Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 67: Una Estrategia

Joshua nods, looking down at their hands.

"That is why I want to convince Bennett to have you there," Sundo continues, "so we will be in the same place again. I have confidence that I can convince Bennett to let us be otherwise alone, without the other scientists there, so that there are fewer to have to worry about."

Joshua's brows come together slowly. He looks to Sundo with a sinking feeling settling in his gut. "I don't know if they'd ever agree to that, Sundo..."

"They will, they will," Sundo assures him, giving his hands a squeeze. "I can overpower Bennett, I am sure, and then we can take his... the... card." Sundo hesitates, his eyes searching as he tries to find the right word. "The, eum, the card. For the doors. The card for the doors."

He gestures helplessly, looking to Joshua for understanding.

"Oh," Joshua says as Sundo's meaning clicks.

The keycard. They need Bennett's keycard to unlock the doors. He searches for the word himself, but comes up empty. He doesn't know the word for "keycard" either.

"The door card," he says finally, helpfully, and Sundo smiles.

"Yes, the door card," he concurs with a confidence that makes Joshua laugh. It's a small but bright thing.

Sundo takes Joshua's face in his hands again, helpless love softening his features at the sound.

"I missed you so much..." He murmurs softly.

Joshua caresses his hand over Sundo's wrist. "Me too... Missing you. Even more reason why we need to get out of here. How is the card going to help us?"

"Well, we can retrace our steps, and the card will unlock the doors we need. And— Oh! That's the word! Key card."

Tarjeta llave. He combines the words for "key" and for "card", and Joshua makes a little laugh-snort of a sound.

"What?" Sundo asks, though he's smiling.

Joshua has a playful jab on his tongue, one about just how good the two of them are with this language, how so very incredibly sneaky and proficient they are with their masterful vocabularies and all.

But he's still thinking through this plan of theirs, and he trails off before even beginning his joke.

"Sundo..." He says, his smile fading with his train of thought. He pulls Sundo's hand down into his lap, fidgeting with his partner's fingers almost apprehensively. "I don't know if getting the key card will solve all our problems. What about those guards? Armed guards."

He remembers passing those MPs with their guns the first evening here, and a small shudder shakes through him.

Sundo's own smile has fallen, and he looks to Joshua, searching. Joshua feels a horrible twinge in his chest, seeing that expression. He doesn't want to shoot holes into this plan of Sundo's. He desperately wants it to work, but he's also too afraid to let his hope run away with them. His worry is reigning him in, and he sees the flaws in the plan with a sinking feeling.

"I'm sure there will be other security measures that we don't even know about. I really want this to work, Sundo, but... will it? I know you don't want to have to hurt anyone, but with the guards, if... if they..." He doesn't want to have to finish that thought.

Sundo's face has fallen further, and Joshua's sinking feeling plummets further with guilt.

"I know... I do not know if I could, though, I..." Sundo admits this with difficulty, but all at once he stops.