Page 55 of Enthraller

“You won’t know it for long.” Banks’s words were angry, but as soon as the words were out he looked unhappy he’d allowed Ed to goad him into saying it.

“Bragging about how we’ll be dead, and it won’t matter what we know?” Wren asked, sure she was right about his moral distaste for what was planned for them.

He flicked her a look, and she saw both fear and defiance in his eyes.

He didn’t like being associated with their death, but he’d do nothing to stop it.

She stepped forward, bringing herself closer to Banks, and then leapt at him, swinging her arm so her palm came down on the nape of his neck.

He stumbled forward, and as he did, Juller shot at her, but she didn’t need the silver shield her nanos had used at the docks on Demeter, she slid behind Banks and the laz strike hit him full in the chest as he went down.

Hatch took the initiative when Juller turned the laz in her direction and a second after Juller got off his shot, Hatch had him in a headlock and Bailey had him disarmed.

“I feel like I’m just a pretty face,” Ed said, still standing exactly where he had been, with the Guan scanner under his arm.

Wren flashed him a grin. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but . . .”

He laughed.

“Good work, Wren.” Bailey adjusted the setting on her laz and shot Juller in the chest, and he stopped struggling against Hatch and went limp.

Hatch lowered him to the ground and began restraining him. “Yes. That was just the distraction we needed.”

They thought the laz hit from Juller had taken Banks down, she realized. They didn’t know he was about to collapse anyway.

It was an excellent outcome.

“I do what I can.”

Bailey restrained Banks and then they laid both men against the wall.

“So,” Bailey lifted her hands. “Trish. What are we thinking?”

“She’s obnoxious and unhelpful, so whether she’s involved or not, I wouldn’t count on her talking, either way.” Wren couldn’t see how she wasn’t involved, though.

“Agreed. Though chances are high she’s in this up to her neck.” Ed set the scanner down on the table. “Let’s contact headquarters and let them know what’s going on.”

Hatch went to the control panel, tapped something, and then drew in a deep breath. “While they were waiting for us in here, they cut us off. Comms are down.”

“Comms are down on the whole station, or just from here?” Ed asked.

“That’s a good question.” Hatch turned away from the control panel and checked the setting on his laz. “Want to go find out?”

21

Nervous at howclose they’d come to losing the scanner, Ed made the decision to lock it safely away in their runner before they did anything else.

Hatch came with him to watch his back, and held the crawler killer out to make sure they weren’t followed by anything mechanical, either, but the short corridor between the control room and the docking station was empty, and they were gone less than ten minutes.

“Good to go,” Hatch said as they reentered the control room. “No more crawlers. Makes me think we either got them all, or Banks called them off because he thought we were under control.” He glanced across at their two prisoners, both of whom were coming out of their unconscious state.

“Let’s be cautious anyway,” Bailey said. “No sense letting our guard down while we’re ahead.”

Hatch gave a scary smile at that. “I like being ahead.”

Ed did, too.

He gave a tiny nod of approval when Bailey and Hatch kept Wren in the middle of the group as they headed for the canteen. When they stepped in, they found Cora and Laschka, who weresitting on the comfortable couches in the lounge area, sipping jah.

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