like he was about to snarl when Jarapin held up a hand. “I mean no offense. My point is that you certainly could have told us to fleck off and blown this entire city to bits. My sister, her mate, and her child are working with Gram. I’m doing this for them. So, thank you.”
Nero’s muscle loosened a fraction. “I have many I care about riding on the success of this mission as well.”
Jarapin inclined his head. After another turn, he said, “Almost there.”
And that was one more thing to send me into a near panic. We weren’t going to park nicely with plenty of time to exit the vehicle. Oh no. We had to leap out of the vehicle’s open door—while it was in motion—and land on a small platform along one side of the hub’s pod. There was no way to stop the vehicle without drawing suspicion, and the timing of our leap had to be perfect. Too early or too late, and another vehicle’s headlights in the patrol schedule would spot us.
We had small window of time to get out of our vehicle, land on the hub platform, and get inside the hub using the code Gram provided us. He’d made it seem so easy, but the entire time he’d been relaying the plan, I had been tempted to vomit.
Nero and I got into position, which meant I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I couldn’t lock my ankles behind his back, so I looped them through the straps of his back. That was how we planned to exit the vehicle, with me clinging to him like a baby monkey.
Suddenly, Jarapin barked a curse and the vehicle slowed to a stop. Nero and I nearly sailed off the seat. My stomach sank as I caught the reflection of Jarapin’s wide, panicked eyes in the glass of the front window. His shoulders heaved just as a crackly voice filled the car. “Search checkpoint ahead at Sector 26.”
I nearly came out of my skin, thinking someone was in the car with us, until I realized the voice came from a speaker at the front of the vehicle.
“Fleck,” Nero hissed.
“There’s no way to get out of line,” Jarapin’s voice shook. “If I leave, they’ll fire on site.”
Nero’s hand tightened on the seat by my head. “If they find us in the vehicle…”
“They’ll kill you.” The Uldani swallowed and glanced over his shoulder at us.
“Any ideas?” Nero peered out of the window where we could see the bottom of the pod we needed to reach.
Jarapin craned his neck to look down, then up. He swallowed thickly and ran his hand through his short hair. “I can get you to the pod, and I can try to hold them off as long as I can.”
“Will you be okay?” I knew Jarapin was risking everything once they realized he was a traitor.
He swallowed and shot me a small smile over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, human.”
“But—” My words cut off on a shriek as Jarapin spun the wheel wildly and slammed down a lever. The vehicle shot up and right, clipping a vehicle in front of us before we sailed up and over the checkpoint line. Nero hauled himself upright, no longer worried about not being seen. I sat up, plastered to the back of my seat like I was in an airplane at takeoff. An alarm blared from somewhere below us and the speaker crackled to life as my ears popped during our sharp ascent. “Vehicle G-967 is now considered hostile. I repeat, vehicle—”
Jarapin slammed his hand down on a button, silencing the voice. I glanced out of the window to see numerous vehicles pealing out from the depths of the city, heading right for us. Arcs of solar gunfire erupted all around us. Jarapin swerved and zig-zagged like a gazelle escaping from a cheetah. Sparks sprayed outside my window just as our car lurched forward. Lights flashed along the dashboard, but Jarapin ignored them as he continued to drive like a bat out of hell.
Nero turned to me; his expression controlled despite the utter chaos that had become our mission. “No matter what, you get inside that pod.”
“No matter what?” I was panicking. I couldn’t hide the shrill tone of my voice. “What does that mean? Where will you be?”
“Right behind you,” he said, clasping my hands. “But I can’t have you worrying about me as I hold off the laser fire. Get those