Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,90

paused for a second, making sure her next words carried the weight she wanted. “Someone on Albion.”

Marcellus felt as though the cruiseur had suddenly lost altitude and they were falling. Plummeting straight to the ground.

“And you found one of these messages?” Marcellus asked.

Cerise crossed her arms over her chest. “Mmm-hmm.”

“What did it say?” Alouette and Marcellus blurted out at the same moment.

Cerise’s eager expression slid right off her face. She uncrossed her arms. “Well, see, that’s the problem. I can’t interpret it.”

“Why not?” Gabriel chided. “I thought you were an expert hacker.”

“I am,” she snapped. “But this isn’t about hacking. The message was transmitted in some kind of code that I can’t decipher. I even tried running it through my father’s TéléCom because he has access to more advanced decryption software, but it didn’t work.”

Comprehension flashed in Marcellus’s mind. “That’s why you needed his TéléCom the other day? It wasn’t about a dress for a fête?”

Cerise rolled her eyes. “Keep up, Marcellus. I don’t give a fric about a fête. I was trying to figure out who had transmitted a message from Albion through an old space probe. But every time I listen to it, it just sounds like a bunch of beeps. I thought maybe the Vangarde could help.”

Marcellus pressed his fingertips into his temples. None of this was making any sense. “But … you always seemed so … so …”

“Spoiled and sparkle-headed?” Cerise suggested.

Marcellus balked, uncomfortable. “Well, yes.”

“Yeah, that’s just an act. To keep Papa from getting too suspicious. He’s the last person I want knowing what I can do.”

“So you pretend to be … superficial?”

Cerise rolled her eyes. “Trust me, when your father is the head of the Cyborg and Technology Labs, superficial is the safest thing to be.”

“What does that mean?” Marcellus asked.

“Never mind,” Cerise muttered, looking almost uncomfortable.

“What kind of beeps?” Alouette suddenly asked, and Marcellus turned to see her eyes were locked on Cerise.

“Huh?” said Cerise.

“You said the message was encoded, and it sounded like a bunch of beeps.”

“Oh.” Cerise shrugged. “I don’t know. Just beeps.”

“Were they different lengths?”

Marcellus glanced curiously between Alouette and Cerise as Cerise considered the question.

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Actually, they were.”

“Can you play it?”

“Why?” Cerise’s gaze roved over Alouette as though she were seeing her for the first time.

“Just play it.”

Hesitantly, Cerise pulled her attention from Alouette and focused back on her TéléCom. Marcellus sensed something in the air. A buzzing anticipation. It made his heart beat faster. Cerise tapped proficiently on the screen until, finally, a soft crackle emanated from the speakers, like an AirLink being sent over a faulty connection. Then, a moment later, the cruiseur was filled with the most peculiar series of sounds Marcellus had ever heard.

Dah … Dit … Dit … Dit … Dit … Dit … Dit .… . . Dit … Dah … Dah …Dit …

It seemed to go on forever. How was anyone supposed to make sense of this? But when he glanced over at Alouette, he saw she was staring, with slightly glazed eyes, at some invisible space in front of her. Her lips were moving ever so slightly with each beep, as though she were mouthing along to a song she’d memorized.

The beeps came to an abrupt end, and the cruiseur filled with heavy silence.

“Alouette,” Marcellus began hesitantly. “Do you know what that—”

“Play it again!” she commanded.

Cerise obliged, tapping on the screen. The same series of beeps replayed on the speakers, and once again, Alouette seemed to fall into some kind of trance. Marcellus listened carefully, trying to hear what she was hearing, but it just sounded like nonsensical noise to him.

When the message finally concluded, Alouette sat very still for a long moment, her eyes closed, her lips moving silently.

Then, without warning, her eyelids fluttered open, and in a steady, almost droid-like voice, she said, “Weapon nearly complete. Delivery in two weeks. I can stop it. Come now.”

An instant chill corkscrewed through Marcellus’s body, slicing at his legs and neck and ribcage.

Everyone stared at Alouette in silence. Gabriel was the first to break it.

“WHAT. THE. FRIC?” he exploded.

“That’s what the message says,” Alouette clarified, as though this was the part Gabriel was questioning.

Marcellus numbly shook his head, trying to make sense of everything. He turned to Alouette. “How—how did you do that? How did you know what it said?”

Alouette swallowed, clearly trying to absorb all of this shocking news as well. “It’s an old First World code. Sister—” but she stopped herself. “I mean, one of the people