The knives slid easily into the sheaths in my boots, the Zakrava I holstered on my left hip, and the Glazer on my right. The Blazer I slung so that it hung within easy reach across my chest, but not before slipping on the harness that allowed me to settle the broad-bladed machete against my back.
“You did your research,” I said, and his lips twitched.
“I remember the last time you were down.” He gestured briefly towards me. “This is your standard load out—unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”
I thought back to the Odyssey training sessions where we’d gone all out. Once I’d started really wanting to beat Ax, I’d worked out where the blind spots were in the training course, and set myself up to do my dirtiest work where the cameras couldn’t catch me. It took me seconds to decide it would be handy to be equipped to do that, again.
“It’s close. I’ll send you some personal footage from training, after the mission—not for sharing,” although I wondered exactly how I was going to be able to stop Mack and Tens from taking a peek.
“You mean you fight dirtier?” and I couldn’t be sure if he was disappointed, impressed, or just morbidly curious.
“That depends on your point of view,” I snapped, running a mental check on my gear, and checking to see if I still had my tools.
Once I was sure they were all accounted for, I nodded, once, to Steppy, and headed out the door.
“Thank you,” I said, and hustled into a jog.
Tens would be waiting, and he was worried about Mack. Patience would not be his strong suit.
“Get your ass up here.”
I mean, what did the man think I was doing?
“Wasting my time.”
I clamped down on anything I might think in answer to that, and dog-trotted up to Teleportation.
“About bloody time,” Tens said, as I came through the door.
I was about to respond, when Mack’s voice came through the speakers.
“Now, Tens! Bloody, now!” and Tens turned back to the console in front of him, his hands moving rapidly across it, as his lips moved in soundless command. On either side of him, the technicians were working just as hard, and I noticed how silver streamers of lightning played across the teleportation pad.
I stood as still as I could, not wanting to distract the team as it worked, refusing to be even the slightest bit noticeable.
“Stop thinking,” Tens muttered, and I forced my mind to stillness, watching as the lightning leapt into the center of the receiving platform, and wove itself together, slowly coalescing into the shape of a human being.
Doc came racing into the room, not slowing down as the lightning faded to reveal the huddled form of a young woman in the center of the platform. The last ripples of light hadn’t quite faded, when Doc moved to her side, shaking out the blanket he’d been carrying, and casting it over her naked skin. Crouching beside her, he rested a hand on her back, speaking softly in Galbas until she raised her head and looked at him.
I lost what passed between them, when Tens started to speak.
“Mack. Come in, Mack. Over.”
Silence greeted him, and his hands moved across the controls.
“Mack?”
I pushed off the wall, and started heading towards the platform. Doc, in the meantime, had gotten the girl to her feet, and, pulling the blanket firmly around her, was leading her towards one of the recovery rooms. She moved hesitantly, flinching whenever she caught sight of another person, as though she was expecting something else.
Given what Andreus had keeping him company, down there, I couldn’t blame her. It made me wish I’d asked Doc for a couple of vials of antivenin.
Tens cursed loudly, and then moved away from his console, lacing his fingers together, and wrapping his hands around the back of his head.
“Fuck!” he repeated, and drove the toe of his boot into the nearest wall, a couple of times. I stopped, just short of the platform, and added my stares to the stares of his team.
“What?” and he took his hands away from his head, and rested his head on a forearm he pressed against the wall.
“What?” I demanded, again, when he didn’t answer.
“I lost them.”
I felt the skin on my face grown cold.
“Before, or after, you started the port?”
“Before. It was like the link was cut.”
“I’ll look into it. Did Delight get the systems open?”
He stepped away from the wall.
“Yes. Here,” and he sent it through to the implant.
Maybe, this time, I wouldn’t have to go in half so blind. I sat on the edge of the platform, and accessed the complex. It was hard to push aside images of grey-skinned men, who sprouted extra arms, and whose mouths stretched to accommodate elongated fangs, but I managed. I had to get into the security feeds, pull the schematics, and locate Mack and Delight.
“The mission’s done,” Tens said, reading my intent.
“Mack and Delight are still down there, and so’s Andreus. It’s not done, yet.”
He eyed me with some speculation.
“You going back down?”
“You going to punch the keys?”
“Sure.”
“I need two minutes.”
“Hurry.”
“Drop me on the coordinates you last had for them.”
He began preparing the machines, and left me in peace to scan through the systems we’d hacked. Whatever protections he’d had against hacking, Andreus hadn’t continued them throughout his system. Devious, he might be, but Ghoul, he wasn’t. I ran through the files I’d found... Eew.
Okay, he wasn’t Ghoul when it came to systems security, but in other areas... I felt my stomach do a slow triple-flip. In other areas he was more—a Ghoul and Blaedergil combined. I shoved the files away, and focused on locating Mack and Delight.
“Got them!” Tens shout broke through my search. “Move back.”
I got off the platform, and moved back behind the row of consoles, finding a place against the wall. On the other side of the room, I saw Doc emerge, and stand in the doorway of the recovery room. Together, despite
