“We intended to return Dr. Jones to her quarters,” Nara said, picking up the story thread. “When we arrived, Captain Innocente and the others were departing, and Innocente offered to come along and help us.”
“You accepted without consulting anyone?” Felsira asked, still lounging in the hammock, her psychic tone dry and detached.
Nara shrugged, her green ponytail bobbing slightly. “She needs us more than we need her. We can use that.”
“Gracias, muy amable,” Eva muttered.
“De nada,” Nara replied.
“Additionally, we now have Joshua Zafone’s sister,” Jei added, inclining his head at Sue.
All attention turned to her, and Sue’s face flushed. She ducked behind Eva, and Pink also moved to stand in front of her, arms crossed.
“That could be an advantage in negotiations, should they prove necessary,” Sapri said, his psychic emanation thoughtful and darkly eager.
“She’s a person, not collateral,” Eva said. “And we’re here to get Josh, not to negotiate with whoever you’re thinking, so maybe we can move on from debrief to the plan for getting into the lab?” Silence replied, along with a psychic shift to low-grade hostility once more.
Mala, naturally, took that moment to saunter into the middle of the room and flop down, her tail lashing up and down as she extended her claws and began to lick them vigorously.
“Innocente gave me the imprint recorder,” Jei said, pulling it out of a pocket in his suit. Sapri took it and inserted it into another device, like a multicolored cube.
“I only got two imprints,” Eva said apologetically. “So I’m not sure how we’ll get into the lab now, but—”
“We had already planned to enter in another manner,” Sapri said, then he emanated surprise. “There are three imprints. The mission was not a failure.”
Pink raised an eyebrow. “I only tagged two of the targets.”
“And I only talked to two of them,” Eva added.
Sapri’s psychic emanation transitioned to confusion, then bitter amusement. “The third imprint is from Lashra Damaal,” he said.
Eva stared at him for a long moment, then gave a close-mouthed chuckle. “Something good came of chatting with her, then,” Eva said. “And to think I was trying to get away the whole time.”
Dr. Lucien finished whatever he was doing with Jei’s arm and carefully reattached the prosthesis. “We can proceed as we previously intended, then,” he said. “More easily, in fact, since Damaal had unrestricted access to all portions of the facility. We must shut down the laboratory before it is too late.”
“We must do it tonight,” Sapri said. He raised the cube, scrutinizing its glowing faces with his enormous dark eyes. “If we delay, they may alter the security codes and protocols and render all our efforts useless.”
A brief argument erupted among the assembled rebels, which Eva opted out of once again. She was exhausted, physically and emotionally, but the prospect of being finished with this whole arroz con mango sooner rather than later was intensely appealing to her. The Pod Pals needed to be stopped before they ended up all over the universe, doing whatever damage they were designed for.
Not to mention the bonus The Forge had dangled in front of her like a delicious slice of carrot cake, and whatever big secret Gate project they needed Josh for in the first place. Eva hoped it was as noble as Mari made it sound, because after all this time and effort, if it was the same shit with different bosses, Eva was going to be pissed.
Abruptly, Mala shifted to sit on her haunches, tail wrapped primly around her front paws.
“Miau,” Mala said.
The arguing stopped. “What did your creature say?” Sapri asked.
Eva opened her mouth to tell him cats didn’t talk, but Mala turned her head to glare at Eva, hazel eyes flashing in the dim light.
“She said we should stop comiendo mierda and get this party started already,” Eva said.
“Miau,” Mala said, licking a paw and swiping it over her face.
“She’s a cat,” Jei said, scowling.
“And? Is she wrong?”
Jei shook his head after a moment, and Pink snorted derisively.
“All right, then,” Eva said. “What exactly is the plan?”
Barely visible in the dim starlight, the Sylfe Company laboratory was located on a rocky seaside cliff several hundred meters tall. Over time, crashing waves had left a few isolated towers of stone rising out of the water like giant middle fingers raised in the general direction of entropy. Multiple pod-like buildings attached to the cliff like metallic tumors, connected by the same ubiquitous cables found in Rilia and Spectrum City. A few cable cars waited on different levels, and presumably anyone with a harness could use that instead, assuming they weren’t concerned about being exposed to the elements and any passing hostile forces.
The rebels used an Attuned as their vehicle—specifically by cramming a bunch of people in its enormous mouth. There were devices meant to deter wild Attuned and other animals from approaching the lab, but like any modern technology, they were prone to regular, inconveniently timed software updates that briefly disabled them. This left cameras, proximity sensors, and their associated alarms, all of which were hackable, at which point the resistance could swim up to an access pipe sucking in seawater for various scientific and mundane reasons, make their way up to the engineering room collecting the water, and proceed from there to the remaining pods.
Each of the dozen pods was assigned a team: a hacker, a saboteur, and at least one guard. The hacker would steal as much data as possible and then bring down the local node with a virus, ideally spreading it to any connected backups. The saboteur would use a nonexplosive expanding demolitions agent to destroy the pod; the devices were slow enough to allow anyone inside to escape, but fast enough to be difficult to stop once they were going. The guard would round up anyone already inside the pod and make sure they didn’t interfere, then see to their safe evacuation once the saboteur had started the final countdown. If any security forces were alerted to the rebel presence, despite all the planned countermeasures, the guard would also warn the others and provide cover until everyone was out.
Eva, Pink, and Sue were with Jei and Nara on their own mission to find Josh. They all wore their spacesuits for protection—except Nara and Jei, who had their own armor—and would have their isohelmets activated and opaque on the outside to protect their identities. If a team found Josh before they did, they’d be informed of his location so they could sneak in and pick him up.
Sue wanted to find a way to bring Gustavo, her bot, but Eva vetoed it as too impractical. Jei wasn’t happy because he wanted to be on one of the other teams. Nara didn’t care because she was getting paid the same amount regardless.
It was a good plan. A solid plan.
It failed, of course.
“How much longer until the shielding is down?” Eva asked Sapri, firing her pistol at a Pod Pal hovering nearby.
Sapri’s psychic emanation was as sour as old milk, and not a little angry. “I am not certain,” he said. “The psychic imprints you acquired have partially facilitated an override of the lockdown protocols, but there are additional layers of security we are unable to penetrate. If we cannot overcome this soon, we will have to abandon the mission.”