Nick James - Crimson rising

“I saw you,” Cassius spit. “On Haven. I saw what he was going to do to you. Bring you down to the pits. Submerge you… or something.”

Theo nodded. “We’re Shifters, me and my father. There aren’t many of us on Haven, and even less that can manipulate Ridium as well as we can.” A spout of blackness emerged from between Cassius’s feet, like the eruption of a volcano. Theo grabbed hold of the top and formed it into a perfect sphere. It hovered over his hand, spinning like the model of a planet. “It won’t mean a thing once it’s all gone, but for now it’s going to help us take over this planet.”

Theo shot the black sphere into the air, where it exploded in a hundred sideways raindrops that diffused into the walls around them. “A skilled Shifter,” he continued, “can program a task-or several-in specific order, and the hunk of Ridium will carry that information until it’s completed its mission.” He stepped to Cassius’s side and sat, staring down at his bracelet. “I can feel it now. That chunk around your wrist was given a set of three tasks by a traitor to the Authority.” He ran his hand over the surface of the bracelet. “Task one: Transform from the shape of a cube to a pair of bracelets, one for the Pearlbreaker, one for his brother.”

Cassius remembered when Madame had first presented him with the mysterious black box. It had taken Fisher’s key to activate it. His wrist hadn’t been bare since.

“Task two,” Theo continued. “Relay your mother’s recording from Haven. Reveal all of the amazing things you can do to save your world.” He laughed for a second. Then his smiled faded. “Task three won’t matter much longer.”

“Tell me.” Cassius squirmed.

Theo nodded. “Your parents thought they were smart. The bracelets, even back when they were some boring box, have been programmed by a Shifter to transmit a constant signal to the stars.”

“So what?”

“So… ” He smiled. “They’re a filter. They let in the good Pearls and keep out the bad.”

“How?”

He shrugged. “Green, red… it’s different energy. It’s a frequency game, Stevenson. Like a radio blocking a certain station.” He lifted his finger. Cassius’s bracelet lifted into the air, stopping half a foot from the ground. Frozen. “Like I said, Ridium’s a powerful substance. I don’t know how the Resistance found a Shifter willing to undercut the Authority, but this little thing, along with Fisher’s, was their last great hope.”

He let the bracelet fall to the floor again. It landed against the Ridium without a sound. “There are thousands of them, Cassius, right at the edge of space, circling your planet. Red Pearls, everywhere. More than I can even imagine. This far up, you might even feel them if you close your eyes and concentrate real hard.” He smiled. “And all I have to do is get rid of you and your brother.”

Cassius winced as the coil tightened around his leg. “What about the red Drifter? He was in a Pearl. He came through okay.”

Theo nodded. “He wore a tiny piece of Ridium around his neck-the last remaining treasure in my father’s collection. It was a gamble, but Ridium attracts Ridium. The natural bond between the objects was enough to break through the transmission.” His brows raised. “That’s how I came to Earth, after all.”

Cassius craned his neck to see around the room. “You came here in this?”

Theo laughed. “Are you kidding me? All I had was enough Ridium to get me safely through space.”

“Submerged,” Cassius said. “You were submerged in it.”

“Exactly,” he replied. “And I shifted it into a kind of ship. A barrier between me and the stars. Like a Pearl, but better.” He paused. “It was supposed to be untraceable, but Madame’s radars must have picked me up when I landed. I don’t know… I guess she had reason to search the skies after you and Fisher showed up.”

A ripple coursed through the ground as he continued. “I had no memory when I got here, wandering through Fringe Town after Fringe Town until she picked me up. An accident, she’d said. I’d had an accident. That’s all.” He turned away, eyes focused on the distant wall. “But Ridium’s everywhere. It came down with the Scarlet Bombings that destroyed your cities. It’s been seeping underground ever since, waiting for Matigo to use it. Every last bit of the stuff that was on Haven is now on Earth. The entire planet’s a weapon for those who can use it.”

Cassius felt a pain in his chest, like the wind had been kicked out of him. “I thought the Scarlet Bombings-”

“Were a pre-strike,” Theo interrupted. “Yeah, they were. They set everything in motion. The warming of the environment, the fighting. Skyships. Chosen Cities. And Ridium. Everything’s been counting down to this moment.”

Cassius winced. “So what are you going to do?”

Theo grinned. “First, I’m going to let the rest of the Authority in. Then, oh great Cassius Stevenson, I’m going to kill you.”

Altair’s in full freak-out mode. I’m sure of it, even though I can’t hear the sirens anymore. If the destruction in the shopping center wasn’t enough, the lurch from the disrupted generator would send everyone on edge. We’ve stabilized now, but sudden drops in altitude don’t make for a very subtle sneak attack.

Avery and I stumble back to the main corridor of the Skyship, stopping at a maintenance directory on our way. The nearest storage center is one level below us, not far. It’s a matter of blending until we get there. We can’t allow a security team to get the jump on us, not when we’re so close.

My mind flashes to Cassius. It’s not a productive thing to worry about, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s alright. Theo was a deadly opponent even before Lenbrg. I know Cassius is strong-he could take us all down if he wanted to-but is it enough?

I brush the thought aside and try to envision the mission before me. I see us breaking into the storage room. I imagine the explosions. Pearls, everywhere. Light, everywhere. So bright I have to shield my eyes. I feel the buzzing-how great it is to break one, how dangerously empowering. I try to imagine this as an assignment. School work that needs to be turned in. Goal. Objective. I bet this is how Cassius sees things all the time. If I can tap into his wavelength, I can be like him. A soldier. But it fits worse than that too-tight suit I had to wear during Visitation Day last spring. I’m not the guy that gets things done. My life’s been a series of starts, not finishes.

Avery and I crouch against the wall outside the storage center. “They’re gonna be on edge,” I say. “After what happened in the reactor, they’ll be sending teams down.”

She nods. “We’ll have to be quick. They don’t know what you can do.”

A tremor runs down my spine. “I can feel it, even through the wall. There are dozens of them, just sitting there.”

Avery grabs the pistol from my side. “Here, let me handle this.”

“You’re gonna shoot them?”

She blinks. “If there are guards.”

“It’s on stun, right?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “I’ll do what’s required to protect you. I used to be a decent shot in my day.”

“But-” I stop myself. She doesn’t want to hear it. She doesn’t care how much I hate hurting people, how selfish I feel when these kinds of things happen because of me. She’s right. This became a war weeks ago. There are casualties in war, some of them innocent. There will be a whole lot more if we let the Authority invade.

The energy hums around me like a swarm of insects, tugging at my skin, trying to work its way inside. I swallow and block it out for now. It’s too scattershot, anyway-too far away to be of any use.