Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1) (9 page)

“Miss Colt—”

“He can’t be dead!
Daddy can’t be dead
!”

As she said it, the facts finally hit her. She choked as the realization swelled in her chest. She sobbed for real, covering her face in an attempt to block out reality.
It can’t be…

“Please, Miss Colt.” The officer sounded uncomfortable. “Please don’t cry.”

“Your father is alive.” The other sounded equally uncomfortable. “The medical team reached him seconds after the incident and placed him on life support.”

Dad’s alive.
Jane desperately wanted to stop crying. She hated the uncontrollable way it shook her body and left her gasping for breath, the way the tears cascaded down her cheeks and fell, drop by drop, onto her chest. Most of all, she hated the damn snot. One of the officers handed her a tissue. She blew her nose rudely, certain she must be the ugliest crier they’d ever seen.

The gray-eyed officer knelt down to her level. “We apologize for upsetting you. Are you all right?”

Jane slumped in her chair and didn’t answer.

“Do you know—?”

The other officer tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. The veneer of severity remained, but to Jane, he was just another guy, his professional iciness thrown by a girl’s tears.

The reddish-haired officer handed her another tissue. “How are you feeling? Do you want us to call someone for you?”

Suddenly livid, Jane bolted up. “Who’re you gonna call? My dad? My brother? Adam? I’m
fine
. Just leave me alone.”

The officer stiffened. “Miss Colt, we still have some questions for you.”

“Look, I am not a suspect, I am not a witness, and I am not a victim.” She imitated the poisonously soft tone her mother used to employ. “I talk to Devin once a month if I’m lucky, and I don’t know
anything
about his life. He didn’t even tell me when he got engaged to Sarah DeHaven. So unless you need a blood relative to perform some creepy ancient seeking ritual, I suggest you stop wasting your time and mine.”

The gray-eyed officer stood and looked uncertainly at his companion, who gave him an I-don’t-know expression. He attempted to resume his steely countenance. “Are you sure you don’t know where he might have gone?”

Jane kept her toxic you’re-an-idiot gaze fixed on him.

The officer cleared his throat. “That will be all for now. Thank you, Miss Colt. Again, we apologize for upsetting you. If your brother contacts you, we ask that you report it immediately.”

Both officers turned and left.

Jane had completely and unapologetically lied. She knew
exactly
where her brother would be. As soon as the officers were out of sight, she went to find him.

The Colt estate, called Serena, had been in the family for generations. Jane and her brother had grown up there. They’d flown across the continent every morning for school in Kydera City and returned at night. Their parents had hired pilots to escort them, but whenever they weren’t around, Devin bribed the pilot into taking the day off. He would fly Jane to school himself before running off to do no good. Some of her fondest childhood memories had taken place in those moments when it was just the two of them.

Once a thriving plantation, Serena’s fertile fields had long ago been left to nature, with tall blue and purple trees rising out of the rich brown earth. Acres of untamed forests surrounded the palace-like glass and steel mansion. The only other sign of civilization was the hangar by the glittering white landing pad.

Jane loved the wilderness. It was so vast, she’d never run out of places to explore. She could live there a hundred years without knowing all the secrets of the ever-changing land or the buried riddles left behind by previous inhabitants.

Twelve years before, Devin had hijacked one of the groundskeeper’s open-air hovercars and told Jane to come with him. He had something to show her.

Jane jumped into the passenger seat, excited that her big brother was hanging out with her. “Where’re we going?”

“It’s hard to describe.” Devin strapped himself into the driver’s seat beside her. “Buckle up.”

Jane snapped the safety harness in place, and it tightened to accommodate her.

The hovercar soared over the fields and into the trees, speeding around the crooked branches deep into woods. Jane laughed, thrilled at the danger and eager to be let in on a secret. Devin stopped the vehicle in a clearing covered in tall waves of azure grass.

She gasped. “I didn’t know this was here!” She leaped out and ran into the grass, which was almost as tall as she was. Ducking down, she teased, “You can’t find me!”

“C’mon, Pony. Aren’t you a little old for these games?”

Jane giggled and curled up to make herself as small as possible. She looked at the sky, which was pale red and streaked with a gold filigree of clouds. It was late. Mom and Dad would be so mad if they knew she was out.

Nah, they’d probably get mad at Devin for taking her. They were always mad at him. She didn’t understand why.

Devin’s face came into view, expression annoyed.

Jane grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”

He smiled and held out a hand. Jane took it, and he pulled her up.

The clearing was square-ish, surrounded by trees with violet leaves woven together to form a dense canopy.

“Where are we?” Jane asked.

“A part of Serena that no one’s been to in a really,
really
long time.” Devin approached a jagged brown stone jutting out of the ground near the hovercar. He put a hand on it. “See this?”

Jane scampered up to the rock and inspected its dirty edges. “What about it?”

“Look closer.”

Was that stupid ugly rock the big secret? It didn’t look special. She pouted with disappointment. “I don’t get it.”

Devin gripped the stone with both hands and twisted hard until it rotated. The ground jolted.

Jane jumped. “What was that?”

He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face the clearing. An enormous rectangular section sank into the ground. It split down the middle, and the two halves parted, revealing a dark cavern.

Jane’s eyes widened. “Whoa! Cool!”

