Well, part of a plan anyway.
“How safe do you think it is to talk here?” I looked around. We were out in the open, but there wasn’t really anything around me that looked like a camera or security device.
Rix shook her head and started walking towards the pyramid. She carefully wrapped the stinger and put it in a pouch around her shoulder.
“That’s new.” I pointed at the pouch.
“It was from one of the crates. A level down bag that can hold up to Tier Three items, but those will start to eat through it. That’s why I have a wrap, to make it last longer.
“You realize that if it’s not safe to talk out here, then you probably shouldn’t be talking about stealing from him.” Oz kept her voice low.
“It’s okay.” Rix smiled. "Sipher already got his cut, so he won’t care if I lift a few things from Whisper.”
“Won’t Whisper care?” Oz looked skeptical
“Things go missing in transport. Items get damaged. Inventories get miscounted." She grinned. "Whisper can’t get back in here right now, so unless he’s certain that someone stole from him here…” She twirled her finger around in front of her. "Then he has no idea where the few items went missing and he can’t get here to look for them.”
She had a point, but it still seemed risky, but I was glad that she had.
No one was in the kitchen, and once the three of us were inside, we locked the door.
“As far as I can tell, this is one of the few places that aren’t bugged.” Rix sat down at the table. "What’s the plan?”
I looked at Oz, who sat one seat away from me. The woman looked like she had a lot on her mind, but she had still followed us in here. I was going to have to trust her, and probably everyone else downstairs. I really wished that I had Justia or Ether with me, but Ether wasn’t here and I didn’t want to alert Glima, which I might if I grabbed Justia from the Bunk.
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I turned to Rix. "Could you get the lift working and the door open if you didn’t have to worry about time?”
Rix shook her head. "Time isn’t the issue. There’s a manual operating system in place in case the system gets shut down, but the problem is that Glima has access to the override. As long as she has her band, she can shut me down before I can do anything.”
“She would catch us before we made it to the lift, which is why I’m asking if you could do it if she wasn’t an issue?”
Rix eyed me, ‘Yes, but how are you going to get her out of the picture..? Kidnap Sylph?”
I shook my head. I hated that I’d thought about it. "The way Glima talked, she would still have to protect this place even if her daughter’s life was at stake.” I pointed at Rix’s bag. "Will that knock her out?”
“For a minute or two. She’s a Tier Three, so it’ll mostly just stun her.”
“That’s all we need. Is there anything that you lifted that you could restrain a Tier Three with?”
“I took some cloth that I thought might be good for a blanket, but she’ll get out of that.” Rix looked even more confused.
“The cages, is there a way to lock them?”
“It’s tied to her crystal band, so she’d be able to turn it off and open it.” Rix shook her head.
“But what if we stun her.” I pointed at the pouch. "Wrap her band with the cloth so she can’t access it, then get her into the cage before she wakes up.” I looked at Oz, then back at Rix. "How long would we have before she woke up and could stop us?”
“A few minutes maybe…” Rix patted the pouch, “I’ve got another one of these that we could dose her with once we got her there to buy us more time.” She shook her head. "It’ll be close.”
I looked at Oz. "Do you think we should try this or look for a better option?”
“You want to know what I think?” Oz took a deep breath and let it out as she stopped herself and shook her head. "I think if it’s going to work, you’ll need Gesai to move her.”
I turned to Rix. "I know you don’t like this, but every day we stay here is another day that Sipher gets closer to becoming a monster…”
“I get it.” Rix got up and started pacing. "The sooner we do it the better, because the longer we wait the higher the chance I get caught with this.” She tapped the bag on her side. “I’ll go get Gesai.