He understood why.
These people were going to shoot them anyway.
He could think of no good reason why they would risk letting them go or keeping them alive.
He took a step toward Fee, closing the gap between them even more.
“Stop moving.” The man jerked his shockgun and for a moment, Hal thought he would discharge it accidentally.
Fee gave a cry, like she was afraid or upset, and sort of leapt toward him, putting her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest.
Clever girl. He tried not to smile.
Her actions completely threw the team. They stared for a beat.
“It’s actually easier this way,” the leader said with a shrug, and everyone except the woman holding Fiona’s trophy raised their weapons and shot.
The warehouse lit up with reflected shockgun fire and when it winked out, the only one of the group left standing was the woman with the trophy.
She took a step back in shock, then turned and ran out of the warehouse.
Hal walked over to the fallen attackers and crouched beside the leader. He pulled off the face covering.
It was no surprise to see the man was Balcoan.
“Do you recognize him?” Fiona asked.
Hal shook his head. “But if he came to Larga Ways legally before the systems went down, there should be a way for Tean Lee to tell us who he is.”
Fiona nodded. “We’ll have to find him in person, given the comms are down.” She crouched on the attacker’s other side. “Is he dead?”
“Not this one. The trajectory was to my head from high up on his chest, so the return shot hit him just under his collar bone, probably. The one who tried to kill you with a head shot was the same height as you, so he’ll be dead.”
“What about the middle one?” She hopped a little closer to him and pulled off his mask. “Breathing.”
Fiona stood up.
“Let’s tie them up and go and find my security chief.” She looked around the warehouse. “And Eazi and Paxe.”
CHAPTER 25
Fiona decidedto lie to Tean Lee before she even saw him.
His silence over the last few days when she’d been down on Balco had bothered her, enough that she wasn’t inclined to over share, and his horrified surprise at seeing her now just added to the feeling, causing all sorts of alarms to ring in her head.
“How did you land on the way station?” he asked. “There’s no traffic in either direction right now.”
“That doesn’t matter,” she told him. “Concentrate. Four Balcoans jumped us in Eazi’s warehouse.”
“Why were you there? Why didn’t you come straight to me?” Tean Lee asked.
“I was looking for Eazi. Trying to find a way to contact him.” She could see other security officers walking past Tean Lee’s glass-walled office, eyes wide at the sight of Hal but passing over her.
The disguise, she realized belatedly. Maybe they thought she was one of Hal’s crew.
Tean Lee seemed almost as disconcerted by her disguise as Hal had originally been. His gaze kept flicking to her ears and then away.
“Did you find him?” Tean Lee asked.
