That’s when Cleo flicks a switch on the putty gun and launches the drone, a stream of something trailing after it. And oh …oh. It’s not putty.
It’s expanding foam, the kind they use for emergency repairs.
The drone makes a pass over the Boxer like a tiny fighter jet dropping bombs, and as the pearls of foam hit him, they instantly start to grow, wrapping around his limbs and body and hardening in place. He has the presence of mind to cup a hand over his face and preserve his airways, but in less than three seconds, he’s immobilized.
Two down, five to go, and five and a half hours left until this place explodes.
Cleo’s actuallygrinningas she slides down the far side of the printer, hits the floor silently, and gestures for me to follow.
This girl is abadass.
Without a word, we head for the door on the far side of the workshop, and I slip through it after her, honestly just waiting to see what she’s going to do next.
She’sreallysomething.
13.
CLEO
5 HOURS, 30 MINUTES REMAINING
I’M SO, SO STUPID.
Cleo, you might ask.Aren’t you being a little harsh? You’re operating under a lot of pressure here. What about a little self-forgiveness?
I wish the pressure was why I didn’t take him to my hideout, which would have been a lot safer than where we are now.
I led him all the way here, I got usshot at, and then I chickened out. I turned right, into the workshop, instead of left into the repair center.
All we had to do was headoneroom into the repair center, and we’d have been through an emergency supplies closet and into one of my favorite nests.
But I didn’t want him to know I had it. I didn’t want him to ask how I knew it was there. I didn’t want to see the slowly dawning light in his eyes as he looked around at the blanket, the hoarded food, and realized that this was where I slept. That thereason I didn’t want to go to my quarters to grab my stuff is that I don’thaveany stuff. Or any official quarters.
I wasn’t ready for him to realize I’m a hitcher.
Now I yank Hunter into the chief engineer’s office and turn to lock the door behind us. Together we duck behind her desk and jam ourselves underneath it, hiding out under the overhang.
We’re pressed together, shoulder to shoulder, and I can feel how hard he’s breathing. But he’s grinning, with the freaked-out adrenaline of someone who’s just survived a chase.
‘Remind me not to piss you off,’ he whispers, shaking his head.
‘Congratulations on surviving your first time getting shot at,’ I murmur in reply.
‘Expanding foam? You just thought of that on the fly?’
I make myself shrug, though my heart’s still hammering too. ‘I can do better.’
Probably best not to admit it was inspired by the packing foam we used to smuggle me up here. I hope that guy gets even more claustrophobic than I did.
‘I don’t doubt you.’ He laughs softly. ‘You think they’re going to bill us for all this damage? So far we’ve flooded a classroom, and I don’t know how many tools they’ll break trying to get that stuff off him.’
‘A lot. The foam’s for emergency repairs. It’s pretty tough.’
Hunter just laughs again and buries his face in his hands, pulling himself together. He’s coping pretty well, considering how sheltered his life must usually be.
‘Anyway,’ I continue. ‘You can afford it. Probably hold off on calculating the total until we see what else we manage to pull off. Two down, five to go.’
‘Maybe fewer, if we can spread them out enough to isolate one. We only need one to use their handprint on a rover.’
