"I'm not so sure," said Kora, words catching in her throat.
She cleared it.
"Not so sure of what?" said Felicity.
'That I want to be welcomed to the Resistance."
"Spoken like a true smuggler. I've known one or two in my time."
Felicity smiled, but not at Kora, at a memory.
"Let's walk," said Felicity.
And Felicity led the way away from the hut and towards a small ravine where they sat in the shade in soft sand.
"I know you aren't privy to the Resistance or the Cause. But I'm going to be straight with you, Kora. We need you for a smuggling mission. We need you to smuggle something into the District of Praesidio."
Kora's eyebrows went up.
"Yes, The Royal District."
"Cargo?" asked Kora.
"The girl. Scarlet."
Felicity nodded back towards the hut.
"Why?"
"She's a sharpshooter. Sniper. Best I've ever seen. We're going to use her to assassinate Tomás. You haven't heard of him, but I know him all too well. The best sniper on the Authority's payroll. Has taken out my top team members, my friends, and is gunning for me. We have intel he'll be staying in the Royal Palace in a few weeks' time. It's an important mission. He has too much blood on his hands, and he won't stop until someone stops him."
Kora was silent.
"No questions?"
Kora had no questions about the mission. It seemed straightforward, minus the shock of smuggling someone into The Royal District, which she'd thought was impenetrable. Without a clearance, there was no way to gain entry. No in-routes or backdoors. No tricks.
"Why me?" asked Kora.
"Because you have clearance," said Felicity.
"My clearance was stripped when I was arrested."
"It wasn't. We have a man on the inside. Waiting for someone who had clearance to The Royal District. He made sure it wasn't stripped. And then we waited for the right time to break you out of prison."
"Break me out? That makes sense. That's why I'm wanted. I wasn't acquitted, was I?"
"We broke you out."
"The commissioner?"
"An actor. I wanted to explain to you personally."
"You're not hiring me because I'm a smuggler. You're hiring me because of my clearance card?"
"You're a third-rate smuggler, Kora. Not even close to within the vicinity of top-tier. If I had to choose, I would not choose you." A few beats. "How did you even get Royal District clearance?"
Kora didn't answer. Was angry now.
"I don't want to do this," she said.
"You don't have much of a choice, do you?" said Felicity. "You're wanted by the Authority for smuggling and prison break. You have years left on your sentence. I'm assuming you don't want to go back to prison. And I heard you owe money to a past client. If you stay in this province, the Authority will hunt you down.
"The Royal District is two provinces away. The Authority doesn't disseminate warrants that far out. Only for figures like me. They won't know you're wanted out there.
"We're going to pay you one thousand gold coins."
Kora tried to hide her reaction. The biggest contract she'd carried out was ninety gold coins, which had been a rich payday in her estimation. This was beyond what she could imagine.
"Down payment?"
"Fifty coins down."
Kora hated that Felicity was right. She felt like she was being used, because she was. But what could she say? She was in this spot.
With the anger she was feeling, she decided to negotiate.
"I want you to break my friend Alex from prison. I need her on this mission."
"Can't be done. We're running out of time."
"I won't do it without her."
"Sorry, Kora."
"I may need you. But you need me just as well, for my clearance. And this is all going to be for nothing if I don't get Alex."
"If you forfeit your fifty coins down payment, I'll break Alex out for you."
"Fine," Kora responded immediately.
She hadn't realized she cared about Alex so much to drop fifty coins on her.
But there was no way she was leaving Alex in prison.
"I still don't like this," Kora said. "I feel stuck."
A minute went by in silence.
"There is one thing you should know," said Felicity. Then Felicity smiled in Kora's direction. Kora waited. "We broke your ship out of impound. You'll be flying The Ginger Star on this mission."
Kora couldn't help herself.
She smiled wide.
"I'm sorry," said Felicity, "that we broke you out the way we did. Like I said, we need you. And you need us. I hope this can be the start of a great working relationship. So long as you don't die on this mission."
Kora couldn't stop smiling, but—
"The last thing I want is to work for the Resistance. After this mission, I'm done."
Felicity stood. "You'll meet your crew soon."
Felicity started back for the hut.
"I want to form my own crew," said Kora. "Alex and three more."
"Alex and one more and you have a deal."
"Fine."
"One more question," said Kora, "if we're going to the Royal Palace, why not just assassinate the Supreme Leader himself?"
"That's impossible."
Then they reached the hut.
Scarlet and TJ exited.
Felicity shook their hands.
Then addressed the three of them: "Scarlet is in charge of the mission and the crew." Kora didn't like that. "I wish you all the best. Get into the Royal District and come back unscathed. Should be easy enough." But she was being clearly sarcastic. She looked to Kora. "I'm counting on you."
And with a wink, Felicity took a few steps backwards, took an equalizer from her belt and aimed at her ship, which was about thirty yards overhead now.
Pulling the trigger, the equalizer gun, by manipulating the polarity of the planet, pulled her upwards. FAST. She flew up to the ship and slowed as she neared it, by releasing the trigger on the gun. Felicity caught onto a bar with one arm and hung there, attaching the equalizer back to her belt with her free hand. Then she climbed through a hatch into the plane.
The plane blasted away, stirring up some dust around their knees.
Kora looked to TJ. "You're on the team, then?"
"I'm the cook," he said with a genuine smile.
Then he went back into the hut.
"And you're the cargo," she said to Scarlet. "Sharpshooter."
Scarlet nodded.
"Were you the one who killed the bounty hunter in Torch Town?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
But for some reason Kora didn't believe her.
Had a weird feeling.
"Congratulations," said Scarlet. "You're with the Resistance."
Kora was watching Scarlet's eyes, somehow knew that she was hiding something.
"I'm not with the Resistance. I'm doing this for the money. Hell, if the Authority hired me, I'd take the job."
"You really don't believe in the Cause?"
"Do you?"
Scarlet didn't answer, only looked away.
Kora watched Felicity's plane streak across the sky and out of sight.