Shaq wasn’t the type not to follow orders, but I sensed that with his very nature, he wouldn’t accept no for an answer.

  “Okay,” I relented, reaching down and opening one of the wide pockets. I lifted the blaster out of it and left it on a bulkhead cross member. I didn’t want to take the time to return it to the armory. “Hop in.”

  “Yes!” Shaq buzzed excitedly, scampering down my arm to the pouch and vanishing inside. “Call if you need me.”

  “Will do, bud,” I replied, closing him in. I glanced at the others and shrugged in my defense. “He’s more deadly than a gun, anyway.”

  “Aww, you’re such a softie,” Emerald cooed. “I think it’s sweet. A boy and his pet.”

  “Pet?” Shaq whined from my pocket. “What?”

  “I’m just messing with you, Shaqsy.”

  “Are we ready now?” Druck asked impatiently.

  “Not quite,” Emerald said. “We can't forget our disguises.”

  “What disguises?” Quasar questioned.

  “ We can’t exactly go walking around Bushara looking like ourselves. If Planetary Defense doesn’t get us, the bounty hunters or Royal Guard will.”

  “We already went over that during the briefing, right before we dropped out of hyperspace,” I said. “Don’t you remember?”

  She shook her head. “Nope.”

  “You don’t remember everyone getting together in the lounge to talk about the mission?” Druck asked.

  “No.”

  “Or Ben telling Shaq and Ixy they had to stay behind?”

  “No.”

  “Or the plasti-skin masks in my bag that will change the contours of our faces?”

  “No. Where’d we get those?”

  “Miklos made them,” I said. “I told you about Miklos while we were still on Sanguine’s ship.”

  She stared at me, no evidence of recall on her face. I looked away from her, not wanting to leave her behind too, but wondering if I should.

  “Do you know who he is?” Druck asked her, pointing at me.

  “Of course. How could I forget Jake?”

  “Uh…” I said, looking back at her, frowning, suddenly not completely sure if she was serious or pulling my leg.

  Emerald started cracking up. “I’m just kidding. I know who you are, Matt.”

  “Time and place, Em,” I said, deciding she was just screwing around. “This isn’t it.”

  She kept laughing as she nodded. “Roger, Roger.”

  I was going to ask her if she remembered the masks now too, but it wasn’t worth the effort.

  “Do we really have to bring her with us?” Druck asked.

  “Do you really need to keep breathing?” Emerald shot back.

  “Em, seriously,” I barked, getting annoyed. “Stay quiet or stay behind.”

  She stopped laughing, running her hand across her lips to zip them and then looking at her feet, suddenly stone-cold serious. She had recognized that I was running out of patience for her antics. Even though she had immense value as a fighter, it would be negated if she threw off our focus.

  “Sorry, Ben,” she said softly lifting her eyes and connecting with mine before quickly looking down again and re-locking her lips.

  I sighed, almost feeling guilty that I'd jumped on her. It was obvious I'd hurt her feelings, but sometimes it was regrettably unavoidable. “Matt, are you still there?” I asked.

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied. “Are you ready now?”

  “We are. Seal off the hangar.”

  The compressors made a slight banging sound as they started sucking air from the room. I raised my hands, activating my construct and creating a sphere that captured the air around us. Grizz had estimated we would have more than enough oxygen to make it to shore.

  “I hope this works,” Druck said. “Or this is going to be a really crappy way to die.”

  “It’ll work,” I replied. I hoped. The logic was sound, but sometimes you didn’t know something for sure until you tried it. “Just don’t breathe until you know the barrier is up and working to keep the water out. Then take shallow breaths to conserve oxygen.” I thought the statements might crack Emerald’s silence, but she remained still, continuing to stare down at the deck.

  “According to the sensors, all of the air’s evacuated,” Matt said as the vents slammed closed and locked tight. “Opening the hangar door on three…two….”

  “Here goes nothing,” Druck said.

  “Or everything,” Quasar replied.

