Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2)(19)

“Fin, you wanna take them through the run?” Tyler asks.

Our Gearhead blinks in confusion. “Um … yeah, if you want?”

“Sorry.” Our Alpha hobbles toward a chair. “I just gotta sit for a minute.”

Scarlett watches her brother lower himself onto the moldy cushion beside her, one hand at his crotch. She winces in sympathetic agony.

“Poor baby,” she coos. “Madam Badass really did a number on the boys, huh?”

“I mean, I can always adopt,” he whimpers.

“If it makes you feel better, the black eye kinda suits you? The bloodshottiness really brings out the blue.”

Tyler shoots Scarlett a withering glance, and she grins and ruffles his mop of blond hair. He groans a protest and smooths his locks back into place, only to have them mussed again by his sister’s hand.

They are so different—he the epitome of order, she the personification of chaos—that I sometimes find it hard to think of them as siblings. But looking at the pair of them, I can see how dearly the Jones twins love each other. They are united in the grief they feel at Zero’s death. The uncertainty in which we find ourselves. Bonded in blood. A true family. Inseparable and unconquerable.

My own sister and I make a shameful comparison.

“I’ve got two black belts,” Tyler sighs. “Ten years training in Systema and Krav Maga. And she bounced me like a jetball.”

“Feel no shame,” I tell him. “Saedii is a master of the Aen Suun.”

Scarlett frowns as she translates. “The … Wave Way?”

I nod. “The deadliest of the Warbreed martial arts. Before he died, my father trained us personally. Since we were children.” Sorrow fills my heart at the memory of the three of us training beneath the lias trees. I give Tyler a sad smile. “Saedii has kicked me below the belt on more than one occasion. So you have my sympathies.”

“More than once?” Tyler winces and shifts again. “Maker’s breath, how are you still alive?”

“I did warn you not to let her get close.”

“It wasn’t by choice, believe me,” he groans. “If I have anything to say about it, the young lady in question will be kept at minimum safe distance from now on. A couple of star systems away oughta do it.”

“That may not be up to us. Saedii and her adepts will still be hunting me. One does not become a Templar of the Starslayer by giving up on her prey easily.”

“All the more reason to get in and out of the Repository quickly,” Aurora says.

“Nice segue, Stowaway,” Finian smiles, turning to his schematic and drawing a deep breath. “Okay, so the plan is simple. Get in, access whatever Adams left for us in the deposit box, then get out. Our big problem is, of course, the bounty we have on our heads for galactic terrorism.”

“Alleged terrorism,” Zila points out.

“Right. Alleged. So, good news is, Emerald City has a population of over a million people, so it’s not like we’ll be easy to spot. Bad news is, the Dominion Repository has a security system that feeds into the webnodes of most major galactic governments, and their cams are equipped with top-tier facial recognition software. I’m talking the kind that can recognize you by your eyebrows.”

Scarlett tosses her flame-red bob. “Well, they are amazing.”

“Um, yeah.” Finian taps a ream of scrolling data beside the schematic. “So what I’m saying is, a jetball cap and sunglasses isn’t going to cut it in there. Those systems are gonna ping us as wanted criminals real quick.”

“We could use the GIA uniforms again?” Aurora offers.

Tyler shakes his head. “Too risky after what went down at the docks. The GIA is so rare this far from the Core, those uniforms will just attract attention now.”

“I presume you have a solution?” I ask.

“Matter of fact, we do, Pixieboy,” Finian smiles. “The Repository cams will clock us once we walk in. No helping that. But there’ll be a delay while their systems transmit to their affiliates. The speed of light only travels so fast, even through the Fold. By the time the data is on its way back, I can be running a flakscreen on the uplink. Block the incoming signal long enough for us to be in and out.”

“Impressive,” I say.

Scarlett smiles. “Impressive is Fin’s middle name.”

A suspicious stain very close to a blush spreads across Finian’s cheeks at Scarlett’s flattery, but Tyler intercedes.

“Nnnnnnot so much,” he says.

“Wow, thanks, Goldenboy,” Finian mutters. “Way to boost morale.”

“Sorry.” Our Alpha shifts himself on the couch again. “It’s the crown jewels; they’re killing me. But you know what I mean, Fin—tell them the tricky part.”

Finian concedes his not-so-impressive status with a grudging nod. “Tricky part is, I’ve gotta be inside the Repository while I run the hack.”

A small frown creases Zila’s brow. “I think it highly unlikely that Dominion security will allow you to simply sit in their foyer engaging in computer espionage.”

“Right,” Tyler says. “That’s where you and me come in, Zil.”

The girl blinks. “You and … me?”

“Yeah,” he smiles, his signature dimple creasing his cheek. “So listen, you wanna go on a date with me?”