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  Well, if things went well.

  "Are you sure she's going to be okay?" I asked.

  Matt thought. "She'll have her androids capture those radicals. It'll be a while before the Identity leadership finds out."

  "You seem too sure."

  "Fiona's done drills plenty of times. We had to leave because of the air situation. She doesn't usually have guests in the hangar. People don't go in and out too much."

  "I hope so."

  "Come on," Matt said. "We have a couple of days to enjoy this before we land. Your mom would have planted the tracker. We'll land there. Well, as long as the landing gear works right."

  "Matt!" I shouted. I thought of how fast we must be traveling through space to get to Earth in two days. Those microwave lasers used to propel tiny probes to extreme speeds. The laser Fiona had developed must be like that, only more powerful. I couldn't imagine the amount of energy she needed to operate them. It was no wonder she only had ten capsules. "You are not making me feel better."

  "Have I done that yet?" he asked.

  "Yes and no. But I appreciate your honesty."

  "Your parents should have told you about the Grounders," Matt said. "It wasn't fair of them to leave you in the dark."

  "No kidding," I said. I dared to unbuckle my belts. I had never been on something like this before. You could still rent flights on the old ships if you wanted to experience no gravity, but a lot of people got sick on those flights, so it was only for the brave. Now I was going to experience floating for the first time.

  It was the strangest feeling, coming from my seat. I had little control over where I floated. The sensation chased away all my worry about what would happen when we landed.

  "See?" Matt asked. "It's cool. It's my first time doing this, too."

  "It is," I admitted.

  "Hey," Matt said. "You aren't always serious all the time. It's good to see."

  I felt like he'd punctured a hole in my armor. Matt grinned at me, holding onto a railing on the wall of the cylinder. I put my wall back up. I almost felt invaded.

  "Well, that's part of being an Earther," I said. I felt like I could call myself one again. In two days, I'd arrive home. "You have to be, well, vigilant all the time. I didn't understand why until three weeks ago." When we landed, I would face Mom and Dad again. They wouldn't expect me to come out of this cylinder. How would they react? How would I feel about seeing them again? "I can't wait to roast some Grounders. Is there any way to save the people they've attached themselves to?"

  Matt shook his head. He clung to a grab bar on the wall. "The people they've taken over are as good as dead," he told me. We were back to serious. "They're better off after we deal with the Grounders on them."

  I thought of the Task Force members lying in the hallway, just as dead as the roasted blobs on the backs of their necks. A bad taste filled my mouth. We couldn't kill Grounders without also killing their hosts, and Matt had already done that with the heat ray or whatever he called it. Matt stared at the bottom of the cylinder as those dark thoughts crossed my mind. The joy was over. We had a task in front of us, and it wasn't pretty. It was no wonder Mom and Dad didn't want me to get more involved in this than I already had.

  But this was an accident--right? I was here because Matt wanted to impress me with the secret base. He might be green, but he was a human teen boy. I was here because I opened my mouth in front of those Mars Identity people.

  And I wanted to be on this mission.

  I wanted to strike back against those Grounders who had taken everything from me. They didn't deserve to live for forcing us off our home and to their planet. They were killing the Earth when humanity narrowly avoided doing just that in the past. It wasn't fair.

  "I'm sorry I brought that up," I said.

  "No. You're right. It's screwed up," Matt said. "My father knows a lot about the Grounders. They do kill their hosts. We're doing them a favor with the heat ray."

  So he did call it that. I held back a snort.

  "They do?" I asked.

  "When they attach to someone, they probably wipe away everything that makes a person who they are," Matt said. "They can control a body for years, but they also draw sustenance from them. He says that they can feed on human blood. The victim slowly dies from anemia. It takes years, but it happens, and the Grounder has to find a new host."

  I shuddered. Now that I thought about it, no Great President lasted more than five or six years. President Patel hadn't been seen on any news broadcast after his successor came into power a few years back. I thought of the man in the black cloak who confronted my family when Rockville burned, of the way his cheekbones stood out and bags hung under his eyes. I had no doubt now that he had been a Grounder, slowly dying from having his blood sucked out.

