Jims. I want to kiss him for that.
“Dude,” I say. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you. How did you find us?”
He says, “Please. You can’t hide from Lady Luck. And we’re not out of the woods yet.” He places two fingers up to his lips and shrieks out a whistle so high-pitched, every kid immediately shuts up. “Listen up, you little brats. You, you, you, you, and you, come with me. The rest of you, go with Jimmy and”—he points to Delphi—“whoever that beautiful little thing is. Got it?”
Everyone, including me, just stares at him.
“I said,” he growls, “got it?”
Every single boy—and Delphi—says, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. We’ll give those girls a few more minutes to wrap up that shit show outside and Jimmy can start pressurizing the docking bays.”
He looks at me like… Well, go fucking do that.
I just shake my head and laugh. Then reluctantly let go of Delphi and go over to the nearest console and take a seat.
My shoulder is killing me, and when Luck comes up behind me and slaps a hand over the still-smoking, cauterized hole in my flesh on purpose, I want to punch him in the face. But I don’t. Because I’m tough like that. And he did just save my ass.
Luck leans down into my ear and whispers, “So listen. I didn’t want to alarm the kids or anything, but you should know that on the other side of the station, there are three Cygnian warships spinning up.”
“Fuck you,” I say.
“Not kidding. Wish I were. Dicker has some serious power behind her and so does Lady Luck, but honestly, brother. It’s not looking good.”
“What should we do?”
“Take our chances, man. That’s all we can do. Get these kids on board, take off and hope for the best.”
CHAPTER FORTY – DELPHI
It takes a while for Xyla and her friend to kill every last cyborg on the docking bay deck, but eventually they get the job done, Jimmy gets Dicker’s bay and the two bays in between us and her pressurized with an atmosphere, and then Luck starts barking orders at the boys like he’s now the proud general of a pack of kid soldiers.
“You, you, you,” he yells, pointing at three of the tallest boys, including my boy and asshole boy. “Grab a fucking rifle and make sure no stray borgs appear to fuck up my escape plan.”
They, of course, “Yes, sir!” him and get all serious as Luck points to the others and says, “Go, go, go, go…”
Jimmy ushers the younger ones, including the little one, into the airlock and then out into the docking bay.
Cha-Cha is walking next to me, scanning the bay with her rifle. She’s kinda making me nervous and she’s not even wearing an exoskeleton.
“So,” she says. “You and Jimmy, huh.”
I slide my eyes to the side without moving my head, trying to gauge what she thinks about this.
“Don’t worry about me,” she says, slapping me on the shoulder. “It’s Xyla’s test you have to pass.”
I don’t know what that means, but there’s really no time to think about shit like that. We still have to get off this station and make it back through the gate. And even though Luck didn’t tell me that there are three Cygnian warships preparing to launch on the other side of the station, he didn’t have to. Flicka heard everything and buzzed right over to fill me in.
Lady Luck, Luck’s ship, is docked right behind Dicker. She’s smaller than Jimmy’s ship, but not by much. She’s also yellow. Bright yellow. And for some reason that fits what I’ve seen of this brother so far.
Luck is tall, muscular, and has a head of shaggy blond hair. His boots make an ungodly amount of noise as he paces his line of boys. Like they’re made of metal. And he’s dressed up in brown tactical pants and shirtless, so you can see all the scars and tattoos on his chest. Like this is the brother who doesn’t ever walk away from a fight. I don’t think he’s shirtless on purpose, because there’s burn marks on the side of his torso. Like maybe he caught on fire and that’s why he had to take the shirt off.
Cha-Cha catches me staring at him just as I reach Dicker and says, “They feel pain differently than most people.”
“What?” I say, forcing my eyes to look away from Luck and up at her.
“That’s why he’s so good at this shit.” Then she winks at me and walks off towards their ship.
“OK,” Jimmy says, once our half of the boys are entering Dicker’s hull. “You ready for this?”
I take a deep breath and let it out. Flicka buzzes by my ear, letting me know she’s top-notch. I don’t really know what I should be ready for, but there’s no way out but forward. If those Cygnian warships fire on us, it’s pretty much over.