I, Cassandra

36 | RYAN MADDOX

A sharp knock at the door wakes me. I recognise its triple staccato. Akron. Cassandra continues to sleep, senseless, in my arms. I ease myself away from her. She shifts onto her back with a quiet sigh, lost in Henrik's pyjamas. Her frailty deceives. Buried within, a power beyond comprehension—the power to create life—making her both the greatest threat to the UFF and the greatest ally to humanity.

Another terse rap shatters the quiet. I haul myself from the bed and head to the door, irritable from a fruitless night spent trying to find a way to protect her from what is to come.

I open the door and step out into the corridor. Akron gives me a look laden with disapproval.

Out of habit, I salute him. 'Sir.'

Akron narrows his eyes and walks away, contempt bleeding from him. I follow, catching a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. I'm still not used to who I am. I look even shittier than usual. My skin is a sickly grey, and there are black shadows under my eyes. I bite back a scoff. I didn't think it could get any worse, but I was wrong. I look like hell.

Akron comes to a stop in front of the dining table, his back turned to me, his hands clasped behind his back. I wait. Uneasiness saws at me. In this place, I have learned when someone comes to see you it's never a good thing. Whatever is coming, I'm not going to like it.

'You know they see everything, right?' he asks, taut, as if he is embarrassed, like a father having to tell his kid the first time about intercourse. He keeps his back to me, though his grip on his hands tighten a fraction. The faint outline of his expression is reflected against the window screen. I see him in the dark waters of the sea, lit by the pale gleam of the Milky Way. Disgust seeps from him, as though he cannot wait to get away from me. I sense what I am to him. An abomination. Him—the one who loves to ride droids.

'You did everything except fuck her,' he says. 'Everyone saw it, the control room tech, the guards. I saw it. de Pommier saw it. After.'

I can't help it. I laugh, though not from amusement, but bitterness.

'What did you expect would happen?' I ask. 'We were lovers before all this shit happened. You might have taken away my body, but you left me my soul.'

Akron turns. 'I expected her to be revolted by you. We all did. Especially de Pommier. She doesn't like being wrong.'

I fold my arms over my chest, unrepentant. It might not have been like before since I had been deprived of the necessary means, but we had been close. I had loved every second of it. I catch him eyeing me, sizing me up, as if trying to see me with Blue's eyes.

He turns away, expressionless. I realise he's jealous, though it makes no sense. He exhales, his gaze moving over the ebb and flow of the sea's wash against the shore, bathed in the wan light of a new day a hundred years dead.

I need coffee. Akron still has his back to me. 'I am going to assume you didn't come here just to discuss my nighttime activities.' I pull a couple of mugs out of the cupboard and set them on the counter with dull clinks. 'Coffee?'

A resentful silence washes out of him. I proceed to prepare one coffee. Fuck him.

'You are to be upgraded,' he says as I reach for the tin of coffee.

I turn, the coffee forgotten. He eyes me as he leans against the dining table. His hands come to rest against the edges. I notice his knuckles are white.

'We know,' he says. 'Everything.'

I keep my mouth shut and my expression blank. He could be bluffing, but from the defeat skirting his features, I sense he is not. Of course, they would know, the surveillance equipment in there would be military-grade. They could hear a mouse fart.

'Which means the plans have been substantially changed,' he continues and offers me a view of his profile, tension etching its valleys. I get the feeling he is not part of what is to come, just the messenger. He turns back to me and gives me a loaded look.

'Escalation.'

'And?'

'And Vallis is going to be worked hard,' he continues. He pushes away from the table, tosses a glance down the corridor to where Blue is still sleeping. 'de Pommier figures if Vallis is happy at night, then . . .' He trails off, leaves the rest for me to figure out. He shrugs like he wants nothing to do with it.

I want to feel something, anything, anger, relief, vindication, but all I feel is empty. They want me to fuck her, to keep her happy, so she can serve their purposes. The whole thing sickens me.

'I don't want the upgrade,' I say and turn back to the coffee. 'Anyway, when I look like this, what difference will it make?'

'You're going to look like you again,' Akron says, low. 'It will be just like before . . . only better.'

I come to a halt. The marble counter top glares back at me in the reflected lights from under the cupboards. For the first time, I notice the faint lacing of grey in the midst of the marble's purity. They remind me of curls of smoke. 'How?'

Silence hauls itself between us. I can feel his gaze on me, boring into me, rank with resentment. I turn.

'That's above my pay grade,' Akron looks away, not meeting my eyes. I don't believe him, but I don't bother to challenge him. He would lie anyway.

'When?' I ask.

Akron jerks his head towards the double doors. 'They are waiting for you.'

I walk to the door and open it. Outside, two Elites wait, their hands clasped behind their backs. My escort. I turn back to Akron. He hasn't moved. Misery shrouds him. He meets my eyes at last. 'Go on Maddox,' he says. 'You know you want to.'

I walk out. He's right, I want to. More than anything. But not like this, and not for them, for me, or even for humanity's second chance. I'm doing it for her. Only for her.