by JC Hay
Chen rolled her shoulders, but the tension in them didn’t want to ease. “Priddy’s not coming back to the Hunting Cry.”
“Does this have anything to do with the attack on Farhope? Or what happened between you two?” There was no judgment in their voice, just concern for a teammate and a friend.
That was an angle she had considered more times than she cared to admit. They hadn’t talked about what sleeping together had meant to either of them, or if it had meant anything at all. She usually planned more and didn’t fall into such things so easily. At the time she’d expected to talk the next morning, but then the attack, and...here she was. Nothing to go on, except regrets that she hadn’t said more.
While they waited, May opened the desk, dug out a pair of dried liver treats, and tossed one on each bed. Pakhet caught hers out of the air, while Chen pushed the other to where Nujalik could reach it easily.
“I don’t know,” Chen said at last. “Maybe. He has family on Khonsu, and I know he’s worried about them. If he thought he could protect them himself...” Her palms went clammy. Priddy charged a gunman with an axe. If he believed turning himself over to the people pressuring him could buy the Rangers time or his family’s protection? She had no doubt he’d do something that foolish.
May rolled their eyes. “Deliver me from stupid civilians.” They glanced at their omnidevice when it chimed. “Commander Penzak wants a report. He heard from Alpha you quit the field with an injured wolf and wants to know how serious.”
Chen watched her battle partner. “I know I shouldn’t ask. But how much did you say when you were debriefed?” She’d talked about the attack, mentioned the possibility there might be a mole in the organization, but she’d been careful not to mention Javad’s name specifically.
“I did my best to protect your doctor,” May said. Chen’s heart thumped at the possessive phrase, and how right it sounded. “But Penzak’s no fool. With enough evidence in front of him, he’ll figure out how we learned they might be a mole. As for your wolf, he’s been aware that Nujalik’s been skirting the edge of injury, but I didn’t tell him about you and Priddy—”
“I’d hope not!” Chen felt her cheeks blaze before she realized they meant Priddy’s tenuous empathic bond with Nujalik. “We need to convince Javad to come back.”
May looked at her, affect flat. “We have other doctors. Ones who treated you and Nujalik before Priddy showed up. Any one of them could do the work.”
“Nujalik doesn’t trust them. She trusts Priddy. And I trust her.”
The sentence felt like cracking open the weight on her back. Was it that simple? She had faith in her wolf. Her wolf liked Priddy. Either her wolf had bad taste, or she didn’t believe Nujalik. And neither of those was otherwise true. Her wolf shifted slightly, expressing her discomfort as a quiet grumble.
“Then your mind’s made up on what you’d like to happen for the two of you.” They nodded. “But you need to consider what Priddy’s thoughts are too. What do you do if he doesn’t want to come back?”
She’d done nothing to tell him what she thought or felt. Hell, until this moment, she hadn’t sat and figured out to be able to discuss it. If she’d shared more, instead of hiding it, would he have stayed?
“I’m scared, May.” Saying it out loud didn’t make it feel less terrifying, the way it was supposed to. If anything, it seemed to give the fear more power. Chen hated the helplessness of it all.
“Of what?”
“I’m bad at a relationship when it’s just me and one other person. I don’t know how to handle one where either of us could end up hurting Nujalik as well.”
“You don’t have a relationship. Not yet. You have an idea of what you want to happen. And to move toward that, the two of you need to talk to each other.” They stood up. “I can talk to Penzak about giving you some time to go to Khonsu and find your doctor.”
The possessive phrase, her doctor, spread tendrils of warmth through her chest. It sounded right, and the hum of agreement along the wolfbond indicated that Nujalik felt the same way.
Her omni buzzed, and she picked it up off her dresser. The calling system came up as unidentified, but on a whim, Chen opened it.
