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The access panel clicked and slid down

“What are we doing here?” Jordao said “Got to go, us”

“We’re doing the thing that makes the next part uts of the ship would have looked chaotic to anyone who didn’t know the things she did For her, there was a siic in every weld, every conduit, every connector She took the doctored traffic card out of her pocket, plucked the old one out, and slotted hers in The fault indicator barely blinked to areen

“Okay,” she said, sliding the panel back into place “Let’s go set the charges”

But when she started walking, she kneas going to be harder than she thought If they y That hy Naoht she could do it by herself Because they weren’t necessarily wrong

The worst part was that she’d done it to herself The dae to her body, the wear and the weariness, were all products of conscious, deterirl she hadn’t been in decades She carried the weight of those decisions like a sack of bones Like a toolbox full of them

Some sins carried their own punish the past with you forever She’d gotten used to that over the years, but it was still pretty fucking inconvenient

“Down here,” Jordao said, waving them on

“I know,” Naomi said

The door to the primary power junction was reinforced A red border was painted around the fraes that all s in here that we’ll have to fix after they finish killing you

Jordao opened the door, and Naomi stepped past him into the maintenance way beyond—

And then stepped backward, her ar footsteps ca man in the blue uniform of Laconian security stepped out froh hands grabbed Clarissa by the shoulder and threw her to the floor Jordao leaned against the wall and sank down to sitting

“There a problem, sir?” Naomi asked, her voice the perfect echo of innocence

“Knees,” the pistol man said “And keep your arms up while you do it”

Naomi looked down at her Clarissa saw no sorrow in her eyes, only calculation And then a conclusion Nao at the ceiling and taking deep gulping breaths He still had the toolbox under his ares and turn the It wasn’t , but it was relief Even before he spoke, Clarissa understood they’d been sold out She laid her head against the rubberon the deck as so her arer now The deck felt almost comfortable