“Ten minutes at most. I managed to cut off Sector C’s loading ramps before I got kicked out, but it won’ttake long for the system to flag them and force them to comply with the shut down.”
“We’ll be out in five.”
“Shit! Hurry up, please!”Nyle pleaded, sounding distraught. Aiden could hear Bea’s end of an agitated conversation with Rick in the background.“I don’t know how they figured it out! They shouldn’t have!”Nyle growled.“How did they kno—”
“Nyle, get a grip!” Darren’s stern warning cut the man off.
“Fuck, sorry. It’s just…”Nyle’s deep inhale came just as Aiden rushed up the rest of the belt and slipped into the shaft.“Please tell me you’re outside already! And dump the IDs! I triple-checked them, but at this point, it could be anything.”
Having witnessed how careful Nyle had been with all the tech they’d taken on their mission, Aiden wanted to reassure him, but it was pointless to do it now, so he stayed quiet and complied. After they unfastened the armbands and dumped them, they paused at the opening to the offloading area to listen for signs of activity. Darren emerged first and shuffled ahead before waving Aiden to follow him. Running as fast as they could, they made it out via the closest loading ramp just as the steel panels started dropping down to cut off the few exits that still remained open.
Aiden’s chest burned from exertion as the two of them crouched behind a huge crane, his lungs pumping for oxygen while adrenaline made his whole body vibrate. Darren seemed to be in the same boat, heaving and panting, his breaths hot on Aiden’s cheek.
“Nyle. We are out,” Darren said, his eyes darting left and right as he popped his head around the crane’s clamp.
“Good. OK, good. You should be able to spot the water supply line. Thick silvery pipes. On your left.”
“Yeah, I see it,” Darren confirmed, his gaze locked on the congregation of pipes running along the wall. Aiden tracked them with his eyes until they split into three sets about a hundred yards ahead. “We follow that?”
“Yes. It splits. Follow the set going east. It will take you to the emergency exit point… which I’ll have open by the time you get there. Rick will pick you up.”
“What about surveillance?” Aiden asked, giving the area another sweep as Darren gestured to move out.
“I fried whatever cameras and drones I could before they booted my ass, so you should be good.”
Aiden led the way this time, using the supporting structure that held the crane in place to get from the elevated ramp platform to the ground. Once his feet hit dirt and concrete, he shuffled along the pipes, keeping to the shadows as Darren trailed behind. They stayed quiet and laser-focused on their goal, running as fast as they could while still paying attention to their surroundings. Blood was pounding in Aiden’s ears when they reached the emergency exit point as fear speared through him that they wouldn’t be able to get out, but just as promised, they found the door unlocked. Slipping out, he let out a shuddering exhale.
“Aiden!” Rick startled next to the first aid kit mounted on the wall. He dropped his hood and turned his electronic cigarette off, urging them over. “C’mon! This way.”
Four blocks later, they entered a tiered parking lot and slinked inside a nondescript shuttle on the fifth level. Aiden’s breathing didn’t normalize until they started moving, the fight-or-flight instinct slowly receding back as he forced his nerves to calm down.
“Where are you picking us up from?” Rick was asking Bea over comms when Aiden got his bearings.
“Sorry, but there’s a change of plans. I need you to come to me. The authorities are hailing every ship that enters Atlan airspace.”
Rick cursed under his breath, speeding the shuttle. “I can get us to Regan in two hours.”
“Make that one. Things are getting hot as we speak. I’ll send you a route and arrange for a cargo loader to be waiting for you at the docks. You’ll fly that to me.”
Following Bea’s instructions, Rick got them to Regan via a series of industrial neighborhoods with low traffic. Aiden stared out of the window at the urban scenery, hoping it would calm him down, but even after what felt like a long time of watching shapes and colors blur together, his heart was still hammering against his chest, undeterred by his attempts to slow it down.
As they neared the spaceport, Rick slowed down. The streets were deserted and dark save for the areas right in front of the buildings, where the orange and white streetlight gave the storefronts and awnings a harrowing glow. Everything had shut for the night it seemed, and that bareness together with the silence inside the shuttle invited Aiden’s thoughts to take over. A flashback of Claudia’s suspended body played out in his mind, her form still as perfect as he remembered it except for the bullet wound in her chest. Her death had been swift and as painless as Darren could’ve made it—just like he’d said on that night in the Maine’s mess hall—never intended to cause suffering.
Because that was who Darren was.
They arrived at Regan and used the fake staff IDs Bea had pinged them over to bypass most of the checks, breezing through the spaceport before the additional security measures were set up. The cargo shuttle waiting for them was old and only had a pilot’s seat, so he and Darren sat on the floor behind Rick as he headed for the meeting spot with the Maine.
It didn’t take long to get there, and once onboard, Aiden headed straight for engineering while Rick and Darren handled Bea and Nyle’s questions. He liked it there and the purring hum of the engine and its core tended to calm him down.
But as soon as he’d managed to stop thoughts about Claudia from spiraling down, came the self-hatred. The disappointment and the guilt. And that Aiden couldn’t contain when he found himself alone. And so he didn’t. He let them engulf him as he sat on the metal stairs and looked at the glassed-off core, needing to be on his own so he could figure out what to do about the chaos of feelings and emotions inside him.
