Nick James - Skyship Academy

She glances over at me. “There’s something you should know… something I’ve been keeping from you. And now that we’re down here it’s gonna come out sooner or later. Better to hear it from me.” She sighs. “You’re gonna think I’m such a hypocrite.”

“No, Avery.”

She pats her knees, taking a deep breath before speaking. “The thing is… I’ve… I’ve been working for the Unified Party.”

My heart drops. It’s a delayed reaction again, and when the statement finally catches up to me, it’s like a round of bullets straight through the chest.

“I wasn’t transferred from Skyship Mira,” she continues. “My parents didn’t die. I was born on the Surface.”

I chuckle at the absurdity of it. I don’t want to, but it’s all I can do.

“I’m serious,” she responds. “The Unified Party enrolled me at the Academy under a false background three years ago. I’ve been funneling down information ever since. Schematics, training procedures… observations. Madame’s got all the Intel she needs for a full-scale assault, but the President won’t let her make a move. Doesn’t want a war.”

I clutch my arm, trying to keep from being sick. I stopped listening halfway through.

Avery notices. “Jesse?” She pauses, waiting for a response. “Do you understand? Are you hearing what-”

“All this time?” My voice comes out choked and small.

She nods. “That’s how I knew those were Madame’s cruisers back there. But it’s not what you think, Jesse. I’m not like them. I was young. I was just doing what they told me. I didn’t know any better.”

I shake my head. The ability to form coherent sentences fails me. “The Unified Party?”

“Didn’t you think it was strange that I was so interested in snooping around?”

“You were curious.”

“I had to do it, Jesse.”

I bury my face in my knees. All the events of the day catch up to me. I close my eyes, refusing to cry. “First Eva, now you?”

“No.” She grabs my shoulder, then drops her hand to her side. “Oh god, Jesse. I’m so sorry.”

“What is it?” I look up, gritting my teeth. “What have you told them?”

“Not a lot,” she whispers. “When I first arrived at the Academy I overheard Alkine talking about you. I mentioned it to Madame, that’s all. She asked me to keep an eye on you.”

“You’re friends with me because Madame told you to be?”

“No.” She groans. “This is coming out all wrong.” She leans her head back. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. It sounds so sinister.”

“Maybe because it is.” My brain catalogs the past few days. “Wait. That night, when you said you were talking with Phoebe… the mark on your cheek. You were spying, weren’t you?”

“Yes,“ she says, “but it’s not as bad as it sounds. This past year, I’ve been trying to throw Madame off. At first it was business, but then I got to know you, Jesse. Emotion, it…compromised things. I regretted telling her anything. Whenever she asked about you, I played dumb.”

“Madame asked about me?”

Avery nods. “I don’t know what she wants. I didn’t give her any specifics, Jesse. I swear. I didn’t know that they found you in Seattle until last night. I just knew you were the guy all the higher-ups were talking about. They were concerned about you, like it was so important that you were strong enough to take care of yourself. Out of all the students, it was always you. I thought it was strange, so I relayed it to Madame. She wanted to know your family history… your age. I didn’t know why she was so interested. I still don’t.”

“Pearls,” I sigh. “That’s all the Unified Party cares about.”

“Pearls and Jesse Fisher,” Avery replies. “Mentioning you was my biggest mistake.”

I scoff. “But you have no problem selling out Alkine and the Academy.”

“It’s not an easy position-”

“Yeah. I bet it’s not.”

“It’s not,” she counters. “Both Skyship and the Surface have their problems. You know that. There are spies everywhere. Take Skandar’s dad, right? You’re not mad at him for spying on the Unified Party.”

“Because we’re the good guys!” The words come out louder than I mean them to.

Avery shakes her head. “It’s never that simple.”

“Tell that to those government cruisers trying to shoot us out of the sky.”

She frowns. “They’ll be shooting at me too, after what I’ve done. Cassius was supposed to take you to the Lodge today. I couldn’t let that happen.”

I grimace. “How do I know that you’re not in on it too?”

“I can’t-” She stops and reaches up to her forehead. Her eyes shut in pain.

“Avery?”

“Headache,” she whispers. “Ever since we left the Academy.” She rubs her temple for a moment before opening her eyes. “It’s gone.”

I look down at the floor, tracing circles with my finger in the dirt-stained concrete. “You didn’t have to work for the government,” I mutter.

She sighs. “It was my job.”

“You can change jobs.”

She lays her hand on her knee, bowing her head. “Not some.”

A silence fills the tight room. Someone thumps against the far wall, followed by muttering from the neighboring cell. More prisoners. Probably Fringers caught trading with Skyship.

“Look,” Avery starts. “I know it’s going to be hard for you to trust me. It should be. But I’m on your side now. I wanted you to spy on Alkine’s meeting so that you’d know the truth. Anything you want me to do, just tell me. I want to help.”

I shake my head, mumbling. “I think you’ve done enough already.”

“I can help,” she replies. “If I hadn’t had contact with Madame I wouldn’t have known about Cassius today. I wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

A silence fills the chamber. Then I ask the question that’s eating away at my mind, though I’m not sure I really want to hear the answer. “Does she want me dead?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, but she could’ve blown us out of the sky back there and she didn’t.”

I frown. “Then she knows where we are.”

“Maybe,” Avery starts. “I’m off-grid. I haven’t spoken with her for over twenty-four hours.”

I cringe at the thought of Avery speaking with Madame. “I can’t believe I was so stupid,” I mutter. “All this time. I thought maybe you actually… ” I trail off.

“What, Jesse?” She reaches her hand over to me.

I pull away. “Nothing. It’s nothing important.”

She kicks the wall, shaking her head. “You know I-”

A reverberating click from outside interrupts her.

Her head darts up. “What was that?”

I peer at the wall to our left. A crack of light streams in as the cell door slides open. The light widens into a blinding rectangle until it overtakes the darkness.

A figure stands in the doorway. I squint to make out details. It takes a second before I recognize who it is.

I knew he’d find a way down here.

“Evening, Fisher,” Cassius Stevenson smiles. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Something bursts inside me and I jump to my feet and lunge at the guy. I don’t think about it. I just attack.

I catch him off guard, reaching under his jacket and grabbing the pistol. Cassius stumbles to the ground.

Avery stands behind me. “Wow.”

I point the gun down at him, hands shaking.

Cassius gives an awkward grin as he pulls himself to a sitting position. The three of us are in an empty hallway, dimly lit by cheap overhead lights. The brown linoleum floor’s sticky. I guess Security Centers are the one part of Chosen Cities that don’t get the obsessive-compulsive scrub-down.