“Jax.” It was Skip. “We’re on site, be over you in a second.”
Naomi looked around until she finally caught sight of the lift engines burning.
From below the train car, Jax said, “Good job, buddy.” He was dangling from the connecting walkway between two cars. They had found the second and final ore two cars up train from the Imperials.
Rudy’s voice crackled. “You have to hurry. The train is getting close to the oh no zone. Like really close. Be on station in thirty seconds.”
Naomi cut in, “You ready?” She was standing atop the car, watching the Osprey approach.
Jax replied, “Yup, activating bypass now.” The control panel was open, and he connected the bypass device. The LED was solid. He cut the wire and the LED on the bypass device went out. He stared at the device, then slammed his palm on the side of it. Nothing.
“All good?” Naomi asked. “Our ride’s here.”
Jax stared at the cut wire and the presumably broken or malfunctioning bypass device and its criminally dark LED. “Oh well, yeah, more or less.” He reached for the lever, turned it, then hoisted himself back up onto the platform. “Let’s get this done.” Above him the Osprey roared overhead. The sound of locking latches along both sides of the car releasing was faint over the roar of wind and clickity-clack of the train.
When he climbed to the top of the ore car, Naomi already had the makeshift harness connected to his end of the car. The Osprey had flown up the length of the train, picking up Baxter along the way. The combat droid was connecting the harness to the loop on the end closest to Jax. The droid turned. “You broke something, didn’t you?” Naomi looked up, eyebrow raised.
“What makes you say that?” Jax held up a hand. “You know what? Not now.” He looked at Naomi, who gave a thumbs up, then looked up at the Osprey . “Skip, let’s—”
The module lurched, throwing Naomi out of view at the far end of the train car. Jax barely held on. The module began to rise. He didn’t hesitate; he turned and leapt from his position at the opposite end of the module to the car below.
“What the hell are you doing?” Baxter demanded over the comms. He was standing magnetically affixed to the center of the module, directing Skip.
“Jax!” Baxter said. Over the comms, it was hard to tell, but for a second, Jax thought he heard concern in the normally stoic combat droid.
“Naomi fell off,” Jax said. He had landed with a thud on the small connecting platform between cars.
“I’m okay,” she reported. He couldn’t see her. She was somewhere below the now exposed walkway that ran the length of the empty ore car.
“Jax, I think the jig is up,” Skip said.
Rudy added, “Yeah, you did something. I’ve got encrypted comms coming and going from that troop transport car.”
“I’m picking up life signs, too. Those shock troops are spreading out from their car up and down train,” Skip said, then added, “And I’ve got what look like two shuttles inbound from Salma.”
“Head to the staging area, finish the job. They’ll spot you in seconds!” Jax ordered. “We’re not supposed to meet with Ichiko’s people until,” he looked at the old wrist watch he wore, “tonight. That’s plenty of time for things to cool off. Naomi and I will lie low and find a ride to you or wait and let you come get us,” Jax said as he started toward where Naomi was, which had the added benefit of being away from the Imperial shock troops that were making their way up train.
The Osprey continued to rise and banked away from the train. “Stay safe, you idiot,” Kori said over comms.
When he reached Naomi, she was nursing her right leg. “You okay?”
“We’ll hide?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I said or something .” He pointed to her leg. “You walk?” He extended an arm to help her up.
She reached up. “Yeah, I think it’s just twisted.” She eased up and tested her weight on the foot. She looked up at Jax. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She smiled. “Another upside of being an interface, healing nanites.”
“Sweet,” Jax said, then looked toward the rear of the train. Somewhere a few cars away were Imperial shock troops. He turned back to the smaller woman. “We gotta go.” He gestured to the control panel. She knelt down and unlocked the hatch. They both rushed in and closed the hatch behind them.
Naomi looked around. “Thoughts?”
Jax walked further inside the train. He was tapping his chin as he turned in a slow circle, looking around the narrow caged-in walkway. “Your blue glowy power, that’s touch based, right?”
“Blue glowy?” the slender woman repeated. She shook her head. “Yeah, I have to be in physical contact.” Jax nodded and continued to look around. She turned toward the hatch leading further up the train. “Should we keep moving forward?”
Jax shook his head. “No real point. Eventually we’ll hit the engine, then what?”
Naomi leaned against the side of the walkway and slid to the ground. “They’ll kill us if they catch us.” She looked up. “You know that, right?”
Jax smirked. “You’re the one that literally forced your way into this.”
She returned the expression. “I didn’t literally force anything. But yeah, I get it.” She stamped her foot against the floor of the narrow walkway. It made a hollow thud sound. Jax turned and looked at her. She looked up. “What?”
He rushed over and knelt down, shoving her aside. “There’s a hatch here.”
“Hey!” she shouted. “You could have just asked me to move.”
He looked over. “Sorry.” He turned his attention back to the hatch in the floor. They were standing a few feet from the center of the train car. He ran his hand along the hatch, looking for a locking mechanism or something that would open the hatch. He looked at Naomi. “Can you do your—”
“Glowy blue thing?” she completed, her eyebrow raised. She got to her feet and moved next to him, resting her hand on it. The blue lines began to glow.
“I was gonna say magic, but yeah,” Jax said, his eyes on hers.
The hatch sprang open between them. Naomi smiled. “Still never sleeping with you.” She removed her gPhone from her pocket and hefted the hatch open. She turned on the flashlight and peered inside. She looked at Jax. “Must be mechanical access.” Inside the hatch was a maze of pipes and pistons. Several were moving as the train car shifted back and forth. “Be a tight, and greasy, fit.”
Jax consulted his gPhone. “Less than an hour to Salma.” He leaned over to look inside the mechanical area, then turned and looked at Naomi. “No choice.” He extended an arm toward the small opening. Naomi groaned and lowered her way down into the narrow crawl space.
Jax followed and pulled the hatch shut.