CHAPTER 40 LEE #2
Lee shot her a look. They weren’t exactly presenting the most organized front to the friends from whom they desperately needed help.
But at her pointed shrug, some of that frustration eased.
He briefly explained their plans and what they’d been up to, looping back around with what he’d told Zane earlier about the Commander’s potential to sway the Council in their favor.
Lee braced himself for the onslaught of questions that would surely come from Zane.
But it was Whistler who cleared his throat, still looking a little bug-eyed.
“So let me get this straight. Nolan himself caught you guys coming out of the Command wing, unattended, looking all sketchy as you do these days. And you decided it would be smart to break into the Spectrum again immediately afterward? After all the tussle we faced down here the last time?” Whistler mussed the ornately knotted bun atop his head.
Zane muttered something unintelligible. “You guys aren’t even going to make it through the week.”
“I tried telling her this,” Lee said wryly, the humor rounding out as he eyed Kat on raised brows to soften the strike. This would work—especially after how things had gone last time. They would be okay. “Told Kat it would be smarter to lay low until we were ready to make the big waves.”
“And I informed Lee that us lying low would be entirely out of character,” Kat retorted back with a slightly too-sharp kick from her long-legs to his shin. “Were we to take such a dull route, that would surely arouse even more suspicions than were we to not.”
“Can’t argue with that logic,” Whistler grinned, some tendency of normalcy returning to his features, even as he fussed with the top-knot in his hair.
“Now that the history lessons are out of our way”—Kat kicked her legs out again, and thankfully, Lee stood a good meter out of range this time—“we wanted to recruit your help with a couple of things. Firstly, we thought we should talk about appropriating a ship…”
“What ship?” Zane asked, a bit sharply.
“We won’t steal one, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Kat said, boots making contact with the ground this time as she curled the length of her ponytail around her hand. “We’d only be borrowing. Preferably a skimmer.”
“What can you tell me about disengaging an AMG ship tracking system?” Lee asked, carefully, appealing to the pilot-mechanic’s particular brand of expertise.
“It shouldn’t take too long to take her off-line. I may be able to do something about economizing the transmission as well to buy you a little padding if you need to take alternate routes. Does this mean you found something with De Myra? Whereabouts are you heading?” he asked curiously.
“We’ve still got quite a range we’re working off,” Kat admitted. A good move, honestly. Sugar-coating things would only do them harm here.
Whistler nodded, notably less than enthused by her answer. But at least he understood where they were coming from now.
They didn’t have a firm plan yet, and it was killing him. He knew it was killing Kat—almost as much as not knowing what they would find if they ever got there.
“I’m working on narrowing it down even further,” Lee said, briefly meeting Kat’s gaze.
She looked surprised. But she didn’t draw attention to it just yet, simply nodding.
Trusting that he would let her in on it when he learned something more concrete.
They had enough emotions and uncertainties on the line.
Hope was a very delicate commodity to trade these days.
“And what of me?” Zane asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked on stonily. Tense and trepid, like a fragment of moon rock just exiting the atmosphere.
“I could use your help coordinating logistics with the hangar. Learning the managing patterns and who will be coming and going out on raids over the next week or so, so that we can determine when we have the best shot to get her out of the hangar.”
Zane nodded, slowly. “I can probably check on that for you.” And Lee could sense the hesitation in him. The uncertainty, and the doubt. He only had to wait for it.
“Say we are able to pull this off, work out the logistics—will it even make a difference?”
There was the gamble from which the entirety of their plan hung.
And Lee knew that Zane wasn’t just referring to helping him and Kat get away from the Academy.
As he’d said earlier, both Zane and Whistler had been there, boots on the ground, through it all.
First with Argos and boarding Segura, that meeting with the General, and again with the mainframe.
None of this meant anything if they didn’t walk away at the end with answers, one way or another.
At this point they were going in blind, with only their gut to tell them otherwise. Their gut and everything Gaia had told them onboard the ship that day. And Zane was calling them out on it.
Lee glanced briefly from Kat to Whistler, and then back to Zane. “It might not make a difference. But we plan to do everything we can do to ensure that it does.” With whatever scarce resources they could get their hands on between now and then.
It wasn’t much. But it was enough to get things moving and hope the rest fell into place.
It was all they had. It was all he had.
“Help us find something,” Lee said, voice soft now, quiet.
And reverent. A prayer to the void, and whatever lay beyond it.
And a plea. For Gaia’s sake. For the galaxy’s sake.
And for his and Kat’s sake. Because if this ended badly, if they didn’t find a way to turn things around and tell a different story…
It was a personal request. And one he had no right to demand of Zane.
He had no right to demand this of anyone.
But he was running out of options, and they all knew it.
It was a sacrifice for Whistler and Zane to help them.
But it was also a sacrifice for him and Kat.
They were about to turn their backs on the life and security they’d built for themselves.
The life they’d built for each other. And void if he wouldn’t do everything in his power to ensure they didn’t crash and burn and go down like that ship.
He’d build that place for them, and for her, so she would never feel lost again.
“Help us make this right,” Lee pleaded. “For all of us.”
And when that dangerous smile slanted across Zane’s face, Lee knew he’d gotten through to his ally.
“Let’s see what you’ve got, Leland Waters.”
He couldn’t help the smug smirk that joined his next words. “It’s game time.”
They had their mission assignment, and they wouldn’t stop until they found Segura and the truth they were looking for, if they had to go head-to-head with the General himself.