“Because you’re not in charge,” a voice bellowed from the hallway.
Benny recognised it immediately. When the EW-SCAB winners had been split into four groups on the first day, Benny had ended up one of the Mustangs. The voice belonged to their leader, Ricardo Rocha, the “Beast from Brazil”. Benny spun round to find him standing in the doorway. Behind him were the other remaining members of Elijah’s Pit Crew – Sahar, and Kira and Kai Miyamura.
Ricardo held up a HoloTek as he glared at Benny. “I’m guessing this message came from you? How dare you think you have the right to give orders around here! You don’t get to decide what happens now, or who can come and go as they please. As the oldest member of the Pit Crew, the Taj is under my command.”
“In the event of Elijah’s absence, the chief operating officer would be Max Étoile, general manager and head of guest relations,” Pinky said. “He left, though. And since we don’t have any contact with Earth, the control of the Taj is actually sort of up in the air.” She raised an eyebrow. “Technically, I’m the senior staff member.”
Ricardo’s boots were heavy on the floor as he took a few big steps into the room. “I was his number two, Pinky, and you know it.” The fingers of his free hand curled into a tight fist at his side. “I’m the one in charge, and I say we’re going to find Elijah. Every resource we have will be put to that task.” He pointed at Benny. “That includes you, Pinky, and your friends here. No matter what it takes, we’ll get him back.”
“Ricardo,” Trevone said, standing, “you know things are more complicated than that.”
“No,” Ricardo said. “They aren’t.”
“We don’t even know if Elijah’s still alive.”
“He may have survived the blast,” Kai said. “You know him.”
“If he did, he’s probably waiting for us to come and save him,” Kira added.
“Look, I’m just as concerned as the rest of you,” Trevone said, “but—”
“Are you?” Ricardo interrupted, glaring at the other Pit Crew member. “Because, without your help, would they have taken the Space Runners out in the first place? No. Elijah would still be here.”
“Don’t you put that on me.” Trevone’s voice was softer now. Benny thought he saw one of his hands shake. “It was Elijah’s decision to join the fight in the end. That was his call. That’s why we went up there.”
“Also, we saved the world,” Hot Dog said, raising her hand. “Let’s not forget that part.”
“What does that matter?” Ricardo asked, turning his furious gaze to her.
“So you were fine with Earth getting demolished and letting everyone die except us. Great. Good to know.” She shook her head. “I wonder when all of you stopped thinking for yourselves and just started repeating whatever Elijah told you.”
Trevone looked down at the holodesk. Sahar’s piercing eyes narrowed as the Miyamura twins both scoffed, looking bored. Benny could see the muscles in Ricardo’s jaw clench before he spoke again.
“Elijah had everything worked out. And you ruined it.”
“Hey,” Benny said, raising both palms into the air. “We’re all in this together now. If we start fighting each other, we won’t get anything done.” He gestured to the holodesk. “We’ve been going over how to get back in touch with Earth and what to do next. There has to be a way to save the planet. You remember what Elijah said, right? When he was in that tractor beam? He told us to finish what we started. That was his last order.”
Ricardo opened his mouth to say something, but only grunted and stared down at the floor. “I don’t care about what happens to Earth or these aliens. I only care about finding Elijah. I won’t stop until we do.” He looked back up at Benny. “It would be smart to stay out of my way.”
“Ricardo,” Pinky said, jumping to her feet, “there’s something happening underground. A few EW-SCABers have got into a bit of an argument about resources on one of the floating greenhouse platforms.” She sighed as she shrugged. “It would be best if you could address this before things get out of hand. Unfortunately, Elijah never got round to installing hologram projectors underground, so I’m little more than eyes and ears and a disembodied voice down there. Plus, the kids who went down there instead of flying out to try to stop the asteroids were following the Pit Crew, not me.”
Ricardo gave the AI a long look before glancing at the others.
“This isn’t over,” he said. He looked at Trevone and then cocked his head towards the door. “I could use your help with this. Some of the kids underground have been looking for you. It’s time for you to rejoin the Crew.” He paused, and when he spoke again his voice was quieter, though no less intense. “You owe it to Elijah to help his plans succeed. To get him back.”
Trevone nodded slowly and excused himself from the table. And then the Pit Crew was gone.
Silence settled on the room. Eventually, Benny spoke.
“So, the Pit Crew could be a problem. We may have convinced Elijah that Earth was worth saving, but I’m not sure Ricardo got the message.”
“Saving the world and Elijah aren’t mutually exclusive,” Jasmine said. “But he seems to think they are.”
“I can’t believe I kind of liked that guy,” Hot Dog said.
“Kind of?” Drue asked. “The jersey of his you stole is still in the rubbish bin over there.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Pinky said. “But cut him some slack. These wounds are fresh, and Elijah meant everything to his Crew. This isn’t easy on any of them.”
“So is everything OK underground?” Benny asked. “The EW-SCABers who decided to hide down there … It’s not getting bad or anything, is it?”
“Serves them right if it does,” Drue said. “We saved Earth.”
“How about you wait and hold that over their heads once we’re sure the planet is gonna stay saved?” Hot Dog asked.
“What? It’s true!”
“Maybe.” Hot Dog leaned back in her seat. “But arrogance has never been a good look for you.”
Drue gasped a little. Benny turned to Pinky. “So, like I was asking …”
“Don’t worry.” The AI smirked and inspected her holographic nails. “The Pit Crew will find things are in fairly calm order down there.”
“You tricked them?” Jasmine asked.
“I was merely de-escalating the situation here.” She shrugged. “No offence, but I don’t think the four of you could take on the Pit Crew if they tried to stop you from leaving, and I happen to agree that Dr Bale could be of some use – despite the horrible things he said about Elijah. If you want to hunt for him, I’d say now is the time to do it.”
Benny scrunched his eyebrows together as he looked at Pinky. Ever since Ramona had fully unlocked her personality, she’d been a huge asset to him and the others. Without her help, there was no way they would have been able to stop the asteroid storm. Still, he hadn’t had time to give much thought to the fact that with the AI’s newfound freedom, she’d also have the ability to act on her own accord. Fortunately, she seemed to have agreed with him and his friends so far, but if