Delight also blinded the security cams, locked the shuttle to the deck, popped the hatches and let the team do the rest. We figured putting the passengers and pilot into the hangar bay amounted to murder…and would give us away before we were ready, so we bound ’em tight, blocked their implants and ran through the pre-flights like we were meant to be there.
The task of unlocking the shuttle and putting the docking bay back to rights went to Pritchard, while Delight took the stick and sent the shuttle planetward in accordance to its original flight plan.
“Stand-by for incoming burst,” Wanderer interrupted.
“Standing by.” Delight sounded deathly calm.
A brief silence followed, and I assumed Wanderer was passing on the burst. Across from me, Pritchard tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Given he was in the middle of a mission, I didn’t think he was sleeping. I figured he’d be in on the incoming data, command crew and all that.
He cracked an eyelid, and looked at me, but he didn’t say a word. The eyelid flickered closed again, opening when Delight spoke.
“Heads up, kids. The wolves have moved up the schedule for their auction. We’ll be hitting the holding facility, but the cub is already up for bidding. Wanderer is standing off from the station, but there’s plenty of incoming traffic to play havoc with the lanes. We need to be in and out, and in double quick time.”
We felt the shuttle bank sharply one way, and then level out.
“And the airspace is gonna be crowded. Prepare to drop.”
According to the counter in my head we were dropping ahead of time, but the shuttle had accelerated, so I figured Delight was compensating for the rapidly closing window we had before the boys were split three ways to Sunday and the Stars knew where.
When I next heard Delight’s voice, it was pitched for my ears only, the frequency as tight as she could make it.
“They’re making it wolf-only,” she said. “We need to retrieve them before they become cargo on a ship that’s jumped out of here. Wolf territory starts right next door.”
Well, fuck.
I sent out a tendril of contact, trying to find Cascade, and the big boof bounced into my head. Ahead of me, and closer to the door, I heard Scarpil grunt, as the dog squirmed.
“Be still, Cas,” I said. “You, me. We’re gonna go fetch Rohan.”
Scarpil gave a soft ‘oof’ of pain and swiveled in his seat, glaring at me.
“Still!” I ordered, making a look of apology at the big merc. “Still!”
I’m not sure I pulled that off as well as I wanted to, because he scowled at me, but at least he turned around again. The shuttle slowed, and the entry hatch slid open.
“Time to go,” Delight said, and I stood with the rest of them, aware of Pritchard falling into step beside me as we moved towards the door.
“You okay with this?” he asked, and I nodded, even though I knew the look on my face said otherwise.
I’d jumped before—and I don’t mean just the time Mack had dared me out of a shuttle without a clue as to what I was doing. I didn’t mean the next couple of jumps after that, either. Nope, once that little debacle had been over, Mack had made sure I knew how to jump from high to low with every level of opening in between.
There had been days when I’d really hated Mack.
I could jump, now, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Good to know,” Pritchard said, and I realized he’d followed my brief trip through that first jump and the training that followed.
Well, at least I didn’t have to explain it.
“Time to go,” he said, pulling me out of my head, and I realized we’d made it to the door.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
I didn’t give him a chance to help me on my way, just turned and leapt into nothing, doing the short count it took for the shuttle to clear the sky I needed for the chute. It didn’t take me long to catch up with the rest, and I joined them in pulling the light-weight fabric in and stowing it in a pack. This time round, we weren’t leaving anything behind.
I turned my head to watch the shuttle drop the last of us, and assumed Delight had abandoned it, too, wondering how far it would fly before it crashed.
“It won’t crash,” Pritchard said. “Delight’s put it on a pre-flight, and convinced the Demon’s pilot it would be better for them to land and come off it bitching about a technical glitch so he and the guys can take their leave and be back on board before anyone realizes they had anyone else on board. No one wants to fall foul of what passes for the law down here.”
Neat, I thought, and Pritchard grinned.
“This time, we lucked out and landed on our feet.”
As he said it, Cascade bounced into my chest and knocked me off mine.
“What the fuck, dog!”
Cascade licked my face, laughing down at me before going elsewhere to relieve himself on a bush. I glanced over and caught Scarpil watching him, a look of undisguised relief on his face.
“Glad he didn’t do that while I was carrying him,” he said, and I laughed.
“Yeah, laugh it up, short stuff,” Delight said, strolling out of the undergrowth.
She looked around at the team, then slapped us all with the latest schematics of the wolves’ base.
“Change of plan,” she said, “and you can all thank Abs for these.”
She highlighted three areas on the plans.
“Auction room is here,” she said. “Rohan is currently on stage, but the buyer’s rep will take him down to the hangars for delivery. Wanderer is trying to identify which ship that is, in case we need to disable it before it can leave, but she doesn’t
