I ended up with my fingertips touching the door, and pain echoing up and down my body, but I’d kept a hold of the Blazer, even as I hit the ground and ended up lying on the arm that held it. I tried rolling, but the armor had locked up good, so I cussed it out and wriggled until I got to my side and could bring the Blazer up.
Trouble was, by the time I did that, I was looking down the barrels of four Blazers, and some joker had his foot on my hip, while another had his foot on my knee. Well, shiiit.
I stared down those barrels, and carefully opened my hand, splaying my fingers so they were well away from the trigger. I wanted to say something to defuse the situation, but from the looks on these guys’ faces it was better if I stayed quiet. And still. Very, very still.
I took in the face above me, and froze, fixing my gaze on his, and willing him to see just how very much I wanted to live. The gentle pressure of the Blazer’s muzzle against my forehead was not an improvement, but that still didn’t mean I needed Tens’s voice in my head.
“Easy, Cutter.”
Responding, even via implant, would have taken more concentration than I had, so I concentrated on the big guy’s face, and hoped like Hell he didn’t pull the trigger. As if in answer, he crouched in front of me and took the gun from my hand, handing it back to one of the others.
“Who are you?”
I blinked, and he bounced the muzzle against my forehead.
“Who. Are. You?”
“Cutter,” I told him. “Jocelyn Cutter.”
Like that would mean anything to him, anyway. To my surprise, it did.
“From the Shady Marie?”
I swallowed, trying to wet my mouth.
“Yes.”
He grinned. “There’s one helluva bounty on your head.”
I closed my eyes and let the tension drain out of my body, sagging back onto the floor. I could only hope the bounty was bigger if they brought me in alive. I felt the bottom of the muzzle tap me on the top of the head.
“Hey! You still there?”
Well, that deserved an answer, but I didn’t bother opening my eyes.
“Like you’d care.”
“Stars, yes, I care. We get triple if we bring you in alive and in good condition.”
Well, that was good to know. I opened my eyes to watch him lift the Blazer away, and took a breath. That was half the battle. Glancing beyond the guy crouching beside me, I saw there were still two Blazers trained on my head, their wielders standing well out of grab range. With a sigh, I took to studying the man before me.
Grey eyes looked back from a narrow weather-beaten face, and his full lips curved into a satisfied smile.
“You don’t know me,” he said, “but we serve Barangail. Our task is to secure this station; you are just an added bonus.”
His words made me wonder if Barangail would honor the bounty, but what his man said next dispelled my doubt.
“We’re hired for a task, and our contract ensures bounties are paid as promised.”
He reached out, the smile fading from his face, as he patted my shoulder with a heavy-gloved hand.
“First, we need to secure you where you can’t get up to any mischief.”
Uh oh.
I watched as his hand curled into a fist, one he cocked to his shoulder, even as I tried to scramble out of its way. It didn’t help that his smile grew wider, and it wasn’t much of an improvement when there was a deafening boom, and his shoulder exploded. I yelped, and tried to wriggle away, but he glanced down at where his arm had fallen, and then pitched forward.
Above him came the rattle of weapons being raised, followed by the scream of flechettes tearing through the air. I’d managed to tilt my head back enough to see what came next, and really wished I hadn’t. Heads vanished in a shock of vapor, chests exploded, gouting blood, and men fell without ever uttering a sound.
Fan-fucking-tastic! I thought. What the fuck have I stepped into, now?
I figured it was better to close my eyes, and lie as still as the bodies falling around me. That way I’d either go unnoticed, or I wouldn’t have to watch it come.
“Really, Cutter?” Case’s voice was never more welcome, even if her words weren’t. “I never figured you for gutless.”
I cracked an eyelid... or I tried, but my lashes were stuck together and a film of filth was covering my face. I remembered red mist, flying chunks of grey matter, and other fluids, and felt the sudden need to wipe it off... except that that Barangail’s man was pinning my hands. Panic flared but I kept my mouth firmly closed. Whatever was filmed over my face, I didn’t want to taste any of it.
“Stay still,” came in Stepyan’s gruff tones, and I froze, drawing a sharp breath when a large hand wrapped itself around the back of my head, using my hair as an anchor point.
The weight of Barangail’s soldier was dragged clear, eliciting curses when he groaned. I heard chatter in the background, followed by a familiar flash of silver light, but the damp cloth that scoured my face distracted me from what it might mean. It was a good thing that Stepyan didn’t hold it in one place, but wiped gently and firmly until my skin could breathe again.
I opened my eyes the second I could, and breathed a sigh of relief. Catching the harsh angles of Stepyan’s face above me, I sucked another breath and registered the piercing darkness of his gaze. Heat colored my cheeks, but I refused to look away. He and Case could call me as gutless as they liked, but I had as much guts as either of them.
“There’s my girl.”
I looked towards Mack’s voice and he stepped into view, the look on his face somewhere between consternation and relief.
“I thought I told you not to get yourself shot.”
I scowled, and tried to push Stepyan off me. He shifted his grip out of my hair and down to my bicep, lifting me to my feet when the armor wouldn’t respond.
“Didn’t,” I muttered, and Stepyan snorted.
