CHAPTER FOURTEEN—NEW PLANS

The shuttle rattled as turbulence shook the craft. “She’s a little bumpy!” Lancet called back to them in the main hold, “but she’ll make it to Life City.”

“What about Strogaus?” May asked as she glanced up at the cockpit from her seat.

Lancet shook his head. “Nothing on radar.”

May nodded, then turned back to Kyle and John who were sitting across from her. “We’ll drop you off somewhere when we get close to the city. I trust you two can find your way home?”

“To the hells with that,” Kyle said. “If these Strogaus guys came after you this hard for what we did”—he gestured to himself and John—“then we want to see this thing through.”

“And by ‘see it through’ you mean what, exactly?”

Kyle punched the air. “We’re going to fuck Strogaus up!”

May raised an eyebrow and glanced at John. “Does he always shoot first and think later?”

John shrugged as if to say that was in fact the case.

Stop taking her side, man.

“Hey!” Kyle complained. “We complement each other.”

He nodded. “I think Kyle’s right. We should stick together until we find out what’s going on.”

“I’m not accustomed to tightening my support group when things get dicey. Compartmentalization is more effecting at staying alive.”

“That’s cold,” Kyle said. “And it’s only true if you’re in the little compartment that isn’t being chopped off with a laser saw.”

“Listen,” John added. “We should stick together. Before we came out here to rescue you—“

“And you did a fine job.”

“There’s no need to snub us,” Kyle said.

“I was being serious,” May said. “You came out here, got your car shot to pieces, but you still managed to help us get our ship off the ground.”

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Kyle gave John an accusatory look.

“Without you guys,” Lancet said over the shipboard coms, “those Strogaus foot soldiers would have taken us out.”

“Or worse,” May said. “They could have captured us. In that case, you two would be in danger right now.”

“But that didn’t happen,” John said. “Because we worked as a team.”

“Which is what we need to do now,” Kyle said.

May said nothing.

John glanced at Kyle, then turned to May. “Before we came out here, your man, Miles—“

“I know,” May said. She paused for a moment. “Fine. You win. But I want to check out our base of operations before we find somewhere to stay low for a bit.”

“All right,” Kyle said. “And when you say ‘some place,’ do you mean you have a place?”

“We have several safe houses,” May said. “I’m not certain how safe they are at the moment, though. Strogaus was thoroughly in our network for a while.”

“You guys really dropped the ball.”

She looked at him, nodded. “You can blame us for that.”

“Are we okay?” John asked as he gestured to Kyle and himself.

“Yes,” she said. “As I told you already, compartmentalization is key in the way I do things. You two have never had anything to do with our systems. There’s no files, no recordings—nothing.”

“But we’ve sent you things before—recordings and video captures, etcetera,” John said, a look of confusion on his face.

“I’ve always kept those things separate from our network,” May said. “They’re put in secure bleach boxes.”

“What’s a bleach box?” Kyle asked.

“It’s a special buffer John said. “You store digital files and inscription codes in. If you don’t regularly check in with the bleach box, the contents inside are destroyed.”

Face lighting up, Kyle nodded. “Nice.”

I’m really starting to like this chick.

“If your safe houses are insecure,” John said, “You two should come to our place.”

“Are you sure about that?” May asked.

Kyle nodded. “We’re never certain of anything—but we role with it and adapt as the situation calls.”

John gave him a sidelong glance.

“So you’re the loose canon,” May said as she pointed at Kyle, “and you’re the brains.”

“Yeah, something like that,” John said.

“That is not true,” Kyle said. “Half of what we do is my idea.”

“Only because you rope me into making dumb moves.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy fucking our overlords as much as I do.”

Shaking his head, John said, “I didn’t say I don’t enjoy it, it’s—“

“Are you two unusually like this?”

They looked at each other. Kyle shrugged. “Let’s lock and load so we’re prepared if something shady goes down. Strogaus could be waiting for us when we get to your hideout.”

“Hideout?” May asked. “What is this, a holo-comic?”

“Hells yes it is!”

John chuckled.

“Now I see what you have to deal with.”

Kyle narrowed his eyes.

“To be fair, you’re intelligent,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Stroguas was waiting for us to arrive at… ‘the hideout.’”

Kyle laughed. “See!”

Shaking her head, May had to work hard to stifle her amusement and to school her face from betraying how stupid-funny that was.

“Thanks for the help, guys.”

“It’s no problem,” Kyle said.