Stolen Flyght – Chapter 13

I leave the cold storage and hustle to the locker room farther down the hall. This room also opens with a hand scanner, so I lay my palm on it and hope to the heavens that Carlos and Yan’s database magic continues to work well. The android was none the wiser, so I have to believe everything else will be fine.

I hold my breath, but the door clicks open without a hitch.

Inside the room, three rows of lockers with benches line the open space. I check each row to make sure no one is there before heading to the back of the room. This place reminds me of a gym with five shower stalls, toilet closets, and sinks. Then I spot the dirty laundry bin just past an industrial washer and dryer.

I wonder if there are clean clothes in there.

“Shit, hide!” Skylar hisses in my ear. “You’ve got incoming chef assistants.”

I look left and right and around the room. The showers? The toilet stalls?

I jump for a toilet stall.

“No! If they know you’re in there, they’ll expect you to come out, eventually!”

“Where?” I hiss back at her.

“Into the dirty laundry!”

The locker room door clicks open, and I groan. Okay. Into the dirty laundry.

The bin is behind a door with only an opening to stuff clothes into. As long as no one sticks their head in to look at the clothes, I should be fine.

The stench of unwashed clothes knocks me back as I scramble into the large bin. My stomach heaves, and I whimper as I hold my breath. Oh my God, I’m going to puke in here.

Dark speckles dance around my vision as I try to get used to the odor of unwashed bodies mixed with rotting food. I may never eat again.

“Ugh. Can you believe I only have six hours off before I need to be back here?” The voice echoing off the washroom is a high-pitched and nasally male voice. “It’s barely enough time to fall asleep, much less do anything else.”

I duck as the bin door opens, and dirty clothes fly into and on top of me. Gross.

“They’re so short-staffed, they will never get ahead of all these extra people arriving all the time,” a second, lower and gruff, male voice replies to the first man. “I’ve never seen so many admirals or generals come through here. Used to be, we were at the ass-end of the galaxy, and I could put my feet up at work. Now, it’s like we’re throwing a fucking parade every damned day.”

The bin door opens again, and the other guy throws his clothes in. Ew. What was he cutting up? A cow?

The showers start, and I curse my fucking timing.

I drop my voice and whisper, “Sky, tell Jin I’m going to be a bit, but I’m okay.”

“I’ll ping his datapad. He’s fine. Sitting around bored and waiting for the container to open. Another ten minutes, and he’ll be able to pull them out.”

I roll my eyes as one guy in the shower starts singing a pop song that was such a hit five years ago that even I, Ms. Studious, know all the words. While I’m waiting for them to finish and leave, I push the vilest pieces of clothing away from me and breathe through my mouth. I swear to God, if I could kill my brother again for getting me into this shit, I would in a heartbeat.

The guys take their time showering, toweling off, and then chatting at the sinks for what feels like a fucking eternity.

“All right, Jon. I gotta get out of here and get some shut-eye.”

“Let’s have a beer first. You’ll sleep better if you do.” The second man seems to be an enabler. I like him.

“Yeah. I could use a beer.” The first man pauses. “Shit. It’s my turn to do the laundry.”

No. No, no, no.

“Leave it,” the other man says. “You’ll be back here in six hours, and it can run while you’re working.”

Yes! Yes, this sounds like a splendid idea.

“No, I’ve gotta,” he replies, and the door above me opens. Eek! I squish farther into the dirty clothes. “They’ll dock my pay.”

“Leave it,” the other man insists. “I’m your superior officer. I’ll clear it with the boss woman. Come on.”

I hold my breath again and cross my fingers. No, you definitely don’t want to do laundry.

“You really gonna talk to her? You’re not going to forget like last time?”

“I promise.” And somehow, I don’t believe the guy. I can’t even see his face, and I can tell he’s full of shit. He’s probably some former college party animal who joined the military on a dare. “Let’s go.”

“Fine.”

The door closes, and their voices recede and fade out.

“You’re clear,” Skylar says in my ear.

I explode out of the bin, so desperate to get away from the dirt and germs, I’m panting and swiping the invisible gunk off of me.

“That was so gross, I want to die.” I retch as I close the doors on the bin.

Crossing to the washing machine and dryer, I open the dryer and sigh. Yes, there are clean clothes in here. I pull out shirts and pants for both Gloria and Lia, paying attention to the sizes so I don’t grab anything inappropriate.

“Shoes, shoes, shoes,” I whisper, searching around the washroom.

“Check by the door,” Skylar says.

Yep. Two pairs of work boots sit on mats by the door.

“They wear non-slip shoes in the kitchen.” I can hear the thinking hum in Skylar’s voice. “Shift change is coming up, so better skedaddle.”

I grab what I have and hurry back to the cold room. Jinzo whirls around as I enter the room and sighs in relief when he sees me.

“Vivian!” He rushes up to me but stops as he gets close. Reaching out to my hair, he pulls a carrot peel off my head. “Ew,” he says, dropping it on the floor.

“Don’t ask.” I pause as I spot the open container. “Are they…?” I approach the container carefully, a little afraid of what I’ll see inside. I look over the edge, and Lia is slumped to the side, shivering as warm air blasts up over her. She turns her eyes up to me, and I almost burst into tears.

