23

COURSE CORRECTIONS

WHEN I REACHED the top of the circular ladder, I found myself with Wreg in a room with so much organic material the walls were a deep, forest green. Sensing movement as I climbed out of the hole in the floor, I looked up at an even denser piece of wall over the four doors leading out of the room.

Something there caught my attention...and held it.

At first, I couldn’t have said what it was, though.

The surfaces up high shimmered liquidly as I watched, rippling almost as if they were alive. I watched, fascinated as the skin rippled again, making its way around to another corner of the room. The movement was snake-like, almost sensual in its smooth uniformity. I stepped out of the way of the ladder, but my attention remained riveted on that piece of wall. Wreg was too focused on bringing up the rest of the team to notice.

My light found the boundaries of the presence I felt.

I realized it was a machine of some kind...but it was alive. In fact, even for an organic, it struck me as more alive than usual. Once I could see it well enough to  know that much, I followed the presence of the machine’s host organism as it reconfigured around where we stood. I saw it ripple around the rim of the room...faster, that time...and realized a separate but related organism formed a band at the part of the wall near the high ceiling.

Riveted, I walked a little further from the opening in the floor, giving a bare glance to the equipment in the room, which seemed to be centered around some kind of power generator. It took up most of the high-ceilinged space, surrounded by walls covered in paneled readings of various kinds. But that part felt almost dead; it throbbed with a low-level hum that didn’t interest my light, at least not the way the walls did above us.

I watched the wall ripple backwards again, and felt that glimmer of presence once more.

It reminded me of Cass’ boyfriend, Baguen, for some reason. Something in the way the light moved, almost as if...

My mind trailed.

We were being scanned.

For a bare second, I just studied the tendrils aimed at us.

Then I felt my heart leap to my throat.

The damned thing wasn’t just alive...it was sentient. 

I didn’t have time to think about it clearly. I felt the scan deepen as it honed in on me. But the realization stuck with me. It was alive...more of a guard dog than a wall. The shield wouldn’t work on it, not with us this close. 

Panicking, I threw up a wall of images to hide our exact location. 

Like a mirror, I reflected the room back at the living wall. Realizing the wall might notice a blank spot in the room as well...too little light as opposed to too much...I infused the images with scatterings of aleimic imprints from the equipment and organic floors.

I felt the creature back off slightly.

It still felt alive, and now almost like I’d managed to confuse it. It made me think of a big child, or an animal sniffing something that abruptly disappeared...like a mouse disappearing into a crack in the wall. It continued to look where it thought I should be, exuding puzzlement.  

Then it began probing more persistently in my direction, trying to find the edges of the screen I projected at it.

“Where’s Garensche?” I asked Wreg, feeling my chest tighten. I didn’t wait for his answer. “We need him...now. I can’t keep this thing out...”

Wreg stared at me, bewildered. 

Then he looked up at the wall. Flinching when he felt the screen I was projecting there, he looked at me again, his face holding a kind of incredulity.

Immediately, he leaned his head down the ladder. 

I continued to shield his light, at the same time I projected and widened that screen of images at the organic wall to cover the others. I watched Wreg’s face as he seemed to be communicating with someone else below, another part of my mind focused on the living machine.

I tried to assess where it was in its examination of me. 

It was starting to suspect the images were originating from somewhere. It was looking for their source now. It kept picking up the different aleimic imprints I reflected and then losing them again before it could identify their source.

Looking around as I tried to figure how much of the wall itself that the sentient portions covered, I subvocalized to Wreg again.

“Hurry,” I said, urgently. “It knows I’m here...It’s trying to figure out if I’m a friend or not. I can’t confuse it for much longer...”

Wreg looked at me then. I saw understanding reach his eyes, even as he looked up, at the band of wall near the ceiling, where most of the presence seemed to live. I realized I’d been shielding them so closely, he hadn’t felt the organic wall’s sentience at all.

“Wreg...” I said.

Garensche’s face popped up over the rim of the hole in the floor. 

I saw him look around, focus on the organic, then look back at me, his eyes incredulous. 

“Tell him to stop gawking and do something,” I told Wreg through the transmitter. “I’m about to get us all killed...this thing is armed...”

Wreg gestured to Garensche in a series of quick motions and Garensche pulled himself rapidly and almost gracefully out of the hole. Leaping to his feet, he made it to the section of wall by the door in three strides. After ripping off his gloves, he laid his bare hands on the outside of the smooth surface.

