“Cutter?”
“No, the Sainted Aunt Marie of Semiens Parish! Who the fuck did you think it was?”
And he reached out like he was going to grab me by the shirt collar—which was when we both realized we were standing stark, staring naked in the middle of Doc’s medical center. I closed my mouth on the retort I’d been going to make, and watched Mack’s jaw hit the floor.
I couldn’t work out why. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me nude before. Damn man had made me change in front of him, often enough—but only to make sure I wasn’t going to do a runner the minute he’d turned his back.
“Yeah, and you keep telling yourself that, Cutter.”
I turned around, looking for Tens. Looked like his link into my head had been totally unimpaired.
“Give me a minute, and I’ll have Mack’s fixed, as well.”
“Close your mouth,” I said, glaring at Mack. “You’re not looking so great, yourself.”
His face flushed, and he closed his mouth with an almost audible snap.
“And you’ve still got a mouth on you. How’d…” He stopped, partway through. “Tens?”
I put the mop into the bucket and pushed them up against the wall opposite. I wanted some clothes. Body armor would be nice—and the nice extra-protective undies Abs had provided. If I was a wolf, confiscating my merchandise’s clothing, where would I put what I took?
My eye fell on the incinerator. Oh, Hell, no!
Fine! If I was a wolf, where would I keep my spare scrubs? I looked around the medical center, and couldn’t see anything more promising than the rows of stasis pods. I guessed I knew where I’d find Doc and his medics, if I needed them.
“Abs?”
“I’ll start pulling them out of stasis as soon as you and Mack have secured most of the ship.”
“Done. I need clothes.”
“And me,” came as a chorus from my captain and what the wolves had called his second.
“What did they call me?” Mack asked, and I blushed and turned away. “Cutter…”
“Suck it, Mack. Abs, where are my clothes?”
“Your best chance at clothes is in your quarters. Unfortunately, they are already occupied.”
“Give me a link to the ship, Abs.”
“A please would be nice.”
I thought about telling Abby she could whistle for it, and then decided that would be more than a little ungrateful.
“Please, Abs?”
And Mack finally joined the dots.
“You kidnapped my retrieval specialist?”
I got my link, and nearly missed Abby’s reply to Mack.
“And you failed to make the rendezvous I needed.”
I listened to Mack sputter, while I hooked into the ship’s scan system, and did a quick run-down of what life-forms could be found where.
“Smooth, kid.” At least Tens sounded impressed. “Now, why don’t you let a professional show how you it’s done?”
I sighed.
“You can try.”
And Tens sailed past me into the network, and rolled through the security systems, swearing softly himself as he wove past and through defenses that should have picked up his presence and rolled him right back out, again.
“What are you looking for?”
“My files,” and that was the closest approximation of a wolfish snarl I’d yet heard come from a man.
The wolves. I looked at Mack.
“We need weapons.”
He looked back, looked me up and down, cast a glance over at Tens.
“And clothes,” he said, and looked back at me, his eyes landing too low to be looking at my face. “We definitely need clothes.”
I saw him turn his head, doing the same survey of the room I had, and then I remembered why I’d asked Abby for a link to the ship. Clothes.
“Nearest replicator is over here,” I said, leading my way past the puddle of upchuckery Mack and I had left behind. And just why hadn’t Tens added to that pile?
“I got the dosage right for him,” Abs said, her reply coming faster than expected.
It was almost as if she’d been rehearsing it—and why would she have been doing that?
“Never you mind, child. Your replicator is over that way.”
A rehearsed reply, and a rapidly applied diversion. Well, well, well…
“You have more important things to worry about than making my life interesting,” Abby informed me, her voice more clipped and precise than usual. “And you still owe me a favor.”
I decided not to push it any further. The look on Mack’s face was priceless, given he’d just been privy to that conversation. I hoped he didn’t start poking things until we’d finished.
“Clothes,” Abby reminded me, and I dog-trotted in the direction of the replicator she’d highlighted.
Given it was further back in the medical center, I was hopeful there’d be no wolves in attendance—and then I decided hope wasn’t any kind of precaution. I slowed, found a corner and leant around it.
“Two minutes,” I said to Mack, and vanished into my implant, using the security feeds to confirm that the replicator was in an unoccupied room. I also took the precautions of locking the door to the medical center and any other entrances. It was almost too easy to lock Rakman in Doc’s quarters, and do the same for the orderly who had taken over Halloran’s space. I tweaked the ship’s systems, and locked them out of those.
“Good luck accessing anything in there. Suckers,” I snickered, and pulled up a second scan, trying to find what had happened to the rooms’ rightful occupants.
A second scan showed the two men in the stasis pods in the same rack Mack, Tens and I had occupied.
“Good to know,” Mack said, but he sounded relieved that we’d found them alive.
I came out of my head, and pushed off the wall.
“Way to the replicator is clear.”
Tens came with us, even though he didn’t say a word, and I envied him the ability to stay in the system and still stay conscious of what went on outside. Whatever he was doing, he hadn’t finished yet, and I hoped it didn’t mean our files had already been transmitted.
“Abs…”
“I got it, honey.”
That earned me looks from both Mack and Tens. I ignored them, scoped the room ahead, and hit the replicator before
