Page 280 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘What’s this one’s name?’ he asks her.

‘Riley.’

Long enough to see Vasily decide to open the large box that came for him from Rozhenska later instead of now, sent by his father’s assistant with a letter that Vasily only glances at, jaw working.

‘We can open it together,’ Jules offers. ‘Later.’

Lachlan has no right to feel it, but he’s so grateful they’re friends.

Around lunchtime, Lachlan eats half a sandwich in Control while checking live feeds. The others eat a delicious Christmas dinner together in the lavish dining hall, currently filled to the brim with fairy lights and old Christmas music. He stays away, focuses on the live feeds and sweeps.

A row of green icons representing locked doors disappears silently from the sub-level map. Lachlan stares until they return moments later.

‘This is still happening?’

‘It’s still happening,’ Rook confirms with a small sigh.

Penhalyx’s upgrades below have caused several irritating malfunctions as Jolene Mercer grafts them onto Lachlan’s otherwise flawless system.

The worst issue is the sub-level doors.

Green means connected and secure, red means forced entry, but poor wiring of the new doors below causes some to stop communicating altogether. They don’t turn red, they simply vanish.

Control is unable to tell whether the door is locked or not.

Lachlan, of course, has no authority to touch anything Penhalyx has installed below.

‘Can we change the alert logic?’

‘That’ll throw a red light six times a day.’

‘Better a false alarm than a silent one.’

‘I can’t rewrite anything while the controllers are reconnecting, and you’d need express permission to manually patch in below.’

Lachlan makes a face. ‘Heard. I’ll ask him in a week or so.’

After they’ve eaten, Mimi gets hold of Danya’s radio.

‘Myna to Kestrel. Where are you?’

He smiles to himself while he answers.

‘Kestrel to Myna, am I needed for Christmas duty?’

‘Yes, you are. We wanna play snowball kills.’

‘Snowball fights.’

‘Same thing. Hurry up so we can play! You’re missing all the fun!’

All primaries being outside together warrants Lachlan’s presence as well as Danya’s, so he heads outside to meet them, but a snowball fight has already begun. Danya takes one to the face the moment Lachlan steps outside. Vasily claims innocence despite standing with both hands hidden behind his back. Blaire sits on the steps of the main door with a mug of something steaming.

‘Oh, you are alive,’ she comments mildly.

Danya has Mimi on his shoulders and keeps passing her excellent snowballs to lob while Jules and Vasily team up.

‘Apparently so,’ he says, moving closer to get a better lighthouse view.