were on their way to building something more real.
“Try not to worry too much,” he urged. “The rescue team will definitely be more cautious in their approach. Dismissing this latest crash as pilot error won’t be so easy yet again.”
“How do we know they’ll come at all? Maybe they’ll decide it’s too dangerous.”
“They’ll come. They know there is at least one Command Council survivor.” The tips of his ears turned red again. “It’s why we put the tracker in me as opposed to the ship. To contend with precisely this kind of scenario. Not to mention that the Command Council is desperate to know what we’ve found. It’s why they insisted I keep mum about the potential dangers of this mission in the first place. I shouldn’t discuss Command Council business, but they need this mission to succeed.” His voice dropped. “They’re nervous. Too much more failure and famine and they’ll lose the hold they have on the people.”
Such a tangled web.
She could only imagine how complicated it would become if the Command Council learned replicating the same conditions on Earth as Dragath25 would be impossible without extensive water supplies. Not only would the race be on to civilize and then strip Dragath25 of all its plants and soil, but all its water as well. The Council would stop at nothing to protect their power and add to their coffers. A scenario she didn’t think 225 and his pack would easily allow. And Caine would be right in the middle of it all.
She swallowed hard. At least now, thanks to Winthrop’s revelations, she knew what she had to do.
Winthrop’s gaze shifted to the sky. “By my calculations, they’ll be here any day now.” His expression brightened. “We’ll be able to go home.”
“Not if the shuttle crashes.”
Winthrop was as bad as all the rest on this point. Despite knowing about the previous crashes, he seemed almost deliberate in his refusal to consider what would likely happen to the rescue shuttle when it tried to find them. She’d witnessed it before with him. He preferred to bury his head in the sand when the predicted outcome didn’t suit what he wanted.
But she couldn’t let him get away with it this time. After all, she couldn’t save anyone, least of all Caine and her siblings, if she couldn’t stop the rescue shuttle from crashing.
“We have to figure out how to warn them. We can’t just hope for the best. Or think my pathetic pile of rocks spelling out danger will be enough of a warning.” She didn’t think Caine would stop working on his jammer, but she couldn’t know for sure—and even he hadn’t been certain he could ever get it to work in the first place. “Let’s meet in an hour to brainstorm more ideas. But first I’m going to bring some more rocks for defense. You should have Ava check on your bandage. And tell her we’ve made up. She worries about us all.”
She turned to go. His hand landed on her shoulder. “I don’t want you to think what happened before…with that prisoner…matters. Once we get off this hellhole, everything here will seem like a bad dream. Easily forgotten.”
Her stomach turned over. She knew he meant his words as a kindness, but what if she didn’t want to forget? Caine was a memory she intended to hold onto forever. And she was never going back to the accepting lump she’d been under Command Council protocol. She understood why Winthrop clung to the system. It served him well. But she wanted better for her brother and sister. For herself.
“Pogue, come quick!” The panicked shout of one of the soldiers drew her attention. Within seconds, she was hurrying to where the soldiers had gathered. Winthrop right behind.
“What’s wrong?” Her words came out in a wheezing rush.
Pogue looked worried. “Ransom says he can't find Pratt or Cadet Davies.”
“What?” She grabbed Ransom’s arm. A short squat guy with a permanent blank stare, he was content to take orders and ask no question, the perfect underling for Pogue. “Where did you last see them?”
“On the plateau.” Ransom pointed up and to the left. “I was on watch.”
It was the small plateau they’d all climbed numerous times. Ava had been particularly keen on collecting soil samples from there these last couple of days. Dirt was her specialty, and she’d agreed that those reflective mineral arrowheads might just be the most critical discovery of this mission. Though Bella had noticed her colleague had also taken to just