Mina stared at the girl who was now cowering behind him, now having realized that her big mouth meant five different kinds of guns were pointed at her, at them.

“Please, Mina, she’s just a girl,” Gurminder pleaded, if to at least survive this himself at this point. “She’s not threat to the clans or any of the actions that are going to be taken. She’s not lying. She fricken hates this place, hates that she was dragged her and does not want to help the Corps or MarSec. She doesn’t have to die!”

Mina clicked to a private channel, put a hand up to keep her trigger happy goons at bay at least for the moment.

“What about you?” she asked. “This was really stupid, Gurminder. Why didn’t you tell her to keep her mouth shut? Those were about the stupidest things she could have said.”

“I did,” he told her. “The whole journey here. Didn’t seem to sink in. What can I say, she’s a newer.  You know they have shit for brains.”

Mina narrowed her gaze, and then nodded.

He let out a relieved breath.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “Hopefully we can come up with some reason to keep her alive. Not sure I can say the same thing about you.”

His heart stopped before seeing that she had offered him a brief smirk. Maybe their throw together hadn’t been that disappointing for her after all.

She clicked back to the open circuit and turned to address her gunmen.

“Sosh,” Mina said, motioning to the man now lowering his weapon, “Put her in with the other kids. We’ll figure out what to do with her later. She’s probably worth something alive.”

Soshnikov’s flinty face reorganized into a full on scowl. He clicked to a private channel. Whatever went on between the two was clearly a row, given that Mina was yelling at him only after a few seconds. Gurminder kept a hold of Tory’s arm, tight, that only relaxed when the tall man nodded and responded to Mina’s gesticulated order.

He did not look happy at all, but he holstered the gun, and motioned for the girl to follow him. Tory glared at Gurminder.

He stepped up to her, cut the radio, leaned his helmet against hers, wanting to make sure that they didn’t need to use a private channel, that no one could listen in on them. She made to pull away, but he grabbed her by the shoulders, stared into her glare.

“Please don’t make things worse by opening you’re mouth again,” he warned her. “I’m going to try to get you out of here. Okay? I might even be able to get you to Elysium, or close enough for you to get there. Understand? Just go with him and do what you are told. We’ll talk later. Just do what frick you are told. They won’t hurt you if you don’t. Please.”

Her stubborn expression softened.

“You’re on my side, right?” she wanted to know.

“I am,” he told her. “But please stay on mine, huh? I want to stay alive as much as you do.  And you do, right?”

She nodded but didn’t look happy. Gurminder let out a breath of relief, then watched her get hauled by the big man towards a nearby hatch.

Mina stepped up to him as he watched. She clicked a private channel.

 “One might suspect you’ve known that shorty for more than just a few hours,” she said.

He turned to her, trying to look sincere.

“I didn’t plan for this,” he told her. “I just don’t like the idea of killing kids, even newer ones.”

“What makes you think she’s a child,” she told him, raising an eyebrow. “They’re all like that, short, no matter how old they are.”

“Oh, she acts her age,” he told her. “As you saw from that shitshow.”

Mina chuckled, and then turned to the important stuff.

“The Chin are sending help,” Mina she told him. “They insisted. Their offer was accepted. Out of my hands.”

 “You asked for a thief,” he told her. “And you want to saddle him with psychos?”

It was her turn to scowl.

“Your status does not grant you any say in the matter,” she told him in a harder tone. “Now help check and unload your cargo. It has to be moved out quickly.”

“What do the Chin have that you don’t have here?” Gurminder asked, ignoring her order.

“They say they have insurance,” she told him, then started walking towards the Admin entrance. “The negotiation was between their leader and my father. Not my decision. But I’d rather they get killed by bullets meant for you if it comes to it. I’m not quite finished with you yet, hon. This will be taken care of. That’s what the clan demands.”

“Well at least our clans will be taken care of when we’re all dead, then,” he offered sarcastically at her backside.

Mina offered him a scowl that turned to a smirk as she headed back towards The Hole’s command center. She did have quite a backside. He hoped he’d get the chance to see it naked again, at least one more time before she got him killed.