Chapter 5

Mal squinted through the darkness at the nondescript door before turning to Jayne with skepticism. “You sure this is the right place? Looks just like every other door we’ve passed in the last twenty minutes.”

“Uh-huh, Mal, an’ every other door has a pile of feathers for a gorram welcome mat.”

Mal glanced down to where his mercenary was pointing. “Oh, good point,” he muttered. “Nice trackin’, Jayne.”

“Weren’t trackin’. I followed babies were harder to track than that trail of gunk and feathers were.”

Zoë stepped between the two men, the stone-cold expression on her face hard to see in the blackness, but they didn’t have to see to know it was there. Just standing next to her they could feel the temperature drop a few degrees. “Sir, we gonna go in, or we gonna chat?”

Her tone snapped Mal back to business and he nodded. “We’re goin’ in, but not here. I’m bettin’ on these guys havin’ a back door. Guests use the front door, but after all that time they spent gettin’ to know my pilot today, we ain’t guests. I think we rank an unexpected visit through the back door.”

Jayne hefted Vera up higher on his shoulder and grinned, and Mal knew it was an unspoken nod to how the merc truly felt about the eccentric pilot. He might snarl and sneer at the little man, but he didn’t pull Vera out for just any job.

“Can I do the knockin’, Mal?” he stage whispered, his finger resting near the trigger.

“No blowin’ holes in things and givin’ away our presence before need be, Jayne,” Mal said firmly, moving swiftly around the building as he spoke, the other two following. He glanced back once at Zoë and actually shuddered at the hardness in her eyes. “Besides,” he added quickly, “I think Zoë wants to knock.”

Mal noticed a patch of wall darker than the rest and motioned for the others to be quiet. Silently, they approached. It was roughly seven feet high and four feet wide and made of a darker metal than the surrounding walls.

“Door?” he asked Zoë, tilting his head to get a be