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Sebastian stared at him for a moment, his eyes so open and vulnerable and his lips shaking. Then he swallowed, sniffed, nodded, and pushed Leon lightly back again. He turned around and surreptitiously wiped his eyes with one hand while waving the other flippantly. “Good, because I need someone to pretend to be my supervisor. Or rather”—he dug around in his pocket and pulled out an ID card, glancing at it—“Carey Hartle’s supervisor.”
Leon smiled at him with his heart feeling too full of fondness for his own chest, then looked away to start checking the bodies for anything useful. “You have a plan then?”
“‘Plan’ is a strong word, but I have some ideas.” Sebastian looped his arms under the shoulders of the guard he’d killed and started dragging him behind a particularly full shelf that was shielding Sebastian’s old body from view. Leon felt a twinge of unease to see the body he’d slept with last night empty and vacant. “I’ll grab a maintenance ship and start flying up there. When they ask who I am—”
“You think they’ll ask before or after they shoot?” Leon tore off his kill’s shirt to wipe up some of the blood Sebastian had smeared all over the floor.
“Hm, good point.” Sebastian dragged the guard Leon had killed over to where he had dropped the other bodies and squished them all into place as best as he could. “Okay, I’ll hail once I get into range and tell them I was sent to make sure their ship is ready for the burn down to Northern Tava. They’ll have to go fast to avoid the Resistance guns if the secret got out, and they don’t want to be blowing an engine with that cargo.”
“Would they expect a random mechanic to know what sort of cargo they were carrying?” Leon surveyed their handiwork and deemed it good enough that a passing guard wouldn’t look in the window and immediately raise the alarm.
“Maybe not.” Sebastian shrugged and hopped up on a tool bench. “I’ll just imply that I know it’s volatile. It’s why I was sent up, after all.”
Leon nodded. “And then they’ll call down to verify your story.”
“And you’ll answer and tell them that it’s all gotten the proper approvals from all the proper people through all the proper channels, blah-blah-blah.”
“And I’ll make sure this factory doesn’t go into high alert and blow your cover.” Leon circled a finger to encompass the compound they were hunkered down in.
“That’s the idea.” Sebastian hopped off the tool bench and put his hands on his hips, but then he made a face. “I do sort of wish you’d brought some backup.”
Leon let out a bark of laughter. “Why? You think I can’t do infiltration all by myself?”
“Well.” Sebastian’s sheepish look made Leon laugh again. “I mean, I always do it. Even before you were in charge, you didn’t usually—oh shut up, never mind.”
Leon chuckled one more time and then shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. Just get up to that ship and back down in one piece.”
“That’s the plan.” Sebastian went to the window and peeked outside it. “I already know which maintenance ship I’m taking.”
“One more thing.” Leon pulled the box of earpieces out of his pocket and held one out to Sebastian. “Don’t disappear on me again.”
Sebastian winced and popped the earpiece into place. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Leon popped his own into his ear.
“I just didn’t know if I’d be able to keep going if I had to hear you ordering me back.”
“I know.” Leon put the box back in his pocket. “I’m the one that should be sorry. And I am. But we can talk about that once this is all over.”
“Right.” Sebastian nodded crisply—all business and purpose and competence—and Leon felt a surge of attraction. God, the man was good at his job. “You see that panel of windows up there?”
Leon looked out the window and followed the line of Sebastian’s finger up to a series of five windows that looked out over the ship park. “Yeah.”
“That’s the control room for the factory’s hangars.”
“So that’s where I need to be.”
“Exactly. I’m going to take that ship.” Sebastian moved his finger to point at a sturdy, unassuming maintenance ship parked right next to the start of the runway. “I should be able to get to it and start it up without being seen, but I need you to make sure the control room is empty so that no one sounds the alarm when one of their ships starts to take off in the middle of the night.”
“Consider it done.”
“That’s also where the Turner ship will likely call down to, so you need to be available to take their call.” Sebastian continued sweeping his finger around to all the different things that could be seen from that vantage point. “You’ll also need to keep people out of it, so they don’t see our ships out past the fence. And now that I think of it, you’ll be in a good spot to know if anyone’s about to stumble on our little kill room and—”
“Sebastian.” Leon quieted him with a hand on his shoulder. “Consider it done.”
Sebastian huffed sheepishly. “Sorry. You know, I’m suddenly realizing I might have trust issues during a mission. I almost never have a partner.”
Leon squeezed his shoulder just once before letting it go. “You can trust me.”
