Theron rolled his eyes. “Perhaps we should get a real translator.”
Kalie silenced him with a slash of her hand.
“Loyal to the…mortelle master?” Zane’s eyes flicked across the note again. His brow furrowed, and he lowered the paper. “I will always be loyal to the mortelle master.I don’t know what to make of that.”
Kalie’s pulse thumped in her ears as she glanced from the drivchip to the note to the chip again. Selene’s warning rang in her ears.A trap, a trap, a trap…
Shoving past Father, she snatched the drivchip out of the projector. Smooth, plain, inconspicuous… like the traitor who’d sent it.
“Get this contained.” The words flew out in a jumbled rush as she thrust the chip into Father’s beringed hands. “Tell the techs to check it for bugs, stolen data, hidden trackers… all of it. Haeden, you need to go. Now. It could be a trap.”
“What are you talking about?” Zane asked.
Kalie crossed her arms. “He knows you’re from Oppalli. Uncle Jerran excels at mortelle, and he taught him how to play?—”
“Who?”
She loosed a shuddering breath. “Mylis.”
Zane bitback a curse as Kalie missed anothershot. She was sloppy. Distracted. A clay humanoid target popped up behind a boulder. Ten yards, an easy shot. So easy. He’d seen her hit targets at that distance dozens of times over the past three weeks. But her grip was terrible, and by the time she fired, the target had already lowered behind the boulder. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. The recoil had knocked her back, and the laser veered far to the left. Its tinny shriek vanished into the cacophony of cannon blasts.
Zane’s fists clenched as he breathed in the artificial odor of burnt rubber and acrid smoke.
Kalie jogged to the next post. It was a half-assed jog, at best.
“Faster!” he roared.
As a high whistle cut through the grassy field, she slid into a crouch behind a jagged boulder, lining up the next shot. A thunderous explosion blasted through the speakers, and Zane shivered. Kalie flinched. She paused for two seconds—two seconds too long. The misshapen humanoid model lowered to the ground, untouched.
Zane thumped his fist against a pole. “Shoot it!”
She paused to wipe the sweat from her brow. A dummy popped up between two red trees, and she didn’t even tryto blast it.
He stormed down the concrete strip, reached the nanotech’s hulking control box, and slammed his fist down on the panel.
The simulation’s nightmarish sounds vanished, but the artificial scents wafting from the machine still poisoned the fresh fall air.
Kalie rested against a wooden beam and gulped down water.
“You’re distracted.”
She bristled. “I’m trying.”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
He leaned on a concrete stand. Across the lawn, blackened patches of wood dotted the charred trunks of shaggy trees. Dozens of shots, all gone astray.
Kalie exhaled sharply. “I’m thinking about him.”
“This isn’t the time.” Zane rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept last night. “We can’t do anything until the data’s decrypted.”
“I can’t trust him. Iwon’ttrust him. He’s a liar, a traitor, just like his father… and what makes him think I’d be stupid enough to fall for it? If he betrayed me to get his father out of prison, he’s not going to betray Iliana now that his father’s been pardoned. Whatever’s on the drivchip is just a bluff, a trick…”
Zane closed his eyes, shutting out her rambling. It wasn’t a bluff. Whatever it was, it was important.
Mylis had traumatized Kalie when he pulled his pulser on her, but looking back, it didn’t make sense. There were a million reasons for Mylis to betray them—his murdered mother, his imprisoned father, his own miserable childhood—but he gained nothing from helping Iliana, not when his rival was part of the coup. Hewould’ve climbed to greater heights under Roth’s wing than Hewlett’s.
And the way Mylis had talked about Roth, with awestruck reverence… No one could lie that well.
