Torin gripped the mug tighter, pulling at the bonded knuckle. "I said, bare bones." With no time to waste, she'd filled them in while returning to the ship. Assuming Big Bill was watching, or would be watching at least fifteen percent of the time, she'd tried to look like she'd already begun to design a training facility for thieves and murderers. Ressk's tracking program kept her face turned away from surveillance cameras.
"Okay, one and zeros." Ressk cracked his toes and took a long swallow of sah. "Moving training equipment would be a great cover. Any chance of Big Bill changing his mind about waiting until the armory's open?"
"No." When it looked like he was going to pursue it further, Torin raised a hand and cut him off. "You've cracked the station sysop, can't you shut down the gravity and open the exterior hatch from your slate?"
"I'm in Communications, Gunny."
"Not what I asked you."
He straightened, responding to her tone. "Yes, I can shut down the gravity and open the big hatch from the slate. But it'll take time to find the right subroutines and more time to subvert them."
"How much time?"
His nose ridges opened and closed. "Probably more than we have."
Torin narrowed her eyes. "You hacked through ship security every time Sh'quo Company was deployed."
"Yeah. But, Gunny…"
"Are you telling me Big Bill Ponner is more paranoid than the Navy with Marines on board?"
"Gunny, he created a digital history that convinced everyone who mattered that Vrijheid was destroyed in the war. He's either written or adapted every program running on this station. I'm telling you he's better than the Navy."
"Better than the Navy doesn't make him better than you."
"Well, no, but…
"No buts. Get to work; we need the gravity off and the hatch open." Torin dropped into the pilot's chair and set her mug on the edge of the board. "All right, before we can open the ore docks to vacuum, we have to get Nadayki and Craig away from the pod. I'll talk to Craig." She frowned. "There's no blast wave in vacuum. Does that change the result if we blow the armory in the pod?"
"Not enough. Atmosphere or no atmosphere, the pod's not designed to contain large chunks of shrapnel. Pieces of the armory will go through the pod and then the station like cheese through a H'san. We have to get it, on an absolute minimum, thirty kilometers away and even then the station will take damage."
Every mission came with collateral damage. The brass tried to pretend it didn't, but the people on the front lines knew better.
"Let's hope the interior decompression hatches work as planned, then. You two…" Torin spun the chair to face Werst and Mashona at the table. "Get down to the Hub and watch for Big Bill. We can't risk him going to the ore docks and finding out he's got three hours' less time."
"Why would they tell him?" Mashona asked, shoving the last spoonful of scrambled egg into her mouth and shoving the tray in the recycler.
"From what I saw of Nadayki, if asked, he's likely to brag about it."
Werst emptied his mug. "Would it matter?"
"Big Bill believes nothing will happen until 1630. If he learns the armory's due to open at 1330, our cover story tightens up. Without those three extra hours, we blow our cover with Big Bill or we lose the armory. Either way, we're screwed."
"Or Cho is. Cho's betraying him," Werst expanded off Torin's look. "Pulling weapons out early."
"If Big Bill finds out before the armory's open, Cho'll argue he was just being gung ho. Wanted to surprise Big Bill with how efficient he is." Pain from her injured knuckle reminded her to loosen her fist. "If we control the information, we can aim and fire it when it'll do us the most good, so we have to keep Big Bill…"
"From the docking bay." Werst laid his palm against the air lock's inner panel. "Check."
"And if we see him?" Mashona asked, falling in beside Werst.
"Ping me." So far, the plan had more variables than actual points of reference. A few more variables couldn't hurt. "Let's mix things up a bit. Drop a few subtle rumors about Cho while you're out there."
"About how this big mystery haul of his is big enough to finally piss off the Wardens and have them kick the Navy into action, putting the station and everyone on it in danger?"
"That's good."
Mashona smirked. "More than just a pretty face, Gunny." Huirre and Nadayki were at the storage pod; Krisk apparently never left the ship. Cho wasn't going any farther from the armory than the Heart. Craig suspected he wasn't standing at Nadayki's shoulder only because he didn't want his crew to think he had nothing better to do-even though until the armory was open, he had nothing better to do. Dysun had returned not long after Almon, but Nat and Doc were still out.
With half the crew gone, the ship felt empty.
Craig didn't much like the ship having a feel. It smacked of familiarity. Of becoming a part of something he wanted no part of.
Sitting on a bench outside the showers, he nearly fell on his face while carefully easing the overalls past his injured foot. Fuk, he was tired. As he bent to pull the dressing off-Marines used sealant alone in the field-small spikes tapped into his temples and, although Doc had bonded the ribs Almon had cracked, breathing became less an automatic function and more a painful chore.
But Torin was here. On the station.
It was almost over. *Craig. We know how they got the armory in-they cut the gravity, floated it out of the Heart and in through the exterior hatch. We'll take it out the same way.*
"Great." He stepped over the lip into the shower and pressed hot/ strong. "You can take me out with it."
He thought for a moment the hot water pounding down on his head and shoulders had drowned out her reply. Impossible given that the implant was jacked directly into his ear. *Are you up to it?*
He didn't know where his suit was, and he very much doubted Cho would just hand it over. Or allow him to unhook a suit from the Heart. "Are you serious?" *Easier to get you out the exterior hatch than through the station. Craig, are you up to it?*
She didn't think he was, or she wouldn't have asked again. But she'd take his word for it, or she wouldn't have asked the first time. One of the first things he'd learned about Torin was that when she asked a question, she wanted an actual answer to it.
Stepping out from the wall, changing the angle so the water could pound at the base of his spine, he took inventory. Everything hurt. But if he could walk out to the fukking storage pod right after Huirre ate his toe, he could do what he had to in order to get the hell away from the Heart.
"Yeah, I'm up to it." *Do you have access to a suit?*
"Not right now, I'm in the shower. Naked. Soapy." Actually, he hadn't even started soaping. So as not to be telling a lie, he pushed a little into his palm and began to carefully rub it around the bruising. *Ressk says the schematics show a suit locker on the ore dock, by the head.* It sounded as though she was smiling and trying not to. He really hoped it was because she was thinking of him naked and not because of Ressk. That would just be… wrong.
"Yeah, I saw the hookups. No suits, though." *Shit.*
"At least some of the stations are live. Maybe I can get a couple suits out there." *How?*
"Captain Cho already thinks Big Bill is up to something. I'll use that." *Don't take any unnecessary risks. I need to know you're…*
"Safe?" He regretted the word the moment it left his mouth. Okay, maybe not the word itself but the tone, the sarcasm, that he regretted. "Sorry, I'm tired. It's been a long day." *Pain is tiring. Regrowing a toe requires only a small sleeve.* Worst of it was, she probably thought she was being comforting. Loss of body parts was no big deal in the Corps. Bam! Lose your head? Just regrow it. Pain? Pain was an inconvenience. Suck it up, Marine. You've got a job to do. Craig knew he was being unfair; he'd seen Torin's reaction, but he was just too tired to care. Losing a body part, even a small insignificant one, might not be a big deal to Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr, but it was to him.