Chapter Thirty One

When Lisbet woke from cryostasis, she was not woken with a kiss from Beck. The lid was up on her cryochamber and Carlos and Hessia were looking down at her. Lisbet shifted her gaze from his black eyes to her green eyes.

“Where’s Beck?” Carlos asked hotly, like his temper was at its limit.

“I don’t know,” Lisbet said, glancing down at Tiffania. She was still asleep. It seemed they had only intended to wake her up, but Tiffania was waking up anyway because they were two people in one cryochamber. “What day is it? How much time has passed?”

Hessia was unimpressed as she looked at the control panel. “It seems that you have been asleep for two days. Tell me, Lisbet. Does neither Vantz nor Beck care about you? Why did Beck leave you like this?”

“Uh… I…” Lisbet fumbled. “You’re wondering why he put us to sleep and left?”

“Yes, you stupid girl,” Hessia fumed. “Yes. Beck protected you so fiercely. He protected you like you were all that mattered and then he up and left you to die.”

Lisbet sucked in her breath.

“To die!” Hessia repeated furiously. “The evacuation crews have reported a ninety-five percent evacuation of the planet. The remaining five percent is this pleasure palace and its branches. Vantz is threatening to blow us up along with the rest of the planet if we don’t give ourselves up. We’ve even told him that you are here. We’ve had your cryochamber since the day you went to sleep. Either he doesn’t believe us or he doesn’t care if you die. Which?”

Lisbet looked at them with huge eyes.

If Carlos and Hessia had taken the cryochamber storing Lisbet and Tiffania, then Beck may not have been able to get it back. The first phase in their plan had been for him to get to the surface in his exosuit to get a message to Invocation. Lisbet guessed that whatever happened after that, he had been unable to rescue Lisbet and Tiffania from Carlos’ pleasure palace.

“Are you missing a helocarrier or a land rover?” she asked Carlos.

He shook his head in the negative. “Of course, we checked to see if he’d stolen a transport. He hasn’t.”

Lisbet frowned. In that case, whatever he’d learned from Invocation had taken him away from the area… or he’d had an accident. Lisbet didn’t like to think that was possible. After all, he was a pro at working on Mars in a space suit. He’d rigged that rocket to explode when he was all alone in the desert, keeping himself safe for days. He was fine. He just couldn’t come back for Lisbet.

“I don’t know where he is,” she said, meeting their eyes in an unwavering stare.

It didn’t matter what info she leaked. More than anything, she needed to convince these people to leave. That was the job Beck had given her. Suddenly she spoke as confidently as if she were back at The Boiler Room giving a report.

“Of course, Vantz will let me die,” she said. “He has put forth every effort to evacuate Mars, but your palace is too large to storm and the crews who worked on the other palaces will not accept hazard pay for taking yours. There’s no point in yanking you out of here if you want to stay. The raiders don’t want to die. The project has already cost too much in human life.”

Carlos pushed Hessia aside and got in Lisbet’s face. “Are you saying we have been preparing for invaders who aren’t coming?”

“I didn’t know you were preparing for invaders, but I have privileged information, and it was unlikely that Vantz was going to take your palace by force,” Lisbet said steadily.

“Why not?”

“He said you have hidden your wealth, that you are the wealthiest of all the miners, that your palaces were too extensive, and fighting you with so many slaves underground was a waste of time.” She hoped she hit the right mix of compliments and death threats.

Carlos did seem oddly satisfied by that. He crossed his meaty arms and looked down his nose at Lisbet. “Can you tell me what happens to the riches Vantz has pulled out of the other palaces? Was he planning to share it with you?”

“For starters, Vantz is broke. His desire to terraform Mars had nothing to do with money. He expects to be prosecuted along with the slave owners.”

“Why would he expect that? The only slave he owns is you. Forget it. Where is the money from the raided pleasure palaces going?” Carlos shouted.

Lisbet steeled herself and refused to be bullied. “For starters, he’s using it to pay the mercenaries who have been emptying the pleasure palaces. Secondly, there’s too much money for them to take all of it under their contracts, so it is being set aside as pensions for the slaves that are evacuated, so they can have some money to start new lives… presumably on Io where slavery is illegal.”

Carlos glared at her. “And why are you defending him so hotly when you cheated on him?”

Lisbet heaved a giant breath before launching in. “I believe in his dream to terraform Mars. I believe in his dream completely. I’ll do anything for him.”

“Then why have an affair with my son?”

“Why wouldn’t I have an affair with your son?” Lisbet shot back. “He’s fantastic and this is MARS!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Carlos stared at her and she stared right back.

“Your heart isn’t cut up in enough pieces,” he said like he hoped to see her heart break in front of his very eyes.

At that moment, a lackey appeared behind Carlos. Cupping his hand, he whispered some news into Carlos’ ear. The hand he lifted was dark with electric burns. It was then that Lisbet realized they were in the room with the Roman columns where they’d had the party the night before. Lisbet turned to check on Tiffania. It looked like her eyes were wired open and her mouth was wired shut.

In the next moment, Lisbet was grabbed by her upper arm and lifted out of the cryochamber. She was frogmarched across the room to a screen. On it, Vantz, with his stag head and gentleman swagger, sat in the armchair she had seen him occupy in the VR world.

Carlos held her up like a trophy. “See? I told you we have your wife, but you didn’t seem to believe me.”

“No. I believed you,” Vantz said in his English accent. He was smoking from the position of his hand and its to and fro movement. He tapped his foot impatiently. “I’m sorry. Did you expect that information to have an effect on me?”

