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Chapter 33

  Erika didn’t know how to feel about staying in Ryder’s cabin. It was at the back of the hall, as far from the closed airlock as possible. The survivors crammed themselves in the captain’s quarters to keep away from the Lamia, in case it burst into the hall.

  Erika spent the first few minutes in the room worried about the Lamia coming in, wondering what she’d be able to do if the alien cornered everyone. Eventually, the Lamia’s stomping faded away, leaving silence to fill the void.

  “I think the Lamia’s gone,” Erika whispered.

  “Can you also tell us where the fuck it went?” Mi-Cha asked. She’d abandoned her usual scowl, and fear shone bright on the pilot’s face.

  “All I know is that the Lamia left this section alone. We shouldn’t go out,” Erika said.

  “Why did we allow these fucking things on the ship?” Mi-Cha demanded.

  Aymeric patted Mi-Cha on the shoulder. Erika glanced between the two. There was more to talk about, but neither brought it up.

  Erika took a deep breath. She had to bring it up.

  “What happened with the doors?” She asked.

  “They must have glitched,” Mi-Cha answered quickly. “Aymeric and I were pounding away on the fuckin’ things.”

  “We tried, too.” Theo glanced to Erika, but if there was meaning in the look, she couldn’t tell.

  “We’ll figure out the doors later,” Aymeric said. “I think, right now, the Lamia’s our biggest issue.”

  Aymeric looked to Erika. Theo and Mi-Cha did the same.

  It was unlikely that Theo was the saboteur; he wouldn’t lock himself out of a safe spot. But what if that was a bluff? What if he knew a way to survive, and was hoping Erika wouldn’t tag along so close?

  Aymeric could have locked the doors, but he would have also had to lock himself into the Lamia enclosure earlier. Mi-Cha was the only survivor who hadn’t been locked in with an alien, but how likely was it for her to work for a rival company?

  What if everyone was a traitor, and Erika was the sole survivor without anything to do with the killings? What happens then?

  You need to trust someone. You can’t deal with these problems all on your own.

  “Erika, you’re the expert on these aliens,” Aymeric urged. “C’mon, you’ve got something.”

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  If the traitor was allowed to roam free, they would eventually succeed in murdering everyone else. Right now, that felt more important than the Lamia, or the reactor, or anything else.

  Erika looked at Theo. She realized she had already made her gamble.

  “There’s something that might help. In my room,” Erika said. Her heart thumped against her chest.

  “Whoa, you’ve been holding out on us?” Aymeric asked.

  “I don’t know if it’s useful yet,” Erika said. “Theo, can you check it out with me? I think you’d be able to tell what this thing is, and what we could do with it.”

  “Understood,” Theo rumbled.

  “Aymeric, Mi-Cha, I want you to come up with other ways we can hurt the Lamia.” Erika was talking to at least one traitor, to one person who would try to sabotage her efforts.

  “We’ll knock our heads together,” Mi-Cha said.

  Erika led Theo out of the room.

  “Can you describe this thing to me?” Theo asked. Erika had to crane her neck to look at him. If he went berserk, he could kill everyone on the Ark with his bare hands.

  He could have easily killed and disposed of Naoki.

  Dread pooled in Erika’s stomach.

  Erika stopped, and Theo did, too.

  “I needed you out because…I trust you,” Erika whispered.

  “You believe someone locked the doors,” Theo whispered back.

  Erika nodded.

  “Either Aymeric or Mi-Cha is the traitor,” Erika said. “I don’t know who. Or if maybe they’re both the traitor, but I think I can trust you. Can I?”

  “Of course.”

  “We’ll look through their cabins and figure out who the traitor is,” Erika said. “I’ll take Mi-Cha, and you take Aymeric?”

  Theo paused.

  “It should be the other way around,” he said. “I know Mi-Cha better than you. You know Aymeric better than me.”

  “That’ll work.” Erika sighed. “Okay. We need to hurry.”

  Erika padded to Aymeric’s cabin, and Theo went for Mi-Cha’s.

  The door to Aymeric’s cabin had been left open, exposing his cabin to the world. Dirty laundry piled in a corner, the sheets had been left twisted up on the bed, and a laptop was perched dangerously on the edge of it.

