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  “Okay, so we carry out our plan, and then…?” Jack prompted.

  Alyssa shrugged. “Confront the Vorlox and find out if they’re friend or foe, I guess.”

  “Yeah, confront the big, angry, murdery people in the giant ship with spikes and huge guns. That’s a great plan,” Jack muttered.

  “They might be very nice,” Triss pointed out.

  Jack sighed. “Yeah, sure…”

  A minute later, the waiter came to take their order.

  “Taquitos all around,” Alyssa ordered without her previous enthusiasm for the item.

  “Single or double?” the waiter asked as she consulted her handheld touchpad.

  Alyssa slumped in her chair. “Singles for them and a double for me.”

  “Now who’s the one with self-control issues?” Triss said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Comfort food,” was Alyssa’s only response.

  “Okay, three singles and a double order of taquitos. What meat?” the waitress asked.

  “Surprise us,” Finn replied.

  Jack’s pulse spiked. “You did see the menu, right?”

  Finn flipped his wrist. “Variety keeps things interesting.”

  “Surprise it is…” Jack conceded.

  The waitress made a notation. “And anything to drink?”

  “Premium margarita for me!” Finn said with a raised finger.

  “No drinking. We have work to do,” Alyssa objected.

  “Not until tomorrow afternoon,” Triss pointed out. “Everything has been prepped.”

  Alyssa melted when she saw Triss’ pleading eyes. “All right, premium margaritas all around.”

  Finn grinned. “A right proper party!”

  One drink quickly turned into four and the group confirmed that a bottomless margarita offer would make an excellent distraction for the GiganCorp employees. The taquitos, likewise, were suitably satiating and a nice upgrade from the budget place they’d hit up after leaving the former Winkelson Brothers’ station.

  With several drinks in him, Jack was feeling warm and happy even though the world was a little wobbly around him. “Guys… thanks for taking me in.”

  “Uh oh, I sense a sentimental speech coming on,” Finn quipped.

  “No, really!” Jack insisted. “Things were pretty rough after my childhood stage acting dreams didn’t work out. I got involved in petty crime, and I was floundering for a long time. Deep in debt, few friends, and no one I could trust… I just wanted a fresh start. I know you were just using me at first, but over the last few days I’ve started to feel like one of the team—and this cybernetic eye has even grown on me.”

  “Well, you’ve grown on me, too,” Alyssa gave him a gentle punch in his arm.

  “Yeah, you’re all right,” Triss smirked.

  “I vote we keep him,” Finn said. His words were fairly slurred, being three drinks deeper than everyone else.

  “Really?” Jack’s eyes lit up. “I can stay after this mission is over?”

  Alyssa shrugged. “If we’re still alive, sure. You’ve been a good boy.”

  Triss reached over the table and ruffled his hair. “That’s a good boy!” she said in the same tone as one might praise a dog.

  Jack yanked his head away from her but secretly he didn’t care. He was the new guy and a little hazing was to be expected. For once, it was nice to be part of a team.

  CHAPTER 15: Hazy Recollections

  Jack awoke with an impressive hangover. The spinning of the world around him from last night had subsided, but his head ached and his stomach felt like he’d spent all night in zero-g.

  He assessed his surroundings and found that he was in his bed on the lower bunk in his cabin.

  However, Finn was passed out half on Jack’s bed and half on the floor. “Where’s the cake?” he said as he woke with a start. “Ugh.” He clutched his head.

  Jack forced himself into a sitting position, making everything feel worse. “How many did we have last night?”

  “I lost count.” Finn rubbed his eyes.

  “Me too. I wonder how Alyssa and Triss are doing?”

  “I doubt they’re up yet.”

  The two men slowly stood up and stumbled toward the door.

  “I think I’m still a little drunk,” Jack commented when he got to his feet. The world seemed like it was tilted at an angle. It was then that he realized his cybernetic eye implant had been knocked off-center. He twisted it back into position. “Never mind. Just hungover.”

