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Kai averted his eyes while the guard pressed a code into a screen and scanned his fingerprints, then twisted the unlock uard’s skull

The vault was lined with velvet and spotlights that shined on empty pedestals Most of the crowns and orbs and scepters that usually lived there were already down in the great hall

But it wasn’t e around the vault He inspected every ring, scabbard, coronet, and cuff, all the pieces the Lunar crown had collected over the years to be used in a variety of cereifts frooodwill, before the relationship between Earth and Luna had been severed

He heard a padded footstep outside the vault door but he dared not look up "Here!" he yelled, turning his back on the guard, his heart lodged in his throat, as he i past the door He pulled the iven hio He rubbed his thunia and the faded words The Aiuard could see he was holding soone, and Kai wasn’t faking his relief as he said, "Whew Great We couldn’t have done the coronation without it Her Majesty will be thrilled I’ll see if we can’t get you a prouess that’s it, then Thanks for your help I’d better hurry back"

The guard grunted, and Kai kneas anything but convinced, but it didn’t uard stepped back into the corridor, Cress had already disappeared

Cress hurried around the first corner and pressed her back against the wall, her heart in her throat She waited until she heard the guard shutting the vault door, then she started to run, hoping the noise of the vault’s locking mechanism would cover the sound of her footsteps

She re her before, and it was easy to find the door to the control center once she had her bearings She slid to a stop and hesitantly tested the handle She was relieved to find it locked, a good indication that no one was inside She’d been confident the security staff would have located thereat hall--that had been the procedure during i confident wasn’t being certain The gun, heavy in Torin’s jacket pocket, offered no comfort at all should she run into more opposition now

Cress crouched before the security panel and retrieved Kai’s portscreen She unwound the universal connector cable

It took her twenty-eight seconds to break into the roo at every distant noise Sas snaking down her spine by the time she heard the door unlatch

Her breath was shaky but relieved No one was inside The door shut behind her

Cress’s adrenaline was puh her veins as she scanned the rooraphs and progra, and the familiarity of it all made the knot in her stomach loosen Instinct and habit She for, but croith desks and chairs and equipe of the outer sectors to the underground shuttle map to surveillance feeds of different sections of the palace A separate recording suite was accessed through a soundproof door Lights and recording equipment surrounded a replica of the queen’s throne A sheer veil was draped over a ave Cress a chill down her spine It felt like it atching her

She turned away from the mannequin and settled herself into one of the controller’s chairs She reun from the jacket pocket and set it and the portscreen on the desk, both within easy reach She felt the press of time as keenly as Kai had She’d already wasted tooin that cabinet Dodging in and out of corridors like a lost rabbit

But she was here She’d made it She’d been heroic--al her fingertips across the nearest invisi-screen, she began to count theured the security codes for the queen’s broadcasting transmitter She put the palace’s armory under lockdown She scheduled a retraction for the tunnel barricades surrounding Arte the protocols--it felt like a choreographed dance, and though her muscles eary, they still remembered the steps

Finally, she pulled the chip from her bodice She envisioned the trans the crown’s official feed to receivers throughout the dome A closed feed, protected by a complex labyrinth of internal firewalls and security codes

Five ht Nine, at the most

Check Check Check--

She heard footsteps in the hallway as she was inserting the chip with Cinder’s video into the port She felt the satisfying click

Download, data transfer, translate the encryption

Her fingers danced over the screens, daring the coding to keep up