As my vision returned, I saw Grannt’s craggy face looming over mine. His hand was drawn back for another slap, but then Kira leaned in and grabbed it.
“He’s awake,” she said.
“Finally,” Grannt muttered. “It really wasn’t much of a fall.”
“Jannigan, you okay?” Kira asked.
“Yeah.” I sat up. “What happened?”
Grannt jerked his thumb over to the left where a Mayir commando lay unconscious, sans his uniform.
“You got a uniform that fits,” I said.
“More than that,” Grannt said. “We got sticks keyed to the detention center.”
“Which should give us access to the cells themselves,” TenSix said.
“But we need to go now,” Kira said.
I stood up and examined myself. Nothing was broken—thanks to the armor. I was just a little foggy because of the fall, which—looking up to the top of the staircase—was a good half dozen meters. The suit’s diagnostics reported that it was still completely functional as well.
“Did he hurt you?” I asked Kira.
“No, I’m fine. He was going to blast TenSix.”
“I heard.”
“I was trying to get his gun, but he ended up shooting you. Sorry.”
“What happened?”
“Between the two of us—you startling him and me smacking him in the face—we bought enough time for Grannt to make it up the stairs and club him with the shally stick. So, group effort.”
“Not the smoothest maneuver in the world,” Grannt said. “But the good guys won. For now. Let’s move.”
“What do you think, Jannigan?” Kira asked. “You okay to do this thing?”
“Sure, but I might have been unconscious when we discussed exactly what ‘this thing’ is.”
“The plan is to go through the maintenance hub, directly to the detention block,” Grannt said.
“I saw a staff access door,” Kira said. “We don’t have to go through the normal entrance.”
Grannt continued, “We find 7812 and release Kira’s parents. And only Kira’s parents. This doesn’t work if we try to free the entire block.”
“We’re going to have to call in the Imperial Rangers for that,” Kira said.
“But how do we get Biella and Thastus out of here?” I asked. “I doubt they’ll let us just waltz out.”
“Prisoner transfer,” Grannt said. “The oldest trick in the book, but it still works. Especially if you have some transit orders.”
“Which we don’t,” I said.
“Which we do,” Kira said. “We have the transit orders from Zulch. TenSix modified the prisoner IDs. It won’t hold up to detailed scrutiny, but it should get us through if anyone tries to stop us.”
“How long was I out for?”
“Nine minutes,” TenSix said. “I work quickly.”
We dragged the trooper’s body underneath the stairs—just in case anyone came through the tunnel. Then I folded TenSix up and carried him so he wouldn’t be as conspicuous.
I was worried about my own appearance, though. Both Grannt and Kira looked like Mayir troopers, but I was wearing a heavy exosuit. Sure, it was colored Mayir crimson, but it definitely would be out of place in a prison.
Since Grannt had traded his ill-fitting uniform for the larger one from the trooper under the stairs, I quickly dressed in his old one and stowed the exosuit behind a big sealed pipe.
“How do I look?”
“Like a Mayir asshole,” TenSix said.
“You look fine,” Kira said. “Andiamo!”
Thankfully, the maintenance hub wasn’t very crowded. Most of the people we saw were workers, hauling laundry carts or pushing supply sleds. No one paid much attention to us.
Grannt had told us to keep up a loud, but casual conversation among ourselves. Lots of banter. The reason was that most people don’t suspect infiltrators to be relaxed and chatty.
“That’s the entrance, up ahead.” Kira motioned to a short hallway that led to a locked security door. Luckily, it was unmanned and we passed through it, using the new key-stick. Beyond the door was another short hallway with another security door. This must be some kind of sally port, and judging from the array of hardware up near the ceiling, we were being scanned for sure. Hopefully the stolen uniforms would help us hold up to scrutiny.
We passed through the second door and found ourselves in a long corridor.
“Left,” TenSix said quietly. “Then right at the next junction.”
We moved purposefully, as if we knew where we were going—which was good, since we passed a number of people along the way. But we kept up our chatter and seemingly ignored anyone we encountered.
Still, as we wound deeper into the Mayir prison, my gut knotted more and more.
It was silly, but, for a few moments, I imagined myself back home in New Torino. Maybe back at my place, having a dinner party for some friends. Kane would be there, of course. And Blieggs. He’d bring Shaela, or maybe Galatea, or even Auni Folguera. She was new in town, but was part of the social scene on Raritan. Hoedi would have begged off, because he’s Hoedi and gets weirded out in social situations with more than two people. Of course, Lir would be there, lording it over everything and everyone like the lady of the house—even though that was now off the table, as far as I was concerned.
I glanced over at Kira. She had a grim look on her face. Focused. Either that or she was playing the part of a Mayir soldier extremely well. I wondered how she’d fare meeting my friends.
“Keep going straight,” TenSix said. “Almost there.”
A door opened in the corridor a few meters ahead of us and a man stepped out into the hallway. He was dressed in a tailored black suit, not a uniform. The man regarded us with beady eyes and a disapproving scowl.
For our part, we kept up our banter and ignored the man, but he held his hand up to signal us to stop.
“What have you heard from the landing pad?” The man was looking at me.
We all hesitated. In a situation like this it’s easy to trip each other up with fabrications that don’t match.
I decided to take the lead. “There was nothing there. It was an unmanned craft.”
The man in black nodded. “And what are you three doing
