Free Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) by James S.A. Corey Page B

on foot. Losing that data has the security forces throwing a quiet seizure, and everything they know is right there for the taking.”
    Han smirked. “Unless another bunch of amateurs gets to it before you.”
    â€œNot likely. It’s on a physically isolated deck in the Imperial Intelligence Service Center. It’s encrypted with Galassian’s personal cipher. And they have a constant audit routine that sounds the alarm if anyone so much as makes a copy.”
    â€œWell, that’s too bad then, sister,” Han said. “Because I wasn’t hired on to have the security service blow my brains out. I was supposed to get in, get you, and get out. And that’s what I plan to do.”
    â€œWell then, sister, you’ll have to wait until I’m done. I’ve spent too long on this to walk away.”
    â€œBrother. If I call you sister, you call me brother, see, because—”
    â€œCZ? Let’s see the layout.”
    â€œOf course, ma’am,” the droid said, and five layers of architectural schematics appeared floating above the sheets. The lines glowed in crisp blue.Scarlet reached into the display. “The first problem is getting into the building at all. The intelligence services control the eightieth and eighty-first floors, but there are access ways on seventy and seventy-three. No one gets into the complex without authorization.”
    â€œWhich you don’t have,” Han said.Scarlet pulled a card from her pocket and tossed it through the projection to him. Her face looked out from identification for Choya Sebastiao, environmental technician third class. “I was thinking I’d make you my apprentice, but if you’re the guard acting as escort, that’s probably better. CZ? Can we arrange that?”
    â€œThe card is already being programmed, ma’am. I took the liberty of capturing sir’s image when he arrived.”
    â€œSpiffy.”
    â€œHey!” Han said.
    â€œOnce we’re in, we make our way here,” Scarlet said, tracing her finger through the tiny, glowing corridors. A pathway of soft green followed where she traced. “It’s the probe and sensor encoding regulatory council annex. Still part of the intelligence services, but lower security. We’ll need to watch for security droids here and here.” Two blobs of dull orange appeared in the schematic. “And there are regular patrols that take this path. And this.” Two orange pathways appeared, intersecting the green. Tiny orange dots tracked along them, marking the positions of the guards in time.
    â€œThis is a terrible plan,” Han said.
    â€œThere’s a cable conduit access here.” The green pathway wormed up through the floors. “It carries the main trunk cables from the transmission towers on the roof to the processing levels down in the forties. Bad place to slip and fall, but it’ll get us up to the intelligence service center. We’ll need to cut our way through.”
    â€œBecause no one will notice that.”
    â€œI have decking tape,” she said. “I’ve got a high-strength grapnel line that will get us up the vertical parts, and that will get us here.” A tiny point of brilliant red appeared on the map, very close to the end of the green pathway.
    â€œWhere everything will be open and easy, and no one will get hurt,” Han said.
    â€œWhere I can use the passcodes and identity records I got while I was working with Galassian to get access and drop a copy of the report to a memory chip.” Scarlet’s mouth twisted into a tiny smile that was as much regret as amusement. Han looked at the little crimson dot, but the glow didn’t give him anything that would explain her expression.
    â€œAll right,” he said. “And then what?”
    â€œAnd then every alarm on the planet goes off, and we leave very, very quickly.”
    â€œLet’s go back to my last points,