  Finn slid the door open and they stepped into the hallway.

  The scent of slightly burned coffee filled the common room. Triss and Alyssa were seated at the galley table, looking perfectly rested and refreshed.

  “About time you got up,” Alyssa said. “Looks like you had a rough night.”

  “How are you not dead?” Finn moaned. “You were matching us drink for drink.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, we switched to non-alcoholic daiquiris after the second round. You must have been too busy to notice, and afterward you were too drunk to have noticed much of anything.”

  “Should we remind them about the exotic dancers?” Triss asked.

  Alyssa looked over Jack and Finn. “Maybe we better not.”

  “You can’t make a comment like that and not elaborate!” Jack exclaimed. He winced at the sound of his own loud voice.

  “You had a group of exotic dancers that took a liking to you last night,” Alyssa said. “I think you went to make out in the corner for a while.”

  Jack nodded with satisfaction. “Was she hot?”

  “Oh, you misunderstand,” said with a little smile. “It was a group of men. But they were hot, yes.”

  Triss smirked. “They said you were pretty.”

  “If they called him pretty, then I must have been their god,” Finn declared.

  “You got as much attention as you could handle, don’t worry,” Alyssa said. “You wandered off to a back room for a while and I’m not sure what went on, but when you came back you looked happy. Then you tried to crash another bachelorette party.”

  Finn nodded. “That sounds about right.”

  “What do you mean ‘another’?” Jack asked. “And I’m surprised I didn’t zero in on the bachelorette group. That’s normally my thing.”

  “Oh, you did,” Triss clarified. “You were the center of attention with the first group.”

  He smiled smugly. “Oh yeah?”

  Alyssa nodded. “They had a great time with you.”

  Realization sparked in Finn’s bleary eyes. “Oh, that explains things. I was wondering…”

  “Wondering what?” Jack searched the others’ faces for clarification.

  “Look in the mirror,” Alyssa suggested.

  Jack hurried to the washroom to look in the mirror over the sink. To his surprise, a fully make-upped face stared back at him, complete with false eyelashes, mascara, painted eyebrows, eyeshadow, rouge, and lipstick. With the flush on his face hidden beneath the rouge, Jack returned to the galley area. “Did this happen before or after the exotic dancers took a liking to me?”

  “Before, of course,” Triss said, holding in a giggle.

  “You probably spent a good three hours at the bar that way,” Alyssa shook her head as she chuckled. “You really have no game—just walked up to the bachelorette party sloshing the drink in your hand and babbling about rabbits, or something. They sat you down and put on your face.”

  “I think it kind of suits him, don’t you?” Triss commented to Alyssa with a twinkle in her eyes.

  Alyssa nodded. “Very striking.”

  Finn reached up to check his own face.

  “No, you’re good,” Jack said. “Looks like I got all the honors this time.”

  “That’s not all you got…” Triss snickered.

  “I don’t want to know.” Jack returned to the bathroom to wash up. Unfortunately, the lipstick and eyeliner proved to be one of the more permanent varieties.

  By the time
he was showered and dressed, his headache had receded and his stomach was much more settled. He found the others still in the galley munching on leftover taquitos. Sadly, they weren’t nearly as good as when fresh. Nonetheless, he ate until he was an appropriate level of full.

  “What do we do until it’s time to head into the GiganCorp lab?” Jack asked.

  “Charades?” Finn suggested.

  While not a terrible suggestion, Jack soon regretted agreeing to the idea because the others took the game as an opportunity to mime Jack’s various escapades from the previous night. The prompts included winners such as, ‘Jack having one too many’, ‘Jack and the dancer get it on’, and ‘Jack being prettified’. He didn’t find it nearly as amusing as the others did.

  After two hours, it was time to prep for the GiganCorp break-in. While everyone geared up with what they’d need for their roles, Jack took the opportunity to practice changing the modes for his cybernetic eye using his thoughts. It took concentration and several attempts, but he found that he was able to cycle through the different settings.

