The Princess and the Guard (Book 1)

Thirty-Three

With Juliette once again safely in her room, Noah returned to the garage and finished cleaning the mess he'd made. It was already past midnight, but he'd managed to snap some pictures of the inner workings of his ship that he could then continue studying in the privacy of his room. He needed to purchase some new parts, but he was hoping to be able to find them used.

He wasn't aware of any junkyards in the capital, but it wouldn't hurt to look.

Noah groaned, kicking one of the wheels of his ship as he passed. He slung his sweatshirt over his shoulder, snapping the garage lights off, and then taking the stairs two at a time up to the ground level.

"I thought you stopped working night shifts?" Mason said, pausing as Noah passed the kitchen.

"I was in the garage."

Mason nodded. He must have been finishing a shift. "How's Ju—the Princess?"

"Fine," Noah said, a little too sharply even for his ears. He cleared his throat. "She's fine."

"Glad to have a little more freedom, I bet," Mason added with a scoff.

Noah didn't bother to reply. He kept on toward his room but slowed. Mason was a fairly decent mechanic. He'd repaired several of the palace ships before; he might know a way to disable the tracking equipment.

Unfortunately, that would require telling him at least some of his intended plan and Noah wasn't quite that desperate.

But, he might be able to discreetly pick his brain.

"Hey," Noah paused. "I've been working on that old ship, trying to get the engine running again. It seems to be going well, but I can't figure out some of the more detailed mechanics. Don't suppose you could give me some pointers?"

"Yeah, of course. Did those books not help?"

"They did, but because the ship is old, there are some gaps." Noah waved a hand in the air. "It's not the end of the world, but if you know what to do, it would help if I could learn that way."

"Oh sure. I traded shifts with David, so I'm free. Do you want to go now or are you headed to bed?"

Noah hesitated. It had been a long, tiring day, he had another long, tiring day ahead of him tomorrow. Unfortunately, Mason worked most nights so there might not be another chance in the near future.

"Yeah, now would be perfect," Noah finally said. He would have plenty of time to catch up on sleep once he and Juliette were away.

They walked back out to the garage and as Mason gave Noah a basic rundown of things he mostly knew, Noah took detailed notes.

"This panel houses the tracking units, and there are three different ones," Mason said, tapping a small metal box off to the side of the interior control panel.

"Oh, it's inside? I thought the tracking equipment was outside."

"No, not with these older models." Mason shook his head.

If that were the case, then Juliette probably either already took care of it, or would know how to.

"I'd give you a tour of the inside, but we need special clearance to open them up because the opening is tagged and will send an alert to Aaryn," Mason added.

Noah deflated, but he tried to hide it. "I'm assuming that's so it can't be tampered with?"

"Correct."

"So how would you fix it if something was damaged?" Noah asked, feigning confusion.

"You just get permission from Aaryn. He'll give you a time slot and then he can override the alert."

That sounded like something Juliette might be able to do. Noah chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking to let her know of the danger just in case she didn't know.

Mason kept going, oblivious to the additional obstacle he unknowingly threw in Noah's path. For the most part, Noah was able to keep up, jotting down as much information as he could as quickly as possible.

By the time Mason said he was going to turn in, it was almost one-thirty. Noah was so wired he wanted to review all the things Mason had shown him and cross-reference them with what he'd been piecing together from Nexus research.

He stayed in the garage, propping his tablet up and being careful with his word choices when he made a search. From what he understood, a lot of the control boxes of his specific ship's year and model were recalled due to mechanical issues.

Specifically, with the black-box trackers.

Noah's heart did a little hiccup, and he had to read the same paragraph three times before his brain was able to make sense of it.

There was an issue with his ship's tracking equipment. He tried not to get too excited, thinking it couldn't be that easy. But if that was the case, then his job just got a whole lot easier.

Disabling a fault part would be so much easier to take care of, and talk himself out of trouble if he got caught.