Page 64 of Kryxis

Dani looked away, watching the others moving supplies around the storage bay. She glanced back at Nadine. “Will Nexacor stop from destroying the city?”

“No.”

“Then I can’t say I found a chip.” She moved past Nadine to go help with the rest of the supplies. Nadine called back to her.

“Your position could be on the line, Dani. Please, reconsider.”

She shouldn’t be surprised. “Call the meeting with the other heads,” Dani said. “And we’ll see.”

Getting everything placed in the storage bay went as smoothly as expected. One last check of the ship, and the mechanics went in to do their tests. Once everything was accounted for, she freed the team from any more work, allowing them to return to the upper decks and start filing their reports with management.

“You did the right thing, Dani,” Myrell said when most of them had gone. “Saving Kryxis, despite his antics. There’s no reason he should have been on X110. If what Tom said was right, vrisha are a protected race. If it had gotten out that Nexacor destroyed the city knowing he was there, it could be very bad.”

“And he’s still in danger,” Dani added. “He’s not safe here. If the heads find out…”

“Talk to Tom. He clearly knows more about them. He might be able to help get in touch with those running the alliance.”

Dani went in search of Tom who, to no one’s surprise, was the last to leave, still inspecting parts, filing them into his personal log.

“Gotta say, we did real good despite losing a bunch of parts on the bridge,” Tom said when he noticed her. “Management will be getting a novel complaint back from me at this rate.”

“As they should,” Dani said. “Also, I wanted to ask you. It’s about Kryxis.”

“He got out of the ship okay?”

“Yes. But…he can’t stay hidden forever. I’m going to be talking to the heads about what I found on X110. But also, I need to contact the alliance and let them know we’ve found him. Can you help me?”

Tom’s eyes lit up. “There are definitely ways to get a hold of them. I will search around and get on that right away.”

She thanked him, leaving him to finish his work. She was desperate to get back upstairs and take a long-needed shower, but she wanted to check on Kryxis. Sneaking back over to vault 007, she unlocked it and went inside.

“Kryxis, I’ve got good news,” she started as the vault shut behind her. “We are going to—”

She froze.

The crate was open, the lid bent to one corner.

Oh, no.

She shot over and peered inside. The crate lay empty.

She cursed and whirled around, searching every corner of the room. He was nowhere to be found.

How the hell did he…?

Then she noticed the large vent above. The grate from it was popped off and lying on the ground.

“Kryxis!” she hissed at the vent.

No response.

Dammit!

He was gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Dani

---