Kayla stared at the monitor in amazement. The security system in Carl’s base was more sophisticated than she’d first guessed. Numerous, seemingly independent layers actually overlapped each other to create a complex web.

Her fingers flew across the screen. Fascinated by the intricacies of the design, she shifted through yet another layer and admired the way it aligned with its predecessor. She pulled up another monitor to line up the two layers side by side. There were definitely some security holes, but she could fix them.

Marking off the vulnerable areas, she shifted the screen to pull up the next layer. She would work on reinforcing those areas once she had them mapped out, but she wanted to see what she was up against first.

Cruncher leaned over her shoulder. “What was wrong with that last one?”

She pulled the previous layer back up and pointed to the areas she had isolated. “You’ve got some holes in your system, pal. It’s leaking like a sieve.”

“Shit, you’re right.”

“It’s not that bad. This is actually a sweet system. Who designed it?”

“OmniLab, but I made a few tweaks. Unfortunately, Ramiro’s security is similar. He’ll be familiar with the ins and outs.”

Kayla’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Oh, really?”

Cruncher nodded. “Yeah. The system was designed to protect against ruin rats and other troublemakers. Traders don’t usually go up against traders.”

Kayla pulled out her commlink and scrolled through her files. “I had to analyze Ramiro’s system when I scouted his base a year ago. I didn’t bother with his security system because it would have taken way too long, but I did play around with the maintenance and monitoring systems. They weren’t well protected.”

“What are you saying?”

“You can circumvent the security by going through the maintenance and monitoring systems. Your security system isn’t linked to everything. We need to fix that.”

Kayla located the file she was looking for and uploaded it. She displayed the code on the screen. “I can make a few changes to this and link them together. I’ll essentially add another layer, rather than modifying the existing ones. I still need to plug those other holes, but this is a pretty big threat.”

Shock and disbelief came over Cruncher’s face as he looked through the complex code. “You wrote this?”

She looked at the screen, trying to see it from his point of view. It was decent, but nothing spectacular. “Yeah. It’s a little sloppy. I didn’t think I’d have much reason to use it again, but I didn’t want to get rid of it.”

Cruncher let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Why do you even bother going into the pits, girl? You’re a natural tech.”

She wrinkled her nose. It might be okay for some people, but she prided herself on her ability to recover artifacts and wouldn’t change that for anything. The tech stuff was more of a hobby. “No way. I belong in the ruins.”

Cruncher shook his head. “Most techs I’ve seen can’t work this level of technology.”

She shrugged and finished modifying the code. Linking it to the security system, she fashioned another layer of security over the existing ones.

“I’ll need to polish this up a bit later, but it’ll provide some basic coverage for the time being. I need to go stretch my legs or something though. I’ve been sitting here too long.”

“Yeah, go ahead.” He waved her off with a nod. “Do you mind if I check out your code some more?”

“Not at all.” Kayla rubbed the back of her neck, trying to stretch out the kinks, and headed toward the practice room. She was hoping Elyot was around so she could work on some locks with him. Engrossed with the idea she might be able to talk him into making a small wager, she nearly bumped into Lisia and Jinx just inside the room.

Lisia glared at her. Jinx glanced at her friend before giving Kayla a hesitant smile. “Hey, Kayla. What’s up?”

“Sorry if I interrupted something. I was actually looking for Elyot. He wanted to work on some locks with me.”

“Carl wasn’t enough for you?” Lisia asked coldly. “Now you’re planning on moving in on Elyot too?”

“Whoa there, kitten,” Kayla said in surprise. “You might want to sheathe those claws before you get hurt.”

Lisia turned to Jinx. “I’ll talk to you later. I have things to do.” Without another glance at Kayla, she walked out of the room.

“Sorry about that,” Jinx apologized, shifting her weight uncomfortably. “I hope you don’t judge Lisia too harshly over it. She’s a good person, she’s… well, she’s got it pretty bad for Carl.”

Kayla tried to keep her expression neutral. She wouldn’t normally be interested in camp gossip, but given her own interest in Carl, she couldn’t help herself. “Carl mentioned they had been involved.”

Jinx nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty stupid of Carl. He started trying to recruit Elyot about a year ago. Elyot was interested in joining up but didn’t want to leave his sister behind. They went back and forth about it for a while. Lisia isn’t a scavenger, and we weren’t looking for more techs. They eventually came to some sort of agreement and Elyot signed up.”

