Page 4 of Needed in the Night
In any case, the moment that tracker landed in the tube, we’d officially passed the point of no return.
Quickly and silently, Novee and I finished putting on our cargo crew uniforms, complete with gloves, boots, respirators, and extra padding that changed our body shapes and disguised plates of body armor that covered our chests and backs.
The tracker we left on the shelf so anyone watching its location would see Novee was still in the pantry. Everything else went into the crate, which Ergin sealed and left on her sled. The glowing red symbol on the crate indicated it had been rejected as damaged goods.
While I’d focused on removing Novee's tracker, two empty antigrav sleds had been left outside the doors of the pantry, ready for us to pilot to the carrier.
In my mind, I reached out to my shadowbat.Brae, we’re ready to go.
Understood. Brae’s tension crackled through our telepathic link. He knew as well as I did how deadly dangerous the next few minutes would be.I will meet you at the kitchen door.
A surprised sound and a burbly snore made me spin around just in time to see Ergin lower Vila’s limp body to the floor. She’d knocked her out with a transdermal injection.
Novee took an angry step forward. “I wanted to say thank you and goodbye.”
“She knows you’re grateful,” Ergin said shortly.
Novee bared her teeth and hissed. It was the first time since I’d met her that I’d seen the soft-spoken woman so angry.
I’d met Web operatives like Ergin before. It wasn’t uncommon for an agent to adopt a cold and even unkind manner as a way of keeping emotional distance from those we rescued. I didn’t like it, and that wasn’t my way. I couldn’t make myself be harsh toward people who’d already suffered so much, even if it meant my heart might ache less. Still, I couldn’t pass judgment on those who chose that path. We all had to find ways to cope with our own nightmaresandthe pain of those we tried to help.
Some Web agents were in it for the money—especially the highly trained operatives who specialized in the most dangerous missions. But most of us were survivors turned agents, inspired to join the organization that had rescued us and given us our freedom.
As Novee struggled to rein in her anger, the holo projector continued to show a scene of Vila rummaging through the shelves and putting items in the basket as the real woman who’d helped us snored, curled up against a cold storage unit. Thanks to the drug, once she woke she’d have no memory of what she’d done for us and be looked at not as a conspirator but as a victim of our scheme—or at least that was the plan.
“Get ready to step out of the pantry and grab your sled,” Ergin told us. “Do not speak. Keep your eyes down and walk quickly. You will go ahead of me to the ramp. As soon as we have boarded, the carrier will depart.”
“Understood,” I said.
Novee nodded, her long, triple-jointed fingers clenching and unclenching in what was probably a combination of anger andfear. I couldn’t see her expression underneath the respirator mask.
I took a deep breath and let it out, banishing my unease and doing my best to replace it with the role I was about to play: busy, hard-working crew member ready to be done with this unloading job and get on to the next one.
“Confidence,” I reminded Novee, touching her gloved hand with mine. “We are leaving this planet right now, for good.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you both.”
“You are welcome,” I replied. Ergin grunted.
As the doorway hologram continued to show Vila, Novee, and I browsing the shelves of food, Ergin grabbed the manual control handle of her sled and jerked her chin at the doorway. “Go. I am right behind you.”
CHAPTER 2
ISLA
Side by side,Novee and I stepped through the hologram into the bustling kitchen.
Only two other crew members were still unloading the last of their cargo. We would all be heading to the carrier together, the last of the crew to board before its departure. It didn’t escape my notice that in bulky coveralls and respirators that hid every square inch of our bodies, all five of us were almost identical in height and size, making us all but indistinguishable from one another.
If Ergin had planned this phase of Novee’s extraction, she had done well. I owed her a drink, at least. Assuming we ended up docking somewhere with a decent bar and she’d accept my offer.
A familiar warm tingle caressed the back of my neck just as I settled my gloved hands on my sled’s control handle. Brae.Finally.
I expected him to land on my upper back and ride my shoulders out of the palace as a shadow. Instead, I sensed him aboveus, traveling along the ceiling as our little group made our way toward the wide exterior doorway. He must feel uneasy enough to want a higher vantage point.
For the first time in weeks, through the open doorway, I saw the sun-drenched morning outside the palace walls without thick blast-proof glass separating me from its beauty. I inhaled deeply to fill my lungs with fresh air that wasn’t purified or perfumed. Heavenly. Nothing in recent memory had smelled better, even Vila’s fresh-baked, fruit-filled cakes, the only thing about the palace I would miss.
Ngara was a lovely planet ruled by aristocrats like the Erotovo who hoarded their wealth and cared less about the common people than the art and treasures that filled their palaces. I doubted I’d return, even if it were safe to do so.