  Erika didn’t know how Aymeric could work with such a mess, but he could. It was typical for him, like his fiery emotions and expressive face. Everything about Aymeric was normal. Still, Erika needed to snoop.

  She didn’t put too much effort into her first check of the room, valuing speed over thoroughness. She found nothing that could implicate Aymeric as a spy, which is exactly what she’d figured. Theo would uncover something about Mi-Cha in her cabin, then the pair would confront her.

  What do we do after we expose the saboteur? That was a question Erika never bothered to ask, and now it was rapidly approaching time to answer it. Would Erika be able to kill the saboteur? She didn’t particularly like Mi-Cha, but that didn’t mean Erika wanted to kill the pilot.

  Erika looked over Aymeric’s room again. She was tempted to walk out and leave things where they were, but she needed to give the room a good search, so she could honestly say she made no mistakes.

  She booted up the laptop, but a password stopped her from getting anywhere. Erika made a few guesses at the password, though none worked.

  She pawed through the drawers, and found a charging cable for the laptop. There was nothing hiding behind the nightstand or in the closet.

  Erika ducked down and felt under the bed. Her hand hit something solid. She put her hand on top of a flat surface, and pulled it toward her. She held a rectangle the size of her palm. It was a data storage device.

  Erika’s intestines shifted.

  But this didn’t mean anything. Aymeric brought his own game-loaded computer aboard, and he must store those games on an external device. That’s all.

  That’s not what you believe, is it?

  Erika connected her IRIS to the device to unlock it. There were no game files; there were reports on the Lamia and Aranea. There were records of experiments ran on the aliens.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  So Aymeric backed up the data, just in case something happened with the lab computers. He’d kept it a secret, because Naoki and Luther wouldn’t have let anyone take data from the lab, even for a noble purpose.

  They wouldn’t let anyone take data, because it could be sold to a competitor.

  Someone cleared their voice from behind.

  Erika spun around.

  Aymeric leaned in the doorway. He looked relaxed.

  “How the hell did you get lost going to your own cabin?” Aymeric asked.

  Erika’s throat tightened.

  Aymeric looked relaxed against the doorway, but he stood between Erika and everyone else.

  He always leans on the walls; you’re overthinking this.

  “So, is there something important in here?” Aymeric asked.

  “Theo and I are seeing if that component is in the other cabins.” Erika hoped Theo would tell the same story, if he was questioned.

  “Ah, figure out what that component was? Can we kill the Lamia with it?” Aymeric asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Erika said.

  “Did you find what you needed here?”

  Erika shook her head.

  “It might be in someone else’s cabin, though,” she said.

  “Well, hurry it up. Mi-Cha and I could use some extra gray matter.” Aymeric turned around.

  “Hold on a minute,” Erika said.

  Aymeric turned back around.

  Erika held up the storage device.

  “I’m sorry, but I checked.” Anxiety churned in Erika’s stomach. Aymeric hadn’t tensed up, but Erika knew she was pushing into dangerous waters, and soon she would find something she didn’t want to see. She couldn’t back away, though.

  “I was wondering what this is here for,” Erika said.

  “Aw jeez, that,” Aymeric said. “I have to keep the info safe, y’know. At least, it felt that way before everything went to shit.”

  “You could sell it and make a small fortune,” Erika said.

  A pause. Erika couldn’t see Aymeric’s expression in the dark.

  “Unfortunately I couldn’t retire off the info, but Frontier will pay me a lot for it.” Aymeric stretched. “We can all split that money, though. And, if we deliver the aliens to Frontier, dead or alive, they’ll pay us more. Whaddya say?”

  Aymeric spoke so casually that Erika needed a second to process that he’d confessed to being the spy.

  “You murdered Luther and Naoki,” Erika said.

  “Well, they wouldn’t have agreed to backstab SmallWord, you know that,” Aymeric said.

  “Did you blow up the engine?” Erika demanded.

  “Nah, Ryder was just incompetent. I mean, he put together a witch hunt after poor innocent you; he wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb on the ship,” Aymeric said. “Too bad he’s dead, though. He actually brought up ditching SmallWorld all on his own. I could have used him.”

