Page 44 of Only Rogue Actions
“Then give everyone a different story to tell,” I said, breaking the tense silence.
Rigel frowned.“What do you mean?”
I gestured over at the black box of explosives sitting on a nearby table.One of the House Collier warriors had retrieved it from the corridor and brought it into the control room.I also pulled the detonator out of my pocket and showed it to my friends.“Roderick was planning to blow up Siya’s transport to explain away our deaths.I say we use his own trick against him.”
Siya and Rigel exchanged a look.Asterin chewed on a fingernail and glanced back and forth between them.
“Roderick and his people dying in a transport crashwouldbe a much more palatable story,” Siya said.“The unexpected and tragic death of an heir to a major House.”
Rigel tilted his head in agreement.“And no one in House Battis could point a finger back at House Collier and claim we were responsible for either the crash or Roderick’s death.”
The two of them stared at each other a moment longer, then both nodded.Asterin let out a soft sigh of relief.
Kyrion nudged me with his elbow.“Have I told you lately how brilliant you are, seer?”
I nudged him back with my own elbow.“You can never say it too often, Arrow.”
He laughed, but then his eyes narrowed.“Why do I get the sense that smile on your face isn’t just for me?”
“You’re right.It’s not just for you.”I rubbed my hands together in glee.“I’m smiling because I’m finally going to get to blow some shit up.”
SiyaforcedJeffreytodownload the footage of our battles in the maze onto our tablets, along with all the information he could access from the House Battis servers.Next, she made the technician erase all traces of us from the training facility, like the main control panel had malfunctioned and accidentally deleted all the surveillance from the last few hours.
Rigel and the other House Collier Hammers quickly cleaned up the blood and erased all the physical signs of a fight on the control level.Then they took the bodies, including Roderick’s, down to the garage and loaded them onto the large House Battis transport I’d seen earlier.
Two hours later, it was like we had never been here at all.
I planted the black box of explosives on the ship and made sure the detonator I’d confiscated earlier was still working.I also engaged the transport’s autopilot and synced it to Siya’s ship so she could control both vehicles at once.
Once that was done, the Hammers loaded Jeffrey onto their ship, along with the lifeless Black Scarab from the maze, and headed for the Collier estate.Siya and Rigel wanted to blow the machine up along with the House Battis transport, but I’d convinced them to spare it.Studying the Scarab might tell us where it had come from, or more importantly, who had given it to Roderick and Jeffrey.
When everything was set, I boarded Siya’s ship.She was at the controls, along with Rigel.Kyrion and Asterin were standing behind them.I joined my friends on the flight deck, and we left the transport garage.
Lucky for us, the training facility was located at the top of a rocky ridge, so no other businesses or homes were nearby.Siya steered her transport away from the facility, then set it in hover mode.She flipped some switches, took control of Roderick’s ship, and also steered it out of the garage.
Siya maneuvered Roderick’s ship so that it was drifting over a wide, deep chasm on this side of the mountain.“You’re sure this will work?”she asked.
“Of course it will work.”I waggled the black detonator at her.“I blew things up all the time in the R&D lab at Quill Corp.”
“I didn’t realize brewmakers needed to be tested in an explosive capacity,” Rigel replied in a wry tone.
I grinned.“Well ...they don’t.At least, not so many times.But it was an excuse for me, Bodie, and the other lab rats to have a little fun.Explosion day was always thebestday in the lab.”
Siya and Rigel exchanged a look like they thought I was a few solar batteries short of a full charge.Kyrion let out a soft laugh at my dark humor, but Asterin stared dully at nothing, just as she had been doing ever since we left the control room.
I waggled the detonator at Siya and Rigel again.“You sure you want to do this?Destroy the evidence instead of revealing Roderick’s crimes?”
Siya and Rigel exchanged another look, and they both nodded.
“We’re sure,” Siya replied in a firm voice.“House Collier can’t afford to make an enemy of House Battis.Especially not now, when we’re still recovering from the attack by the Serpens Corp mercenaries.”
“Roderick should be punished for his crimes,” Asterin muttered.It was the first time she had spoken in several minutes.“They shouldallbe punished.They shouldn’t just get away with it.”
Siya hesitated.“Roderick and the others have been punished,” she replied in a gentle tone.“They’re dead, and we’re not.”
“What about all the people Roderick killed?”Asterin asked in a low, tense voice.
“Jeffrey gave us a list,” Rigel chimed in.“He kept records of everyone Roderick lured into the maze just in case Roderick ever turned on him.We’ll figure out a way to quietly notify the victims’ families and tell them what happened.I don’t know what else we can do, especially since Roderick and his people destroyed most of the bodies.”
