“Right!” Vern smacked himself on the forehead and worked the lock on the inside of the gate.
When it snapped, he pushed the door open, and the hinge creaked in protest. I slipped inside with Kolt close behind me, his body warm and ever-present. Then the Kasharian in the Zagrath uniform grinned at us.
“Your sister said that you would know the best ship for us to sneak onto,” I prodded, hoping that her brother wasn’t as clueless as he seemed.
Vern bobbed his head up and down. “I looked over all the manifests to see which one is leaving soon and how many crew are on board. We don’t want to send you up in a ship filled to the brim with soldiers.”
“That would not be ideal,” Kolt growled, and I sensed that his patience was being tested.
“And I found you the best one, didn’t I?” He flicked his gaze toward the rows of darkened vessels. “It’s only a transport, but it’s leaving at daybreak, and it’s only carrying a pilot and one other passenger.”
That sounded good. It was even odds. Not that a Vandar would be even odds against almost anyone. Kolt could probably take both the pilot and passenger without breaking a sweat, evenwithout all his memories of being a battle chief. Plus, we had blasters.
Kolt clapped a hand on Vern’s back. “Good work. Is this ship close?”
The man’s face drooped. “Ships that depart soon are kept closer to the front.” He gestured to the nearest ships. “The ones at the back are usually getting work done.”
“How far is it?” Kolt asked.
He didn’t need to tell me that the sky was turning from purple to pink as light suffused the horizon. Daybreak was almost upon us, which meant we had scant time to make it onto the ship without being seen.
“It’s in the second row from the front.” Vern’s expression brightened. “But since I’ve got the guard uniform, I can pretend to be escorting you as prisoners.”
I twitched at this idea. Not only did I suspect that Lettie’s brother wouldn’t be able to sell himself convincingly as a guard if anyone so much as looked at us twice, I doubted any real guard wouldn’t know about the escaped convicts on the loose in the city. Still, I guessed we had little choice.
“Lead us,” Kolt said, his words more like an order than a request.
Vern snapped to attention, nodding as he took long strides. “We’ll go this way since it’s farther from the guard tower. Lucky for you, the first shift doesn’t start for a bit, so there shouldn’t be any other crew to ask questions.”
Kolt walked alongside me now, the tip of his blaster protruding from the gap in his cloak. Like me, he didn’t appear to have fullconfidence that Vern could pull off the role of a guard escorting prisoners.
We passed a row of Zagrath fighters that looked like they’d seen better days, and then we strode by a group of transports in the midst of repairs. From what I could tell, the shipyard didn’t hold many large ships, which meant that either the Empire didn’t have many left in service or they didn’t prioritize Gollun Prime. Either way, was good news for us.
“It’s up here,” Vern said, his gait quickening as we approached another row of transports that looked newer and in better shape.
I spied the guard tower and the main entrance, but I didn’t see a guard standing in the tower, and the pair of Zagrath who’d been near the pillars weren’t there. Then I heard laughing and yelping from just beyond the gate.
Kolt shot me a look with his lips quirked to one side. I had a feeling that Hatch and Ringo were still busy distracting the guards, but that wouldn’t last forever.
When Vern paused as if to check out the noise from outside, Kolt gave him a nudge. “The transport? Which one is it?”
“Sorry,” Vern mumbled as he hurried around the nose of a ship and ducked under a slender, gray wing of another. “Here she is, Transport 712.”
The ramp to the ship was already extended, even though the interior lights weren’t illuminated. Now that we were at the entrance to the vessel, I shivered at the prospect of stowing away on an Imperial ship. Talk about walking straight into the belly of the beast.
“We should go,” Kolt said to me before pivoting to Vern. “Thank you for your bravery. Your valor will not be forgotten.”
Vern’s cheeks reddened, and for a moment, I thought he might tackle Kolt in a hug. But he straightened and nodded. “When Lettie says we need to do something, I listen to her. But I’m glad I got to help you. Just wait until I tell my friends I saw a real-life Vandar.”
I held up a finger. “But not until we’re safely away.”
Kolt held up a finger. “Until then, not a word.”
The gravelly rumble of the Vandar’s voice made Vern’s eyes widen, and he shook his head. “Not a word.”
I stepped onto the ramp and had only taken a few steps when I heard the shouts.
Chapter
