My hands shook as I stood frozen in my closet. I didn’t have time for a breakdown. I shoved a change of clothes and a pair of blasters in a protective case into a tote. I strapped a stun pistol in a holster around my waist and threw on a cloak over my blouse and pants. Finally, I added my purse with the silencer still inside to the tote.
Good enough.
I headed for the door, but it did not open on my approach and the manual open button did nothing. “Alfred, open the suite door.”
After a few seconds, the suite computer responded. “Request unavailable. Your suite is locked for your safety. Please remain where you are.” The computer didn’t have emotions, but I still thought it sounded contrite.
If Ian Bishop thought I’d remain locked in my own damn suite until he could be bothered to come collect me for Father, then he was about to get a rude awakening.
I darted into my study for a pair of smart glasses. They connected to my com and displayed information hands-free. These were a high-end version that featured both hand and eye tracking, allowing me to leave my com in my pocket but still interact with it.
The glasses turned on automatically when I put them on. The standard information overlay—time, location, calendar—came up in my peripheral vision, but I swiped my hands up and the menu appeared front and center.
With no time to waste, I tapped into the House’s security system and checked on the cameras outside my suite. The video came up on the bottom half of the glasses. So far, the hallway was clear, but that would change once I overrode the lock. I’d need to move fast, because while I could take down the whole system, doing that while we were at war was unwise.
First and foremost, I needed a ship. I briefly considered stealing Polaris, the Rockhurst prototype ship, but I didn’t know if it was still space-worthy. For all I knew, the scientists had it in pieces in the hangar. And Ada would kill me if I damaged her baby. She’d grown attached to that ship.
My own ship, Aurora, was less than a year old. I’d bought it after Gregory’s death. His family had kept my previous ship when I returned to House von Hasenberg. What’s mine was his and what’s his was his.
House marriages were the best.
Luckily, I’d kept the vast majority of my money in numbered accounts he couldn’t access or I’d be broke in addition to homeless and shipless.
I shook myself out of my angry thoughts. Aurora was one of the nicest personal ships in our fleet. I could probably find and steal Ferdinand’s ship if I had to, but I wanted Aurora—Ada wasn’t the only one attached to her ship.
My ship was in the secondary House hangar. To get to it, I’d have to travel the length of the House, then either skirt around the primary hangar or go through it. The secondary hangar should be less busy, but getting there undetected would be tricky.
Stalling wouldn’t make it any easier, so I put the cameras outside my door on a two-minute loop, then unlocked my suite. I raised the hood of my cloak and took a deep breath. Leaving would make me look guilty as hell, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait for Ferdinand to turn up dead. Holding that thought close, I stepped out into the hall and locked the door behind me.
For once, my modified nanos came in handy as I monitored the security frequency. A security team was headed my way, but they were still thirty seconds out. I ducked into a dimly lit hidden passage with ten seconds to spare. Adrenaline made me shaky, but I kept moving.
Ian would probably be monitoring these passageways, but the surveillance was spottier and I knew exactly where all of the cameras were and how to avoid them. Ian had been advocating for additional security for these tunnels for years, but Father had resisted. We all assumed that he, too, wanted to be able to slip out of the House unseen.
I pulled the bottom of my cloak up and carefully stepped over the first laser tripwire. Breaking the beam would send a security alert directly to Ian. At the next intersection, I edged along the inside corner, just out of view of the camera. Avoiding security meant I took a meandering route to the hangar.
I kept one eye on the security footage on my smart glasses while also monitoring wireless communications. Because I hadn’t answered the door, the security team was debating whether or not to breach my quarters without my permission.
By the time Ian gave the order, I was nearly to the primary hangar. There was a flurry of communication as the team found they couldn’t get my door to unlock. Ian’s voice took on an annoyed tone that made me smirk, but I couldn’t gloat yet. He wasn’t the head of security for nothing, and I still had a busy hangar to cross.
My com vibrated and Ian’s contact information popped up on the glasses. He was requesting a video connection. I rolled my eyes and swiped his contact information offscreen to decline.
Unfortunately, Ian was nothing if not persistent. He tried again with a voice-only connection. I swiped that one away, too, then blocked him for five minutes. He’d try to track me with my com signal, but I’d made a few modifications that would make that more difficult. It wouldn’t fool him for long, but I just needed a few more minutes.
I performed the complicated hand gesture that activated the highly illegal secondary identity chip in my right arm. The secondary chip was a von Hasenberg specialty, allowing multiple identities to be stored on a single chip. Specific identities could be selected by a series of finger movements. It was perfect for covert work because switching identities made a trail much harder to follow. And it was untraceable—even by our own security teams.
As far as I knew, only von Hasenberg family members had these exact chips, but I would be surprised if the other Houses didn’t have something similar.
I touched my right thumb and pinky together. The primary chip in my left arm held my real identity, but scanning into the hangar as myself would let Ian know exactly where I was. Scanning in as Isabella Blanc, a high-level House von Hasenberg advisor, wouldn’t set off any alarms. At least not right away. As soon as Ian did any digging, the identity would fold, but it wasn’t meant for long-term use.
I stopped at the end of the hidden passageway. Opening the final door required a House von Hasenberg ID, complete with House seal, but it was one of the few doors that didn’t log access unless it was opened without the proper credentials. It also didn’t open from the outside, so once I left the building, I’d be stuck.
I unlocked the door with my primary identity chip and stepped out into the hidden alcove. I’d be completely exposed in the hangar, but the diplomatic seal on my false identity meant the security guard wouldn’t look too closely at me. It wasn’t unusual for a cloaked figure to be seen coming and going from the hangar—not everyone wanted to shout that they were working with one House over another.
Now I just needed to pop back up on the video surveillance somewhere that wouldn’t be too suspicious. I took a twisting path to the hangar entrance. It looked like I couldn’t make up my mind which way I wanted to go, but really it was to skirt the cameras. I came back into view as I swiped my right arm over the chip reader.
The door opened and the guard inside waved me through with a brief glance. I didn’t envy him the dressing-down he was about to receive. I advanced through the building with a purposeful stride, moving as fast as I dared. A few other people were milling around, giving me a tiny bit of cover.
I hit the exit at the same time that the security team found my suite empty. My head throbbed with splinters of agony as I tried to keep track of the security frequency while filtering out everything else. I gritted my teeth and kept going.