The setting sun bathed the desert landscape in shades of violet red. A few particularly bold stars had begun to twinkle in the sky, and both of Si Hera’s moons accompanied them as pale slivers. Beneath all of that cosmic wonder, Grace shielded her eyes and took in the tiny pile of garbage Jasper had called a shack.
It didn’t seem very…Jasper.
“I pulled out some blankets and pillows and whatnot,” Jasper said as she led the team inside. The place had one main room connected to a makeshift kitchen, and a doorway filled by a tarp leading to rooms that couldn’t be much larger than the one they were in.
“No beds?” Thea asked.
“There’s one bed, and there’s no way it’s fitting all of us. Thing’s falling apart anyway.” Jasper clapped her hands together. “Which is fine! We can all sleep on the floor. It’ll be like a sleepover. We can play truth or dare.”
Holly ran a finger along a shelf and eyed the dust it left on her skin. “Is there dinner here?”
“There’s unopened boxes of pasta somewhere,” Jasper said. She began trying cupboards.
“How old is it?” Thea asked skeptically.
Jasper pulled a box from a shelf. “Older than you.” She shrugged. “It’s probably fine. Maybe. I’ve eaten worse.”
“We aren’t you,” Holly muttered.
“I saw some plants growing outside in the shade of the shack,” Dax said. “I’ve seen them before in recipes, and they’re pretty healthy. For desert plants, anyway.” After a pause, he added, “Well, they won’t kill us, at least.”
“Thank you, Dax,” Holly said as Dax moved toward the door. “We’ll have plants. You can keep your gross pasta, Jasper.”
“Great! More for me, then.” Jasper slammed the box down on the table sitting in the middle of the room. One of the legs snapped, and the table crashed to the ground.
Grace winced. Once the dust settled, she asked, “What is this place, anyway?”
“There was a war out here almost forty years ago,” Jasper explained. “About sixteen starcycles, I guess. Some of the soldiers set up shacks like this one.”
“How’d you find it?” Holly asked.
Jasper opened a different cupboard and pulled out a rusty pot. It took her a few moments to respond. “I did a job out here. Robbed a casino. Found this place by luck.”
Luck didn’t seem like the best word to describe it.
Grace found an overturned chair, set it up, and sat down, eager to rest her aching legs. She peeled off her jacket. After a moment’s hesitation, she let her wings stretch out as much as she could in the small space.
Jasper picked up a jug of water from the corner, poured some into her pot, and set it on a metal rack. In the space beneath the rack, she started a fire with a lighter from one of her coat pockets. Thea settled onto the floor nearby and turned on her tablet. Holly seemed determined to inspect every inch of the shack.
It wasn’t long before Dax came back in with an armful of waxy leaves and scrub brush roots, which he set on the small stretch of counter space beneath the cupboards. He poked around until he found a plate to put them on, then laid out a few on the rack next to Jasper’s pot.
“Oh, hey!” Thea jumped to her feet and nearly hit her head on a rusted pipe. “I got a result on the facial scan!”
“Really?” Jasper poured the box of pasta into the pot and made a face when mostly crumbs came out.
Thea swiped a hand across her tablet screen. The image she’d had pulled up jumped to the holoscreen projected from a smartsphere she’d left on the counter. “His name is Aymes Bell.”
Grace frowned as she studied the picture that came up. “Wait, I recognize him! He was an intern at Starchatter.”
“Must be the Apprentice then. He was using the internship as a cover, like us.” Jasper glanced at Thea. “Got any other info?”
“He attends a school on Sa Ren called East Marina High,” Thea said. “He’s…eighteen in Earth years.”
“This is great! Ringmaster’s careful, but we might have an easier time getting info from this kid. He probably has a sphere or tablet or something we can hack, right?”
Thea nodded. “I’m sure he’ll be easier to hack than Ringmaster.”
“I still want to find a way into Ringmaster’s base at the mall before the race. Which is in a few Si Heran days. Which are roughly twenty-two hours each, for the uninformed,” Jasper said. “We should find out what exactly the kid was doing there earlier. I’ll have a more detailed plan tomorrow morning, but I think if we blow a hole in the roof—”
“I’m not discussing explosions until I’ve had a good night’s sleep,” Holly told her.
“Fair enough.” Jasper grabbed her pasta pot and tipped the excess water into the sink. “Okay kids, dinner time. Gather around the table.”
“The one you broke?” Holly asked.
“Don’t smart mouth me, young lady. We’ll just break the other two legs and sit on the floor.”
Grace thought it was a joke, but Jasper walked over and snapped the table’s legs off with surprising ease. Once the top was lying flat, she grabbed her pot and the plate of vegetables Dax had assembled and brought them over.
“You’re really going to eat that?” Holly peered into the pasta pot with disgust.
“Yes. Thea, put your tablet away.” Jasper returned to the counter and opened a few drawers. “I know there are forks here somewhere—”
Grace settled onto the floor between Thea and Dax. Jasper returned with a fork and a bottle of Nova Cora and sat on the other side of Thea, next to Holly.
Holly eyed the bottle. “That label looks weird.”
“It’s vintage,” Jasper said.
“Sounds like a fancy way of saying expired.”
Jasper shoved a bite of pasta in her mouth, popped the cap off the bottle, and took a swig. She swallowed. “That’s disgusting.”
