The Star Thief (36 page)

Renna glanced down. She’d forgotten she was only wearing a bra and pants. Bruises from the robot’s attack blossomed on her ribs, and scratches ran up and down her arms. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to care. “Always glad to inspire. You ready to get out of here?”

“You have no idea.”

She stumbled as they left the room, and Viktis slid an arm around her. “I think the bigger question is, are
you
all right?”

She blinked away the moisture fogging her eyes. “I don’t know. But right now it doesn’t matter. We need to destroy this place.”

“I am more than happy to oblige,” Viktis growled.

“Did you find out who killed your crew and destroyed your ship?”

He nodded. “The doctor said whoever hired me wanted no loose ends. Once they had the boy, we were expendable.”

“I’m not surprised. Our friend, Major Larson, seems to be involved, too. According to Navang, they were both working for a splinter cell run by someone named Pallas. I’d bet my life MYTH doesn’t know they’ve been betrayed from the inside. Unfortunately, that makes it even harder to figure out who to trust there.”

“Renna Carrizal? Trust? That’s a first.” He chuckled as they limped along.

Renna spotted a lab filled with computers and paused. “I don’t want to run into those hybrids again. You up for some hacking before we get out of here?” There was no way she’d be able see straight, let alone hack the network, with her head aching like this.

“What do you have in mind?”

She led him to one of the machines. “Shut them all down. Navang said they were all connected to the neural network.”

Viktis started typing. In just a few moments, he’d gotten access to the lab’s systems and was busy creating a virus to destroy the hybrids and put them out of their misery.

Renna sank down onto one of the stools and rubbed her temples. The pounding was getting worse, and the bite of nausea was a constant at the back of her throat. Her implant didn’t feel any different yet, but Navang had said it was only a matter of time before it fused with her nervous system. Would she even still be herself at that point?

She swallowed. There wasn’t time to think about that right now. They weren’t out of here yet, and she couldn’t afford to let herself freak out.

“Almost done here,” Viktis said, glancing over his shoulder. He frowned at her as she leaned unsteadily against the desk. “Hey, you hanging in there?”

She shook her head. “I’ll survive.”

“Can we blow this place to hell now?”

She paused. Could she really blow this place up? Dr. Navang’s research might be the only thing that could keep her alive.

“We don’t have any other options, Renna. You know what will happen if this gets out. Robots masquerading as humans? Never a good idea.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. He was right, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “Fine. Just hurry up.”

Viktis turned back to his computer. “I’m going to set the generator systems to overload. That should give us time to get the hell out of here. And when they blow, this whole place will come down.” He tapped a bit more. “I’m also venting the chemical lines. That’ll add some extra spark to the explosion.”

Renna patted the drugs in her pocket. Once this place was gone, those little orange pills would be the only thing standing between her and a possibly painful death. Maybe she’d been smart to let Wall take a sample. If she got out of this, she might have to set up a manufacturing facility of her own.

“Okay. Done. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Together, she and Viktis limped toward the exit. As they approached the hub, the hybrids stood frozen in place, eyes vacant. A series of beeps came from several of them, spreading through the crowd as the virus took hold.

“What will happen to them?” she asked. Her stomach twisted as the former humans shuddered and trembled. “Will they feel pain?”

“No, they shouldn’t. It will shut down all mechanical components, leaving them immobile.”

She blinked at him. Then back at the room full of people. “Viktis, they’re not just machines. These were once people. Navang fused cybernetic implants to human bodies.” Her voice cracked, and she studied the nearest hybrid, a matronly looking woman with graying hair and soft skin. Maybe she’d been someone’s mother or wife. Now she was a monster created by MYTH.

His eyes widened, and he scanned the hundreds of hybrids in the room. “That’s horrific,” he whispered.

A rumble started somewhere deep within the facility, and he jerked. “It’s too late for them, but at least this will put them out of their misery. Come on, Renna. We need to go. Now.”

Together they made their way down the corridor and out the main door. They found themselves standing on a quiet street at the edge of town.

“Hurry, we have to get out of the blast radius.”

“Make for the
Athena
. Maybe she’s still there.” Renna forced her legs to move, despite the pounding in her head and the tremors wracking her body.

Viktis paused, his amber skin still pale and ashy looking from the sedatives they’d given him. “What did they do to you? You’re going to have to tell me, you know.”

Her eyes burned, but she refused to let the tears fall. “I’m becoming one of the hybrids. I already had the implant. Navang injected me with the drug to integrate it into my system.”

His hand tightened convulsively on her arm, and he swallowed. “You could have been infected with the virus I just released.”

“No. Integration with his neural network hasn’t happened yet. He said it would take a few days or weeks for the process to complete.”

“Oh my gods.” He shook his head and pulled her toward the shade of the forest. “We’ll figure this out, love. Get you help. Reverse it somehow.”

She let out a sad chuckle. “I appreciate it, but somehow I don’t think there’s getting out of this one, even for me. We need to focus on Myka right now and making sure he’s safe. Even if Larson is involved, the real mastermind behind all of this is still out there. And we have no idea who he is. Or why he needed an army of hybrids.”

They stepped out into the steamy forest, and Renna sucked in a deep breath of the thick air. It looked the same as it had earlier, yet everything had changed forever. She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, squaring her shoulders. “Let’s move.”

There wasn’t much of a chance, but a tiny part of her held on to the hope that Finn had waited for her. That somehow they’d find a way to fix this together.

As they approached, that hope died. The clearing was empty, all signs of the ship long gone. Renna sagged against a tree. The world had gone fuzzy again, her eyes unable to focus on anything. She slid down the trunk to sit on the ground.

