The Breaking Light (Split City Book 1)

by Heather Hansen

  “Nothing.” Everything.

  Arden hated feeling this way. It wasn’t the job. With Colin beside her, she’d be fine even if Kimber ran comms. It was everything else. She couldn’t stop feeling her frustration over Mariah’s situation, and guilt about Dade didn’t do her any favors either. Thinking about him put her back on the cycle of want and exasperation that she desperately needed to end.

  Normally things didn’t affect her. She could be cutthroat and cold when she wanted to be. Since she’d met Dade, her world had begun to thaw, and Arden had to be ice. It was the only way to survive. She blamed him for softening her, but she blamed herself more.

  Except if she worked it right, she figured she could do the two things she wanted most: to see him and to help Mariah.

  “Do you see them?” Colin asked.

  “No.” Though it was difficult to get a good look at anyone. There were more people than normal traveling today. Add to that, the govies had doubled in number. They walked the atrium in their govie-greens, hands at the ready on phasers and stun-sticks. The entire city’s security forces had been switched to high alert over the last week.

  In her ear Kimber said, “Sun, Arden, get it together.” Her voice was snippy, which was to be expected. It was clear she blamed Arden for Mariah’s capture. Arden had thought Kimber had been difficult to deal with before. Now it was on a whole other level.

  “I hate her,” she said under her breath, knowing Kimber would hear her.

  “She could be here with you instead of me,” Colin suggested, laughing. He wiggled his eyebrows. “I’d be happy to listen in on that.”

  Kimber broke in. “You’d better be nice, or I’m gonna leave you without backup if anything goes down.”

  Arden rolled her eyes and huffed. Like she wouldn’t anyway.

  The situation reminded her to get rid of listening ears so that she could talk to Colin about her plan. Time was running out. If she had any hope of following through with the crazy idea she’d concocted, she needed to get Colin on board before the meet went down.

  Arden looked at Colin and gestured to the comm.

  He nodded, his mouth in a straight line.

  “I have to use the bathroom,” Arden said into the comm. “I’ll be off mic.” Then she clicked off her comm.

  Colin raised an eyebrow and gave her a flat stare before he turned off his as well. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to ask me to do something foolish and insane?”

  Arden put on her best smile, teeth and everything. “Because I am.”

  “What do you want?” He acted like he wasn’t amused, a scowl on his face, but she could see the small quirk to his mouth.

  It was enough to tell her that she had a shot. She gathered up her courage and said, “I want to break into Sky Tower Two.”

  Colin sputtered, “Are you crazy?”

  “Maybe?” She’d already asked herself the same thing many times.

  “Is seeing that siskin so important that you’d risk death? And I don’t mean from the govies. If Niall catches you, he’ll skin you alive.”

  “If you’re in charge of the op, he won’t find out,” she said sweetly, batting her eyes. Sometimes she could sell a crazy plan as a fun joke. She hoped this would be one of those times.

  Colin didn’t buy it. “Why do you have this obsession with him? He’s getting married, M-A-R-R-I-E-D.”

  “I’m not an idiot. You don’t have to spell it out for me.”

  “Apparently I do.”

  Arden sniffed. “It’s not an obsession.”

  He squinted. “Then explain it to me.”

  Okay, maybe it was.

  “It’s business,” Arden said. When Colin gave her a disdainful look, she repeated, “It is.”

  “What ‘business’ could you possibly have with him? Please give me some kind of answer besides ‘He’s hot’ or something equally as vapid.”

  She forced herself to relax. It wouldn’t help her case if she started on the defensive. She was asking a lot from him. Treason against the Lasair was a death sentence no matter the reason. “I thought that maybe Dade could get info on where they’re holding Mariah. Or perhaps he’s overheard something that would be helpful. I have no other way to contact him, but if he can help us, it’s worth a shot.”

  “Why don’t you know how to contact him? Last I saw, the two of you were so close, your faces were in danger of needing surgical detachment.”

  Arden felt her cheeks heat, glad she hadn’t told him about taking Dade into Undercity. That would be mortifying and, well, his reaction would be worse than this conversation. “I told him I didn’t want to see him again.”

