In Command (#1 Post-Order 66 Series)

In Command - Part 5

"Yeah."

"When?"

"When he was following me around the market one day and was being especially persistent."

Rex felt a pang of some unpleasant sensation in his temple. "Do I need to come to market with you more often?"

"Absolutely not. That man is such a liability to the Empire, and he loves to tell me all about it. How he can't stand all their rules and how he breaks them because he doesn't have the time for all that bureaucracy. He'd never do that if my husband were right there. AND-" She grinned, sticking out her tongue slightly. "-he told me he sometimes takes his decryption disk home with him rather than logging it back into the secure vault at the communication hub because it takes too long to do and its out of his way when he's heading home."

Rex's eyes widened. "He TOLD you that? That's a huge protocol violation."

Her eyes twinkled. "Yeah, I let him think I had a thing for bad boys, and he really ran with it."

Rex sat back, stunned. Having a copy of one of those decryption disks would go well beyond just helping Senna build her communications node. If they could distribute it to various cells, they could potentially gain huge amounts of information as long as the Empire didn't catch on.

Even with all of that, he didn't like it for a reason he was struggling to pinpoint. "We can consider it."

"Again, not asking for permission."

"We should still talk about it."

"We just did. I'm going."

He huffed at her. "You're unbelievably stubborn."

"And you worry too much." Scooping up her bowl and the filthy rag she'd used to sop up as much of the mess as she could, she patted him on the shoulder as she walked past him into the hallway. "By the way, we have dinner with Zea and Brak tonight."

He scowled. "When did we agree to that?"

"I ran into Zea while I was out yesterday, and she asked for the fourth time since Empire Day, and I was out of excuses, so I told her we would. I'm bringing...something for dessert."

"Do you know how to cook anything besides noodles?"

She turned and winked at him. "I guess we'll find out."

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"What even is this thing?" Rex asked, staring at the baked good in his hands. The cake smelled good enough, but the look of it was decidedly questionable with a large poofing and bubbling in the center and the edges looking nearly burnt.

"I don't know, some traditional cake. The woman at the stall recommended the recipe when I was buying fruit. She didn't exactly provide a description of what it was supposed to look like, which in hindsight may have been a good thing to ask about," Senna grumbled, staring at her atrocity.

"Have you tasted it at all?"

"Yeah, had some of the crumbs, and they tasted like...something."

"That is not encouraging," Rex muttered just as the door to the dwelling sprang open.

"Cardells! So glad you could make it! Please come in!" Brak greeted them, ushering them inside.

"Thank you so much again for having us! We brought...cake!" Senna grinned, pushing Rex forward to offer them the dessert.