The Star Thief (Star Thief Chronicles #1)(41)
Author: Jamie Grey

“Wait just a minute. I’m the thief here. Let me go first.”

Finn shook his head. “We are not going to argue about this. I’m in charge of this mission. You need to listen to me.”

He definitely hadn’t gotten less bossy with age.

“And I’m here because of my exceptional skills. Might as well let me use them to make sure there’s no one around to catch us.” Carefully she pulled Aldani’s device away from the wall, half-expecting the hole to snap closed. But it stayed open, the edges shimmering slightly with the strange blue light. She slipped it into her bag, then straightened from her crouch.

“Are you ready?”

He scanned the scene one last time. “I’m right behind you.”

Renna stepped silently over the edge of the wall. Inside the facility, the temperature was a good twenty degrees warmer. The air hung heavy and sluggish, the scent of metal making her nose itch. There was another scent there, too, just at the edge of recognition, but when it didn’t come to her, she focused on scoping out the rest of the facility.

“Schematics,” she whispered.

“No schematics found.”

Dammit. So much for Aldani’s upgrades. She was going to have to do this blind.

As Finn stepped through the hole, she inched around the side of the crate to see better. Inside, the room was a maze of boxes and machinery. A conveyor belt ran along the ceiling of the room, but it didn’t seem to be turned on at the moment.

Instead, silence pulsed around them.

Finn pushed past her, his gun still in his hand. “Where to?”

Renna swallowed. Tried to stretch out her own senses to get a feel for the place. After years of doing this, even an implant was only a little better than her intuition, but somehow, this was different. Whatever the building was made from, it messed up more than her implant’s sensors. She’d be damned if she let the captain know that, though. Instead, she squared her shoulders, pulled her own pistol from the holster, and moved forward toward the next stack of crates.

“We need to check the perimeter. I can’t tell if the whole facility is one large room or broken up into smaller areas.”

Finn nodded. “On your six.”

They snuck around boxes toward the north end of the facility. Renna’s feet were noiseless on the concrete floor, but Finn moved like a soldier, methodical and precise. But not silent.

If this was a real job, she would have fired his ass.

“Can you pick up your feet a little, soldier?” she asked as they paused at another bank of crates. “You sound like an elephant.”

“What are you talking about? I’m moving as quietly as I can.” He stared down at the heavy boots he wore.

“It’s not working. How about I give you some lessons when we get out of here? Evidently your time in the military has dulled a few skills.” She smirked at him and pushed past to scope out the rest of the area. She might have let her arm brush against his on purpose, but she’d never admit it.

He stiffened at the touch but didn’t say anything as she headed for the far side of the room.

Her implant buzzed in her ear, and Renna froze in front of a narrow doorway leading off the space. “Warning. Heat signatures detected.”

“Show heat map.”

The implant still couldn’t display an image of the facility, but the red blobs of heat that appeared seemed to be dead ahead through the door. They weren’t moving, but that didn’t mean anything. They could be waiting for Renna and Finn to get close enough to attack.

“What’s wrong?” Finn’s words were hot against her ear, and she shivered, ignoring the surge of…something that shot through her midsection.

“There’s something beyond the door, but I can’t tell what it is.”

“Then let’s find out.” He crept closer, pressing himself against the wall. Renna followed. She recognized the keypad on the door as one of the SEU series. She’d have to be careful with this one.

Pulling out the small nanotech pliers she used for jobs like these, she carefully slid them into the hidden port on the bottom of the lock and fished for the grounding wire. Her first connection made the keypad scream in protest, and Renna jerked back, heart pounding.

Finn hissed at her. “Quiet!”

She glared but didn’t respond. Renna let out a breath and tried to calm her racing pulse. Rookie mistakes would get them both killed. There was no excuse to be jittery now. She wasn’t thirteen with a crush on her mentor anymore.

She slipped the pliers back into the port and tried again. This time, the connection took, and the nanotech ran through the security program, searching through the holes in the code. A few seconds later, the red glowing light clicked over to green.

“We’re in,” she said with a grin as she pressed her back against the wall and gripped her gun. “Ready?” He nodded, and she shoved open the door.

Finn popped into the doorway, did a quick scan of the room, then popped back. He shook his head.

Renna moved into the room, her gun at the ready. It was empty, but the blob of heat signatures still showed on her implant scan.

“What the hell?” Maybe her implant was broken. The room was the size of the command center back on the Athena and was completely deserted aside from the three holo lights hanging from the ceiling and a few worn crates in the corner. The walls and floor were the same dull gray as the rest of the facility.

Renna moved her gaze slowly through the room, searching for anything that might give them a clue as to who owned the facility or what the owners were doing here.

Finn followed close behind. His presence felt warm, like sunshine on her back. When she was younger, she’d gotten really good at knowing when he was close. That skill had come back faster than she’d expected. Old habits died hard.

“I don’t get it.” Finn shook his head. “There’s nothing here.”

“What about the crates?” It was the only possibility. And she didn’t like what it implied.

They exchanged a glance and headed for the closest of the large metal bins. Renna pulled out her nanospanner sonic screwdriver and loosened the bolts holding down the top of the crate. “Okay. It’s off. Help me with this.”

Finn took the other side, and they lifted off the panel and set it on the floor. “What in the seven gods is that doing here?” Finn’s eyes widened, and Renna glanced down into the box.

A mech—a human-like robot—was curled into a crouch. The shiny metallic body had limbs made of the same dark metal as the walls of the facility. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing back out the door they’d come through, into the main facility. There were hundreds of these crates in there. Were they all filled with mechs?