Page 60 of Radiant Exception
“Get us out of here, Armstrong,” I replied.
“Copy.”
“You need to rest.” I tucked Lark’s hair behind her ear.
She shook her head.
Of course she’d disagree.
“We need to debrief. I have so much to tell you, and we need to loop Darren in.”
I couldn’t help but huff a response. “Fine, but in our room.”
Her jaw clenched. She wanted to argue, but seemed to change her mind after a moment. “Okay.”
Again, she placed her hand in mine, a look of optimism on her face when I peered down at her, before I tugged her along through the corridor to the lift.
But we were only halfway down the hallway, just outside of her office door, when she pulled me to a stop. “Wait,” she whispered. “I need to check something.”
Lark released my hand, then looked at the far end of either side of the hallway before grabbing each of my arms and positioning me to her right, then looking over my shoulder once more. “Stay right there and don’t move,” she instructed.
Brow furrowed, I dared to ask, “You gonna tell me what you’re up to?”
She didn’t reply. Instead, she used her palms to push into the wall paneling, disengaging it from its clasp and popping it open. The nook inside the panel was empty, so I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be looking at.
“Son of a bitch,” she cursed, quickly pushing the panel back into place, then grabbing my hand once more to continue toward the lift.
“What just happened?” I was beyond confused.
“I’ll tell you when we get to the room,” she grumbled, clearly displeased. I hoped I hadn’t done anything to upset her.
“Can we hook an extra sheet over the opening to the bed nook?” Lark pulled some spare linens from the wall cabinet, examining the exterior of the framed niche.
“What? Why?” I sidled up next to her and took the sheet from her.
“We can’t risk the cameras.” Her eyes flicked to the pinprick in the corner of the room.
I moved over to the small desk in the room, digging through drawers until I found what I was looking for: industrial-strength duct tape. “This should work. Just need you to hold the corners up while I attach it.”
She flashed me a big smile, happy that I had found a solution, and maybe that I hadn’t asked questions, despite wanting to know more.
“I’m not sure how long it’ll hold, but it should stay up for the night at least,” I speculated while securing the tape to the edge of the fabric.
“It’s fine. And you’re sure there are no audio bugs in the room?” she asked. Her arms were extended as far above her head as possible to hold the sheet up, which resulted in a lovely view of her cleavage.
I swallowed hard, trying to ignore her fantastic figure from the corner of my eye. “No. I’ve asked Ethan to do sweeps of the ship every couple days, and I handle them in this room.”
“What if it’s him?” she asked.
“It’s not,” I asserted. “But even if it was, only you and I are able to enter this room.”
“But isn’t Rion in charge of the biometric locks?”
“Yes, but if he attempted to change or access any of the bedroom biometrics, it notifies me and the occupants of the room.”
“He’s the chief technology officer. Don’t you think he’s capable of overriding the code?”
I glared down at her. “I’ll do another sweep when I’m done here,” I said to pacify her. But if I was being honest, Lark was right. I’d been too lax in my security procedures.
