Smugger's Virtue (Lathos Galaxy Chronicles Book 2) Read Free Page B

immediately reverse that position and give Matt all the information he needed to sneak in and get her back?
    That information even included a way to approach the general’s ship without being detected. It seemed that Lathonian engine design created a rather large plasma exhaust. It wouldn’t be enough to have any effect on a large ship, but a smaller one the size of Matt’s could slip into that exhaust and fly right up to the ship without being noticed. Then he just had to find a way into the landing bay, locate Xandra, get her back to his ship, and leave without being discovered.
    Okay, so maybe Ilyea Kurt didn’t actually provide Matt all the information he needed, but he had provided enough to at least make it possible. The rest would be up to Matt, and he felt confident he at least had a chance to pull it off. As he approached the ship, Matt felt that old familiar rush.
    Every smuggling job he had ever done involved an element of stealth and an element of the unknown. To have a chance to pull it off, much less be as proficient at it as Matt had become over the years, you had to not only be able to operate under those conditions, but also be able to thrive while doing so. For that to happen, you really had to enjoy what you were doing, and Matt always did. The adrenaline rush was enough to mask the pain in his ribs and head and give him the focus he needed.
    The first trick was entering the exhaust stream. He had to fly in rapidly enough to avoid detection and then decelerate rapidly enough to not fly right back out of the stream and be seen. It took a steady hand and nerves of steel. Without hesitation Matt angled his ship to enter the plasma trail as abruptly as possible. Once inside, he threw his throttle back instantly and cut the engine. The ship made a violent lurch and Matt had to fight to stay in the pilot’s seat, but the maneuver was a success. He fired his thrusters just enough to keep him steady in the plasma stream being expelled from the Lathonian engine.
    Ilyea’s information didn’t include a schematic of the Lathonian ship, but the landing bay was easy enough to find. It was on the ship’s aft side, only a few meters from where he was currently hiding. A quick scan told him that there was no attendant on duty at that time, so all Matt had to do was find a way to lower the energy shield for a few seconds so he could glide right in unnoticed.
    Since there was no reason for the Lathonian crew to believe there was any sort of threat, their defensive shields were down. The bay was protected by an energy shield designed to keep space debris from finding its way in and, of course, to keep someone from doing what Matt was about to attempt. He figured that an electromagnetic pulse would disrupt the field just long enough to get beyond it. He quickly reconfigured his com system to send the EMP and pointed his craft towards the landing bay. He held his breath as he approached. Even though no alarms were sounding, Matt knew he wouldn’t be entirely comfortable until he had cleared the energy shield. Once he did, he exhaled and landed. As he thought, the disruption was only momentary, and the shield was back in place before he could set his ship down.
    When he exited, Matt was greeted with the sound of alarms going off. Fearing that he had been found out, he flattened himself against the bulkhead and made his way as quickly as possible to the computer terminal. When he did, he found out that the alarm was in response to the EMP and the damage to the shield. There was no indication that Matt had been discovered, and seconds later the alarm stopped.
    Unfortunately, there was not much else that Matt was able to learn. He could tell that live support was functioning, that environmental controls were operating at optimal levels, and that the door to the landing bay was unlocked. Everything beyond that required some sort of passcode to access, and Matt had no idea what it might be. The problem with that was that the