Page 40 of Dark's Savior

Aly pursed her lips. A lock of hair fell against her cheek, and she brushed it aside. "I suppose that's fair," she said quietly.

Ryziel nodded his head. "Good."

"And our place on the ship?" Aly asked before he decided to leave without another word.

Ryziel looked back out the window, to the darkness beyond. "There are eight of you, correct?"

"Nine, technically." Aly's stomach dropped as she remembered Sarah. She hadn't thought about how they were going to get her back. She would have to worry about that later. "But eight of us are here now."

Ryziel scratched at his jaw and sighed. "All right. They will be given a place. But you will not inform them of it until the ship is fully built. And once you do, they will have to remain silent. If one speaks of it, you all will lose your chance. Understood?"

Aly moved off the counter to stand closer to him, ignoring his sudden stillness as she did so. "It's a deal, then," she said and put out her hand.

Ryziel stared down at her open palm like it was completely unfamiliar to him and he wasn't sure what to do with it. Which wasn't completely wrong. It wasn't like human customs were universal.

Aly understood this, and she quickly dropped her hand.

"A deal," Ryziel agreed. He turned for the door and before he could slip out, he looked back at her. "What is the lowest level you are allowed to enter?"

"Level twenty," Aly said.

"Then meet me tomorrow on level twenty when your regular shift begins," he replied. The door opened and he peered out, making sure the coast was clear.

"All right, great." Aly stepped behind him with a grin. "I will see you then—"

He walked off without glancing back at her. Aly poked her head out of the unit to watch him go, a strange feeling warming her. She returned back into her unit and let the door close soundly. Her smile stayed on until she slept.

Chapter Sixteen

It was only drizzling down on twenty from a light mist that had made its way into the lower levels, the storms quieting momentarily, keeping back the rain. Aly pretended to inspect a generator, checking for faults though knowing it was in perfect working order. No one seemed to care nor notice her, so it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, but she would have felt silly if she had just stood around, searching every stairway and elevator car for Ryziel like an expectant puppy.

She hadn't said a word to her team like she promised, letting them believe she was working, though she began to wonder and soon worry about how exactly Ryziel planned to bring her down without being traced by her techband. If they were to unlink it again, the enforcers would grow very suspicious indeed.

She tried not to think too much about it, though her heart thumped harder the longer she wandered on twenty, in fear someone would eventually catch on that she wasn't really working.

As she finished inspecting the generator and began to make her way over to a charging station, she caught a sudden movement at the corner of her eye and turned to see Ryziel hiding just within the entrance to a small tunnelway. He gestured for her to come. Glancing around to make sure no one watched, she approached him carefully. As she neared the tunnel, he slipped farther in. Once she stepped inside, she walked a little way then halted before bumping into him.

Ryziel seemed to look her over carefully before pointing to her wrist. "Take off your techband and give it to me."

Aly did as he asked, slipping the band off and placing it in his big hand. She watched as he took it up and began navigating her screen, going through the band's system. Aly tried to peer over to see what he was doing exactly, but it was too hard to tell in the dark.

"Um, just my two cents, but won't just unlinking it again make the enforcers really suspicious and start looking for me?" she said.

"I'm not unlinking it," Ryziel replied without looking at her. "I am using a unique set of codes within a premade program to make the tracer think you are somewhere you are not."

"Oh." Aly thought about it. "So, like a VPN?"

Ryziel actually stopped what he was doing to look at her. "A what?"

"Sorry, a virtual private network. It's something we humans would use so that others couldn't trace us online...er, through a shared database system or whatever."

"Something like that," he said and went back to reworking her techband. "Nar and I made it up last night. It will allow you to go below without your techband setting off where you are. Instead, they will think you are somewhere on one of the higher levels. You will still be able to send and receive messages and make calls, though I will ask that you don't while you are down in the lair. If it is an emergency, we will return to another level." He made a few more adjustments then handed the band back to her. "Every hour, the location will change so anyone who can see where you are will think you are moving around. When you return toward the surface after your shift, you will turn off the program I just set, and it will relink to your exact location. I will show you how to turn it on and off later."

Aly slipped the band back on. "Got it."

Ryziel shifted his eyes back down the tunnel and seemed to pause, as if waiting for something to appear. When nothing did, he started for the stairs.

"The way is clear. No one will see us," he said. "When we come to an empty level, we will take the elevator the rest of the way down."

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