I shielded his light when I felt it begin to spark, rising closer to the limits of the construct I’d redesigned...pretty much on the fly...twice now. 

“Is it going to set off an alarm, if he fucks with that thing?” I asked Wreg, still fighting panic.

“No,” he said. 

“Are you sure?” I said, watching the thing and Garensche, doubtful.

“Garensche will handle it.”

I saw the massive seer glance at me as Wreg said it, smiling. Then he turned his focus back on the wall.

Other seers were now coming out of the opening in the floor. One by one, they all looked at me, then at Garensche, then finally at Wreg, who only smiled, shrugging wryly. I didn’t care anymore. I was starting to feel schizophrenic with the projector I was holding, the shield around Garensche while he talked to the damned wall, and the construct the rest of them kept jostling by trying to scan me to see what it was I was doing exactly. 

Finally, my patience grew thin.

“Do you mind reigning in the freak show tourists?” I said, still not moving my lips. “It’s distracting...”

Wreg smiled, but I saw him turn his focus back on the others. 

In seconds, their probes receded. I found myself relaxing a little, focusing only on Garensche now, and on the images I continued to flash for the wall. The wall seemed to be listening to the big seer now, too, which took some of the pressure off me trying to distract it alone.

Finally, Garensche looked over at me, gesturing something.

Fighting not to roll my eyes when I had to admit I didn’t understand him, I felt a chuckle in Wreg before his voice rose.

“Doesn’t know hand language,” he subvocalized to me, then likely gestured the same to Garensche. “Princess,” he said to me. “He is done...you can stop the image construct...”

“The what?” I asked him.

He pointed vaguely somewhere above our heads. 

“What you are doing right now,” he said with amusement. “The image cage you used to save all of our lives...”

I started to ask again, then decided it didn’t matter.

After a hesitation where I worried they might be wrong, I let go of the movie screen of images I’d been managing for the organic wall. I watched it dissipate into the white of the larger construct I’d created over us. I was shaking again, so I gripped my arms in the flak jacket, taking a breath before I focused back on the construct and on Wreg. 

He was watching me curiously.

“Are you tired, princess?” he said. “Do you need light?”

I thought about it. I felt strung out, my nerves stretched to the consistency of an overwound guitar string. I’d nearly gotten all of us killed by reacting too slow, gawking up at that wall like a tourist, but my light felt okay.

I gestured negative.

Smiling a little again, he indicated with his head towards the organic wall.

“Come,” he said. “We are ahead of schedule.”

“Will that be a problem?” I said, using the subvocal also.

He laughed a little, but soundlessly. “No, princess. In fact, I think I will owe your husband a dinner when this is done...”

I didn’t bother to ask him what he meant.

Garensche had coaxed the door into creating an opening for us in the metal. Nervous, I glanced up at the cameras I could see in the corners of the room, but Garensche waved off my fears. When I glanced at Wreg, he smiled.

“Imaging is no longer functioning, princess. Do not worry. Garensche is good at his job.”

Nodding, I clicked back into the plans, aligning my mental picture with the layout I’d studied before coming here.

I marveled again that Revik had not only let me come along for this, he had genuinely seemed to want me along. The old Revik would have left me in the helicopter, likely with some superficial task...if he didn’t handcuff me outright to the seat.

But this Revik had asked me if I was okay going in without him. He hadn’t really explained why, only that he needed us separated for tactical reasons. 

He was already inside. He’d gone in over an hour before us, I knew, but Wreg already warned me that Revik couldn’t do much to help us down here...especially since he was in another building altogether, at least ten blocks away. 

We were going after the main prize, opening the doors to the mainframe and doing the physical reconnaissance. Meanwhile, he worked from a higher floor inside the Registry building itself, destroying the organic interfaces and their temporary servers, as well as coordinating the overall op, including transport out, and the work that needed to happen to disable the satellites.

I knew from the plans also, that the higher floor was where they kept the prisoners...so I knew he’d tasked himself with getting them out of those crammed holding cells and up to the roof, as well. He hadn’t come out and said it, but it made sense to me that if we had to kill anyone, it would be there. 

I suspected, from the way he talked, he also hadn’t really wanted me to be up close and personal with the cells themselves. I couldn’t exactly resent him for that, either, given how I’d reacted to the version they’d mapped by hacking the security cameras. 

As far as overprotectiveness went, I ranked that at about a 2 or 3, max.

