Not immediately, no, he admits.But this is your best option, I promise you that. Later, we’ll release you. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to be here at the end of this. As I said, we didn’t come here to kill anybody. We’re not that kind of criminal.
‘And yet you brought guns.’
Well, he says, and I can hear the shrug.Other people could be that kind of criminal.
‘I thought there wasn’t supposed to be anybody here,’ Cleo presses. Do they teach debate at engineering school?
The Pirate lets out an audible sigh.I think we’ve all learned a lot today about how plans don’t always unfold the way we want them to.
Cleo reaches up to tap her headband again, muting the line. ‘We can’t trust him,’ she murmurs.
‘Not for a minute,’ I agree. ‘But I’m interested to hear what he says. The more we get him to talk, the better.’ I canpractically hear my mother’s voice in my ear.Mouth shut, ears open. Learn more than you share.
Cleo brings the headset back online. ‘I’m wondering why you’d take us with you,’ she says. ‘Why you wouldn’t just shoot us, as soon as you see us. What’s in it for you, to keep us alive? And donotsay you prefer a clean conscience.’
All right, I won’t, the Pirate replies.For a start, I’d like to know how to extract my team member from the classroom you managed to electrify.
‘We’re not useful once you know that,’ Cleo points out.
No, he agrees.And we’ll figure out how to get her out by ourselves, eventually. I’m trying to demonstrate a little goodwill here, by giving you an opportunity to demonstrate yours.
‘Hey,’ Cleo replies, grinning. ‘You know who else is full of goodwill toward me?’
Again, I hear the Pirate’s sigh.Let me guess. My mother.
She’s got him on the back foot, half charmed, half annoyed. I’m fascinated by her savvy, her quick instincts. It’s clear she knows how to talk to people like him – a mix of smarts and sass, not pushing too hard, but certainly not giving way.
I’m guessing she learned to do this when she was on the run from the debt collectors. I can’t imagine what that was like, but it’s made her tough in ways that are different from the ones I’m used to.
She’s been through so much, and it makes her prickly, that much I can tell. It brings her shields up in moments like the one we just had. If she’d leaned forward even a millimeter, we’d have kissed. My chest tightens just thinking about it.
Is it stupid to be thinking about kissing Cleo with five mercenaries still out there hunting for us? Sure. It might also be the last chance I get.
I only realize Cleo’s ended the call when she pulls the headset off.
‘All done?’ I ask, blinking back to the problem at hand.
‘It never would have worked out between us,’ she replies with a shrug.
I can’t help it. I wink and gesture at my dusty, sweaty self. ‘How could it, when you’ve got all this right here in front of you?’
Cleo rolls her eyes. ‘Let’s find a better place to shack up, just in case someone comes to visit. And I think we’d better get started on some gifts for the neighbors.’
4 HOURS, 36 MINUTES REMAINING
About forty-five minutes later, I’m laying out five headsets on a table in a corner of the cafeteria. The room’s gone into power-saving mode for some reason, the lights dimmed, and even if someone walks straight through here – and I’m hoping they will pretty soon – they’re unlikely to notice them sitting there.
Half the other tables were littered with food and trays when we came in, but Cleo hurriedly cleared them away before she disappeared. That’ll be relevant in a minute, with any luck.
I’m listening for any news on the headset we stole from the chief engineer’s office, keeping an eye on the door to thecorridor outside as I get my little speaker connected to a battery and check the settings on the headsets. If this works, it’s going to be the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever done, and I once sold a guy his own company back for twice the price, after renaming it in honor of my childhood cat.
I’m straining to hear footsteps and trying to keep my hands from shaking as I bring up the display on the next headset and swipe through to channel 4. I can’t afford to miss the only warning I’ll have when company arrives.
There are cameras here in the cafeteria, but a pair of wire clippers took care of their connection in just a few seconds. They’re not the sort of thing you carefully protect against sabotage when you build a peaceful base.
We had to take out a bunch of others as well, as diversions, so our friends wouldn’t come right here, and that chewed up precious minutes. If we pull this off, though, it’ll be worth it. We’re still about four and a half hours from blastoff.
Then I hear the sound I’ve been waiting for, and my heart kicks up a notch. I slip around to the far side of the table I’m working at, sinking down to crouch behind it as one of the mercs strides into the cafeteria, pausing to look around at the half-lit room, the dozens of tables stretching out in neat rows. I see his shoulders slump as he thinks about having to search around and behind and between every one of them.
