The Girl Who Dared to Endure (The Girl Who Dared #6)

The soft, almost desperate voice was cut off by another one, the burst of static that accompanied the transition making me wince. “My mother has been injured, you born-in-a-box idiots,” she said, a whipcord of anger making each word snap on the speakers. “We know you have advanced medical skills. We need help now and are coming to you whether you like it or not.”

There was a pause, and I felt that some words were being exchanged on their end, probably to get the angry girl off the line, to keep her from threatening us. Still, I’d heard the undercurrent of pain in her voice, and the fact that she had mentioned her mother… It hit a very sensitive chord with me. I looked at the others, who were also looking a bit bewildered, and waited to see what they would say next.

Then the first voice came back on the line. “I apologize for the previous message, but my shipmate is correct. We have an injured woman, forty-three years old, suffering from severe electrical burns in the chest and torso area. We are aware of your advanced medical practices and request diplomatic clearance to land and seek medical attention. We are armed but will not harm anyone so long as we are not threatened.”

My mother had been forty-three years old when she died as well. I thought about the girl from before, the desperate anger in her voice, and remembered that feeling all too well. It hadn’t exactly left me in the days since her funeral. I imagined what I might do if my mother had only been injured, as opposed to killed, and I couldn’t find medical help. I imagined what I would have tried to do to save her if I had been given the opportunity.

And then I imagined how it would feel if I went to a place that could help, and they denied me the chance. I didn’t want to be the person who made a girl watch her mother die because of an accident or violence—not when I could do something about it. I reached over and hit the mute button, turning on the mic.

“This is Liana Castell,” I transmitted, ignoring everyone as they whipped around and gaped at me, shocked. “Come to the northeast corner of the roof, and we will give you medical assistance.”

“What are you doing?” Quess asked loudly.

I opened my mouth to reply, but Maddox beat me to it. “She’s not letting another girl lose her mother,” she told him, and I shot an appreciative look at the raven-haired woman, who gave me an understanding smile before motioning to Alex to grab the bag with Baldy inside.

I realized she was going to handle that problem while I sorted out this new one, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her and my brother. I didn’t exactly want these outsiders to show up and see us transporting a dead body. Or throwing it off the roof.

The pause on the other line dragged on for long enough to make me wonder if I had made a mistake, but then the line was filled again by a rich masculine voice that was a strange combination of purr and growl, as if the threat it carried gave him the utmost pleasure to give. “If you fire any of that laser crap at us, we will retaliate with extreme force.”

Then the call ended abruptly.

Confusion radiated through me, and I looked at Quess and mouthed “laser crap” to him. He quickly explained. “The solar panels can be used as a laser weapon. It’s under IT’s jurisdiction and is very hush-hush. Only supposed to be talked about when there’s a need for it, and never with another department. I don’t think anyone is really aware of it outside of IT.”

IT had access to a laser weapon through the solar panels of the Tower? And this was the first I was hearing about it? Could that sort of weapon be turned on the Tower? I imagined it could be used to cut off the arms of the greeneries or something and hated the idea of Sadie having all of that destructive power at her disposal.

It was a horrifying thought, but it was matched by excitement as I realized that those people could only know about the laser if they had been here before. It had to be the same group; everything they were saying showed that they knew about us, knew about our advanced medicines, knew that we had defensive capabilities that could be used against them, and—

Wait. Did that mean that the council had decided to use the lasers on them the last time they were here? If that were true, then that meant the council had already established precedent for how to deal with them, which was by shooting them down! And if the council found out they were here—if Sadie did—then… I cursed and smacked my hand over my head, suddenly realizing that I had no idea if the call had been delivered only to us.

“Quess, please tell me that you did something at the monitoring station so that the transmission wasn’t picked up by Scipio or anyone else.”

“Of course I did.” He scoffed. “What do you take me for?”

There was little time to feel relief, not with the threat of the council learning about this and trying to shoot them out of the sky after they left. “Will sensors on the roof pick them up?”

“Yes, but we can knock them out,” Quess replied. “There are fewer up here, anyway, so I’m betting I can find a power relay somewhere and shut off power to the grid.”

“Will anyone notice?” I asked, thinking about aftermath. I was surprised my brain was even working this fast with as tired as I was, but grateful nonetheless.

“Yes, but they won’t come up to check it out until tomorrow, so our guests will have to be gone before then.” Quess frowned, then, as if the whole thing suddenly dawned to him. “Are you sure about this?” he asked me. “We don’t know anything about them. What if they are here to scout us out for an invasion?”

I shook my head at the thought. “I don’t think so,” I told him. “I know what the fear of losing a mother feels like, and she sounded exactly like it felt. Besides, I think they’ve already been here. I mean, if they knew about the lasers, then it makes sense that these are people who have been here before, right?”

“That is my interpretation,” Leo announced, finally breaking his silence. “But it would be good to see what they know. Perhaps they have more information from that day for us, and we can use it to figure out what really happened, and who else was involved at that time. It might help us figure out who else is behind this. Who else has been working with Sadie and Devon.”

Quess still looked doubtful, but he gave a tired nod anyway, combined with a dry smile. “Why not?” he asked. “It’s not like I did anything super important today. Besides, it’s just a handful of sensors, right? Easy peasy.” He winked for effect, and I smiled and gave a wry chuckle.

“I think this has literally been the longest day of my life,” I told him.

“And it’s only eleven,” Leo added helpfully.

If looks could kill, Leo would’ve been obliterated by the twin glares Quess and I gave him as we moved away, him to the sensors and me to help Maddox and Alex dispose of Baldy before our totally random guests showed up.





17





I reached to grab a corner of the bag on Alex’s side, but he shrugged it out of my grasping fingers with a jerky shake of his head. “I’ve got it,” he said.

Curling back my fingers, I hesitated at the empty quality of his voice. Once again, I was left with a messy feeling that things were spiraling out of control, and I was letting something—someone—important to me fall to the side in all the chaos.

The urge to pull him aside and force him to talk to me was just about overwhelming, and pushing it back only caused my guilt to grow. I couldn’t do what I wanted, because once again, life had thrown us a curveball, and I had to take care of something else instead of taking care of my brother.

Which meant that I had to grit my teeth and just try to handle this as quickly as possible. I could, would, get Alex through this. Just not at this moment.

I grabbed the bag on Maddox’s side, and the three of us hauled Baldy’s corpse to the corner of the building, trying to move as quickly as possible.