I snorted.
“No, really,” she said.“You stole a ship, delivered highly explosive cargo, and got the strongest man I know to fall in love with you.And I’m starting to like you.”
My mission anxiety had been replaced by a whole other type of anxiety.“Wait.What did you say?”
Footsteps rang in the corridor outside the mess.We both turned, leaving our conversation hanging.
“We’re a go for the mission,” Dax said.
“Yes!”Burn pumped her fist.
My stomach churned with a mess of emotions.This was really happening.“When do we leave?”
“Within the hour.”Dax and the guys stood just inside the room.Clustered together—big, muscular, and mean looking—they could easily be a recruiting ad for the space corps.Or an ad for a blockbuster movie about the space corps.
Dax broke away from the others.My breath hitched at his approach, Burn’s words circling in my head.I was vaguely aware of Burn stepping away, but my attention was hyper-focused on Dax.
He cupped my cheek, and I leaned into it.“Are you okay?”
“Getting there,” I said.
“Want to sit this one out?”
My laugh was probably closer to hysterical than I would have liked.“I thought about it, but no.The waiting would be worse.And I need to know, regardless of the outcome.”I reached up and put my hand over his.“What’s the plan?”
He caressed my cheek a moment longer.When he turned to face the team, he kept my hand in his.
“Orion and Mercer did a little recon when they came back from the bar earlier.Guys?”
“There are a bunch of shops situated around the landing pad selling parts,” Orion began.“Some of them may even be small chop shops, but it appears the majority of the work is being done in that big hangar right outside of town.”
Mercer picked up the story.“We cased the place on our way back.There are a few guys guarding the doors.Probably more inside.They’re well-armed but not trained.We can take them, easy.”
Standing there tall and confident, I believed him.
“How do you figure?”Dax asked.
“The big guy here,” Mercer pointed at Orion, “stumbled up to the wall to take a leak and set off the alarms.The ‘guards’ surrounded us, but let us go since we were drunk.”
“Seriously?”I looked from Mercer to Orion.They both appeared dead serious.“Oh.Ew.”
Both men laughed.“Okay, so we weren’t really drunk and Orion pretended to take a whiz.We wanted to test their reaction times.”
Mercer shook his head, a pitying look on his face.“Those guys were outclassed.One of them tried to beat up Orion—show him who was boss—but he broke the guy’s nose with a love tap.”
I covered my face with my hands.“Oh my god.”I dropped them and looked at Dax and Burn.“Is that how you normally do recon?”
Dax’s smile widened and little flutters filled my belly.“You’d be surprised what falls into official strategies.”
50
Dax
Nighttime on Kottkewas a dusky gray.There was no wind and the air smelled and tasted like dust.Their moon tonight was just a sliver and most of the businesses didn’t have external lights.Even the spaceport appeared to have shut down for the night.Fortunawas only a shadow behind us.It all lent credence to the cargo master’s warning to not be out at night.
Our target, the hangar, was one of the few exceptions.It wasn’t well-lit on the outside, but light snuck out of the cracks around the windows and doors, and between the metal sheets on the walls.
We’d donned gray camouflage and our body armor for this incursion.Not a perfect match, but it should help us blend into the shadows.
