Mina had been adamant, back in the meeting room at The Hole, before and after they’d done what they’d done in private. But all that had given Gurminder the courage to speak up about a plan that really didn’t seem like it would work. To him there were now too many moving pieces.

“Why do we need the Chin?” he’d asked. “I’ve got the codes. I can go in with Sosh and a couple others, get the bomb and get out.”

“This can’t be tracked back to us directly, they are the distraction” she argued. “The Chin have agreed to take the fall for the rest of us, since they are getting decimated anyhow. So you provide them codes and receive the NFB. It’s been agreed. You do what you’re told.”

“Fine,” he’d agreed.

“I still want to help,” Tory him. “Do you have a map of the base? Maybe I can find a quick route to the storage chambers. We can get in and out without anyone noticing. I mean, that’s if you have all the security clearance and codes and such.”

How did she know about all that? Why wasn’t she horrified? Did she really hate her own people as much as his fellow Martians did?

“You’re not going!” he insisted. “You never should have been here in the first place! Or the second.”

The girl just stared at him like he was mouthing nonsense.

“Do I have to keep reminding you, I’m good at getting out of places I’m not supposed to,” she said. “Do I have to keep reminding you I want to get kicked off Mars! More than anything. The sooner the better, even if lots of people get scared for a while. So let me help you. I’m good with codes, I’m good with mazes. There has to be something I can do. Look at what I’ve done so far. I’m not some kind of ignorant firstlander as you Martians keep insisting I am!”

If he wasn’t as scared as he was about this mission, Gurminder would have told her to shut up then and there. But he was. And she had the most irritating ability to do what not only what she wasn’t allowed, but shouldn’t have been able to.

Gurminder sighed, figuring he’d regret it, but passed her his spreader, cleared her for access. She was going to keep at him all the way to the end, and he just didn’t have the will to fight right now. Tory grabbed it the thing eagerly, extended the screen in front of her and began checking out the schematics of the base he’d been provided.

An hour later Tory figured out three routes that were both faster and ran through fewer security chokepoints than what the Rus and Chin leadership had decided on.

“How did you do that?” Gurminder said now looking at the spreader himself and the paths she had drawn.

“I’m good with labyrinths, mazes, spatial mapping, tesseracts are really fun, but they don’t exist, really,” she told him with a smile. “That’s my thing.”

Her smile faltered.

“Mom and dad want to put me on The O’Neill Project when I get out of school, they put me through so many brain tests it was crazy,” she continued. “As if Mars isn’t bad enough, they want me to help design artificial planets for people to live because it’s so complicated figuring out all the things that might go wrong that most people just give up. Why people want to live like that, I don’t know? We have a planet, all we need to do is take care of it. It’s so simple. Why is that so hard for everybody?”

Gurminder shrugged.

“I have no idea,” he said honestly. Then he sighed. “What do you want to do?”

Here first response was of suspicion. Then her gaze glazed over, like a few of the more fanatical people he’d worked with.

“I want to change things back to what they were,” she told him. “Make Earth good again. So no one will ever have to leave it. Or want to.”

Okay.

“Good luck with that,” he replied.

“But first, I’ve got to get back there to do it,” she told him. “And I guess that means we need a nuke. Maybe two. You know, for insurance.”

Gurminder didn’t say anything. This girl was crazier than Mina or any of the clan leadership, that was for sure, but in no way was she stupid.

They reached the location for the rendezvous with the Chin. They waited. And waited. Waited until it was almost time to do the job. The team never showed.