Page 116 of Shades of Earth (Across the Universe 3)

“It wasn’t just me!” There’s panic in his voice now, fear. “I’ve reported everything back to my people. They—they think you’re with the FRX, that you’ll do whatever they say. And they’re right, aren’t they? Colonel Martin was going to set the bomb off. And he still plans on doing it. ”

“If he’s even alive anymore!” Amy shouts. “You told your little friends about the plan with the flowers. That’s how they knew to wear gas masks. ” A pause—much longer than I’d like. “That’s what they were wearing, right? Gas masks? Pretty convenient that they made them look like ‘real’ aliens. ”

Amy taunts him, the way that she says the word real, and I’m so worried about what Chris will do next that I can barely breathe. I don’t know what she’s talking about now, but I know that if nothing else, I’ve got to do something.

My knuckles are white, gripping the edge of the console. I have never, never felt so helpless. I think about the escape rocket Chris showed me, the thing I’m supposed to use if something goes wrong. Maybe I can use it to go to the space station.

I can set the weapon off.

I don’t want to kill them all. I don’t believe in the FRX, and I don’t want to be responsible for the deaths of countless people, especially innocent, mindless drones already destroyed by Phydus.

I look at the little brown book that was in the box with the AV display from the Plague Eldest. In that book is the formula for Inhibitor meds. There’s a chance. . . .

“It’s us or you,” Chris says, his voice high.

“Only because that’s what you’ve decided. ”

“Colonel Martin has made it clear, time and time again, that if he can, he will use the weapon. It will always be a threat he can control. And when the FRX gets here—because they are coming, Colonel Martin made sure of that—they will kill anyone else they can find. This is about survival. This is our home, and you are the trespassers. ” He says the words as if they are weapons, each syllable another stab, each pause a blow.

“Don’t—” Amy says, squeaking in terror for the first time. “Please, don’t. ”

And I know: she’s begging for her life.

I flip on the intercom. “WAIT!” I bellow.

65: AMY

Chris looks from me to the intercom and back to me. He’d forgotten about the communication link; he didn’t realize I’d kept it going.

He grips the gun in his hand.

“If you kill Amy,” Elder says through the intercom, his voice filled with passion and rage, “I will kill you. I will take the shuttle straight to the space station, and I’ll set off the biological bomb, and you and all your people will die. ”

Chris does not lower the gun.

“But if you let her live,” Elder says, “I will land this shuttle. We’ve found more than just the video from the Plague Eldest. We also found the formula for the Inhibitor medicine we developed to counteract the effects of Phydus. ”

“A . . . a cure?” Chris says. The end of the rifle dips as he starts to lower the gun. “You’ll be able to fix my people, the other hybrids?”

The door to the communication room bangs open, and my father races inside. “You bastard!” he shouts, slamming into Chris and knocking him to the floor. The rifle skitters away. Chris shakes Dad off and lunges for it.

“Amy? Amy! What’s happening?” Elder says anxiously over the intercom.

I rip my . 38 out and aim it at the floor, near the rifle, my finger already pulling the trigger. The bullet embeds itself in the ground, and Chris stops. He turns around to see me, my finger on the trigger, my gun aimed at his chest. Dad gets up and grabs the rifle.

“We’ve got Chris,” I tell Elder.

“You’re okay?”

“I’m fine. ”

Dad sits down at the communication bay. “Just so you know,” Dad tells Chris over his shoulder, “I never really trusted you. ”

I don’t know how true that is—I think Dad did trust Chris, rather a lot. Not at first—Chris didn’t have a gun that first day. But later, Dad wanted to trust him. It’s the only reason I can see why Chris has been able to deceive him for so long. That, or Dad’s planning something. I watch them both carefully, waiting for the moment when Dad will strike.

“You were working with the FRX,” Chris says. “I knew better than to ever put my faith in you. ”

“Yeah, well, now we’re going to have the FRX kill you all, so there’s some comfort in that. For me, anyway. ” There’s a smirk of triumph on Dad’s face as his fingers punch the numbers and letters on the screen to enable the remote detonation of the bomb on the space station.