11.9
Feeling more than a little guilty about leaving the sisters in the ship, I help Anya carefully back over the gap, giving Bat’s ears a rub and setting her in the youngest princess’ arms. She cuddles him happily and heads back inside to sit on the console.
Zane and Lalia are waiting for me back on stable ground, so I have a minute of nearly-alone time with Yvonne, both of us standing hundreds upon hundreds of feet up in the air. Her hair is twisted and flung about by all the updrafts, and she works off her respirator, tossing it carelessly into the ship and rubbing the marks it left on her face.
“How you doing?” she asks.
“Y’all keep asking me that.”
She grins. “It’s a valid question. I like my new taser.”
I try not to let my face get hot again and aren’t certain I pull it off. I look at one of the ships we’re parked near, a much larger freighter that looks too old to be hauling cargo—probably repurposed by some group or family.
“Just because you’re not looking at me doesn’t mean I’m not here.” Yvonne’s voice is amused.
I sigh, turning back to her. “I’m uh…”
She raises an eyebrow.
I don’t know how I am, so I settle for something else nagging at the back of my thoughts. “I’m uh…feeling a little bad about snapping at you back on Hytha.”
The amusement in her eyes immediately softens into affection, which is entirely too much to look at, so I stare at the dizzying drop between her feet.
“Aaron—”
“I mean, everything I said was entirely accurate, but I could’ve been nicer about it.”
With a soft laugh, she leans up on her toes and takes my face in her hands, pulling me down for a kiss. Ignoring the fact Anya is definitely watching us through the viewport and giggling about it with Bat, I close my eyes and kiss her back, keeping one hand on the railing so we don’t lose our balance.
“Everything I said is accurate too,” Yvonne tells me, and I turn a brighter shade of red, glaring somewhere else and grumbling to myself about her being the death of me.
She laughs, squeezing my hands. My gloves are still on, but it’s better than nothing.
“I’ve definitely lost my marbles,” I mutter. “Imagine me feeling bad about giving you attitude.”
“Yeah, you’ve definitely gotten smacked in the head a few times in the past months, we might need to get that checked out.”
I snort, “We’ll get your brain damaged checked at the same time.”
With a laugh, she gives me another quick kiss and glances over my shoulder at the audience of Zane and Lalia who I’m positive are gonna be annoying about this.
“Alright,” she says, taking a long breath. “You three go get all this figured out. I swear on my life, cross my heart and all that, that I won’t leave the ship and neither will Anya or Bat. Call me if you need me, and don’t turn your comm off or anything. You better not give me a reason to panic.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna be gone like an hour, just relax.”
“It’s the three of you, I’ve never seen any number of people get in so much trouble.”
Managing to keep a straight face, I give her another quick kiss and pacifically lift her into the ship while she lets out a startled squeak.
“Please, stay safe,” I mutter and get a warning look from her before I seal the airlock.
Muttering to myself about all the humans I’ve managed to collect, I head back down the unsteady catwalk. Zane and Lalia are waiting for me back on stable ground, thankfully not with nosey smirks on their faces. Lalia’s inspecting one of the burns on Zane’s cheek, barely visible in the dim artificial lights, and he gives me a long-suffering look.
“Don’t look at me,” I say. “You get yourself blown up, you get smothered.”
“Didn’t get myself blown up,” he grumbles and escapes from his sister’s clutches to trot after me.
I take the first set of stairs sloping down. The levels here are close to one another and it’s easy enough getting from one to another, either by stairs, inclined streets, or if we’re unlucky, a direct fall. If one took a tumble off the catwalk and managed somehow not to die, they’d end up somewhere near the place we’re heading, perhaps a little deeper into the heart of the city. The further away we get from the easy-to-access top streets and sections, the less friendly are the inhabitants. I can’t particularly blame them, I wouldn’t like to be bothered by tourists, but some are just too nasty. As long as we keep our heads down, we should be fine.
“Don’t interact with anyone unless you have to,” I say over my shoulder. “And don’t wander off. Let’s try to get out of here without needing to go on any rescue missions.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” Lalia says.
“Real funny.”
As on edge as I am throughout the little trek, it isn’t much of a walk. Plenty of places here are flat other than when traveling from one level to another. The worst of it is really the closer we get to the little dot on the map I’m following, the more I think my stomach is going to twist itself right out of my body. Apparently, I’ve finally decided to panic. There’s no way I should be this nervous. I mutter song lyrics to myself and take too-long breaths to try to focus on something else, but it doesn’t much help. The siblings are uncharacteristically quiet, glancing at me even more than usual, so I can’t distract myself with their chatter. Whenever I catch their eyes, they both try the same pained smile. I wonder again if they talked to their parents recently. I wonder what Masyn and Kyra are thinking about all of this right now, knowing we were all heading to Zar.
