Binard had been at this for hours when he heard a small click from the door. Don’t panic, don’t panic. He looked at the door with wide eyes as though he had never seen a door open before.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Shreya. Oh, thank goodn—

“Just what do you think you’re doing in here? Who permitted you to be in here? Show me your security clearance.” Shreya barked at him then he saw her face turn from mad and demanding to outrageous disbelief.

“You! I know you! You’re Tor’s new assistant aren’t you!”

Crap. How did she know that?

“I saw you in the background last time I talked with Tor, and before that, weren’t you the assistant to Governor Gelbert?”

How did she remember me? She's never said a word to me the entire time I've been going to the meetings, as far as I knew she didn’t even know I existed.

“I might be…” Binard got up and quickly shut the door behind her and grabbed a chair for her to sit down in. “How did you find me?”

“Are you serious? You did something to my personal dox file. It alerted me and showed me where the breach was coming from.” Shreya hesitantly sat down.

“Oh, smart.” Binard sat back impressed. “It usually takes a special code to get that detailed of an alarm rigged on a dox file. My software didn’t even hesitate…”

“Don’t patronize me. What are you doing here? Where’s Tor?” Shreya looked like she couldn't decide between leaving and shouting down the hallways or sitting down and actually getting answers.

“Oh yeah, he’s not here and I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you what I’m doing.” Binard smiled at her. The two of them sitting in opposite chairs with the security cameras playing in the background.

“Well, I really don’t think you’re supposed to get caught doing whatever it is you’re doing, so unless you tell me right now I’m going to call security.” Shreya sat up straighter in her chair.

“Good point.” He sat back and considered for a moment. I have to tell her something believable, Tor doesn’t trust her fully anymore. If I lie and get caught it’s all over. I’m a terrible liar, I’m so screwed.

“Ok, Shreya, I know you don’t like Tor right now and I’m totally fine with that. He’s kind of a jerk but his articles on the Wilea dump site saved my sister’s life so I owe him mine. I’m going to trust you because I think you know that we’re actually on the same side." He paused to see her reaction. She didn't move from the chair and Binard took that as a good sign and kept going.

"We want to find out where the air shortage is coming from and how to fix it. If all the credit goes to you, I’m fine with that because this affects everyone’s sisters and brothers. If we can save even some of them it will be worth it.”

Big breath. “We believe the proof that Varnusha is illegally shorting the air supply is in his records and I’m copying them to this hard drive so we can check it out later, because he’s placed you in charge we thought you might have files that aren’t being published which is why your dox file was touched.” He stared into her eyes and watched the gears in her mind turn.

“I knew you guys were going to be investigating this, but I never thought Tor would go to such big measures to get his hands on this information.” Her lips pursed and she knit her brow. “Before I trust you to continue, where is Tor now?”

“He is looking for an inventory or stock list at warehouse 223. We saw how big it is and how well secured it is and figured they were guarding something.”

Tor is going to kill me.

“He went by himself?” she asked skeptically.

“Not particularly…” he said.

“He took his spies with him didn’t he?” she sat back in her chair. “He always uses his spies. Tor has a very specific rule of not going places himself because he stands out too much. Did he know my bodyguards are going there today too? They’ll catch him before he even gets to the door. If he had just told me!” She threw her hands up in the air and Binard worried she was going to go alert someone.

“To be fair he did try to tell you. Also, I wouldn’t worry about your bodyguards catching him.” Binard laughed in spite of himself and smiled at Shreya for the second time tonight.

What is wrong with me?

“Don’t laugh at me! We hired some of the best bodyguards I’ve ever met.” Shreya looked like she was about to blow a gasket, but Binard couldn't help himself but laugh more.

“You absolutely did.” Binard agreed which seemed to infuriate her even more.

“Don’t agree with me!" She barked.

"Yes ma'am," Binard said stifling another laugh.

"You're just as bad as Tor! What game are you playing?" she broke and half-heartedly pushed him in his chair and despite herself gave him a half-smile in return.

"No game! I swear it. Your smart, take a second and think about why I wouldn't be nervous about your bodyguards." Binard sat back and relaxed while Shreya considered what he said.

It finally dawned on her, “Of course. They're one and the same aren't they?." She deflated in the seat and hit her head with her hand.

"He let you meet them first?” The question came out with a whisper and all the fun they were previously having dissipated.

“Yea, he took me to their house where we came up with the plan.” He tried to match her lower tones but was confused why she was so sad.

“He must trust you a lot. In the nine years of working with Tor, he didn’t even tell me their names.” A tear slid down her cheek and Binard shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

He hadn’t even thought about Tor trusting him to meet them. “I don’t know if he trusted me more Shreya, I think he was just desperate to make sure you would be ok and he needed another set of hands. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

He leaned over and took her hands, and looked at her now tear-stained cheeks, “You brought out the best in Tor, everyone who met him knows that. He chose you, and got stuck with me.” She smiled a bit and they both laughed.

