Page 43 of The First Spark
“I would’ve done it for anyone.”
Wells’s face scrunched up, as if he was considering something.
A heavy metal clang jolted through the cabin. Then came the telltale hiss of an airlock adjusting to the pressure on the other side of the boarding tube. Steam rose from the outline of the airlock’s heavy metal hatch, wafting across the closed cargo ramp.
Kalie’s mouth went dry. Any second, that door would open.
“Her client.” Wells hooked his thumb towards the cockpit and lowered his voice. “He’ll talk a good game, but stay sharp. He’s a suit. At the end of the day, he only has his interests at heart. You understand me?”
It took all her cycles of practice to keep her surprise off her face. Kalie nodded.
Wells settled into the couch. His expression morphed into lazy smugness as Mira sauntered into the room.
“Conspiring without me?”
Wells grinned. “Never.”
A light next to the airlock flashed green, and Mira hauled the hatch open. Kalie stuffed her hands in her pockets. As she followed Mira through the drab gray tube, Wells’s footsteps shuffled after them.
“Hannover, you’re with me. Zane, you’re going to the medbay?—”
“I’m fine.”
“—to make sure that wound is fully healed.” Mira raised her eyebrows. “Cybel’s not a licensed doctor. I’d hate for you to lose the use of your sword arm just because you’re stubborn.”
“Sword arm,” Kalie echoed. “You fence?”
Wells’s jaw tightened. “I used to. A long time ago.”
“My brother fences, too. They say Theron’s the best duelist in the Etovian Empire. Were you any good?”
Wells glared at her. Point taken. Touchy subject.
Judging by her exaggerated groan, Mira didn’t notice. “Please, don’t get him started. If I have to hear about his championships one more time…”
The room on the other side of the tube was clean but plain, and it smelled strongly of ammonia. Supply racks lined the gray walls, and seats were nailed into the tile floors. Men in pressed gray uniforms conferred with hangar bay mechanics in orange vests. All of them had pulsers holstered at their hips.
Kalie gulped.
Mira pulled a soldier aside and tasked him with seeing Wells to the medbay. “And make sure he stays there,” she added, winking.
He scowled, and she blew him a kiss as the soldier led him away.
Kalie narrowed her eyes at Wells’s retreating figure.
“This way, Hannover.”
The way Mira strode through the hangar bay was familiar. It was the way Aunt Calida moved, as if crowds were fluid things, designed to bend at her will. Soldiers and attendants parted before her. She commanded respect, and if she was anything like Aunt Calida, she deserved it.
Kalie drew her lip between her teeth as they entered a grim metal passageway.
“Is he your boyfriend?”
If she was right, Mira deserved to know what Wells had been doing in that bar.
Mira snorted as she waved her hand. Sparkling lights glinted off the silver band on her ring finger. “Nah. We had a fling a few cycles ago, but it was nothing serious.”
Her jaw had clenched, though, and her shoulders drooped.
