“I could get Lomis to take down what was put up…”
That suggestion came with such utter confidence that Lomis could take down anything I had up, that I decided not to chance it. Maybe, maybe they’d leave the rest of my head alone, if…
It was a fool’s dream, and I knew it. I wondered what they’d done to Mack and Tens, given the way he’d said ‘the missing crewman’. That made me sound like the last, the missing piece. Well, at least Abs would fit inside the Shady’s hangar bay.
“Abs?” and that sounded far too interested.
I hit him with the replay of the time I’d goaded an arach assassin into a fight, while holding nothing more than a chair, managed to cut it as the spider fell. I was not happy to feel his hand shift from my leg to around my shoulders.
“I don’t think we’re letting you out of those cuffs, ever.”
There was a low chorus of growls from the wolves opposite, and I looked across at them. They were all staring at me, and not as an object of amusement.
“You shared that?”
“It is best for my lupar not to underestimate their prey.”
Oh. I swept my gaze along the row of wolf soldiers, and really wished I could give them the finger.
“No, you really don’t—and if you do not watch your manners, I will gag you, as well.”
I settled for hunching in my seat and glaring at the wolf opposite. His lips rippled in a snarl, and I growled back, and that was all it took. If my escort hadn’t grabbed me and hurled me into the floor, I’m not sure I’d have had a throat left. As it was, I ended up with what felt like three hundred kilos of wolf kneeling on my back snapping at its pack mates.
My head was ringing, and I’m pretty sure I’d discovered what ‘flat on my face’ meant in reality. I lay there while the wolves argued above me, and focused on breathing past a bloody nose. I wasn’t going to win any beauty contests for a while.
Above me, my escort made his point, and the wolves resumed their seats.
“You need an education in lupar culture,” he said, hauling me off the floor, and putting me back in my seat. “How you have managed to survive this far is beyond me.”
And then he caught sight of my face.
“Hold still,” and he straightened my nose, keeping my head tilted forward. “Medic.”
My head was still ringing, and the crack as he’d realigned my nose hadn’t helped.
First aid for a bloody nose hadn’t changed in millennia, except for the spray-dose of nanites—that was new. I wondered if they knew the difference between lupar and human, or if I’d end up with a snout.
“No.”
I coughed and spat blood, relieved that I still had my teeth, wishing the light armor Abby had provided, had more padding. It was more of a relief when I could breathe without risking a throatful of blood.
“Thank you,” I said, with a nod at the medic.
He flicked his ears to the side, and lifted his lip in a brief grin. I took that as a ‘you’re welcome’, and wished I could put my elbows on my knees and rest my head in my hands. Once he’d left, I pushed back against the seat easing the cramped feeling in my chest, and trying to avoid looking into the faces of the wolf squad opposite. They didn’t look very happy, and I didn’t want hit the deck, again.
My escort growled out a string of wolfish syllables, and one of the troopers opposite got up. I was tempted to watch where he went, but didn’t. Instead I closed my eyes; if I didn’t stare at any of them, then maybe I’d stay out of trouble.
“It would be a start.”
Yeah. Thanks for that. Just when I got a break from Mack being in my head…
“Where do you think we got the idea?”
Which begged the question…
“How did you know it was me?”
“Hold still.”
I opened my eyes, as he wrapped his arm back around my shoulders and held me still. The wolf that had walked away, turned back to his seat, and my escort lifted a cloth to my face. I drew back, and his grip tightened, the cloth halting.
“Your face is covered in blood. I’m going to clean you up.”
Why he should care was beyond me.
“I either wipe it off, or one of us is going to lick it clean.”
Well, since he put it that way. I froze.
“Fine.”
It was embarrassing to have my face wiped like a child, and my nose still hurt, nanites or no. I hissed in one pained breath, glad when the intercom broke the quiet.
“Stand-by for docking.”
The grip across my shoulders tightened, and the cloth came in for another swipe. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be done.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“How did we know?”
I nodded.
“Mack was tracing your implant, but he knew whoever had snatched you had to have come through Lichcomb’s. He was heading for Dasojin’s Lichcomb’s HQ when we took him.”
Dasojin’s… Lichcomb’s H.Q.
I leant back against the bulkhead.
Oh, shoot me now.
“If you wish.”
I started to move away, but his hold was too strong, and I froze as he put the muzzle of his blaster against my temple.
I hadn’t meant it.
“I know, but you are going to answer me this, or Mack is going to be short one crewman. You are not an essential part of the manifest.”
“I thought you needed all the Shady’s crew.”
“I have some leeway.”
He did? Well that wasn’t what I needed to hear.
He bent his elbow, took a grip in my hair and bent his forehead against mine.
“So, your ship. Is she Dasojin’s?”
I thought about lying. I really did, but I knew Abby would have understood, also knew I’d be no help to her dead, and that she wouldn’t appreciate me ducking out of the favor I owed her. And Mack…
Well, fuck.
“Yes.”
The blaster muzzle left my temple, and I remembered how to
