“No one will listen.They never do with children.”
Cleo glided out of the chamber.Mars cast one last look back at Jin before following.
A whoosh left Jin.
Holy shit.That had been close.Thank every higher power out there for this new face of his.If they’d recognized him, things could have gone very poorly.
He wasn’t in a state to defend himself against someone of the forty-three’s caliber.
“Kira had a drone she always kept with her.She called it Jin,” Maggie muttered.
“Maggie,” Jin warned.
Maggie’s gaze lifted to his.“That’s what Brooks called you.”
Don’t do it, Jin sang in his mind.
Maggie bolted to the edge of the cell.“Hey!Hey!Someone!I want to make a deal.Kira Forrest has a partner.His name is—”
She strangled on the rest of what she’d been about to say.
Jin’s chaterling lifted its face from the back of her neck.Blood lined its lips and cheeks from where it had bit through her spinal column.
“Damn it, Maggie.You never learn,” Jin swore as Maggie slumped to the floor, dead.
Worse—she’d made him scare the kids.
Just then, the prison cell’s barrier came down, courtesy of one of his spawn.
When that spawn crawled down, Jin took it and set it on top of the cot.“Stay here.Protect them.”
The spawn nodded as the chaterling landed on his shoulder.A minute’s tinkering and Jin adjusted the beacon so that his spawn would lead Kira to the children’s location first.
“Remember what I told you about the woman,” Jin advised before walking out of the cell in search of pirates.
Kira – The Honeycomb
“I can’t believe I survived that,” Kira muttered, peering up at the shaft she’d fallen down.
It had fucking hurt.A lot.
Her wrist and hip twinged as she picked herself up off the ground.The ankle she’d twisted in the shipyard twinged, any healing courtesy of Amila had been undone.Pieces of the amber wall she’d crashed through shifted and slid off her.
Kira triggered her comms.“Raider?Graydon?”
Radio silence.
It appeared she was on her own.
Kira turned in a circle, taking stock of the situation.For a brief moment, she considered trying to climb back up to where the others were waiting before disregarding that notion.The walls of the shaft were covered in some type of secretion, making them slippery and damn near impassable.
Even if she could climb up the gentle incline—likely the sole reason Kira hadn’t been splattered everywhere upon landing—it would take a considerable amount of time and effort.There was no guarantee the others would be waiting for her at the top either.They were behind enemy lines.The mission and the welfare of the group took precedent over all else.
Her best bet was to continue and hope she was able to rendezvous with the rest eventually.
“Damn it,” Kira muttered, glancing up at the shaft.So much for the honeycomb’s inhabitants being in stasis.Where had that war drone come from anyway?
Kira was considering the possibility of survival should the honeycomb fully wake when a groan had her stilling.
