Chapter 23

The room Aiden entered had a four-poster bed and was dominated by grays, blacks, and classic forms. A porcelain tub was erected in the middle of the space, filled with milky water and rose petals, and out of all the fancy furniture, it sparked Aiden's curiosity the most.

He approached the tub, unable to resist dipping his fingers in. The pleasant hotness made his body ache for a soak after his long day of travel. He was shortly reminded that he didn't have the luxury of time as a firm knock on the door had him fold his hand against his chest.

It wasn't surprising to find the bartender from earlier at the door. She held two whiskey-filled glasses and handed him one before plopping onto the cushioned couch along the right wall.

"Bea, I presume?" Aiden opened with, planting himself next to the mirror on the side of the tub.

"You presume correct…?"

"Kesley."

"Kesley," she echoed back and gave him a once-over. "So, he sends you in search of the white raven?" Her accent was gone and so was the goofy smile she'd worn at the bar, replaced by a calculating look and alert eyes.

"Whatever that might be." Everything Darren had said had been in code, so Aiden didn't even know where to begin guessing what any of it meant. The only thing that seemed straightforward was the fact that he needed to go to some location and use the passcode to gain entry.

"You will find out soon enough. The shuttle will be parked by the back entrance in ten minutes. You'll fly it to Regan."

Aiden crossed his arms, propping his hip against the bathtub. "Regan? That's the mining spaceport at the edge of the Sirius Valley, isn't it?"

"Yes. Head north from there, toward the decommissioned weather station. Once you leave Martian space and are off the network grid, input these coordinates to the shuttle's nav," Bea explained, handing him a folded note. "You'll find the entrance at the bottom of the smallest crater in the Sunstruck Chasm. By the jagged boulder. I believe he told you the rest."

"He said—"

Bea held up her hand. "No. I don't need to know. Once you are done, make sure to wipe the shuttle's logs before reentering the grid."

Aiden frowned. What was this? And this woman, who was she to Darren Howe?

"I'll need you to leave your phone and computer here," she continued. "I'll return them to you when you are back."

"I'd rather keep them," Aiden protested, but she just smiled and held out her hand. He squeezed the strap of his backpack. "And what if I changed my mind and don't want to go?"

"Then he misplaced his trust in you."

His trust? Darren's? What had he gotten himself into?

"Who is he?" Aiden folded his arms. "And why all the riddles and secrecy?"

Bea's lips curved up on one side. "Your bag, Kesley."

Unwillingly, Aiden handed her his possessions. She took out all his electronics, including his watch, before handing the empty bag back to him. Then she stood up and walked over to the nightstand by the bed, taking out a visor attachment.

"You'll need this where you're going."

Inspecting the visor, Aiden noticed it was designed with enhanced night vision. It was the type of modification used by miners, though he suspected the place he was being sent to was a hollow rather than a mineral-rich asteroid where Global Nations' presence was likely.

"How long does it take to get there?" he asked after tossing the device inside his backpack.

"About six hours."

Six hours of nothing to do but stare at the emptiness surrounding Mars. Great.

Bea chuckled and circled back to the nightstand, taking out an old hardcover book. "Here. This ought to keep you occupied." She went to the door and held it for him. "Now, scram."

After the fifteen hours on the shuttle from Europa, more travel was exactly what Aiden didn't need. All the sitting and swaying was making his legs long for exercise and his headache was getting worse too, pulsating in waves across his skull. Even his lungs were starting to protest, sick of the endlessly recycled and stuffy air of space vehicles. He couldn't do anything about any of that after volunteering to go ahead with this crazy mission, so he simply slouched in the uncomfortable seat of the mining craft and stared out the airlock as he left Mars' red plains behind.

Two and a half hours into his flight and Aiden reached the derelict weather station. Once he disconnected the mining shuttle's systems from the Martian grid, he unfolded the paper and input the coordinates, letting the autonomous piloting system take care of the route for him. He tried to get some sleep, but soon gave up because this type of spaceship wasn't designed with comfort in mind.

With nothing better to do, he started reading the leather-bound book Bea had given him. To his disappointment, it turned out that despite its title ‘Forging the Stars', the book wasn't fiction, but rather, a historical record of some of the most infamous bloodlines to rule pre-space Earth. Not really the type of text Aiden would go for normally—history wasn't his favorite subject—but it beat staring at the clutter of tools and mining equipment for the remaining three hours.

