Reyer staggered the last three steps to the Golondrina. She didn’t just lean on the ship—she almost fell on it. She barely managed to stay on her feet. She had no time to stop, but a few seconds were robbed from her as she waited for some of the agony to fade. When the pain dulled enough, she opened her eyes, noting for the first time something that should have commanded her attention when she’d first entered the empty hangar.

The ramp was closed.

“No,” she whispered. “No, Ciro. You didn’t.”

She felt her stomach tie itself in a knot. The sensation was almost strong enough to compete with all the other sensations she was trying to ignore.

Alix limped over to the hand pad and placed her palm on it. She didn’t even know if she could get in. Peters had to authorize the opening of every ship she worked on, and each permission was only temporary. Worse, she’d never worked on the Golondrina. She closed her eyes and prayed.

“Alix Reyer. Acknowledged.”

The ship knew her. She didn’t know how Ciro had managed it, but after she beat him senseless, she’d have to remember to thank him.

When the ramp touched down, she used one of the pistons to help drag herself up its slope. Once inside, a quick glance was all it took to confirm her suspicions.

“Antonio!” she barked.

The only thing that answered her was Lynx. “Miss Reyer, what happened?” The bot stepped over to her side.

“Where is he?” A wince pulled on her features. She curled over at the waist.

“The one known as Antonio Banderas left. He did not tell me where he was going.”

Reyer dully noted that Ciro needed to put some more time into explaining to Lynx when and how to use their aliases.

Never mind, Alix mentally berated herself. Focus. You don’t have time. You’re on your own. When she tried to straighten up, another wave of agony drew a cry from her.

“Miss Reyer, you’re in pain.”

“There’s that emotional recognition program again.” Reyer fought the hysteria that made her want to laugh. She was alone, but she wasn’t without help. She grabbed onto Lynx’s chest plate. Her nails scratched over the metal. “Listen to me, Lynx. Adan is in trouble. I need your help.”

“Understood.”

“Lay me down on the bench.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Dammit, Lynx! Why not?”

“It would hurt you more. One of my primary directives is to protect you and look after your wellbeing.”

“That mission is done and gone, bot!”

“I didn’t say it was a mission, Miss Reyer.”

Confusion flashed through Reyer’s mind, but it was driven away by the urgency of the situation. “Look, it’ll temporarily hurt me more, but then I’ll be resting, and that will help me feel better.”

“We could move slowly—”

“No, we can’t! Didn’t you hear me, Lynx? Adan’s in trouble. We need to act now, and I can’t—I can’t think with all this pain!”

There was a moment where the noise of Lynx’s processors blended with Reyer’s staggered breathing.

The robot swiftly picked her up, then laid her out on the bench. There was a muffled scream. Her fingers gripped his metal arms hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“Why are you in so much pain, Miss Reyer?”

“I was in a fight. Then I had to run here. Lynx, get down the first-aid kit.” The robot immediately yanked down the large box above his head. He opened it as Reyer went on. “Get out some Exlaudinum. Are you trained on how to mix and administer it?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll need a strong dose.”

“Understood. Are there any drugs in your system other than your standard Tranomine?”

“No.”

The bot had the solution prepared and in the needle faster than any human could have managed it. It burned as it went in her arm. She grabbed onto his chest plate again.

“You can’t let me fall asleep. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He disposed of the needle and turned back to where Alix was laying. “I’m ready for orders.”

“They’ve captured Adan. They’re going to turn him into the Supremacy. Can you cut down communication for that building?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? I’ve watched you take down communication systems before.”

“That was when I was directly hooked to a system, Miss Reyer. I have no connection to the building where they’re holding Captain Vas.”

“Can you get a connection?”

“Not without the proper network address.”

“And how—” Alix interrupted herself by shouting a few cuss-words to relieve her frustration. Lynx was only a bot. It didn’t matter how cleverly they could talk or how good he was at telling she was upset, Lynx was still only a bot. “This is taking too long. I need Ciro.” She closed her eyes.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Miss Reyer, you instructed me to prevent you from falling asleep.”