  “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day,” Colin said dryly.

  “Are you going to help or not?” she asked.

  Colin ran a distracted hand through his hair. “How do you propose to break in? The security at the Sky Towers is ridiculously tight. Which might not be a problem in normal circumstances, but with only the two of us . . .” He paused to see if she was going to offer up anyone else who’d be willing to help. When she didn’t, he sighed and continued. “Going it alone presents more dangers than we could handle. Plus, where are we going to get the stuff we need to pull off a job that size?”

  Arden grinned. If he was already calculating the possibilities, and probably running through the possible entry scenarios in his mind, she knew she had him. Colin would do anything for her. She appreciated that, while reminding herself that she shouldn’t take advantage of it.

  “Well, I’d hoped . . .” She looked around meaningfully, and then widened her eyes at him, not wanting to voice her treasonous thoughts.

  “You want to steal from the shipment?” he asked. The way he said it, like he was surprised, had her laughing. It wasn’t like they hadn’t done all kinds of questionably immoral things before. Besides, was it really stealing if the items had been stolen in the first place? She liked to consider it more along the lines of realigning their accessories.

  “It’s not like they’ll know any of it is missing. When we take the shipment back to the holding site, we’ll just conveniently lose some stuff. No one will find out.” Plus, if they stole some items, it would push back Niall’s timeline for proceeding with Project Blackout. Maybe it would buy her the time to come up with another solution while he scrambled to replace the items she took.

  Colin looked like he’d sucked something sour. “You don’t need me to help you so much as you need me to keep you from getting yourself killed.”

  She nodded, smiling. “Exactly.”

  “Why can’t I hear you?” Kimber yelled. “Did you idiots turn your comms off?”

  Colin winced. Kimber’s screechy voice directly in their ears caused an instant headache.

  Arden switched her comm back on. “Sorry, didn’t think you’d want to hear me pee.”

  Colin snickered, turning his comm back on as well. “I didn’t realize mine was off.” He didn’t even try to hide the lie in his tone. Arden adored him for it.

  Kimber growled.

  Arden ignored her when she realized they were about to get company. “Incoming,” she said for Kimber’s benefit, hoping it would shut her up.

  Colin snapped his spine straight and went into assassin mode.

  Three boys and a girl cut through the crowd. They wore brightly colored outfits, dressed like travelers from another city. The cloth formed to the body so they’d be able to fight in them if necessary, a fact emphasized by the phasers strapped to their hips and backs. They made a powerful statement as they walked through the atrium, like a delegation of dignitaries. People treated them as such, parting for them and offering small bows.

  The girl was noticeably smaller than the boys. She walked with a sway in her step, stealing the attention from her companions. She was pretty and petite, with curly dark hair, dusky skin, and wide almond eyes.

  Around her, the boys were varying degrees of hulking. They walked in a ring, shielding the girl. It didn’t co
me across as trying to protect her, but more as emphasizing she was their leader, the one who made the decisions. It was in the way she carried herself, the tilt of her chin, the way she looked Arden directly in the eye.

  Arden had met many times with Mina, one of Lasair’s black-market suppliers of weapons and tactical gear. Because of that, Arden had a healthy respect for her. The girl was someone to fear and not someone she wanted to make an enemy. Mina wore her lethalness like a badge of honor.

  Mina stepped forward. She lifted her hands, palms up and cupped, the fleshy sides of her hands pressed together. Then she turned her eyes downward, and her head dipped in a bow. “Bright day to you.” Her words rolled with silk-smooth tones and a foreign accent that Arden had never been able to place.

  Arden repeated the greeting, giving a slightly deeper bow. “And to you.”

  They both reached out with their right hands, pressing their palms together, their thumbs twisting and connecting in a coordinated greeting.

  When they parted, Mina tilted her head to the side. “I’m sorry we were late. There was a bit of trouble with our docking. It seems the berth we normally use is being repaired.”