Priddy’s face stared back at her. It looked like one of his cheekbones had been broken, and blood stained the white of his eye on the same side. His voice, rough with pain, was also urgent. “Don’t speak. I have video-reception off for a reason. I just hope you’re getting this. I’m not sure how this guy set up his omni. The mercenaries kidnapped my sister. I tried to trade myself for her about twelve to fifteen hours ago, but they kept us both. To secure my good behavior, they said. They still want a wolf, and they’re talking about how to ambush one of the fireteams on patrol to get one. I’m safe for now, but spread the word. Keep everyone in the constellation aware.”
In the background of the call, she heard someone shout, and had to look away from the image as the camera fell and skittered across the floor. A moment later, the feed stabilized. A masked face filled the screen. “I’m not sure who’s on the other end of this call, but if it’s who I think it is, the delay’s going to be too long for you to respond anyway, so don’t bother.
“We’ve got your doctor friend, as you can see, and while he’s been quite helpful, he hasn’t exactly given us what we’ve wanted yet. This is your only chance. We will trade his life for one of your wolves. Don’t care which. The primary terraforming factory on Khonsu. I’ll give you sixty hours.”
May stood up and took the omnidevice out of her numb fingers. “Or, you know, that could happen.”
Chen suppressed a chill. “What could happen?”
“Someone could report in with actionable intelligence on a strike against the rangers. Now we have to take it to Commander Penzak.” May took a deep breath. “There are likely to be some questions for you. Are you able to handle it?”
Nujalik’s support spread through her like heat from a warm drink. Chen glanced at her wolf. “Don’t even. I want you to rest right there until we get back. Pakhet?”
May’s wolf hopped down, then jumped up on to Chen’s bed to lay next to Nujalik.
“Sixty hours isn’t much time.” It was barely enough to get into Khonsu’s orbit. She looked at May, who chuckled and shook their head. “Yeah. I can handle it. Let’s go.
IT HAD TO WORK. IT had to be enough. Javad winced as he hit the tile in the office that was his temporary cell. The mercenary followed him in and lashed out with a boot. Javad curled just in time to catch the hit on his ribs rather than his liver as the soldier had intended, but it was little consolation. “What the hell! I did what you asked.”
“I told you no ad lib!” The soldier grabbed Javad by the hair and dragged him into a sitting position. “What was that about chasing down other fireteams?”
He swallowed, hands grabbing his elbows to keep from visibly shaking. “Rangers are tightly knit. Telling them another squad’s in danger makes them more likely to act quickly.” It was a lie, but it paid into the legends of how the rangers supported each other. Hopefully, it would send them running the other way instead. If Chen and the others knew to stay safe, then he’d done his job.
The mercenary shook his head. “You’d better hope that they’re sending someone for you.”
Actually, Javad hoped the exact opposite. Any ranger that showed up would be overwhelmed. He’d tried to warn them about how many mercenaries there were, but with no pre-established signal he had no idea if the message had been understood. When he felt like he could, Javad stood up. “I did what you asked. Let my sister go. Please? She’s just another mouth for you to feed at this point.”
“I don’t make that call. The boss does.”
As if summoned, Liam Ratliff slid into the room. Javad noticed he was careful to keep the soldier between them at all times. “Javad, you disappoint me. You had an explicit script you were supposed to follow. Is what you did the behavior of someone who wants his sister released?”
“I’m s
orry. I know it doesn’t look like it, but trust me. I know rangers. They’re loyal to each other like nothing else. Give one a chance to save the others, and they’ll leap at it.” He forced himself to make it sound like a character flaw, but as he spoke, he realized it was one of the things he admired about them. The way they supported each other, like a family.
The mercenary made a disparaging noise and stepped forward, but Ratliff put a hand on his shoulder to still him. “You know, even if I let your sister go, she wouldn’t be safe. I can find her. I can find any member of your family. Whenever I want.”
Javad nodded, cheek and jaw aching. “All the more reason to let her go. You’ve got me locked up. It’s all over but the waiting.”
Ratliff seemed to consider that, finally tilting his head in acknowledgment. “Consider it a gift. But if you betray my trust again, it won’t just be your sister who suffers.”
The next betrayal wouldn’t matter anyway; when the rangers didn’t come, Ratliff would have him killed. In the meantime, he’d bought sixty hours for them to plan and prepare for the next attack, whenever it came. Sixty hours of safety for Chen and Nujalik felt like a good trade.
