Thea turned away to follow Xeth back to the hangar.
Cordelia caught at her elbow. “Hey. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
Thea shrugged, mirroring Cordelia’s gesture, and grinned. She tucked the pipe under her arm and signed something brief. Cordelia huffed a laugh, smacking at her elbow.
“Better late than never, my ass. Go on. Get to safety. Help with the kids.”
Thea saluted with her free hand and slid her shoulder under Eldrian’s, helping the male limp along after Xeth.
Cordelia watched until they turned out of sight, and she took a sharp breath. “Alright. Well. Let’s steal a fucking spaceship.”
CHAPTER 50
The ship was a maze,and she was the stupid mouse trying to speed run the thing for her piece of cheese. She cursed under her breath as she took another wrong turn, doubling back so abruptly she nearly bowled Rentir over. His hand fell over her comm, vanishing the holomap.
“Let me lead,” he said gently. “I know the way from here.”
She nodded, refusing to show her relief.
“It seems to go on forever.” Thalen fell into step behind her as she trailed Rentir.
“Strange that I agree with you. There was a time it felt so suffocatingly small to me.” Rentir turned right and then quickly scrambled back, knocking her into Thalen a moment before plasma bolts sailed down the hall. “Two of them!”
Cordelia ducked low, aiming blindly down the hall and firing off several shots to buy Thalen time to dart to the other side of the corridor.
The guards returned fire. Thalen leaned around the corner and squeezed a single shot off. A dull thud followed. Someone spat a curse, and more shots rang out.
She took the distraction and leaned out, aiming her blaster at the snarling auretian soldier. He never even saw thebolt coming. She was back on her feet before he’d finished crumpling, and she urged Rentir along.
“It’s not far,” he told her, stepping over one of the males. “We just need to take two more rights, and then?—”
The lights flickered out and then popped back on in an ominous shade of red as a wail of warning filled the air. All three of them cringed at the sudden blaring. Doors slammed shut around them, sealing off whole corridors.
“The security system is back online,” Thalen called, his voice dimmed by the noise. “We must move quickly before?—”
The door on their left sealed shut with a pressurized hiss. They all moved at once, rushing toward the other end of the hall, but another door slammed shut in their faces just as they reached it.
“Shit!” She kicked the door fruitlessly, the answering throb in her toes only heightening her anger. “Do you think the others made it back to the hangar?”
“I’m sure they did,” Rentir said, but the way his tail twitched made it clear he was lying.
She sighed, shoving the strands of hair that had escaped her braid out of her face. Opening her comm, she pressed the symbols that she recognized as Fendar’s name.
“What?” he barked. “I told you to stay off the comms! They’re listening!”
He cursed, and the connection was briefly filled with the sound of blaster fire.
Nyx whooped in the background. “Suck it, alien fascists!” her garbled voice called.
“Where are you on getting these security measures back under control? We’re locked down!” Cordelia began to pace.
“I have my own problems at the moment!” Fendar replied tersely. There was more blaster fire.
“Timeframe!” She glanced at the time on her comm screen.
“Twenty minutes,” he snarled, and then the line went dead.
“Twenty minutes. Could be worse.” She looked around, realizing the vulnerable position they were in if one of those doors opened. “Could be better. Shit.”
