I kept my head down, not daring to glance at the dark-furred wolf, not able to stop wondering what came next. Movement caught the edge of my vision, and I lifted my head, dashing a hand over my eyes to clear the tears.
“Doctor,” Lomis said as Rakman returned.
“Lomis.” The doctor gave me an assessing stare. “Pup.”
I waited, the first wave of fear rolling through me. I returned the look, saw the first quiver of a snarl, and dropped my eyes.
“You boys taught her well.”
Lomis laid a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched.
“She learned quickly.”
I wanted to say I’d had incentive, but my tongue wouldn’t move. I flinched, again, when Rakman laid a hand on the front of my armor and snapped the fastenings open.
“Hey.”
“I need bare skin,” the doctor said, and Lomis’s hand curled into a vice locked over my arm.
“Like, Hell, you do!” I snapped, and the doctor stepped back, as Lomis moved to stand in front of me. He planted both hands on my shoulders, curling his fingers into the crevices of the light armor and lifting my feet off the floor.
“I haven’t left, yet,” he said, “and my pack leader gave me instructions.”
He set my feet back on the floor.
“No one goes into the pods fully clothed, or conscious.”
I stared up at him, felt my face take on the semi-numbness of shock, and tried to get a hold of myself.
Contract.
Right?
And Lomis dipped his head, in a single nod of acknowledgement.
“No tampering with the product.”
Well. That kinda settled it…maybe.
“I can undress myself.”
Lomis let go, and stepped back.
“You want to turn around,” I told him, and he gave me a drop-jawed grin, full of wolfish amusement.
“I did not come down in the last meteor shower. The pod requires bare skin. Do what is needed.”
I glared at him, and the grin morphed into a growl that rippled through to bone. It was the fastest I’d undressed in my life, and the most uncomfortable I’d ever been.
“Doctor,” Lomis said, when I was done, and Rakman stepped in. I glanced over at him, and caught sight of the auto-injector in his hand. My feet were moving before I could stop them, but Lomis tripped me before I’d gone more than four steps. It was not the first time I’d been pinned down for a shot. As a matter of fact, that part was pretty much normal.
“I hate you,” I muttered, as the sedative took effect.
“You’re going to hate me more when you wake up,” Lomis replied, and scooped me off the floor.
The doctor was waiting beside the open pod as he dropped me in.
I fought to stay awake, but it was a losing battle. Even so, I kept my eyes open long enough to see Lomis pull a jack from the toolkit at his belt, stayed awake for the time it took him to plug into my skull.
Well, damn…
9—Out of the Tank
I woke to a sudden jolt of energy surging through my system, and couldn’t figure out where it had come from. I had a splitting headache, like someone had gone through and strip-mined my brain…and then I remembered Lomis telling me I’d hate him more when I woke up, and my stomach rebelled.
Usually this was where the pod would stave off impending disaster by putting me under, and hitting me with something to counter the nausea, but this time it didn’t. Instead, it slid out and open and I sat up and threw up over the side.
“Well, that was impressive.”
“Abby?” and I didn’t say how relieved I was to hear her in my head, since it meant that the implant was intact.
“Intact is one thing, sweetie, but you’re gonna have to get your files back. The wolf was very thorough in pulling them out of your head.”
“He what?”
“Did a first-class implant scrub,” Abby explained.
“Abs?”
“Yes, sweetie.”
“How are you in my head?”
“Wolves don’t know everything about busting a link out someone’s head, or even finding one. You getting out of that box, or you going to wait for the doctor to do his rounds?”
Points to Abs.
She’d lowered the pod to the floor, and I was able to step out of it, avoiding the mess I’d made. My stomach rolled, again, and pain shot through my head. I put a hand on the edge of the pod.
“You couldn’t have had the pod give me something for the pain?”
“Sorry, hun, but he did a surface scrape as well, and pulled what thought and memory he could from your neural network.”
“They can do that?”
“It’s a Star Shadow specialty. They traffic the information in the Dark Net. It maximizes their profits from each contract.”
I just bet it did.
“So, no painkillers?”
“There’s nothing here that will work, and you’re going to need what edge you’ve got, if you’re going to get through this.”
“Okay, Abs. How about you spot me while I get my head together? What’s next?”
“Next? Well, hun, you’re going to have to move so I can get Mack and Tens out of their pods—and you might want to clean that mess up so they don’t end up in it.”
“Done,” and I headed for the corner where I remembered Doc keeping his cleaning supplies.
The pods had shuffled down by the time I’d returned, and Mack had added to my creation. I stood there, mop and bucket in hand, and stared at it.
“What was that you were saying about needing to clean up the mess?”
“Point, Cutter. You want to get together with Mack and see if you can reopen your connection? You’re going to need it.”
That last bit was a no-brainer. What wasn’t was the fact I hadn’t noticed that Mack had been blocked out of my head, even though his connection still existed. No doubt there was a file somewhere noting the connection, and recommending that my implant be replaced.
“Where’s Tens?” Mack asked, and I rolled my eyes.
“Hi, Mack. It’s good to see you. I’m fine thanks. Would you like to be able to get into my head, again? Or do you like
