don’t know what it is, but it cost a pretty penny. I swear your mother is trying to bankrupt me. We can return it.”
Maigo looked down at the gift in her hands. The wrapping paper was thick, gold and perfect. A store job. Nothing personal about it. And it was heavy.
“That’s not for you,” said a deeper, angrier voice. Maigo flinched as General Lance Gordon stepped out from behind the Christmas tree. He held a steaming mug in his black hands. His face looked human, but his eyes glowed orange.
Maigo sneered at the two men. She was strong enough to deal with them both. “Leave. Now.”
The men chuckled in unison.
“Leave?” Tilly said.
“We’re both a part of you,” Gordon said, and then he looked at Tilly. “Or is she a part of us? Doesn’t matter. Either way, you’re stuck with us. Forever.” He pointed at the gift in her hands. “But that...we don’t like it.”
“Anything you two don’t like has to be a good thing,” Maigo said, and she tore into the gift. With each rip of paper, her apprehension grew. Gifts could be burdens. The packaging was white, red and black, but the logos and images were blurred. With just a single shred of paper still covering the plastic window behind which was some kind of toy, she paused. Her father and Gordon stared down at her, looking serious, but not really complaining, or acting mortified. Was she being manipulated? Did they want her to open the gift?
She decided to go with the standby advice of her new father: Screw it.
She tore the paper away, revealing a masked metal face with glowing red eyes.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” the mask said. “Wake up.”
Maigo flinched away, gasping and swatting at the air.
Lilly ducked away unscathed. “Geez! Night terror much?”
“It was Christmas,” Maigo said, rubbing her eyes and stretching.
“With Hudson?” Lilly asked. She knew about their occasional psychic meeting place. Everyone on the team did. It was part of her dad’s policy of full disclosure. Secrets got people killed. Was sneaking out with the X-35 any different than keeping secrets? She could have told him how she felt. He might have even come with her. But Lilly hadn’t given her time to process all that. She couldn’t blame her though. Lilly was impulsive, and Maigo knew it. But something about this island, about what was hidden beneath it... that was a secret Maigo needed to uncover alone. As alone as I can be with Lilly and a few hundred Russians. She would tell the others everything just as soon as she and Lilly were on their way home.
Maigo pushed herself up. “Ugh, with Gordon. And my father. The one that killed me. The old me, anyway.”
“Sounds fun,” Lilly said, and held out a black mask. “It’s time.”
Maigo took the mask while Lilly put on her own. Lilly’s entire body was black fur, head to toe, but she still wore body armor to protect against bullets, and a mask to conceal her feline identity. While the FC-P was now a very public agency, Lilly and Maigo were their best kept secrets.
“Have they found anything?” Maigo looked down at the floor where the action far below was projected. She could see black circles amidst the men still walking back and forth.
“They drilled a bunch of holes. Not too deep. Maybe fifteen feet. Haven’t found anything. But they’re just guessing.” Masked and cloaked in black armor, the only part of Lilly that looked like Lilly were her yellow, feline eyes. “What about us? Are we guessing, too?”
Maigo pulled on her mask and motioned to the cockpit with her head. “Take us closer.”
Lilly’s squinting eyes hinted at a smile before she bounded for the cockpit and slid behind the controls. Maigo barely felt the shift in motion, but the view below grew larger as they descended. “Stop us ten feet from the ground.”
They came to a stop just a few feet above the heads of two Russian soldiers. One of them sucked on a cigarette, its orange glow bright in the bleak night. Then he