“Hey, Captain,” she whispers.

“Hey.” I slip my hand in and gently touch her hair. She closes her eyes.

“So tired,” she whispers.

Yeah, I know that feeling all too well.

Gloria turns her head to look at me, and for the first time, the child Gloria was before she was a hardened soldier shines through.

“Didn’t go as planned?” She swallows, and her throat bobs. I remember wanting to clear my throat after cryofreeze.

“No,” I say, being straight and honest with them both. “But we’re getting back on track right now.” I glance at the panel on the side of the container. The warm-up cycle will be complete in three minutes. “Keep your activity to small movements. Your body will equalize a lot faster than ours did. We didn’t get a warm-up cycle.”

I leave them and pull Jinzo off to the side, away from the android.

“So, now what? Any ideas?”

Jinzo jerks his head at the opposite corner. “They said we could use the hovercarts, and there are boxes too.”

Yeah, there are several hovercarts and empty shipping containers on the opposite side of the room. Perfect.

“Okay. We warm them up, dress them, and transfer them to a box. Then hover them straight out of here.” I nod as I think through the plan. “And once we’re someplace out of the way, we’ll have Eamon call the second android for them.”

“I like that plan,” Jinzo says. “It’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“Great minds.” I smile at him, trying to lighten the mood.

He reaches over and plucks another carrot peel off of me.

Once the warm-up cycle is over, and we’ve defrosted Gloria and Lia, we give them their clothes and help them over to the next box they’ll hide in.

“I feel sick,” Gloria says, staring at the box and pulling the shirt over her head.

“I am the most hungover I’ve ever been.” Lia groans. The pants I chose are big on her. I should have found something smaller. “And I’ve had like five drinks in my entire lifetime.”

Jinzo pulls two more canisters of Gus’s magical chocolate protein shakes out of his bag and hands them over to Lia and Gloria. They both chug them down. He takes a few last items from the bag, stuffs them in his pockets, and leaves the bag behind the cryocontainers. “Don’t need that anymore.”

Gloria stuffs the empty canister into a trashcan. “I hope that stays down.”

“Me too,” Lia says, eyeing Gloria.

I nudge them both. “I promise enormous amounts of fancy chocolate and huge slices of pizza on the other side of this mess.”

Gloria laughs. “There’s nothing as perfect in this world as pizza.”

“I’m glad you agree. Now, hup to. In you go.”

Gloria and Lia climb into the box, and Jinzo places the lid on top, being careful not to seal it closed. We don’t want to cut off their supply of air.

“All right, Skylar, Carlos, we’re ready.”

This should be a piece of cake. Everyone on this rock seems to mind their own business and concentrate on getting their work done. We have got this.

“Uh, hold on, Viv. The guys are getting your android up and running.”

I turn around to face the android who has been standing quietly since we shut her down. I expect her eyes to open at any moment, and we’ll be on our way.

Any moment now.

Annnnnnnnny moment.

“Sky?” I ask.

But Eamon’s voice breaks in. “Uh, sorry about this, Vivian. It seems we’ve run into a subroutine I wasn’t expecting.”

“What do you mean?” My jaw is clenched so tightly that my brain hurts.

“When I put her in maintenance mode, it triggered a deeper archival mode that’s only supposed to run every thirty days. It just so happens it’s this android’s thirty-day maintenance time window.”

“Okay. How long until the archival mode is complete?”

“Unfortunately, several hours. Time we don’t have. I’m going to re-task two other androids, but you will need to meet them at a neutral meeting spot, otherwise, it’ll be suspicious. This android should not be in archival mode unless she was done with duties, which she was not. If the other androids show up here and find her like this…”

“It’ll be cause for suspicion,” I say, finishing his thought. “But we’ll be suspicious walking around without an escort.”

I can almost hear the shrug from across the planet. “Nothing I can do about that right now. You’ll have to fake it somehow.”

Fake it? He’s nuts.

“Oh shit. We have another problem,” Skylar says, breaking in.

“What is it?” I ask, glancing over at Jinzo. He’s practically tapping his foot in impatience.

“We’re fucked.” Skylar groans. “I just looked at the kitchen video feed again, and Gus’s Mom, Lady Nina, is sitting in the kitchen having a meal with two other generals. You’ll never make it past them.”

I relay the information to Jinzo and decide that as soon as I have the available cash, I’m getting him the same implants I have because this is tiresome.

He groans and lifts his eyes to the ceiling.

“We’re running around without an escort, and Gus’s mom is in the kitchen?”

I nod.

“We need a distraction.” He raises his finger in the air.

“Yes!” I rub my hands together to bring some warmth into them. “Something to distract the people in the kitchen and whoever is in the corridor outside until we make it to our destination.”

Eamon chuckles. “Yes. I like this idea. Verrrry devious. Let’s cause some mayhem, shall we?” Goosebumps raise the hairs on my arms.

I’m not sure I want someone on my team who so openly defies authority and the law… and enjoys doing it.

But here we are.

Jinzo and I push the hovercart towards the door.

“Okay, we’re in position. Keep it minimal, Eamon. We don’t want to be apprehended for blowing shit up.”

“Well, minimal is subjective, isn’t it?”

I sigh. There’s nothing I can do to keep him from being too extra.

“Commence mayhem.”