Page 46 of Synnr's Ride

"I didn't spot any guards," he said as they crossed to the back of the warehouse and walked up to the back door like they belonged.

Jori handed her the ring.

There was no guarantee this would work. Just to be certain, Hanna tested the handle first and was unsurprised to find it locked. There was an electronic keypad beside the door, but also a key hole. Hopefully the door didn't require both.

She went through five keys before the sixth finally turned and the door opened.

Hanna was in, with Jori right after her. She looked around for a security panel and found one, but it was disarmed.

"Could be tied to the key," Jori suggested in a low voice.

"I'm willing to take a favor from luck. Now come on. I want to be clear before that meeting happens. We can leave a camera to catch the action." She didn't need to risk both of their necks just so they could witness whatever was about to happen in person.

They were in a small entrance room, and weak light filtered through around the curtains of a large window. There was a bare desk and computer, along with a chair that was covered in cracked leather and had padding bursting out of the sides. Definitely not as nice as the outside of the place.

The door out of the entry way wasn't locked, but the hallway was nearly pitch black. Hanna activated a flashlight and Jori did the same. Her senses were on high alert, ready for alarms to start blaring or a guard to chase them down, but the whole place felt empty. Hanna would bet an entire credit that they were alone.

The hallway spit them out into the warehouse. It was large enough to fit a couple of land to space vehicles, and there had to either be a huge garage door or retractable ceiling to accommodate that. Currently the central space was filled with tools, gear, and a large forklift.

Around that, the area was lined with storage containers filled with crates. There were two storage levels above them, all open to the central area and packed deep with shelves of their own.

Jori was about to step into the central area when Hanna shot out a hand to stop him. "Don't," she said.

"What's wrong?"

Hanna gave the room a hard look, but nothing stood out under the strong beam of her light. "I don't know. I just don't like how open it is." Anyone with a blaster or mastery of their spark could sit on an upper floor and easily take them out. "Let's try the storage first."

Jori didn't argue. And neither of them suggested splitting up, even if it might have meant they'd cover more area.

The storage area was deceptively big. Hanna had expected a few rows of shelves, but when they turned past one of them, they found an entire section of the warehouse that wasn't visible from the entrance. And here the shelves were positioned like a maze.

Lovely.

They moved methodically. Some of the crates were marked, and Hanna took pictures. Nothing stood out as unquestionably nefarious, so neither of them suggested tugging any crates down to take a look.

Sounds echoed strangely around the room and the light of their flashlights danced along the walls, shelves, and crates, creating a strange kaleidoscope of light and dark.

The sounds bounced off of the storage crates and shelves, echoing in unsettling ways that were hard to pinpoint. Somewhere deep in the warehouse there was a faint noise, a distant percussion that matched Hanna's heartbeat.

The beam of Hanna's light passed over the label on a crate and she froze. "Hold up."

"What?" asked Jori.

Hanna stepped closer to the crate and ran her hand over the thick ink of the marker. It was on the middle shelf. "Help me get this down, I want to see what's inside."

He didn't ask questions. They hefted it down, both barely restraining grunts at the surprising weight. Once it was on the ground, Hanna had to search for a pry bar, but luckily there was one on a hook at the end of the row.

She wedged it into the wood and hoisted the top off the crate.

"Braznon's bowels," Jori spat out and glared at the contents of the crate.

Blasters and explosives. Alotof blasters and explosives. They were packed tight, with only the smallest amount of padding to keep the material from jostling.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"The logo is from an Apsyn shipping company. I didn't see any other Apsyn logos." Most of the crates were unmarked, and there had to be thousands of them. Was it luck that the one they'd opened was full of deadly ordnance?

Jori pulled an unmarked crate from the bottom shelf and held his hand out for the pry bar. She handed it over and bit her lip while he opened the crate.

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