  “...one…now!” Matt finished the countdown, and the hangar door began parting, an immediate flood of water gushing inside.

  I activated absorb around my sphere of pulled air, pushing against the outside to keep the initial tide from sweeping us away. The sphere immediately began holding out the water crashing in around us with a deep rumble. It didn’t take long for the deluge to cover the sphere and fully fill the entire hangar. I stopped pulling on the air inside the sphere as the captured water prevented it from escaping.

  “Whooooo!” Druck shouted. “It works. Hot damn.”

  “Matt, we’re good to go,” I said.

  “Aye, Captain. Holler if you need backup and we’ll be there in a hurry.”

  “I will.”

  “Good hunting, Captain,” Leo said.

  “Ben out.” I tapped the comm to disconnect us and then increased the force of my push, shoving the ball of air with its water shell forward as though it were a submarine.

  We drifted out of the hangar doors and into the ocean proper, immediately surrounded by hundreds of colorful and confused fish. They seemed to stare at us with bulging, questioning eyes as we drifted past. Matt had landed Head Case on the seafloor oriented in the right direction, so all I had to do was keep us moving in a straight line and we would come ashore on a secluded part of the beach at the base of a normally difficult-to-scale cliff.

  Grateful that my idea for a different way to use absorb had gone according to plan, I planned to enjoy the hell out of getting there.

  CHAPTER 15

  Navigating around jagged rocks and through rough surf, we reached the shoreline and the cliff face above it nearly thirty minutes later. I dropped the water sphere and stopped pushing once we had made it fully onto dry ground, which would only remain that way for another hour before the shifting tides swallowed it up again.

  Glancing at the veins on the back of my hand, I was pleased to see that despite the effectiveness of the sigils, I hadn’t burned too much chaos energy. Like a combustion engine running at highway speeds, absorb was much more efficient when I started out at full capacity. Just like a Prius driver, I’d limited the strength of my push, taking more time to use less energy.

  “Em…" I slid my arm around her, my hand cupping her shoulder cap, the other one pointing skyward toward the top of the cliff. "I’m sending you up first to look around.” She finally lifted her head to look up. "The walls are too sheer to climb, so I'll push you up."

  “Why her?” Druck asked. “I can do it.”

  “Because she’s the only one of us who isn’t immediately recognizable,” I replied.

  “Are you kidding? She was just on Kill Spree like the rest of us. Her face was all over the show.”

  “A billion people watched Kill Spree. That sounds like a lot to me too, but against the size of the Hegemony, it’s still what? Less than one percent? Even the people watching have no idea who survived, thanks to Sanguine killing all the feeds.”

  “And we’ve been plastered all over the news since the Empress raised the bounty on us,” Quasar said. “Not to mention blueburned.”

  “She’s still an infamous mass murderer,” Druck argued.

  “I didn’t do that, asshole,” Emerald growled, shooting him a glare. “Ben’s going to clear my name.”

  “People still think you did it,” he pointed out.

  “That was a long time ago,” Quasar said. “I doubt too many people remember what she looks like.”

  “Emerald’s going up first,” I said forcefully. “This isn’t a discussion, and it’s not up for a vote. If you don’t like the idea of me being in charge, you can leave.”

  Druck’s face flushed. “Shit, Boss. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Then stop questioning my decisions. All of you. When I want opinions, I’ll ask for them.”

  “Copy that,” Druck said.

  “What is it, Zar?” I asked, noticing the big grin on her face.

  “You sound like my last CO. It suits you. Especially with the beard.”

  “I love the beard,” Emerald agreed.

  I rubbed at the chin hairs. “Really? Thanks. Now up you go.”

  Emerald turned to face the cliff, bending her knees slightly, tucking one arm against her chest, and raising the other skyward like she was Supergirl. “Ready!”

