“No, I understand them fine.” He gave me a look with a raised eyebrow. “I just didn’t think you’d be able to pull this off.”

“Ahiga!” Audrey slapped Ahiga’s arm, but her outrage wasn’t necessary.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to pass either, especially while I was taking it.”

Audrey laughed. “Well, you did more than pass. I’ll let you two talk while I go tell Tyler the news.” She pushed the rolling stool to Ahiga on her way out of the room.

He sat down on the stool and waited for me to talk.

I thought about sitting on the bed, but I was too anxious to be still. “My next step is convincing Carl,” I said as soon as the door was shut.

He handed the paper to me. “Come to the officers’ bar around twenty-two hundred. He’s usually had a few by then, but not too many. I’ll leave and swing the door wide. All you have to do is walk in.”

“Okay. Any tips on how to convince him?”

Ahiga pressed his lips together for a second. “I bought him a beer couple nights ago, trying to see if I could get him to open up, but he never said a word. He was reading on his implant or playing a game or who knows what. He never even spared me a glance.”

That didn’t give me a lot of hope for what was coming next. “Thanks for trying.” I wondered if I was going to have any better luck getting Carl’s attention, but all I could do was try.

“There was an officer—one star, tons of medals, SpaceTech-issue short-cut red hair—that came in after I finished. If Jason doesn’t know about it already, he’ll know soon enough.”

Ahiga’s face didn’t show any surprise. “We knew this would happen.”

“I know. I know.” I nervously wrung my hands together as I paced. “But now that I actually passed the test, I need to know that Jason isn’t going to mess this up for me.”

“There are no guarantees. He could absolutely mess this up.”

I finally sat down on the bed. The last of the hope drained out of me. “Don’t bother pulling your punches.”

“My being overly optimistic won’t do you any good.” Ahiga crossed his arms as he stared at me. “The guy you described isn’t that high up. I don’t think he could be the one messing with the suit. He doesn’t have the clearance or the knowledge to hack in. There has to be someone else on this base who’s working for Jason, but it does give me a few ideas.”

I snorted. “Everyone on this base is working for Jason.”

“You know what I mean.”