The Two Towers by Jamie A. Waters Page B

expect to find much since it looked like some sort of office building. I ended up locating a false wall that hadn’t collapsed. The room behind it had been mostly cleared out and trashed, but I found a safe in the floor.”
    She twirled the scotch in the glass and took a sip before continuing. “The data cube was in there along with a bunch of journals that looked like lab records. I took the cube, along with the journals, and went back to ground.”
    Veridian nodded and added, “One of Ramiro’s crew used to come by to visit Kayla. He’s the one who told us the sector was clear. When he saw our bikes that day, he stopped by to see her.”
    Kayla shot Veridian a warning glance. There were some things she wasn't willing to discuss. “It was piss poor timing. He saw my bag and called it in to Ramiro. A few minutes later, there was a freaking party in our tent. Ramiro demanded the cube, and I refused. It got pretty ugly. Vex broke Veridian’s arm and Ramiro took the cube from me.”
    She paused for a moment before continuing the story. “After we got Veridian back to camp, I worked on a program to send false data readings to the UV Guard at Ramiro’s camp. I drove out the next day by myself and told Ramiro I had reconsidered his offer. He took me into his office and I activated the program. When the alarm went off, he left me to go check the equipment. I broke into his safe, took my data cube back, and ran.”
    “Holy shit,” Cruncher muttered.
    Kayla took another sip. “I knew Ramiro would be hunting me down, so I drove straight to Warig’s camp. I told him I found it in a cleared sector and he bought it on the spot for forty thousand credits.”
    Xantham let out a low whistle. “Damn, girl, that’s a lot of credits.”
    Kayla shrugged. It was strange how some things seemed so important at the time. “It was fine until Ramiro found out I sold it to Warig. He flipped out and told Warig I had stolen it from him. Both traders blacklisted Leo’s camp on the spot. Leo was pretty pissed off about it, but the forty thousand credits helped smooth things over. He decided it would be a good idea to get out of the area. So we picked up and moved closer to Henkel and Carl.”
    “So that’s why you came this direction,” Carl mused. “You first popped up on our radar about a year ago, right after that incident happened.”
    “Yeah, well, it’s not like we had a whole lot of choice.” Kayla finished her drink and pushed away from the table. “So, thanks for the drink and the entertainment, but I think it’s time for us to head out. Come on, V.”
    Kayla dropped the cold pack on the table and avoided looking at the faces around her. She knew she'd see a mix of emotions on them, some with awe and others with pity. She’d seen it before and wasn't any more prepared to deal with it now.
    Veridian moved to stand beside her, offering her the opportunity to retreat without further conversation. With a smile, he took control of the conversation at the table and gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. She tossed him a grateful look.
    Barely registering Veridian's voice saying his good-byes, she headed toward the exit and nearly ran into Carl leaning against the wall by the door. When she met his eyes, he gave her a small smile and a brief nod. Her face flushed at the approval in his expression. Turning away, she hurried out the door, wanting to leave and rebuild her emotional shields before they collapsed.

 

Chapter Four
     
    A few days later, Kayla was back underground. Against Veridian’s advice, she snuck out of camp and headed back to the ruins. Veridian grudgingly followed her, unwilling to let her scavenge alone. She knew he was apprehensive about making Leo angry.
    In Kayla’s opinion, she'd stayed above ground for a few days, which was more than reasonable. Sitting in camp made her stir-crazy and she found herself snapping at people left and right. She figured Leo wouldn’t be all that upset at her leaving. In