I watched Wreg slide through the gap in the wall created by Garensche’s work with the organic. Glancing back at me then, Revik’s second took my hand, leading me through after him. I felt protectiveness in the gesture, but also a different confusion of emotions, as if he were still processing what had happened inside the generator room. 

It occurred to me that he was grateful to be alive. 

On the other side of the door, he indicated he wanted me in front of him.

I noticed for the first time that the organic gun wrapped around his forearm was live. I glanced at Jax and Nikka, and saw theirs on, as well. I walked somewhere in the middle of the line of infiltrators, with Wreg and Garensche in back of me and Nikka, Ike, Loki and the seer Jax, in front.

I wondered if I should activate my gun, too. After going back and forth in my head, I decided to wait until I had a reasonably good cause...or at least until I calmed down, so I didn’t end up shooting one of them on accident. 

It occurred to me again, where we were. 

I remembered Wreg’s words as we’d debriefed on this part, in the small airport hangar in Santos. Revik had been in the other room, working through some of the transport glitches, when Wreg went over the basic plan with me. I picked up on part of the reason for that, too. Revik knew I wasn’t military, and wanted to make sure I coordinated well with Wreg.

Knowing him, he also probably wanted to make sure I could take orders.

After listening to Wreg detail our role in the whole thing, though, I’d been a little puzzled.

“So why does he need us in there at all?” I’d asked Wreg. “If he can do it at a distance, why not just have us help him upstairs?”

Wreg just smiled.

“You have a lot of faith in your mate,” he’d said then, his scarred lips twitching as he glanced at the others. When I looked around at the same set of faces, I saw more of them smiling, but I didn’t sense anything malicious behind it. I hadn’t heard any condescension in Wreg’s voice when he answered me, either.

“No, sister,” he said. “Even Syrimne cannot work at such a distance. It is not the distance itself that is the limitation, however...he must have very, very exact information to perform the telekinesis accurately. Normally, he would need to accompany us down there...to see the layout for himself.”

“So why isn’t he doing that this time?” I said.

Wreg smiled. “Because he does not have to. You will be there, princess. He can see through you, as if he were in the room himself. Once we are inside, he will use your eyes and the information we can give him regarding the power sources to determine how best to dismantle their physical machines...”

“Are we going to get blown up in the process?” I’d said.

I fought for a smile as I looked around at the others.

“I think he will be careful about that,” Wreg said, smiling back. 

Nikka had glanced over at me, too, and smiled from where she’d been pulling together organic armor suits. 

“Except maybe with Gar, here,” she said, punching the giant seer in the shoulder. “...He might let some stray telekinesis bang his head against a wall a few times...see if he can knock some sense into it...”

“Hey,” Garensche had said. “Who’s going to get you past the organics? Who, if not the master of machines?” 

“Your machine girlfriend...?” Nikka laughed.

I smiled a little, remembering this. 

I really didn’t want these people to die.

At the thought, my mind jerked quickly back to where we were. 

The infiltrators had spread out in front and behind, and I let my eyes scan upwards, seeing what looked almost like some kind of power storage on either side of us. Smooth, vat-like tanks of some organic metal composite stretched several stories high, leaving a corridor lined by ladders up their curved sides. Pipes jutted out of the vats in the smaller aisles between them, big enough for a large dog to walk through. Wheel-like valve turners sat next to flat control panels at their bases, looking strangely anachronistic, like they belonged on old ships.

I tried to reconcile this with the plans and remembered something to do with coolant tanks. But these were damned big to be coolant tanks...no matter how big the room full of dead machines ahead of us ended up being.

I found myself wondering what this room was really used for, and suspected, suddenly, that there was something here Revik wasn’t telling me.

Or maybe something Revik didn’t know himself.

Movement rippled the construct then, pulling my attention off the vats.

I sent a pulse through the shield. 

People up ahead. At least four. Human.

When I glanced over, Wreg was looking at me. He held up a hand to the others, who had also paused, light-footed, when they felt the pulse I’d sent. 

Wreg used a series of hand gestures to signal where he wanted them. 

I swept the area again. 

The people I’d touched on felt like techs, but, given where we were, I couldn’t be absolutely certain. It was the middle of the night, but Revik had said the underground facility would never be completely empty. They might have techs in here 24/7, either as a precaution or for some technical reason.

Still, for some reason, the presence of four of them, all in one place, made me nervous. Scanning them again, I felt my paranoia ratchet up higher.

I couldn’t tell if it stemmed from something legitimate, or if my nerves were just fraying the longer we were down there.