  "That's great news," I said. I wanted to destroy the Grounders more than ever. "How are we going to kill them, then?" I saw nothing in this cylinder we could use to fight.

  "The equipment is in the other room," Matt said. "We're not to open any of it until we land. The nanobots need rock and soil to work with."

  "Got it," I said. The more I thought about the Grounders, the more eager I got to fight them. Mom and Dad weren't going to stop me. In fact, I was even angrier at them for letting me grow up, thinking that the world wasn't as bad as it was. "What, exactly, are we going to build?"

  Chapter Thirteen

  Floating got boring after a while. Matt and I talked about the types of machines that the nanobots would build for us once we landed. He talked about mining bots, farming bots, and walkers. It would all start with us activating the nanobots when we landed. Then it would take a few hours for the nanobots to create what we needed.

  After that, we'd have to fight. We had no choice if this entire plan was going to work. According to Matt, Fiona and her volunteers had been working on it for years, stealing everything from medical nanobots to ore from the mines on Mars. And now that radicals had found her base, it would be a short time before the Mars Identity leadership found out, even if Fiona kept Marv and his girlfriend detained. The explosions would attract attention. Matt also explained that the Mars Identity was the strongest political party on the Red Planet. From what I'd seen, I believed him.

  "That's great," I said. "So Fiona's going to have to launch the other cylinders quickly."

  "Right," Matt said. "We have to get right to work when we land.

  The only machine we'll need to operate is the walker once the nanobots build it. The other robots will run automatically."

  "Fiona made everything as simple as she could," Matt said.

  "She and her scientists cut every corner they could cut.

  The volunteers who will board the other cylinders didn't have training, either. All they know is the primary plan. Shoot Grounders, and take down the Great Council."

  "Doesn't sound like she prepared too well," I said, floating across the cylinder again. I pushed myself off the wall. A part of me was glad to be doing this, but another part wanted to scream.

  "If she had, she would have attracted Identity attention," Matt said. "You try planning an invasion when you also have to hide."

  He had a point. We had landed in a sloppy, unofficial war. It didn't make our odds sound too good.

  I thought of piloting something that would kill Grounders. The walkers were supposed to have heat guns along with a couple of other weapons that Matt hadn't explained yet. It made a shiver of excitement zip through me, but also fear. Matt and I were heading into war. We had no choice but to be on the front lines. Fiona never meant it to be this way. It was an adult's job.

  But I would take it.

  I wanted revenge. The Grounders had turned me into someone angry, starting with Rockville.

  A few hours into the flight, we played a game of tag, which wasn't much fun with only two people, but at least it distracted me from the thought of landing. We sailed at an incredible speed towards Earth, and the landing might be even more horrific than the takeoff. Matt wasn't
sure how the landing gear worked, only that a set of sails were supposed to slow us down before we crashed at the spot where Mom and Dad had planted the tracking capsule.

  Matt wasn't sure that it would work, period. '

  And if it did, we'd attract both Enforcers and Grounders. I wasn't worried about the Enforcers. They only had electric batons which could paralyze criminals for a short time. The Great Council had forbidden deadly weapons decades ago. Besides, Enforcers were human. The ones I'd met seemed friendly enough.

  I was beginning to see how the Grounders had taken over the world. Outlaw weapons, control the masses. Even our police had nothing.

  But did Grounders work above the law?

  I couldn't chase these thoughts away.

  "We have time to eat and sleep before we get to Earth," Matt said at last. "Fiona says this trip takes only a couple of days. There are bunks we can strap ourselves into in the next compartment."

  It turned out that Matt was right. I got to experience the joy of eating floating food out of a can. Using the bathroom facilities was a time-consuming nightmare, though, and so was figuring out how to strap into the bunk so I wouldn't float away while sleeping. But it was better than the crate where Marv and that woman had found me.

