Chapter Fourteen:
“Cristaña’s been arrested.”
“What?”
Hannah nodded grimly, her eyes tight.
Marie scrambled out of bed. “What—why—I mean, how?” The world spun in front of her. Cristaña arrested? It was like hearing Parvenin criticize Sidriel! “There has to be some sort of mistake!” Seeing Hannah’s serious expression, a hint of desperation entered her voice. “No, really—there has to be a mistake.” Arrested? Cristaña? Impossible. Her heart raced.
Hannah shook her head. “She was caught red-handed, tampering with the communication device.”
“What?”
Cristaña?
“She’s being brought to the palace as we speak.” Hannah turned to leave, but Marie ran after her.
“Why would she do that?” Panic welled up inside her.
“We don’t know yet.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense! She wouldn’t be able to go home either!”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“But how could she go home?” Marie pressed, following Hannah into the common room. “She’d need the communication device!”
“We don’t know. She obviously had a plan.”
Marie whirled on Barnabas. “This doesn’t make any sense!”
But Barnabas wasn’t listening. He strode forward, grabbed her by her shoulders, and shook her. “Did you know anything about this?” His voice vibrated with anger. “Anything at all?”
“Let me go!” Marie jerked away. She glared at him, outraged and insulted. “I knew nothing!” she hissed. “Don’t you think that if I did, I’d tell you? I want to leave this hellhole, thank you very much! If I never have to hear the roar of that amphitheatre again I’d die happy!” She was practically spitting. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing! I have given you no reason to distrust me!”
Barnabas glowered at her. “You were on her team—”
“As were eight other girls!” spat Marie. “And if I could remind you, I was assigned to that team! I didn’t choose it!”
“You spend a lot of time around Cristaña—”
“She was my team leader, and she was nice to me, unlike a lot of other people on this expedition!” Marie shot Darius and Pamela furious looks.
Barnabas slowly calmed. He backed away. His dark eyes fixed on her. “Well, unfortunately, you may not get back to Earth. None of us may. At least not anytime soon.”
“What?”
“I have everyone who can work on the communication device working on it, but we’re not exactly sure what she’s done.”
Marie stared at him disbelievingly. “The device—”
“The device may die, yes. It’s intertwined with a computer, into which Cristaña has programmed some sort of virus. It could go the same way a laptop goes.”
“But…” Marie’s mind spun. She felt dizzy. “But going home…”
No. Cristaña wouldn’t do this.
“If the device dies,” Barnabas told her harshly, “Then the people back home will have nothing to anchor the MIT to. You should know this, Marie. They won’t be able to find us! They won’t know where to create a gate! If the communication device stops working, the MIT won’t have a location to ‘connect to.’”
“And we’ll be stuck here,” Marie supplied dully. Why would Cristaña do this?
“For a very long time, at least. The MIT can still transport people to Maretzia, but it will not necessarily be to this location. It could be to any location. They could send another team, but that team could appear on the other side of the world.”
Marie sank into a chair. Her limbs trembled. She could get stuck here. Stuck. For years. What about her grandmother? What about college? Her friends? Her future? How could she live here, in this society? Waiting tables no longer seemed so bad.
Barnabas leaned down next to her. “Marie, if Cristaña said anything to you—anything at all—that at any point in time seemed puzzling or strange, if anything comes to mind—some odd behavior—talking to someone she had no reason to talk to—please tell us.”
Marie shook her head listlessly. “She seemed perfectly normal.” Her voice cracked. Stuck. Why had she ever allowed herself to get close to Terrah, to Rheidan? Now more than ever she realized how much she missed Earth. “I can’t think of anything strange at all.”
She turned to gaze at Barnabas imploringly. “I mean, are you sure she—?”
“I’m sure.”
“Why?”
“There were many powerful people back on Earth who wished to see this expedition fail,” said Pamela coldly. “She could be working for one of them.”
“And risk getting stuck here?” That was the part Marie couldn’t understand. It was a suicide mission.
“Like I said,” interrupted Hannah, “She may have found another way out of here. If she was working for another company, she may have her own communication device, one she’s hidden somewhere. It’s possible someone stole the patent for the MIT and the device, built replicates…”
Marie shook her head. It was too far-fetched. It didn’t make any sense.
