by Jamie Grey
Keva’s pale violet skin flushed pink, and she dropped her gaze.
“Excuse me, sir?” Corporal Bokal’s voice rumbled pleasantly through the room, breaking the sudden tension. “I understand you’ve been working on tech to get us inside the facility. How close are you to finishing it?”
The doctor studied each of the crew in turn, as if he were gauging his response. Finally he answered, “It should be finished tomorrow. I have one last test to complete.”
“What is this thing, and what exactly does it do?” Renna asked. She knew it had something to do with the gamma particle destabilize she’d retrieved, but ever since she’d stepped inside the MYTH headquarters, everyone had been specifically vague about it. Did anyone actually know the answer?
“That’s on a need-to-know basis,” Keva snapped, casting an angry glance in Renna’s direction.
“Really?” Renna raised an eyebrow. “I’d say I’d need to know. You know, using it to break into a facility no one else can figure out…”
Captain Finn nodded. “Renna is right. She needs to know the details before we can plan our attack.”
Renna smirked. Agreement from Finn was the last thing she’d expected, but it was worth it just to see Keva’s shocked expression.
Aldani picked up a fork and drew hash lines in the tablecloth as he spoke. “The device uses the gamma particle destabilizer that Renna retrieved from the Cordozas to rearrange the dark matter between molecules, making them pliable. Once I configure it into my technology, it should get you inside the otherwise impenetrable facility.”
Finn continued. “After that, it’s Renna’s show. We’ll have to rely on her to guide us.” He turned his head to catch the doctor’s gaze. “If Dr. Aldani agrees, of course, that this is the next logical course of action.”
The doctor seemed to deflate, the wrinkles around his eyes standing out as he frowned down at the tablecloth. “You don’t understand. Myka is all I have left of my brother. He’s special. We must get him back.”
Renna leaned forward. “And we will. I promise.” She froze in her chair. Dammit. Why the hell did she keep using that frakking word?
“But only if I allow you to investigate the facility first.” Aldani’s shoulders slumped. “I know I am being a sentimental old man, but the fate of the universe doesn’t seem very important when your only family is missing.” He rubbed his eyes. “Very well. Continue with your mission. I will have my staff finish work on the destabilizer device. But please, please find Myka as soon as you can.”
“We will,” Renna said.
Aldani inclined his head. “Thank you, Miss Carrizal.” He rose to his feet, setting his napkin on his plate. “If you’ll come with me, I have something else I’d like to give you that may help you once you’re inside the facility. Everyone else, please feel free to stay and enjoy your wine.”
Across the table, Finn stiffened, like he was going to get to his feet and follow. Aldani waved him down. “Stay with your crew, Captain. Renna will be perfectly safe with me.”
“It’s not her I’m worried about,” he said dryly.
Aldani chuckled, and Renna smiled tightly at Finn. If looks could kill, he’d be in a heap on the floor.
With a sigh, she trailed Aldani from the room, leaving Finn to stare after her.
“Have a seat on the table,” Aldani said as he shut the door behind them. They’d come to one of the labs on the lower level, and the doctor had quickly led her to a private room and pulled out a tray of sterile tools from the cabinet on the wall.
Her heart jumped at the variety of scalpels laid out across the tray. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice a touch too high as she eyed the shiny metal instruments.
“Upgrading your implant.”
“I don’t have—”
“I saw the incision site on your neck earlier. Am I right in guessing it’s not currently working?” He pinned her with his gaze, and Renna found herself nodding.
“It broke while rescuing Myka.” She paused. “Don’t you care that I have illegal tech?”
“I only care that you have the right tech to rescue my nephew.” He pulled out a small handheld computer and tapped the screen. “What model do you have?”
“It’s a Compass X-3 from Imperial Medical Systems.”
He touched another series of buttons on the screen. “All right. I’m going to numb you up a bit. It shouldn’t hurt, but I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. Then I’m going to restart the cybernetics and see what the damage is.”
She didn’t trust him. He was obviously holding something back about Myka’s abduction. He could be planting a tracer or sabotaging her implant.
Aldani must have seen the unease in her expression. “Please don’t worry, Renna. On my honor, it’s a simple repair and upgrade.” He flipped the screen around to show her the diagnostic tool he was using. She recognized the manufacturer’s software.
“All right. Go ahead.” Even if she didn’t trust him, she needed every advantage she could get to break into that facility. She’d just have to hope he was telling the truth.
Renna’s stomach lurched at the sight of the needle, threatening to revisit dinner once more. She squeezed her eyes shut as it pricked the skin at the base of her skull.
“That’s a nasty scar you have there. Ever think about getting it taken care of?”
She knew he wasn’t talking about the implant site. She opened her eyes, forced her fingers not to trail the white gash running across her throat. “Don’t you like it? I think it gives me character. My clients are always very impressed.”
He chuckled. “Every beautiful thing needs a flaw.”
“Doctor, are you flirting with me?” She smiled up at him, and Aldani shook his head.
“If I were a younger man, most definitely. Now lay back and turn your head to the side. This will just take a minute.”
