This time, I didn’t stop walking. I even flipped her off as I reached the door.
“You and whose army?”
And that was as far as I got, because Scarpil came back through, picked me up by the front of my ship’s suit, and carried me back to where Delight was waiting…and smirking. Like she was anywhere near funny.
“What do you want, Delight?”
Pritchard stepped out from behind a false wall, and handed me a leash.
“Dog’s all yours he said.”
And I stared at him, then took a minute to stare at Delight.
“That’s it?” I looked up at Scarpil, and then back at Delight. “You had the big goon ambush me just so you could hand me back the dog?”
“Hey!” The big goon didn’t seem impressed with the designation.
“What?”
And he backed up a step, clearing the way for the door.
“San, caf and bed. Right?”
“Yeah….”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Like Hell you will.”
He looked momentarily horrified.
“No, no, no. Not like that. I’ll just walk you to your cabin.”
“I can find the way.”
“Yeah, but…”
I stepped around him.
“I’m going. On my own.” I held up the leash. “With Cascade.”
They let me go, and I was at the door before I registered the counting.
“Three, two…”
What the?
“One.”
And my world slid.
I slammed a hand out and into the wall, registered Cascade pressing up against me, pushing the rest of me into the wall before I could fall over. I laid a hand on his head.
“All good, boy. It’s just…” I searched my mind for why I’d be feeling like I’d been run down by a battle cruiser.
I mean, the work-out hadn’t been that bad. Weird how I couldn’t push myself clear of the wall, again. I slid down until I was sitting on the floor, Cascade in my lap.
“Good boy,” Pritchard said, and crouched down in front of me.
“Stim pack wore off,” he said. “We were going to warn you, but you went all independent on us.”
There was a response to that, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. Slippery little sucker.
Pritchard started talking, again, but I couldn’t catch the words…or keep my eyes open. I figured he and Delight had caused the problem, so they could fix it. I didn’t even need to be awake.
That was probably a good thing.
I think I lost a good eighteen hours of the forty-eight we’d been assigned, although ‘lost’ might not be the right word for it. It seems your mind can still learn, while most of you is asleep. I woke up feeling like I’d been touring the ass-end of the galaxy, while running a code war with the wolves. It took me several minutes to realize I was tangling arach, wolf and Galbas coding like there wasn’t a skerrick of difference between them.
“Wonder when I learned to do that?” I murmured, sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
Something scampered out from under my feet, with a yip of reproach, and Cascade appeared.
“Sorry, boy,” I said. “I didn’t see you there.”
He turned around and licked my hand, bouncing into my head, even as he stopped me taking another step forward.
Boy?
Since that was accompanied by the mental image of Rohan, it wasn’t hard to work out exactly what the dog wanted me to go and do. The only problem was that we couldn’t do it yet.
“We’re on our way, Cas. Stay with me, and you can come, too.”
In hind sight maybe I should have explained that better, but the meaning was clear to me. By the time I’d realized my mistake, Cascade wasn’t letting me out of his sight—not in the san unit, not in the caf, not in the library, and not when I slept. The dog stuck to me like glue, right up to when Delight called us into the briefing room as the Wanderer slipped into the docking bay it had been assigned.
We all took note of the orbital as it slid past, counted ships in dock, ran names, and then ran the faces of whoever happened to be dumb enough to be watching us pass. It was… entertaining.
“They’re never going to let an Odyssey cruiser stay,” I said, after identifying the third suspected pirate ship—and Delight smiled.
“I love this place.” The smile disappeared. “Pity we’re not here to clean it up.”
It was a pity, but I wanted Mack back, and Tens and Rohan, and I didn’t want anything to jeopardize our chances of making that happen. As if she’d heard me, Delight gave a single, sharp nod.
“Point taken.”
“Cutter, Cascade, Abby. You’re with me. The rest of you go limber up. Don’t break anything, and don’t hurt anyone. I want you mission ready, not exhausted.”
I felt Abby slide into my head as the room cleared. Cascade’s entry was nowhere near as unobtrusive. In fact, his entry reminded me of the way the wolves had bounded into my head—all exuberance and play…and no manners whatsoever.
“Get over it, Cutter.” Delight, of course, was her usual self, as she settled into my implant. Her virtual presence looked around, and her gaze settled on Cascade.
The dog had stopped his prancing around, and was standing still, tension running through him, like an arrow at full draw. Delight reached out her hand, and slid it under his muzzle, scratching his chin. With her other hand, she stretched up and opened a link into the orbital’s database, and I realized her Hack Team had been busy already.
Pictures of Rohan and Mack and Tens flashed in front of the big dog.
“Find them,” Delight said. Her hand tightened on the dog’s jaw, before he could take his head out of her grasp. “Quietly! Shadow dog. Shadow.”
Images flowed between them: of Cas sneaking past detection programs, monitors, and technicians wet-wired into the system.
“Shadow!” Delight repeated, and Cascade gave a whining growl.
He could do quiet.
“Good boy!” Delight said, and let him go.
He leapt for the entry into the station’s systems, his virtual construct shrinking from giant hound, to something sleek and small, with gleaming fangs and prehensile claws.
What the Hell was that?
“Skaraflam,” Delight said. “You never want