If even one of them set off the alarm, we were too far in to not have to shoot our way out once the Sweeps descended on our location. Plus, given the stakes and how far we’d come already, I assumed we’d at at least try and complete the op...unless the response came down on our heads so fast we could only fight our way out. 

It occurred to me again that this operation would only be bloodless if it went off without a hitch. It also occurred to me how dumb I’d been, to not realize that at a deeper level, before I got this far into it.

Things could always go wrong, wasn’t that what Revik had said? Something inevitably would go wrong, he’d also said. It was a given, in any kind of field op...nothing ever went according to plan. 

The plan was a starting point, he’d said, but the truth was, running anything on the ground was all about making adjustments as things unfolded, from tiny course corrections to game-changers, depending on what played out.

That all made sense to me at the time...in theory. 

I’d listened to them joke about the op they’d almost blown because a janitor wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but had been jerking off in the rest room to a portable vid. They’d also told stories about ops that had been blown by equipment failures of whatever kind, bad intelligence they’d gotten off an infiltrator who turned out to be working both sides for the Sweeps, a crappy wire that kept a door from opening to a storage facility right as they’d been trying to break in to steal organic machines.

Thinking about all this and scanning ahead, my mind went into overdrive.

What if they had guards who sent out light pulses to confuse their identities, make them look human, or harmless...or simply invisible? 

After all, wasn’t that what we were doing? 

All they had to do was hit the alarms. That was it. Game over.

At the thought, I stopped dead in the corridor. I did a swift pass on the humans again. Threading my light through them, I changed my frequency, piercing the shield I felt like a few hundred silk threads...hoping like hell it was subtle enough that they wouldn’t feel it.

The shield around them lit up like a Christmas tree.

The four humans were still there, but they were no longer alone.

Six seers. Four of those techs, too. Two of them carrying...security of some kind. I couldn’t get detail around that in such a quick pass, but whatever it was vibrated at a frequency I didn’t much like. 

The four seer techs had some kind of fluid on them. Something from the vats coated the thick rubber gloves they wore up to their shoulders. Being less tightly covered by their own light, I even glimpsed the thoughts of one of them. 

Something wrong in the mixture, I heard. Some of the new stuff rotting, not bonding with the semis... 

Clicking out, I realized why the vats bothered me. I felt sick...sick enough that I almost emptied my stomach right there. Fighting it away from my light, I forced myself to think, to concentrate on holding the shield...but the sickness worsened as I looked up at the vats.

I gripped Wreg’s arm. 

They were building organic machines in here. 

Wreg glanced at me. Looking at him, I could feel he’d picked up all of it, including the last part, through the construct and our close proximity. Gesturing another series of signals to the others, he pointed at Nikka and another seer, whose name was Torou, I think.

I only picked out a few of the motions.

“Stay with the Bridge,” I saw him gesture, his face hard.

Turning, he jogged up ahead, moving soundlessly.

I kept my light off the seers I’d felt, but continued to watch them with some part of my light, even as I wrapped the shield closer to Wreg.

Nikka took my arm, pulling me with her between the vats, even as we continued to make our way down between them, moving in the same direction as before. 

I saw her looking at me, as if she could read something in my face.

She looked worried.

I wished like hell, not for the first time, that I knew sign language better.

The whole group felt tense now, jacked up. Noticing that the white shield I’d created was beginning to change frequency, I switched my focus. 

The distraction helped. I pulled hard from above, using my aleimi to bring down more of that white light. I sent it over the top of the shield to calm them down, get them thinking clearly. 

Within seconds, I felt the group begin to stabilize. When I glanced at Nikka next, she was staring at me, her eyes holding an open amazement.

She clutched my arm tighter, and that time, I felt a surge of protectiveness behind her fingers. Motioning with her head, she indicated that she wanted to move us closer to the main doors that led into the room where they kept the mainframe. 

Nodding, I followed her, aware suddenly that the focus of the entire team now seemed to center on me, not Wreg. 

Up ahead, I felt him. My nerves rose when I realized he could see the group of seer techs and their bodyguards with his physical eyes. Two of the guards were Sweeps, I picked up through the shield. One of the other seers had something different about them too, as if...

Black Arrow security... I got through the construct.

Wreg didn’t see the humans anymore. He was hesitating on taking out the security detail before he located them, worried they might hear it if the seers went down.

I looked at Nikka.

“Can you get one of the others to knock out the humans?” I asked Wreg through the subvocals. “If I show you where they are?”

