The captain moved his large paws over my ship-suit, searching for weapons.
“And you’re unarmed.”
At his matter-of-fact tone, my eyes snapped open. He caught the look and laughed, straightening up and going back to Mack.
“Why are you really here?”
Mack opened his mouth, and the wolf quickly intervened. “And I do not want to hear that it is to merely to tell me you have my cub and his she. Firstly, because I know you retrieved other lupar, and secondly because you would not have brought her for such a simple mission. You risk her because there is more at stake.”
He paused, and his eyes narrowed in realization. “And that is why you have not brought my cub with you. He is safer on your ship...”
If Mack was surprised by the speed at which the wolf had put two and two together to make four, he didn’t show it. Instead, he closed his mouth and ducked his head. The lupar captain moved over to his desk and sat down behind it, gesturing Mack to take the seat in front. His cub and the boy’s she watched from the screen as Varian moved to stand on his right.
The rest of the squad moved to array themselves equally on either side of the desk, including the one guarding me. Stepyan and Case moved to flank Mack, and I slowly pushed myself upright, wishing I was wearing something more between my skin and the wolves...
...and that I had my blaster and my knife and—
Stepyan tossed me the pouch containing my hacking gear. I caught it and rolled my eyes.
Thanks a lot, Steps.
He looked like he wanted to reply, but couldn’t afford to. Case frowned, but she, too, was silent.
At the same time, I realized Rohan was nowhere to be felt or sensed inside my mind. I glanced at Mack and watched him come to the same conclusion at the same time.
“Your request?” the wolf captain asked, and that lip curl was definitely a smirk.
“This world is in rebellion,” Mack told him, and the captain’s ears pricked.
“We are aware of the loss of several high-powered individuals,” the captain replied, sliding a look at Case and Stepyan, “and of the means of their demise.”
He cocked his head staring at Stepyan. “You threatened my second.”
Stepyan shrugged. “He was useful. We let him live.”
Tension rolled over the wolf captain’s body in a rustle of fur. “Indeed.”
With a flick of his eyes, he focused on Mack. “I sent him to secure the station pending your arrival. The report he sent back before embarking on the elevator was troubling. I did not know how you would reach me with my cub.”
He frowned. “I thought I asked your technician to repair the weakness that allowed your arrival.”
At his words, Varian cleared his throat. “I let them through, Captain. It was... necessary.”
“And we have repaired the access point, again,” the captain explained, looking directly at Mack.
Mack took that as his cue to explain.
“We are assisting in the realignment of this world’s management into a more acceptable form,” he began, and the wolf captain gave a growling snort.
“You have removed the only form of government they had. I do not see how they hope to reach a manageable form, now.”
Mack cocked his head. “What were your plans when you arrived on the planet?” he asked, keeping his voice mild.
The wolf captain dropped his jaw in a slight smile. “At first it was merely to retrieve our heritage and preserve the memories of the warriors of our past.”
“And once you’d seen the planet?”
The wolf’s jaw dropped lower. “We worked to claim it for ourselves.
Mack nodded. “And how far along are you?”
The wolf captain looked over at Stepyan and Case. “Once we take out the last of the current lords’ security forces, we’ll call the rest of the fleet.”
“You sure you don’t want to call them in as reinforcements, now?”
The wolf captain leaned back carefully studying Mack’s face.
“I will consider it. Do you have the number of arach?”
Mack shook his head. “No. I only have our memories. I can have our ship run the footage of what we saw while visiting with Barangail?”
The captain waved his hand, and the view screen flickered to life.
When it cleared, Tens’s face appeared. It was a comical mixture of consternation and relief. “Barangail’s on the move,” he started. No preamble. No ‘how’s your father?’, just right into it.
The wolf captain’s ears pricked. “We need those coordinates. He is the last we need to take down in order to assert our claim on this sector.”
Tens shot Mack a questioning glance. On catching Mack’s subtle nod, he shrank his window and brought up a map of the city.
“So much for needing a fortress,” I muttered.
“Man has no sense of self-preservation,” Mack observed. And I had to agree. Tens, not so much.
“Man had no choice,” he informed us. “Rebels took out his shuttle flight before it cleared atmo so his only chance of reaching the beanstalk was to land it as close to the city center as he could.”
“And then what?”
“Well, as soon as he worked out he wasn’t going to reach the stalk, he decided to take out the rebel leadership as fast as he could.” He cast a glance at Varian. “You must have had a weak point in your network, because he made a beeline for the command center.”
Varian stiffened and glanced at his pack leader. The Hunt Master met his eye and rose from his chair. Looking back at Tens, he growled, “We need teleportation assistance.”
Again, Mack and Tens exchanged glances, and again Mack nodded.
“Granted.”
The Hunt Master looked at Mack. “No bargaining?”
“We offer our assistance,” Mack told him, forestalling any objection by holding up a hand. “You may not need it, but there are others who wish to help.”
Tens switched cameras so the wolf captain could see the force we’d assembled. They were gathered on the dock in front of the Shady Marie.
“They were also prisoners on Rennet’s World,” Mack informed him, “but they
