The Star Thief (Star Thief Chronicles #1)(38)
Author: Jamie Grey

“I’m starting to wonder,” he said in a low voice. Finn opened one of the gauze packs and pressed it to the wound. “You ever going to tell me what happened here?” He traced the scar across the front of her neck with a finger, and she jerked away as goose bumps flashed across her skin.

“Doesn’t matter. It was a long time ago.” She jumped to her feet, all relaxation driven away. “Thanks for patching me up. I’ve got to go.”

“Renna, I…” He stood there, staring, obviously wanting to say something else, but she needed to get away.

“Thanks for the patch job.” Without looking back, she sped from his room and back to hers.

Calling herself a coward the whole way there.

SEVENTEEN

“I’ve had the destabilizer device brought to the ship. We ran the last tests on it this morning, and everything seems to be working as expected.” Aldani led Finn and Renna back to the hangar bay where the Athena was waiting. “We’ve also fueled her up for you and restocked some supplies. I’m hoping this will be a quick in-and-out job, but it’s best to be prepared for anything.”

“Thank you, sir.” Finn kept his gaze carefully directed ahead, his long legs carrying him ahead of Renna and the doctor. “I appreciate your help. I know we didn’t get off to the best start yesterday.”

“Just make sure you find something out. We can’t rescue Myka until we know what’s in that facility.”

“Don’t worry. It’s under control,” Renna said.

Aldani had shown her how to use the small globe of metal that would get them inside earlier that morning, but she still didn’t know what they’d face. It didn’t matter. She had a job to do, so she’d figure it out one way or another.

Finn paused long enough to salute the doctor. “I comm’d Keva to have the ship ready to go. We should be on Banos Prime by this afternoon and hopefully back here within twenty-four hours with more information. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go make final preparations.” He turned, marching up the gangway and into the Athena without waiting for them to respond.

Renna and Aldani watched him in silence until he disappeared inside, then the doctor turned to Renna, one eyebrow canted. “Is everything all right between you two?” he asked.

“Of course,” she lied. But Finn’s behavior said otherwise. Snippets of the previous night rushed through her mind, the feel of Finn’s fingers against her neck sending a shiver down her spine. With an inward groan, she pushed the thought out of her mind. Last night, she thought they’d finally come to a truce, but maybe she was wrong.

“Well, I’ll give you my farewell speech then. Watch the destabilizer. It will only work long enough to open one door, then it must be recharged. And by the stars, don’t let it fall into the wrong hands. It won’t blow up a planet now that I’ve adjusted the settings, but it could do some serious damage.”

“Understood. Thank you for everything, Doctor.” She held out a hand, and he shook it. “We’ll be back to find Myka in no time.” There. No promises, just nice and vague. Too bad it was already too late for semantics.

“I believe you. And, for what it’s worth, I think you’re an asset to this team. They need someone like you to think outside the box.” He cleared his throat and stepped back. “Go on. The sooner you leave, the sooner I’ll have my nephew back.”

“Yes, sir.” She smiled at him, and he winked at her before she boarded the ship.

Renna spent the ride to Banos Prime time scouring the omega-net for news about other attacks, Myka, or Hesperia. She also moved some of her liquid assets to new accounts and rearranged her portfolio. Things were about to get messy, and she had no idea if she’d get the chance again. Thank gods she’d paid attention when Blur had stressed the importance of diversifying.

“Approaching Banos Prime. Landing in thirteen minutes.” Kojima’s voice came over the intercom, and Renna closed down the hololink in her interface. Aldani had seriously upgraded her implant, and despite a few twinges of pain as it readjusted to her neural patterns, everything ran like clockwork.

She pulled on her coat and grabbed the bag with her tools. Time to get the job done.

The Athena touched down in a golden valley between two rock formations. The outcroppings looked like gnarled burgundy fingers reaching up from the desert. According to the surveillance maps, the facility they needed to find was more than two klicks away, but Finn didn’t want to land too close and alert anyone inside.

Renna tugged at the pack on her back as she surveyed the arid desert surrounding them. She’d packed her tools, Aldani’s device, and a few other necessities that might come in handy when she got into the facility. Only she and Finn were going inside, but Keva and one of the other sergeants—Doyle, she thought—were coming along as backup on the journey.

Not exactly how she would have chosen to run the mission. Having three other people with her made her skin itch with unease. More people meant a greater chance of detection.

She shivered as a gust of wind blew sand across the surface. Banos Prime might have been a desert world, but it certainly wasn’t warm. The blazing sun overhead looked welcoming, but they were too far away for it to heat the atmosphere above freezing most days. And at night…they’d be completely screwed if they had to be out here after dark.

“Open planet map,” she ordered her implant. A moment later, the surface of Banos was laid out for her, the facility blinking red. She turned to Finn and Keva, who were whispering about something or other. She didn’t much care. “We need to head north. Looks like there’s a line of rock outcroppings we can follow to stay out of sight.”

They both nodded, and Renna started north without a glance behind her. Let them follow if they wanted. She’d spent way too much energy worrying about Finn and his crew already. Ever since they’d left Aldani’s lab that morning, everyone had been acting strange. They’d greeted her in the passageways by name, acknowledging her for the first time since the missions had started. Their sudden friendliness made her twitchy.

It also made her wonder what exactly Finn had said to them.

The group walked in silence for a few minutes, the whistling of the wind across the sand the only noise until Finn’s long strides caught up with her. Even then he didn’t speak.

She definitely wasn’t going to be the one to break the sudden awkwardness between them.