If she had the time, she would have chosen a spot from which observe the guards, pick up their habits, their comings and goings, their communications, whether they used a challenge and response, or if they were laxer with security.
Time was one thing she didn't have. The two co-conspirators could come for the Curs at any moment.
"There's an extensive network of small passageways in the ceiling. They're like the furnace ducts humans put in their homes except they're made of stone, are considerably less dusty, and would fit a full-grown person," Jin offered.
Kira curled her lip at him. Small spaces. She hated them with an undying passion. Left to her preferences, she'd avoid them. However, circumstances dictated going outside her comfort zone.
"Or you can ask someone to pull rank and order them away," Finn said from behind them.
Kira froze, giving Jin big eyes that asked, “What the hell?”
He made a strangled sound. "I didn't sense him. I swear."
Kira turned slowly to find Finn glaring at both of them, his mouth a thin line of disapproval.
"One of the first techniques an oshota learns is how to disguise their passage from any and all," Finn said. "That includes inferior human technology."
Jin bristled. "There's nothing inferior about me, meat sack."
"You're welcome to test yourself against me," Finn offered coldly. "I would be happy to teach you the error of your ways."
"No, you're not doing this now," Kira hissed when Jin started toward Finn.
Sometimes her friend had all the impulse control of a toddler.
"Would you like to explain why you're standing outside this room?" Finn asked, his expression deadly. “I know the commander has already forbidden you from contact.”
Kira studied him, mentally calculating her options. She'd seen him on the obstacle course. Taking him down silently and unnoticed would be difficult.
Trusting him didn't feel like an appealing option either. He was part of the House actively trying to kill her. He could well be part of the conspiracy.
"Jin, play the recording for him," Kira said.
Trust needed to start somewhere and there was no way he was going to unbend enough to let her go on her merry way. Not without a fight guaranteed to attract any Citadel guards in the vicinity.
She watched him carefully as Alma and the other woman's voice came through. His face went blank, his head tilting as he listened. Fury grew in his expression as he realized what the two women planned.
By the time the recording had finished, his normal impenetrable mask had dropped, and a predator stared at her.
Kira's stomach tightened, the primal fear people experienced when facing the thing in the dark sinking deep.
It answered the question of whose side he was on.
"You're here to get the humans out," he guessed, his voice flat.
"They're vulnerable here," Kira said. "I have to get them to safety before I can consider doing anything else."
He fell silent, staring off into the distance. Finally, he shook his head as a gruff sound escaped him. "Where do you think they'll go? Luatha controls the airspace. There's no way to get them off-planet. The defensive net would rip them to shreds."
"We send them into the forest. They only need to hide long enough for us to expose the conspiracy," Kira argued.
"We should inform Graydon," Finn argued. "The defense network affects more than just the Luathans. Bringing it down would leave all of our worlds vulnerable."
Kira understood his loyalty. Graydon held an authority Finn recognized and trusted. Kira was tempted to agree, the idea the commander was part of this too terrible to contemplate.
She shook her head. No. She couldn't take the chance. They didn't know how far this conspiracy went.
"Can you guarantee beyond any shadow of a doubt Graydon has no part in this?" Kira asked.
He couldn't. No one could. Right now, the only person she trusted completely and utterly was Jin. They'd gone through too much to do anything else. The Curs she trusted to a lesser extent, but only because she knew their motives.
"He is the Emperor's Face," Finn said as if that explained everything.
"Empires have been brought down before by those in trusted seats of power," Jin pointed out.
Finn's lips tightened. "Not the Tuann. Not Graydon. I would trust him with my life—and yours."
Conviction thrummed in his words. His expression said he wouldn't give in on this point. Kira didn't know the players well enough to judge. It was obvious his history with Graydon went deep—perhaps as deep as hers did with Jin and the Curs.
"At least let me get the Curs out," Kira bargained, sensing she was losing him. If he really decided Graydon needed to be informed first, there would be little she could do.
"Alma and her people could come for them while we're wasting time finding Graydon," Kira argued. She needed him to agree. "My people have no weapons and stand little chance against warriors in synth armor."
Finn looked torn, her argument swaying him. He scowled.
"We're already here," Jin added. "We'd waste valuable time backtracking, assuming Graydon's where we left him."
"Which is unlikely given someone's disappearance," Finn said, shooting a meaningful look Kira's way.
She shrugged, unconcerned. "If I hadn't needed some time to myself, I never would have overheard their scheme."
Not entirely true, but close enough.
"Fine, we'll do it your way," Finn said, his dark eyes piercingly intense.
Kira breathed a sigh of relief.
"But at the first sign of danger, I want you out of there," he said, pointing a finger at her.
She nodded. If an empty promise made him feel better, she'd give him all the empty promises he needed.
"I must have done something to anger the commander for him to suggest you to me," Finn said with a sigh.
"Why did you accept?" Kira asked as they moved toward the guards.
"Because my choices were limited. It was either act as your guard or sit around for another hundred years feeling invisible," Finn said. "Oshota are meant to protect their Houses. To be of no use to them is like living a life with no color."
"Empty and meaningless," Kira said in a soft voice.
Finn looked at her, understanding in his expression. "No one to care if you disappear or not. No one to care for or take comfort from."
Kira nodded. That's exactly what it felt like to exile yourself. Finn was an outcast in Luatha. It was more painful in its own way, to look at what you'd lost every day and know you were no longer part of it.
Kira had gotten off easy in that sense. When she'd left the Curs and her life with Centcom, she hadn't looked back or allowed herself to remember what had been. She focused everything on the salvaging business and told herself she didn't miss what she'd given up.
It was a lie, but she'd believed it enough to survive, never realizing that surviving was only the first step to living.
Being here, seeing her cousin and the Curs had reminded her of what it was like to live again, to laugh and cry, to feel sorrow and pain. It wasn’t always pretty but she felt like she’d been wrapped in cotton and was only now experiencing things again. She didn't know how she was going to return to the isolation of the Wanderer when it came time.