If Cain thought anything of us, he would have provided crash-chairs for us during liftoff from the planet's surface. After Jinx retreats to the comforts of the tray on the rear of the tracer craft, the rocket ship launches. As we pull away from Earth, the gravitational forces press us down to the floor of the cargo bay like grapes in a winepress, leaving us flat on our backs with the ship vibrating all around us. My head feels like it's about to pop and my chest feels like an anvil sits on top of me. The intense pressure keeps us molded to the floor until the shaking ceases, a full eight and a half minutes later. Once in orbit, it takes about that long to recover to the point where I can breathe better and not feel like my head is going to explode. It's the same for Eve.

With the forces subsided, we drift around in microgravity with our hands still zip-tied behind our backs. In reality, we're in free fall. The state of falling toward the Earth, but never reaching the surface because the planet falls away from us faster than the rate of our plummet. The result, we float inside the hull of the spacecraft with a slight downward pull toward Earth. Once again, I'm aware of this because of the knowledge of good and evil. I'm a planetary scientist.

During blastoff, with the weight of the world on my face and chest, making it difficult to remain conscious, thoughts of how to escape and why we need to, had slashed at me and streaked by like subatomic particles of space radiation. The ideas sliced past me so fast I couldn't latch onto them, but once in orbit, my thoughts slow down, even as Jinx hovers in front of us again.

As we sit against the outer hull, our backs drawn toward Earth with the slightest pull, I turn to Eve to fill her in on what I'm thinking. "We need to make a move, but not yet. I have a plan."

"What about Jinx? He'll kill us."

"She's right," the drone says. "You must remain still, or you will surely die."

Eve gnaws on the inside of her cheek, dividing her gaze between Jinx and me. "How do we do anything with Jinx guarding us?"

I want to caress my chest where the G-forces had pressed me against floor, but I can't with my hands bound behind my back. A ghostlike sensation remains, a fraction of what I felt during liftoff, but it eases with every second that passes.

"Since Jinx is listening, I'll start with why," I say. "Two things. First, the vile wolf. It doesn't line up with Cain's story. Cain blamed it on a power surge, and there may have been one, but Jezebel may have caused it." As a scientist, I have to determine what's real and what's not. Here, I have to distinguish the difference between a fact and a lie. Eve does the same thing as a veterinarian. When she diagnoses an animal with a certain ailment, she identifies the symptoms, matches them to known possibilities, and then makes a diagnosis after tests and observation. She searches for the truth. That's what we have to do now. "We need to uncover the truth and expose the lies, Eve. Did Abraham lie? Or did Cain?"

Eve nods. "About the vile wolf? How does it clash with Cain's story?"

"If you remember, he said a power surge rushed through the space ark and scrambled the DNA markers on all the animals. Makes sense. Seems plausible, but there's one problem."

Eve's jaw drops. "Let's have it. We may not have much time left."

I draw in a breath. "Before Jezebel hijacked the drone, Jinx told us how Cain created the vile wolf. He created a chimera from the modern gray wolf and an unknown, extinct species. The only candidate that makes sense is the dire wolf. Cain took DNA from a dire wolf, mixed it with a gray wolf, to come up with a vile wolf. He used a growth hormone to make it bigger and badder. Maybe Cain learned more from his brother than he let on? Or maybe he forced his brother to do his dirty work? And maybe he killed Abel to cover it all up?"

"Okay..."

"Well, it makes sense the DNA markers in the ark's computer system contained samples from only modern animals. Why would they create hybrids? Mutants?"

"It was an accident, according to Cain."

"Yes, but how did the DNA of an extinct wolf get in the system? Unless Cain or Jezebel downloaded it on purpose."

As Eve considers my suspicions, the realization darkens her countenance. "What's the other reason we should try to escape? Wait. I know..."

I wait for her answer...

"In the first habitat, the grave and the bullet hole in the skull. Cain never denied killing them. If it was a woman in the grave, she could have died from natural causes, or by an accident. However, someone killed the man, shot him point blank, and the murder weapon was nowhere to be found. Jezebel has a handgun. Cain may have a concealed one too."

"That means they could have murdered them both," I say. "And most likely, they're to blame for the power surge that struck the ark. Cain didn't mention that Jezebel was around when it happened. She may have been hiding while she hacked into the ark's computer system."

"Sounds believable," Eve replies.

"It's not hard evidence, unless we can prove it with the ballistics from Cain or Jezebel's firearms. Or if we can find proof of DNA tampering in the ark's computer system. It's only speculation right now. It wouldn't hold up in court, but it's enough to convince me, especially since their intent might be to kill us once they're finished with us."

Eve exhales a deflated gust. "I'm convinced."

"That's why we should escape," I say. "If we don't, we'll surely die, as Jinx likes to put it. But how we're going to do it, that, you'll know soon enough. I can't say it out loud or Cain will hear us. He's probably eavesdropping."

