Destiny: Quantic Dreams Book 3 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (books for 20 year olds .txt) 📗

at our colony who are depending on us and the situation is emergent.” Eliza offered another handshake to the android.

“I understand. I promise you, Eliza. We will not let your charges go unaided.” Nice words for what I was sure were good intentions. The others chose to take advantage of Eleanor’s offer, but Eliza and I needed to have a conversation. Dad included, apparently.

“Did you see those things?” Dad’s eyes were frenetic, his voice full of nervous energy. “Just how advanced are these people? Holy shit, I thought Gabriel had complicated machines.” There were bags under his eyes and a slight tremor to his hands. Clearly he hadn’t been sleeping well. In my preoccupation I hadn’t noticed how much stress he had been under. He had grown more nervous whenever one of us interacted with the androids. I chalked it up to the journey, choosing to believe that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Now I wasn’t so sure. “I don’t think you should meet with them, Eliza.”

Eliza looked at him over her glasses. “Why wouldn’t I? You know damn well that Fiona, Marcus, and I can look after ourselves. We’ve come this far Jacob. I don’t think we have any other choice but to meet with them.”

“They’ve been nothing but kind to us thus far.” Marcus joined in the conversation. It was becoming a proper family meeting. “I understand your concerns Grandpa, but Mom is right. The androids have proven to us that they possess enough food and supplies to keep the colony going. The only question I have is how are we going to get everything back home, assuming that they’re ready to offer us that much. We can’t exactly uproot the rest of the shelter and bring them here.”

“If they’ve got 3D printing and advanced medical care, they’ve almost certainly got vehicles. I’m sure we can figure something out.” I had no clue what good a vehicle was to an android, but perhaps they could manufacture some for us.

“Plus, you know that we’re going with them to meet these people, right?” Eliza and I whirled to glare at Marcus. Our impetuous son had a habit of making assumptions, and this one was the last thing either of us needed right then. While it was true that Eliza had planned to take more than just the two of us to the meeting, Marcus and my father had not made the cut. Even though they were family, the two men had tempers that would be too unpredictable in a delicate diplomatic setting. Eliza was planning a delegation of mostly women. We thought it best to appear as unthreatening as possible, and who knew how the presence of a bunch of human men would go over.

“Son…”

“You’re fucking kidding me.” Our smart as a whip son. Always connecting the dots faster than he should.

“I’m sorry, honey. I need you to stick around and look after the folks here. And your grandfather needs to try and reach the colony. We need to let them know that we haven’t dropped dead in the interim.” I turned to my father to address him directly. “We’ve been gone less than a week but people back at the colony are going to be getting hungry, and soon. We’ll give you more details as we get them but I need you to give them something to hold onto until we can, all right?” Dad glared right back at me, his jaw set. Memories of when I had acted out as a little girl flooded back and I knew that I had seriously screwed up. Oh well. It was my job to back Eliza, not Dad.

“It’s because of what happened with Gabriel, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. He knew that he had stepped into a world where he wasn’t just a stranger; he was a murderer. Bringing him to a meeting with the androids would only ratchet up the tension. We hoped that the androids wouldn’t catch on to who he was until after we had finished. Given our current scenario I had a creeping feeling that our hosts knew more about us than I’d like. “Eliza—Fiona—“ Dad looked back and forth between us, looking for an opening. “You can’t really keep me here like a child who has misbehaved! I can control myself among these people. You can count on me to keep my mouth shut.”

Eliza looked at me. “He’s your problem, beloved.” She squeezed my hand and set off to prepare for the meeting.

Dad cast a suspicious look at me. “Trouble in paradise, hun?”

“She’s just stressed out. You know how Eliza gets when she has her mind set on a project. That and she was recently put in charge of a thousand lives. You know, no pressure.” I caught myself staring into the distance. One more day. One more day. The mantra was what I used to keep myself going when Marcus was a baby. I promised myself over and over that if I could just make it one more day, things would get better. “She has a point, you know. You’ve been fraying at the edges, Dad. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s true. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you need to get it under control. Fast.”

“Sure, honey. Sure.”

Chapter Thirteen

The androids had established some kind of link to our personal tablets. Three hours after we were dropped off in our temporary quarters Eliza received a ping to wait for our handlers outside the doors of the building. She chose only two others to come with us; Alan and a woman named Rachel. Rachel was studying to become a medic for the colony. She had a gentle smile and was the picture of maternal kindness. Eliza had chosen well when she asked her to come along. Surprisingly, Eleanor wasn’t the one to come fetch us. Two androids appeared to ferry us to our destination. They declined to introduce themselves,