  Ryder was nothing but a tool to Aymeric. So was Luther and Naoki and everyone else aboard the ship.

  All these years and you never realized who Aymeric really was…

  “So, Erika,” Aymeric continued, “what do you say about ditching SmallWorld now?”

  Erika channeled her fury into her eyes, and stared at Aymeric.

  “You are a danger to everyone on this ship,” she growled. “You murdered Luther and Naoki. You’re a criminal, and as of right now, you’re under arrest.”

  Aymeric groaned.

  “Is that how you really wanna play this?” He asked.

  No, Erika didn’t want a fight. She wouldn’t be able to beat Aymeric, but she couldn’t let him go after everything he’d done.

  “You’re too dangerous to let roam,” Erika said slowly.

  Aymeric sighed through his nose.

  He reached into his pocket, and pulled out Ryder’s pistol. He trained the barrel on Erika before she could flinch.

  Erika stared at the black barrel, heart hammering in her chest. She threw her hands up. It was futile; if Aymeric wanted to kill her, he would. Surrendering was the only thing Erika could do though, so that’s what she did.

  “C’mon, I think we should tell everyone else about this,” Aymeric said.

  ? ? ?

  Theo was relieved to finish searching Mi-Cha’s room. He’d done a thorough search, as he should, and found nothing that would incriminate her as a saboteur. That didn’t mean she couldn’t still be the spy, though Theo doubted someone like Mi-Cha would have been able to hide anything so important.

  Erika stepped into the doorway. Her eyes were wide, and they flitted around in their sockets, drinking up the details. Aymeric appeared behind her.

  “Good to see you, Theo.” Aymeric waved with Ryder’s pistol.

  Theo had to control his muscles to keep from flinching.

  It was logical that, if Mi-Cha wasn’t the saboteur, then it had to be Aymeric. Still, some part of Theo was surprised.

  “We’re going back to Mi-Cha now and explaining this new situation, got it?” Aymeric said. He was standing too far for Theo to rush him. Erika was close enough to attack, but Theo hoped she wouldn’t. Aymeric would kill her.

  Theo stepped out of the room, and Aymeric backed up, giving Theo and Erika space. They were marched back to Ryder’s cabin, where Mi-Cha paced.

  “Took you guys long enough,” Mi-Cha spat.

  Aymeric stepped into the doorway, gun ready.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Mi-Cha demanded.

  “Aymeric is the spy,” Erika said.

  Mi-Cha’s glared at Erika, then to Aymeric.

  “Is that really what we’re gonna concern ourselves with right now?” Aymeric asked.

  “You are the saboteur?” Mi-Cha demanded.

  “We all need to take a deep breath and calm down,” Aymeric said. “I don’t wanna shoot anyone, y’know?”

  “You had no trouble killing Luther and Naoki,” Erika snapped.

  “I don’t want any trouble with you guys,” Aymeric said. “Listen, okay? Will you listen to me for a sec? It ain’t personal, I just work for Frontier. It’s a job.”

  “You’re a murderer,” Erika growled.

  “It’s just a job,” Aymeric repeated. “And nothing really changes. We still take out the aliens and get back to Earth. The only real change is who we deliver the aliens too. We’re all still getting paid in the end.”

  “You piece of shit!” Mi-Cha balled up her hands. “All this time you’ve been–and I fuckin’ fucked you?”

  “We both know it was a just a physical thing,” Aymeric said.

  “You want physical? I can show you physical!” Mi-Cha took a step forward.

  Theo put his hands on Mi-Cha’s shoulder, and pulled her back.

  “Let go!” Mi-Cha writhed, but Theo kept a firm grasp. His fingers dug into Mi-Cha’s collarbones. He hoped he wouldn’t bruise her.

  “Theo’s doing the right thing; we need to stay calm,” Aymeric said.

  “Easy for you to say, with the goddamned gun!” Mi-Cha tried to break free again, but Theo wouldn’t let her.