“Well of all the people to get stuck with, you don’t seem too bad." She wiped her face and tried to regain some composure. "Thank you for trusting me with the truth. It's more than Tor ever did.”

She gave him a small smile and Binard realized he was looking a little bit too intently into her eyes. He coughed and let go of her hands and they both sat up a little straighter. He checked his code and realized his computer had stopped at a file named Warehouse 223.

He opened the file and started skimming through it. He wasn’t as fast at reading as Tor was, but after working for government officials for years he had almost perfected the art of skimming through documents.

“Hey Shreya, what do you know about these ingredients?” She looked over his shoulder and read for a minute.

She smells like the fresh wind after a storm. Get it together Binard!

“Looks like regular cargo stuff that miners would use, it’s not so weird, the gas fields present a lot of problems for the trucks and they often have to use explosives to clear roadways or paths.” She shrugged it off.

“This seems like a lot for just clearing roadways. I’m calling Maks.” He reached for his holo when something cold and hard-pressed against the back of his head.

“I don’t think that will be necessary Binard.” Pletaro had come from nowhere in a fraction of a second and while Binard had never had a gun pointed at the back of his head he could still tell that moving would be a bad idea.

“Pletaro, what are you doing? This man is helping my research on the air shortage, I’ve sanctioned his work here.” Shreya stood up and was obviously much better at lying than Binard was.

“Oh, my dear Shreya. When will you learn I know all your secrets? Do you think you’re the only one with an alarm on their documents? I’ve been here since before you waltzed in.” Shreya started blushing instantly.

Crap. He knew everything. I shouldn’t have said a word. I should’ve just done what Tor wanted me to do.

“You see, unlike you Shreya, I’m more than just my good looks. Taking advantage of the poor boy with your coy smiles. Tsk tsk tsk…" He stood up all the way, keeping the gun pressed firmly against Binard's head.

"I will say it worked much better than the torture I had planned for him. Although now the jig is up, perhaps torture will give me even more information." Two beef head guards opened the door. “Take them both to the cells, I need them alive but not necessarily well.”

As they were muscled out of the room Binard saw another bodyguard outside the door "Sir, why wasn't I called? Your life could have been in danger. I am your chief personal security officer." The bodyguard was trying to whisper to Pletaro but was clearly furious. The beef head holding onto Binard pushed him away and down the hallway.

"You answer to me Francisco," Pletaro answered the other guard, "not the other way around. I knew this boy couldn't hurt a fly even if he wanted to. He almost made himself late to his own espionage to help a cripple on the street today. That type of man isn't a killer. These two can handle them."

Binard watched as Pletaro and the guard stood arguing in the hallway, "Since you are here, you may follow me to my next appointment." Francisco fell in step behind Pletaro and the two of them went the opposite direction.

Keisha had been searching for Anj for several hours before finally finding her on the outer ring. "Anj, I've been looking for you everywhere. Why didn't you answer your holo?" Keisha asked.

Andromeda looked over at her and just shrugged half-heartedly. "I didn't want to be found." She turned back to the window she had been looking out of. The hallway of the outer ring was dark and empty.

The view out of the window looked upon the dual star system. The two giant stars held close with the tension of gravity but spaced apart enough to allow for a small dense planet to race around them. The two of them stared out the window at the approaching stars in silence for a while.

"What's wrong, Anj?" Keisha asked. She turned to her friend and realized she hadn't seen her crazy genuine smile in months.

Andromeda ignored her and kept staring out the window. "I know something is going on Anj. We need to talk about it." Keisha watched Andromeda's stone face. Andromeda rarely showed her feelings unless they were happy ones. It was one of the perks of being viewed through a computer animation of yourself.

Keisha took a big breath, "Anj, I think we need to come up with a plan for you to retire. The stress of being permanently on duty with the computers--"

"What do you mean retire?" Andromeda looked at her sharply. "I can't retire. You'll kill me." Keisha unconsciously backed away, Andromeda had never looked at her like that in the whole 25 years she had known her.

"Anj, being connected to the Pytheas is killing you. I was thinking after we do our last check-in on Henear we can take some time and get you disconnected. We have a lot of new recruits--"

"You aren't listening to me." Andromeda grew louder, "You will kill me if you unplug me. This is not a decision you get to make. Vee is out there looking for us and you want to get rid of the only chance we have to save everyone from her."

"Vee?" Keisha asked. "Is that Andromeda the fifth?"

"Of course it is. Haven't you been listening to anything I say?" Andromeda was shouting and several outer ring workers were coming to see what the commotion was. "She is coming and she has the other Keisha and Zayd and you, you what? Want to ignore them? Think they'll just go away?"

"No, I... Anj, will you please calm down? I'm trying to help you." Keisha was trying not to yell herself.

"Trying to help me? By Killing ME?" Andromeda grew her image to be taking up the whole hallway. Her hair and face darkened. "You have no idea what's coming and if you try to take me offline there will be casualties." Andromeda suddenly snapped off and was gone leaving Keisha and the few workers in the dark of the outer ring.