A voice from the drone interrupts us. It's Cain, not Jinx, as I expected. "You're so suspicious! I knew I shouldn't trust or underestimate the two of you, hence the zip-ties. My plan will soon unfold, and of course, once you two are useless to me, I'll decide what to do with you. I had hoped to avoid the unpleasantries. If you only believed my story to begin with, you could have sat up front with us."

"So," I ask, "were we right about it all?"

"I suppose you'll have to stick around to the end to find out."

"What about killing us?" Eve says. "Like you did to our predecessors on the other arks?"

"I never confessed to any murder, but with the way you two harass me about it, it makes me reconsider my options. As for now, I'm torn." Cain pauses. "Maybe I'll let you live. Maybe I won't. It might depend on how well you behave once we reach the ark. But enough talking for now. We arrive in forty-five minutes."

As the radio transmission ends, I turn to Eve, trying to keep my voice to whisper. "About my plan. I don't trust Cain. He's leaving too much up in the air. We can't rely on the possibility he might not kill us when this is over." I stare at Eve. "Wait for my signal."

When the words leave my mouth, Jinx shifts to the side while his percussion rounds charge, preparing to fire, drawing air from the ship's life support system. He's anticipating me to make a move.

We wait, biding the time.

Speaking of time, that's what I'm counting on.

How long it will take for us to reach the ark plays into my plan. I hope we can move fast enough. It'll be our only chance.

I can't see the Earth beneath us. There are no view ports in this section of the spacecraft, but after I awoke from stasis on the ark, I remember seeing the continents roll around the globe. It takes about ninety minutes for a ship in orbit to complete a circle around the planet. Every forty-five minutes, the sun rises and sets. When we blasted off, it was daylight. That means we were facing the sun. Then we entered orbit on the same side and began our trip to the ark, which is on the other side of the planet. The ark is traveling at 17,500 miles per hour to maintain orbit, and so are we... at first, but I suspect Cain has increased speed to catch up to the space station. As we approach, he'll decrease speed to draw even with it, making our speeds relative to each other, zero. That way, we can dock.

Over thirty minutes into our trip to the space ark, the moment comes when Cain's ship travels to the planet's dark side, to the opposite side of Earth in relation to our habitat in Yellowstone. That means the planet blocks the radio signal from the hab to the drone temporarily.

Jinx's air thrusters cut off and the video screen on the front of the sphere blacks out. After losing power, the drone rolls on its side and floats in midair.

We only have minutes before the signal reestablishes the connection. According to my estimation, once the ship reaches the ark, both station and ship will have passed back into the skies over China. By then, it won't be long till we pass over Hawaii, and then the west coast of what used to be California. We better have made our move by then.

A small pair of needle-nose wire pliers have stabbed me in the backside ever since we blasted off into space. Back at the first habitat, I was using the tool to work on the tracer craft. We were in such a hurry to leave after I learned how to fly that I crammed the pliers in my back pocket and forgot about them. The cutters are so small it doesn't stick out, so Cain nor Jezebel knew I had it. I had used it to poke at the tracer's battery to make sure it was secure against the contacts.

Quickly, I explain my plan to Eve.

With my fingertips, I pull the pliers out of my pocket and pass them over to Eve. With our hands bound behind us, it's difficult. As we sit back to back, precious time ticks by. But with her smaller hands, she cuts my zip-tie and sets me free. Then I return the favor.

"We have to hurry," I say.

Eve stays tight on my heels as we propel ourselves along a ladder leading through an open hatchway into the bridge. I toss the pliers aside and watch them drift off out of the corner of my eye. I can't imagine threatening Cain with the tiny needle-nose pinchers.

On the other side of the hatchway, I freeze. Cain and Jezebel are sitting in the pilot and copilot seats, facing the front view port window, which looks out over the nose of the spacecraft and its long, arrow-like antenna. The rod stabs the darkness, aimed for the ark where Abraham awaits us.

I put a finger to my lips.

Eve nods, ready for action.

I move out of the way to allow her to nestle into a squatted position beside me on the rear wall. We're in microgravity, so we can use any side of the ship's hull to launch our attack. I go through the motions, acting out a charade of springing from the wall and sailing through the air, trying to show Eve what we need to do. She understands. I point to Cain as my target, and then gesture for her to get Jezebel. She nods again. We've got this.

One. Two. Three.

We shove off the rear wall of the bridge and careen toward our targets. Halfway there, Cain jerks around, followed by Jezebel. They must have seen our reflections in the view port window.

In the slowness of microgravity, I nail Cain with a punch to the side of his face. He crumbles beneath me.

Eve coils an arm around Jezebel's neck and reaches for her gun with the other hand. I claw at Cain's side, searching for his weapon, but can't find it.

Eve snags Jezebel's sidearm and yanks it free, but the gray pistol slips from her grasp and tumbles over her shoulder, twirling in weightlessness. I start for it, but the moment I ease my hold on Cain, he swivels around in his seat, and it's then I see his handgun, muzzle first, whipping toward my chin.

In a matter of seconds, my plan disintegrates before my eyes, and once again, I'm staring down the barrel of a gun. And this time, judging by the look on Cain's face, I'm afraid he's going to use it.