I rip my headset off, wincing. My pain is worth it, though. Everyone on this base with a headset just got hit with the same song. And it’s on loop. Which means that until they find my little setup, our friends just lost their comms.
That should help even the odds.
Over near the entrance to the kitchen, Cleo is carefully laying out the remains of a meal for six people – dirty plates, half-eaten food, half-finished drinks, and a big, tempting bowlof fresh fruit in the middle of the table. Spacerslovefresh fruit and vegetables – even with the greenhouse here, they’re not that easy to come by.
‘I should have eaten some,’ I say, casting an eye over her offering. ‘Is that an apricot? We only had apples on the freighter out here, it was inhuman.’
She fixes me with an unreadable look, but turns out that’s fine, because she kindly translates a moment later. ‘Do you know what an apple costs?’ she asks. ‘I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve eaten one in mylife. And I’veneverhad an apricot.’
‘But they—’ I have no idea where I’m heading with that, because talking about my usual breakfast of fruit that some lackey has carefully cut into the shapes of flowers would probably get me punched. Thankfully she cuts me off.
‘They’re prepped, and they’re not for us.’
‘Wipe your hands off,’ I remind her.
‘On your face,’ she mutters, which immediately gets Victoriana singing in my head again.Gotta love this face, baby!
I decide not to share the line out loud.
‘All ready,’ she continues, looking up. ‘Headsets done?’
‘You wanna hear? We could have a sing-along. It’s catchy stuff.’
She snickers, and the grin makes her eyes sparkle. She really has a great smile, and it feels good to earn a laugh from her. ‘I will kill you,’ she threatens. ‘And if you even try singing to me about third base—’
‘Please, Cleo.’ I frown in mock disapproval. ‘We’re in the middle of trying to overcome a hostile mercenary force. I hardly think now is the time for—’
And then it’s her turn to interrupt me, whacking me on the arm. ‘Shut up, rich boy. Let’s keep moving. We have more to do.’
15.
CLEO
4 HOURS, 20 MINUTES REMAINING
HUNTER GETS THIS LITTLEline between his eyebrows when he concentrates, and I can’t stop taking peeks at it.
We’re making our way through the long, narrow reclamation room that runs behind the kitchens, past the greenhouse, and ends up at the communal showers. Those are the three heavy water uses on the base, so it makes sense to have them side by side.
It’s really just a passageway – I can stretch out my arms on either side and touch the walls – and it’s crammed with tanks and tubes we have to squeeze past and step over. The dehumidifiers that are all over the base work nonstop in here, and still don’t manage to keep up. The warm, steamy air fills my lungs, and my face beads with sweat.
Right now, Hunter’s carefully untangling a nest of cables tomake a gap big enough to squeeze through – I’ve been along here before, but he’s so much broader than me.
It’s only luck that I happen to glance back the way we came.
It’s nearly dark in here – there’s just a low strip of emergency lighting along the floor – and at first I’m not sure whether something moved near the entrance, or whether it was a burst of steam floating through a beam of light.
Then that hint of movement resolves into a hand lifting, and the light glints off a gun, and without thinking I throw myself back at Hunter, crash-tackling him to the ground. It only works because he’s still not used to the gravity, and he’s thrown off-balance easily enough that my weight will do it.
In the same instant there’s a deafening sound that echoes up and down the narrow room, and sparks fly off a nearby water tank.
Without a word the two of us scramble away, staying low, ripping cables out of our way. Hunter bulldozes a path for us and I’m right on his tail, flinching as there’s anotherBANGbehind us.
We come up on two doors, one leading forward to the showers, the other an access port leading out into the main hallway. Hunter doesn’t know where he is, and picks the hallway door, shoving it open and throwing himself through it.
I’m right behind him, hitting the floor and rolling to the side in case a bullet follows me out.
‘This way,’ I hiss, heading straight across the hall to the room that serves as a movie theater. It used to be a records room, and I knew it a lot better then. I yank open the door and usher him through, then close it behind us silently.