Renna obeyed. While she couldn’t feel whatever Aldani was doing to her implant, she could occasionally feel his fingers as he brushed against the skin of her neck or smoothed her hair out of the way. He hummed softly under his breath as he worked, and Renna’s eyes drifted shut.
“Earlier you said I was familiar with your work. Care to explain?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.
She let out a soft sigh. Before this job was over, the entire traverse would know who she was. But Aldani needed to know she was good at what she did, and this was the one way to convince him. “I did a job a few years ago that got a lot of attention. You may have heard of the Seralline Star Sapphire heist?”
His fingers froze on her neck. “That was you?”
“Yes. But I would never have taken the job if I’d known it was going to be so high profile.”
“You stole a priceless heirloom from one of the most dedicated military planets in the galaxy and you didn’t think it was going to cause waves?”
She resisted the urge to shrug. “I didn’t realize it was going to capture the imagination of the entire galaxy. I also thought the Trezians would keep quiet about it, not wanting to lose face.”
“For anything else, you would have been right, but the sapphire is too important culturally for them not to go to any lengths to get it back.”
“Yeah, I figured that out.” She ignored the flecks of blood coating the tweezers Aldani set down on the tray beside her. “So what’s your story? How did you end up as Myka’s guardian?”
“My brother and his wife had no other family, and when Banos Prime was hit, they sent him to me. I expected they would follow, but they were killed before they could get off-planet.”
Poor Myka. Renna chewed her lip as a thought occurred to her. “Could it be possible that the attack on Banos had something to do with Myka?” Maybe it was the first attack. Maybe someone had been after him longer than they’d thought.
The doctor shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m starting to wonder.”
“Dallas said Myka’s parents had found some interesting technology. Do you know anythi
ng about that? Did it have to do with whatever drug they were developing?”
Aldani frowned as he moved to stand behind her. “Hold your head still, please.”
Renna clutched at the edge of the table as a buzzing sound filled her head and the room spun. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to breathe through the electric flashes of pain shooting through her skull. Lightning bolts danced across the back of her lids. She’d been knocked out the first time her implant had come online. This was hellish.
“Hang in there, I’m almost done.” Aldani rested a warm hand softly on her forehead. “All right. It’s working again. Just needed a little rewiring. Now I’m going to install the upgrades. You may feel slightly dizzy while they install.”
Dizzy was an understatement.
Something cold pressed against the back of her neck, and she tried not to jump.
“Easy there. Just a few more moments.”
Renna’s eyes fluttered as Aldani finished the software upgrades and her brain accepted them.
“So where does one even go to find a black market implant?” he asked. She could hear him tapping on his tablet near her ear, but she kept her eyes closed a little longer.
“I have good connections. IMS supposedly stopped making cybernetics after the ban passed, but if you know the right people…”
“Seems dangerous. Back alley surgery can lead to complications.”
“Oh, it wasn’t back alley. There are a few private hospitals on the Outer Rim that will perform the surgery if you pay well enough. With no paperwork left behind.” She smiled at the memory. The doctor who’d installed the implant for her had been young and handsome. They’d spent a week together after she’d “recovered.” He’d had an amazing bedside manner.
“I’m glad it wasn’t a hack job. There. That’s the last download.” He swiped something cool and wet across the incision site on her neck. “Keep an eye on this for the next day or so, but I think you should be all set.”
Renna sat up slowly and turned her head from side to side. The familiar overlay across her vision was back. She grinned at Aldani. “Amazing. There’s a whole new suite of comm tools here.”
He nodded, the corners of his mouth lifting. “I’ve upgraded your omega-net access and local scanning systems as well.” He moved to the sink and scrubbed his hands, talking over his shoulder. “I trust you’ll remember I helped you and not use those tools while you’re in my facility.”
Renna stiffened on the table before forcing herself to relax. “Of course I’ll remember. I appreciate the help. I’m going to need all the tools I can get to break into that facility.”
Aldani dried his hands under the UV light and turned back around to face her. “I need to go check on the progress of the gamma destabilizer. Can you find your way back to your room now?”
“With this back on, I sure can.” She hopped down from the table and held out her hand. “Thank you again, Doctor.”
He shook it, his large hand swallowing hers. “Don’t make me regret helping you, Miss Carrizal.”
SIXTEEN
Aldani left her at the elevators and headed off to his private lab. Renna watched him disappear around the corner, his flapping white lab coat at odds with his more formal dining attire. She frowned. She had two options now: go back to her room and get some rest or continue with her plan.
Guilt coiled heavily in her chest, and she stared down at her hands. The hands of a thief, her mother had always said. It hadn’t been a compliment.
Aldani had trusted her enough to fix her implant, but if Dallas had been killed, maybe no one left at MYTH knew the terms of their agreement or her pardon. She’d have to take care of herself like always.
This was no time to go developing a conscience.
Renna glanced down the hallway. Empty. She wouldn’t get a better chance. As if on their own, her feet headed down the corridor. When she spotted the first security camera, she paused, careful to stay out of its range. She watched it rotate back and forth and, with a zap of her nanospanner, stunned it in a position where she could sneak beneath it. The second camera was as easy as the first. Even better, when security reviewed the feed in the morning, all they’d think was that the mechanics had malfunctioned. It might keep suspicion off her for a little while.
