“Take these.” He pulled an earbud out of his pocket and held it out for me. “I don’t care if you blow up the moon or not. Do what you can and straight back here. No unnecessary risks.”

This was all one massive risk—one I was willingly taking—but he didn’t have to know that.

I grabbed the earbud from him and took off running.

The ship wasn’t big enough that I’d get lost. I pushed the earbud in place, followed the hallway to the hatch, and waited. My mask and tool were still on the floor. I picked up the mask and flipped it on. The suction was slightly less painful this time since I knew what to expect. It had hours left on it, but if I needed more than ten minutes, we were going to be dead.

Lorne was right about one thing: no unnecessary risks.

“I’m opening the hatch now,” Lorne said through the earbud. “They’ll know we’re here when I do it.”

“I’m ready.” I felt the ship lower and bent down to pick up the tool. A soft plink sounded behind me.

“What the hell?” Another came right after it from outside the hatch.

An officer stood twenty feet in front of me, weapon out, and fired again. I dropped to the ground.

Some guy was actually firing at me?

I looked back up. Just like I’d seen on the vidscreen, the ship that Santiago had prepared for me—Spider—was still where I’d left it. Three SpaceTech officers were near it, watching me with their weapons out, and more officers were inspecting where I’d fallen. One had my broken wrist unit in his hand.

My heart sped up and I was instantly flooded with the need to move.

“Hurry, Amihanna! Now!” Lorne’s voice kicked me into motion.

Running toward gunfire was a special kind of idiocy, but I did it anyway.

Because, after all the times I’d nearly died, risking my life to save my friends and take down SpaceTech? That was an easy choice to make. If I lived, then good. And if I died? What an honorable way to go.

Chapter Forty-Three

I ran as fast as I could out of Lorne’s uncloaked ship and landed ten meters away from the edge of the mine. I couldn’t believe I was back on Apollyon, but it was better than being on Abaddon. My short time in the pod had definitely helped. I had a lot more energy than I did before, but this was still pretty damned stupid.

I ran toward the SpaceTech officers firing at me, heading for the edge of the mine, and yelled, “Get to your ships. If you don’t want to die, leave. Now!”

One of the officers shot at me again, but I kept moving.