Kayla’s eyes widened, surprised at the news. “Lisia is Elyot’s sister?”

“Yeah, I thought you knew.”

When Kayla shook her head, Jinx shrugged. “Well, when Elyot brought her here, Lisia sort of developed this hero-worship mentality about Carl. You know how some ruin rats are around traders. I think he was flattered at first and thought it was cute when Lisia would trail him. But it got a little intense. He screwed up and ended up fooling around with her. Carl immediately regretted it and tried to call things off with her.”

Kayla knew exactly what she was talking about. She’d seen quite a few ruin rats fall all over themselves in an effort to get into a trader’s good graces. She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in Carl that he’d gone along with it. At least he realized his mistake and tried to put a stop to it though. “Did that cause problems with Elyot?”

“Yeah, some. After Carl told her he wasn’t interested, she freaked out and was pretty miserable around here for awhile. But after a few weeks, it started getting a bit better. Then, when Carl started telling Xantham and Cruncher to track your movements, she lost it again.”

Kayla frowned. “How long was he tracking me?”

Jinx grinned. “The past few months. We’d all heard about you. Carl was wondering if you’d be a good fit for the team. He had Xantham hack into your comms a few times, but you kept finding out. That impressed the hell outta both Carl and Xantham. Most scavengers don’t have a lot of tech skills. But then he had Cruncher manually install a sniffer directly into Leo’s system a few weeks back, figuring you didn’t handle the system comms. It was pretty risky, but he didn’t think you’d find that one.”

Kayla swallowed, not sure how she felt about the news. She knew Carl had been watching Leo’s camp, but she didn’t realize she was the reason. It seemed Leo was right; she wasn’t good at staying under the radar. “We found it. But not until a few days ago.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. Pretty awesome work routing it to that awful sound clip.”

Kayla shrugged and managed a small smile. “Not really. It looked like it had been on there for weeks. Our techs didn’t catch it.”

Jinx nodded, looking proud. “Xantham designed it. He’s good at what he does. Carl had him capture your transmissions. He started tracking your movements and Leo’s financials. When he realized how much you were scavenging right under his nose, he decided to be more aggressive in recruiting you.”

“But why is Lisia upset if I was just a potential recruit? She’s had a problem with me since I met her.”

Jinx was thoughtful for a moment. “At first, I think it was because Carl was focused on something other than her. But then she overheard Cruncher and Carl talking about the run-in they had with you over at Sector Twelve. Cruncher made some comment about how you were the most skilled ruin rat he had ever seen, and Carl told him you were also the best-looking one. It pissed Lisia off.”

“Look,” Jinx continued. “We’re a small crew. You can’t sneeze in here without someone knowing the color of your snot. It sounds like the boss is probably into you. You seem like you can handle yourself, so play him or not, it’s up to you. You know the risks. I hope you don’t judge Lisia too harshly. She’s normally a sweet girl, just a little confused.”

Kayla nodded. “I get it. Thanks.”

Jinx gave her a dismissive wave and turned back to her equipment. “No problem. If you’re looking for Elyot, I think he’s either in the comm room or the crew’s quarters.”

Still mulling over her conversation with Jinx, Kayla headed back toward the communications room. Carl and Xantham were leaning over the desk studying some readouts on a monitor. Xantham had an earpiece on but lowered it when she entered the room.

“Damn, girl, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”

“That she is,” Carl agreed, his eyes warming. He stepped away from Xantham and motioned for Kayla to come closer. “We’re still monitoring Ramiro’s chatter.”

“Oh?” She moved to peek over Xantham’s shoulder.

Xantham tapped on the screen. “Yeah. He’s been trying to get into our system for the past two days. He hasn’t been able to do it yet, but he’s persistent. I imagine he’s pretty pissed off about it.”

Carl nodded. “Xantham’s been doing an excellent job at keeping him out.”

“Shit, Boss,” he said, grinning at Carl’s compliment. “I could do this with my eyes closed.”

Although Kayla was appreciative of their efforts, she felt a pang of guilt at being the one responsible for the heightened security. Although, she reasoned, it was Carl’s fault for contacting OmniLab. If he’d left things alone, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Xantham didn’t have anything to do with it, though, and she didn’t like having anyone else take care of her problems. “Anything I can do to help?”

Carl shook his head. “Xantham has this under control. But I still need to speak with you in my office if you have a few minutes.”

Kayla gave a half-hearted shrug. There were worse things than being alone with a gorgeous specimen of a man.