Risk Be Damned

by Natalie Grey

  You shouldn’t have come, Irina thought.

  Two were running, but the other two stood their ground and began to chamber their weapons.

  They were too slow. Irina leapt between the two of them, claws raking down across a woman’s face, teeth snapping even as she screamed, ending her life in a gurgle.

  Pain burst across her back and she howled. The last fighter must have pulled out a knife. He hardly had time to realize his mistake before she gutted him. The last thing he saw was her eyes, faintly glowing before she ripped his throat out.

  The report of a gun reminded her of the other two. She crouched in the snow, unsure who was shooting at whom.

  There was one figure running, and the other …. was sprawled in the snow. Irina watched in amazement as another shot took down the fifth attacker, but didn’t kill her.

  A tiny figure climbed down from the ledge and darted through the snow, and Hsu got into point blank range of the last mercenary before shooting her dead.

  Irina loped across the hillside in wolf form before transforming back. She looked at Hsu in amazement. “You know how to shoot?”

  “My brother was in the army. He taught me.” Hsu looked down at the body and her stomach heaved. She almost threw up before forcing herself not to. “I’ve never actually done this before.”

  “I’m surprised you finished her off, then.” Irina turned and headed back up the hill to retrieve her clothes. It would probably be easier for Hsu to process this without someone staring at her.

  “She would have killed us if we didn’t. Right?” Hsu unloaded the gun and followed the naked woman. “And aren’t you cold?”

  “A little,” Irina admitted. “But not as much as you think.” She paused, the light under jacket still in her hands. “Thank you.”

  “What?” Hsu looked around herself. Her eyes widened. “For helping? No. Without you, I’d be dead. I’d never have gotten them all on my own.”

  Humans were so stupid sometimes. Irina tried not to roll her eyes. “That’s why there are packs,” she explained. She shook her head, “You can’t do everything in life on your own. You can’t even do most things on your own. You need people to back you up. Do you really not have that?”

  Hsu opened her mouth, then closed it. She thought of the Party officials. Of her family. She smiled wryly. “Sometimes. But it’s not always a good thing.”

  Irina considered that, “I suppose it isn’t always a good thing for us, either.” She sank down to sit, rolling her neck. “Maybe that’s part of why I’m not going back. But I’m glad you’re here.” She cracked a smile. “You may be a tiny geek, but you’re also kind of a badass.”

  Hsu started laughing. “Thanks… I think. You want some food?”

  “Nah, we gotta keep moving. Can’t stay right where the last group found us, that’s just asking for trouble. There’s one thing we should do before I get dressed, though.”

  “Huh?”

  “How do you think they found us?” Irina pointed to her arm. “Tracking chips. I got one. Did you?”

  “I forgot about those.” Hsu’s eyes got large as she stared at her arm.

  “We’ve got to cut those out,” Irina told her.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Filip tapped his fingers on his leg and squirmed uncomfortably. The couch he sat on must once have been beautiful, but age and poor care had made it both tattered and wildly uncomfortable.

  Everything in the room had the same look, from the threadbare carpets to the faded curtains. Hundreds of years ago, this room would have been luxurious. Now, it just seemed sad—and dusty.

  Gerard, however, did not seem to notice. He walked the halls of this place as if it were some holy pilgrimage site. When he told Filip to wait for Mr. Marcari, his voice made it sound as if he worshipped his boss. For a man with such wealth and self-control, it was a strange way to behave.

  Filip was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. He wasn’t sure why, though, and he couldn’t exactly leave. He didn’t speak any Spanish. So he sat, uncomfortable and fidgeting.

  “You’re sure he knows useful things?” Several rooms away, Hugo narrowed his eyes at the feed from the security cameras. From the fake leather coat to the poorly-groomed beard, he was unimpressed with this man, and beginning to doubt Gerard’s judgment.

  “He gave me names. He knows the alias the Bitch’s representative uses.” Gerard also studied the man. “He’s weak. He’ll never be his own master, he’ll never achieve anything great. But dangle a pretty woman as a prize, and he’ll do anything to impress her. It could be useful.”

  “Perhaps.” Hugo buttoned his suit jacket. “We will see if you are correct.” He strode down the hallway, lost in thought as the guards saluted to him, and entered the room with a bang of the door.

  He was pleased to see Filip jump. The man had no manners, after all. He had not been invited to sit. Hugo’s anger rose and he struggled to control it.

  Such ill manners would soon be a thing of the past.

  “Filip Lazarov?”

  “Yes.” Filip scrambled to his feet and nodded his head. “Yes, sir.”

  “I am Hugo Marcari.” Hugo sank gracefully into his own chair. A snap of his fingers, and the guards came to stand inside the doorway. Gerard stood between them, blocking the door, his hands folded. Hugo was pleased to see the informant look over his shoulder at them nervously.

