Gaius stiffend in fear but his face looked resolved. Junebug recognized the expression from the faces of rookie troopers about to run a gauntlet of enemy fire. The man clearly figured that so long as he held firm and survived he would be victorious. That didn’t stop him from being afraid, but he probably didn’t think Aiden would kill him out of hand. It as poor judgment indeed if the senator thought Aiden was even the second biggest threat in the room right now.

“Taya, can you pull up holocam footage from the security system?” Junebug asked as an idea crawled into her mind. Taya made a vexed sound from her monitor, artfully experessing how limited she judged Junebugs understanding of technical matters.

“Yes, but there are thousands of cameras in the palace, even sorting by confernce rooms or something it could take…”

“Can you back track from this stiff’s arrival, I’m willing to bet he came from wherever they were holed up.” The speculation as immediately borne out by a look of panic on Gaius’ face. Taya spun back to the console and began furiously tapping buttons. It would take her a minute or so but using the sophisticated holo editing software it was at least possible.

“Did you know that they were going to kill my father,” Aiden asked quietly. Gaius stiffened at the question and cast a sidelong look at the prince, his face becoming a mask of false disgust.

“You mean did I know that YOU were going to kill your father” the senator mocked.  Aiden’s eyes blazed with fury and he took a step closer to Gaius. The man must have known Aiden as a gentleman, or else his contempt for the prince overmastered his reason.

“For generation we have made do licking your family’s boots for what scraps you give us, well from now on its going to be different, Alexander was so desperate that his handsome big brother not ascend to the throne ‘he’ was destined for. We wil supplant him within a year. I think we proved that your family is just as mortal as the rest of us when we killed dear old dad…”

Aiden made a growl of inarticulate rage and lunged at the seator. Junebug realised to late he was going for a pistol and leaped for the prince. Aiden smashed the butt of the weapon into the old man's nose with a sickening crunch that sent him staggering back. The big pistol went off just as Junebug grabbed Aiden’s arm. The boom was deafening in the high ceilinged chamber. Gaius screamed and pitched back against a wall, clutching his hip where blood welled between his fingers.

“You idiot!” Junebug snapped as she pulled the pistol from the prince’s hand.

“He killed my father, I have every right…” The palace alarm began to sound, a high warbling sound.

“You had the right?!” She pointed her assault rifle at the moaning senator offhanded and squeezed the trigger. A half dozen rounds stuttered out, jerking the man spasmodically and spraying blood and brain matter against one of the expensively polished walls.

“Who gives a fuck about your rights? Now the whole fucking palace knows we are here!” she snarled, thrusting the pistol back into Aiden’s hand and springing for the door to the patio. It as securely locked barring retreat to the air car, not that it would have been a great option with the anti-air defences alerted. She put three rounds into the reinforced glass, resulting in little more than a scratch.

“Looks like the only way out is through,” she said, her voice growing calmer as her options narrowed and there was nothing left to do but actually act.

“Taya feed as the route as you decode it, Neil, lets go,” she commanded, leaping over the remains of the senator and racing deeper into the palace.