“I did.” He shrugs. “Had to kill him, though. Tried to trick me and escape. That’s why I brought motivation.”
My brother jerks his head toward Elix.
Hatred burns hot in my chest. “If he dies, I will make sure your death is slow if I am given the chance.”
He laughs. “You won’t get one.”
But I slipped his watch once before. I am stronger now and smarter, too.All you have to do is give me an opportunity.And with his arrogance, he doesn’t always see the weaknesses in his systems.
We rocket out of a moon, into space. I lean forward and notice the map on the screen. We’re on the edge of Sol Federation territory, in an unpatrolled dead zone. There aren’t any satellites or spaceports out here. If we call for help, it will just be a signal that pings emptiness until someone comes within range. And most of the time, the people who hear the call are not the ones you want answering it.
A belt of a hundred small moons orbits a massive red planet, from what I can see where I sit. My brother’s pilot takes us through them and to the red planet below. It’s a rough ride down, turbulent. Elix is jerked back and forth. His eyes are closed, but he finds the support rail with a hand and steadies himself. He’s hanging on, just barely.
“What did you give him?” I ask.
“What does it matter?” My brother grabs an apple from a drawer and watches the descent from behind the pilot’s seat while he eats. “You don’t get him back until you’re done.”
“Won’t matter to me if I get him back, but he’s dead.”
“Venom was supposed to kill him,” he bitterly replies.
I look at Elix and see him crack open an eye and find me.
“What kind?”
“Why all the questions?” My brother picks up a crate and throws it at me in one of his typical tantrums.
“Cobra, from my home,” one of the guards says with pride as he kicks his feet out like killing another person is just a walk in the park. “Caught it and drained it myself.”
“Shut up!” My brother flings the apple he eats at the guard’s head.
The man catches it with ease and finishes eating the apple. It’s the first sign I have that my brother isn’t the real boss.
“Must pay you pretty good to put up with his shit,” I remark.
The guard gives me a cold look, and I sense he is not loyal to my brother, but he’s not arrogant enough to break his cover.
We dock in a hangar built deep into the rocks. As we set down on the floor, I notice someone in the co-pilot’s seat that I don’t remember my brother working with before. He’s got a laptop strapped to his chest and carries a bag of tech over tactical armor and weapons harnesses. I catch the image of a cameradrone on his screen before he closes it and packs up.
A guard unstraps me and lugs me up with a firm hand around my arm. I stumble along with him as he leads me down the rear ramp. Elix and his guards remain on the ship.
My brother walks across the dusty stone floor to a hallway carved out in the rock and lit up by modern electric torches. He motions me after him.
I follow his lead by force through the corridors in a catacomb of tunnels riddled with pockets filled with bones. We finally end up at a dead end with a rune puzzle on a wall.
“Open it, and you can have your precious green man back.” My brother sticks out his tongue like the idea leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
“What happened to you?” I ask. “I remember you being so different when we were kids.”
He snaps his fingers and points at the wall. “I adapted to survive.”
I look at the runes, trying to pick out the words. “Who built this?”
“Someone Dad killed as soon as they finished. He never gave me the code.”
I chuckle as I recognize the symbols. “This is easy.”
He snarls at me. “Then open it.”
