Disclaimer: Not mine - don't rub it in.
Author's Note: Apologies if the science stuff in this is off. There is a reason I'm a writer and not a scientist :) Anyway, please read and review as always. Enjoy!
Chapter Twelve
Three weeks with no word. No sign of Mallorie at all. No way of telling if Cinder was –
He turned the ring over in his hand, the opal catching the light and shimmering. It was almost hypnotic, but it did nothing to settle the anxious knot in his stomach. Iko had found it after the fight. It must have fallen off her finger as Hanna had dragged her away. Now, it was his talisman. His one solid link to her. If he stared at it long enough, held it tight enough, wished hard enough, she would be safe.
If only the world worked like that.
Kai clutched the ring in his fist and closed his eyes.
"Where are you?" he muttered.
When he had heard what had happened at the farm, he had dropped everything. He left Torin in charge and met up with the Rampion to join the search. Not that he felt particularly useful, but just being there felt better than waiting for a comm call. Most of them on board had very little to do right now. Cress and Iko seemed to be the only ones who were constantly busy. They were working in shifts monitoring the net feeds, working with his team in New Beijing and Camilla's team in the UK. They scoured the globe, searching endlessly for any clue, any tiny scrap of intel on Mallorie.
Kai got up from the bed he was calling his own for the time being and, for the fifth time that day, he wandered to the control room.
Iko had taken over the Cress. She sat hunched over her screen, scrolling through the latest feed.
Kai gently lay his hand on her shoulder. Her hand reached up to cover his in mutual support and comfort.
"Anything?" Kai asked, taking a seat at the co-pilot's control station.
Iko shook her head.
"Cress thought to look for signs of the soldiers, now we know she has some," she explained. "They're harder to conceal, but still…"
She turned her attention back to the screen and continued reading through the feed.
"Is it not quicker to, you know…" Kai asked, thinking carefully how to ask –
"Link direct with the net feed?" Iko finished.
"Yeah," Kai said with a grateful smile.
"I have," Iko replied. "I'm just double checking to make sure I haven't missed anything."
Even after knowing Iko for the better part of a decade, Kai still struggled at times to fully appreciate what she was. A machine. A walking, talking, and at times singing and dancing, computer. She always seemed so much more alive than that. She certainly had more appreciation for life than most of the people he knew.
"Can I do anything to help?" Kai asked, desperately hoping she could find something for him to do.
Iko shook her head, her face full of sympathy.
"I'm sorry, Kai," she said.
Kai nodded in understanding, but was deflated nonetheless.
"To be honest," Iko said sitting back in her chair. "This is rather pointless in itself."
Kai looked at her in surprise.
"If there was anything to find here, we would have found it by now," Iko explained. "Mallorie is too good at hiding to leave any traces for us to find on any old net feed."
"Hopefully the teams on the ground can find something," Kai said, trying hard to sound optimistic.
"I hope so," Iko agreed. "But right now…"
Kai looked at her. He had never seen her look so defeated before.
"What?" he prompted.
"I just feel so useless right now," she admitted. "Adri always used to call me a useless android. For once, I actually feel like she's right."
"Oh Iko," Kai said, his voice tender and comforting. "You are not useless at all. There's a thousand things you can do that I wouldn't know where to start."
"Like what?" Iko said, putting him on the spot.
"Well, fashion for one thing," he replied.
Iko nodded. "Good point," she said. "Speaking of which, those shoes with that t-shirt. Really?"
Kai looked down at his t-shirt and shoes. "What?" he said bewildered. "They're both black?"
"Exactly," said Iko. "Would it kill you to add some colour every once in a while?"
Kai laughed. The sound seemed to cheer Iko a little and a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. But only for a moment.
"I'm no good in a crisis, though," she added.
"And I am?" Kai asked her. "I'm good at two things: Politics and Diplomacy. I have no practical skills whatsoever. My knowledge of a computer system is laughable. I've been here for three weeks and all I have been able to do is use up part of the oxygen supply."
Iko smiled at him. "You've done more than that."
"Not much. But you… you've been in here every day doing everything you possibly can to find them. Don't tell me you're no good in a crisis. I've seen you in action Iko-dàrén. You're far from useless, believe me."
Iko's smile broadened. "Thank you," she said.
"Anytime. I know what it's like to feel useless. It's not a fun experience."
"That's a very android trait you have."
Kai shook his head. "No, it's a very human trait that you have. You forget, Iko, that you are no mere android. There should be a whole separate category especially for you."
Iko smiled. "Really?" she said, blushing.
"Absolutely," he replied. He thought for a moment before adding, "You're a… person of synthetic origins."
Iko beamed at him.
"There you are," she said, the lightness returning to her demeanour. "You're not useless either. You're the motivation guy."
Kai let out a laugh before a brief silence drifted between them.
"I'd never seen her so happy, you know," Iko said eventually. "That day you proposed to her."
Kai felt for the ring in his pocket. Felt for his connection to Cinder.
"It was mutual," he replied.
Iko smiled thinly.
"I should let you get back to work," Kai said standing to leave.