  By mid-afternoon, everyone was ready to head into the lab.

  Jack wasn’t surprised to find that he’d been nominated to carry the canister containing the actinium. Triss insisted, however, that all scans showed the canister was containing the radiation, despite their initial fears. All the same, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous carrying it in a backpack—especially since everyone else gave him a several meters buffer while they walked over to the facility.

  They gathered outside the main entry gate, which presented more like the approach to a luxury beach resort than a research laboratory. Tropical trees lined a paved path and bushes with red flowers circled an elaborate three-tier fountain topped with a giant G.

  “Everyone ready?” Alyssa asked.

  They nodded.

  “Okay. Sending the happy hour announcement now!” Alyssa said as she sent the invite via her mobile.

  Three minutes passed in silence as they waited for the marketing offer to do its thing. Then, people began flooding out of the front doors.

  “Bottomless margaritas?” one woman in a white lab coat was saying. “And anywhere in the restaurant—not just the bar? Wow!”

  “I know, it’s amazing!” her colleague replied.

  Alyssa nodded with satisfaction as she did a rough headcount of those leaving. “That should clear out the lab pretty well and be enough to overwhelm the host at the restaurant. We should have a good half an hour before they realize that the pricing offer isn’t real.”

  “And by then the smell of fried awesomeness will have captivated them.” Finn got a blissful, faraway look in his eyes.

  “Stay focused,” Alyssa stated. “We’re going in.”

  “That’s what he said,” Jack snickered.

  Alyssa rolled her eyes and then led the way across the remainder of the front walkway. She confidently strode into the building lobby with the others in tow.

  At the back of the lobby, two guards dressed in white body armor were seated behind a reception desk. They looked over the new arrivals.

  “You don’t work here,” the guard on the right said.

  “Yeah we do,” Alyssa lied. “We were onsite at a client meeting and wearing street clothes for the day.”

  “Oh, okay,” the guard replied.

  Alyssa walked over toward the controlled access door on the left of the lobby. She stealthily placed the nano induction module over the keycard reader. “Didn’t you two get the message about bottomless margaritas and three credit taquitos at Mexcelente?”

  The two guards looked at each other.

  “I told you we shouldn’t have turned off email!” the one on the left exclaimed.

  “Better hurry!” Alyssa urged while she activated the induction module to override the keycard’s connection to the central database. “Everyone else is already on their way over. We’re just dropped off some stuff we brought to the meeting and then we’ll join you.”

  “Think it’s okay to run over for a few minutes?” the guard on the right asked the other.

  “Yeah, no one ever comes in here. It’ll be fine,” the left guard replied.

  “Great!” Alyssa swiped her keycard over the disabled access pad. The light turned green. “See you over at Mexcelente!”

  The guards rose from their desk. “See you there! Thanks for letting us know.”

  Jack, Finn, and Triss darted through the door before it closed, with Triss grabbing the nano induction module as she passed by.

  “This security really is a joke,” Jack said when everyone was on the other side and the door was closed.

  “Oh yeah, it’s awful,” Alyssa agreed. “Hellana, ‘high security’ labs like this, it’s all the same—perpetuate a reputation of being secure and rely on those rumors to maintain security.”

  “So robbing a bank…” Jack ventured.

  She nodded. “Walk in and take whatever you want. Most will even give you a goody bag just for coming in.”

  “Done it. It’s true,” Finn added.

  “Huh.” Jack began planning his next venture.

  “All right,” Alyssa said, turning to the task at hand, “the radiation suits should be down here.” She directed them to a side corridor. “I think it’s this way…”

  The interior walls were all stark white plastic panels that had a glossy sheen under the light cast from the illuminated ceiling. White tile covered the floor, and a black baseboard lined both sides, with a black cap wrapping the corners of walls at the hallway intersections to increase visibility.

