United as One (Lorien Legacies #7)(59)

CHAPTER NINETEEN


THE GUY GOES BY REX FOR SHORT.

It turns out this is the second time Adam saved his life. The first was after an explosion at Dulce Base. Adam nursed Rex back to health after that, and the two traveled together for a while. Rex eventually helped Adam gain access to the Mogs’ Plum Island facility, which is where they were experimenting on our Chim?rae. He even helped Adam escape once the Chim?rae were freed. Rex justified this as paying his debt to Adam rather than betraying his fellow Mogs, even though it was both.

“Do you think we can trust him?” Nine asks me.

“Adam does,” I reply. “They spent weeks together. Adam nursed him back to health.”

“Yeah, but . . .” Nine lowers his voice. “Like it or not, he’s one of them.”

We stand on the bridge of the warship, cleared now of everyone but our people. We’re flying the warship slowly up the Niagara River, looking for a safe place to land so that we can pick up the squadron of Canadian Special Ops. Lexa flew Nine and the others up here once the sky was cleared of straggling Skimmers and the Mogadorian ground troops were eliminated.

The warship took care of them all without even unloading the full power of its energy cannons. Adam and Rex handled the weapons, working together.

“He killed his commanding officer,” I tell Nine. “He helped us finish off the Mogs outside the warship.”

“Desperation,” Nine responds. “Dude would’ve done anything to save his own ass. You know those trueborn ones don’t give a shit about the vatborn. He’d probably blow up a million of them if it meant he could keep breathing.”

“Maybe.”

Nine and I stand on the commander’s perch overlooking the various stations down below. From here, we can watch Adam and Rex pilot the ship and talk between them without being overheard. Six and Marina are down below with the two Mogs, looking over the controls and talking with Adam.

“You don’t think they’re capable of change?” I ask Nine. “Adam changed.”

“Yeah, but I always thought that was because he banged Number One or something.”

I give him a tired look.

“What?” he replies.

I shake my head. “Anyway, Rex is only one Mog. Even if he wanted to betray us, what do you think he could really do?”

What I leave unspoken is that I’ve just killed an entire ship’s worth of Mogadorians. One left alive isn’t going to stop what I’ve got planned. As for my question about Mogadorians learning to change, I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that myself. It’s easier if I imagine them as vicious enemies that would never listen to reason, that are incapable of knowing justice or mercy. But the more I get to know Adam and now Rex, the more I see of Mogadorians like that one who died thinking his “god” Setrákus Ra had abandoned him, the more I wonder if they haven’t just been completely brainwashed as a people. Given time, could they change? I’m not going to stop fighting and ask the invaders if they’d like to be rehabilitated. It’s too late for that. But I wonder what will happen once I cut off the head of their twisted society—once I kill Setrákus Ra.

I intend to find out soon.

“He doesn’t have any bad intentions.”

Nine visibly jumps, and my shoulders tighten as Ella creeps up behind us. She smiles a bit, and for a moment I wonder if she’s having some fun with how spooky she’s been lately. Her eyes spark with Loric energy as she scans the two of us.

“Goddamn, Ella,” Nine says, catching his breath. “Did you read his mind or something?”

“Yes,” she responds. “He has harbored doubts about the morality of his people ever since he first encountered Adam. He’s been too frightened to act on them until you gave him an opportunity, John.”

“Well, that’d make me sleep easier if I planned to sleep anywhere on this gross-ass ship,” Nine says, already losing interest. “Maybe we should just have Adam talk all nice to the rest of the Mogs, huh? Go all social worker on ’em.”

Ignoring Nine, I turn to Ella. “The Loralite stone near the falls that you turned off. Can you reactivate it?”

“Yes,” she replies.

“Then let’s go.”

“Okay, bye,” Nine says, frowning as we exit.

I lead Ella through the empty halls of the warship. The traces of my battle with the ship’s crew are everywhere: burns, debris, damaged panels. The two of us don’t say anything until we’re almost at the docking bay. Ella finally breaks the silence.

“You’re mad at me.”

I run a hand through my hair, find it sticky and matted with sweat. “I . . . no. Yes. I don’t know.”

“You wish I had warned Sarah. Or warned you.”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now, does it?” I slow my walk down and turn towards her. “In your visions—”

“I told you; I’m not looking at the future anymore.”

“When you were, then. Did you see me like this? Did you see what I’d become?”

“What have you become, John?” Ella asks, tilting her head.

I bite the inside of my cheek before answering. I remember the looks I was getting from Six and Adam during our attack on the warship.