Was it an underground lair? A secret passageway? She was too excited to ask as she tried to make out what lay down there.

The remaining sunlight illuminated a small, teardrop-shaped spacecraft in the cavern. Two large engines, rounded in the front and pointed at the ends, protruded symmetrically from its sides. Its dark blue finish, unmarked and banged up, looked worn and world-weary, as though the ship had been through far more than it had been meant for.

Jane stared at it. “Why’s there a beat-up Blue Tang all the way out here? What’s this cavern thing?”

“An underground hangar used hundreds of years ago during the civil war,” Devin replied. “No one’s been here since.”

She grinned eagerly. “Can we go down there?”

“Sure.” Devin climbed into the hovercar and motioned for her to join him. She buckled herself back into the passenger seat. He drove the hovercar down into the dingy cavern.

Several dark tunnels led from it, and bits of metal littered the rough floor.
A real civil war hangar! Cool!
Wait a sec…
“Hey, Blue Tangs weren’t invented until
way
after the civil war. Who put this one down there?”

“I did.” Devin parked the hovercar beside the Blue Tang and got out.

Jane followed, bubbling with questions. “Where’d you get it? Did you fly it? When’d you learn to fly starships? Is it like flying air transports? How’d you find this place anyway? Why—”

“Slow down, Pony!” Devin laughed. “I found this place about a year ago. I was digging through Serena’s old records and found out this area was once a rebel base. They kept a bunch of their transports here. I tried to find out more, but Mom changed the password to the records library.” He rolled his eyes. “Apparently, I was wasting too much time there.”

Jane smiled teasingly. “Oh, Devin, why’re you always getting in trouble?”

His expression hardened.

She waited for him to say something. After about a minute of silence, she gave up. “So, where’d you get the ship?”

Devin blinked, as though waking from whatever reverie he’d been in. “Black market. It’s unregistered, unmarked, and so old nobody’s looking for it anymore. Even if they are, they’ll never find it. They’ll never find… me.”

Huh?
“What’re you talking about?”

Devin looked up at the ship. “I’m running away, Pony. I’ve got it all stocked up with food and stuff. I don’t even care where I’m headed.”

Jane frowned.
I don’t get it.
“When’re you coming back?”

“I’m not. I just wanted you to know so you won’t worry. Don’t tell Mom and Dad until after I’m gone, okay?”

Jane still didn’t understand. “But… But you have to come back. Your
life
is here.”

Devin snapped his gaze toward the ground. “No, it’s not. I have
nothing
.” His tone was harsh. “Every decision is made for me. Mom and Dad hate me, especially Dad. Nothing I do has ever been good enough.
I’m
not good enough. I’ll
never
be good enough. I might as well be a malfunctioning robot to him—some obedient
thing
that should do what
he
wants, even when he’s not ordering me around. I can’t stand it. I finally found another way out, and I’m taking it.”

Jane finally understood. Her big brother was leaving. Once he did, she would never see him again.

A hated tingling pricked her eyes.
No. Big girls aren’t supposed to cry.
“Don’t be silly. Mom and Dad don’t hate you. Besides, they’re not everything. What about your friends?”

Devin scowled. “Colts don’t have friends—only networks.”

That was a line their father had often spoken. Jane bit her lip so hard it hurt, trying to stop the forceful swelling behind her heart.

Her brother walked toward the ship, away from her. “I have no future here. You’re the only thing in this whole fucking system I care about.”

She ran and grabbed his arm. “So take me with you!”

“No, Pony.” Devin shook her off, but didn’t look at her. “You’ve got a shot. Where I’m going, it’s gonna be dangerous. I’m probably gonna be a criminal, become a smuggler or something for the Fringe crime bosses. It’s no place for kids.”

Jane stomped in frustration. “
You’re
a kid!”

“I’m sixteen. I can take care of myself. But not you too.” Devin’s back was still turned to her.

“
Then don’t go
!” Unable to hold back the flood any longer, Jane hurriedly rubbed her eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll fix it!
I can fix it
!”

Her brother was leaving—forever.

Suddenly, she was a little girl again, curled up on the ground and crying so hard she shook. She felt alone, deserted, as though he was already gone. “Devin, don’t go! Stay, Devin! I’ll fix it, I promise! I’ll fix
everything
! Just stay!”

“Pony, please…” Devin was beside her, but she couldn’t hear what he said through her sobbing.

She buried her face in her knees and fought with all her might to stop the tears. “Stay, Devin. I’ll fix it, I will. Please stay. Don’t leave me alone here. Don’t leave me behind.”

Devin embraced her. “I’m not going anywhere.” He spoke with a soft tension, almost like anger. “You don’t need to fix anything. I’m sorry—I thought—I didn’t… I’d never abandon you, Pony, I swear. I swear to you, I’ll never leave you behind.”

Jane slammed the air transport she’d stolen from her father’s apartment beside the jagged brown stone. Afraid of being followed, she’d made several haphazard wrong turns, making for one helluva bumpy ride. Her stomach was tied in knots, but she didn’t care. She opened the door, jumped into the azure field, and ran toward the parted gates.

The Blue Tang rose out of the ground.

“
Devin
!”

Jane realized her brother wouldn’t be able to hear her and pulled out her slate. He didn’t answer her call.