  Matt lay across from me, in his bunk. "This has been fun," he said. "I'm glad that I'm on this mission after all."

  "Fun?" I asked. "The fate of the world is on us."

  His expression darkened. "I know. Tomorrow's the day. The other nine teams would land within kilometers of us if the other scouts did their job."

  "At least we'll have some backup," I said.

  "Try to get some sleep. We're going to need it. And enjoy that food. Fiona had to steal it to supply us."

  Sleep was easier said than done.

  Now that the zero gravity fun was over, the darkness came. The thought of hurtling through space, helpless, in a hunk of metal didn't exactly calm my nerves. Nor did thinking about what Matt and I would need to do once we got to Earth--and that was if we reached it safely. I thought of Mom and Dad looking at this giant cylinder, wondering what was going to emerge from it. I thought of the Task Force gathering around, ready to deal with us.

  These images gathered in my mind like an oncoming storm, mashing together until I managed to drift off. When the dreams came, I was back at Rockville, operating a killer machine that towered over the ground. As I marched, the Grounders looked up with blank expressions as I crushed them.

  * * * * *

  "Matt," Fiona said over a radio.

  I roused and opened my eyes. Matt blinked in the other bunk. He looked like a strapped mental patient, only green.

  Matt went to work unbuckling himself. "How long we were asleep?" Matt asked me.

  I tried to shrug, but the straps made it difficult. It was clear that something was happening. I undid the ones around my upper body and sat up at the same time as Matt.

  "Matt. Are you awake?"

  Fiona's voice came from a nearby speaker. She was alive, at least. Matt had been right to not worry about her.

  "I'm awake," Matt said after pressing a button on the wall.

  It took minutes for Fiona to get back to us. How much distance had we put between the Red Planet and us? Communications already had to go across a gulf of space. "Good," she said at last. "My droids captured the two radicals that followed you to Base A, and I have them in custody. We've restored air to the base, and I've sent the second cylinder already. If my scouts planted the second tracking capsule in the right place, it's going to land ten kilometers north of you within hours of your arrival. Watch for it. The explosion here at Base A might have caught the attention of Colony O, and word is likely spreading around the planet. I will send as many cylinders as I can before the Mars Identity leadership gets word of this. I must warn you that some of the crew aren't ready, or are not in nearby colonies right now, so I'm scrambling for volunteers. You will land in five hours' time. It will not be smooth, but you will survive if you strap yourselves in."

  "Got it," Matt said, taking his finger off the button. He grimaced at me. "I was afraid of that."

  "Of what?"

  "All of it except for the backup part."

  "At least we're getting that," I said.

  "Fiona can't launch one cylinder after the other," Matt said. "The lasers have to recharge. If the leadership finds out, they can ruin her plan. She won't be able to defend herself from them."

  "Shouldn't these Identity people be on our side?" I asked. "Honestly, I don't get them."

  Matt spoke in a mocking voice. "But our future is a better Mars."

  I rolled my eyes. The Identity people were too scared to fight for what was right. They were taking defeat in stride. Maybe they were trying to be good sports about losing to the Grounders. Or worse, they had cut some secret deal with them. Stop the other colonists from fighting back, and get some extra rations sent from Earth.

  Fiona never radioed back. The second cylinder must be hours behind us.

  What if I had messed up the entire plan?

  Winnie and my friends would lose their chance of returning home. I wished that she and Lin and Blake were on this capsule with me. There were three empty seats. We should be doing this together.

  I wondered if any of them were turning green yet.

  And how much Winnie was freaking out. Blake might take it in stride, but Lin would be running out of energy tabs by now.

  I had left them to the Task Force. Now I was abandoning them again.

  I got an idea.

