Kimber broke in on the comms. “Following you through the atrium, I’ve got eyes all the way through to the quadralift. When I figure out which berth they’re using, I’ll log into those vids.”
On the lift, the boys stood closer than necessary, bunching the group in tighter. There was an uneasy shifting around the circle. Adrenaline flooded Arden. She mentally ran through the list of every phaser, knife, and any other possible weapon that each person had, cataloging how she’d take them out. She moved her fingers, loosening them so that she’d be ready.
Finally, the doors dematerialized. She pushed her shoulders back before exiting the quadralift into an eerily empty hallway. As busy as it had been in the atrium, the complete absence of passengers here confirmed that this was a setup. Anxiety that had strummed at a low pulse now beat with a full-out knocking on her insides. Her skin crawled, coming alive. She almost turned around but checked herself.
The back of Colin’s hand slid against hers for only a fraction of a second. It was enough. Arden felt her calm slip back into place as she prepared to fight.
Kimber’s voice became frantic, her comm fading in and out with static. “They have some kind of block. I’m blind. Trying to break into their feed—”
Arden was not surprised when the comm went dead.
The lead boy put his beefy palm to the scanner beside the berth door. There was a whoosh as the steel door slid open, the air pocket inside the room meeting the recycled air of the hallway. It popped Arden’s ears.
“Is something wrong?” Mina asked.
“Of course not,” Colin said smoothly, following the first boy into the berth.
Arden stood on the threshold. She looked at Mina. Her blank stare was unreadable. The other two boys stepped behind her, not touching, yet forcing her to make a decision. Arden turned her attention forward and walked into the room. The door behind them closed, whooshing again as the air lock reengaged.
That was when it happened. Mina stepped out of the way while the three boys surrounded them. The fight was pretty even, despite the boys easily having an extra fifty pounds apiece on them. Colin and Arden kept their backs to each other, kicking, swooping, and circling.
The brawl moved fast: arms, fists, feet landed with dizzying speed. At one point, Arden took a punch to the face. It knocked her sideways. For half a second, she couldn’t make her brain work and then caught a second fist, this time to her lip. She felt her skin break, saw the blood spray from the connecting fist as the boy pulled back, and then her brain realigned and she struck out.
All the while Arden looked for exits. The door was shut and probably locked. Kimber hadn’t made contact. Once she’d determined that the only way out was to fight, a calm settled into Arden.
Arden kicked out, landing her foot in the stomach of one of the guys bearing down on her. He grunted and fell back. Then she followed through with a second kick to his side. The extra boy lunged at her. She swung, landing a punch to his face.
Her body thrummed with pain. Sweat poured down her face, stinging her eyes. She felt the sensor on the mask blinking as it fought a losing battle to hold its illusion. Any second she’d be exposed.
Time to end this. Arden’s hand moved for her phaser. As soon as she had a palm on the grip, the three boys doubled their efforts. She pulled the phaser free and raised it. A foot kicked it out of her hand. She watched it fly, already unstrapping her knife. She slashed out, her blade wanting to find flesh to sink into.
She spun away from Colin’s back, grabbing one of the boys by the throat. As she tightened her arm to keep him secure, her other hand pressed the knife under his chin. In that next moment, the cold hard metal of a phaser kissed her temple.
“Drop the knife,” the boy holding the phaser said. He pulled her hair in emphasis, and she felt the muzzle tap her head.
Arden tightened her arm against the other boy’s windpipe, making him grunt, then dug the knife deeper into his skin. She sucked in a series of breaths heavily through her mouth, her chest burning, while she tensed her body. She wasn’t going to let the boy go. She needed to keep some leverage.
On her right, she saw that Colin still fought with the third boy. He moved slower than usual. Blood stained his face and hands.
Arden’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.
The boy fighting Colin kicked him in the gut, sending Colin flying across the floor to land on his back.
Mina clapped. “Very good.”
Instantly she had the attention of everyone in the room. She gestured for the boys to let Arden go and not to reengage with Colin, who was slowly getting to his feet. The boy behind Arden lowered his phaser and stepped away.
Arden was much slower to release the boy she still had by the throat. She wasn’t sure what had started the fight and couldn’t trust that the confrontation was over. Tense, they all waited, sensing her hesitation. Finally she pulled her arm away, simultaneously pushing the boy away from her. Her feet danced back, putting distance between her and the rest of the room. She kept her knife in front of her, breathing hard.
Colin wiped at the blood on his face, making long red smears across his mask. Then he spat a glob of red saliva onto the ground. His teeth gritted, the white enamel now pink as he flashed a snarl at the boys they’d fought. He rolled his shoulders, loosening them.
Arden hadn’t fared any better. Her body was sore, and her lip split and bleeding. Her left eye felt puffy and bruised. “What the hell, Mina?”
“I had to make sure that you’re who you said you are.”
Arden lowered her knife fractionally, her weight shifting. They’d met multiple times over the last few years, so why the distrust now? “Who else would I be?”
“I don’t know your identity under the synth-mask and voice modulator, but I know the way you fight,” Mina said, clearly impressed with Arden and Colin’s skills. “Govies don’t fight nearly as well or as dirty.”
“That’s what you’re afraid of? That someone created a replica of this synth-mask to infiltrate you?” Arden waved at the blood-covered hologram on her face. “If we’d sent someone who was crappy at hand-to-hand, you would have shot her?”
Mina gave an elegant shrug. “Possibly.”
Arden felt the heat of anger burn her skin. “You risked too much.”
“Anyone could have synthesized your masks,” Mina said. “I’ve known for some time that someone in your organization is leaking information. To that end, I’ve taken some additional precautions and included new synth-masks in the shipment that only the five of us will know about. We’ll start fresh next time.”
Arden understood where Mina was coming from, but it pissed her off nonetheless. Folding her arms, she pinched her lips together and squinted. Leaking information? She didn’t know what to think of that bombshell since she hadn’t any evidence of it. That would be something to think on later.
Mina didn’t take Arden’s angry silence as a challenge. Instead, she looked amused. “It’s also why we made sure to cut you off from your comms.”