THE SECOND EXTRACTION
The Spire floated above the city, a glittering tower of glass and steel, suspended by anti-gravity generators that hummed day and night. Only the wealthy lived here. Only the powerful.
Remy had never been inside.
Cassian had. He knew the security codes. The guard rotations. The hidden entrances.
They entered through a service elevator, riding it to the top floor, where Dr. Elara Vance lived in a penthouse apartment with a view of the entire city.
She was old — older than Remy expected. Her hair was white. Her face was lined. But her eyes were sharp.
“You look like her,” Dr. Vance said.
“My mother?”
“Yes. She was beautiful. Brave. Foolish.” A pause. “She loved your father very much.”
Cassian shifted.
“He’s told me,” Remy said.
Dr. Vance looked at Cassian. “You told her?”
“Not everything. That’s why we’re here.”
Dr. Vance sighed. She walked to a window, looked out at the city.
“The memory in your head is not just a key. It’s a map. A map to a place called ‘The Fall.’ A place where the first settlers of Mars discovered something. Something that wasn’t human.”
“What was it?”
“A tomb. A prison. A vault. We never knew for sure. The people who found it died before they could tell anyone. All that remained were their memories. Fragments. Whispers.”
“And you implanted those fragments in my mother?”
“In your mother. In others. It was an experiment — an attempt to preserve the fragments in human DNA. So they wouldn’t be lost.”
“But the hunters found out.”
“The hunters found out. They killed everyone who carried the fragments. Everyone except your mother. And you.”
Remy touched her temple.
“Why me? Why didn’t they kill me when I was a child?”
“Because they didn’t know you existed. Your mother hid you. Faked your death. Lived in the shadows until she couldn’t anymore.”
“And then they killed her.”
“Yes.”
Remy was silent.
Then: “Where is the map?”
Dr. Vance turned from the window.
“It’s not a map you can read. It’s a map you have to feel. The memory will guide you. When you’re ready.”
“How do I know when I’m ready?”
“The voice will tell you.”
Remy closed her eyes.
“She’s right,” the voice whispered. “I will guide you. When the time comes.”
“When will the time come?”
“Soon. The hunters are closing in. You don’t have much time.”
Remy opened her eyes.
“One more question.”
Dr. Vance nodded.
“The voice. What is it? Really?”
Dr. Vance walked to her. Touched Remy’s temple. The same spot where the extraction needle had been.
“It’s the last remnant of the beings who built the prison. They were not human. They were not machine. They were something in between. And they have been waiting for someone to free them for ten thousand years.”
Remy’s blood ran cold.
“You’re saying the voice is an alien?”
“I’m saying the voice is the only hope we have of saving Mars. Or destroying it.”
Remy stepped back.
She looked at Cassian.
He looked at Dr. Vance.
“You knew. All along.”
“I suspected. Now I know.”
Remy turned.
Walked to the door.
“We’re not done,” Dr. Vance said.
“We’re done for now.”
She walked out.
The voice whispered.
“She’s right. We’re not done. We’re just beginning.”
THE AWAKENING
They made it back to the Memory Den before the hunters found them.
Remy was unlocking the door when the lights went out. Not just the neon signs — all the lights. The whole street. The whole district.
Darkness.
Cassian pulled his weapon.
Juno grabbed Remy’s arm.
“They’re here,” Juno whispered.
The voice screamed.
“Run!”
Remy ran.
Not away from the darkness.
Toward it.
Because in the darkness, she could see something. A light. A golden light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The voice was guiding her.
She ran through the tunnels, through the Deep Warrens, through places she had never been. Cassian and Juno followed, their footsteps echoing behind her.
She stopped at a wall.
Dead end.
“No,” she breathed.
“Yes. This is the place. The door.”
“What door? There’s nothing here.”
“Touch the wall.”
She touched it.
The wall shimmered.
A door appeared — a door made of light, golden and warm.
“This is impossible.”
“This is The Fall. The entrance to the prison. The beginning of the end.”
Remy looked at Cassian. At Juno.
“I have to go in.”
“We’re coming with you,” Cassian said.
“No. This is my burden. My memory. My choice.”
“Remy—”
“If I don’t come back, tell my daughter about me. Tell her I tried.”
Cassian’s eyes widened. “You have a daughter?”
“I didn’t know until now. The voice told me. In the darkness.”
She stepped through the door.
The light swallowed her.
Behind her, the hunters arrived.
Guns drawn.
Faces masked.
Cassian turned to face them.
Juno stood beside him.
And Remy walked into the unknown.