“Shit. What are we going to do now?” Viktis paced the clearing, his long legs eating up the ground. “We need to get you help. We need to get you out of here.”

She thought about the communicator in her implant. Could she risk trying it? Would it even work anymore? At that thought, a sharp pain zapped through her brain, and then she heard the static as the communicator turned on and contacted the
Athena
.

“
Athena
, this is Renna. Do you copy?” she asked, voice shaking. The pain sliced through her again, and she let out a whimper. She needed to hold on long enough to reach them.

Her head hummed with a strange noise, and a moment later, Finn’s voice echoed in her head. “Renna! Where are you? Are you safe?”

“We got out. We’re in the clearing. The facility is about to explode.”

“We’re on our way. Hang on.”

“Is Myka safe?”

“Yes. He’s fine. Stabilized once we got him on board. It was like there was something in that facility affecting him.”

“The neural network.”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Never mind. Just hurry.”

Viktis stared at her. “Are they coming?”

She nodded. Then her body slid sideways as the world went black.

THIRTY-TWO

When Renna regained consciousness, it felt like someone had stuck a stick of dynamite in her head and put the lid back on. When several minutes passed without her head exploding from the pain, she opened her eyes.

She half-expected to see Navang’s lab again. Instead, she was surrounded by the familiar gray-white walls of the
Athena
. In her own bunk.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the humming that vibrated through her brain and tried to breathe.

Inhale calm.

Exhale pain.

Slowly her clenched muscles relaxed and the humming faded. No, not faded—it had shifted. Somehow, with every vibration, she could feel the movement of the
Athena
, the murmur of her drive core and the feeling of the crew moving through the ship. The vibration of the electronics and controls. Everything.

It was amazing. All the feelings she’d never even guessed lay below the surface of her mind.

Renna let out a slow breath and tried to reach out with her implant. There was a flash of the CIC, with Keva and Viktis chatting over a star map. Another flash of Lieutenant Kojima sitting at the helm.

A sharp zap burned through her body, and she seized on the bed. The world spun, crashing and screaming through her body until all she could do was clutch the edge of the bed and ride out the surge of agony. Seconds turned into long, torturous minutes as wave after wave rushed through her.

She was going to die. Her implant was being rejected.

Eventually, the pain withdrew, and she wiped away the tears that had trickled down her cheeks. She took a shuddering breath and opened her eyes. Somehow the cabin seemed brighter. Clearer. She shifted in bed so she could see the rest of the room.

Finn was sprawled out in the tiny chair, head back against the wall. The low rumble of a snore came from his lips. She smiled at him, then winced as her brain twinged again. She curled her fingers into the sheets, clutching them in case the pain came back. A moment later, the twinge was gone, replaced by a shot of fear, white-hot and burning as it all came rushing back.

Major Larson was a traitor. But that meant someone even higher up was behind everything.

How would she ever find out the truth?

Finn yawned and stretched in the chair as he came awake. His gaze fell on her, and his eyes widened. “How are you feeling?”

No sense in telling him how bad it was. The longer she could keep him safe, the better. “Like I got hit by a magnacraft. But it’s getting better.”

He crossed the room and sank down on the edge of the bed. His fingers traced the cut on her cheek, then brushed away a strand of her dark hair. “You had me worried.”

“How long was I out?”

“Just a few hours. We’re on our way back to Aldani’s lab.”

Renna stared up at Finn’s worried expression. How was she ever going to tell him what had happened? She was dying. For all she knew, she only had hours left. An ache filled her chest. There was so much left she wanted to do. To say.

“Viktis said they’d…experimented on you?” he said gently. “Can you talk about it?”

Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away. Pull it together, Renna. She stared at the wall and quickly told Finn about Navang’s drug, about the hybrids, about everything that had happened at the lab.

“He said he worked for someone at MYTH named Pallas,” she said. “Major Larson was his contact.”

Finn frowned. “That’s not possible. I’ve never heard of anyone called Pallas.”

“But MYTH is like a hydra. There are so many arms you may never know about all of them. And this is the only thing that makes sense. Who else would have the resources or be able to stay hidden so well? Who would know where all the MYTH installations were? Who else would know how to stay one step ahead of us?”

Finn chewed his lip. “Major Larson. I can’t wrap my head around it. I would have bet my life he was trying to help us back on Lenue.”

“He fooled everyone. How else would he still be in that position?” She squeezed his hand. “It also means that someone even more powerful is protecting him. Myka still isn’t safe. We can’t take him back to Aldani.”

Finn shook his head. “He needs help and so do you. Based on what you said, Aldani is the only person who can fix this. He’s got the resources and the experience to keep you both alive and healthy.” He got to his feet. “We’ll be there in another hour. Get some rest. I need to some time to digest all this.”

“There isn’t anything to think about, Finn. We need to take the boy and run. We need to find somewhere safe for him, and then we need to find the person behind all this.” Renna struggled to sit up. The room whirled like a deranged merry-go-round, everything moving up and down. She forced herself to ignore the nausea burning her throat and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but you have to promise me to watch over the kid.”

Finn glared at her. “Stop talking like that. You’re going to be fine. Aldani will fix you.”

“There’s nothing he can do, Finn. My immune system is gone. The implant is going to integrate with my nervous system. I’ll either survive the process or not. And when Navang’s drugs run out…” Her voice broke off, and she looked away, not wanting Finn to see her watery eyes. Dammit. Just when life had finally started looking up.