except to ask, “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to know Jarren’s put up a blockade. When were you going to tell the rest of us?” Niall demands.
“When you needed to know,” Radcliff says.
“We just figured it out today,” I say. “That’s why we were late for dinner.”
Radcliff huffs at me as if I ruined his fun. Then he turns to Niall. “I’m calling a staff meeting tomorrow morning.”
“Good.”
“Glad I have your permission,” Radcliff says with plenty of sarcasm. “As for you…”
“Me?” I squeak and curse under my breath as amusement glitters in Niall’s eyes.
“Do your tweak. I’m trusting you to know your limits and to not get us all killed.”
“Yes, sir.”
I decide to wait until I’m with Beau before doing the tweaks to the cameras. Radcliff schedules the meeting at oh-eight-hundred and I volunteer to man the cameras since I already know what it’s about. Morgan guards detention. Watching the feeds during the base’s busy morning activities is more interesting than the middle of the night. And it’s harder, as people clad in lab coats tend to look alike when they’re hurrying through the corridors.
My mom and dad are in the archeology lab. Both are armed with large flashlights and pulse guns. Nice of them to cover for security. I check on them quite often, looking for shadow-blobs.
There’s a camera in the conference room. I keep an eye on the meeting, scanning expressions as Radcliff updates the team about Jarren’s blockade. There’s a variety of glum, determined, and angry faces. At least no one is freaked. Although at one point, Niall and Beau exchange words—heated words by their body language. Boys.
The meeting ends and everyone leaves except Radcliff. A few officers talk in the hallway as the others disperse. Two go to relieve Morgan. Beau and Rance head my way while Niall and Zaim turn toward the archeology lab. Niall flashes me a tired smile before leaving security. I concentrate on the rest of the base.
Rance’s gravelly voice sounds on the other side of the door. “…not volunteering to go to Pit 21. It’s a suicide mission.”
“You’d rather sit here and wait for an ambush? Not me,” Beau says as he enters the monitor room. “Anything to report?” he asks me.
“No. All’s quiet. How did the meeting go?”
Beau scowls and Rance huffs. That good, eh?
“Your schedule’s been altered for today. You’re working with me,” Beau says. “We have quite the To-Do list.”
Interesting. Rance takes my seat. The chair appears small underneath his muscular frame. He’s tall and burly and one of the few officers with a family. He, his wife, and two sons all live in a housing unit in the main base for safety reasons. A good thing, too, or they’d have been in trouble when Jarren attacked.
Beau and I go into his office and shut the door behind us.
“What’s on our list?” I ask, sitting at the dual terminals.
“All the crazy stuff you told Radcliff you can do with the feeds and monitoring the base. Getting through Jarren’s blockage not enough for you?” Beau’s tone is gruff.
Oh boy. “Look—”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It’s Radcliff’s call, but I hope you’re not putting the entire base at risk.”
I clamp down on my response. He’s right, it’s Radcliff’s decision. I’d hoped my partner would be supportive. Guess there’s only one way to prove to him that having the Q-net monitor the camera feeds is safer overall.
“Are you going to help or are you just going to stand there?” I don’t wait for an answer. Inserting my tangs, I access the Q-net.
After a minute, Beau joins me. Then we worm.
I explain what we need to do. He’s sullen, but agrees. While I worm into the base’s personnel files for the photos, Beau remains in my Q-cluster, building the programs for the cameras. Once completed, I weave them into the security clusters in such a way they’re almost invisible. Then we link with the satellite to ensure no one has tampered with it. Except someone already has.
Before panic sets in, I check the camera feeds. They’re clean, showing an accurate picture of Yulin’s surface. But there’s a sneaky little program wrapped around the main Q-cluster. It’s unusual. In order to determine its function, I have to pull it apart. The process is like separating the individual strands from a rope without breaking them. With the utmost care, I ease the threads away from each other far enough to see what it’s programmed to do. It takes…a while for