“I recommend we get a Hover. There’s no way we’re breaking into the Komodo without one. And I mean a Dragonwing, not this flying heap. But I hate to break the news to all of you: there’s no way we’re getting one.”

“There are a bunch of Dragonwings outside the Komodo, aren’t there?” Brooke said. “We could divide up. Some of us could distract the patrol and give the rest of you a chance to get close to the fleet on foot.”

Soren snorted. “You can’t just walk up and take a Hovercraft. And a distraction would never work. Any disturbance on a routine patrol would get reported back to the command leader at the Komodo. If you create a diversion, you’re basically putting everyone on high alert.”

“What if we contact them first?” Aria said.

“And say what? Our feelings were hurt when you tried to kill us?”

Perry leaned forward, forcing himself to ignore Soren. “What are you thinking?” he asked Aria.

“That we’re approaching this the wrong way,” she said. “We have to get way ahead of them.” She looked at Soren. “Can you hack into their communications from this ship?”

“Honestly, Aria, sometimes I feel like you don’t even know me.”

“Answer,” Perry snapped.

“Yes. I can.” Soren looked at her. “For the last time, hopefully: I can hack anything.”

Aria smiled. “Perfect.”

9. Aria

9

ARIA

Her plan was this: they would transmit a false message to the Dragonwing, sending the patrol on a mission to assist a downed Belswan—which they would pretend to be.

If the order came from a Dweller commander, Aria reasoned, the pilots would have no reason to check it. When the patrol unit came to assist, they’d walk into an ambush. Aria and Perry would have their team waiting, ready to overpower the crew. They’d take over the patrol ship and then return to the Komodo disguised as the regular team.

It was the same way she’d entered Bliss when she’d been searching for her mother. She’d put on a Guardian uniform and walked right in.

Why fight the enemy when you could fool them?

“I like it,” Roar said, when she’d finished explaining. “It’s a damn good plan.”

Aria caught his eye and smiled in thanks.

“It would get us close,” Perry said, nodding. “Closer than any other option we have.”

Aria looked at Soren, who stared into space, lost in thought. She wondered what he thought of the plan most of all.

“It all depends on you,” she said. “The only way it’ll work is if you break into the Komodo’s communications system.”

Soren looked at her and nodded. “I can do it. No problem.”

She never doubted it. For all the trouble he was, Soren had one skill she could always count on. In a way, it was what had started everything.