Page 40 of Guardian's Heart

"We will find a planet." Lutz’s fist slammed on the table. It seemed as if I had poked one of the many weak spots in their plan.

"This is why I asked where you went." Maxim glared at Lutz, willing him to calm down.

Oh no. All my alarm bells were going off now. These people weren't quite as naïve as I had first assumed. They still had a major flaw in their plan. For example, I doubted Lutz could fly this ship, but at least they had an idea of where to go, even though it would be right back to where we came from.

The planet we left was habitable. People already lived there.

"We’ll sell the spaceship and start new lives," Maxim explained patiently, looking at me as if I were a five-year-old.

I drained my cup of water and got up, keeping a close eye on the group. Panuta, Lutz, and Maxim tensed. Lutz looked ready to jump up. Just as I had feared, until they were sure they could trust me, they would not allow me to leave the mess hall.

Pretending I hadn't noticed the sudden tenseness around the group, I walked to the beverage dispenser, selecting something at random, hoping it was alcohol. God knew I could use a stiff drink.

"What?" Anusha demanded when I sat back down.

"Just give me a minute to digest all this," I stalled. After a moment, I turned to Lutz and asked, "What kinds of airplanes have you flown?"

"The last plane I flew was an Airbus A380." An arrogant line appeared around his lips. I could see him in a pilot's uniform, all decked out and dapper. His words didn't mean anything to me though; I wasn't a big flyer. Not yet. Once I had made enough money from my hacking skills, I would have traveled all over the world.

I hadn't been a vicious hacker. I never stole Aunt Edna's entire savings, broke into a credit card company, or sold their information. In all my illegal endeavors, I had always been careful not to harm a single person. I had used my skills for the good of mankind even though they would never know. For shits and giggles, I broke into other hackers’ accounts and scrambled their stolen data, which got me in hot water with the mob. They needed my skills for something that I didn't want to do. Which was the reason I was in freaking New Orleans when I was taken. Although, in hindsight, I should be actually thankful to the Cryons for invading us and preventing me from doing something that went against my code of honor.

My way of earning money had been more or less legit. I earned my money by getting paid for elevating social media posts. It didn't hurt anybody that Christine M. from Fort Lauderdale liked Little Miss Piggy's Home Fries in Baton Rouge, even though, as far as I knew, she'd never been there. Little Miss Piggy paid me a thousand dollars to get ten thousand likes and shares on her page. So… I hijacked unused social media accounts and made them like things or even leave good reviews, depending on my client.

Anyway, Lutz was one of the most dangerous types of people. He wasn't only overconfident and full of himself, but he had also been gifted the ability to convince others of it, too.

"What does it matter?" Anusha questioned my inquiry about Lutz’s flying abilities.

What does it matter? I nearly rolled my eyes and shook my head at these people’s desperate gullibility.

"Have you been to the bridge?" I challenged. "Any of you?"

"Of course not." Amy's head moved from side to side.

"She won't help us." Lutz’s hand hit the table once again.

"Easy." Maxim stopped him for a second time. His light eyes bored into mine. "Have you?"

I leaned back into my chair, the picture of nonchalance, while my toes intertwined with each other.

"I have," I replied coolly.

"And?" Maxim seemed to lose some of his patience.

"I've never been in a cockpit," I forced myself to smile at Lutz in a respectful way. "But this bridge doesn't look like anything I have ever seen before."

"Explain," Maxim demanded.

I didn't like his tone. He reminded me of the men the mob had sent after me to force me to breach a bank's firewall. They wanted to open accounts to nonexistent companies to funnel money.

"There are screens that hover in the air. They're shaped like cubes," I recalled what I saw on the bridge, hoping to deter them, to make them see how foolish their plan was. "The symbols on them are in an alien language."

Amy blanched a little. "So, not like a regular cockpit?"

I nearly broke my little toe from clenching so hard in response to Amy’s stupid comment. The sharp pain grounded me enough not to lose my composure and to keep playing their silly, dangerous game.

"I'm afraid not." I lowered my gaze to hide my contempt.

"So we have to change plan some," Maxim declared. "We force the alien to take us back to that planet."

---