The Edge

Adoette: Part Ten

The device Frogger had left behind in Solo Industries HQ gave them a backdoor to their systems. Once they were in, everyone was designed a different chunk of information to farm. Adoette was on shipping manifests. She was fine with that. It gave her a good chance to start looking for Cassandra, even if she couldn't focus on that exclusively. She tried to at least skim the information, but even with her reading speed, it was difficult. They had to get in, download everything, and get out. Adding her own objectives on top of that was a lot of work.

The room was quiet, tense. There wasn't much in the way of conversation. On the plus side, she was used to that kind of vibe.

"You guys can go if you want. I think I'm good here," Adoette managed to say when Helen stopped by to check on her. "At least, no one's tried to stab me yet. That's always a good sign."

Helen was clearly exhausted, but she shook her head. "Actually, Arian's gone out to the dance floor and Gideon is keeping an eye on him. I just wanted to see if you needed anything."

"Maybe a snack if they have anything. I've mostly been drinking sodas." That wasn't completely unusual for her, but she knew she shouldn't. Bad for her teeth, for one. "Have you checked in with the ship yet?"

"Yeah, everything is okay back there. They're a bit worried about us, though."

"That's what happens when you we leave the worriers behind." Adoette smiled slightly as she kept typing. "They'll be fine. We'll all be fine."

She hoped so, at least.

What shocked Adoette was the sheer amount of files these people had, and the crazy ways they were organized. They probably didn't need to encrypt everything as much as they had—the subfolders upon subfolders upon subfolders and strange labeling techniques were almost keeping her as busy as the actual security systems they had in place.

Probably not their intent, though. I bet that's just because of some anal-retentive boss who's really particular about information storage. She'd seen more than her fair share of setups like that. It was truly bizarre.

As they kept digging, she noticed a trend in the kind of companies they were shipping for. There were a lot of companies with generic names that sounded like companies-within-companies that, if traced back far enough, would lead either to a mysterious dead end or some business/criminal entity looking to cover their tracks. All of it painted a picture of a group Adoette would not want to work for, which lead her to once again question why in the hell her sister was.

Seriously, Cass, what gives? What are you thinking?

Adoette tried a second time to tell the others they could go back, but they refused. Even when Arian danced himself into sleepiness and dozed off in a corner, they stayed with her. They were probably worried that she'd get stabbed in the back if they left her alone for too long. That was sweet and all, but Adoette wished they would trust her a little bit. I'm not the one in this family who's been stabbed. It's actually Arian and Gideon who've been stabbed, so, y'know...maybe worry more about them.

But she didn't say that out loud. Instead, she kept digging. After some time, a person walked into the room—tall, as retro-futuristic in her dress as the bar outside their room, purple hair, intense eyes, weirdly familiar in a way Adoette couldn't put her finger on. "Lights out in thirty," she said to the room. "And wifi will be off, too, so wrap up whatever it is you're up to."

"We're almost done," said Pandora absentmindedly. As Adoette glanced between the two of them, she realized why the tall woman looked familiar: she and Pandora looked a lot alike. Maybe they were sisters. Pandora had been pretty quick to agree about the importance of family. "Don't have to be such a hardass about it."

Oh, yeah, definitely sisters.

"Well, I am being a hardass about it." The woman gave Adoette a long look, probably recognizing her as the outsider, and asked, "So, is the shifter with you?"

Shifter? Oh, yeah. Arian. "Yeah, don't worry. He's harmless. We can put him on a leash if that'll make you feel better," Adoette replied. Arian was definitely still asleep; otherwise, he would've heard that and been really indignant. "He won't cause problems. Scout's honor."

She'd never been a scout of any kind, but the woman didn't seem to care. She just sighed and walked to the door. "Half an hour," she repeated before leaving.

They were done in twenty minutes, so they had that going for them. Adoette even had time to get the information relevant to her tucked away on a thumb drive. "Thanks for the help," Pandora said. "You plan on sticking around town? It looks like you do good work. We could use more help taking these people down."

"I'd think about it usually, but we've really got to find my sister. Like I said, family first."

"Understandable." Pandora patted Adoette on the shoulder. "I hope you find her."

"Thanks. I hope you guys bring these assholes down."

"Thanks. Maybe I'll see you around sometime?"

"Maybe. That'd be nice." She actually kind of meant that. They were a bit legally iffy, but also pretty damn cool.

Frogger was half-asleep at his computer as they left, but just enough to give her a high five. "Thanks for the invite," she told him.

He responded with a sleepy thumbs up and a small smile.

Adoette could relate; it didn't hit her until they were outside the building, but she was wiped. "Well, that was fun," she said.

"They seem to be really into fashion for people who sit at a computer all the time," Gideon noted. He was carrying the still-sleeping Arian over his shoulders as if he were a sack of potatoes, not even breaking a sweat under their brother's weight. Arian was probably the second-lightest of the bunch, but it was still a pretty impressive feat. "What's up with that?"

"Aesthetic is all any of us really have, in the end. Might as well embrace that." Adoette yawned. "I know going through this information is super important, but can I take a twenty minute nap first?"

"Just twenty minutes?" Helen said worriedly. "Doe, you've been up for hours."

"Well, we're on a time crunch. I can sleep on the flight t the next planet." Any chance she had to save time was a chance she was going to take. "This wouldn't be the craziest amount of sleep deprivation I've ever had."

"I don't think I want to hear about that," Helen said with a sigh. "But yeah, okay. Take twenty. Should I start going through all of it?"

"If you want, but it's a lot." It wouldn't hurt to get a head start, sure, and Adoette didn't doubt her sister's ability to actually sift through the information. But it was a lot. Solo Industries seemed to really enjoy using independent contractors and working for as many people as possible. "And don't you think you should sleep, too?"

Helen looked for a moment like she was going to argue, but fortunately she relented. Adoette was glad; she was right, and Helen knew it, but Adoette knew that there was no way she'd be able to talk her sister into taking her advice. Nothing sucked worse than a roundabout argument with no winner. "We'll both take twenty," Helen said, "and then work on it together."

"Fine by me."

They made it back to the ship safely. When they arrived, the others were bundled up in Luca's bed, his projector showing the menu screen for a movie. They must've fallen asleep while watching. It was pretty adorable. They were so fast asleep that they didn't notice the rest of them dropping off Arian and then continuing on to their own rooms.

Adoette was just able to get an alarm set before she fell into her bed and dropped off to sleep.

Her last thought before she went under completely was, I hope that alarm is enough to wake me. She had a sister to find. Real sleep would have to wait.

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(Author's Note: This story was cross-posted from singlequantumevent.com. If you'd like to see more stories like this one, including ongoing stories and ones that haven't been posted to WattPad yet, check out the site! )