Page 25 of Synnr's Ride

Only about half of Kark's usual crew were there. Kark, at his place of honor, Jursor beside him, Rexx on the other side, along with Maisam and Mardoz. They were drinking beer and laughing amongst themselves. It was early yet, but Hanna wondered where the rest of the crew was. And she wondered if Zilly's relationship troubles might have something to do with it.

If Kark had a big job coming up, maybe he wouldn't pay so much attention to his girl.

Jori walked in and was greeted like a conquering hero. Once he'd been invited to Kark's table, the guys had accepted him as one of their own. It got even better when he brought his bike around. She'd given him enough information to speak with the passion of the newly converted, and he could rattle off enough fusion bike facts to bore the rest of the gang. He'd even gone with them on a ride the other day while Hanna and Zilly cleaned the bar.

But they hadn't shared any secrets. Neither had Zilly.

The smart play would be to wait it out. To build trust and hope that something eventually slipped. But urgency nagged at Hanna. She could feel in her bones that something was about to go down, and she and Jori had to find out what and put a stop to it.

It wasn't just her own self-preservation talking, though that was a part of it. If they failed to act quickly and people died, Hanna suspected the blame would fall on her just as hard as it fell on Morn Kark. This was her chance to prove herself and gain her freedom. She couldn't fail.

She rolled her head from side to side, stretching her neck and catching Jori's eye in the process. Then she rolled her head towards the hallway and lifted an eyebrow. He gave his head a minute shake, but she flashed a look that said she was doing it.

A bit of telepathy, or some kind of comms device would have gone a long way. She needed Jori to keep the guys distracted. But they'd planned for this possibility. Kark and his men were busy and thin on the ground. The bar wasn't that packed, and Hanna had a good excuse to head out back.

"I'm going to go swap out these crates. You good for a bit?" she asked Zilly, knocking her hand against the wooden crate.

"Better you than me. My arms ache just thinking about it!"

Hanna loaded her stack of crates onto the dolly and carefully rolled it through the bar. She had maybe five minutes before someone noticed she was gone and another five before someone came to look. Plenty of time.

She shoved the crates into the storage room. Hanna took a deep breath to get herself in the right headspace. She'd done more dangerous jobs than this, and she'd never had backup before.

It would be fine.

Kark's office was two doors down from the storage room. The other doors were smaller storage closets and one unused office. The final door in the hallway led to a closet that held a massive safe. Hanna didn't have the time or the tools to pick the lock, so she left that for later. Maybe Jori would have an idea.

The office wasn't particularly neat. Kark had papers scattered all over his desk, and the whole place smelled vaguely like whiskey and cigar smoke. There was a computer screen on the desk, but it was powered down. Hanna tried to turn it on, but it had a biometric lock.

Good security, but not outside the norm. If he had regular financial data on that computer, the lock made sense. It didn't need to be hiding anything criminal.

She did know how to get around it, but it would take time and she'd need to come back with a digital lock cracker to do it.

If she did this right, it wouldn't be her only chance.

Hanna sifted through the papers, careful to keep them spread out across the desk, just as Kark had left them. There were invoices, brochures for liquor and bike parts, and message slips in Zilly's handwriting. Nothing damning. But Kark was smart enough not to leave incriminating documents out in the open like that, especially not in an unlocked office.

If Hanna was a dastardly spy, she wouldn't leave anything in her official office. It was too obvious. But it was also something she couldn't ignore.

She pulled open the drawers of the desk. There was a tourist guidebook of Vanen, the capital of Kilrym. And there was a smaller map of Osais.

Hanna carefully removed it from the drawer and spread it out on the table. There were no markings, nothing conveniently circled with a label of "next bombing target," but she didn't let that discourage her.

She took a picture of the map with her communicator before taking a better look. It was a map of the same quadrant of the city where the first bomb had hit. The paper's fold creased along the same street that had been targeted, but that could be a coincidence.

The map had to be hiding some kind of secret. Hanna was tempted to stuff it in her pocket and take it with her, but if Kark noticed it missing, that could ruin everything.

She folded it back up and put it in the drawer before checking the time.

Her ten minutes were up. Every second she stalled now was begging for discovery.

Hanna slipped out of the office and was closing the door behind her when Rexx, one of Kark's men, barreled her way, demanding, "What were you doing in there?"

9

Hanna didn't freeze.Freezing would get her killed. She lifted her hand from the doorknob and let it drop, giving Rexx her brightest smile and hoping it worked.

"I'm getting some fresh booze for the bar. Is there a problem?" She didn't let her expression slip and kept her breathing even.

---