I try to think of something I can bring up to pass the walk with a conversation, but nothing comes to mind. Nothing I think I’ll be able to pretend to focus on.
I shouldn’t bring up Kel again, just because I don’t need that amount of planet-exploding rage. Not going to help the situation.
Buildings are clustered tighter and tighter the further down we go. Sometimes, over the cluster of noise from all the humans, I can hear running water or the hum of too many different engines. It’s warmer the deeper we go. I know in theory this place has giant engines and generators near its core, but I can’t imagine what they must look like, and I don’t think we’d hear them at this point.
If this place weren’t so dangerous, if we weren’t on a mission and needing to leave as soon as possible, I’d go on a hunt to see if they are, indeed, real.
We’re nearing three levels below the shipyard by the time we get close to the mark on the map. Zane is humming to himself, but it sounds forced. Lalia’s still dead silent.
“This place doesn’t seem too bad,” Zane tries. “We probably could’ve brought Yvonne and the squirt.”
“Probably,” I admit because it’s not as if we’re going back for them. “But the people I’m worried about are the people who aren’t gonna notice us, but probably would notice them. Yvonne’s gorgeous and Anya’s too little to be here. They’ll stand out.”
Zane snickers more genuinely. “You’re right, Yvonne is gorgeous. How’s that going for you, by the way?”
Dammit, shouldn’t’ve brought that up. I glare at him. Shouldn’t have brought that up. “It’s fine.”
“Man’s making out with a princess and says it’s fine,” Zane whispers to Lalia. I glare at both of them. Now is not the time for sibling harassment.
“Shut up.”
“Really, that’s all ya got? I’ve been waiting for details but you never volunteer anything. I guess I’m gonna have to actually ask.”
“Or you can mind your own business.”
Zane elbows me with a grin. I elbow back.
“Ow,” he says, stumbling a little dramatically, but I wince anyway.
I need to keep reminding myself he’s not fully healed yet. “Sorry.”
Pausing at an empty alleyway, I glance at my tablet, then back down the barely lit walkway. It isn’t much different from the one I just hid in to get up to that human thief’s apartment. My hesitation is all in my own head and I know it. Someone from the crowded street bumps into me, telling me to get out of the road and making a crass gesture.
“Charming,” Zane echoes my earlier statement.
It was probably the most unoffensive thing the guy could’ve done.
After a moment of me uselessly consulting my tablet, Lalia finally says, “I take it we’re standing here like idiots because you can’t decide if we should actually do this or not?”
I let my tablet fall to my side and give her an exhausted look. “Yeah, but you didn’t have to say it.”
She cracks a smile I only see past the mask because it crinkles her eyes. Before I can comprehend that her soft expression is indeed the I’m-gonna-hug-you-face, she puts her arms around my neck, tugging me down. I give Zane a help me look over her shoulder.
He, not shockingly, doesn’t help a bit.
“We’re gonna be fine,” she tells me, low enough I doubt anyone else hears. I shouldn’t let that comfort me, but I do.
“Fine, fine. Look, I don’t know this lady’s story so…let’s try to be careful and get in and out as quickly as possible—Lalia you can let go now, good grief.”
I feel her shake with laughter before she finally releases me. A few people give us odd looks as we pass. This isn’t exactly the type of area where people hug in the street.
“Look at it this way,” I say, stomping head-first through the alley before I can lose my nerve. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go back and shoot Kel in the face.”
“You really shouldn’t tempt me,” Zane says. “Though actually, I think you’re much more pissed at her than I am.”
I scowl back at him over my shoulder. “Well, one of us has to be. You should be pissed.”
He shrugs. “Maybe if I didn’t have you to drop-kick her at a moment’s notice, I’d be able to work up more anger.”
I roll my eyes though my back is to him. Snarking at each other is good. Distracting. Hard to panic when Zane’s passivity is pissing me off.
At the end of the alley, a set of metal steps heads down to the left, and a door sits in the nearest building. I stare at it a moment before telling myself to get a damn grip and step down them as soundlessly as possible. Cath apparently called ahead, which is either a good or a bad thing, so I stuff my tablet away, put my hand on my pistol under my coat, and knock.
It takes a moment, but a little shimmering screen comes to life on the door, and a fuzzy face is staring at me.
“Who are you?”
“Um, Aaron. Cath sent us here. She says you can crack and test an encrypted DNA file?”
“She didn’t say you were a cyborg.”
“Trust me, I’m as little thrilled about it as you are.”
I can practically hear Zane and La rolling their eyes.
“If it makes you feel better, these two are very human,” I lean sideways and jab a thump over my shoulder.
The woman’s eyes narrow. “You got money?”
“Yes.”
“Hrm.” The screen shuts out, but a moment later there’s the clunk of a bolt sliding out of place, and the door cracks open.