Mack raised an eyebrow.
“You sure, girl? Because I can see a couple of dents that weren’t there when we ported over.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Tens cut in.
“Mack, you got company coming up the stalk. You wanta lock down that cable before Steps and Case decide to really fuck things up by making it inoperational?”
“I’ll make you inoperational,” Case muttered, and Stepyan growled an agreement.
Mack groaned.
“You mind not yanking their chains, Tens? You know what they’re like when they come off a mission.”
Tens snorted, and I wrapped my hand around Stepyan’s arm. Before any of us could say anything, though, Rohan bounced through my implant where everyone could see him, Cascade bounding in his wake. Both of them had such an aura of hell-raising joy about them that we just stopped and stared—even Mack. By the time any of us thought to try and stop them, they were gone.
Shortly after, the car arrived at the lobby. Stepyan let go of my arm and levelled his Schamwari 76 at the door, Case mirroring his action. Mack followed, bracing up and aiming the Blazer, and all risk of decompression be damned.
I held my breath, and tried to keep my balance, but Stepyan gave me a shove with his fingertips and I toppled, cursing uncooperative armor and all asshole assassins, while trying to keep an eye on the door as I went.
Nothing happened; the door never opened.
And Rohan bounced back through my head, on his way back to the Shady Marie, and making sure Mack, Stepyan and Case heard his report as he went.
“Should be solid for a few hours,” he said, and Cascade bounced after him giving me a happy ‘wuff’ and a mental face-lick as he passed.
“You able to dock?” Mack asked, and Tens response was immediate.
“Not yet, boss. That thing is locked down tight. You wanta open it up for me?”
I watched as Mack exchanged a glance with Steps and Case.
“Sure thing, Tens. You wanta walk us through it?”
“Take Cutter with you,” Tens said. “She just
needs to interface with the central core, and Rohan and Cascade can do the rest.”
“Small problem with that,” Mack told him, but Stepyan interrupted.
“No there isn’t.”
I wanted to protest that, Stars yes, there was a problem, but Tens was already in my implant, and Stepyan and Case had already crouched down beside me and pulled miniaturized cutting equipment from the tool pouches at their belts.
“Oh, Stars no!” I protested and tried to move my half-frozen body out of their reach.
That attempt ended when Rohan slipped back into the implant, and tweaked a couple of neurons.
Sorry, Cutter, he said, not sounding like he felt a single shred of regret.
“Fuck you,” I muttered, and he snickered.
“You trying to make Mack jealous?”
“Get your cheeky ass over here where I can kick it, you misbegotten spawn of an arach-infested, whore-busted—”
“Cutter!”
Mack sounded horrified enough that I stopped. It didn’t help that Rohan was laughing fit to burst, and holding my body perfectly still as Stepyan and Case cut the armor off me.
“Geez. Haven’t the pair of you heard of undoing the buckles?”
“This is faster,” Case said, and Stepyan grunted in agreement, as he pulled the armor apart, and untangled it from my arms.
I had a vague idea of how a crab might feel having its shell split before being eaten, but I was dressed beneath the armor, so it wasn’t that bad. Between them, it didn’t take the two assassins more than a minute to strip the ruined casing off me.
Stepyan patted my shoulder.
“Don’t get shot,” he said, getting to his feet, and turning to Mack.
Rohan let me go, and Case stopped long enough to haul me upright, but Mack didn’t wait.
“Show me where,” he ordered, and froze, his eyes darting around the lobby until he pinpointed the exit he needed to take. He didn’t bother giving us orders, just took off towards it, expecting us to follow—and, because it was Mack, we did.
Taking back the station was a lot simpler than it sounded. The original operators had abandoned it as soon as the planet’s rich had evacuated, many taking whatever ships would give them berth—and all of them locking things down as they left. From what I could gather from the short romp I took through the records, Barangail had been one of the few to remain, but whether that had been simply because he hadn’t been able to make the trip to the beanstalk, or by choice, I couldn’t tell.
There could have been a multitude of reasons as to why he’d remained behind—and why he’d sent a force to take over the station. He could have been preparing his own evacuation... or preparing for the arrival of the arach fleet that was coming in. Either way, once I’d hooked into the central system, Tens and Rohan were able to bring the whole thing back on line.
“Stand by for docking,” he said, then, “Case, do the honors.”
Case went still for a moment, leaning on the wall as she remoted the Shady into her berth. I ignored her and decided the security console was a good place to be. It was the best way to see who’d decided to pay the station a visit.
I got out of the main console, pulled my Glazer and went to take up station over at the security console. Setting the Glazer down beside me, I pulled footage from the car Rohan had parked at the lobby. The folk inside looked pretty pissed off. I scanned their faces, looking for someone I knew.
26—Battle Plans
“What have you got?” Mack asked, coming over to stand beside me.
With Tens on the ship and Case remoting it in, Rohan and Cascade romping through the station’s systems, and Stepyan guarding the door, there wasn’t much for Mack to do. I guess that was why he was over here, bugging me.
“Yeah, short stuff, that has to be it...” he said, but he was bending forward, running a finger over the screen and inspecting each face as he went. I think he spotted Varian around the same time I did. “What do you think, Cutter? A welcoming committee?”
