Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3) T.E. Bakutis (read my book .txt) 📖

to, once again in the middle of the afternoon. Jan rose eagerly before sitting back down. It was not Hanson.

“Hello, Rafe,” Jan said as cheerily as he could manage. “You’re back early.”

“Yeah,” Rafe said as he sat down on the bed. “We’re done.”

“Done?”

“With prepping for this operation.” Rafe collapsed on his bed and closed his eyes. “I’m knackered, mate. Been running a treadmill for the past few days.”

So the operation Esparza had hinted at during their dinner several days ago must finally be underway. That meant Esparza might be leaving his secret underground bunker, which meant the next few days would be their absolute best time to escape. Now, Jan just had to figure out how to get Rafe to come along.

Or did he? Rafe was happy here. He was trusted. Even if Jan vanished, would the Truthers really turn on him?

Of course the Truthers would blame Rafe for Jan’s disappearance. If Jan got away, Esparza would be a fool to assume Rafe hadn’t been involved. By the time Esparza and his interrogators had definitively concluded otherwise, Rafe wouldn’t be in any state to tell them “I told you so.”

As Jan pondered his options, he noticed something else. Rafe had brought his personal datapad into the room, and he was already wheezing like a half-dead bronto. He was sound asleep, and his datapad was right there on the bed.

The chance to get a look at what the Truthers were up to was tantalizing. If Rafe had trusted access, Jan could likely gain all sorts of useful intelligence. Yet there was also the matter of timing, and the ease of access.

Were Jan Sabato keeping himself in prison, this would be the perfect time — after days of isolation and boredom — to test his loyalty. This would be the perfect time to bait a tempting trap.

Jan had no way to know for certain, but he did know he had no reason to rush. So he lay back, closed his eyes, and waited for the trap to spring.

A loud knock announced dinner, startling Rafe awake. Rafe’s flailing knocked his datapad right off the bed, and Jan winced as it clattered against the biocrete. Plastic cracked audibly.

“Shit!” Rafe picked up his datapad and stared in obvious horror. “I was supposed to check this in!”

Jan tilted his head. “Will you get in trouble?”

A slit opened at the bottom of their door, and a single meal tray slid inside. Jan’s meal. Rafe ate in the cafeteria.

“I don’t know, mate.” Rafe fidgeted nervously, glancing at the closed door and back at Jan. “Think they’ve noticed?”

Jan retrieved his tray, settled back on the bed with the tray on his knees, and speared a bite of tasteless meat with his single plastic fork. “They would be remiss if they have not.”

Rafe hopped up and knocked urgently on the door. “I have to turn this in right away. I, uh, I might be a while.”

“Is it that long a walk?”

“Oh, no, the tech pit is just past the gym.” Rafe grimaced and looked ahead. “But I’m gonna get an ass chewing.”

“I’ll be here,” Jan said, smiling.

The locked door opened more quickly than it should have. It was possible the guard who’d delivered Jan’s dinner had heard Rafe’s pounding and turned around, but it was more possible that there had been guards waiting outside this whole time. Esparza wasn’t half so trusting as he pretended to be.

The soldier outside glanced in again as he left, frowning at Jan. He looked disappointed. He was the same soldier who had been with Hanson when Hanson offered to take Jan for a walk.

Jan smiled and waved.

The soldier backed out, closed the door, and locked it. Jan went back to his meal. It took less than an hour for Rafe to return, and Jan looked up when he entered.

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah,” Rafe said, like he still couldn’t believe it. “I was worried, but they said it was no big deal. It happens.”

“I’m certain it does.”

“Also,” Rafe said, grinning, “you’re going to be on your own for the next few days. Be nice to get some alone time, yeah?”

“Oh?” Jan felt an inkling of dread. “Why’s that?”

“Can’t tell ya,” Rafe said, grinning smugly.

You just did, Jan thought, but he only shook his head. “I hope they don’t work you too hard.” So Rafe was going on whatever operation Esparza had planned, off base.

This might work in Jan’s favor. It wasn’t like Esparza could blame Rafe for Jan’s escape if Rafe wasn’t even here when it happened. Risking Rafe’s safety like that was a risk Jan didn’t like to take, but life was risks he didn’t like to take.

And he did need to get out of this cell.

The next afternoon, Jan Sabato finally got his walk.

Peter Hanson arrived in mid-afternoon, just as he’d promised, as did his scowling guard, still in full riot gear. Jan didn’t have to fake his eagerness to get up and stretch his legs. Even on Tantalus, on a spinning ring high above Ceto, all prisoners had been allowed two hours of exercise a day. Yet the Truthers, as he well knew, were assholes.

“I’m sorry it took so long to get this authorized,” Hanson said again, for the fourth time since they’d emerged from Jan’s cell. Rafe had left this morning.

“It’s fine, Peter,” Jan assured him yet again.

“I kept telling Dr. Cardigan that you were going to go crazy locked up in there, but he said we had orders to keep you isolated.” Hanson offered their armored chaperone some significant side-eye. “You’d know all about that, don’t you?”

Jan’s guard just shook his head.

“Anyway, we can’t go topside,” Hanson said, “but we can take you to the gym.