trigger his attention. Then those files will be rerouted to a cluster where he could review them. If it was me I’d— Oh my stars!
I almost trip over my feet at the thought. But I stay upright by sheer will because I don’t want Niall to abandon his post to rush to my side. After a few steps, I steady my nerves. I’m probably overreacting. And if not, there isn’t anything I could do about it at this time. Tomorrow when I’m working with Beau, I’ll ask him.
When I reach the door to my unit, I press my hand on the pad to unlock it. Before going inside, I turn to the closest camera and wave good night to Niall.
Due to my overactive imagination, it takes me longer to fall asleep than I planned so it’s an effort to leave my warm comfortable bed in the morning. At least I’m waking up surrounded by beauty and calm. Is it weird to feel that a part of Niall’s mother’s soul is watching over me? In a good way—not a creepy way. The paintings remind me of the Terracotta Warriors. When I stand near an intact Warrior, I sense a part of the craftsman’s soul was worked into the clay thousands of years ago. I guess that is weird. Must be the start of sleep deprivation.
Elese is way too chipper for this time of the morning. We drill and spar and work out and drill and spar and work out. Then a break for lunch before I stand in a shooter’s stance and attempt to make Mr. Orange Light go away twenty times in a row. My arms are sore from yesterday’s fruitless efforts. Finally, the part of the day I’m most looking forward to arrives and I dash back to get a shower before going to Beau’s office as an official security officer.
“You’re late,” he says.
“Did you want me to stink up your office?”
“No. Next time leave training earlier.”
“Fine with me.” I plop next to him.
Beau has dual Q-net terminals—I’m so jealous—along with a regular terminal at his desk. He spends the most time securing the Q-net. Although the other officers are trained, he has a natural talent. Radcliff is rather good at tracing worms as well. That’s how I met him. He caught me illegally worming on the ship. Back before I interned with Chief Hoshi. I doubt he’d catch me now, but I learned early on never to underestimate Officer Tace Radcliff.
“Tora told me you checked my security around the camera feeds,” Beau says in a flat tone.
Tora, eh? And she accused me of running to Radcliff to whine. I gauge his mood. Normally, he’s a terrible flirt, cocky and easy going. I wonder if I’ve offended him or broken some protocol. We’re supposed to be partners on this.
“I wanted to make sure they hadn’t been compromised,” I say.
“You don’t trust my protections?”
Ah. I hurt his feelings. “I trust you to do the best you can. Jarren is better than both of us and, I’m sorry, but I’m super paranoid.”
He grunts, slightly mollified. “Setting up an alarm was a good idea. Now we need to figure out where Jarren’s hiding.” He picks up his tangs.
Time to tell Beau about my worries. “I think we should test to see if DES is getting messages from us.”
His hands freeze halfway to his ears. “Where did this come from?”
“Last night, I was trying to think of a way to determine which files Jarren was monitoring or stopping from reaching DES, when I thought, if it were me, I’d stop them all so there’s no risk one will get by me. We should confirm that we have reestablished contact with DES. Remember that at one point during the attack Jarren had cut us off from them.” Not that DES could do anything to help us. But they should know what’s going on so they can at least warn the other Warrior planets about Jarren.
“We’re in contact with DES,” Beau says. “That’s the first thing I checked when I was cleared for duty.”
Beau was sliced by the shadow-blobs and then pulsed by the looters. “How are you doing?”
“I’ve a cool crisscross shaped scar, you wanna see?” He pulls his shirt, untucking it.
I grab his wrist. “No. Niall and I can’t even hold hands in uniform; I don’t think Radcliff would approve of you flashing your abs at me.”
“You ain’t seen abs like these.” He winks.
Nice to know he doesn’t hold a grudge. “Don’t worry,