Seventeen
“It’s going to work out. I promise.” Chen comforted her umbra wolf, matching her tone with the love and care she transmitted through the wolfbond. It didn’t completely take the edge off Nujalik’s distress, but Chen didn’t entirely believe it herself. This wasn’t a great plan, and being here meant she wasn’t protecting her pack, but if it worked...
She didn’t want to get ahead of herself.
Nujalik shifted inside her carrier, the change in weight forcing Chen to rest the box on the ground until her wolf had settled. Nujalik hated the carrier, a sentiment Chen shared. They had to keep up appearances, though, and a loose wolf looked dangerous.
Plus, the polarized light mounted inside the carrier made Nujalik visible. No one could doubt if she was inside.
Nujalik huffed, and her displeasure was a dissonant scratch along Chen’s perceptions. It matched the vague, rotten-eggs smell that lingered in the air, faint as an afterthought. She adjusted her grip on the carrier and stepped off the tram. The mercenaries had chosen a perfect spot for the exchange to take place, she could give them that much credit. Plenty of cover around to hide their numbers, but a nice clear open area in the middle that would turn into a killing field if something didn’t go their way.
She walked down the short path to the old terraforming plant. From what she could see, it looked like part of the moon’s atmospheric complex—one of a dozen or more plants around the world that had worked to increase the oxygen, scrub out most of the sulfur, and pump all-important water vapor into the sky. Like most of the plants in the Three Systems, it had been closed down longer than she’d been alive. On Khonsu, essential components had been salvaged, leaving only the framework of buildings around an empty, parklike commons.
Chen stopped walking about a third of the way into the green-blue grass and set the carrier down next to her. She didn’t have long to wait. A pair of mercenaries dressed in high-end adaptive camouflage and obvious dispersion vests stepped out of one of the ruins. One of them pushed a bound Priddy in front of him. Even at a distance she couldn’t miss the limp in his step or the dried blood on his face.
Anger flared at her sense of helplessness, for not being able to protect him and for the way Priddy and the mercenaries had put her in this position. She picked up the carrier and took two steps before the lead merc called out for her to stop.
She froze. “You’re calling the shots.”
“Indeed.” She could hear the smirk behind his mask, and she resisted the urge to punch him in the mouth. It wouldn’t help anyone and might just get them all killed. He knelt and peered in the front of the carrier. “They really are beautiful creatures.”
“Wish I could say the same.” She looked at Priddy, who seemed to waffle between relief and horror at her presence. Hopefully Nujalik could share some of her calm with him. This would work out. It had to. “I thought we agreed that you’d hand over the doctor unharmed.”
“I said no additional harm would come to him, once you’d agreed to our little exchange. All of that unfortunateness happened prior to our conversation.” The merc waved his hand dismissively as he stood up, hefted the carrier, and crossed back to where his partner waited. He nodded at his associate, who produced a combat knife and cut the ties on Priddy’s arms.
The doctor rubbed feeling back into his hands and stumbled forward, but the second mercenary stopped him.
Chen grimaced at the leader. “You win. Take the wolf. Let the doctor go.”
“I’m staying.” Priddy’s voice was rough, quiet, and unexpected.
She glared at him, willed him not to fuck this up. “That’s not an option, Doctor. The exchange was agreed to.”
“Not by me.” Priddy took a step back. “These mercenaries don’t have anything like the facilities they need to keep an umbra wolf in good health. I’ll stay, so I can keep tabs on her. The wolf is too delicate to risk her being injured through neglect. She’s family, and the pack is forever.”
Chen kept her face calm, but her chest was a mess of emotions. He hadn’t picked those words at random. She wanted to know what he meant by them. Wanted to understand if he’d pledged himself to her wolf, or to her. Or both. With luck, she could still get all three of them out of this situation long enough to ask him.
The mercenary leader shrugged. “Well, that’s unexpected. We’ll still be taking your wolf though. We upheld our part of the deal. Not our fault that the doctor prefers us to a group of rangers who’re likely to vent him into space for treason.”