I felt Wreg’s surprise. Then I felt his affirmative, just before Nikka looked at Jax, who sent a signal down the line from Wreg.

Jax and Ike ran silently to the other side of the long corridor. 

I sent Wreg another faint pulse, telling him to go ahead.

“Keep one,” I told him silently. “Human.”

I felt him understand.

Inside the shield, I saw nine hits from the team, the first cluster occurring almost simultaneously, with three more in rapid succession. The guns made only a pale exhale with each shot, soundless inside the Barrier...and in the physical room itself as the sound was swallowed under the hum of grinding gears and machinery.

I flinched...then realized they weren’t bullets. 

Darts left the organic weapons on the team’s wrists, hitting seers and humans in the throat and chests. They focused the most firepower on the Sweeps of course, followed by the seer techs, including the one from Black Arrow. 

Whatever they had loaded in the guns worked fast. It dropped seers and humans alike with barely an exhaled breath...again, making almost no sound. 

In the same instant, I felt a tremor in the Barrier from Ike and Jax as they subdued one of the humans...wrestling his hands behind his back and feeling him over for organics and other communication devices. 

I modulated the shield to compensate, thickening it around the human in case he had something on him to communicate with the outside. I felt nothing. 

Between them, they got the human under control, almost silently. 

I felt the group collectively let out another exhale.

Nikka put her mouth to my ear. “Are there others, Esteemed Bridge?”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

I let my light filter just under the construct I felt above ours. Looking around the space, I took a snapshot, then returned.

“Six more humans,” I told Wreg. “All dispersed...all working on machines, cleaning, or doing maintenance. None in this main room. I don’t think they’ll come near us, so we might want to leave them alone. Two are close to doorways, so wouldn’t want to drop them there...” I paused. “I don’t feel any more seers. A shitload watching the place from the construct, but I didn’t see any leaks...”

Getting a translation of this from Loki, Nikka blinked at me, then grinned. Saluting me, she turned to the others, relaying the message in hand-gestures.

Then we all began moving rapidly towards Wreg, who stood near the lower door leading to the room where they kept the data storage computer.

Ike and Jax brought the human between them. 

I saw the glassy eyes, knew they were pushing him. He even looked like a lab tech. Curly brown hair, dark skin, black-rimmed glasses. His vague brown eyes appeared pleasantly happy, as though he were dozing in front of a fireplace after a heavy meal...or maybe just took a big toke off a hiri smoke.

As I reached Wreg’s side, he clasped my arm again, his eyes warm, almost affectionate.

“Bridge,” he subvocalized. “You are a goddess.” He motioned at the human. “Why did you want him?”

I felt my jaw clench. Without answering Wreg, I walked to the human. 

“Ask him what’s in the vats,” I said to Wreg.

Wreg hand-gestured to Ike, who held the human’s mind.

The tech’s face lit up, presumably the instant he heard the question.

“High-grade bio-mixture...top of the line, really...”

“For who?” I asked Wreg.

“Military grade.” The human smiled. “Can do anything with it, really! Top of the line...really top of the line...”

“Where is the source material?”

“Shipped in.” That contented smile. “Shipped in...underground. The main camp. Outside Manous...”

I felt my jaw harden until it hurt. I looked at Wreg.

“Can’t do anything about it now,” Wreg said neutrally.

“Did you know about this?” I asked him.

He gestured negative, looking up at the vats. I felt sickness on him too. Enough that I realized he’d been shielding it from me until then. 

“No, princess,” he said. “Plans must have been wrong. Not unusual, these kinds of facilities. They keep them quiet...falsify the layouts. Wipe the humans after, you know? Keeps the seer’s rights groups off their backs...” He met my gaze, clasping my arm. “You all right?”

I shook my head, feeling tears coming to my eyes.

Angrily, I wiped them away. I gestured at the human.

“Knock this piece of shit out,” I said. I bit my lip, fighting a part of me that wanted to do a lot more to him than that. 

At Wreg’s hand gesture, the seers did as I asked. I watched the human’s eyes go blank, right before they closed. He went limp in their arms, and Ike and Jax dragged him behind one of the machines, out of sight of the main floor. 

I watched them work, feeling Wreg’s eyes on me. I wanted to ask him about the labs, about what else they might have on site, but I shook it off, forcing myself to focus on why we were there.

When I looked over, I saw compassion in Wreg’s eyes.  

“Call your mate,” he subvocalized. “One ping, use the structure you share with him...” He highlighted it briefly over my head. “...We need him to open the door, Esteemed Bridge.”

