“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Lee allowed.
“I was listening in on how Niko plans to execute this framework for the signal. But what if we took it one step further?” And when she’d attracted a third set of eyeballs, all staring at her with rapturing interest, she grinned. “A decoy.”
“What would that even look like?” Kat considered, expanding the holograph before her to see what she could glean from the diagram.
“Think of it as a mirage, a glimmering signal that’s essentially empty data,” Hanna explained. “We would want it to be something entirely separated, no doubt, so as not to allow them to bridge the gap and connect us to the correlation later.”
“I like the idea of a decoy if you think you can do it,” Lee nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt to have that extra layer, an errant trail to help keep them off our tracks.”
“I’ll work with him,” Hanna promised, when Nikola didn’t respond, the cadet already off and away again as his miraculous brain began its latest stroke of genius.
Late afternoon crescendoed into evening, with Lee going over their list of potential base locations yet again, adding in a note to check back in on one of the star systems once Flyn’s raid report came out this week. At least he’d gotten one little morsel of wisdom from their little staged chat the other morning.
Nikola and Hanna eventually drifted off, leaving just him and Kat and the waning hours of the night.
One more day, come and gone. The hours had been flying by; they were very quickly running out of them. Too soon they would hit zero hour, and he still had no idea where they were heading.
Pushing his eyes a few more minutes, he craned his neck, guiding him down, down, down the list, watching for that answer to appear that would be their salvation…
But nothing. His mind had gone silent tonight. His head was completely blank.
Swiping the holofiles closed with a hand, he rolled to his feet. He tucked his holoblock under his arm, strolling the short way over to the railing.
He much preferred this view of the Hideaway. Leaning his heavy, useless head over the bars, he stared down over the darkened Canteen. So many afternoons he’d wallowed his time away, right here. Time he would do anything to get back.
And while he waited on Kat to finish up her summation of Nikola and Hanna’s latest developments, he sent out yet another message to Jed, asking if he’d uncovered anything.
He was really starting to get anxious. Fleeing into space in a borrowed spacecraft could be considered an adventure. But fleeing without a destination, with someone after them, and on the lookout for the very same end goal? That was a whole other nightmare altogether.
In all their musings over the years of their continued adventures after leaving the Raider Program, of him and Kat with the galaxy at their fingertips, he’d never factored in the sheer force and power of the AMG. Should they decide to pursue them, with their influence and their might… That wouldn’t be freedom. That wouldn’t be excitement. That would be constant close calls and always looking over their shoulders. Their stress would become their cage; they would merely be walking from one to the other.
He was still amid his doom spiral when Kat joined him at the railing. She looked weary-worn, as much so as he felt, but her cheeks were pink, and somehow, brightness still clung to her, weariness and all. The thrill of a challenge. He supposed plotting and ploying was what they did best. But he wondered how much of that thrill would still remain once this was all distance behind them.
“We might actually pull this off, Waters.”
And despite the chagrin plaguing him, he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips. “You and me in the deep of space… What could possibly go wrong?”
He tugged her into his side, relishing the warmth of her body against his, her arms clasping securely about his middle. At least one thing appeared to be in order.
“She called him Niko,” Kat sighed.
“That’s the importance you latched onto from this evening?” Lee teased, eying her. She had the peaceful calm about her that only incoming sleep could bring to the invincible Kat Hanneman.
But Kat turned her gaze on him, blinking up at his face, with sleepy lashes and those lovey grey eyes of hers. “I think they’re cute.”
“Well, that’s good,” Lee said, pulling her head back against his collarbone. “Because if we’re looking at their schedule, they likely still have another week before they’re due to break up again.”
“Cynic.”
“Your words, not mine.”
“Yeah, well. Maybe I’ve since adjusted my viewpoints on life.”
Oh, could he relate. Spiraling novae,could he relate. She always kept him on his toes, this one.
Lee’s hyperband buzzed. Still gripping Kat tightly with one arm, he held the other aloft so he could see the response there from Jed. A short, concise message, and one he’d heard a little too often as of late.
Still digging.
