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Sam must have had the same misgivings as I did, because she practically scrambled through the corridor, limping as she went, to the other side and through the door with a sign that readHockey Rink.A large open area was ringed with clear panels. There were several large holes in the exterior walls, and part of the ceiling had caved in, showing the tumultuous skies above.
“Argh! It’s fucking freezing in here!” Sam hugged herself as a gust of wind blew in through the aperture.
Still shivering, she ducked into the corridor again and hurried back to the main building as quickly as her sore ankle allowed. We locked the door behind us.
The last area was the maintenance and supply room. Sam’s eyes lit up at a piece of machinery in the corner.
“Sweet! A gas-powered generator! And a half-full jerry can. It won’t last long, probably not even through the storm, but…I wonder…” She turned to me. “Can you carry that into the gym? We can set up in there. The room’s big enough that if I get it started, we won’t die from the fumes. I can get that laptop charged up then.”
“What use is that stupid human device? It cannot contact other hunters.”
She did that eye-rolling thing she often did that I was beginning to suspect meant she was unimpressed with me. “It can’t. But Pip can.”
Chapter 13: Sam
“We will send a shuttle when the storm passes,” said the hunter on the screen. “It should be over by tomorrow morning.”
“Terrific, thank you. We’ll stay put. We can’t keep the laptop running, but we’ll save what power we have to get in touch again after the storm.” I’d already explained that Pip was currently using the laptop to contact them.
“Understood.”
Originally, I’d asked Pip to send the call out to our camp, or maybe Franklin, but since he was only working with the hardware in the laptop, the best he could do was the closest hunter group. Even they were barely in range, especially with the storm raging outside.
Zhe’l had been surprised when he first accepted the call and saw a human face. He’d expected a hunter, since Pip had used his own code to make the transmission. Of course Kan’n, who’d been busy drilling an impressive training exercise in which he ran up a wall before springing off it to land as far away from the vertical surface as he could, had immediately made his way over to the stage where I’d set everything up, insisting on doing the talking.
But Zhe’l had recognized me as the Tech Wizard who’d stayed behind to disable the ship’s weapons the moment I spoke, since he’d remotely attended the emergency meeting on the mothership. He’d directed his questions to me, much to Kan’n’s chagrin. For once, I didn’t deny the title, feeling like I’d finally earned it.
Pip sent our exact location to Zhe’l, and I hung up, tucking my hands into the long sleeves of my coat. Even wearing it I was freezing, now that we’d stopped moving. But there wasn’t enough fuel left for us to waste it on something like heat.
“Sooo…” Pip started in a sing-song voice now that it was just the three of us. “You two shared a pod on your way down?”
“Yes,” I said cautiously. I knew what was coming.
“You two, all alone? Stuck in a raging storm together?” Little hearts popped up all over the screen. “That’s so romantic!”
“No, it’s not. Stop matchmaking, Pip. You’ll just be disappointed.”
“So youdidn’tsit in his lap in the pod?”
“She did.”
I glared at Kan’n. “You’re not helping.”
“Did you kiss?” Pip hadn’t known about the first kiss.
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
“No!” Such a lie. I did want to kiss him again, even if the guy drove me crazy.
“Did you like sitting on his lap?”
“All right, Pip. I need to turn you off now to conserve energy.” And my sanity.
“Aww. Do youhaveto?” Pip asked.
“Yes. We need to save this charge for emergencies.” I stuck my hands out from the coat’s sleeves and reached for Pip.
