Page 38 (1/2)

Walter sneered "Aed "Great How long before we can go?"

"Als in the cockpit," Cole told Molly Riggs shook his head at this and tried yelling inside of his own onna do with him? Why not leave him here?"

"Two reasons: I really don’t wanna add Firehawk theft tocri back And, unless you want to locate his auth chip and cut it out of hionna need his full presence in the Firehawk to tow Parsona out Hold his’s arm Her old friend’s eyes locked onto hers and flashed with rawplatform and rolled the steps over to line up with the cockpit

"You don’t think Walter could bypass the auth code?" Molly asked

"I didn’t ask Okay, here’s the plan: once we get clear of the fleet, you’ll power up Parsona By the time she shows up on the Navy’s SADAR, it’ll be too late We’ll jump both ships to a rendezvous point where I’ll shut the Firehan, pop the cockpit, and push off to you You pick s can reboot the ship or the Navy can trace the exit point of our junature Easy as pie"

Molly shook her head "I don’t like it," she said, as she helped pull Riggs up to the cockpit He tried to kick off the steps, so Cole reached down and grabbed the knot of his shoestrings, pulling both of his feet up Molly held up half of him with both arms, and they literally carried him up the steps

"What don’t you like? We need the Firehawk’s signature on SADAR to get out of here, and we need Riggs’s auth code to get the signature" They pushed Riggs down in the navigator’s seat and Cole fastened his harness, locking hi them, and blew out his cheeks Molly pulled Cole down the steps

"I don’t like bringing hi, and I love that about you, but Riggs is not going to coed He’s not our friend any with the Drenards, for galaxy’s sake Walter can easily--"

Cole pulled her further down the steps "Technically, you are a Drenard"

"You knohat I mean"

"Yeah, and you know I need to try I just need soet that, that’s fine, but all this vacuulanced up at the cockpit "Why don’t we just meet at Lok? It’s only a few jumps from here--"

"That’s even riskier," Cole said "The Navy will have two signatures to follow and s knohere we go and e do there?"

"Isn’t that the reason you want hi?"

Cole shook his head "Gods, I don’t know Maybe I’ selfish; maybe I just want him to not hate us"

"Hey, if you need to do this for you, that’s an even ument Just say so But no cowboy transfers in the vacuuive the Navy two trails to sniff If we both double back at least once, or they’re slow to hed "Okay The only logistical proble up our transmission over the radios I haven’t quite sorted out hoe’re gonna tihtsuits I have just the thing"

••••

"Can you hear ht

"Loud and clear," came Cole’s words, but in Molly’s voice "The helh"

"Sas into the liners It’d be stellar to not have to thumb the mic to talk in the cockpit"

"Or worry that Walter’s listening in," Cole added

"Then again, it ," Molly thought to herself

"Like what?"

"Huh?That, uh, was a joke, silly Um, er"

Molly watched the Firehawk rise off the hangar deck and fly down the center lane She lifted up Parsona and pulled into his wash, following hi ements, the entire deck would be depressurized, pilots and navigators using the dozens of personnel locks to enter the StarCarrier’s vacuus For maintenance and patrol, the entire bay was kept pressurized to allow support personnel to work freely and without hel, both ships fit in the airlock with room to spare

Molly didn’t have a prisoner to watch, so cable-duty fell to her She typed a caution to her mother in the nav computer, ave Walter a pat on the shoulder

"Don’t touch anything," she told hih his visor and turned in the nav seat to watch her go Molly grabbed the coo ramp

Outside, she snapped one end to the eyebolt under Parsona’s nose The cockpit glass was too far above for her to check in on Walter, filling her with paranoia that heher mother She had to force herself to not rush the job

Double-checking the connection on her ship, she made sure the release mechaniss’s Firehawk, careful of the hot metal around the thrusters She secured the other end of the line to a tow bolt outside the jet wash’s cone of influence

"All set," she thought to Cole

"Great Make sure you shut everything down--"

"I know"

"And after we disconnect the tow line, let me pull away before you jump out--"

"I know the plan, Cole"

"Come up to the nose for a sec"

Molly walked quickly to the front of the Firehawk, ducking under the stubby wings She was surprised to see the hatch open, Cole’s visor up

"Probleoodbye so you hear it inromantic, but we don’t have much--"

"I love you"

Molly snapped her visor closed and popped her helmet off She brushed her hair back off her forehead and looked up at hio smooth as milk" She watched the lines of worry in Cole’s forehead deepen "I’ll see you on Lok," she said "Walter’s in your seat, and he’ll have hed "That’s supposed to ht, see you in a bit"

With that, he snapped his head forward, throwing the visor of his helhed at the hotshot lass slide forward and seal tight She ducked under the fuselage and looked up at Riggs, but only the side of his hel her own helmet back on

Inside, she settled into her seat and nodded at Walter, giving him the okay to depressurize the airlock He punched commands into his computer, and the atmosphere within the chae side vents, condensing into ed

Molly watched the thrusters ahead of her fire up, the Firehawk hue to do the same with Parsona It felt unnatural to watch the airlock e her ship powered down