I head toward the warehouse where we were supposed to meet our customer, dodging Gaian patrols as I go. The rain is dying down now, though it’s still shockingly cold for Gaia. Right now, President Leonis will want her citizens to believe she has the situation under control, so she’ll avoid bringing in the big guns like air patrols and tracking drones to find us… but it’s only a matter of time. Wherever my siblings are, they won’t be safe for long.

If they’re safe now, that is. They wouldn’t have had any warning about the Code Blue before it happened, and if they didn’t make it back to Thudana’s, who knows where they could have ended up? Maybe a patrol caught them before they could make it to safety. The twins aren’t exactly inconspicuous…

My anxiety is nearly unbearable by the time I reach the warehouse. I slink through the back alley to the rear entrance and pause outside to steady my grip on Thudana’s blaster. The warehouse is quiet, but I have no idea what I’m about to walk into. I take a deep breath and yank the door open with one hand, leveling my gun at the inside of the warehouse as I step through the door.

Three answering blasters swing in my direction. I freeze, panicking for a moment before I realize the people holding them are my siblings. The relief in all of their expressions makes my stomach roll with guilt, but I force a smile.

“Miss me?” I ask, just before Pol squeezes the air out of my lungs in a bear hug.

“We thought you were gone!” His voice is muffled as he presses his face into my shoulder.

“Oh, come on, you know I always come back.” I slap him on the back, and he releases me. While I regain my breath, I study the others. Drom gives me a nod, the relief I saw earlier already replaced by stony aloofness. Lyre is pale and shaky, but unharmed. “Anyone been in contact with Momma?”

“No,” Lyre says. She wrings her hands. “We pinged both you and her an hour before the meet-up. Neither of you responded.”

“So what’d you do?”

“Well… We went to the meeting. I thought that if something was up, it was better than sitting on the contraband with a known associate of Momma’s.” She falters. “Right?”

I realize, with a jolt, she’s looking at me for approval—and noting my sour expression. But the bitter taste in my mouth has nothing to do with Lyre’s admittedly smart decision, other than the fact that I wasn’t the one to make it. I gesture for her to continue.