"What do you mean you lost him?"

"Things were a little crazy back there! I thought he was right behind me!"

"I can't believe you! You were supposed to keep him safe!"

I couldn't take it anymore, all of the yelling was making my hives itch. "Enough! Neither of you are helping him by screaming at each other!"

After realizing that the youngest member of our crew was missing, I activated his location beacon. We each had one embedded in our clothes somewhere. Lenna had wanted to put it under our skin but that seemed a little excessive. Now though, I sort of understood it. Clothes could be removed, a device under the skin was a lot harder to remove. Maybe we'd work on that after we got Axon back. The Phoenix was hovering above the planet, cloaked and half-hidden behind a stationary transport ship. The location beacon was a constant blue dot blinking on my screen. The had taken him to the nearest GPF station on Antares.

Lenna shook her head, anger making her cheeks red. "How are we going to get him out of there?The place is probably swarming with GPF." She turned to me, anger replaced with fear in her brown eyes. "It's a trap, you know that, right? They're trying to make us come for him."

I nodded, my eyes glued to the screen in front of me. "Yes, it definitely is a trap. But we're still going back for him." I glanced at Kade as he paced the length of the cockpit, "Right, captain?"

He stopped his pacing to look at me, brows pulled tight. "Of course we are. We just have to be smart about this."

"Good, glad we're on the same page. Because I have a plan."

Hacking into the security cameras of the station had been a little tricky, but nothing I couldn't handle. Getting everyone in on my suicide plan was a little harder. But now we were in the thick of it and there was no turning back. Crouched on the other side of the street from the station, I glanced up at the roof, waiting for the signal. When a flash went off just beside the vent system, I jumped into action.

I tugged at the hem of the uniform jacket that I had stolen off a washing line. It barely fit but it would have to do. If anyone actually asked, I'd have to say it had shrunk in the wash. But as I passed the security desk, tipping the hat on my head just so they couldn't see the purple hair tucked up underneath, I needn't worry. The confiscated badge got me in with no questions asked. I glanced at the time display on my wrist computer. By this time, Kade and Lenna should be through the vent system and on their way to where Axon was likely being held. We had studied the blue prints of the building back on the ship before we arrived planetside. I only hoped we had studied them long enough.

I made a left at the end of the hallway and then a right. The station was like a maze, the prisoner cells in the very center. Every few steps I passed an officer, my heart beat matching their footsteps every time. I wasn't sure how much more anxiety my body could handle when I finally came upon the door I was looking for. The mainframe room.

Every huge corporate building had one these days. A room stock full of mainframes and computers. And a building like a GPF station? Theirs were some of the biggest. They had a whole lot of files and people to keep track of. The badge got me into the door and once it closed behind me I was alone for the first time since entering the building. The silence was eerie, the only sound a low hum from the technology that stood in rows around me.

Deep breath, TJ. You can do this. Walking down the main aisle, I counted mainframes until I came to the one that should hold the prisoner information. I had exactly five minutes to deactivate the security in the prison cells, find and delete Axon's file, and get out of the room before the next round of security checks came through. No big.

The sound of my fingers on the old fashion keyboard filled the room. The counter on my wrist clicking down every second. Finding Axon's file was the easy part - he had just been admitted, it was on the top of the virtual stack. Before I disabled the doors that would - in theory - be separating Axon from the others, I took a steadying breath. This was it. If this was timed wrong or if something had stopped Lenna and Kade from reaching Axon, it was all over. We wouldn't get a second chance. I typed in the code and hit enter.

Not giving myself any time to second guess myself, I quickly covered my tracks and shut down the screen I had been using. Fifty-five seconds remained on my counter. I made a mad dash for the door. When I was a few feet away from it, I saw the retro doorknob turn.

Flattening myself behind one of the mainframes, I held my breath so I could focus on the sound of the security guards entering the room. Two of them, they'd make a round on the perimeter before going down every aisle. I had to get out before they finished the first round.

Footsteps grew louder. They were coming down the sides of the room and were almost to where I was hiding. Counting their steps, I moved around the mainframe to avoid their movement. I counted to three, just to make sure they hadn't seen or heard me, before running for the door. I didn't make a sound as I ran - I made sure of that. My feet barely touched the ground. I'd need a nap after this but that would only be possible if we all got out. Just as easily as I had made sure my feet made no noise, neither did the door as I opened and shut it behind me.

The bright lights of the hallway hurt my eyes but I didn't give them any chance to adjust. As quickly as I could, without looking suspicious, I walked back down the way I had come. Coming around the last corner, my wrist beeped once. The signal - they had Axon! As much as I wanted to be relieved, I couldn't allow myself that luxury yet. I could see the main doors ahead, I just had to get through them.

Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me into a room.

Crystal blue eyes stared at me as a strong arm held me against a wall. My shoulder dug into the cement from the force. I hadn't seen those eyes since I was stupid child.

Kameron was my father's first lieutenant and had been my father's favorite pupil for as long as I could remember. But before that, before Kam had enlisted, he had been my best friend. The only other half-Nakeer child in our city, we had connected instantly. And I hadn't seen his face since I ran away. We stared at each other, neither one of us moving or fighting the other. What was the point? I wouldn't get out of the room if he didn't want me to. And he knew it.

His arm left my chest, the weight lifting making me cough involuntarily. When did he become so strong? Geez.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

I couldn't help but stare dumbly at him. Those were not the words I had been expecting coming out of his mouth. "Uh...sightseeing?"

He groaned, running a hand down his face. Removing the pristine uniform hat from his head, his silver hair fell into his eyes. A very non-military hair cut but then I supposed you could get away with a lot when you were close to my father. His eyes were pained when he looked back at me, "TJ, coming in here? That was stupid, even for you."

"Hey! What the hell does that mean?" I tossed my hands into the air, causing the cap on my head to tilt sideways. A lock of my purple hair fell out.

He pointed to the hair, "That. That's what I mean! Every person in the building knows your face, did you seriously think you'd get out?"

A beep sounded on my wrist. The others were clear. They had made it out of the building. We had officially completed a suicide mission by some insane amount of luck.

Well, they had at least.

"I can't help protect you if you do stupid shit like this!"

My brain short-circuited. My brows pulled so hard on my forehead it hurt. "What? What the he-."

He crossed the few steps between us and put his hand on my shoulder. Squeezing it, hard, he pushed me for the door. "Fix that damn hat and get out. You've got five seconds. Alarms are going to go off after that because a prisoner has just escaped." He pushed my shoulder again, this time turning me to look at him. "Be out those doors before those five seconds are up."

My brain wasn't keeping up. What the hell was he talking about? Why was he helping me? He worked for my father...he was my father's most trusted man. Fortunately, my survival instincts didn't need to understand what was going on. As soon as Kam pushed me out the door, my feet carried me to the main doors. The door was just closing behind me when I heard a shrill alarm fill the air.

Once I was safe across the street, hiding in the shadows, I turned back to the building. I could just make out Kam inside, standing stock still and staring at me. I turned and ran, discarding bits of the uniform as I went.

What the hell had just happened?

A/N

Kam didn't exist until I wrote this chapter. I like Kam.