Proxy: An Avalon Novella by Mindee Arnett Page B

He preferred more of a challenge.
    Jeth glanced at his watch, which he’d made sure to set to Kordan time. Five minutes to go. He lowered his hand, trying to ignore his growing restlessness. He felt an urge to do something wild and stupid, just to make things more interesting. Like maybe walk through the security terminal around the corner right now and set off the spaceport alarms. That might put a little fun into this snoozefest.
    But no. He couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t . There was too much at stake.
    He looked back at Celeste and saw a knowing glint in her eye. Her sensual smile had turned mischievous. She was thinking the same thing he was, evidently. This was one of the reasons they worked so well together. Also one of the reasons they’d had so many close calls in the past.
    Celeste raised her hand to her neck, pushing back her hairas she casually placed an index finger on the communicator patch hidden behind her ear.
    Understanding what she intended to do, Jeth shook his head. Somewhere, not far from here, Lizzie was supposed to be hacking into the security system to disable the alarms at the nearby terminal, allowing them access to the Montrose . Celeste wanted to see if she was done early.
    “Only take a second,” Celeste said.
    “No.” There was always the chance the communication could be intercepted. And even if Lizzie had finished ahead of schedule, deviating from the timeline was not an option. He and the other four Shades had carefully planned and coordinated their movements. They’d studied the flight plans for hours, making sure there were no departures or arrivals scheduled at the terminal during the time they would make their move. They’d double-checked that the Montrose ’s small crew had all booked rooms in one of the nearby hotels for the night.
    “Oh, come on,” Celeste whispered, wrinkling her nose.
    Jeth shook his head again, even as that restless feeling prodded him once more to give in. He might’ve been willing to risk it if someone besides Lizzie had been running tech on this job.
    A defiant look came over Celeste’s face, her finger hovering over the communicator. “Liz isn’t a baby.”
    Jeth shook his head a third time.
    Celeste dropped her hand to her side. “You are such a killjoy.”
    Turning on the charm, Jeth winked at her. “That’s whyI’m the boss, sweetheart.” Besides , he thought, it’s not worth risking the money . The job might be easy, but the pay was still good. From the outside, the Montrose appeared to be a common cargo ship, but on the inside it contained a brand-new metadrive, a device that would allow a ship to make a metaspace jump independent of the ITA-manned gates. A metadrive couldn’t take you as far in a single jump as a gate, but the anonymity it afforded outweighed those drawbacks. That kind of freedom made the drives especially valuable to Hammer’s customers, who were the type of people unlikely to pass the background check required to secure a licensed metadrive from the ITA.
    Jeth leaned toward Celeste again. They needed to keep up the farce that they were two teenagers who’d come to this remote corner of the spaceport to get the kind of privacy they couldn’t get at home. She turned her face toward his, playing along. It was convenient how easily adults ignored a romantic interlude between a pair of teenagers. You could hide all kinds of suspicious behavior behind the appearance of recklessness. That attitude had helped Jeth and his crew become one of the most successful gangs of thieves in the galaxy.
    Jeth checked his watch twice more. When it was finally time to go, he scanned the concourse for activity. It remained lifeless, the only movement from the flashing neon sign in the window of a bar across the way.
    He turned back to Celeste and nodded. Grinning, she pulled out a sleeper pill from the front pocket of the snug black pants she wore. She placed the small pill in her mouth,pushing it as far back on her tongue as she could