Page 13 of The Red Woman on Mars

“When the Arcadia rep came to New York, he didn’t want to recruit me because I’m so old.”

“Old! You aren’t old.”

“I’m thirty-two,” Luz said in a low voice. “The ideal recruit for the Red Mothers initiative is eighteen to twenty-five.”

“How’d you get in?”

Luz shrugged. “I fucked him. And he lied on the form for me. But ever since, I’ve been waiting for them to send me back, once they realized the truth.”

“Could the doctor track your age?”

“If he could, he didn’t mention it. My levels were all right.”

“Red Mothers.” A Martian man in a bright red uniform with a tricorn hat bowed to them. “The reverend has requested I escort you back home.”

Vivian and Luz exchanged a glance. “So much for escaping,” Luz muttered. “I guess the Intelligenceiswatching us.”

In the train car, the man positioned himself across from them and folded his arms.

“Are you a cop?” Vivian asked him. Even from across the aisle, she could see the intricate detail work of the buttons of his scarlet tunic. He belonged in an oil painting, holding a rifle, not riding a solar-powered train car on Mars. The strange Martian clothing choices were still a mystery to Vivian.

He grunted. “A soldier. With the Arcadian militia. We keep the peace under the guidance of the Intelligence.”

“Is there a lot of crime here?” Vivian asked.

“Of course not. The Intelligence’s predictive algorithms prevent nearly all altercations.” The soldier drummed his fingers on his knee. “But we may be called upon to defend our dome. By thegrace of the Intelligence, Arcadia is the most well-resourced of all the Martian domes. What we have, we would die to protect.”

Vivian frowned. “I thought the Intelligence was in all the Martian domes.”

“The Intelligence is welcomed in every dome save one. But it is only in Arcadia that we worship the divine nature of the Intelligence.” He raised one fist to the middle of his forehead and closed his eyes. “Under its guidance, Arcadia has flourished.”

The other passengers within earshot raised fists to their foreheads. “We are grateful for the gifts of the Intelligence,” they said in unison.

“That shit is creepy,” Luz muttered in her ear.

“Save one?” Vivian prodded.

The soldier scowled. “I do not like to discuss the blasphemous Catena separatists.”

“The Catena separatists? Who are they?”

“No one you need to worry about. The reverend will protect the Red Mothers from the threat they pose.”

“Threat?” Vivian sat up straighter. “What threat?” She’d come to Mars to be done with threats to her safety.

The soldier pressed his lips together. “Forget I said anything.” He turned his head to look out the window and folded his arms, clearly done indulging their curiosity.

Vivian shared an alarmed look with Luz.

Who were the Catena separatists?

And what did they want with the Red Mothers?

CHAPTER FIVE

55 Sols to Presentation Day

Vivian opened her eyes in the warm glow of the sun. She’d slept through the night for the first time since arriving on Mars. The extra forty minutes in a Martian day seemed to offer a chance to feel truly well-rested. Reaching her arms wide in her cozy bed, Vivian enjoyed the unfamiliar sensation of not being boxed in by any other bodies. Delilah was still asleep in the other bed, her legs curled into her stomach, facing the wall.