  "Tell Fiona to send for three volunteers," I said to Matt. "Radio her in a bit and tell her that she has three willing fighters if she can find them." I told him my friends' full names, along with the fact that they had arrived on Mars hours before I had. I wasn't sure if Winnie was fighting material, but Blake might be, and Fiona could always use Lin's overflowing energy. I knew that Fiona would have to be desperate to send three more teenagers on such a dangerous mission, but I had to give my friends whatever chance they could get to reach home. It was up to them if they wanted to take the risk.

  "I'm not sure she's going to go for that idea," Matt said.

  "Just relay the message," I said. "We have to try. You don't understand my friend Winnie. Being on Mars will kill her. Maybe not literally, but you get the point." Would Winnie be brave enough to board one of these metal hunks?

  Matt relayed the message, but no response came even after we waited for twenty minutes. Fiona must not be on the radio. To be safe, Matt said their names into the speaker a few more times, along with my message. "She'll find the message saved," Matt said. "As I said, she probably won't go for this unless she's super desperate, and it looks like that could happen, but don't hold your breath."

  "Matt, thanks."

  "It's no problem. I'm the one who pulled you away from your friends. And it wasn't your fault that you had to leave them."

  I lay back on the bed. Fiona remained silent, and after another few hours of tense silence and a meal eaten on a nervous stomach, Matt and I moved over to the seats we had used before and strapped ourselves. I felt sick, and not just from the thought of the coming impact.

  "Okay," Fiona said after a while. "Now is the time to move to your seats. From your position, I estimate that you have thirty minutes before you enter Earth's atmosphere. To the Grounders, you will look like falling space junk. They will most likely expect you to burn up."

  I was glad to hear her voice. Matt couldn't reach any radio buttons from here, but Fiona seemed okay with that. It meant that we were in our seats.

  She continued. "You will not be able to exit the cylinder for several hours after you land, as it will be too hot on the outside. That will keep the Grounders away from you while you activate the nanobots."

  "She's speaking more for you than me," Matt said. "I already know this part of the plan."

  At least I had someone who knew what we were supposed to do. Matt was a huge nerd. I had the physical fitness, even though I s
ensed that I had lost some of that in the past few weeks. Maybe, just maybe, we'd make a good team.

  Fiona went silent again.

  All that was left was the landing. My heart raced just thinking of it. I grabbed onto the armrests and tensed. Minutes ticked past in silence. I almost wished we could see outside, but Fiona hadn't designed this thing to have any windows. We were shut off from the rest of the universe.

  And at last, something started.

  A faint roar.

  The sound got louder and louder, crushing us from all sides. I rose from my seat a bit as we plunged. Only the buckles held me down. I knew what was happening. We had entered the atmosphere, and I was falling in the direction of my house. To everyone on the surface, we must look like a falling star, a very brilliant one. If we were lucky, the Grounders weren't paying too much attention.

  But luck hadn't been on our side much lately.

  "When are we going to land?" I shouted.

  Matt had his teeth grit. "I don't know. We're slowing down."

  I didn't know what to expect. Earth's gravity was greater than Mars. I hoped that I could cope with it again.

  Impact.

  A horrendous jolt and an incredible crash ran through the cylinder. Metal squealed. Every muscle in my body tensed as I gripped the seat as hard as I could. My teeth gnashed together, and I grunted with pain. I felt as if the impact had shattered my bones.

  The sounds reverberated as the world stilled.

  I took a breath.

  I was alive.

  Sore.

  Shaken.

  The other seats trembled. Buckles shook and settled as the noise died down.

  "Well, that was fun," Matt said.

  I faced him. He grimaced and reached over to free himself. I might have done better on the takeoff, but Matt had the advantage here.

  Every muscle had cramped on my body. I would be sore tomorrow. I did the same, numb. We had landed.

  We were back on Earth.

  And if this had worked right, we were right in the middle of Woking Park.

  My home.

  I undid the belts that kept me strapped to the seat. Fiona had installed so many that I felt like I was in one of those old electric chairs. I got up from the seat, shocked at how my feet touched the ground and stayed there. I felt as if I had gained a hundred pounds.