Stay down, Marshal.
I sighed and rested my palm against his warm cheek. “In all this time nobody cared enough to ask the right questions. And yet, you figured it out in two days.” I brushed my thumb against his lips, finding them temptingly soft. To keep my secret, I should kill him, close my hand around his neck and squeeze. I lowered my hand, brushing across his jaw and down under his chin. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t killed before. But this lonely man with all his questions… This man who had saved me twice already... I didn’t want to kill him.
Nobody will believe him anyway.
Bunching up his coat, I ran my fingers through his hair, checking for any serious damage, and tucked the coat under his head. His marshal’s star winked accusingly. I unclipped it and shoved it into one of my coat’s many pockets. “Sorry, Kellee. This way you get to live.”
The first airlock door whooshed open under my touch, and within minutes, I was seated behind the shuttle’s controls with only the most basic of notions for how to pilot it. I’d watched the marshal closely. All I had to do was uncouple and pull away from the dock. The shuttle’s autopilot would do much of it. How hard could it be?
Chapter 11
As it turned out, piloting a shuttle was as difficult as you’d imagine, but they were built like colossus tek, so a few knocks here and there at slow speed did little damage. Thankfully. Anyway, I was out of options. Taking the shuttle would keep Kellee off my back. By the time he came to, got himself another ride and tried to catch up, I’d be back on Calicto, walking into Arcon, with his marshal’s badge giving me an all-access pass. Hopefully, he’d drop any heroic notions of stopping me and shrug the entire encounter off as a lucky escape. Right.
Calicto’s port authority guided the shuttle into its dock, and after a few scrapes and bumps, I got the vessel coupled to the airlock. With my male illusion spun and the marshal’s badge opening doors as though it were a magical key, immigration was a breeze, and within an hour of landing on Calicto, I was approaching Arcon’s main entrance. This time I knew exactly what I was walking into. My whip was coiled warm and snug against my leg, well within the aura of invisibility I naturally threw off. With the marshal’s badge, I should be able to get into the depths of Arcon without raising suspicion.
“I should be grateful you didn’t kill me when you had the chance,” Kellee whispered into my ear.
I stopped and turned on the spot, and then I remembered the comms device behind my ear. Dammit. Reaching the top of Arcon’s steps, I veered to the side of the entrance and leaned against the wall, keeping my head bowed. My ocular map showed the web of streets wrapped around Arcon’s HQ. Kellee could be minutes away. The lawman was proving to be an enormous pain in my ass.
“How’s your head?” I asked, keeping my voice low. People came and went from Arcon’s steps. None of them wore the marshal’s long coat. If he was watching the entrance, he would probably scan right over my male appearance, not realizing who was inside.
“How many did you kill?” his voice whispered through the comm-link, losing none of its menace.
I smiled to myself. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, and I wasn’t even sure why I wore it, but it seemed fitting. He thought he knew me. All he knew, if he had guessed right, was my reputation. It might even help me.
“I now understand why you won’t fight this fae. He doesn’t know who you are. What would happen if he did?”
The smile fell from my lips. “You won’t tell him,” I replied, sounding more confident than I felt. “You hate the fae as much as I do.”
“Do you hate them?” Quiet crackled. “Or do you love them?”
Damn him. Damn him to the debris zone and back again. “Your questions will get you killed, Marshal.”
“Questions are my job, Wraithmaker.”
I tore the comms device off and dropped it into my coat pocket. I was done with the marshal and his stupid questions. The man was a distraction and a dangerous one.
Arcon’s foyer hadn’t changed in the time I’d been away. Staff bustled about. This was just another day working for the Halow system’s largest surveillance firm and the charming Istvan Larsen. And as far as anyone was concerned, today was just another day for the marshal I was pretending to be.
Kellee carved through the people to my right, his gaze locked on me, leaving no doubt he knew exactly who I was despite the illusion. I sucked in a breath, careful to keep my composure. There was no point in running. It would just draw more attention to us, and I wasn’t leaving without Sota. How had he found me?
Kellee held out his hand. “You have something of mine.”
Dammit. Why did he have to be so damn good at his job? How did he even track me? Unless he didn’t use visual clues. One of his other senses? Smell, perhaps?
I pulled his badge from my pocket and dumped it into his hand. He appeared fully healed. I should have hit him harder.
“What now?” I asked.
He blinked, probably because my voice was still female while the rest of me looked male. “Now we carry on with the plan. I get you inside, but I’m coming with you to find your so-called friend.”
Because he didn’t trust I even had a friend worth saving. Fine, if he wanted to get himself killed, it would save me the trouble.
We walked to one of the reception desks, and Marshal Kellee did his lawman thing, flashing his badge and saying all the right things to get us inside, just like we’d planned. That got us through the front line, but where we wanted to go, a row of security scanners waited—the ones my original plan had me avoiding. I had no idea how Arcon’s scanners would react to my presence—or if they would react at all. If they were anything like Crater’s, they’d let me pass right on through.
Down a long, narrow corridor, the veil of scanners appeared to be automated. Others ahead of us walked through as though merely passing through a doorway.
I didn’t slow, didn’t hesitate, and stepped into the invisible net of scanners, passing through unnoticed. I am a ghost… Arcon was still so confident that someone like me was a myth. I puffed out a sigh. This would be simple, just so long as—
An alarm barked. “Please wait. Personnel will arrive shortly,” a synthesized voice announced.
I turned, already several strides ahead.
The scanners had flagged Kellee as a possible threat.
He waved me on and hung back, looking bored as though this was all routine. A door to my left opened as I strode by. An armed guard emerged. I heard him tell Kellee to present his identification. Once I was out of earshot, I reapplied the comms device and listened in to Kellee being questioned about his reasons for visiting.
Still hidden inside my illusion, I continued with all the confidence of someone who had every right to be wandering Arcon’s corridors. I passed by staff unnoticed and kept going. It seemed unlikely that Arcon’s scanners would miss me. Sure, I usually passed through these types of security systems unnoticed, but Larsen knew my tricks. If he had any sense, he would have recalibrated those scanners to look for anything unusual—like the vacant space I occupied.
Wraithmaker.
I winced, shook off the name Kellee had dredged up from my past, and walked with renewed vigor.
I didn’t know much about where Arcon’s labs were, but I knew the warfae had wanted Sota alive. He’d stolen Sota’s docking station. My drone had to be here… somewhere.
The next set of scanners let me pass through unchecked. I entered an elevator, hit the button for Research and Development and felt the scanners run their electronic lasers through me.
“Sota…” I opened the mental link between us and called down it. If he was close and powered up, he should hear me.
“Kesh, where are you?” Kellee’s thin whisper sounded through my comms, distracting me.