She shifted her weight forward, prepping to move, and the mercenary raised his hand. A red dot appeared in the center of her chest. Chen didn’t know what kind of weapon was on the other end of the laser sight, but she was also pretty certain she didn’t want to find out. Priddy spotted the marker and shouted, “No!”
“We’ve got the wolf, and since you’ve volunteered to stay with us, Doc, the ranger’s unnecessary. Plus, I’d hate to risk her coming back in a rage in the middle of the night. Then I’d be left with nothing.” The mercenary looked at her, his eyes almost sympathetic. “You understand. It’s nothing personal.”
He closed his fist.
The red dot moved, fast as an eyeblink, and the merc’s right knee evaporated.
Chen tapped her omni, and the carrier turned off, losing power to both the polarized light inside and the field that closed off the front. On the periphery, gunfire exploded from a half-dozen locations at once as firefights started up.
Nujalik blurred out the opening and leapt to bite down on the hand of the second mercenary. He dropped his knife, but Chen could see his other hand reaching for the falling weapon. She charged forward, but everything seemed to move at normal speed while she was in slow motion. The merc caught the handle of the blade and brought it up toward Nujalik in a single, lethal arc.
Where Priddy stepped into its path.
She hit the mercenary at full speed, taking him to the grass as Priddy stumbled away. Kneeling on his chest, she cracked his head against the ground, once. Twice. Then he was still.
Nujalik headed for cover at the edge of the commons. Chen stopped long enough to grab Priddy into her arms, then followed her wolf toward shelter. Once she could set him down inside one of the building walls, she tugged her comms earpiece out of her pocket, booted it up, and hooked it over her ear. “I’m in. We’re safe.”
“Sorry about that,” Grenville responded immediately. “Their sniper had a bolt action. Only one shot at a time. Can you imagine? I mean, I could count the number of times on one—”
“Not the time, Specialist.” May jumped into the conversation. “Alpha is cleaning up the west and south. Inouye and I found where they may have been bivouacking. How’s the doc?”
She looked at Priddy. His face had gone ashen, and he held a hand pressed to the wound in his sid
e. He looked at her, then at Nujalik. He whispered, “Tell them I’m okay.”
Chen rolled her eyes. “He took it in the chest. He’s hurt pretty bad, but he’s awake enough to say stupid shit.”
“Sit tight,” Grenville said. “I’m on my way.”
Chen nodded, then reached out and gripped Priddy’s other hand. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. What were you thinking?”
“Couldn’t let Nujalik get hurt.” He tried to shrug but ended up coughing from the pain.
She helped him lean back to relax the pressure on his wound. “Stop talking. Help’s on the way.” Her belt med-pack wouldn’t have a patch big enough to work with the wound he’d received, so they just had to sit tight for Grenville to arrive.
With luck, he wouldn’t take much longer.
JAVAD GROANED. HIS mouth tasted like he’d been chewing sand, and he couldn’t muster enough saliva to swallow. He couldn’t feel the wound in his side—the traumatic pneumothorax, he reminded himself—which meant they’d pumped him full of enough painkillers to make certain the pain wouldn’t wake him up. He took a deep breath, stopped when he felt the pull in his skin, and let it back out.
He could feel Nujalik nearby, the wolf’s tentative attention making sure he was awake before a hefty weight landed on his feet.
“No!” Chen snapped. “You know better.”
“It’s okay,” he rasped, and opened his eyes. “I’m awake. And she asked first.” As dry as his mouth tasted, his voice sounded even worse. Chen put a cup near his mouth and lifted his head enough that he could drink from it. The water helped soothe his throat and made it easier to swallow.
Her face looked drawn as she watched him. “I’m not going to get used to that, you know. Not right away.”
“What’s that?” He settled back against the pillows and closed his eyes before running his hand over the bandage at his side. The wound was tender, but the stitches felt close together and tight, the dressing full, almost overcautious. He smiled. It couldn’t be more identifiably by Dr. Bajusz if she’d signed it.