One of my scanners beeped, and I glanced down. “Oh fuck.”
Mia’s hands never stopped moving as she settled into her task. “What is it?”
I debated not telling her the truth for all of ten seconds until she stopped and looked at me. Really looked.
“Kass?”
Fuck. Even through the shielded visor her brown eyes were beautiful. How could I tell her we were about to die?
Mia tilted her head, her gaze narrowing. “Kass, tell me what the hell is happening. Right now.”
I sighed. I loved this woman, could keep nothing from her. “The base’s automated system just sent an alert to Xandrax.”
“Queen Raya’s planet? What does that mean?”
“Four minutes for the signal to get there. Two or three minutes for them to decide to blow this place to pieces. Four minutes for the order to come back.”
Her eyes widened as she did the math. “So, we’re either off this rock or dead in the next ten minutes?”
“At the most.”
“Scheisse.”
Our gazes met, held. “What do you want to do? I can call in for a ride now. Get us out of here.”
Mia didn’t move as she considered our options. “Do it, but I’m not leaving until we do our job. If we don’t take down the shield generator on this base, the entire mission will fail. All those people down there will still be under Raya’s control and the IPBMs will still be a threat. I can’t live with that.”
“Mia, I can’t live without you.” I couldn’t accept this fate for us. Wouldn’t. “I’m calling it in, letting them know we need to lift off in six minutes. If you aren’t finished, I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you onto that shuttle.”
“Six minutes is an eternity.”
“Stop talking and get to work. Six minutes.”
Mia lowered her head and focused on the task of breaking into the moon base’s operational system as I set a timer sequence in my visor. Worst-case scenario, we’d have to run at eight minutes and put as much distance between us and the base as possible, hope the bomb or missile Queen Raya sent to destroy this place was small, and pray the shuttle pilot Group Two sent to retrieve us was good. Really fucking good.
I waited. Impatiently. I trusted my pair bond to do her job. Yet, fuck… the clock was ticking. Two minutes, twenty-seven seconds of silence.
“I’m in.” Mia’s words made my heart speed its pace. Just a little. “Time?”
“Two twenty-seven.”
“Okay. I’ve got this.”
A minute passed.
Another.
“Mia?”
“Don’t talk to me.”
Fuck.
I couldn’t remain silent. “We just hit five minutes.”
“The encryption code is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
“Ninety seconds and we’re out of here.”