Page 78 of The Red Woman on Mars

Xavier took Silas’s head in both hands and leaned closer to him. Vivian let out an involuntary squeak.

Turning to her with quirked lips, Xavier said nonchalantly, “Vivian, just in time. Hit him, will you?”

“I … What?”

“Right on the jaw.”

“I’m not going to let your girlfriend hit me,” Silas objected, attempting to jerk out of Xavier’s grasp.

Xavier grabbed Silas by his bleeding, injured arm and yanked him directly in front of her. “Now, please.”

Feeling like a fraud, Vivian made a proper fist like Shiloh had taught her and punched Silas on the mouth. Silas’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed on the floor.What?

“Oh, very nice. Much more effective than me doing it.” Xavier gave her an exhilarated grin and pulled his comm from his pocket. “August, I have control of the command center.”

“Well done, X.” August’s voice crackled.

“All credit goes to Vivian. She has an excellent right hook.” He grinned at her again, and Vivian couldn’t help but smile back, despite her bewilderment at the whole situation.

“Come back to the lab, will you? Vivian knows the way.”

“What about him?” Vivian looked down at Silas’s prone form. An ugly purple bruise was forming on his jaw.I did that, she thought, bile rising in her throat.How?She hadn’t even hit him very hard. “Should we …?”

Xavier’s face fell. “I can’t. I just—I can’t. Not like this, in cold blood. If I ever kill Silas, it will be face-to-face.”

Vivian shivered. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

2 Sols to Presentation Day

In the lab, the three scientists had been secured with zip ties and were seated on the floor. August and Caspian were hovering uncertainly behind Delilah as she stared at the lab table, her fists clenched and her chest heaving.

“Delilah?” Vivian ventured. “I think you’ve seen enough. Won’t you come away from here?”

Ignoring her own advice, she moved to her sister’s side and looked down. There wasn’t much to see. A small dot in the middle of a petri dish, under a large white microscope. A nearby screen displayed a magnified image of a curved shape where Vivian could almost detect the beginnings of a head. There was no heartbeat.

“It’s so small, Viv,” Delilah murmured. “Such a fuss over a pinprick.” She raised blurred eyes and turned to the scientists. “Have you figured it out yet? Did you crack the genetic code?”

“We’re close,” one said eagerly. “We just hit a snag.”

“What snag?”

“The calcium treatments you described, we don’t understand their purpose. They would have no impact on the fetus’s genetic material and won’t be hereditary. Is the intention to perform the treatments in every generation?”

Vivian jerked her head back. “Intelligence, I thought we were breaking the cycle in a single generation.”

From its position between August and Caspian, the orb moved from side to side. “We had a minimally viable product and wanted to begin as soon as possible.”

“A minimally viable product?” Vivian spat. “What the hell does that mean?”

“We’ll perfect the tech in future years, right?” The orb moved closer to Vivian. “Innovation has to start somewhere. Perfect is the enemy of done, you know.”

“This isn’t tech, Intelligence,” Caspian objected. “It’s medicine.”

“The genetic modification alone will still produce a fetus with stronger bones than the average Martian,” the talkative scientist offered.

The orb gave a loud beep. “We don’t have the data yet to know if the genetic modifications are enough. The calcium treatments are critical at this stage to ensure success. We’ll adjust as we go. This was always intended to be an iterative process.”