I glanced back. Pretty soon, actual people would catch up, and they’d be a lot more dangerous than security drones.
“Come on!” I yelled over my shoulder. Jax was slower than usual because of Caeryssa’s weight, and Frank was hanging back to cover them.
“How far, Tess?” Shade asked, his alert gaze scanning for threats both ahead and behind.
“Haven’t you ever been on a DWALSH?” I asked between panting breaths.
“I’ve never been in the basement of one looking for the spine exit with the Dark Watch about to attack!”
Yeah. Fair point.
“I delivered…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “I didn’t hang around memorizing the layout.”
No, that was just me, a kid whose only playground was Starbase 12, the original Dark Watch alphabet-level security hub, with all the others modeled after it to the letter—literally. Uncle Nate had written up treasure hunts that encouraged me to search the station from top to bottom for my reward, usually a book. We’d crawled all over that place.
He’d been preparing me from the beginning, hadn’t he? Memorizing the security hub floor plans, flyingDark Watch 12from his lap, giving me banned books on the sly, idealizing his and Mom’s birth Sector of 17 in my head until the rebel bastion felt more like home to me than Sector 12 ever did. He’d been giving me the tools I needed to escape Simon Novalight. Tofighthim. Uncle Nate had shoved me straight into the arms of the resistance via Starway 8.
My chest started to ache in a way that had nothing to do with bolting down the hallway, each breath more labored than the last. Why did he leave us? Just stop showing up in the months before Mom died? And why did he try to capture me on Starway 8 and then threaten people that I love? He wanted to protect me. Iknewthat.
And deep down, I knew why he’d been willing to bring me in. Nathaniel Bridgebane could sacrifice individuals, even me, for the greater good.
Now, the GIN Project was in motion. Uncle Nate had wanted to keep the Overseer from doing something drastic in search of more type A1 blood by handing over some of mine, but he’d been too late. We both had.
“We’re close,” I finally answered, my thoughts in turmoil, the next turn in sight. There’d be no going back for Shade’s cruiser. TheQueen Beewas lost.
“We’re all coming out in a cargo attachment from the bottom,” I said for our crews on the ships. A big box with thrusters would have to do for a getaway ship. No clue what was in it. Something useful, I hoped.
Both temporary captains acknowledged that.
“You pick ’em up. I’ll run interference,” Asher said.
Merrick grunted an affirmative response.
“Go for two if you can,” Sanaa said, speaking for the first time.
Was she for real? She wanted us to climb the stairs to Lower Y and take another box? What the hell? Not all of us were super soldiers.
“Damn it!” Frank growled a curse. “All for nothing.”
All for nothingwas the least of it. We’d be lucky to get out of here alive.
“We’re coming in low,” Merrick said. “Just push straight off, and we’ll attach you as fast as we can.”
“I’ll catch you, Tess,” Gabe whispered right in my ear, his voice low and intimate and a little bit hoarse. “Just come back to me.”
I didn’t answer. There was way too much in that request for me to deal with right now.
I slanted a look at Shade. He stared fixedly ahead.
We rounded the corner, my heart seizing in fear when shouts to stop and sudden shots chased us around the bend.
I glanced back. At our rear, Frank spun, stuck his arm around the corner, and hammered off several rounds from his Grayhawk. He sprinted to catch up. “They’re closing in!”
The last turn loomed ahead. “Left here, then straight to the end!” I took off at a dead sprint, ignoring my aching legs and burning lungs. If I got to the door fast enough, the others might not even have to slow down.
I ran as if death itself chased me. Itdid. My nerves frayed a little more with each step, thinning until the raw bits sawed against each other. I finally came up on the exit door to the cargo spine and slowed just enough not to flatten myself against it. Lifting my hand, I pressed the pad of my right thumb firmly into the center of my left palm and touched all five fingers together like a pointed roof over it. A tingle webbed out from the center of my hand, spidering toward my fingertips.
What I hadn’t told Shade was that I had to activate the AI. Someone just holding my hand up to a lock wouldn’t get anywhere. Body scans wouldn’t pick it up unless it was turned on. The whole thing was disturbingly discreet. A secret weapon—a tool for a spy or a thief. Or a genocidal control freak.
