Part 33 (1/2)

It has a certain rhythm to it, and the rhythm matches the song in Paris's head.

Jewel gets a message.

She's been sitting in her room, the number one hit love song running through her head, crying until her eyes hurt.

It's a high-priority message, on a sub-public frequency.

It's from Larry.

I am with Rudo.

I'm coming, she types, already standing, already stepping toward the door.

No! High-priority ping.

I have to see him. I'll die.

He is up for murder.

She stares at the words.

Up for murder. Of course he is. That video.

Death is the penalty for murder. Eye for an eye in this b.l.o.o.d.y and fragile world.

Jewel feels a p.r.i.c.kling over her scalp, up her forearms, like electricity. Is this what people mean when they say their hair stands on end?

The feeling inside is terror, rage, pain. Something else too.

Love.

She doesn't care. She loves him. She can still feel his hands on her body, taste him on her lips. His name is love.

She will not live without him. It will be easy enough, here. Just walk outside. If the minus-one-hundred-and-sixty Celsius temperatures don't do it, the radiation will.

Rudo and I have a plan, Larry types.

The longing in her body threatens to overwhelm. Let me talk to him.

He is in cryo.

What the f.u.c.k?

The corporations want the two bodies-Mercury and Tybalt-sent to Luna base. And they want Rudo extradited to Luna for trial.

She'll do anything to see him again.

You and Rudo have to disappear.

YES. How?

A pause.

You and Mercury have more or less the same ma.s.s.

So?

We cut out the online connections. Mercury's, Rudo's, Tybalt's, yours. We dispose of Mercury's body here on Europa, and exchange him ...

For me.

Yes.

So we destroy my connection permanently?

Yes.

The connections are inserted shortly after birth. To be permanently offline ...

I'll do it.

Slow down! She can almost sense Larry's laughter at her tempestuousness. Here's how it works. We fake an accident with Tybalt's corpse, and put Rudo's connection in that cryopod.

She forces her brain to work. A cryo-accident turns the cells inside out; no one will be able to tell whose body it is, not without a DNA a.n.a.lysis ...

And Mercury's connection is in my pod so when they scan on arrival they will think I'm him, and Rudo is Tybalt, and Tybalt is Rudo. Right?

Right.

But when the pods arrive on Luna, the sensors will tell them that two of us are in living cryo. They'll revive us, it's the law ...

Yes, they'll see who you are. You will have to subdue the technician on the Luna end. Buy time, Larry types.

Why are you helping? He could be in the pay of one of the corporations-after all, he works for the mysterious Prince. There could be some kind of agenda ...

I'm sick of the bulls.h.i.+t, Jewel.

Sick enough to risk your life?

Because if Rudo is up for murder, then abetting him also carries the death penalty.

I'm here for a good time, not a long time. Remember?

His cancer. She sits, cannot type.

Jewel?