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Sheri found Darcy waiting for her in a wider space in the tunnel. The air here was cooler, and it definitely took its toll on the cold-blooded goanna. She pulled the lizard close and gave him some of her own body heat to help it stay warm, zipping her jacket around them both. “Just don’t freak out and start thrashing, okay?”
Darcy looked up at her and gave a soft chirrup, eyes blinking. Up close, she could see the rainbow pattern of his larger, primary eyes. It was the most time she’d spent with one of the big, domesticated goannas, and she suddenly saw the appeal of the semi-popular pets. Her mind flashed back to something Barr had said on the Sentinel, and she stroked one of Darcy’s eye ridges. “In exchange for the warmth, I need you to take care of any rats we come across. Deal?”
She could have sworn the lizard grinned in anticipation, but the scaly face hadn’t changed.
Before moving on, she tugged out her omnidevice. She wondered if the crew on the Sentinel had noticed her hacks yet. After learning the truth about IntCom’s involvement on Adiona, realizing how she had been used only to be discarded as soon as she was inconvenient, it was easy to choose sides. Giving the Sentinel a bit of an edge while she still could felt like the best way to help, in the likely event that Ariadne would betray them.
She opened up her omni and was surprised to find a single message waiting from Intelligence Command. It was as short as it was expected. Your exposure as an asset limits your future use to the organization and threatens ongoing projects. As a result, your services are no longer required by the organization.
Shit.
She searched her emotions, trying to decide if the abandonment hurt or not. It stung, because her pride had been kicked, but that was different from regretting any of the things she’d done. If anything, she had more to be proud of in her brief career with Mira’s crew than she had as an operative. Assuming she survived this—and she had to keep that hope alive while she could—it actually felt good to know she wouldn’t have to compromise herself for IntCom’s machinations. Instead of feeling adrift, she felt freed. She let out a slow breath.
“I guess the cavalry’s not coming, Red.” She rubbed her chin against the top of the lizard’s head absently. “We’ll have to steal a ship ourselves.”
Before moving on, she took a moment to disconnect her omni from the network. Her IntCom tools suite still worked, but it was only a matter of time before they sent a kill signal to her omnidevice and wiped those out. Hopefully she could find a hacker who could offload the hacking software into another device. It was too handy to not have access to in her suddenly independent life.
She half-crouched through the reinforced ventilation tunnels, moving toward the active dock where she used to work. There’d be launches there, and no shortage of them. If she was lucky, there’d be a shuttle with a transit drive, but that felt like too much to hope for. She could at least bribe her way onto a corporate launch, and from there get passage to someplace where she could lay low for a bit. Maybe Kanaloa. Warm beaches and rum drinks sounded pretty good at the moment.
At the next exchange, she had to change to crawling again. She pushed the stunner ahead of her in the tunnel, while Darcy squirmed inside her jacket. “Don’t think I’m having a picnic out here,” she muttered. “You could always come out if you don’t like it.”
The goanna clambered around her side in response, crawling up onto her back to perch between her shoulder blades. A moment later she felt his head pop out to rest on top of hers.
“Well as long as you’re comfortable, I guess.” Sheri chuckled and went back to bellying through the ventilation.
As she’d expected, the other docking bay was busy, with nearly all the slips filled and a bustle of dockworkers and crew moving about in the broad open area. Dressed in her dockworker’s togs, it would be easy enough to blend in with the crowd as long as no one saw her coming out of the vents. All she’d need was a distraction to keep people looking the other way and she could find her way onto an unwatched ship.
A commotion at one of the launches caught her attention, and she looked through the vent to see the source of the noise. Eight security guards surrounded a hulking figure she immediately recognized. Barr’s hands were raised, and several guards covered him with lethal weaponry while another clapped restraints around his wrists.
Except that didn’t make sense. He was gone, just as the Sentinel was gone. He shouldn’t be here.
Darcy chirped, and Sheri reached up to pet him. “Yeah, I see him, D.” Maybe he’d come to find Darcy. Once he’d searched the ship, it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out where the goanna had gone. Whatever his reasoning, he was clearly being arrested—annoyance flared when she saw he had somehow warranted twice as many security guards as she had—and she refused to leave him to whatever the Spider Queen had planned.
With ninety percent of the bay’s occupants looking toward the arrest, she was able to sneak out of the vent unnoticed. She grabbed a cloth cap someone had left on a crate and tugged it low to shade her face, then fell in behind a group of laughing crewpersons and followed them out of the bay into the hall.
There was only one direction they could take Barr. Whether he went to the brig or directly up to C-Level where Ariadne held court, the guards would have to bring him by the elevator hub. Sheri opened the door to the maintenance ladders nearby and slipped inside to wait.
