Trial and Temptation (Mandrake Company) by Ruby Lionsdrake Page B

would be.”
    Gregor continued on without comment. Val crawled after him, careful not to let the rifle bump again. She hadn’t heard anyone walking or talking in the rooms they passed yet, but there would probably be guards in the hall near the generator room, as well as in the room itself.
    After a few more minutes of travel, Gregor stopped at a new vent. He peered between the slats for a long moment. Val itched to see for herself, but there wasn’t room for two people side-by-side in the duct. Eventually, he looked over his shoulder at her, held a finger to his lips, then pantomimed for her to stay there. He crawled away, disappearing into the darkness around a bend.
    Val inched forward. She peered through the vent to a dirty tile floor smashed with wads of old gray gum and had to drop to her belly to get a view of anything more interesting. She was straight across from the green base of a big piece of equipment. That generator? Had it been green? She tried to remember what the camera had shown them, but it had only displayed the room for a couple of seconds before it had been shot down. Ah, there was a chair—and a human leg—at the edge of her view. It was the generator room. Her duct must be on the side wall, perpendicular to the one with the double doors. They and the table full of men would be to her left, the way Gregor had gone. The admiral, if he hadn’t been moved, would be to her right, at the back of the room. Was Gregor trying to find another entry point closer to the guards? How were they going to push through the grates covering these vents, anyway? They were screwed to the wall with the screw heads facing the room. Gregor might be strong enough to throw an elbow and break through, but she was afraid she would only hurt herself—and make noise. It would be hard to find any leverage in the tight space.
    “How much longer?” a man asked from the table. Val couldn’t see the speaker, or anything except the one person’s leg, bland khaki pants and brown boots.
    “… think twenty minutes,” someone answered. The machinery across the room was humming, and Val had to lean her ear close to the vent to hear the second man’s words.
    “Good. I’m tired of sitting down here, especially now that we’re getting visitors.”
    “I’m tired of drugging an old man every couple of hours. What if his heart gives out and he dies?”
    “He’s not that old. He’s around sixty, isn’t he?”
    “That’s old. And you didn’t answer? What if he dies? We might not get paid.”
    “We’ll get paid. The Orenkans were probably just going to shoot him anyway.”
    His comrade grunted.
    Intent on listening to the men outside, Val didn’t notice Gregor making his way back to her until his face was only a few inches from hers. She twitched in surprise but kept her head from banging on the duct ceiling. A good thing, because the men at the table probably would have heard that.
    Gregor pointed at her ear, then crept closer. She knew he had whispering orders in mind, not kissing or nuzzling, but a flutter of anticipation stirred in her gut, nonetheless. Not the time for that… Val turned her ear toward him.
    “There’s another vent near that table,” he murmured, his breath warm on her cheek. “I’m going to break out of it and attack them. While they’re distracted, I want you to break through this one and go to the admiral. I think he’s unconscious, so you won’t be able to drag him back here, but at least try to drag him behind the generator and cover him until the fight is over.”
    Val grabbed his arm before he could pull away. She leaned close and whispered, “You’re going to fight a bunch of armed men with a canister of gas? That’s crazy.”
    “I would prefer a more elegant—and less dangerous—solution, but if the admiral is due to be picked up in twenty minutes, I don’t see that there’s time to hunt for better weapons.”
    He tried to pull back, but she didn’t let him go.
    “Wait,” she