“He’s going to kill me, Roselle.”
“I won’t let him. We’re getting you out of here. It’s going to be fine. Ask Edge to meet you in our locker room. Don’t say anything else, just get him there.”
“Right now?” she asks.
“Yes, right now.”
With trembling hands, Hammon sends the message to Edgerton as we walk—fast but without being obvious—back to my locker. Opening it, I grab for the black glove that I wear to cover my moniker. “Put this on.” I look around to see if anyone is watching us, but no one is in our aisle. I unhook a latch and slide the heel of my boot aside. Inside are two lead squares. I take them both out and hand one to Hammon. “Put this inside the glove, over your moniker.”
I stand up and put both hands on her shoulders. “Go to your locker and take out anything you think you’ll need to survive. Put it in a small bag. Bring it back here in two minutes.”
Hammon nods and leaves. People walk by, but no one is paying attention. I take out my fusionblade and thrust the hot edge against the welds in the floor of the locker. The soldered fragments bend. I pry open the bottom. Inside is the bag full of stolen Census monikers. I pull out the bag and set it aside. With shaking hands, I weld the bottom back in place with my fusionblade.
Sweat slides down the sides of my face, and I nearly scream when I notice someone beside me. “It’s just me,” Hammon whines, sounding terrified. “I don’t know where Edge is! He’s not responding!”
I close my locker and settle the strap of the bag on my shoulder. “If he doesn’t make it here in the next few minutes, Hammon, we’re going to have to go without him.”
“Go where?” Her bottom lip trembles.
“I’ll explain when we’re in the hangar.”
My heart is in my throat as we go to the door of the locker room and wait one minute . . . and then two . . . and then three. Edgerton strolls in with a ration packet in one hand and a canister of water in the other. “I told you you’d be hungry after breakfast when you didn’t eat anything,” he says casually. “I just have a second to drop this off to you, then I have to be—”
I grab the water canister from his hand and thrust a glove into his palm before tossing the water in a bin. “Put this on. Don’t ask questions. I’ll tell you everything you need to know when we get to the hangar. Move!” Edgerton is a soldier. He follows orders. When he has the glove on, I shove the lead square over the top of his moniker. It goes dark. “Follow me.”
We make it to the hangar. No one is watching us. Entering my airship, I wave Hammon and Edgerton in and close the door.
“What is going on?” Edgerton demands.
“I’m pregnant,” Hammon whispers. “Agent Crow knows, and he’s going to kill me.”
Edgerton is struck dumb.
“We’re leaving,” I tell him, “and where we’re going could get us all killed, but it’s the only shot Hammon has now, so we have to try. Agent Crow doesn’t know you’re the father, Edge. You don’t have to come with us. It’s up to you, but we have to leave now, and when we do, you’ll never see Hammon again. So decide what you want to do while I go get clearance to leave the Base.”
“I’m coming,” Edge says before I can move.
“Good. There’s a compartment under the floor. You can hide in it. Stay here until we clear all the checkpoints. I’ll come get you when it’s safe.” He nods. Hammon moves to the seat beside the door to the cockpit and straps in.
I turn and run to my seat in the front of the airship, skip the pre-checks, and contact the Tree Fort to get clearance for the flight. Clifton has arranged for overnight access codes. I just have to hope that Agent Crow doesn’t detect that I’m leaving. As I wait for the Tree Fort to respond, every movement in the hangar gives me panic attacks.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Hammon moans behind me.
“You can be sick,” I reply in the calmest voice I can manage. “I’ve got you, Hammon. I’m going to take care of you.”
She groans. “They’re going to kill us all, Roselle. I’m murdering you and Edge.” I hear her vomit.
“No one is murdering me,” I reply. “We’re at our best in our darkest hours. This is pretty dark, so we’re going to be okay.”
“He knew, Roselle! He just looked at me, and he knew!” Hammon sobs.
“His super power is observation,” I reply. “That’s why he’s so good at his job. He’s only around because of me—it’s my fault this is happening. I have a plan, but I don’t know how it will play out. Luckily, I have a bargaining chip.”
“It better be a big chip.”
“It’s the biggest.”
My headset turns on with a soft hum. “You’re go for mission, 00-000016.”
I hardly wait for the hangar door to open before lifting off and setting a course for a Salloway Munitions facility that borders the Fate of Stars.
“You can go get Edge out now,” I tell Hammon when I cross the final checkpoint.
I hear her unbuckle her harness. She stands, comes to me, and rests her hand on my shoulder. I reach up and cover her hand with mine. She lets go and walks back to the hold.
Edgerton joins me a while later, settling into the copilot’s seat. “Hammon is lying down in the back. She’s a wreck, Roselle.”
“How are you, Edge?”
“How am I?” He curls his bottom lip out. “I’m pretty bad. I really messed up erething. I’ve killed my best friend. She’s dead if they find her—all because I couldn’t leave her be. And I just allowed another friend to smuggle me out of the place that has been my home for most of my life—from the only world I know how to operate in. I’d say I’m pretty messed up right about now.”
“Yeah, but other than that, how are you?” I ask.
He laughs grimly. “You’re what my granny called an ol’ soul, Roselle. I knew it the first time I seen you atop a pile of rubble, siftin’ through it like the people underneath it meant somethin’.”
“They did mean something.”
“To you, maybe, but not to this world. This world just don’t care.”
“Someone once saved my life, Edge, and when he did, you know what he said?”
“Wha’d he say?”
“He said, ‘You can’t go back in. They’ll kill you. From this moment on, we go forward. We never look back.’” A tear rolls down my cheek.
“Was that when you left home?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I answer in a raw voice.
“But Hawthorne’s back there.” He gestures with his thumb.
“I haven’t heard from him since he left, Edge. It’s like you said, he’s firstborn now. He’s gone.”
“Nothin’ is too late if you’re still breathin’.”
I wipe my tears on my sleeve. “Then we’ll have to keep breathing.”
“What’s your plan?”
“We’re never going to make it to the Salloway Munitions testing facility.”
“We ain’t?”
I shake my head. “I’m going to make it look like this airship malfunctioned, and then I’m going to land it in enemy territory. We’re going to the Fate of Stars.”
His face falls. “That’s your plan? We’re going over to the other side?”
“It’s our only shot to keep Hammon alive.”
“Then what—the Gates of Dawn kill us, right?”
“I hope not. Your job is going to be to protect Hammon—you tell them whatever you have to tell them. You make sure they know she’s pregnant, and you’re seeking asylum. Just keep saying it.”
“What about you?” he asks.
“They’re going to hurt me, Edge.” My voice cracks. “There’s no getting around that. They’re going to hurt me until I can get someone to listen to me—then everything will be all right. I have something they want.”
It’s dodgy near the border. Alerts ping my headset, one after the other, warning of the dangers this close to the border of Stars. Airships do enter the Fate of Stars, but they have authorization and take secured routes patrolled by fighter pilots. Edgerton takes the controls and shows me how to fly at a low altitude to avoid detection. He guides us into the area where the most recent fighting took place. The ground below is covered with bloated bodies and blown apart by war machines.
He lands us in an open field. “What do we do now?” he asks.