With her implant working again, Renna found the lab she’d noticed earlier easily enough. A few minutes at the touchpad had her inside without a hitch. The last tech had dimmed the lights. Only a few weak helobulbs lit the long metal tables and the gleaming test tubes. A double-walled safe room had been built in the center of the space, and through the tempered glass walls, she could see the computer chips. Row after row of pinhead-sized dots of metal.
The Coalition government would be pleased with Aldani’s work. Once implanted in a server, these chips would be able to infiltrate any network in the system, gathering data, spying on terrorists, keeping watch on the net users and hackers who threatened national security, allowing communications to travel even more quickly between distant systems.
A few of these on the open market would even up the score a bit and allow the hackers a way into government systems as well. The net should be a two-way street. It was never fair to have all the power on one side. And like Viktis had said—someone was going to make a buck off the job. It might as well be her.
She crouched at the door of the safe room and gazed at the glowing pad. Well, well, what was this? The tech was something she’d never seen before. Homegrown, probably developed in-house by Dr. Aldani’s team.
Renna grinned and cracked her knuckles. Tumbling a new lock was like having sex with someone for the first time. Sure, it was a little awkward learning all the ins and outs, but the thrill of discovery more than made up for it. Carefully, she sliced into the system, each movement checked and double-checked before she proceeded with the crack. Wires and cyberware wove throughout the device in elegant circuits. Challenging, even for her.
Renna’s stomach fluttered, and she took a deep breath. She hadn’t felt like this in years. Since her first major safe crack, to be exact.
It was her first job after leaving Blur’s gang, and she’d lied to get the contract, assuring the mark she’d broken through dozens of chemocyclic locks. She’d practiced at home for a week before going in, memorizing every circuit, every route through the lock, every wire and pin. And when she was there, crouched in the CEO’s office, she’d felt it. The surge of adrenaline, the feel of power that kept her coming back for more. It had taken her forty-five seconds to get through the safe and retrieve the datapad. Another two minutes to get back outside undetected. And three days to come off the high she’d gotten from finishing the job.
Blur had bought her a bottle of Scottish whiskey to celebrate.
Renna steered her mind back to the task at hand. One slipped wire could alert the whole compound. A few more seconds, and she heard the dulcet sounds of the safe turning off. She was in.
She slipped a single case of the microchips into her pocket, and a rush of adrenaline made her whole body tremble. No need to be greedy. Each of these babies would earn her a small fortune. She could hold onto the sapphire a bit longer, let the legend grow before cashing it in. She’d never need to work again.
Quickly, she reprogrammed the system, backing out and removing any sign of her presence. The safe clicked, then hummed again, and she stroked the metal pad fondly with one finger. Dr. Aldani had a devious and brilliant mind. If only she had a little more time to probe it more deeply.
She slipped out of the lab and made her way back to the elevator. The hallway to her room was empty, and she finally let herself relax. She’d made it. Hopefully they’d be long gone tomorrow before Aldani’s staff discovered the theft.
She didn’t bother to walk quietly, and the tap of her boots on the floor echoed off the marble floors. As she passed, one of the doors slid open, and Finn stepped out, his face stern.
“Where have you been?” he demanded.
She frowned at the accus
atory tone. “With Dr. Aldani. Is there a problem?”
“I can’t imagine he wants someone like you wandering around his facility.”
Her muscles tightened every time the blasted man even opened his mouth. If only she wasn’t so aware of the other things that tightened as well. “Dr. Aldani trusts me. Maybe you should, too.”
His words matched the ice blue of his eyes. “Trust you? I wouldn’t trust you if you were a Priestess of Preill.”
“It’s a good thing I don’t look good in green then, isn’t it? Those habits aren’t at all flattering for a girl with my figure.” She turned to walk away, determined not to let him get to her, but Finn grabbed her arm. His fingers dug into her skin. When she tried to yank away, they only tightened.
“Get your hand off me. Now.” Steel laced her voice, her entire body coiled to attack.
Finn’s hand fell away from her arm, but he didn’t step back. He crowded her, threatening and hard as stone. “I want to know what game you’re playing,” he said, staring down at her.
“Games? You want to talk about games, Hunter?” She emphasized the title ever so slightly.
His eyes widened a fraction, and he glanced down the hall. “I told you that part of my life is over. I’m one of the good guys now. Unlike you and your merry band of misfit mercenaries.”
“Jealous?” she asked sweetly. “Do you remember how it felt after the rush of a dangerous job? The adrenaline of getting through an impossible situation? I can’t imagine being in MYTH is nearly as exciting.”
“I’ve had my share of excitement since joining, I promise.” He emphasized the last word in an echo of her earlier tone, and she flinched.
Dammit. He’d been the one to drill that code into her head when she’d joined the gang. He knew she didn’t use the word lightly.
“Tell me what you were doing with Aldani,” he demanded.
“It’s none of your business.” Her shrug was dismissive, but his closeness made every cell in her body quiver with awareness. Anger and desire surged through her in equal measures. She hated that she was still attracted to him after all this time, even more so now that he was acting all alpha male on her.
