Her co-conspirator, her forever co-pilot, and her final stand.
Always.
She let her hand drop with a sigh. “I wanted us to find something.”
They hadn’t found anything they could use today. Disregarding the stack of mission assignments that might at best give them another couple of coordinates to cross off their star map. And that message between their Commander and Nolan, a message, which, if anything, just made her resent their Commander even more.
What were they doing here?
She was very much at risk of spiraling back into helplessness. Back to the place she’d been three months ago.
Was there even hope for any of them, or were they still so far in over their head? She felt Lee’s fingertips at her throat and under her chin, his touch an echo to hers only seconds ago. She let him guide her eyes back to his with the softest pressure. And, although bleak, there was some of his signature clarity there in those green irises. He allowed her to soak up that quietstrength and that willingness to keep fighting. Because he would, wouldn’t he—he would keep fighting, for as long as it took?
And when she was ready, she nodded. A mechanical notion, in all its brevity. But she was ready for them to break this downward spiral if they could.
“This—today—it doesn’t change anything,” he said, quietly, slowly, his hand still gripping her chin. Like he needed her to hear these words, to understand these next words. “I’m still in this—with you. You and me.”
She swallowed back the fear pulsing from her lungs. “Even if we turn out to be wrong, and we’ve thrown our lives and our careers away, and everything has gone up in smoke and flames, even then?”
A little smile turned up his lips. She held her breath as he tucked some loose strands of hair over her ear, the bareness cool in his wake. “Even then. Until those last wires on our spaceship have lost their currents.” And he held his hand out for her as he stepped away from the wall. Offering her a hand up to meet him there.
“Which brings us to our next matter of business.” His warm hand engloved hers as he pulled her off the wall after him. That fighting spark was back in full force and alighting his eyes.
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”
“We’re going to need a ship.”
Her mouth parted, her only surprise she’d show as she let all her remorse for the path not taken pool down around the boots of her all-terrain suit. She left them behind her, coiling back into the cool calculation place inside of her. If they were going to do this, she needed to be one hundred percent onboard.
Which meant she was already behind.
“And Kat,” Lee said, spinning her around to face him and holding her there with his eyes this time. “We did learn ‘something’ today,” he said, guessing—or knowing—where herhead had gone minutes earlier. “We learned the Commander believed us.”
CHAPTER 40: LEE
JED WAS gone by the time he and Kat returned to her dorm. A small mercy. They had a lot to discuss between the two of them, plenty of which he’d rather not have to cover up and make excuses for just yet—that part would come later.
Stripping down to logistics, they were up into the wee hours of the night debating exactly what affairs they would need to have in order, and which ones they needn’t bother with when they made their quiet getaway. The problem was, the deeper they delved and discussed, the more it became very clear this would not be a two-cadet job. Not if they wanted to slip away undetected. Which meant they were going to need some help.
“So who do we need?” Kat asked, toying with one of the long strands of hair that had since fallen from her ponytail to hang over her cheek. A sliver of silver in the starlight.
“I vote we constrain it to a need-to-know basis,” Lee offered, apologetically. There were quite a few they’d grown very close to over the years who wouldn’t be receiving any such goodbyes or explanations. Flyn and Ness. Marco. Demi. Dax, Lee begrudgingly allowed himself to admit within the quiet confines of his mind.
Then there were those with whom they’d want to say goodbye; the faces of a former squadron flickered in hismemories, along with one round lavender face who was already gone.
“Whistler and Zane,” Kat whispered, quietly, yet firmly, her mind made up. “We’ll clue them in just enough. This isn’t like breaking into the Commander’s office. Everything we need to have happen they are more than capable of handling. They’ve likely already guessed as much from our machinations, anyway.”
“Whistler and Zane,” Lee agreed, their conclusion unanimous. Even if the knowledge of the restriction was already grating on him.
While Kat caught up with Whistler and Demi the next day during lunch, Lee dodged the traffic, slipping back down to the training levels. The majority of cadets would be lounging about the Hideaway enjoying a break for the weekend. All except for one, who would have taken advantage of a lax day to work out his own stresses.
Lee had known he would find Zane down here. It’s exactly where he would have been, had things gone a different way.
Zane stood at the base of the mats guzzling a bottle of water when Lee crossed into the room. He didn’t say anything as Lee stopped a meter away, observing the airflow from the vents. It blew stronger in this particular gym, making it a degree or two cooler.
“If you came to ask about it, I haven’t found anything,” Zane said, when he finally set down his water bottle.
Lee nodded slowly. “I appreciate the update, as well as your discretion.”
