Apex Five: Mech Elite novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Raid

"Don't worry about the girl," Dane's voice went on, easy and fond.

"By the final she'll be a headline. Nobody looks for a disgraced pilot."

"And the key?" Alder's voice asked.

"I've got her pulse on every match log since year one. Give your engineers a week and the Pryce Defense squad runs on it."

"Will she cooperate?"

"She's never said no to me in her life."

Hob stopped the recording.

I was sitting on the floor with my back against the bench, and I did not remember sitting down.

I had said yes to Dane in a thousand small ways for three years.

I had said yes to his dinners, his schedules, his luck ritual, his "just trust me, Wyn."

Ronan crouched in front of me.

He did not touch me.

"Are you all right?"

"No," I said. "Play it again. I want to hear him say headline."

Hob opened his mouth to answer.

An alarm cut him off, shrill and loud, from the roof of the hangar.

Ronan was on his feet in a second.

"Perimeter," he said. "Hob, lights."

The floodlights outside came up white.

On the gate monitor, the dock road was filled with silver frames.

Twelve of them, in rows, with the Pryce crest on every shoulder and a flatbed hauler dragging behind.

A speaker on the lead frame boomed across the yard.

"By order of the League board, the Black Meridian hangar is subject to inspection. All equipment under the Calder claim is to be surrendered to Pryce Dynamics."

"They want my core," I said.

"They want the one thing on that bench that works on your old team," Ronan said. "Get in your frame."

"Old Nail's arm is held on with a prayer."

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