Fortunato had said that he could predict that things would be unpredictable with Lilliana. That line had been part of his attempt to smooth over his attempt on her life, of course, but that didn’t mean it contained no truth. Lilliana was an expert at throwing wrenches into works and upsetting houses of cards.
That was part of why Fortunato had been drawn to her in the first place… because he was, too.
That was a large part of why she’d eventually fled from him. Nothing went right when the two of them were together.
And that was why she felt a chill watching him slash and blast his way closer and closer. She had a good enough picture of the layout to know that he was closer than her allies. He was also encountering less resistance. He was going to make it there before they did. She turned to face Regan.
“Fortunato’s coming,” she said, as loudly and clearly as she could. “Can you come up with some sort of…”
She trailed off when she realized what Regan was holding. The mechanic had taken the discarded faceplate from the communication board, bent it down the middle until it snapped in two, and then folded and manipulated the two pieces into a pair of sharp edged blades. They were folded over for strength, but with a single protruding jagged edge where the initial break had been. She’d folded the tops over into pointed tips. No one would call the resulting items “swords”, but they were undeniably weapons.
“Get with the program, The Gypsy!” Regan said. “Ya did the first part o’ me cunnin’ plan an’ then ya spaced off watchin’ the pictures.”
Lilliana was pleased to note that she could just make out Regan’s voice beneath the ringing in her ears… absent another sound to focus on, it was hard to tell if it was subsiding or if she was just getting used to it. They’d probably all need to undergo auditory regeneration treatments before they got their full capacity back.
“Regan, can you hear me?” Lilliana said.
“O’ course I can, and anyway, I told ya I can read lips,” Regan said.
“Fortunato’s coming,” Lilliana said. “He’s armed with a blade and electrolaser. The good news is that he’s not armored. The bad news is that he’s less than a minute away from meeting up with his HAVOC goons, who are.”
“So it’ll almost be a fair fight, like,” Regan said. “Good. I was worried there for a minute.”
“I’ve been careful so far about giving away my presence in the system, but when he gets a little nearer, I’m going to throw caution to the wind,” Lilliana said. “But since we know the automated deterrent systems for this room at least are malfunctioning, I don’t know how much harm I’ll be able to throw his way. I don’t think we can count on… well, with him I don’t think we can count on anything, really. But if they get here, you’ll have to take him out quickly.”
“What do ya think I’d be doin’?” Regan asked. “Were ya even listenin’ to the cunning plan?”
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