Kira was content to let him linger for the first mile. Only once she'd started on the second, did her pace quicken, picking up until she was sprinting. The distance between her and Finn widened as she caught him briefly off guard.
Good. The window wouldn't last long, but while it did, she needed to take advantage of it.
"Jin, I have a task for you."
"Oh?"
Already she could feel Finn closing the distance. She pushed a little harder, her breath coming quicker now.
"I need you to contact our little friend."
"What little friend? You have several."
Kira fought a growl. Now wasn't the time for him to play dumb.
"The little friend who might do something drastic if we don't turn up soon," she hissed.
"Aww, the impetuous and rash little friend," he said, sounding bored.
Kira huffed. He'd known who she was talking about all along.
“You know you can just refer to her by name,” he suggested.
“I don’t want any mention of her name anywhere. It might seem paranoid, but we’ve kept her safe this long. No sense exposing her existence to the Tuann through comms that might be intercepted.”
Jin grunted. “I contacted her while we were still on Ta Da'an."
The tight ball Kira had been carrying in her gut loosened slightly. Their rash friend was still very young and hadn’t quite grown out of the stage where she acted without thinking through all the consequences. The last thing Kira needed was for her to create an incident and expose her existence to dangerous groups who might want to use someone like her.
"Good. Did you also let the Allfather know we have the package?" she asked.
There was a long-suffering sigh in her ear. "What do you take me for?"
He didn't want her to answer that.
"Of course, I did," he finished.
"And?"
Silence echoed down the line.
"Jin?" Kira said, threat deepening her voice.
"I'll try again," he grumbled.
Kira didn't like the sound of that. Odin was almost never out of contact.
Footsteps pounded against the ground as Finn caught up. Kira thought she detected the slightest flicker of anger in his stoic expression.
"From here on out, I'm going radio silent," Kira said.
"Why?"
"Because it's sensible. I suggest you do the same."
"No need. I've encrypted my signal and piggybacked it off one of theirs. If they see it, they'll assume it's from someone on their side," Jin said.
"Your arrogance is going to bite you in your metallic behind one day." Kira's pace slowed, the brief sprint taking its toll.
