Jeth moved aside, letting Sierra go first. She lowered herself through the hole and then swung outward, dropping down safely on a pile of discarded insulation. Jeth followed after her and stepped out of the way for Dax and Shady.

He looked around. They were in the recycling center where all the reusable shipboard waste was sent for reprocessing. It smelled like a combination of melted plasinum and rotting meat being cooked on a barbecue. More than a dozen giant bins filled the place, each one centered beneath a large chute.

“The brig is to the left of this door, one corridor over,” Sierra said, pointing at the only exit. “There’s no way to get into the brig through the ventilation system without triggering the alarms. They’ve got the place rigged with both electronic and bio sensors. There probably won’t be any guards in the corridor, but there will be at the entrance to the brig around the corner. Two is standard, but I can’t guarantee that’s all there will be. Either way, we’ve got to take them out before they hit the alarm.”

Tricky, Jeth thought. But doable. He was already running through scenarios, drawing on the many jobs he’d pulled with the Shades.

“We’ll need to do it quiet like,” Dax said, and he withdrew a Luke 357 from his shoulder holster. It was outfitted with a silencer.

Jeth swallowed. He didn’t like the idea of killing, ITA soldiers or not.

“No killing,” Sierra said, her voice firm. “Enough people have died because of Renford.”

Dax rolled his eyes. “They don’t make silencers for stunners, sweetheart.”

“I don’t care,” Sierra said.

“Oh, this is just great,” said Shady. “You spent all that time planning how to get us in here and nobody bothered to think about how we’re gonna take out the bad guys?”

A flush blossomed in Sierra’s cheeks.

“Normally,” said Dax, his nostrils flaring, “it doesn’t require any planning. You just take them out the old-fashioned way.”

“I said no.” Sierra’s face was completely red now, but Jeth could tell she wasn’t going to back down.

“I’m with her,” Jeth said. “We shouldn’t kill unless we have to.”

“Okay, Captain,” Dax said, his tone dry. “Then how do you suggest we get in to rescue your sister?”

Jeth looked around, searching for an answer. He spotted a row of safety suits hanging on the far wall behind Dax. They were the kind that a maintenance worker might put on when cleaning up something nasty or dangerous. An idea unfurled in his mind. Sierra wasn’t going to like it, but he was pretty sure it would work.

“Let me see the schematics,” Jeth said, holding out his hand to Sierra. She gave him the tablet. He studied it for a couple of moments, then handed it back. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Five minutes later, Jeth and Sierra stepped out of the room into the corridor beyond, both of them wearing safety suits. When Jeth saw the corridor was empty, he waved at Dax and Shady to come out. They emerged, both in suits too, but with guns drawn.

Sierra fingered the collar of her suit. “Are you sure this will work?”

Jeth smacked his lips. “Yep, we need them to think we belong on this ship just long enough to get the drop on them.”

She frowned, still unconvinced.

Jeth smirked, the expression at odds with the nervous energy pulsing through him. “Celeste and I pull this con all the time. Trust me. It’ll work.”

He didn’t wait for a response but headed left down the corridor toward an adjacent hallway. He stopped just before the turn into the brig corridor. He sensed Sierra standing behind him. If she was unhappy about the next part of the plan, she hadn’t complained about it so far, which he was grateful for. Truth be told, he wasn’t thrilled with what was coming next either, but it was the only way to take down the guards without killing them.

Dax and Shady got in position, one on each side of the corridor and as close to the edge as possible without being seen.

Jeth looked at Sierra. “Are you ready?”

She nodded, blinking nervously.

He squelched his own nervousness. “Make it look good.”

“You too.”

Jeth grinned with more bravado than he truly felt. “Always do.”

He stepped toward her, cupping her face with both hands as he leaned down to kiss her. At the same time, he pushed her back into the other corridor, assuming the aggressive role that Celeste normally took. To his surprise, kissing her wasn’t difficult. He hadn’t forgotten the last time they’d done this. It had been pretty wonderful up until she’d shot him.

Sierra resisted him a moment, her body as rigid as metal and her mouth like velvet-covered stone. Jeth’s heartbeat doubled in alarm. This isn’t going to work.

But a second later, she began to kiss him back. Her lips slid open against his, and he breathed her in, savoring the sweet scent and taste of her. Her body softened as she wrapped her arms around his waist. A sudden swell of desire, stronger than any he remembered, rose up in Jeth, muddling his thoughts. He dropped his hands from Sierra’s face and gripped her hips, pulling her even closer. She leaned into him in response, head tilting farther back.

“What are you doing down there?” a voice shouted at them.

Jeth ignored it, unable to open his eyes, even to survey how many of them there were. For the moment, he didn’t care. It was as if his body had risen up in mutiny against his brain.