Page 54 of Ruin

“Brrrp!”

Breathing past the intense aversion to not having her in his sight, he ghosted his fingers down the length of her hair, then re-affixed the vent cover and turned to Hush.

“Glarin’ at the back of my head doesn’t make me work faster,” the Drifter commented drolly.

“Yes, it does.”

“Pah, nuh… oh. Well, shit, maybe it does. I’m in.”

“How many guards?”

“Mm, looks like fourteen.”

“Any crew?”

Intel said Gaius didn’t employ living crew members, preferring to use the ship’s AI and automations because computers weren’t vulnerable to blackmail, coercion, or hate. But intel could be wrong.

“Nope.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

This was usually his favorite part of a mission, yet all he wanted to do was hurry the fuck up and kill these people so he could have his bird back by his side.

Lying atop Beep’s back,Lira watched anxiously as Ruin and Hush worked their way down the richly appointed corridors below.

They moved like wraiths, quickly and silently, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. As fast as her bot was, even he was struggling to keep up with them.

She went to wipe the sweat off her brow, only to bump into the transparent helmet thing Ruin insisted she wear. Sighing, she tried to ignore the tickle of the droplet trailing across her face. The ductwork was cramped and uncomfortably warm, the air stale and dusty, but she did her best to ignore those discomforts and stay focused on being the guys’ eyes in the sky.

Or ceiling, currently.

Beep shifted under her suddenly and pointed one of those long antennae back over her shoulder. Following it, she caught movement from farther back down the corridor.

She narrowed her eyes to focus the viewers, then gasped, fear and adrenaline flooding her in a rush. A large, serpentine humanoid, clad head-to-tail in a black combat suit, was gliding up the hallway toward Ruin and Hush, holding a deadly looking rifle as big as her leg.

Her stomach cramped nauseatingly and goosebumps rose on her arms and legs despite the stifling heat in the shaft.

She couldn’t remember having any particularly bad experiences withKii’mians, yet they scared her on a primal level. Theirsnake-like appearance, their venomousness, knowing they could squeeze her into goo with those powerful coils.

This one must’ve discovered the trail of dead people the guys left behind. Which meant their presence on the ship was no longer a secret.

Whipping her gaze back to the guys, she expected to see them turning around, raising their weapons… but they weren’t. They weren’t reacting to the approaching enemy at all. Could they not hear him?

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, the world around her narrowing to a pinpoint. She could see it all playing out in her mind's eye—the Kii’mian rounding the corner and taking aim, Ruin falling…

No.

Her hand flew to the mag-coil pistol at her hip. She lined up the shot, squinting through the viewers, willing her trembling hands to steady.

Breath held, finger poised to activate the trigger, she had no idea if her little gun was strong enough to fire through the wall, but she was damn sure going to try. If nothing else, it would hopefully alert Ruin to the danger.

The recoil jolted through her arm, the pop echoing off the metal walls loud enough to make her wince. Below, the assassin froze just as he turned the corner and looked down at the neat hole burned through his chest.

She’d actually hit him!

At the other end of the hall, Ruin whirled, dropping into a crouch so fast she almost missed the movement, weapon up and aimed.

Gradually, inch by inch, the Kii’mian collapsed in on himself, upper body sagging onto limp coils.

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