“It doesn’t?” Carlos said, lowering Lisbet so that her heels touched the floor.

“I’ve tried to explain to you,” Vantz said in measured tones. “There are bombs set all around your palace and all around the planet. The magnetic field is working and once the bombs go off, many canals and mine shafts will cave in. I will not spare you because you have Lisbet, her sister, or a few other people I’m quite fond of. I would burn myself and all of you at the stake give life to the red planet.”

Carlos tried to interrupt.

Vantz shot him down. “Listen, the terraformers of Mars have been having this same fight with you for years. You’re holding hostages and this is our last conversation. We’re prepared to kill all your slaves and you to end the conflict. If you would like to save even one person’s life, the time is now. The bombs will go off in…” he conjured the red glowing agenda that hung in the air beside him, “Five hours regardless of what you do. Set a timer. Nothing you say or do will change that timeline.”

Lisbet stared at the screen. She couldn’t decide if Carlos was talking to the AI or if he was talking to Beck. His voice and manner were very much Beck’s, but, to her knowledge, she’d never spoken to the AI.

“What about Lisbet?” Carlos tried one more time. “Do you not care about her?”

“I love every inch of her,” Vantz said shortly like his temper was a thousand percent inflamed. “She is the dearest person I have ever known. I love her thoroughly. If she dies, I will die with her. I could never even think of living my life without her… But Mars will live” The deer's eyes weren’t really looking at anything, but the voice that came across the speaker vibrated with emotion.

It was Beck.

It had to be Beck.

Lisbet’s breath came in sharp and she felt a tear stumble down her cheek.

“If you save her,” Vantz said suddenly, addressing Carlos. “If you save her, along with your other slaves, I’ll do my best for you in the courts after the fact. You may as well know that none of the other slave owners came forward with their slaves to willingly go into orbit. The other miners were all wrenched from their palaces like snails from their shells. But, if you put your people on pods and send them into outer space, I’ll do all I can to see that you are spared from whatever hell you fear, Mr. Beltrose. There are enough cryochambers in orbit for every single person in your palaces. Please consider sending them into space.”

Then the connection cut.

It did not seem like it was done because Vantz had cut the line and it did not seem like it was done because Carlos cut the line.

They stood there: Carlos, Hessia, Lisbet, the slave with the black hand, and other slaves. They stood there on the stained carpet that had seen so many parties. It was a purple carpet with a pattern like confetti. It was discolored, even though it was a color and texture to hide stains. Even so, it was covered in alcohol spills, blood slops, pool water, vomit, and more. Someone had tried to clean it, but it had never come clean. Now they stood on a carpet like that in a movie theater when all the lights had come on and it was time to go home.

Except this was their home.

Carlos looked at Hessia. He parted his lips as if to say something to her. She looked back at him with fear all over her, trembling like worms were writhing under her skin. Her eyes were wide like windows that had been thrown open to show the end of all things.

Carlos turned his face away from her. He couldn’t take advice from her. She had fallen into the abyss of panic and a moment later, she started hissing and blubbering into the arms of a slave.

Carlos was thinking. He was looking at the ceiling. Lisbet looked up to see what he saw. The ceiling was just like the floor. Champaign had been sprayed on that ceiling too many times. The color was mottled like parts of it were rotted. It was just so hard to see when the party lights were low and the strobe light flashed.

But in the light of an ordinary day, it all looked like it was about to crumble.

Then the ground shook.

A bomb had gone off.

Dust fell from the ceiling and changed Lisbet’s hair from black to gray.

Lisbet turned to Carlos. He was still holding onto her upper arm. His eyes were unfocused as he thought.

Lisbet didn’t dare to breathe. She didn’t dare to move.

Finally, Carlos turned to her and said with a wicked rasp to his voice. “I’m ashamed I didn’t realize it before, but my son is going to kill us.”

“What?” Hessia blurted like her whole brain had gone blank.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Carlos said sharply. “Vantz isn’t cross with her for having an affair with Beck, because Vantz isn’t a person. He’s just someone Beck made up to hide the fact that he was betraying us.” Then he started shouting to the room at large, “You all heard MY SON. He means what he says! And we all have to go now. Evacuate. Get to the pods!”

The room shifted. The bombs were coming sooner than Beck said they would come.

Carlos fairly lifted Lisbet off her feet as she was hauled back to the cryochamber.

“Get off your ass and come on!” Carlos shouted at Tiffania, who jolted to life and chased after them.

He pushed them down hallway after hallway.

They finally ended up in a space where the pods had been stashed.

He shoved Lisbet and Tiffania into a pod meant for five people with harnesses set against the wall. He locked the door while they buckled themselves in and he set it to launch before anyone else had even made it to the pod room. Lisbet buckled herself and looked through the glass at the man on the other side.

The disgust on his face was so evident, it was putrid. He hated her. He hated what had happened. Hatred filled him for everything he was being forced to do. He was pressing the button to get rid of her without filling her pod to capacity so that he didn’t have to look at her for another second.

From the air, Lisbet looked down at the surface and saw other pods launch from their hiding places under the sand.

She also saw dunes collapse. She saw skyscrapers in Noachis fall. She saw explosions and things catch on fire because they finally could catch on fire. The thin atmosphere on Mars was catching fire. Gasses were being released through the bombs. There was air to burn. The red planet was becoming a torch for the universe to hold up high.

The god of war had won his battle.