  I pushed her, launching her slowly upwards along the cliff face. She shrieked softly in excitement, leaning into the superhero pose until she cleared the crest. I pushed her sideways onto the land, letting her go. I grimaced, realizing when she yipped in surprise and disappeared from sight that I'd released her about a foot above the ground. A cloud of dust billowed up from where she'd fallen before her head reappeared almost immediately over the cliff’s edge. “I’m okay,” she announced before vanishing again. Returning a few seconds later, she leaned over the side and thrust two thumbs up. “All clear.”

  “Zar, you’re up,” I said, repeating the process to lift her to the top of the cliff. Emerald helped stabilize her when she reached the top. I did the same for Druck before pushing myself upward, exhilarated by the feeling that I was flying. It left me wondering if I could use sigiltech to fly for real.

  Quasar was already digging into her pack, still relatively secluded thanks to the challenging landscape, when I reached the top of the cliff. We were a dozen miles from North Lapul, just off a freshly paved roadway that traced the seaside and connected each end of the city. I could see smaller houses in the distance, square boxes organized in neat rows, outfitted with plenty of windows. Had anyone seen us arrive? If they had, would they report us to PD?

  “We need to clear out as fast as we can,” I said, crouching beside Quasar. Emerald and Druck joined us, huddling up to keep our faces hidden.

  “Here,” Quasar said, handing each one of us a plasti-skin mold, which would change our looks just enough to hide our real features.

  A simple thin film of a stretchy, rubbery material, it felt like skin in hand, as though it had been flayed off someone. I put it up to my face, pressing it against my cheeks, chin, nose, and forehead. At first, the material covered my eyes and nostrils. The heat generated by the veins beneath my flesh activated the material. It shifted and shrank, molding itself around my existing features and then altering the overall shape of my face. It bubbled into a more bulbous nose and a reshaped mouth. It was enough to convince an observer that I wasn’t the fugitive they were looking for.

  With that done, Quasar removed a makeup stick from her bag and passed it to me. I glared at it as I pulled the cap off and began smearing the tacky tint all over the back of my hands, covering my glowing veins. It had taken Meg some time and a lot of trial and error to program Asshole to produce the makeup. It itched, but it was the only way to complete believable disguises. Nobody on Bushara wore gloves in the daytime heat.

  “Em, can you get my neck?” I asked, holding the stick out to her.

  “Sure,” she replied, taking it and spreading it around my neck, hiding any sign of my luminescent blood.

  Once she was finished, I pulled out my phone, opening a comm to Head Case. We were too far away for the badges to reach, but my phone amplified the signal just enough to penetrate the water. “Matt, do you copy?”

  “I hear you,” Matt replied, his response fragmented, “but the signal’s weak.”

  “I know. We’re safely ashore, ready to head out for the city.”

  “Copy that. All’s quiet here, though we did have a close encounter with Jaws.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It looked a lot like a shark. Lots of big, sharp teeth, but it had to be at least forty feet long. It swam right up to the transparency and stared at us. I swear it was trying to figure out how to get in for a snack. I guess it decided it couldn’t because it left after a few minutes.”

  “That’s so cool. I can’t believe I missed that.”

  “Just be glad it didn’t come after your underwater hamster ball.”

  “True. I’ll check in again when we reach the tattoo parlor.”

  “We’ll be here,” Matt replied.

  I closed the comm, turning my head south when I heard a soft hum gaining volume as a large, trainlike vessel approached us, shooting along the roadway. It floated a foot or so over the smooth surface as it quickly reached and barreled past our location. Though it was nearly two hundred feet long, it only took a handful of seconds to rocket through the area on its way to the north side of Lapul.

  “There should be a transport station to the south,” Quasar said, having studied a map of the area. “Or we can walk north instead of doubling back on the tram.”

  “It’s hot,” Druck complained. “I say we go south.”

  I was tempted to order us north to see if Druck would argue with me again, but I didn’t want to spend more time in the heat than necessary.

  “Let’s head south,” I agreed. “We’ll board a tram and ride into North Lapul.”

