Page 204 of Red Scale Daddy
“Can we get to your ship?” Pally asks.
“Not directly. He will expect that.”
“Command buffer?” I ask.
Roma glances at me. “You know what that is?”
“No. Sounded important.”
“It is important,” she says, already moving down the corridor. “If I can reach a live buffer, I can widen the sabotage and force Throgg to choose between pursuit, internal containment, and Zenos engagement.”
Pally follows, face tight with calculation. “You set up a three-way convergence.”
“Yes.”
“Risky.”
“I had poor supervision.”
I fall in behind them, watching the corridor ahead while listening to fire chew through metal behind us. “You did good.”
Roma does not look back. “That is the lowest possible analysis.”
“Still true.”
Her shoulders shift, just slightly, and I know she heard what I meant.
We turn the next corner, and the ship bucks under a heavy external impact. The lights flicker. A deep alarm rolls through the passage, different from the others, lower and more urgent.
Pally grabs the wall. “Zenos contact?”
Roma checks her sleeve comp. “Possibly. Or Throgg’s maneuvering correction failed under my engine stall.”
“Could be both,” I say.
She looks at me.
I shrug. “I’m optimistic again.”
“Stop that immediately.”
Reaper voices echo from the corridor behind us.
Closer.
I tighten my grip on the stolen blade and the pistol at my belt, my body aching, bleeding, half-burned, and absolutely unwilling to quit. Roma moves ahead of me, alive and brilliant and no longer running alone. Pally is beside her, old ghost turned flesh, hands already working the next panel before we reach it.
We are still trapped inside Throgg’s ship. We are still outnumbered. The Reapers are coming, the Zenos may be closing, and every plan we have is hanging by a wire Roma probably rigged while insulting someone’s competence.
Fine by me.
If death wants another try, it can come find me standing up.
It can find me fighting.
It can find me beside the woman I love.
CHAPTER 31
