Keary Taylor: The Eve

Royce radioed for me and Avian and we made our way there. When we stepped inside, we found Royce, Dr. Evans, and Dr. Beeson.

“All done with the plans yet?” I asked as I settled into a chair. Avian stood just behind me, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Nearly,” Dr. Evans said, his voice muffled slightly because of the glass.

“I wanted to run some things by you before we finalized plans,” Royce said, opening a notebook and pulling a pen from behind his ear. “So, according to our freakish friend here, he needs to get back to the NovaTor Biotics facility to get this code and a few supplies for the Nova—”

“The Nova?” I interrupted.

“The transmitter device,” Royce clarified. He gave a sidelong glance at Dr. Beeson and Dr. Evans that said he didn’t love the name. “Anyway, he needs to get some supplies for the Nova we won’t find around here. I’m designing a solar vehicle with Dr. Beeson’s help, that will get him there quickly, but won’t require fuel. We’ve been lucky in the past with gas, but luck doesn’t last forever.”

“Makes sense,” I said, nodding my head. “How long will it take?”

“We have a single person vehicle we should be able to convert in a week, maybe two,” Dr. Beeson said, looking over some files.

“So a bigger vehicle is going to take a bit longer to convert, right?” I asked, sitting back in my chair, propping my elbows up on the table behind me.

“Excuse me?” Dr. Beeson asked, his brow furrowing.

“My sister is still out there,” I said, crossing my ankle over the opposite knee. “She remembers everything that happened to her. She’s probably alone, or someone could have found her and twisted her into who knows what kind of weapon. I’m not going to not look for her. I’ve got to start somewhere. NovaTor seems like a good place to begin.”

The three of them looked at me for a long moment. There was disapproval written all over their faces.

“We cannot afford to delay in setting the Nova off,” Royce said, shaking his head.

“And what are the odds that you will ever find her?” Dr. Evans asked. “It’s a big country out there. A big continent.”

I looked to Dr. Beeson. His expression was conflicted. But he understood. I saw it in his eyes.

“I have to at least try. She is my only family. The only one who understands what it’s like to be what I am,” I said, my voice hard and firm. “So I’ll be going too.”

They were all quiet again for a long while, arguments forming behind their closed lips.

“You know it’s pointless to argue with her,” Avian said.

“I wasn’t going to be the one to say it,” Royce retorted, shaking his head.

“Fine,” Dr. Evans said. “A slightly bigger vehicle shouldn’t be too big of a deal, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Royce interrupted almost before Dr. Evans could finish his sentence. “Eve just became the most valuable being in the entire universe. There is no chance I’m sending just you and her out into the wild. She’ll be going with an arsenal of back up.”

“That big of a team will require a fifteen passenger van!” Dr. Beeson protested. “That will take three weeks to construct!”

“Then we’ll wait three weeks!” I said, my blood boiling. I understood everyone’s points, but that didn’t mean the entire conversation wasn’t annoying.

“Were you not the one who told me about a particular Bane sweep?” Dr. Evans asked from behind the glass. He was getting angry, and I’d never seen anything scarier than an angry Bane-human freak. “What makes you think they won’t move faster than predicted? What makes you think they couldn’t destroy the NovaTor facility tomorrow?” By this point he was shouting, his cybernetic fists pounding on the glass wall.

Avian pulled a firearm and pointed it in Dr. Evans direction. “I suggest you calm down, sir,” he said, his voice deadly serious.

“All of you just shut up,” Royce said, irritated, as he stood from his seat. “We can’t control the element of time so we’re just going to have to hope that we can get there quick enough. It seems smart anyway to send more than one person on this mission. We’ll get the van ready, and you’ll leave as soon as possible, got it?” Royce yelled at Dr. Evans.

He didn’t give any kind of response except for a glower.

“You can take four guards with you,” Royce said, turning back to face me. “Your choice, but I suspect I already know who you’ll pick. The rest of the space in the vehicle will be needed for supplies and firepower.”

“Avian’s coming, obviously,” I said. Avian finally relaxed and put his weapon away. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks of him right now, I trust him and that’s all that matters. I think I owe it to West to let him come too. He wants to find my sister as bad as I do.” He hadn’t said as much, but I knew it was true. “And Bill. We’ve worked together for so long, he’s part of my team. I’ll let you know the fourth as soon as I decide.”

“Peachy,” Royce said, turning to the other two and giving an annoyed smile. “So, we good?”

Dr. Beeson shook his head and looked slightly irritated. “I’ll have my team start working on the vehicle tonight. We’ll work as quickly as we can.”

“Great,” Royce said as he set to collecting his things. He turned to Dr. Evans. “Can I get you a magazine or something,” he said sarcastically as we all turned to leave.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Dr. Evans replied with just as much vice and chill.

Royce stalked out of the building, myself right in tow.

There was a group of refugees walking out of the hospital and toward the hotel and our paths had no choice but to cross one another.

There were two men; one in his younger twenties, another in his forties, and a woman who looked just older than me. The two men glared at Royce and I, distrust and hatred in their eyes.

The entire time we walked past them, bodies stiff, fingers just a little too close to triggers, I kept telling myself to simply ignore them.

I was going a good job of it. Until one of them muttered “murderers” once they were behind our backs.

“Okay, this is enough,” Royce growled. He reeled around and moving faster than I thought him capable of, grabbed the younger man by the front of his jacket and had him pinned against the side of a building.

“I can deal with you wrongly accusing me of murdering that psychopath you all called a leader,” Royce hissed in his face. “But I won’t tolerate lies about Eve. After everything you lot did to her and after everything she’s done and will do to save your sorry asses, you ought to be bowing down at her feet. Any of you says anything about her again, I’ll have every one of you escorted from New Eden in a very uncomfortable way.”

“Both of you just stop!” The woman from their group was instantly crying and I actually felt sorry for her. So many of the refugees just wanted peace. But the two men were bristling with anger. But when a man like Royce makes threats, fear overrules anger.

“Corbin,” Tristan suddenly called from behind. “Do we have a problem here?”

Royce released the man, who shrugged his jacket back on straight and tried to look unbothered by the encounter.

“No problem,” Corbin said, his eyes burning into Royce’s. “Apparently I’ve been put in my rightful place.”

“Good,” Tristan said, his finger resting just to the side of the trigger on his shotgun. “Now, how about we get on home, okay?”

Without another word, the small group turned and started back for the hotel.

“I hope they weren’t too much trouble,” Tristan said, watching them retreat.

Royce’s jaw was set hard. He shook his head once, hatred burning in his eyes as he stared after Corbin and the others. Finally, he just stalked back in the direction of the hospital.