By the time he got halfway through the book, he was utterly bored. It was full of nothing but history of pre-space Earth and facts that were well-known by anyone who had attended college. He kept at it regardless, and things kind of started to get a little confusing when he got to the Global Nations' section toward the end. According to the book, the establishment of an Earth-wide Universal Income and the Guarantee for Baseline Shelter and Food had been achieved during the last Monarchy's reign before the GN had even been formed. The same was stated about modern altenergy spaceflight and the Space Revolution… neither of which reflected what Aiden, and everyone else, learned at school.

Frowning at the factual inaccuracies, he wondered why Bea had given him the book. The further he went on reading, the more it sounded like someone had taken a bunch of conspiracy theories and organized them in a book because they had a bone to pick with the GN. Was that how the popular conspiracies had started? From books like these?

Aiden didn't really care. He knew his general history and he'd never had the free time to entertain wild theories about secret government agendas, staged accidents, assassination cover-ups or alien abductions. Maybe some of it was real—he couldn't know for sure—but the craziest stuff usually ended up being nothing more than the result of someone's bored imagination.

Before he reached the end of the book and saw what other conspiracies it entertained, the shuttle slowed down and started its bumpy descent. Ten minutes later and after a fair amount of nauseous shaking, the vehicle landed at the edge of a crater that, according to the system nav, was located in the eastern region of the Sunstruck Chasm.

So far, so good.

Suiting up, Aiden flipped the shuttle's airlock open and carefully flung himself through the narrow space. He hooked a tethering cord to his belt and the vehicle's clip-on handle and ventured out, hoping the rope's length would be sufficient for him to find Darren's supposed hideout.

As he'd expected, gravity was almost nonexistent on the asteroid, making his trek down the crater a deadly challenge. He slipped multiple times, the ninety-degree slope proving very treacherous. If not for the fact that he kept fit and that his training in the Army had included dealing with extreme environments, he didn't think he'd have been able to handle the climb at all. Heart stuck in his throat, he wondered if Darren had been hoping for exactly that kind of outcome.

Before he'd reached a conclusion, he ran out of cord. He looked down, the visor making it possible to see despite the abysmal blackness. He was about two-thirds toward the bottom, which meant that unhooking himself was suicide, so unless he could think of an alternative, he was stuck and couldn't continue.

Surely, there was a way to carry on or Bea would have provided a lengthier cord. Unless the suspicious woman had chosen not to. Then was this a setup by Darren, after all? A long-winded joke just to make a fool out of Aiden?

Surveying what was below again, Aiden noticed the jagged boulder from Darren's instructions. If that was here, then Darren hadn't lied and there had to be a way to get to it. Carefully turning around so his back was pressed against the stone, Aiden used the visor's distance-mode to scan his surroundings. About a third of a mile to the right, the device detected a metal structure he'd somehow missed. It looked a lot like a ladder.

Aiden scoffed, annoyed that he hadn't noticed it, and headed that way. Half an hour later, he made it to the bottom of the crater. The jagged boulder was at least sixty feet high, with sharp protrusions sticking out in every direction like the armor of a gigantic hedgehog. If he wasn't careful and one of them pierced his suit, he'd be dead in less than five minutes.

Conscious of the uncomfortable fate that awaited him if he came in contact with the deadly spikes, Aiden slowly trudged his way around them. He tunneled his concentration to that single task until he made it to the other side of the boulder and found himself in a narrow crosscut in the crater's wall. At the end of that passage, he found a reinforced door with an access terminal.

Approaching the door booted up the console. It was an old-style touchscreen that lit up in blue and asked for an access code.

Aiden's heart hammered in his chest. This was it. The hideout. It existed, just like Darren had said it would. Goosebumps covered every inch of his body even if the suit was maintaining a suitable temperature.

He knew. He could feel it. The truth inside waiting to be found. All he had to do was take that final step.

Trust once more in Darren's words.

Aiden keyed in the passcode on the access terminal. NJ-O4A-RST.

The blue of the screen changed to green, and the door opened.