He placed a gentle, small kiss on the top of her head as he left. There was a time when a gesture like that would have caused a system malfunction in Iko. He was glad they were past those days. Glad they had both been able to see the person beneath the outer trappings.
As he left the control room, Cress came jogging up the corridor towards him.
"Captain needs everyone in the mess," she said jogging past him to fetch Iko. "There's an incoming comm from Luna."
"We need to know your exact location," Winter said over the comm link.
Everyone had gathered in the mess to receive the comm. Winter had wasted no time at all with greetings – something very out of character for her. Thorne was instantly alert at her request.
"We're in geosynchronous orbit over Guadelupe," he answered. "It's lovely this time of year. You should drop in for a visit."
"That's exactly what we're doing, Thorne-friend," Winter replied. "Jacin has created an antidote to Mistress Mallorie's poison. He only has a small amount, but it will be enough to save Rose. He's on his way to you as we speak."
Thorne saw Gregg sit up straighter at the news. "That's brilliant," he said.
"Yes it is," agreed Winter. "Provided we find her in time."
The reminder of the obstacles still in their way pulled them all back down to earth again (so to speak).
"What's his ETA?" Thorne asked, hoping the others would appreciate his glossing over her last comment.
"Three hours," she replied. "Be ready."
With that, she ended the comm.
"Does anyone else miss the slightly psycho-mad Winter?" Thorne asked the room. "This new President-efficient Winter is a little unnerving at times."
"She's a person of authority, Thorne," Kai replied. "Of course you find her unnerving."
The princess slept and Crowe stood guard, just as the Mistress had ordered. Even thought she was not there to control him, he obeyed. He feared what she could do to him if he didn't.
Every so often, he would steal a glance at the princess' beautiful face. It was pale now. All the colour of life had drained from it as the poison pulsed through her veins. Crowe pitied her. He knew she would still feel the agony throughout her body. In her mind, she would be screaming, begging for help. For relief from the unending pain. But to the world, she looked at peace. Perfect. Serene.
He knew it wouldn't be long for her now. Soon, she would have her relief. Soon, she would be dead.
The vial of antidote was tiny. It looked like it could only hold a few drops of the life-saving liquid. But it was enough. Jacin assured them it was enough. When he had arrived on the Rampion, they had all gathered in the mess again. It was the closest thing the ship had to a conference room.
"We have to make sure she gets this within the next few days," Jacin explained. "Any longer and she will be too far gone to save. I'm sorry I couldn't get it here sooner."
"Well, that's just aces," Thorne said. "We still have no idea where Mallorie is. We've been searching for weeks and nothing. What makes you think she'll just pop up in the next few days?"
It was something he knew the rest of them were thinking. He didn't want to use the phrase 'too little, too late,' but it did seem to ring true at this point.
Even so, a knowing smile spread across Jacin's face. "Radioactive isotopes," he said cryptically.
Cress was the only one in the room who perked up. "Oh, that's genius. From the poison?"
Thorne looked at her, hoping that by doing so he would spontaneously understand what she was talking about.
He didn't.
Jacin nodded. "From the production process for the poison," he explained. "I've had a team studying the poison for months now, including reverse engineering it in the hopes it would help in creating the antidote. They discovered that when it's made, it creates a unique isotopic signature, one that can be traced."
Jacin tapped his port-screen and a holographic image of the United Kingdom spread over the table, glowing blue in the dim light of the mess. Five areas on the map glowed orange.
"Winter had one of our satellites scan for the signature on earth and this is what showed up."
Thorne's knowledge of UK geography was a little rusty, but he knew two of the orange areas were within the city of London. One looked like it was in what was left of Wales – Cardiff, perhaps. The other two were further north – one around the middle of the country and the other up in the North East, near the Scottish border.
"The orange areas are where the isotope has been detected," Jacin explained. "Old Kensington Palace and a warehouse at the docks in London, a storage facility near Cardiff. That one in the middle is Chatsworth House and in the North is Cragside House. They're both old, abandoned, second-era mansions. No-one has been near them in years."
"The dots over London and Cardiff look paler than the others," Cress observed.
Jacin nodded. "The warehouse and the storage facility have been confirmed as empty. Mallorie hasn't been there for a very long time. As for Kensington Palace, we think she was there before the ball in June. I doubt she's been back much since. It seems to be too much of an unnecessary risk to be that close to the queen."
"That just leaves these two," Kai said pointing to the bright orange markers over Chatsworth and Cragside. "I can contact my team, have them send a surveillance droid with a thermal imaging camera over both sites."
Jacin nodded as Kai got up from the table and headed to the control room to make the call.
"So what's the plan?" Gregg asked eagerly. "How do we get the antidote to Rose when we find her?"
Thorne, Cress and Iko turned to look at Jacin, each expecting him to have the answer.
Jacin shifted in his seat. "Well, the antidote itself is pretty simple. It's administered through the mouth," he explained. "The vial contains a highly concentrated dose. All it would take is two drops, maybe three and the effects would be pretty instantaneous."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though," Cress cautioned. "We still have to find her, remember?"
It didn't matter, though. The glimmer of hope they had all be waiting for had finally appeared, like the sun blazing over the horizon at dawn. At last, it felt as if they were making progress and closing in on Mallorie.