  “C’mon guys, there’s a bigger problem,” Aymeric gestured outside the room. “We’ve got the Lamia. And the Aranea. And the Carnifex. We’ve got three really big problems out there, and we need to deal with all of them.”

  “Why should we help you?” Erika demanded.

  Aymeric brandished the gun, then gave Erika a quizzical look. He turned his attention to Theo.

  “I know you’re a level-headed one. You agree, the aliens are the biggest threat on this ship?” Aymeric asked.

  Theo was quiet. He thought it was safe to agree, but he couldn’t tell what Aymeric was thinking or what he planned to do. Aymeric could bluff his way through Battlespace, and Theo was certain those skills transferred well into real life.

  You’re going to base your decisions on how Aymeric plays board games.

  “Okay, how about this–am I more dangerous than the aliens?” Aymeric asked.

  “That depends on what you plan to do with us,” Theo said.

  “Well I need an engineer to keep the Ark running until we hit civilization,” Aymeric said. “You know what else would be useful? A skilled pilot!”

  “Fuck yourself,” Mi-Cha said.

  Aymeric turned his gun to her. Mi-Cha shrunk back.

  “You know, if you won’t comply, I’ll figure it out myself. I’m pretty adaptable like that,” Aymeric said.

  “You didn’t mention me,” Erika spoke up.

  “You said that we were useful until we reached civilization,” Theo added.

  “Erika, you know the aliens. That’s useful,” Aymeric said. “And you all know I’m not a bad person; you’re all safe with me.”

  Theo didn’t believe that for a moment. When Aymeric got what he wanted, he would kill everyone aboard the ship. He could jettison them out the airlock and write fake reports as to how they died. If someone refused to help though, Aymeric would kill them where they stood. There was no winning.

  Theo swallowed down his doubts.

  “I will help,” he stated.

  “Finally! I knew you’d come to!” Aymeric said.

  “You son of a bitch!” Mi-Cha screeched.

  “Now now, it’s the right choice,” Aymeric said.

  Mi-Cha wound up to throw a punch. Theo pinned her arms to her side. Mi-Cha spat in Theo’s face.

  “He’ll kill us if we don’t agree.” Theo tried to ignore the spittle on his cheek. He tried to ignore the fact that he’d only bought himself an hour or so to live.

  That’s enough time to retaliate.

  “So you’re just afraid for…” Mi-Cha huffed. “Fine. You know what? Fine.”

  “You’ll help?” Aymeric said.

  “Fine!”

  Aymeric nodded.

  Theo let go of Mi-Cha. She dropped onto Ryder’s bed and crossed her arms. Theo wiped her spit off his face with the sleeve of his jumpsuit.

  “We can do this without you Erika, but I’d rather you helped, too,” Aymeric said.

  Erika sighed.

  “It’s really not a hard deal,” Aymeric said. “Can you find it in your heart to work with me again?”

  Erika glared at him.

  “I’ll help. For Theo and Mi-Cha, not for you,” she said.

  “I can work with that,” Aymeric said. “I’m really glad you agreed, because you can help us kill the Lamia.”

  The words sounded ominous to Theo’s ears.

  “I know how to make a pretty big bomb, and we’ve got the supplies to do that,” Aymeric said. “Erika, I want you to run at the Lamia and blow that fucker straight to hell.”

  If Erika directly approached the Lamia, it would kill her. Even if she got close enough to set a bomb off, she would likely get caught in the explosion.

  Oh. Theo realized that the point was to kill Erika.

  “We need a better plan,” Theo stated.

  “Do you have a better plan?” Aymeric asked. “We’re gonna, what, wrestle the Lamia to death?”

  “We can shoot it,” Theo said.

  “Yeah, I’m sure that would kill it. Considering what the Lamia’s already survived and all,” Aymeric said.

  “We haven’t tried shooting the Lamia, yet,” Theo said.

  “For a good reason!”

  Erika patted Theo’s shoulder.

  “I’ll do it.” Her voice was small.

  Theo looked into Erika’s eyes, and knew that nothing he said was going to change the results. Erika must have realized she couldn’t change the results either, and that’s why she accepted what was going to happen. Theo had to accept it, too. He stopped arguing against Aymeric.

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