EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The space-shuttle carrier was comprised of two levels. On the top level at the front was the cock-pit which housed the computer navigator and the droid hostess after she'd tidied away the drinks trolley. The rest of the upper level was a bar lounge. Camel back sofas surrounded low drinks tables, lit by Tiffany table lamps. A window curved all around the carrier, offering a breathtaking view of the stars. The staircase to the deck below and the cabins stood in the middle of the lounge.

Will's box lay across the back aisle. Day sat where she could monitor it, though she couldn't actually see Will. She sipped her water, noting how Amber draped herself across Ferdinando.

Her sister got up from the table she, Ed, and Ferdinando occupied, and dangling a cocktail glass in her slim hand, slunk through the lounge.

"Geeze, you're so serious, Sis. Reminds me of when you were little. When you didn't get what you wanted, you would stop talking." She laughed and sipped her fruit cocktail through a pink, paper straw. "You drove Mom crazy with the silent treatment."

"Why do you want Will?"

Amber's gaze flicked towards Ed as though finally understanding something. She put down her glass and squashed in beside Day. "Listen, whatever you think you know, whatever Will told you, you've got it all backwards."

Day moved up the sofa, putting distance between them. "So you're not going to explain?" A memory of when she was seven or eight years old raced through her mind. Amber was deciding whether to lend her a star necklace that she desperately wanted to wear to a Princess party. She  had taken her time, prolonging Day's anxiety, enjoying the control she had over Day's emotions.

"Ed is your boyfriend, you idiot. Forget Will."

"Ed and Dayna?"

"What do you think? That's why he was the one on the mission with you."

No, in her gut she didn't feel it. That couldn't be the truth. "Tell me what you want with Will."

Amber sighed. "I could explain, but what's the point? The truth is sitting below your personality implant. You could find it for yourself right now if you wanted to. But you don't want to. Another forty-eight hours and we'll be on Mars, the implant will be removed, and you'll be you again."

She stood, swept up her drink and sashayed back to Ferdinando.

Forty-eight hours until they reached Mars... Day wished she could spend the next two days in her sleeping quarters, locked away from Ed and Amber. But she didn't want to leave Will alone in the box. What if they got rid of him, threw the box out of the airlock?

She closed her eyes and pressed a palm to her forehead. A loud pop of gunfire filled her head. Blood and bits of flesh dripped across the inner screen of her mind.

Swallowing hard, she opened her eyes and studied her surroundings to orientate herself. She breathed deeply to calm her racing heart. Ed's gaze locked on her. She stared back. Suddenly, he bolted from his seat, stalked through the lounge, and disappeared into the cockpit.

Ferdinando wandered over to Day's table.

"May I?"

Her blank face wasn't an invitation, but Ferdinando carried on as though he hadn't noticed. His swarthy features and lilting accent placed his origins in southwest Europe, perhaps Italy or Spain.

The ice in his glass tinkled as he raised it to his lips. "Humankind settled on the moon over a century ago. But Mars—we never colonized Mars. Have you ever wondered why?"