  “Pay them no attention. I’m told you have information for me.”

  “I told Gerard everything I know.”

  “Every detail is important,” Gerard said softly. “These are dangerous opponents, and any piece of information could tip the balance. You will tell Mr. Marcari everything you told me, and you will add anything you remember.”

  Filip struggled with a rising sense of disloyalty.

  Stoyan had always thought he was better than Filip, yes. The man was infuriating. But Stoyan had also talked Filip out of any number of drunken fights he wouldn’t have won. He had offered a place to stay and a share of jobs when Filip was low on money.

  Filip had only ever seen that as Stoyan trying to sabotage Filip’s reputation as a dangerous man, but had he been wrong? Had Stoyan been a better friend than he thought?

  “Why do you want to know about these people?” he asked cautiously.

  The man’s eyes flashed. “That is not your business. You will tell me.”

  “It’s my information,” Filip said. “So it is my business.”

  Hugo’s fingers clenched on the arms of the chair. “These people have interfered with my business dealings.”

  “How?”

  “My business is private.” Hugo’s voice was growing more dangerous by the second. “But it is gravely important! Your acquaintances — along with the man you saw them meet — have attempted to destroy it.”

  Filip considered this.

  Hugo thought quickly. He wanted to order Gerard to break this man, he wanted this disrespect to be punished. Torture was not always an effective means of finding true information, however, and Hugo preferred it if such displays could be used as a lesson for someone else.

  If he could only induce this man to give up the information, he could then punish him more publicly. He smiled.

  “Mr. Lazarov, do you know who the man was that your acquaintance met? What did he say his name was?”

  “James Dillon. And no,” Filip admitted. “He might be British. He said he served the Queen. He also said his name was Stephen, later.”

  “You’re very observant.” Hugo complimented him insincerely. “The Queen he referred to, however, is none other than the head of TQB Enterprises.”

  Filip’s eyes grew wide. “With the spaceships?”

  “Precisely.” Hugo pressed his fingers together and regarded Filip. “Now, there is much misinformation regarding this company … and it’s CEO. I became concerned after reading some of the news reports. I sent Gerard and others to investigate strange happenings all over the world. Do you know what I found?”
r />   Filip shook his head mutely.

  Hugo had always been able to lie easily, and now he did so without so much as a flicker of remorse.

  “That this woman is trying to strip the earth bare of everything valuable and kill the survivors. She has amassed an arsenal of alien technology and she uses it to kill those she does not like and steal their weapons as well. Operations of hers occurred in Antarctica, over the United States, in South America, Europe, China… I could go on, but we don’t have the time. The point, Mr. Lazarov, is that this woman is a dangerous enemy, and I am trying to research the weaponry to stand against her when she invades.”

  “Invades?” Filip’s voice trembled.

  “Yes,” Hugo said simply. “Earth will be her dominion, and if you think she will be a kind leader, ask yourself why she does not share her medical technology? It is reported that she can cure any injury or disease, but she has not shared that with the world. With the types of weaponry she commands, she can almost certainly provide energy or food to cure the world of its ills … but she does not. Why?”

  Filip shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “Neither do I.” Hugo smiled encouragingly. “I do not know why someone would amass such power and not attempt to make the world a peaceful place. It worries me, Mr. Lazarov. It worries me deeply—even more so, I understand, she has allies in the most powerful governments in the world, so that her operations against other governments go unpunished.”

  Filip sank his head into his hands. His mind was spinning. He knew about TQB, everyone did. But the news was so scattered and he’d never thought something like this would happen.

  This man sounded so certain of what he said, but why would Stoyan oppose such a plan?

  “I need to talk to Stoyan.” He pushed himself up.

  “Stoyan is the last person you should talk to. He is one of her allies.”

  “He is a good man,” Filip protested. “I need to talk to him.”

  “You do not.” Hugo’s temper was fraying. “Sit down.”

  “Who do you think you are?” Filip’s temper broke at last. “Why should I listen to you, because you have an old castle? This place is embarrassing! You’re acting like you’re someone important. Anyone can buy guards. It doesn’t make you special.”

  He didn’t even hear Gerard move before he was on the floor, face pressed into the musty old carpet.

  “You will not disrespect Mr. Marcari,” Gerard said simply.

  From his place on the floor, struggling against the grip that pinned him in place, Filip saw Hugo’s shoes approach.

  “Mr. Lazarov, I really did hope we could achieve this without resorting to unpleasant means.” Hugo sounded regretful. “But you seem incapable of realizing when you’re in the presence of your betters. You will tell me everything you know about Stoyan … willingly or not.”

