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.
