Apex Five: Mech Elite novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: Cockpit Only, Again
Hob took the recorder out to the yard and smashed it with a sledgehammer.
Then he went to bed, because he said he was fifty-two and not made of stone.
The Black Meridian crew went with him, one by one, and the hangar lights clicked down until only the bench lamp was left.
I stood at the foot of the black frame's ladder with my arms crossed.
Ronan stood at the top of it.
He had been working on the frame's bent shoulder for three hours, and his shirt was stuck to his back.
"You should sleep," he said.
"You should say it again."
"Say what?"
"What you said on camera."
He climbed down one rung.
"I said a lot of things."
"The bed. The week."
"Wynne."
"You said it to forty news cameras and then you didn't touch me for a whole day."
His jaw moved.
"It's a rule."
"It's a stupid rule."
"I wrote it so I wouldn't do this."
"Do what?"
He came down the rest of the ladder.
He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could feel the heat coming off his arms.
"You were right in the hangar," he said, low. "I regret it. I regret every night I've lain in that office listening to you breathe on the other side of a wall."
I looked up at him.
"Then break it."
"It says the cockpit."
"So take me to the cockpit."
I thought he would laugh.
He did not.
He took my hand, the burned one, very carefully, and turned it over and kissed the middle of my palm.
Then he led me up the ladder.
The black frame's cockpit was smaller than I expected, a worn seat in the middle, a dead cradle hanging overhead, and a hatch that closed behind us with a soft hiss.
The lamp light came through the glass in a thin gold line.
He sat down in the pilot seat.
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