Darius, Pamela, and Barnabas started arguing with each other, theorizing how Cristaña could have done it. Marie’s head swam. Cristaña had always been so nice. Why would she do something like this? Marie thought of the first time she had met Cristaña, when Cristaña had taken her under her wing, protecting her from mean jabs and showing her how to pitch and take down a tent…Cristaña had been like a friendly aunt, the mother figure of the expedition. Marie felt betrayed.
“May I talk to her?”
Barnabas, Darius, and Pamela fell silent. They turned to look at her.
Marie tried again. The words sounded distant even as she said them. “May I talk to her, when they bring her here?”
Barnabas frowned. Darius arched an eyebrow.
“No.”
Marie turned to Pamela. “Why not?”
“Because—”
“Pamela.” Barnabas shot her a warning glance, then twisted around to consider Marie. “Perhaps you can.” Pamela opened her mouth to protest. “But later. After we have finished interrogating her and are satisfied she has told us everything.”
It was the best she would get. Marie nodded.
Marie couldn’t stop the panic that bubbled up in her at the thought of never seeing home again, of never again celebrating Christmas, going to the park with friends, or curling up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate to watch reruns of the Brady Bunch. But she couldn’t do anything. She was terrible with computers. She wouldn’t even know where to begin to help.
She bit her lip as she paced across her room. But she had to do something! She had tagged along the entire trip. The most useful thing she had done was learn how to read Maretzian, and that certainly wasn’t going help fix the machine.
“I can’t believe this, Max!” She tugged at her hair. “What am I going to do? If the communication device breaks, then none of us are going home! No one will be able to find us! And”—this was the truly horrible thought—“if we can’t communicate with home, we have nothing to offer the Maretzians—nothing more than the knowledge we carried with us. And that’s only going to keep us on good relations for so long. Barnabas is promising goods we won’t be able to provide!”
She turned too fast and bumped into Max, who caught and steadied her. “Thank you,” she muttered, but of course he said nothing.
“I have to get out of here,” she decided abruptly. “I have to leave the palace, the city. I miss being surrounded by my people. I miss the expedition.” She slumped onto her bed. “I want to get away from everything. I want to see Jennifer and Dustin and Raymond and even Joseph.”
She needed to collect herself. She needed to distance herself from the trials of Maretzian life. She was tired of explaining Earth to everyone, tired of always checking herself to make sure she did nothing to upset someone. She—just—needed—out.
So the next morning she marche
d down to the common room and informed Barnabas she was leaving.
“What?”
“I am going to camp. I need a break.”
Barnabas stood slowly. “No.”
Marie arched an eyebrow. “And why not? You don’t need me.”
“People will ask questions—”
Marie laughed hollowly. “B.S. I doubt Parvenin even realizes I exist. He sure as heck won’t notice if I’m gone for a few days.”
“But if you—”
“Barnabas.” Marie threw him an exasperated glance. “There is no logical reason for me to stay here. You know that. Let me go. Just let me relax, okay? Let me take a break.”
“Marie, this is a military expedition, and soldiers do not take—”
“Yeah, well I’m not a soldier,” Marie cut in. “Nor am I employed by SpiritStar.” She gave him an annoyed look. “I’m the ‘Citizen,’ remember? That’s why I’m on this trip. Look, Barnabas, I wasn’t trained for this. Your precious SpiritStar rocketed me into this world without so much as giving me CPR training. You think anyone expects me to put up with as much as everyone else?”
A flash of inspiration. “The only expectation for me on this trip is to record what goes on. Well, I know enough about palace life to write a book about it, but I haven’t even seen our camp. So let me go. I have a job to do.”
Barnabas sighed. “Fine,” he eventually said. Marie felt a rush of excitement. “But wait for me. I’ve been meaning to go down there to check on something for a while now. I’ll take you. I just need to finish this report first. Go pack whatever you need to pack.”
“MARIE!” squealed Jennifer, bounding up and hugging her. The smell of lavender perfume clogged Marie’s nose. Jennifer stepped back, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “Look at you! That fancy Maretzian dress! Love the burnt umber look. Goes so well with your skin tone.”
Marie smiled warmly. It was so good to hear Jennifer prattle away, even if she wasn’t sure what she had just said. “Thanks.”
Jennifer looped her arm around Marie’s. “You have sooo much to tell me. Starting with Rheidan. Has he kissed you yet?”
“Um…”
“He has? You have to tell me all about it!”
Marie laughed. “The full details. Promise.”