  “Yes, here we go.” Alyssa stopped next to a section of white paneling that had an orange rim. An image of a hazmat suit was depicted on the center of the panel. “Jack, switch your vision over to the electromagnetic field mode.”

  He concentrated on the eye controls and saw his left field of vision switch to the desired setting. “Got it.”

  “Do you see any wires?” Alyssa asked.

  “Yes, going from the emblem at the center up to the right edge of the case.

  “Okay, now switch to infrared,” Alyssa instructed. “Is there any hotspot where those wires disappear into the wall?”

  “No, just blue and green,” he said.

  Alyssa nodded. “Excellent, so it’s not wired to an alarm.” She pressed the emblem on the center of the panel and the door opened. “You can go back to normal vision. That’s all we needed.”

  “That’s it?! You can’t be serious.”

  “I meant for now, Jack. We still need the eye to mimic a retinal scan.”

  “But still… Why did you need to take my eye and give me this implant for that?” he exclaimed.

  “Well, we couldn’t very easily walk around with a scanner,” Alyssa countered.

  Jack looked down at their bags of gear. “Oh, really?”

  Alyssa shrugged. “In retrospect, it probably wasn’t necessary for this part. But look how useful you got to feel! And you did say the settings were cool.”

  “Yeah, I guess they are…” Jack admitted.

  “Anyway, time is wasting,” Alyssa said. She turned back to the cabinet, which contained a dozen suits in shades of yellow, green, blue, and pink. Alyssa handed Jack one of the pink suits.

  He sighed and set down his backpack containing the actinium before he took it from her. “Seriously?”

  “It matches your lipstick.” She grinned.

  Alyssa took a yellow suit for herself and gave Felix blue and Triss green. They helped each other into the awkward headpieces and checked the seals.

  Once satisfied that everything was in order, Alyssa removed the actinium canister from the backpack and carried it into the main hallway. “Here we go.”

  She popped the seal.

  Five seconds passed while they waited for the radiation signature to be detected.

  An alarm blared in the hall and the lights changed to red. The alarm subsided momentarily for an automated announcement, “Radiation leak detected
. Proceed to the nearest safe room and await instruction.”

  Their plan to empty out the facility seemed to have been effective, as they saw no one enter the hall to go to the lockdown rooms. Not having time to wait around, the group followed Alyssa further inside toward the specific lab where the prototype MEC was developed.

  The main corridor was blocked by an emergency containment door.

  “Time for us to earn our keep,” Felix said with the grin to Triss.

  They pulled out electronic equipment from a small duffle bag and tapped into the control panel next to the door. Alyssa had explained that keycards couldn’t override the emergency protocols to prevent some well-meaning worker from flooding an area with radiation while trying to let someone through the door.

  The sealed door proved to be no barrier for Finn’s and Triss’ skills, however, and the group was soon back on their way.

  Jack lost track of their path as they wound through the corridors and down several stairwells, with Finn and Triss disabling the security doors as needed.

  “I can’t believe you remember your way around here,” Jack commented when Alyssa made yet another turn.

  “I spent years here. It’s difficult to forget,” she replied. “Ah, here it is.”

  She had stopped outside a lab entrance with sliding double doors. ‘Top Secret’ was written in giant red lettering above the door.

  “A little on the nose.” Triss smirked when she read it.

  “No room for ambiguity, that’s for sure.” Alyssa located a biometric scanner next to the door. “Okay, Jack, you’re up.”

  “Hold still,” Triss instructed, and she went to work with Finn on syncing their computers with Jack’s cybernetic eye.

  A minute later, they had him look into the retinal scanner. The light shone green on the lock and the doors slid open.

  On the other side, a woman looked up in surprise. “Who are— Alyssa?”

  Alyssa removed the hood of her hazmat suit, no longer needed so far from where they’d left the actinium. “Hi, Mom.”

  CHAPTER 16: Heist

  “Alyssa… care to explain?” Jack slipped off the headpiece of his own hazmat suit.