understood why Bell loved France. Dread wrapped a cold hand around my heart as I considered what her fate might be. I focused my gaze out the shield and tried not to think about it. Bell was tough. She wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The sun was just starting to rise over the Seine as
Liberty
touched down. Few things made me happy anymore, but the tenacious beauty of the French countryside, illuminated by the rising sun, countered my budding terror with the tiniest sliver of hope.

As soon as we landed, I turned to my crew. “Berrett and I will take a shuttle into Paris. We’ll dock at one of the landing blocks and use sailboards to get to Bell’s house.”

“Where’d you steal those from?” asked CiCi.

“We didn’t steal them!” Berrett yelped in disgust. “The
Aventine
was designed with a locker full of them.”

CiCi narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Are you sure you didn’t steal them?”

Berrett shot me a disapproving look. “This is what they expect of you?”

“Don’t get all self-righteous. We do what we have to do sometimes. Look, CiCi, if anything happens, you get out and get back to Mars. We’ll be harder to catch if we’re separated.”

“Aye, Cap.”

“Berrett, are the sailboards in the shuttle?” I asked.

“Loaded and ready to go.”

“Good. Hobs?”

He raised his eyebrows and smiled, ready for any request I would issue.

I hesitated. I didn’t want to give voice to the fear that had spread from my heart to the blood in my veins. I looked down, noticed my hands were shaking, and realized I didn’t have to say a word. He knew. He always knew.

“Make my day and get that shiny skud in the vial replicated.”

He threw his arms around me.

“She’s okay, Dix. Trust her.”

I pulled away and gave him a nod. Berrett followed me into the shuttle. We stuffed our limbs into the cramped cockpit and Berrett hit the button to lock the doors.

“I do not miss this.”

“You helped design it, didn’t you?” I asked.

“Well, yes, but I never thought I’d be spending so much time in it.”

I laughed at him as I brought the shuttle to life and we sped through the countryside, wending our way toward Paris.

We flew down the old Normandie highway, past other shuttles and cruisers making their way in and out of the last great city of pleasure. Paris was the getaway for almost every System of United Nations bigwig. Most of them had
chateaux
here. Bell’s family had worked in the government for years, though Bell had often told me that these days their loyalty to the SUN was out of necessity, not the pure feelings of their hearts. The Bell family residence was a Parisian institution, and both the SUN and the Bell family had their reasons for keeping it that way.

We flew past the bright green trees and lush farmland that edged up against the highway. Neither Berrett nor I said a word to each other, the pair of us utterly engrossed in our own thoughts.

Halfway there, Berrett broke the silence.

“You ever been to Paris?”

“Nope.”

“Me either.”

An awkward heaviness that I didn’t know how to erase lingered in the air between us. I thought of questions I could ask him, but they all seemed so stupid. Finally, I settled on a comment that seemed relatively safe.

“So, you and Hobs and Ceese all seem to be getting along well.”

“Oh, yeah. They’re great. CiCi’s brilliant,” said Berrett.

I nodded.

Oddly, the heaviness did not evaporate.

I cleared my throat.

“So, I should just warn you that when we get to Paris, the house may be guarded by agents or on lock down. She might not be there at all, but it’s the only place I know to start looking. I know Bell—even if she isn’t there, she’ll have left us something to point us in the right direction.”

“Sounds like a smart girl,” said Berrett.

“Smart, beautiful, and a stubborn, snarky wench. Still, she is one of my best friends and I’d trust her with my life. I only beat her by one percentage point in our final exams. She’s the best pilot I know. Besides myself, of course.”

I grinned. Berrett rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to justify that remark with a response.”

“Yes, well, I just wanted to warn you to be ready for anything,” I said.

“Are you?” asked Berrett.

“Ready for anything? Of course.”

I looked straight ahead, knowing full well that if anything had happened to Bell, I would never be able to forgive myself.

Slowly, the City of Lights grew larger in my field of vision. Bell had talked about returning to her family’s home since the day I met her. It drove me nuts at the time, but as we drew nearer, I could see why. Paris had hardly been touched after the System unification—a few modifications for shuttle bays and other things, but unlike Giverny, it was basically the same as it had been for centuries. What I could see of it bespoke a human sensitivity to beauty and light that I had never seen before in my entire life.

“Hmph. Wouldn’t it be nice if the government took as much care with the rest of the System as it does with its playground?” asked Berrett.

I nodded. “It would be nice if a lot of things were different. There,” I said. I pointed to a small shuttle bay near the water. “Across the Seine from that hospital. We’ll dock there. Bell’s house isn’t far. It’s at the corner of a huge park, the Jardin du Luxembourg, in the Latin Quarter.” I pulled the map up on my Cuff and showed Berrett where we would be heading. “See? We can sailboard to it from here in pretty short order.”

He nodded and headed toward the back of the shuttle as I brought her down.