“Cypherjets then?”
“That’s what Lieth wants.”
Uncle Lieth.My stomach turns, hearing his name again. Only people who know him personally can call him by his first name. To everyone else, he was Major Oethiaus. Growing rage steadies my hands and my shaking legs as I sneak out from the shelter of the ascent shaft.
I don’t like shooting anyone in the back. But I’m desperate to savehumanity. And right now, Titans are looking like the last source of it.
I fire at a familiar man and tag him in the back of the head. The second turns to me, surprise on his face.
“E-Esthi?”
My heart wrenches, but I squeeze the trigger again. I take him down with a shot to the leg, then walk up to him as he crumples. “You’re a traitor.”
“Trying to feed my family,” he rasps.
“Your family died in the war twelve years ago, Arius. I’d love to go back in time and change a lot, but believing a lie is never something I’d want.”
His face reddens. “I miss them so much. I’m just trying to survive.”
“So am I. So are the Titans and the hundreds of women on their ship.”
“Women?”
“Yes,” I hiss. “You piece of shit.”
His eyes scan the room as he braces his bleeding leg. “They said the Titans were corrupt, coming to kill us for vengeance after the war.”
“Never thought you were that stupid,” I harshly whisper. “CSPtook Myria, Kelion, Havlis, and Sima, among how many others?Theytook family from us and handed us over to the Solcrue! Not the Titans. Those Titans arestillprotecting humans, even after all the shit we put them through, all the pain…”
I can see the connection form in his mind the wider his eyes get. “I just did what they said to stay alive.”
I find a nearby rag and throw it at him. “Patch yourself up. You’re going to help me make up for this mess you’ve made.”
“What about Talryn?”
I look at the man I’ve killed. “He raped your sister as a kid. Fucking leave him. He’s no better than Solcrue, who’ve turned most of the women into anajas.”
“Practice mates?”
“Yes,” I snap, directing my rifle at the main door. “Get up. Shut down the munitions core. All of the rails. I want guns down. Not broken. Offline.”
“What if I can’t?”
I glare down at him. “I’ll drop you like Talryn just for being a moron.”
He grabs a nearby pipe system and lugs himself onto his good foot, keeping the other off of the ground. “I don’t really care to live now.”
“Then help for the future of those of us who want to.”
He nods once, hops over Talryn’s body, and works on the control panel at the end of the room. I tuck myself in the shadows, waiting for whoever will come to inspect the system to find out why it shuts down.
Motors whir slower. Ammo belts grind to a halt. Seconds later, a man charges into the back in a CSP uniform. As the door slides shut behind him, I slip out.
The door shuts behind me. A gun goes off. I don’t know who’s died, but I hope Arius has found some courage for a change. If not, I’ll need a backup plan for the other soldier.
“It truly is amazing, isn’t it?” a familiar voice says in the distant doorway to the cockpit. “How loyal Titans are. It’s one of their most predictable features.”
The door opens to the munitions core. Arius steps out with a handgun and blood spray across his chest and face. A murderous gleam shines in his brown eyes.
My uncle looks back.
“Problem solved, sir,” Arius remarks with a bitter tone. “Core should be back online in a matter of minutes. Spooling up now.”
“Good.” My uncle turns around as if nothing is wrong.
Arius scans the shadows, finds me hiding behind a pillar, walks by me, and drops into the portside gunners’ bay, a hand behind his back filled with injectors. He glances up at me and jerks his nose toward the cockpit.
I close up my helmet, expecting a confrontation. But when I turn to walk up to the front, Uncle Lieth is standing in the fuselage, looking right at me.
“Thought I saw something in the shadows,” he says. “Welcome to Scythe,Gray. This will be your final memory. Let’s make it a good one.”
