“Hovercrafts are already moving toward the docks in this area.” Urgency sharpened the usual low rumble of Merrick’s voice into a hard bark over the com units. “Get here fast, or we’re not getting out this time.”
Chapter 3
TESS
Both ice and fire pounded through my veins as we left the park and headed toward the Endeavor. We’d just killed people. I’d never killed anyone before, although I knew Jax and Fiona had. I didn’t know about Shade. I was certain he’d turned over people to the Dark Watch who’d never been heard from again, so wasn’t that the same?
I glanced at my hands. Dirty but not bloody. A reflection of reality, I supposed.
“Take your next left,” Merrick ordered over the coms.
We all veered left, hurrying Jaxon along.
“Now right!”
We did as Merrick instructed, trusting him and the gridgram he must have up to give us the best route back to the ship. As a group, our feet made too much noise. Koralight Crowners peeked out at us from behind partially closed blinds, their brows lowered in frowns. Conscious of my grass-stained hands, I curled my fingers into fists and kept walking, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.
“Got any more of that acid, Fi?” Jax’s mumble-slurred words matched his stumbling footsteps.
“One more.” She glanced over at him. “Why?”
He cocked an ear. “We might need it.”
I heard the faint rumble of incoming hovercrafts, too. Jax’s body might have taken an electrical trouncing, but his hearing was just fine.
Shade looked around, scanning above and behind us. Fiona did the same with narrowed eyes. The street was empty. Anyone watching us was doing it from inside.
“Even that acid won’t take down a whole hovercraft.” Fiona focused forward again. “Not in the quantity I have.”
The soldiers’ screams in the park echoed in my head again, and my stomach cramped at the carnage we’d left behind us. Those Dark Watch goons were power-abusing bastards, but I couldn’t quite bridge the gap in my head between knowing they were assholes and thinking they deserved that.
“Left,” Merrick directed, “then straight for two blocks, cross the big avenue, and you’re at the base of the tower.”
We turned left and had to walk by a shuttle stop at the next intersection. The few Koralight Crowners who remained outside because of the long line looked at us with curiosity when we didn’t move to join them. Their expressions turned wary and then accusing as we walked on without pause.
I watched them out of the corner of my eye. Yup—we’re the jerks who are about to get your parole extended. What an awful thought. Another how-many years of living inside or underground all the time? Poor people. I couldn’t wait to get off this oppressive and lifeless planet. There weren’t even any ships in the sky.
A man near the back of the shuttle line took out a personal camshot device and followed us with his gaze. The line shuffled forward, but he stayed put. Shit. The guy had informant written all over him from head to foot.
One of the hovercrafts we’d heard earlier appeared behind us and zoomed overhead in our direction. Hot air billowed beneath it, lifting grit from the street that pinged against my cheeks. Hair swirled in my face, and I ducked, panic wrapping its icy fists around my lungs. We were just far enough from that shuttle stop—and going away from it—to look incredibly suspicious.
I waited, tense and holding my breath. The hovercraft didn’t swing back around. It kept going toward the nearby docks. I breathed again.
Our luck didn’t hold. The guy with the camshot ran forward and pointed his device right at us. I had just enough time to block his view of Shade and Jax and turn so he got the back of my head. A stride in front of me, Fiona was right in his line of sight.
“Hurry!” I kept my face averted. “Fi, I think you just got tagged. Some jackass with a camshot.”
“Won’t be the first time.” The tension in her voice shot to hell her cavalier response.
A metallic whine buzzed toward us. “Do you hear that?” My brows snapped together. We all went quiet and listened.
“Drone!” Shade warned a second before a Red Beam military drone swooped down and nearly clipped our heads. The little craft swung around in front of us and sent out a crimson laser that scanned us all from head to foot.
“Shade Brian Ganavan. Wanted. Halt.” A tinny robotic voice barked out orders, and it was no secret that if you didn’t obey, the Red Beam would shoot. “Fiona Anne Winterly. Wanted. Halt. Jaxon Mitchell Boudreau…”
“Can you run?” Shade asked, glancing at Jax.
Jax nodded, pale but steadier on his feet now. Jax could always run. He’d die running, I had no doubt.
“…Wanted. Halt. Tess Bailey, captain of the Endeavor. Wanted. Halt.”
I have a title? Classy. And still attaching that name to this face in the Dark Watch system, even after last week’s showdown with my uncle and the Overseer, meant that someone in charge really didn’t want my true identity getting out.
That didn’t mean the drone wouldn’t shoot me. A stun blast from a Red Beam could incapacitate the hell out of a person and make those patrol-grade shock wands look like jokes.
“Go. Go. Go!” I urged the others as I took off at a sprint and jumped, catching the Red Beam by the snout. It was arming the stun blaster, and the gathering energy zapped a sharp yelp from me. A numbing heat ricocheted up my arm as I pulled down hard, slamming the drone into the pavement. The people who still couldn’t fit inside the underground shuttle stop gasped and scuttled back, not wanting to be implicated in any of this. That was the tricky thing about revolution—if no one stood up to fight, you just had a few fools causing mayhem and running for their lives.
My hand burned and throbbed. I didn’t even look at it as we raced for our docking tower. There was no point in trying to be inconspicuous now. Next to me, Shade shook his head, his mouth flat, his brown eyes like stones.
“I got rid of the drone!” I snapped in my defense.
“You could’ve lost a hand!” he snapped back.
“Then I’d have made myself a hook!” Tess Bailey: pirate. Sailing the galactic seas, stealing shit, and pissing off the authorities. All true.
“You think you’re funny?” Shade growled as we barreled into the arched bottom level of our tower. It was open to the outside with a set of six elevator tubes in the center.
Three hovercrafts converged on the lower part of the building just as we made it to cover. We skidded to a stop in front of the lifts. Jax slammed his hand down on a button.