  —

  Irina gave a gasp of pain as Hsu’s knife cut down through the skin. It was nothing compared to the pain that had been inflicted on her in the facility, and there was no cruelty in it. Captive or not, willing or not, this was not the first time Hsu had inflicted pain on Irina. And, as much as Irina wanted to trust the other woman, she reminded herself that Hsu had talked about redemption, but she had not yet earned it. Only time would tell if the scientist would have the courage to live up to her promises.

  She held herself still and watched as Hsu drew the tracking chip out. It was tiny, a light on the side blinking green. When Hsu set it in the snow, the light flickered and slowly died.

  “It used your body heat to power it,” Hsu explained. She stitched up the wound quickly. Though not long, the cut was fairly deep. Then she cleaned the knife and took off her coat and long-sleeved shirt. Unlike Irina, who seemed impervious to discomfort, Hsu would have to work not to shiver in the cold. “All right. I’m ready.”

  Irina pressed over Hsu’s arm, trying to find the shape of the chip.

  “Can I ask you something?” Hsu had been wanting to ask this for days, and now she needed a distraction. “How did they … capture you?”

  Irina paused with the knife hovering over the other woman’s arm. “I came to find my family.”

  “You—ow! Your family was there?”

  “No.” Irina’s voice simmered with anger. “They must be in the other facility. I didn’t know about that one then, though. I was working on my own.”

  Something in the words hinted that there was a story there. “What happened? Why were you alone?”

  “Our Alpha didn’t want us to get involved.”

  “Alpha?”

  Irina finished the cut before putting the knife down and looking Hsu in the eyes. “You tortured us. You abducted us. You caged us. And you don’t even know the first thing about us?”

  Hsu swallowed and looked down. No apology was sufficient, and no excuse that justified what she had done.

  Irina picked up the tweezers and pulled the skin apart as she began to explain, “Every pack is ruled by an Alpha and a Beta. The alpha fights for the place to make the decisions, and the beta often enforces them.”

  “Like Gerard,” Hsu murmured.

  “Not … well, I guess so. It depends on the alpha. A beta can be powerful, or not, depending on whether the alpha is willing to give them autonomy. Every pack is different that way. But the alpha makes the decisions, and ours believed we couldn’t win against these people. He forbid us from fighting.”

  “And you didn’t think that was the right decision.” Hsu nodded. She hissed in pain as Irina pulled the chip out.

  “It’s not as simple as that.” Irina watched as the light on the chip flickered and died. “If you disobey your alpha and go off to do your own thing … you’re leaving your pack. I’m not family anymore.” She swallowed hard. “Everything I told you about needing a pack? It’s true. And I don’t have that anymore.”

  “Is that why they didn’t come for you?” Hsu was horrified. No matter what a child did, it seemed cruel not to come rescue them.

  “No. They might have, if they thought they could win.” Irina shook her head. “But they were right, weren’t they? I didn’t win.”

  Hsu hesitated, and then she reached out to lay her hand over Irina’s. “Yet,” she said. “You didn’t win yet.”

  —

  “Now, Mr. Lazarov.” Hugo paced around the table where Filip lay bound. Gerard stood nearby, examining a tray of knives. “You will tell me everything you know. Spare no detail, and Gerard will not have to use any of those knives.”

  Filip struggled to breathe. None of the knives had touched him yet, and he was already straining against the bonds. He had been terrified when he saw Stoyan transform, but none of the wolves had harmed him. They had even bound him gently.

  These ropes, on the other hand, bit roughly into the skin and were slowly cutting off the blood flow to his hands and feet. He could hardly believe that Gerard was the same man he had met in the bar. How could the man be so charming one moment, and coolly inspect torture implements the next?

  “Stoyan was right about you,” Filip whispered.

  “What did he say?” Hugo looked over with a raised eyebrow.

  Filip hesitated. Just a moment, a single second of indecision, but the pain came swiftly, and was blinding. He screamed as Gerard’s hand drove down on his kneecap.

  “Mr. Lazarov, what did Stoyan say about me?”

  Filip whimpered, trying to catch his breath enough to speak. He didn’t get the chance. Even that moment of weakness was punished. Something harder than skin and bone hit his other kneecap and he thought he heard it crack. The pain was unbearable.

  “Answer quickly, and there will be no more pain.” Hugo seemed unimpressed with Filip’s screams. “I will give you a moment to collect yourself. Are you ready now? Good. Let us begin again. I hope it will go more pleasantly this time. What did Stoyan tell you about me?”

  —

  “You were right,” Hugo admitted later. He was sipping at a glass of brandy. He looked over at Ger
ard, who stood attentively nearby. “He was most informative.”