“I know.” She opened her eyes again, pulling away from the delicious wooziness. She could think now. She took a deep breath. “Lynx, if Adan had used his com to contact Ciro, it would have come to this ship.”

“That’s correct, Miss Reyer.”

“How would Ciro have gotten the message if he’s not here to receive it?”

“He gave me orders to set a relay to the com he took with him.”

Reyer nodded. “Get me a com.”

Lynx went across the ship and returned a moment later. He put the small device in her hand.

“Lynx, hook this com up to Ciro’s.”

“I can’t, Miss Reyer—”

“You can, bot. I know you can. Ciro sure as hell didn’t pair his com with Adan’s before we left, which means that somehow he was able to bypass the security. How did he do it, Lynx?”

“He didn’t. He set his com up to the ship and then set up a relay—”

“Do that then. Pair this com with the ship, then forward my message to him using the same method.” The medicine was working well now. Alix wiped her forehead on her arm. “You can do that, can’t you?”

“I’ll do it now, Miss Reyer.”

She sighed. “Thank you, Lynx.”

[https://i.imgur.com/6iM8gcI.png]

Ciro jumped when he felt the com in his pocket vibrate. The girl next to him glanced his way, but otherwise, no one seemed to notice. He stood up and took a step or two away from the computer, turning his body so that it’d be harder for others to hear his conversation, but doing his best to keep at least one eye on the monitor he’d been so focused on.

He pushed down on the com button. “This is Antonio.”

“You’re in front of a computer.” It wasn’t even a question.

“Ali—Alice?” This was bad. Very bad. “Miss Bellerose, I can’t talk right now.”

“That’s too damn bad, Mr. Banderas! You will talk to me. Right now.”

Ciro looked around the room, hoping there might magically be something that he could use to solve his problem. There was plenty of technology in the tech-café. Unfortunately, none of it belonged to him. If he randomly started appropriating it, a few of the other patrons might have a question or two for him.

His eyes fell on a wireless micro-headset, gently pinched between two fingers of an upheld hand.

It was the girl he’d been sitting next to. She looked young. Her clothes were mostly brown and black and the style that made it clear to anyone around her, she was not someone who embraced the conventional. She didn’t look up from what she was doing.

Ciro took the headset she had proffered.

“Thank you,” he muttered.

“Yeah.”

As soon as it was hooked to his com, he sat down at his computer.

“What’s the problem, Bellerose?”

Directly in his ear, he heard the words, “They got Francisco. I need you to shut down all communications in and out of the building we were at. All of it.”

“Uh…I can get most of it.”

“That’s not what I needed to hear. Take it all down, or we might not be able to save him before they contact the Supremacy and hand him over.”

“Who’s they?”

“Good question. Now shut up and take it down!”

By then Ciro had managed to pull up the infrastructure network he needed. It wasn’t hard. He’d already hacked into it for other reasons. He didn’t speak as he worked. When he was done, he reached up with one hand to push the microphone as close to his mouth as he could. He whispered, “I’ve got most of it, and I checked to make sure there hasn’t been any communication out recently. There was nothing through the network systems.”

He heard a scratchy echo of laughter. “You’re so much better than a bot, Antonio.”

Ciro’s brows furrowed. “Alice, are you…are you on something?”

“Exlaudinum. Wonderful stuff.” She swore again.

Ciro Vas grimaced. Reyer never took Exalt.

“Hey! Alice?” he said. “Alice, we still have a problem.” He noticed one or two people glance at him, so he lowered his voice. “Alice, are you there?”

“Yes. I’m here.”

“If they have phones, they can switch over to the satellite networks. It won’t take them long.”

“Then do something about it.”

Right. Do something about it. Ciro grit his teeth. She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. He propped his elbows on the table and pressed his hands to his head as he stared at the computer.

“Why don’t you take down the satellites?” someone said.

