How could she fly like this?
She didn’t dare try to reset anything for fear of hitting the wrong thing and ejecting them into space or shutting down life support and not being able to reactivate it.
She needed help.
“Let this work.” She dialed out on her comm.
Nothing went through.
Of course not. There was nothing to relay the signal to without a hookup and she couldn’t read his schematics to make the right connection.
Damn.
“Fine.” She dialed Jinx. Since he was League, she wouldn’t need long range capabilities to pick up his frequency. He could always answer.
“Shadowborne. Go.”
Jayne let out a relieved breath. “Hey. Do you know what frequency this is?”
“Jaynie?”
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes at the fact that her voice was so similar to her sister’s that not even Jinx could tell them apart.
“Where are you?”
“Hadrian’s fighter. I launched it but can’t read the nav on it. I have no idea where I’m heading.” She took a picture of the console and sent it to him. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
He ignored her question, probably because the pic hadn’t arrived yet. “Why did you leave the planet? I’m only a few minutes out.”
“It was too thick, even with my skills. They massed out the contract and everyone was hunting him. Hadrian took me to his fighter. We thought it was the best course of action to get the Tophet out of there.”
“Where’s your target now?”
“Unconscious, in the seat behind me.”
“Well, that’s useless.”
“Not funny.”
Jinx didn’t respond. He was good at ignoring conversation he didn’t like and even better at dodging questions. “I just got the photo.”
“And?”
“Looks like an ancient Trisani script.”
She ground her teeth. “I was afraid you might say that. Can you read it?”
“No. Your sister’s the only one I know who knows any Tris.”
Of course, she was. “So, you have nothing useful to tell me on how to pilot this thing.”
“Best advice? Don’t hit anything. And you’re right. It is an open contract. Vicious one.”
She cursed as he used his League magic to confirm what she already knew.
Open contracts were so rare as to be virtually non-existent. The League almost never granted one because it could lead to assassin guilds fighting over a single bounty, and that could lead to all-out war. Which was the last thing the League, or anyone else wanted.
A contract was only deemed “open” until an assassin signed their name to it. Then that specific assassin was given a specified amount of time to complete it.
