Chapter 51-Estrenar-Warning Sign

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Estrenar rubbed at her temples. The glare of the interface screen was a bit much after her mental transformation. But, she forced herself to keep looking.

Russ, in a much more together-state than she, scoured the security footage with a steely focus. After twenty minutes of searching, they'd been unable to spot Jason or Kathar.

"It's impossible that these assholes are nowhere to be found," Russ said, still scanning the feeds.

"Well, like you said earlier, they made it easier to hide by removing their implants."

Out of habit, Estrenar encircled the wrist with the small but raised scar, the one that reminded her she'd been chipped, like an animal. She shook her head to clear some of the fog, passing a palm over her sweaty forehead. Tearing her gaze from the screen, Russ shot her a sympathetic look.

"You should go, get some sleep. You've done enough, been through enough."

"I'm good," Estrenar lied.

Her guilt wouldn't allow her to go rest. To make up for all that she had done, how she had set the mission back, she needed to contribute everything that she had.

Russ shrugged, accepting the lie.

"Speaking of where-in-the-world...that green shit," Russ pointed at Estrenar, indicating the green shit to be her infected alter-ego, "drove us way off course. By some voodoo science, it upgraded the drives to jump to Kevrun, and doing so burned a lot of fuel."

"That green shit is gonna end up saving us," Estrenar said. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she shared that: "We can use the canister of virus as fuel."

"You're sure?" Her expression conveyed how she didn't believe this added up.

"Samuel can verify, but yeah, I'm sure."

With a sudden burst of static, the interface then beeped intermittently, indicating an internal message.

"Play message," Russ instructed.

"Playing message."

In Tiptree's voice, a recording stated:

"Potential mission failure. Two insurgents have entered," a pause, then, "a restricted zone of the ship."

"Of course that's where they went," Russ said.

"Where's that?"

Though she was aware of the back-up protocol, she'd never been told or shown where it was located on the ship.

"Somewhere in the main corridor," Russ replied, sounding guarded. She told the interface, "Show feed from classified area."

The wide screen in front of them filled with an image of a cavernous room filled with rows of storage, a central interface at the helm.

"No Jason or Kathar," Estrenar noted.

"If they were there, they're gone now. Damnit."

The damnit was most likely because it would be hard to track the duo. Tiptree's message had been a lead, and now they were back to being in the dark, on the defensive.

"Should we head there anyway? We'll probably run into them in the main corridor," Estrenar said.

Her suggestion was drowned out a second later. An alarm blared, red lights flashing overhead.

"Back-up protocol engaged."

"What. The. Hell," Russ said, staring wildly at the interface.

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