And then he and Kat began the shuffle around that chilly grated floor, beneath the dimmed overhead lights, in the well-trodden path.
He walked her back, lingering as he studied the shadows of her lashes on her cheek; the way the starlight hit her narrow frame in this angle. He memorized the feel in the air, and the feeling of them, as they were tonight, just two cadets in love.
His kiss was brief. Soft. Thoughtful. A single spark meant to commemorate this moment. And a seal, on all that had been, before they dove headfirst into the unknown.
And all too soon, he was back at his dorm. Tonight they’d sleep in their own beds. One last night in their dorms. One last night onboard the Academy.
As he strode towards his bed, ready to collapse and endure an unending night of tossing and turning and worrying about tomorrow, he nearly missed the thin band resting atop his holoblock. His radiation band from Segura, now returned to him.
A note sat on top, jotted down in a very untidy scrawl.
Found this buried in the code. Good luck—J
Underneath his message was a set of numbers. But the numbers weren’t code for the mainframe.
They were coordinates.
Lee had his holoblock open in a second. He had the latitude and longitude typed in within the strokes of a few more. But he let his fingers hover there, over the keys, aching to hit that final stroke that would illuminate this last secret for them. Terrified of the disappointment should they come up short. And desperate that these coordinates be the untraceable answer to one of those final questions.
He didn’t know how long he waited there. Deliberating. Fearing. Preparing. Dismissing. When at last, he let his fingers fall.
He clutched the radiation band in his fist, the milliseconds dragging on for much longer than he could bear as his mind sped through all the possibilities as to where these coordinates might lead. Could the answer really have been here with them all along? The location of a base, hidden away on the throwaway band?
His mind ceased its spiraling as an image glittered to life across the hologram before him, carving a pathway in their galaxy, a beacon in the star-flecked blackness.
He’d had a hunch that this was important. He’d hung onto that feeling, against all odds. Against all reasoning and possibility. Subconsciously fighting for it and working towards it. Doing everything in his power to ensure it came to fruition—even before he knew why. And now here it was. His hunch. His reason.
His purpose.
He typed out a brief message on his hyperband.
Lee: I know where we’re going.
CHAPTER 45: KAT
THEY HAD coordinates.
They had the means to get there, and get there undetected.
And now all that remained, was making it to this evening, when they would board their skimmer and start up the engines that would take them across the galaxy.
And that was proving the hardest feat of all.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Kat stared into the eggshell panels of the back wall of the training room, resisting the urge to glance back down at her hyperband as the Rad cadet walked them through their theoretical raid scenario and all of its potential fall backs. And when she finally gave in—when she finally looked at its glowing face—she was affronted by the mere six minutes that had passed since she’d last checked. Her hyperband didn’t show the seconds, but she could imagine each and every one. The slow dripping IV that dragged by in tantalizing heartbeats as each one slicked by.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
