live in. Free from prejudice and fear. “Just imagine…a world where we can be open about what we are. Where we don’t have to hide in the shadows. There’s so much of our nature that’s shrouded in mystery. We come out in the open and we have a chance to explore that, find out who and what we really are. Are we truly evil as the Church says?”
“Well, if Kinross has his way, then you’re shit out of luck. The Church is going to spread like a pestilence across the universe. I figure he sees it as one more way to control the people.”
“Then we’d better make sure Kinross never gets near Trakis Two.”
Dylan shook his head. “I don’t think that’s going to be so simple. I think Kinross has his eye on the whole system. So if you want your own brave new world then we’d better come up with a plan to stop him in his tracks.”
Milo was saved from replying as his attention was pulled toward the water. A boat was speeding around the lake. Dylan grabbed a pair of binocs and watched for a moment.
“That’s the woman you were eye-fucking yesterday morning when we landed.”
“No, I wasn’t.” But he grabbed the binocs and peered at the boat. It took a moment to come into focus. There was Destiny. No longer a prisoner.
She was laughing up at the man beside her, the big guy in green who’d been in charge of taking their weapons last night. He was driving the boat. Without thinking, Milo got to his feet. He took a moment to place his new wand-in-progress safely in the shuttle, then strode down the ramp, Dylan close behind him. The boat was heading toward the small dock now, and he stopped a short distance away.
He didn’t know her or what she would do. There was a chance she might just point him out and tell her new friend that he’d been nosing around below ground last night. Milo was pretty certain that would only lead to him getting locked in Destiny’s old cell.
As the boat pulled up at the dock, she looked around in wonder—much as she had looked at him last night—as though she had never seen anything like him in her life before. She tilted her face up to the sun and closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she looked straight at him. She started to smile and then stopped abruptly. Bright girl. She wasn’t going to give him away, after all.
He watched as they climbed out of the boat and walked in the opposite direction—she had a great ass. She glanced back over her shoulder. He winked and she grinned, then hurried away.
…
Elvira had never seen Destiny so animated.
She’d always been a happy child, content with the confines of her existence. It was only later that she’d grown dissatisfied with the answers she received and the restrictions to her life. Elvira had been careful with the information she had given, but Destiny was intelligent, too intelligent maybe. She was quite aware that her life wasn’t in any way “normal.”
As she’d grown older, she’d also grown introspective, quiet, holding the questions inside. Because she’d learned quickly that she wouldn’t get any answers.
That was partly the reason why Elvira had placed her in cryo when she had, because the questions had been getting too hard to ignore. But also because the time had been right for Elvira. She’d completed what she’d been brought on board the Trakis Four to achieve. She had more than paid for her ticket. And she was getting old; she was eighty-five, and if she wanted to live to see her children grow up then she had to go into cryo herself. And no way could Destiny remain awake without her. So she had gone to sleep as well.
Maybe she should never have woken her. Just left her in cryo until she was required. But somehow, she hadn’t been able to do that. She’d given herself all sorts of reasons as to why—that she needed to wake her to check she was functioning optimally, that there had been no damage from the cryo. But really it was the little voice inside her whispering it’s not fair.
She exhaled. Since when was life fair? She wasn’t that naive.
Destiny was bouncing, laughing at something Silas said, thrumming with life.
Had she done the right thing?
At that moment, Destiny turned to glance over her shoulder and stopped, her eyes widening. Elvira followed her gaze. Two men