I slid the lockpick into my hand, ready to get to work.
“Ho, what have we here?” A voice, just to my left.
I spun, holding the pick out as a weapon, expecting to see the burly security guard. But it was the boy from before, the Imperium snot.
“What are you doing here?” I whispered harshly, brandishing the pick. I wasn’t much for violence, but I’d protect myself if I had to.
The boy lifted his hands in the universal sign of innocence. In one hand was a crowbar. “Came back for a little smash-and-grab myself. Didn’t expect to find company.”
“You’re a thief?” I asked in disbelief.
“I prefer ‘artifacts liberator.’ ”
My eyes rolled all the way to Primus and back. What were the chances? I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “Wait, are you making fun of me?”
“I don’t even know you.”
Right, but something was off. “But your hair. Your eyes. That damn ring. You’re Imperium. I’d bet my best lockpicks on it.”
“Then you’d lose your lockpicks. This is a disguise. Heard of them? Hair’s a dye job; eyes are contacts. Even my pale complexion is a temporary color job.”
“So you look like me?” I scoffed. Sure, he could be as brown-skinned and black-haired as me, but I couldn’t see it.
“Cousins, for sure.” He winked, but then got serious. “I was raised in an Imperium household, but not by choice. I’m an orphan, picked up as a baby from my home planet and adopted. So now I do a little liberating in my free time.”
My heartbeat sped up. He was like me. Well, a little like me. But still…
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
He made a show of looking around the room. “We could wait and ask the guard, who should be coming through here on his rounds in about four minutes, or we could just agree we’re on the same side for now and get this done.” He swung his crowbar. “Your call.”
“What were you going to do with that?” I asked, using my lips to point at the heavy bar.
“Like I said, smash and grab. Not all of us are dainty lockpickers, Princess.”
“You break the glass, you’ll have guards down on us faster than four minutes.”
“Three minutes and thirty-five seconds now.”
I could see his point. And if he was telling the truth and his goal was the same as mine, I’d take the help.
“I’ll open the glass boxes. You look out.”
“Three minutes and twenty seconds.”
“I’ll get it done,” I growled, “if you let me work.”
He raised innocent hands as he took a step back…and right into a security square. The alarm screamed immediately, an eardrum-shattering screech.
“Whoops!” he said, laughing. Laughing.
A danger freak. I’d known them when I lived with the pirates. People who got off on the adrenaline of the job, the more dangerous the better. But I was not going to lose my chance. After the exhibit was over, the artifacts would go back in the vault, and I had no idea how long it would be until they were on display to the public again.
“Get to breaking, then, Cuz,” I said.
“As you wish.” He stepped up, took a practice swing, and then smash! The glass box holding the rattle shattered.
I reached in with my gloves and gingerly slid the artifact out between the shards.
Two steps and he was at the next box, and smash! And again, until he’d broken all the boxes. I removed each artifact and placed them safely in my bag, hit the button to inflate the protective lining, and hefted it over my shoulder.
Shouting in the hallway, and I knew we were out of time.
“You got a way out, Princess?” he asked.
I looked pointedly at the vent.
“Oh.” His face fell. I saw it, too. No way was he shinnying up and out of that vent with those broad shoulders and no anti-gravity boots.
“No worries,” he said with another outrageous smile. “You go. I’ll distract them.”
“But you’ll get caught!”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been in worse situations.”
I wanted to ask what, but it was too late. I could see figures coming our way. I had to go while I still could.
“Great meeting you, Cuz!” he said, swinging his crowbar. “Take care now.” And then he was running down the hall away from me, smashing jewel cases and everything else he could reach.
I didn’t waste the opportunity. In less than ten seconds I was up and out of the exhibit, belly-crawling through the vent, and on my way back to my ship.
“Evie?” I asked, hitting my comm.
“How can I help you, Vi?”
“Did he make it? That boy?”
“Your request is unclear.”
I sighed. “Are there any new records of detainment coming in from the Imperium security force?”
A second where Evie was working and then, “Affirmative. A young man has been detained. Would you like his statistics?”
“No,” I said quickly. The less I knew, the better. “But could you hold on to them? Store them in your memory? In case I want them another time?”
“Affirmative.”
I dropped out of the ventilation system on the far side of the museum. I looked around, but all the ruckus was far from me, on the other side of the grounds. I made it back to My Heart Will Go On without incident, fired up my engines, and left Imperium airspace.
But a little piece of me—maybe the part that wondered if he was some relation to me, if I’d found not just something of my home planet but someone—stayed behind, wondering if I’d done the right thing.
* * *
“This seat taken?”
I looked up from my very delicious daiquiri to find a stranger blocking my sun. Black hair long and loose in waves, brown skin, dark eyes, and some very nice, well-muscled shoulders.
“Depends,” I asked, appraising him through my sunglasses. “Who are you?”
“Well, the much more interesting question is who you are, Violet.”
I looked around for possible backup, someone to scream help at should I need it, but this close to sunset I had the beach to myself. And I’d left my comm back on the ship, sure I didn’t need Evie for a few hours of relaxation by the ocean. This resort town far away from the heart of the Imperium was known as a safe place, low crime because a lot of criminals liked the spot and professional courtesy kept things respectful. Even thieves needed a break now and then.