Page 47 of Synnr's Ride

Sweaters.

Jori dug in and also uncovered some blouses, but unless weapons makers were getting incredibly creative, the clothing wasn't dangerous.

"Look for more with that logo," he said.

They walked faster, but Hanna didn't see more crates with the Apsyn shipping logo on the shelves. Instead, there was a whole pile of them on a pallet at the end of one of the rows.

But before they could get close, she heard the sound of a garage door slamming open and shot a desperate look at Jori.

Company.

They slunk back into the maze of rows while Hanna strained to hear if that company was coming their way.

She tried to get a count of the crates as she and Jori retreated, tried to get some idea of how much destruction those crates could cause.

It was a lot.

Too much.

But they couldn't do anything about that until they were out of the building. And finding their way back to the entrance was its own problem. Hanna tried to retrace their steps, but when they came to the second turn, she and Jori tried to go separate ways.

They had a silent contest of wills and hand signals, but Hanna wasn't backing down. She was certain of this turn.

The next one, not so much.

They wandered on silent feet for several minutes before Hanna was willing to admit that she might have taken a wrong turn somewhere. And all the while, there was someone else in the warehouse, one unlucky turn away from discovering them.

She was a rat in a maze, and not even a particularly smart rat. A part of Hanna wanted to collapse into a heap and give up. The crates were evil. And possibly moving around of their own volition. Getting caught wouldn't be their biggest worry after awhile. Soon hunger and thirst would get to them, and they'd be lost forever.

Or she was catastrophizing. Being unable to say a word made that easier.

"Hey! Who's there?"

She couldn't see where the voice was coming from, but Jori put a hand on her arm and pulled her back gently.

It might have worked, but he bumped into a stack of crates and sent a loose item on top clattering to the floor.

The sound echoed in the air around them as loud as an explosion. Jori and Hanna stared at each other for a frozen moment.

Then the heat of their assailant's spark blasted their way and they took off running.

16

Jori kepta hold of Hanna for as long as he could. Unfortunately, that only lasted until the end of the row when she pulled away and started sprinting.

He followed after. He wanted to shoot his spark back at the hulking figure still shooting at them, but Jori had seen those explosives. One unlucky hit and the entire place would be nothing more than a crater.

He didn't want to burn himself to a crisp, and he certainly wouldn't let anything like that happen to Hanna.

The snare was closing in. Enemy footsteps pounded ever closer, and every turn Jori and Hanna took was further away from the exit and freedom.

They should have called for backup. They should have waited.

But if they had, those weapons could have disappeared, secreted away to whatever contacts Kark had in Osais and already being prepped to bomb more civilians.

There was no right move in this kind of job.

He and Hanna came to a split in two rows.

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