“Nah, boss. They didn’t know we’d arrived when they left. I’d say they’ve been planning to visit for a while.”
Stepyan had clearly gotten bored guarding the door. He reached across and tapped the screen above Varian’s face.
“We let him live,” he said. “He was useful.”
Truthfully? I’d been hoping he’d been going to say something like it hadn’t been Varian’s fault the wolf captain had nearly killed me. This reason was so much less comforting, almost like they’d let anyone live, no matter what, as long as that person was ‘useful’. And who got to decide that, anyway?
“His captain said there would be no peace between us, if we killed his second-in-command,” Stepyan said, as though reading my mind.
Ah, well that explained it. I supposed I could let that ride.
“Like you have a choice, girl,” Mack reminded me, with a nudge in the ribs.
There was a slight shudder, and we looked across at Case.
“Shady’s docking now,” Case said, looking at Mack. “Where do you want everybody?”
“Is there an assembly area close to the berth?”
“Yup, and we can lock down that arm, and restrict access.”
“Make it so,” Mack ordered, “and have everyone assemble in the open, in full kit. We can shuttle-drop, teleport, or take the beanstalk down.”
“Have to advise against that last option, Captain,” Case told him. “Ground’s heavily contested in the city, and not by anyone we want to side with, or be in the debt of.
I wanted to ask her exactly what she and Stepyan had done, but kept my mouth shut. Even so, Case slanted a glance in my direction.
“Pest control,” she answered darkly, and then smiled, looking at Mack. “We picked up a couple of extras, boss. Should cover the cost of docking, refueling and re-supply.”
Mack whistled, and I wondered what sort of extra work could have earned them that kind of bounty, but Mack had already turned his attention back to the screen.
“What sort of welcoming committee d’you reckon we should have for these clowns?”
Case pulled the relevant feed over to her console, and raised her eyebrows.
“You got the cub?”
“Him and his friends. Why?”
“I’d say we have them front and center when we let this lot out of the car, and then we teleport their asses—and yours and the cubs’—straight into wolf central. Honestly, the fighting out there is something fierce, and I think a shuttle ride’s too big a risk. You don’t want him blown up before you can get him down to his dad.”
She had a point, but teleporting into the wolf ship below the canyon was going to be tricky.
“I can do it,” Tens assured us, “and she has a point. It’s the safest way to get the kid home.”
“Meet me at the assembly point.” Mack turned to Case and Stepyan. “Care for another trip downstairs?”
“It might be good to calm things down a bit, before we take the kid dirtside.”
“Point taken. How do you think the cub will take it if we ask him to sit this one out?”
“Depends on how you phrase it.”
“I’ll be right over. Can you pull a skeleton crew together for the station? I need to be able to rely on whoever’s in control.”
“This would be a lot easier if Odyssey were here,” Case muttered, and Mack and I froze.
“You mean they’re not?” Mack asked.
Case shook her head. “Not a sign of them.”
“Oh, shit,” Tens muttered.
“Did the message get out?”
There was silence, and I got the impression Tens was checking the communications logs. After a couple of minutes, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“It went.”
Now it was Mack’s turn to be worried.
“And have we had a response, yet?”
More silence, followed by, “Nah, boss. That’s very strange. They’re usually a lot prompter than that—especially when
there’s arach involved... and this time there was even the hint of planetary disruption in the offing. You’da thought they’d be all over it like flies.”
“Yeah. You would.” Mack sounded thoughtful. “Send a follow-up, and max out the scanners. Anything moves in the system, or into it, I want to know. And I need to know if someone’s already here and we haven’t seen them, yet. I wouldn’t put it past any of them to have back-ups in secret orbits.”
“Will do.” Tens was out of comms and doing his thing when Mack turned to the rest of us.
“Ship,” he said, and it was a direct order to return.
Case hesitated.
“I can babysit while we wait...” but Mack was already shaking his head, and Rohan came to the rescue.
“I can do it from in here,” he said, reminding us he was still fiddling with the stations’ insides.
“Fine,” Mack said, and I sensed Rohan’s delight as he hit the teleport station.
The cub and his human were right with us, by the time we had the boy open the travel car’s doors. We stayed well back, Mack, Case, me and Stepyan forming a crescent behind the kids. The boy went furry the minute he caught sight of Varian, shredding the ship-suit we’d found for him. The girl took a step to the side, and dropped into a combat stance beside him.
It was almost sweet.
Varian regarded them in surprise, and then his lip curled and his growl rumbled through the lounge. The boy growled right back, and the girl managed a credible snarl of her own. Varian laughed.
“Not yet, cub,” he told the boy, “but soon. You are your father’s son and more.”
At this, the boy’s ears pricked and his tail gave a single happy sweep, and then he reached out and took the girl’s hand. Varian frowned, but the kid didn’t let that deter him.
“Mine,” he said, and she leant into him.
“Mine,” she echoed, both confirming his claim, and daring anyone to challenge her.
Varian turned to Mack as his team exited the lift and fanned out behind him. “I take it you have an explanation...”
Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 Page 22