Free Going Dark by Linda Nagata Page B

back the hood of her parka, letting me see that she is not wearing a skullcap. Her scalp is covered in tightly curled black hair trimmed short in a military cut. I want to ask if she got wired, if she had a skullnet put in, but I know better. “You gave it up, didn’t you? No skullcap. No skullnet. You’re not an emo-junkie anymore.”
    That’s not what she wants to talk about. “You are supposed to be dead.” She watches me with a stonewall expression. “The fucking United States Navy shot you out of the sky. Or was that faked?”
    “It wasn’t faked.” The navy fired the missile that brought down our little spaceplane, Lotus . It wasn’t a direct hit, but the shockwave and the debris were enough to break us apart. “Kurnakova is dead.”
    “And you’re still here. Still God’s favorite.”
    God’s favorite toy, maybe.
    Since I’m not wearing my helmet anymore, Kanoa has switched gen-com to my overlay. “This is not what you’rehere for, Shelley. The only thing you need to worry about is getting your squad safely extracted.”
    “I don’t agree, sir.” Dread and anticipation wage war in my head as I look past Jaynie to the tunnel entrance, imagining Delphi appearing there. I kept track of her for a while. I was glad when she partnered with Jaynie. When they set up a company together, I was sure she’d be okay. So I left it at that. I stopped looking back. But now? “There is a reason for this,” I insist.
    “There may be a reason, but it’s not one you need to understand. Get that helicopter fired up and get the hell out of there. That is an order.”
    Kanoa is at least partly right. We need to be gone, and soon, before a call gets through to the Canadian military. So I gesture at Escamilla. “Check for the key, and then get things started.”
    “You stealing my helicopter?” Jaynie asks, glaring at Escamilla as he opens the pilot-side door and leans inside.
    “This your operation?” I don’t want to believe it. “Come on, Jaynie. You’re not going to Mars.”
    “Key’s here!” Escamilla calls out. He looks in the back. “Seats have been pulled. Cargo configuration, but we can work with that.”
    “Do it.”
    Jaynie drops her chin like a fighter. “Mars is the goal we’re working on.”
    “That’s fucking crazy.”
    Escamilla peels off his pack and his helmet. He starts popping cinches on his dead sister because his rig has to come off before he can fit in the pilot’s seat.
    Jaynie looks at him, looks at me. “I’m not the one walking around with wires in my head, Shelley.”
    No, she’s just the one thinking about going to Mars. And it scares me because it’s possible. A one-way, privatelyfunded expedition is under development. A lot of dragons are behind it. It wasn’t long ago that I heard chatter in the barracks about the pending launch of an advance robotic mission intended to deliver supplies ahead of a crewed expedition.
    “Did you buy in, Jaynie?”
    She nods. “I did.”
    Dragon-scale money was in play on our last mission together. I did my part to see that Jaynie and Delphi wound up with it, because I wanted Jaynie to have the freedom to build a sanctuary somewhere beyond the influence of the Red. Mars fits that description, but Mars is a mistake.
    “There is nothing on Mars for you, Jaynie. Not even air to breathe.”
    “Were you sent here to tell me that?”
    I hesitate. Jaynie has a paranoid fear of the Red and its influence over her life, but there is a resonance of truth in her words. “Maybe.”
    I look again at the tunnel entrance. I want to be sure. “Delphi’s not here, is she?”
    Jaynie follows my gaze. “She’s been looking for you. Did you know that? She never believed you were dead. I kept telling her there was no way—” She doesn’t get any further. Her control cracks; her voice climbs an octave. “God damn you, Shelley, why didn’t you come home?”
    Roman is still standing watch, anonymous behind her visor, but I can see Escamilla’s