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“Are you allowed to be here, or should I be running?”
“I’m allowed to be here. Maybe pick up the pace, though. You might have noticed they don’t particularly care about rules here.”
Sebastian duly stepped faster, his new short legs working double time to keep up what would typically be an average pace. “So I did. What did they take from you?”
More hesitation.
“I’m not here to destroy the factory,” Sebastian said, turning the corner and coming to another long passage. If his sense of direction was correct—which it almost always was—this was heading in the direction of the factory, so he took it. “I just need to set it back a bit. It’s making something horrible.”
“It always is.”
“Something they’ll use on people I can’t let them use it on.”
“You mean the Resistance.”
Sebastian stumbled in surprise. Though, to be fair, he’d been close to stumbling in this ungainly body ever since he started walking in it.
“We do get news here, you know.” Sebastian had the feeling the man would have crossed his arms if he’d still had control of them. “Maybe not very timely news, but I know you’re the torvar from the Resistance.”
Sebastian hadn’t realized how far his infamy had spread. He expected to be known by all the Resistance’s enemies and allies, and perhaps even people a degree of separation from them. But by some random factory worker two systems away? He didn’t know how he felt about that.
“You’re right. I am that torvar,” Sebastian admitted, not that the man sounded like he needed any confirmation. “I’m here to sabotage this factory, but not permanently, just enough to buy us some time. I don’t want to hurt you or any other workers here. And if I didn’t care about you, you wouldn’t even be around to be having this conversation.”
“You need my help.”
“I would like your help.” Sebastian paused as he came to a T intersection. “I don’t need it.”
They stood in physical and mental silence as the man mulled, and then Sebastian felt the release of a sigh. “I do usually cheer for the Resistance when we get news stories. Left.”
Sebastian smiled and took the turn. “I’m glad you’re on our side.”
“I didn’t say that. But there’s no love lost between the people here and the damn species states.”
They wound their way through the maze-like town toward the factory. As they got closer, the hallway started to widen, more doors started opening, and they saw more people walking through the corridors, loitering in the open doorways. Most were all as unnaturally thin and short as the man Sebastian was in. Sebastian flashed everyone that made eye contact with him a little smile with a nod and tried to look like he was trying to get somewhere quickly, which he was.
“What’s your name?” Sebastian asked the second time someone looked at him a little longer than one usually looked at a stranger. “If someone calls to you, I need to know it.”
“Noah. Noah Hughs.”
“Are you popular, Noah?”
Bashfulness in the back of Sebastian’s mind. “I mean, I’ve been around for a while. People know me.”
“So yes, then.” Sebastian mentally grimaced. “Try to steer us around your usual haunts.”
“Well, obviously.” Affronted. The barrier between their emotions and consciousness was starting to break down ever so slightly. This was why Sebastian hated wearing people with the people still inside. “I’ve already been doing that. There’s no getting around the market, though.”
Sebastian wanted to stamp his foot, but at least he knew that was purely him and not something this body was accustomed to doing. “Really?”
“Really. You think they let us build this town however we want? Wave at that guy.” Sebastian waved at the sandy-haired man sitting on an old paint bucket whetting a kitchen knife with a pile of knives next to him. “There’s choke points all over the place. In case we riot.”
“You guys do that often?” Sebastian wasn’t judging. He’d been in his fair share of riots. Well, rather, he’d been in more than his fair share.
“Once or twice.” Sebastian’s shoulders twitched to shrug, which was not from Sebastian because he only shrugged with one shoulder. “When we needed it. But anyway. Choke points. Market’s one of them.”
“Well, no way out but through,” Sebastian repeated his usual mission-time mantra.
“We’re almost there.”
