“I take it that was your single seater we saw on our way in,” Kira guessed.
Roderick nodded.“Az and Bez were acting suspiciously so I decided to follow them.”
“Then they’re in on it together,” Kira said.
“Not necessarily.”At her look, he expanded.“I didn’t get the sense while following them that they were partners.There was clearly tension.”
Interesting, but not necessarily what was important right now.
“Why are you here?”Roderick asked.
“Jin got kidnapped.”
Roderick opened his eyes wide.“The emperor’s son is missing?”
“I wouldn’t call it missing so much as placing himself in a less than strategic position.”
Roderick looked like he couldn’t decide between being horrified or impressed.“And Dylan let this happen?”
“He wasn’t given much choice.”Kira reached for his arm when it looked like he was going to try to stand.“Let me help you.”
Roderick allowed her to act as his crutch.“Every time we run into each other, I find myself more and more glad that you didn’t stay in Luatha.”
“I did warn you guys,” Kira said, eyeing their surroundings for a way out.
They thought she’d been joking when she told them she’d be more of a problem than they were prepared to deal with.Now look who was laughing.
“How does Roake deal with you?”Roderick asked, grunting as she started them toward the only possible exit.A small hole in the resin at the opposite end of the oblong chamber.
Kira stopped to adjust his arm so it was more securely over her shoulder.“I ask myself that every day.”
“Do you know where you’re going?This place is big.I can tell you from experience that navigating it is extremely confusing.”
Kira smirked.“Got lost, did you?”
“Yes,” Roderick gritted out as they reached the hole Kira had found.
She ducked out from under his arm and guided him to lean against the wall before squatting to investigate what she had found.
The hole, too tiny for either of them to slip through right now, offered a glimpse of hexagonal cells on a much larger scale than the ones she’d traveled through earlier.They were massive, stretching out of her narrow field of view.
They had to be close to the beating heart of the honeycomb.The hive’s command center.
If she’d been Belladonna’s leader and stupid enough to take over one of these, that’s where she would have based her headquarters.
“You could say we have an inside source,” Kira said, grinning up at Roderick.
The scorpion shook its stinger at Roderick in greeting.
“Your choice of companions gets more baffling every time.”
“Don’t judge.This little guy is going to lead us straight to Jin.”
“What are you doing?”Roderick asked as Kira grabbed the resin on either side of the hole and tugged.
“We can’t fit through this as is.”
They needed to widen it.Only that was proving difficult.The resin refused to break, making her question how the Tsavitee class two war drone had managed to burst through it like it was tissue paper.