“Excellent…”
Marie had never felt so relaxed in her entire time in Maretzia. Jennifer led her back to tent 12, where her sleeping bag awaited her.
“The entire camp is abuzz about Cristaña,” Jennifer informed her happily. “No one understands why she did it. All of tent 12 was interrogated about it, as was basically every person Cristaña ever talked to.” She rolled her eyes.
“What about the communication device?” Marie asked, dumping her backpack onto her bedroll.
“The what?” Jennifer’s face scrunched up.
“The communication device,” said Marie slowly, tensing. Surely Barnabas had told them…?
“Oh, the CD!” exclaimed Jennifer. “That’s we call it here. CD. Kind of like MIT. Communication device is a mouthful, no?”
“Right.” Marie murmured, relaxing. Then she smiled. This was what staying in the palace had done to her! She was seeing conspiracies, lies, and deception everywhere. CD…She shook her head.
“Well, anyway, the CD will be fine. Barnabas has got every friggin’ genius in this camp working on it. I’m sure they’ll have it straightened out in no time.” She smiled brightly.
Marie stared at her for a few minutes. Then she smiled and wrapped her arm around Jennifer’s shoulder. “You know what, Jennifer? You have to catch me up on everything!”
Jennifer rolled her eyes to the heavens. “I thought you’d never ask, sweetie.”
Jennifer updated her on the latest gossip as they strolled through the camp, prattling away about what Person A did to Person B, but Marie only listened with half an ear. She had never been to the camp before and was surprised at how settled it felt. In addition to the tents and circles of campfires she was used to there were a few more permanent-looking buildings. All the rollers had been emptied, and they lay stacked against each other at the edge of the camp.
They wandered to the camp’s north side, where Marie saw, to her utter surprise, a section of shorn grass that had been marked up to look like a football field. She faced Jennifer, the expression on her face incredulous. “Is that what I think it is?”
Jennifer smirked. “It is. And there’s a game that supposed to start in”—She checked her watch—“five minutes. Want to watch some football?”
Marie was thrilled. “Of course! But who’s playing?”
Jennifer led them to the 50 yard line, and the two sat on a small knoll of grass. “It’s Army versus SpiritStar.” She lowered her voice. “Again.”
“Oh. Who won last time?”
Jennifer grinned. “Army. But Army beats everybody.”
Marie tilted her head. “That’s not really surprising. Is it like a team of Dustins?”
“Yes. And Dustin is on the team.”
“So are we cheering for Army?”
“No way. Everyone hates Army. It’s so irritating to see them win all the time.”
Marie giggled.
The sidelines filled with spectators within a few minutes. Both Army and SpiritStar showed up at the same time, and Marie couldn’t help but feel sorry for SpiritStar. SpiritStar had some tall, heavy people on their team, but Army was just intimidating: six-foot tall commandos with bronze, rippling muscles and feral grins. Dustin was the smallest member of the team.
Marie turned to Jennifer. “Ouch.”
Jennifer nodded vigorously. “That about sums it up.”
The game was over in ten minutes. Army scored three touchdowns on their first three drives, and the SpiritStar players could only get about two feet before some giant clobbered them. SpiritStar hung in for the entire game, taking the beatings as they came, but the score at the end of the fourth quarter wasn’t pretty: 89-0. When the players finally left the field—Army bouncing, SpiritStar crawling—Marie glanced at Jennifer.
“That was just mean.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Jennifer didn’t seem in the least bit perturbed. In fact, she sounded rather satisfied. She leapt to her feet, pulling Marie up along with her. “Dustin! Woohoo! Look who’s back!”
“Marie!” Dustin pulled her up into a bear hug, and Marie gasped.
“Ew! Dustin!” Jennifer crinkled her nose.
Dustin dropped Marie. “What?”
“You’re all sweaty and gross! And you just got your ickiness all over Marie!”
Dustin glanced down at himself. He blushed. “Oh. Sorry, Marie.”
Marie smiled brightly at him. “It’s okay! I’ll see you at dinner. Shower up.”
“Yeah…”
As they walked away, Jennifer grumbled. “You’ll need to shower up too now. Really, that boy can be so inconsiderate sometimes…”
Marie glanced at her slyly. “You like him, don’t you?”
Jennifer turned bright red. “Like him?” she spluttered. “I don’t like him! Annoying, pea-brained…”