I followed with my eyes to where his hand indicated, an old-fashioned-looking, iron locking mechanism with at least ten sets of locks that required keys. Next to that stood a straight keypad with raised buttons. I didn’t see anything on either that looked remotely organic...kind of ironic, given what simmered in the vats behind us. 

“He can get us in there?” I said, impressed in spite of myself.

“Yes, princess.” He grinned then, clapping me on the shoulder. I felt an infusion of his light; I could feel him trying to cheer me up.

“Call him,” he urged. “I just wish I could see the Boss’ face when you do...”

Hesitating at this, I studied Wreg’s expression, once more focused on the work in front of us. We were off-schedule, maybe moreso because I’d wanted to question the human. It took too long, the sentient machine, the lab techs, the Sweeps. I did feel like I was about to have a heart attack, but otherwise, I thought things had gone relatively well, all things considered. It certainly could have been worse.

I glanced around at the others, and saw smiles on their faces as well. Taking a breath, I focused on the structure that formed part of my bond with Revik. 

I pinged him the way they’d shown me in Santos...quietly.

His presence rose at once. I felt his surprise, then a glimmer of alarm.

What’s wrong?

Nothing, I said, then amended, ...I’ll tell you later. We’re at the door. They said to call you...

You’re there?

Yeah, I sent, glancing at the others, who were still grinning at me. I forced a smile, using the white light to lift my own mood. You want to let us in? They have this crazy idea that you can break like sixteen locks just by looking at them...

There was a pause. Then I felt a thick pulse of heat from him, enough to take my breath. I felt my cheeks warm.

Honey, I sent. This is hardly the time...

You have no idea what a hard-on I have right now, he sent back. Jesus, Alyson, you’re like forty minutes ahead of schedule. Did you know that?

I looked around at the others, a little confused.

They said it was okay...

Did you do that? 

No, I sent. I mean...we all did.

There was another silence. Are you all right? he sent.

I’m okay. I’ll explain later, I promise. It doesn’t impact the op...

His warmth pulsed at me again. Show me the door, love.

Turning, I fought the blush off my face from his light, focusing on the outside of the metal door. I let my eyes and light run over each of the locks, moving to details as he directed me. I watched him work, moving from lock to lock, using my light along with his to break or slide open each one. He was meticulous, focused, and I felt his light doing things that I’d never seen aleimi do, that filled me with disbelief as I tried to figure out how he managed it. He’d never really let me see him do his thing before. Watching him in action now, I found myself biting my lip, fighting to hide my incredulity from him. 

No wonder the other seers worshipped him. By the end, I was so far in his light, I was turned on, and having trouble hiding it from him. 

Finally, he seemed satisfied.

Okay, try it.

I nodded at Jax, who stood closest to the door.

Don’t open it yet...not all the way.

Wreg gestured to Jax.

The seer reached out, yanking down on the L-shaped handle. There was a loud-sounding click, then the door opened with a faint creak. He didn’t pull it open any further, though, not even to take it off the doorframe. 

Instead, Jax looked at me, waiting.

You’re a superhero, I told Revik. It’s open.

Tell them I’m disengaging the cameras now, he sent. I’ll ping when you can enter. Wait for my signal.

Got it, I acknowledged.

I’m going to fuck your brains out when we get back, he sent, along with another pulse of heat. Gods, baby...you’re unbelievable...

Before I could think of a response, he evaporated from my light.

When I glanced at Wreg, he was grinning.

“You’re blushing, princess,” he grinned. “I take it he was pleased?”

Just then, I felt the ping in my light.

“Cameras are down,” I told him, avoiding his eyes.

He laughed a little, silently, as Jax opened the door, which gave out a longer creak.

Cautiously, he peered his head around the opening. I watched as he grinned, then stepped over the raised threshold and into the room beyond. Past the opening, I could already hear the louder hum of machinery. 

“After you, princess,” Wreg said, still smiling at me.

Shaking my head at him, half in embarrassment, I rolled my eyes, following after Nikka as the Chinese-looking infiltrator held out a hand indicating for me to go in ahead of him. 

I realized that they’d managed to distract me from the vats, even as it occurred to me to be grateful to Wreg for keeping me focused. 

It also crossed my mind that they were a lot more likely to have friends and family in there than I was, so if they could set their feelings aside while we did this thing, than I certainly could.

As I stepped over the threshold of the steel door, something else occurred to me, too.

I was now, officially, a real terrorist.