  “Thanks, Boss,” Druck gratefully said, blowing out a hot breath and looking relieved as he slid a finger under his shirt collar and ran it along his throat, pulling the material away from his already sweaty skin.

  We crossed the coarse ground and sparse grass to reach the roadway, remaining on the shoulder as we turned south and kept walking. The heat and humidity made for an uncomfortable, sweaty trek, leaving me completely parched when we reached the outskirts of South Lapul.

  Not as densely populated as the north end, the area was still thick with five to ten-story buildings nestled among thick outcroppings of tropical plants, many of which bore flowers in various shapes, sizes, and colors. While plenty of wider roads created main arteries through the urban jungle, hundreds of smaller walking paths winding through the vegetation were crowded with pedestrians. Nervous that someone might recognize us when we first joined the throng, I relaxed when the individuals around us didn’t pay us any mind beyond a passing glance.

  Everyone was dressed just like we were, in an assortment of light, bright clothing. I was surprised to see Emerald and I weren’t the only couple wearing matching outfits. It seemed fashionable here and didn’t appear limited to just intimate partners. Entire groups of friends wore identical shirts and dresses, creating interesting patterns as the individual groups moved through the throng of people. Whenever I thought I understood how Emerald’s mind worked, she showed she had more tactical awareness than she let on.

  The tram station wasn’t very crowded, and the others waited nearby while I approached the ticket kiosk. Pulling out my phone, I opened the comm back to Head Case. “Gia, are you there?”

  “I’m here, Ben,” she replied. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need tickets for the Lapul Trolley. If I use my phone to make the transfer, they’ll be—” Before I could even finish talking, my phone vibrated and four tickets popped onto the screen. I laughed in response. “Thanks.”

  I disconnected and returned to the others, nodding that we were good to go. We made our way across a covered concourse where a few dozen passengers waited, pausing when we reached the part of the terminal marked for the northbound trams. I spared a few glances at the people around us while we waited, but they were all ignoring us.

  So far, so good.

  Emerald wrapped her hands around my arm, pulling herself closer. “Isn’t it beautiful here?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if she was really enjoying herself with me or if she was playing up our obvious cover story. Had she seen something that made her move closer to me? If so, I found myself wishing she was just being her normal flirtatious self.

  “It is,” I replied. “Hotter than I expected though.”

  “I like it.” She pulled up on her toes to kiss my cheek, sweeping her lips past my ear. “Nine o’clock. Don’t look right away.” Pulling slightly away, she faced me and smiled. “I can’t wait to get to the hotel.”

  “Why?” I asked, making sure not to glance in the direction she’d given me.

  “You know why,” she replied with a wink.

  Beaming fondly down at her, I laughed openly, using the opportunity to look around as if I was concerned someone had overheard her provocative words, which was probably exactly what she intended I do.

  My eyes slid slowly over two men at nine o’clock. Dressed in light shirts and long pants, they didn’t look out of place to me, but maybe Emerald had seen something I hadn't. Turning back to her, I pulled her in close, lowering my mouth to her ear as I slid my arm around her waist. “What about them? They look fine to me.”

  “Except one of them keeps staring at us, you in particular. I think he knows who you are.”

  “Assuming you’re right, what do you think is our best course of action?”

  “They’re watching us. We should watch them.”

  “Okay. Keep an eye on them during the ride.”

  “Count on it.”

  The tram breezed into the station on a bed of air, which blew out from under it forcefully enough to create a cooling wind as it sank to the surface of the roadway. The doors slid open, and a handful of passengers departed before we could get in. I made sure Druck and Zar lined up with us before letting a light beam from the top of the door scan the tickets on my phone. All four of us stepped inside.

  “Don’t sit too close,” I muttered to them, moving forward with Emerald while they broke in the other direction, finding seats in the back. The two men she had noticed boarded the tram further up, coming down the aisle toward us, bypassing other passengers taking seats in front of us. It left me and the two men on a collision course.