Free Special Forces 01 by Honor Raconteur Page B

information they’ve already got and how much they can get before we jam their systems.” Rys would also have to figure out how to condense all of this into a report that he could forward on. “Before you dig back in, give me a better idea of how much intel we have. How many systems did you hack?”
    “Well, I hacked four systems…” Gremlin turned in his seat to give the rest of his hacking companions a quick look. “Boyce did three that I know of, right? So that’s seven, and you did two, and you did two, and you had that merchie vessel that was such a pain in the arse, and you were trying to crack the Embassy—”
    The Bijordan Intel officer winced. “Never got in, either.”
    Gremlin waved this aside. “I’ll take a look at it after this. So I think we only got to look at about a dozen systems altogether, sir.”
    “A dozen…” Rys repeated slowly, rubbing at his chin. “Now I understand why you want to look at another hundred before you make any judgment calls. How many hacking parties before you think you can give solid intel?”
    Gremlin was struggling not to show it, but underneath his somber face, his inner child was jumping up and down with glee. “Quite a few, sir. It’s hard to estimate it right now.”
    Rys absently hoped that Gremlin’s foster parents didn’t have any plans that involved their den in the upcoming months. He doubted they would manage to wrest it from Gremlin’s control now that the young computer genius had managed to sink his claws into it.
    “So really, the rest of us are back to a waiting pattern until we have sufficient intel?” Aaron summed up, a slightly disgruntled look on his face.
    Gremlin gave a helpless shrug. “Sorry, sir. We just stumbled across this situation two hours ago.”
    “Alright, the rest of us are going to go back to observing traffic flow patterns of the Novans and learning how to blend better with Bijordan’s culture while we wait,” Rys directed to the group in general. “Feel free to visit places, gentlemen. The more familiar we are with the planet’s surface, the better off we’ll be.”
    Rys sent up a prayer that nothing serious would happen while they tried to figure everything out.
     

Chapter Six
     
    By the time the next weekend rolled around, Rys decided that meeting Anne was a gift straight from the Guardians themselves. She was very polite, extremely knowledgeable about her culture, and perfectly willing to explain anything he didn’t understand. Besides being the soul of patience, she didn’t make him feel foolish asking questions, and seemed genuinely happy and comfortable spending time with him.
    Rys returned home from school that Friday determined to somehow acquire pertinent advice. He needed to know how to go about making permanent friends with teenage girls. Who did he need to tap for such information? Sara would probably know, but asking her would raise more questions than he was willing to answer at this time.
    How about asking other teenage girls?
    Now there was a thought.
    Determined, he went on a hunting expedition.
    It wasn’t difficult locating Cecilia and Cynthia. All he had to do was follow the sound of stereo giggling. They were generally pretty happy girls — one of the reasons why he liked being around them. It was hard to remain gloomy when in their company. He knocked on their open bedroom door, just to get their attention.
    They had been bent over a pair of textbooks as they sat back to back, obviously doing homework, but looked up at his knock.
    “Arystair!” Cecilia smiled up at him, revealing a set of dimples. “Did you—”
    “—need something?” Cynthia finished curiously.
    I am just never going to get used to that. “I was hoping you could give me some advice,” he answered uncertainly. “Am I interrupting?”
    “No, we don’t want to do this anyway,” Cynthia assured him.
    “Come in and tell us what’s up,” Cecilia invited.
    It had been pounded into Rys’s head that it was not