Page 20 of How to Steal a Galaxy

Fetor does that weird thing with his mouth where he’s trying to pretend he’s not smiling but definitely wants people to see that he’s pretending he’s not smiling because he’s just that damn modest. “My reputation proceeds me.”

“Precedes,” Rian says, barely audible, and now I’m the one biting back a smile.

“The Mission Control Room is pretty...classic,” I say, finally settling on a word as if it was disappointing. “But have you seen the Skye Martin portal display?”

“Of course I have,” Fetor says.

I toss him a shy smile, entirely fake. “I’ve never seen it before.” Rian glares at me. I wonder if he scoured the security feeds enough to know I’ve visited it several times.

“You’ve never seen it?” Fetor gapes at me. “You know, you could come to visit my estate as a guest. I actually bought part of the portal a few years ago. It’s in my garden.”

“Or you could look at the display that’s literally down the hall,” Rian growls.

Oh, jealously is hot on him. And also, hedoesn’tknow about my little scouting missions. Slipping there. Nice. I enjoy being his blind spot.

“I suppose that’s quicker,” Fetor says. “But the offer stands. Here, let me show you the display.”

Fetor strides toward the door, Rian at his heels. It takes them a few moments to see I’ve not followed, but that’s all the time I need.

Rian whips around, his eyes snagging on every detail of me standing by the metal desk, the red telephone receiver in my hand.

“Sorry, the way the receiver was crooked was scratching at my brain. I had to fix it.” I settle the receiver down on the cradle correctly, the coiled red wire coming off it looped in a neat circle.

First domino: down. The rest will take time, but for now? I can let Newton’s law work all by itself.

Fetor waits for me to catch up to him. I pass by Rian, whose narrowed gaze traces a path from the red telephone all the way to me. I loop my hand around Fetor’s arm just to piss Rian off.

“I love the way communication evolves,” I say as we head down the corridor. “That red telephone, it was a direct line to the Department of Defense. I suppose they needed it if the space shuttle blew up or something. And it was secure. One telephone at the NASA Mission Control, one telephone at the Department of Defense. That’s real security. We don’t have that anymore.”

Fetor looks down at me. “We have security.”

I give him a pitying look. “And yet some anarchist group stole your original nanobot prototype.”

That makes him stop. Fetor looks from me to Rian, eyes wide, a pale pink flush on his pasty cheeks. “Mycompany didn’t break security,” he says, a little too loudly. “Mycompany protected the data with a private shipment and multiple stages of unbreakable technology.”

Unbreakable. Okay.

“You really shouldn’t be talking about this,” Rian starts.

Fetor waves aside his concerns. “We’re all friends here.”

“Not me,” I say. “I hate you. Remember?”

Fetor laughs in a tone I’m sure he thinks is charming. “Anyway, that security breach—not my fault. Whenever the government gets involved, you have to expect certain...flaws.”

Rian looks like he wants to add something, but I know he’s not going to confess that it was actually me who stole that data.

“Besides, it all worked out in the end,” Fetor continues. He pats my hand, still in the crook of his arm. “And while there was a breach initially, the final nanobots are securely in the Sol-Earth communications tower. Andno onecan get inside that I don’t personally approve of.”

Which is why my client hired me to do just that. I mean, nottechnically, but hey. I’ve got agendas of my own.

I fake ignorance a little longer. “I just don’t think anything is really secure in this day and age. Certainly not information.” I cast a sidelong glance at Rian. “Just think: with enough time and a data recorder, any file could be stolen.”

An adorable little muscle tics in Rian’s jaw. I don’t want him to have an aneurysm, but if he does, I do want it to be because of me.

“Not in my offices,” Fetor says firmly.

My whole body melts with happy bliss. I love breaking confident men.

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