“The soda or the pasta?” Thea asked.
“Yes.”
Dax pointed to the plate. “You’re welcome to the vegetables.”
“I’m fine, thanks.” Jasper shoved more pasta in her mouth. “I lied. The pasta’s great. I’m going to quit my life of crime and become a chef.”
Thea laughed. “I’d love to see that.”
“I would pay money to see that,” Holly added before popping a leaf in her mouth.
“I’d go,” Grace said, surprised to find herself getting caught up in the hypothetical Chef Jasper scenario.
Jasper raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Sure. I could start a food review blog.” Grace shrugged.
After a moment, Jasper grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
They finished the food. Jasper, despite making faces every time she took a sip, downed the bottle of Nova Cora. “We’ll get groceries while we’re in the city tomorrow. No more…this.”
The team shuffled into what Jasper referred to as the bedroom. Technically, there was a bed, but it was the only furnishing and looked to be one wrong move away from collapsing. The five selected various places across the floor to set up bedding and took turns going into the next room—the designated bathroom—to change.
The full weight of the day sank into Grace’s tired muscles during her turn in the bathroom. While she poured water from a jug onto an old towel to wash her face, she noticed something sticking out from behind the mirror. A piece of paper? She grabbed it.
It had been folded and unfolded countless times. Grace set it on the edge of the nonfunctional sink and spread it out. In the middle of the page was a single printed photo. A pale girl and a brown-skinned boy, standing next to each other, dressed in light military clothing that matched the desert sands and holding long-distance blasters.
Wait. Grace squinted and took a closer look at the girl. Her straight black hair only reached her chin, and the top half was pulled back in a short ponytail, but her face was one Grace had seen countless times before.
Jasper?
Someone knocked on the wooden door frame. “You almost done, Angel?” Jasper asked.
Grace quickly folded the picture back up and shoved it into her bag. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
Back in the bedroom, she set her bag down next to her pile of bedding and settled in. Exhaustion pulled her under even before the lamps were turned off.
She awoke sometime later and found herself in complete darkness. As her eyes adjusted, she became aware of a figure moving nearby. She slowly turned her head and watched Jasper tiptoe into the front room.
Just pretend to be asleep, Grace told herself. Yes, she was curious as to what Jasper was up to, but following probably wasn’t a good idea.
Ten seconds passed. Grace sighed and sat up. Waiting around wasn’t getting her anywhere. For better or for worse, her life was dependent on Jasper right now. If everything else was out of reach—safety, her memories, passage to Earth—maybe Grace could at least get some answers about Jasper Van Terra.
Grace quickly changed from her sweats into sturdy pants, pulled on boots, and crept to the front of the shack. Outside, Jasper stood next to the motorcycle she’d pulled out of the car, putting on her helmet. She wore the black overcoat she’d stolen from the mall over her racing suit.
Grace watched Jasper climb onto the motorcycle and speed off toward the city. Once she’d shrunk to a speck in the distance, Grace stretched out her wings, sucked in a deep breath, and took to the air.
Now this was flying. No buildings or traffic to dodge, no enemies trying to knock her out of the sky. Just Grace and the night air. She flew straight for a minute before daring to try a few spins and wide loops. It was harder to keep her balance than expected, and she dropped a few times before figuring out how to angle her wings correctly.
Once the initial thrill of flight wore off, Grace switched her focus back to Jasper. It was easy to follow the faint pink glow of the motorcycle as it moved far below. Grace wondered if Jasper noticed her following. She wondered if she cared.
Finally, Jasper pulled into a parking spot next to a fuel station and slid off her motorcycle. Grace landed on the roof of the station’s convenience store, debating whether she should say something.
Jasper took off her helmet and shook out her ponytail, leading Grace to briefly wonder how often—if ever—she let others see her with her hair down.
“Yes, Angel,” Jasper called. “I see you up there.”
Grace glided to the ground, landing directly in front of Jasper. “What are you doing?”
“Just getting some air. You should head back.”
“Well, maybe I want some air too.”
Jasper tensed. “What are you really doing?”
“What do you mean?”
Jasper set the helmet on the motorcycle, adjusted her coat, and started walking. “Why do you care what I do in the middle of the night?”
“You’re kind of my only hope of getting back to a normal life,” Grace replied as she hurried to follow. “I mean, I know I can’t go back to my old one at the palace, but—”
“Right, right.” Jasper rubbed her forehead.
“You’ve been acting weird at the shack,” Grace continued. Frowning, she added, “Well, you always act kind of weird, but this is a different weird.”
“You’re not the only one to notice.” The two crossed a street. The sidewalks became busier.
“Do the others know something I don’t?” Grace asked.
“Nope,” Jasper replied. “They know about as much as you do. They’ve just been around me long enough to know what I’m like. I don’t think they care to know the reasons why.”
“I’m sure they do.” When Jasper didn’t reply, Grace glanced around the crowded streets. “What time is it?”
“About one in the a.m. Listen, if you really want to follow me around, I won’t stop you. But I don’t think you’ll want to be out here.”
Grace bristled at the statement. “I can handle myself. I know you all think that losing my memory and living in the Governor’s Palace made me weak, but I can do more than just be proof of Starr’s experiments.”
Jasper glanced at her. Raised an eyebrow. After a long moment, she said, “Alrighty then. Let’s do this.”