  Arden jolted. She slid a sharp look to Colin. He blinked. The change from the normal berth was concerning, especially since that was the one they had bugged. Hopefully Kimber had been paying attention. She’d have to do a lot of work to break into the vids of a clean room once they were able to pinpoint which one. Until then, the meeting would be blind.

  “If you will follow us,” one of the boys said.

  Arden and Colin fell into step next to Mina. Mina slipped her hand through the crook of Arden’s elbow. Her body swayed into Arden’s as they walked. Arden wished they really were friends. It would be nice to have powerful allies she could trust.

  Behind them, the other two boys took up the rear of the group, boxing them in. Arden didn’t like feeling pinned. She was capable of fighting her way out, yet anxiety closed her throat. She swallowed against it.

  Kimber broke in on the comms. “Following you through the atrium, I’ve got eyes all the way through to the quadralift. When I figure out which berth they’re using, I’ll log into those vids.”

  On the lift, the boys stood closer than necessary, bunching the group in tighter. There was an uneasy shifting around the circle. Adrenaline flooded Arden. She mentally ran through the list of every phaser, knife, and any other possible weapon that each person had, cataloging how she’d take them out. She moved her fingers, loosening them so that she’d be ready.

  Finally, the doors dematerialized. She pushed her shoulders back before exiting the quadralift into an eerily empty hallway. As busy as it had been in the atrium, the complete absence of passengers here confirmed that this was a setup. Anxiety that had strummed at a low pulse now beat with a full-out knocking on her insides. Her skin crawled, coming alive. She almost turned around but checked herself.

  The back of Colin’s hand slid against hers for only a fraction of a second. It was enough. Arden felt her calm slip back into place as she prepared to fight.

  Kimber’s voice became frantic, her comm fading in and out with static. “They have some kind of block. I’m blind. Trying to break into their feed—”

  Arden was not surprised when the comm went dead.

  The lead boy put his beefy palm to the scanner beside the berth door. There was a whoosh as the steel door slid open, the air pocket inside the room meeting the recycled air of the hallway. It popped Arden’s ears.

  “Is something wrong?” Mina asked.

  “Of course not,” Colin said smoothly, following the first boy into the berth.

  Arden stood on the threshold. She looked at Mina. Her blank stare was unreadable. The other two boys stepped behind her, not touching, yet forcing her to make a decision. Arden turned her attention forward and walked into the room. The door behind them closed, whooshing again as the air lock reengaged.

  That was when it happened. Mina stepped out of the way while the three boys surrounded them. The fight was pretty even, despite the boys easily having an extra fifty pounds apiece on them. Colin and Arden kept their backs to each other, kicking, swooping, and circling.

  The brawl moved fast: arms, fists, feet landed with dizzying speed. At one point, Arden took a punch to the face. It knocked her sideways. For half a second, she couldn’t make her brain work and then caught a second fist, this time to her lip. She felt her skin break, saw the blood spray from the connecting fist as the boy pulled back, and then her brain realigned and she struck out.

  All the while Arden looked for exits. The door was shut and probably locked. Kimber hadn’t made contact. Once she’d determined that the only way out was to fight, a calm settled into Arden.

  Arden kicked out, landing her foot in the stomach of one of the guys bearing down on her. He grunted and fell back. Then she followed through with a second kick to his side. The extra boy lunged at her. She swung, landing a punch to his face.

  Her body thrummed with pain. Sweat poured down her face, stinging her eyes. She felt the sensor on the mask blinking as it fought a losing battle to hold its illusion. Any second she’d be exposed.

  Time to end this. Arden’s hand moved for her phaser. As soon as she had a palm on the grip, the three boys doubled their efforts. She pulled the phaser free and raised it. A foot kicked it out of her hand. She watched it fly, already unstrapping her knife. She slashed out, her blade wanting to find flesh to sink into.

  She spun away from Colin’s back, grabbing one of the boys by the throat. As she tightened her arm to keep him secure, her other hand pressed the knife under his chin. In that next moment, the cold hard metal of a phaser kissed her temple.

