The guards were not giving up, though.
They moved around the bay carefully, as if expecting an imminent attack, and when the bay door opened behind them, the one who’d had his laz ready the whole time turned and shot in a single movement.
There was a squawk of outrage from whoever had come in. Velda’s view was blocked so she couldn’t see, but it sounded as if the shot had missed, but only just.
The guard stammered apologies, and then Sylvester and the guard that seemed to follow behind him like a shadow stepped into view.
“She’s here,” Sylvester said. “The door logs make that a certainty.”
Velda felt a lurch in her stomach. Damn. Of course they would have door logs. She was lucky they didn’t have visual comms.
“She took Jint and Falre’s weapons, sir. You should leave this to us.” The guard who’d accidentally discharged his own weapon said.
Sylvester’s guard murmured agreement, and the two left the bay, but Velda guessed it wouldn’t be long before more guards joined the two already here.
She guessed right.
Another four guards arrived, and they broke into three groups of two, dividing the bay up into sections and moving through each section thoroughly.
She held her breath as the group assigned to her section moved around the crates and stacks, lights out to illuminate the dark corners.
They did not look up.
“She’s not here.” The one who’d come in first sounded annoyed when they all met back up in the middle of the bay.
“She has to be.”
“Not if she stepped through into the bay, saw or heard Dimez inside the runner doing her check, and ducked back out.” The second man who’d been in the original group of two tapped his weapon against his thigh.
“Oh. That could have happened,” one of the other newcomers said. “Whether she did it because she heard Dimez or because she wanted to fool us, it was a pretty good strategy.”
“Now she’s had . . .” One of the men checked his comms unit. “More than an hour to find a new hiding place.”
“Still, it’s not like she’s going anywhere,” someone else said. “She’s stuck on this ship.”
“Let’s just hope she doesn’t take a shot at the boss.” The man who spoke had come in after Sylvester had left.
“Yeah, that would be terrible.” It was the partner of the guard who’d done just that.
“Shut up.” The trigger-happy guard stalked toward the door. “Let’s go tell Simo our theory and get him to see if there are other places she could be holed up in.”
All the guards left except one. He stood silently, listening. Waiting.
Velda rolled her eyes mentally at their efforts to try and trick her into emerging.
Eventually the guard sighed and left, but she noticed he had bent down and left something on the floor.
Some kind of monitoring lens or image tracker, she guessed. It would definitely make getting out of here harder.
She closed her eyes, lying still, trying to rest for a bit. She’d been in a state of stress since Linao had been shot, and that had only intensified while she waited for Ethan to return. She couldn’t keep it up.
She felt the silver balls trying to soothe her, and for once she leaned into their help.
The twenty minutes of peace she had before the launch bay doors opened again really made a difference. She felt less panicked and able to think more clearly.
A team of four guards entered.
She recognized two of them as being part of the group that had searched the bay earlier.