#
RAYAN HATED BEING RESTRAINED. Hated being herded. The phrase like an animal to slaughter drifted into his mind, and he shoved it away, hard. Going to face Ariadne would be bad enough. Viewing it as a lost cause wouldn’t help him any. She was a reasonable woman; if he offered to put his fists in her service, she should recognize the bargain. The things she’d make him do would blacken what was left of his soul, he had no doubt, but if he could use the only skill he had to get Sheri back? His soul was a small price to pay.
One of the guards pushed him around the corner toward the lifts, cracking him in the kidney with the butt of his flechette rifle. Rayan narrowed his eyes and glared over his shoulder at the man. “Do that again, and I’ll kill you barehanded.”
The venom in Barr’s voice made the guard blanch and step back, until he remembered Rayan was bound in restraints. He struck Barr a second time, finding his smile as he did so. “I’m betting not.”
Rayan didn’t flinch, and the guard struck him a third time, with enough force to send pain shooting along his nerves. There’d be damage from that one, but it was worth it. Layth would complain, but Barr getting hurt gave the doctor something to do.
Then he remembered he wasn’t likely to see Layth, or the rest of the Sentinel crew, again. Rayan turned and walked the rest of the way to the lift doors.
“That’s more like it.” One of the other guards, not the one he’d threatened. Rayan worked to commit the voice to memory. If he survived this, he’d make a point of reminding these assholes why Ariadne felt the need to send eight guards for one man.
One of the guards pushed the call button for the lift, and all hell broke loose.
The maintenance ladder door opened, and a familiar red-and-black shape rocketed across the floor toward the nearest guard. Sheri stepped through the open hatch, stunner firing. Two guards dropped immediately. A third screamed and opened fire on the goanna before Darcy reached him.
Barr jumped over his restrained wrists, getting his hands in front of him. The guard who’d hit him had already turned to face the commotion. A fatal mistake. Rayan looped his restrained wrists over the man’s head, spun, and snapped his neck. Another guard turned to fire in the close quarters, and Barr bull rushed into him. Another dropped to Sheri’s stunner fire. The remaining three retreated around the corner, getting cover that was sorely lacking in the corridor.
Sheri trilled, and Darcy leaped off his victim; she stunned the man before he could recover. Rayan charged to hide behind the open maintenance door. “What are you doing? I was here to rescue you.”
“You were doing a great job, what with you being arrested and all.” Sheri was bleeding from a wound in her arm. The sight made rage boil in his blood, a primal need to rend and tear in her defense. She grabbed his head with one hand and tugged him close. Her mouth slashed across his in an angry, hungry kiss. “Grab a set of keys and free yourself, dummy.”
A guard poked around the corner to fire on their position, and Sheri caught him with the stunner. He dropped, and another pair of hands pulled him back into cover. Rayan dragged a stunned guard close and found the keys to his restraints. Sheri handed him the stunner, and he put down suppressing fire with one hand while she released him.
She grabbed the flechette rifle from a downed guard and charged forward, firing blind at the guards’ cover. Darcy climbed onto Rayan’s shoulder as he took off in pursuit.
Around the corner, both the remaining guards had vanished, leaving their colleague behind. Rayan looked at Sheri. “They’ve gone for reinforcements.”
“No kidding.” She grinned. “They’re also the only guards in the bay. Think we can get back to the launch before they arrive?”
He dragged her mouth back to his for another kiss, one laden with promise, and her growl of desire ignited a different fire in his blood. “I’m game if you are.”
He held his arm out for Darcy and whistled, but the goanna climbed up onto Sheri’s shoulders instead. The possessiveness in the lizard’s face made Rayan cough out a laugh. “So that’s how it is, eh?”
Sheri shrugged. “We bonded, what can I say.” She chewed her lip for a pensive heartbeat before adding, “I have things to ask you, later. When we’re clear.”
They ran for the docking bay, their openly carried weapons sending crew and dockworkers scrambling for cover. As she’d said, there weren’t guards on the active floor of the bay, and no one else wanted to get in the way of two obviously armed and dangerous people. He charged through the door of the Sentinel’s launch with Sheri on his heels. She closed the doors while he ran to the cockpit and fired up the ship’s power unit.
She dropped into the chair next to him, buckling up. “Well, let’s get out of here.” Her casual tone wouldn’t have been out of place on a quiet Sunday drive somewhere, instead of leaping into the firing zone outside of Nobu Station.
Rayan couldn’t help but grin. His fighter. His spy. Whatever happened next, they would live or die together.
He was okay with that.