She let out a sharp breath through her nose. “This is not our concern.”
“What?” He gaped, wide-eyed. He literally could not believe those words had just come out of her mouth.
Rake’s eyes sharpened into an impatient glare. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re in a bit of a life-and-death situation out here at the moment. We need to confirm all the Drudgers aboard Kharon have been eliminated, get the gate operational, and get everyone safely back to Legion HQ. And that’s it.”
“Really?” he said, unable to temper the incredulity in his tone. “We’ve got Drudgers at the Divide, armed with weird maps and instructions from real, live, breathing Viators? And it’s not our concern? Isn’t this your—” He stopped and took a deep breath, letting the panic in his voice subside. “Isn’t this our whole point? As Sentinels? What if another round of Viators has come? From wherever they came to start with?”
She shook her head. “After thousands of years?”
“Well, they were all dead as of five years ago! You should know—the Resurgence? Paxus? That was all you.”
Her jaw clenched, then she reached out and grabbed the strange pyramid-shaped device. “We’ll take this back to Mesa and see what she thinks.” She shoved it into his chest, lifting a finger to point at him, then narrowed her eyes. “But don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”
He nodded fervently and a cool tingle of relief washed through him. She’d found a sliver of her sanity back, at least. “Yes, sir.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Adequin stayed a few steps ahead of Cavalon as they marched their way back to the other side of the gate in silence. She turned the oddly warm artifact over in her hands, studying each of the four facets for some indication of how to activate its displays, but found nothing.
When they arrived at the port-side control room, Jackin stood hunched over his terminal, frantically typing in commands. Mesa and Puck hovered on either side of him, staring down at the screens in anxious anticipation. Puck’s fingers twitched against the grip of his holstered pistol.
Adequin walked up behind them and cleared her throat.
Jackin jumped, turning to face her. “Void, Rake, where’ve you been?” He let out a sharp breath. “The mainframe just popped back up a second ago. A ship’s docked starboard—”
“We know,” Adequin said. “We took care of it.”
Jackin looked her up and down, eyeing the blood splattered across her uniform. His gaze slid to Cavalon. “We?”
Cavalon frowned grumpily, but said nothing.
“Yes, we,” Adequin said. “Puck?”
“Sir?”
“Get a team together to do a quick sweep of the Drudgers’ ship. Confirm they’ve all been eliminated. There’s twenty more somewhere; let’s make sure they’re not here. Then get the ship docked on this side and do a full search, including inventory. I want to know what they’re up to.”
“Copy, sir.” Puck activated his nexus and began summoning other soldiers.
Jackin stared at the red scab running down Adequin’s left arm. “What happened?”
She held up a finger, then turned to Mesa and passed her the pyramid. The Savant took it with a raised eyebrow. Adequin opened her mouth to explain, but got cut short by pretty much the last noise she ever expected to hear: a voice crackling over the gate’s comms.
“Khar—this—is—”
Jackin froze, hands floating over the display. He gaped down at it in disbelief, like if he bumped it, he might lose the connection forever.
A tingling warmth radiated through Adequin’s limbs. Rebooting the mainframe and comms had actually worked? This was a long-overdue miracle.