A pang in my heart confirmed my suspicions.
“We have incoming,” Burn said.
Heart in my throat, I asked, “Ours or theirs?”
“Ours.”
“Good.”I flipped the ignition switch and was rewarded with a smooth purr from the shuttle.“We’re all set here.”Lowering my voice, I patted the console.“Thank you, baby.”
When we left Kottke, I wasn’t leaving her to the mercies of those bastards.She deserved better.And Dax and his team could use a shuttle forFortunain their cargo business.
“Be ready to launch when I give you the word,” Burn said.
I kept my hands on the controls and strained to hear anything happening in the back.All I heard, though, was the rush of blood in my ears and my breathing, which had slowed but wasn’t anything approaching normal.My dad always said he got “in the zone” on missions.Apparently, I didn’t get that gene.
Waiting sucked.After what felt like forever, someone boarded the shuttle.I heard movement, but no one spoke.“Burn?”I kept my voice low, but there was no disguising the anxiety in my voice.“Was that ours?”
“Yep.”
Ugh.I hated this.
There were more footsteps behind me.“Please let that be them, please let that be them,” I muttered under my breath before I turned around.
“Them who?”
I jumped at Mercer’s voice.“You asshole!”
He laughed.
“Where’s my sister?Is she on board?”
“She’s fine,” he said, “just a little green around the gills.Dax is strapping her in.At least she missed him when she puked.”
A rush of sympathy for my sister filled me.“But they’re okay?”
“Yes, they’re okay.I’m fine, too, thanks for asking.”
Turning back to the controls, I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me.“What about Orion?Is he on board?”
“Yep, next to Dax,” Mercer said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Burn swing down from the roof like a gymnast, uncurling and landing with her feet just inside the door.“We’ve got incoming.”
“Bad guys?”With everyone on board, that was the obvious answer.
Mercer slid into the co-pilot’s seat.“Time to go.”
I pulled back on the controls and the shuttle hovered over the ground.
With slow and steady movements, I aimed the shuttle toward town.“Let’s see how fast you can go, baby,” I whispered.The quicker we got back toFortuna, the quicker we could be airborne and off this backwater planet.
Shots pinged the outside of the shuttle and my heart jumped into my throat.
“Why doesn’t this thing have weapons?”Mercer snarled next to me.
I glanced over at him.“Because it’s a shuttle.You want weapons, you buy ’em.I’ll install them.”
“You could do that?Give our little shittle some claws?”
