The Fringe Wars

1.26

Reyne grimaced. "Doesn't that woman ever sleep?"

"What's the computer look like?" Demes asked.

"It looks like a computer," Sixx answered.

Demes rolled his eyes. "If it's a tablet, I can grab it and go. If it's a built-in house system, then I can't do that now, can I?"

"Oh. It's a big one."

Reyne noticed Demes' frown. "Demes, how much time do you need to break into her system and copy her files?"

He shrugged. "Depends on her security protocols. Could be thirty seconds. Could be thirty minutes."

"You need to do it in under three minutes."

Demes looked like he wanted to say no, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

Reyne contemplated for a brief moment. "Sixx, I need you to draw her away from that room to buy time for Demes to hack her system. Think you can figure out a diversion?"

Sixx grinned. "My pleasure."

Reyne clasped Sixx's shoulder. "Be careful."

"Always am."

"You never are," Reyne muttered as the man ran toward the front of the house.

Reyne turned to Demes. "Let's do this." He grabbed his plastic-cutting tools and slid along the outside of the house to the office window, ducking under the two windows before it. He stopped and waited, watching Wintsel for any sign of movement.

He needn't have watched her. A hovercraft alarm pierced the air, and Reyne chuckled at Sixx's flamboyant diversion. He counted to three before glancing through the window, and found Zara Wintsel walking through the door.

He carved a giant circle into the pane. Demes wore sticky gloves and pulled the pane out, keeping it from crashing. Demes crawled through first, and Reyne followed. He landed on the floor with a grunt, rolled to his feet, and quietly shut and locked the door that Wintsel had left wide open.

Demes sat at the desk. He set a small black dome over the keyboard. Gray lights flashed across its surface, before turning yellow, then finally green. "I'm in."

A woman's voice emanated from the hallway. "Be sure to report it in, and line up the house staff. I'd bet credits one of them thought they could steal my Selta."

Reyne glanced at Demes. "Hurry. We don't have much time."

The handle jiggled, followed by a woman's frustrated voice. "Guards, why is this door locked?"

"I don't know why, ma'am. Did it lock on its own?" a man responded.

"No, it wouldn't lock on its own, you dolt. You young fools have no concept of how antique handles work." Someone pounded on the door. "Hello? Who's in there? Patrice, if I find out that you've let your filthy daughter roam in my house again, I swear you both will go straight to the Citadel."

"Demes, hurry," Reyne warned.

"Almost seventy percent copied."

"Move to the side, ma'am," the same man who'd spoken before said.

Something slammed into the door, and Reyne leaned against the wood, attempting to keep the frame from splitting. As he held the door shut, he took in the shelves lined with priceless crystals. A portrait caught his eye. Zara Wintsel stood in a loving embrace with a CUF officer, who also had blue-hued skin. This wasn't just any officer. This older man bore the insignia of the corps general. Reyne's breath froze in his lungs. "Ausyar," he muttered, and everything suddenly made sense.