the door. “Not my first rodeo, won’t be my last.”
5
Eris followed her knight in black combats out of the cleaning closet. As they emerged, one of the cleaning bots cheeped and left its charging pod to slide down the tracks to the floor.
She put her foot in front of it to stop it as she unclipped her ID bracelet and dropped it in the waste receptacle on the top. Stepping back, she grinned at Zero as she let it continue on its way.
“Let them chase their damn tails for a while.”
He pulled her close, claiming her lips in a swift, hard kiss. “That’s my girl.”
She flushed at the comment and being called his girl. Even though she was way too old to be considered a girl and she’d always argued against any of that kind of possessive nonsense from any guy before… with Zero it was different. At his words a warmth spread from the center of her chest, and she followed him as he set off down the hall.
Within minutes, though, it became apparent they’d underestimated how easy it would be to get down to the docking arms and hijack a ship. Every route they tried was blocked by a group of armed men.
“How many of these fuckers are there?” she hissed, peeking around the corner to check out the group they’d almost walked smack-bang into.
Clad in black body armor like the rest, they carried the latest KT-X assault rifles but wore no unit or regiment badges. Despite that, they were clearly military. The way they moved said they couldn’t be anything other than special forces.
Her eyes narrowed. She was a security chief on a backwater station in the ass-end of beyond. Who wanted her dead badly enough to send special forces after her? Someone had their wires crossed somewhere for sure.
But, a clerical error of epic magnitude or not, she couldn’t exactly complain to management, not with a dead-or-alive bounty on her head. She flattened herself against the wall and looked at Zero, trying like hell not to panic.
“We’ll double back,” he said. “I have an idea.”
At least one of them did. She nodded, and they turned to head back down the corridor. The station was in complete lockdown with no one around as they made their way to the lower-level habitat sector. None of the lodgings on the station could be considered luxurious, but the lower levels tucked in behind the docking arms were the lowest of the low. Even the cockroaches preferred to live higher up.
“What are we doing here?” she hissed as he paused by a door and hammered on it with a massive fist.
“Fuck off, Zero!” a muffled voice came from inside.
Zero winked at her and leaned in, one massive shoulder against the door. “Either open the door, Sparky, or I’ll tear it off its fucking hinges!” he yelled.
The door cracked open widely enough for them to see one blue eye. Jayce Allen. She should have known. “Good luck. It’s a slider,” he hissed. “Now fuck off. You’re messing with my meditation.”
The door started to slide shut, but Zero was quicker. Jamming his metal hand into the gap, the door mechanism squealed in protest as he forced it open.
“Meditation?” she asked as Zero ushered her through the door, only letting go when they were both through. The door slid shut behind them and she turned to look at Allen’s quarters. Far from the squalid hovel she’d expected, it was neat. Like barracks neat. The blanket on the single bunk was tight enough to bounce a coin off… if you could find such an antique all the way out here.
“I find a little one-on-one time with the captain works most issues out.” He gestured toward the bottle of whiskey on the desk. Captain Jones… the cheapest rot-gut whiskey there was on base. She knew it well.
He folded his arms over his chest, looking at them both, and glared at Zero. “What do you want, big guy?”
“Whatever weaponry you got, the keys to whatever ship you can steal and a winning lottery ticket.”
Sparky’s eyebrow lifted. “What color would you like your dragon? Because if you think you’re getting off this rust bucket with SO13 here, you’d better think again.”
“Shit…” Eris breathed. “I thought they were normal special forces.”
SO13 weren’t just special forces; they were black ops… blacker than a black cat in a damn coal cellar. So black they were a myth because most people who saw them didn’t survive the encounter.
“Nope,” Sparky’s lips compressed into