Page 21 of Hunted By the Wraiths
Still possible.
I stood. Moved back to my cot. Put five feet of cold air between us.
His breathing evened out. The scales stopped flickering quite so violently.
The drip of condensation filled the silence. Drip. Drip. Drip.
I pulled out the data chips. Two of them now. I turned them over in my hands, feeling the weight of all those years of shipping records. The evidence that would prove I’d been a slaver. That I’d helped the Consortium...
“We need the third chip,” I said.
Thoryn nodded. Didn’t open his eyes.
I ran the numbers. The third cache was in The Fortress, the old central command core I’d claimed as my deep-level insurance. The most secure location I owned. Which meant it was now the most dangerous location on The Quarry.
Vashil would know about it. Of course she did. She’d been my lieutenant for six years. She knew every cache, every safe house, every contingency plan.
She’d be waiting.
But we needed that chip. Three caches. Three pieces of the puzzle. Without all three, the data was useless.
I tried to study Thoryn like a puzzle. Looked at the bio-sealer covering his shoulder. At the synth-skin on his side. At the way his chest rose and fell, too shallow, too fast.
He was on a ticking clock. The wounds were sealed, but the infection had already started. Without a real medbay, without proper treatment, he had maybe a day before the infection went systemic.
Maybe less.
“How long do we have?” he asked.
“Before Vashil finds us?” I checked my stolen security feed on my datapad. “Four hours before they finish sweeping the upper levels and start down here.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
His steady gaze watched me, and I knew he already knew the answer. Was waiting for me to accept it.
“A day,” I said. “Maybe two if we’re lucky.”
“We’re not lucky.”
“No.”
He smiled. Small. Tired. “Then we’d better get moving.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him he needed rest, needed time to let the bio-sealer set, needed to stop trying to protect me and focus on not dying.
But I’d run the numbers. Four hours until the patrols reached us. One day until his wounds went critical. Zero options for safety.
The only way out was through.
“Four hours,” I said. “We rest for four hours. Then we move on The Fortress.”
“And if Vashil’s there?”
“Then we go through her.”
Thoryn’s smile widened. Just slightly. “I like your plans.”
“My plans are terrible.”
