Departure(65)

Nicholas is wrapping up the briefing now, detailing the backup plan, which is even simpler: placing explosives in the power plant. If we think the other faction is on the verge of resetting the quantum bridge, Nicholas will detonate the charges, bringing down the dam and Titan City, destroying the device—ideally after we get out.

He calls for last questions and comments, and I stand facing the two dozen people in our assault force, half passengers, half Titans.

“There’s another person we need to look out for: Harper Lane. Many of you know her. She’s another passenger. Late twenties, early thirties. Slender. British. Blond hair. She was recovered along with Yul and Sabrina at Titan Hall, and we assume she’s in Titan City with them as well. She’s an innocent bystander here, a hostage, and we should do everything we can to save her. She may also have information that could help us find or disable the device. If anyone spots her, notify both Nicholas and me.”

The group breaks up, the eleven passengers and Grayson returning to their Titan mentors for more suit training. We’ve got another hour and a half before sunset, our launch time.

Before, at the crash site, everything happened so fast that I never had time to be nervous. That’s not the case here. With the briefing over, I wish the whole thing were happening right now.

Nicholas drifts over to me. “You good on the suit?”

“Yeah, think so.”

“The woman . . .”

“Harper.”

“Right, Harper. You seem very interested in recovering her.”

“She was with me from the start. Helped at the lake. She’s very brave. She’s done all she could to help the passengers.”

He grins. “So it’s all about her altruism.”

I just shrug.

“Remember who you’re talking to.”

“All right, you got me,” I mumble.

“We’ve got some time before we launch. I want to hear all about her, everything that’s happened since the crash. It will take your mind away from this.”





It’s amazing how talking to Nicholas has helped me sort through my own thoughts and . . . feelings about the crash. For the past hour, we’ve sat in the small conference room, running through the events. He’s a mirror, a wiser version of myself with insights that have completely changed my perspective on so many things in the short amount of time we’ve spent together. I wonder what life in 2147 will be like with him here to guide me. He’s the type of person I’ve never had in my life before: someone who cares, who can teach me what life holds and where the land mines are. It’s exciting.

I open my mouth to speak, but I don’t get a chance. The ship’s overhead speakers erupt in a high-pitched wail, and a screen on the wall activates: the five finger-shaped towers of Titan City, glittering in the last orange and pink rays of the setting sun. Two airships at the base rise and move off. The camera angle changes, following them out to sea.

“We launched drones to keep an eye on them,” Nicholas says, focusing on the screen.

The first ship passes, and a flash consumes the feed. They shot the drone down.

The black screen fills again, this view much farther away.

The airships fly in a straight line, then halt, hovering over the water. The feed zooms. Boats in the water. They’re round, unlike any I’ve ever seen.

“The colonists,” Nicholas says. “They’ve evacuated the orbital ring.”

“They’ve already vaccinated their population?”

“They did that days ago. They’ve had the vaccine queued up for years, just waiting for confirmation that it works. The other faction verified it at the crash site before we drove them out.”

“What do the colonists want?”

“Peace.” Nicholas shakes his head. “They just don’t want to see Mom and Dad fight. My guess is that they’re going to take up residence in Titan City, act as human shields to try to stop us.”

What a twist. If that happens, it certainly rules out taking the city down. Humanity in this time would be finished.

“What now?” I ask.

“Now we launch. We have to beat them to the city.” He points at the airships. “This is a huge opening for us. If we can catch those ships outside Titan City, destroy them, it would leave the entire place wide open.”





36





In the cargo area of the Titan airship, Nicholas and I stand next to Grayson and Oliver, two rows of people behind us—Titans, then survivors from Flight 305. We all wear the glass-tiled suits, only our heads revealed, our helmets tucked under our right arms.

On the wide screen Titan City rises, sparkling in the moonlight. The placid Atlantic swells on one side, and on the other a dark, jagged valley waits, a sort of allegory for the precipice upon which we stand. Or fly, rather.

We rush toward the dam, the seconds to arrival counting down on the screen.

At the base of the hand, an airship rises into the sky. Our two ships are barreling between it and another airship that hovers several miles out, above the three landing crafts bobbing in the Atlantic. One of the landing crafts is already empty.

Nicholas steps out to address the group. “We can assume a third of the colonists were on that raft that was just evacuated to the city. Nothing changes. That leaves thirty-three hundred colonists out in the Atlantic—easily a large enough genetic pool for repopulation. If they arm the colonists in the city, we treat them as combatants. If they stand in your way, do what you have to do. We still deploy the explosives in the penstock at the base of the dam.”