It was his neighbor. Her voice had been completely flat when she muttered her bizarre statement, and she turned her indifferent gaze on him for only a second.

“You mean pull them out of orbit?” Ciro said. “Gee, I hope I have a magnet big enough.”

She gave him a scathing look. “Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”

“You said it.”

“I meant turn them off. Moron.”

“‘Cause that’s so much easier.”

She shoved his shoulder to move him and his chair out of the way and pulled herself over to the console so she could type easier. Ciro’s eyes widened as he watched the screen flicker.

“You already did most of the work,” she grumbled.

Ciro felt like slapping himself. It was a military planet; he didn’t have to find and shut down dozens of networks. All the satellites were controlled by one group of people, and they were a group that believed in hierarchy. All you needed was one order in the right place. She only had to walk through the opening he’d created in the military’s mainframe and work out where to—no…she was already there.

He pointed at the screen, a confused look on his face.

“Oh yeah,” she scoffed. “I’ve done this before.”

“Who are you?”

“I might ask you the same thing.”

Ciro briefly pressed his lips together, then said, “Can I ask why you’ve done this before?”

“I was late and didn’t want my dad calling.”

Ciro grinned.

“Don’t ask me out,” she said. “I will harm you.”

“You get that a lot?”

She seemed to prefer to communicate using facial expressions. She commanded quite a repertoire. The one she was currently giving him more than answered his question.

“Well, I hate to break your heart,” Ciro said, “but I wasn’t planning on it.”

With a final loud tap on enter, it was done. A chorus of beeps sounded throughout the room as various phones tried to bid for the attention of their owners.

Ciro held out his closed fist. She bumped it with her own.

“Stick it to the man,” she said.

“Break open the system,” he added.

She turned back to whatever mischief she was perpetrating on her own computer. “You might want to get out of here. They really don’t like it when you do this. You’ve got maybe five minutes.”

Ciro blanked his screen, initiated the wipe, and yanked the nan-card he’d put in the drive. The ritual only took seconds. Then he stood up and started toward the door.

“Hey!” his neighbor called. “My headset!”

Ciro forced a smile. “Yeah. Uh…thank you!” He turned and walked out of the shop at a fast pace.

A block or two away, he stopped to search behind him. There was no sign of her.

“What’s going on?” Reyer asked.

He jumped, terrified by the voice he’d forgotten was living in his ear. “Sorry. I…uh…I had to steal some really nice hacker’s micro-headset.”

“Why would you do something like that?”

His shoulders curled over his slim chest. “I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t have time to wipe it, so I couldn’t give it back to her.” He looked up as he continued walking. His voice rose with his posture. “Don’t worry! I’m going to hunt her down and pay her back. Just watch me.”

“You Vas boys. No wonder I love you both.”

Ciro smiled. “That Exalt is treating you well, isn’t it?”

Reyer would never normally say something so unguarded. At least, not to him. Then he realized that, along with a loss of inhibition, she was also forgetting to use their fake names.

“You have no idea,” she mumbled. “Did you manage to shut down the satellites?”

“They’re shut down.”

“Good. Get back to the ship as soon as possible. I’m going to need your help. The ramp will be closed when you arrive.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to lose consciousness, and I don’t want anyone coming in because they’re curious.”

“Rey—Alice! Are you okay? Are you injured?”

There was an unnerving silence.

“Alice!”

“I’ve been injured for a long time, Ciro. Get back to the ship.”

The boy was already walking as fast as he could. He pushed the ear-piece against his head so it wouldn’t fall out. “Alice, Lynx should be taking care of you.”

“He can’t. He’s not here.”

“What? Where did he go?”

“Where I told him to.”

Ciro broke into a jog. “I’ll be back in less than five minutes. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Ciro winced when he heard the sharpness in her voice.

After a long silence, he heard Reyer mutter, “Did you learn anything?”

Ciro felt his stomach sink even lower. “I found where he worked from. I didn’t find him.”

More silence.

“We’ll have to worry about that later too,” Reyer said.