  “Drop the knife,” the boy holding the phaser said. He pulled her hair in emphasis, and she felt the muzzle tap her head.

  Arden tightened her arm against the other boy’s windpipe, making him grunt, then dug the knife deeper into his skin. She sucked in a series of breaths heavily through her mouth, her chest burning, while she tensed her body. She wasn’t going to let the boy go. She needed to keep some leverage.

  On her right, she saw that Colin still fought with the third boy. He moved slower than usual. Blood stained his face and hands.

  Arden’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.

  The boy fighting Colin kicked him in the gut, sending Colin flying across the floor to land on his back.

  Mina clapped. “Very good.”

  Instantly she had the attention of everyone in the room. She gestured for the boys to let Arden go and not to reengage with Colin, who was slowly getting to his feet. The boy behind Arden lowered his phaser and stepped away.

  Arden was much slower to release the boy she still had by the throat. She wasn’t sure what had started the fight and couldn’t trust that the confrontation was over. Tense, they all waited, sensing her hesitation. Finally she pulled her arm away, simultaneously pushing the boy away from her. Her feet danced back, putting distance between her and the rest of the room. She kept her knife in front of her, breathing hard.

  Colin wiped at the blood on his face, making long red smears across his mask. Then he spat a glob of red saliva onto the ground. His teeth gritted, the white enamel now pink as he flashed a snarl at the boys they’d fought. He rolled his shoulders, loosening them.

  Arden hadn’t fared any better. Her body was sore, and her lip split and bleeding. Her left eye felt puffy and bruised. “What the hell, Mina?”

  “I had to make sure that you’re who you said you are.”

  Arden lowered her knife fractionally, her weight shifting. They’d met multiple times over the last few years, so why the distrust now? “Who else would I be?”

  “I don’t know your identity under the synth-mask and voice modulator, but I know the way you fight,” Mina said, clearly impressed with Arden and Colin’s skills. “Govies don’t fight nearly as well or as dirty.”

  “That’s what you’re afraid of? That someone created a replica of this synt
h-mask to infiltrate you?” Arden waved at the blood-covered hologram on her face. “If we’d sent someone who was crappy at hand-to-hand, you would have shot her?”

  Mina gave an elegant shrug. “Possibly.”

  Arden felt the heat of anger burn her skin. “You risked too much.”

  “Anyone could have synthesized your masks,” Mina said. “I’ve known for some time that someone in your organization is leaking information. To that end, I’ve taken some additional precautions and included new synth-masks in the shipment that only the five of us will know about. We’ll start fresh next time.”

  Arden understood where Mina was coming from, but it pissed her off nonetheless. Folding her arms, she pinched her lips together and squinted. Leaking information? She didn’t know what to think of that bombshell since she hadn’t any evidence of it. That would be something to think on later.

  Mina didn’t take Arden’s angry silence as a challenge. Instead, she looked amused. “It’s also why we made sure to cut you off from your comms.”

  Arden blinked.

  Mina nodded. “We found the equipment you planted in the other berth. Don’t bother to deny it was Lasair, I know my tech when I see it. I’m impressed with how long you managed to pull it off before we caught it.”

  Arden swallowed, feeling uneasy. Mina’s praise was confusing. She didn’t want to confirm what Mina suspected, but she didn’t want to deny it and insult Mina’s intelligence either. Instead, she walked over and snatched up her discarded phaser from the ground.

  “I won’t hold it against you. I understand the need for caution, but I won’t forget either,” Mina said. Then her voice turned dismissive. “Well, that’s done. Let’s get to the reason you’re here, shall we?”

  Mina led the group over to the hovervan parked beneath the ship docked in the center of the berth. The ship had sleek silver lines and a bullet-shaped nose, reflecting a distorted view of the group as they walked toward it. The loading dock was still down, showing off its vast interior.

  Their goods had already been offloaded and placed into the hovervan. The back doors of the hovervan were open, so that Colin and Arden could inspect the trade. Inside the van were rows and rows of phasers in all shapes, sizes, and scope, along with several boxes of electronic equipment that could be used to circumvent computer systems.