“Bennett is it? Nice to meet you.”
Well, that was almost civilized.
For Mack.
And then I watched him tighten his grip, and look the man hard in the eye.
“You touch another one of my people,” and a glance showed he included Cascade in that, “and you’ll be dead.”
I watched Bennett’s face, saw the man swallow, and his skin grow pale, saw him refuse to flinch or look away.
“Allies,” he said, although how he kept his voice steady enough to sound that firm, I don’t know.
“Allies,” Mack replied, and released his hand, dropping into the seat beside me, and laying his arm around my shoulders, “and you,” he told me, “pull another stunt like the last one, and you’ll wish you were dead.”
Yeah. Thanks for that, Mack. It’s good to have you back, too.
“So,” Abby chimed in, using the intercom in the room to project her voice, “now that the introductions are over, how do you propose we set about doing this?”
All eyes turned to me.
“What?”
“You brokered the deal,” Mack reminded me.
“And we’ve kinda been away,” Rohan added.
I didn’t miss Tens’s quick glance of concern at the boy, but he stayed quiet, closing the distance between the door and the table and taking a seat beside Bennett. Rohan followed him, and Tens waved him into the place next to me.
Rohan rolled his eyes.
“He thinks we need to kiss and make up or something,” he said, in the privacy of a tightly controlled link to my implant—and then he blushed with all the awkwardness of a young man that’s just realized he’d suggested kissing a female colleague.
I tried not to react to that, but suppressing my smile only meant it leaked out as a smirk—and he tried to hold back the answering smile, his blush growing darker and spreading down his neck.
“Oh, for pity’s sake! When the two of you have quite finished!”
Yup. Delight had returned.
“So, you’re good?” Tens wanted to know, and Rohan and I nodded.
“I can always kick your ass, later,” the boy added, but he didn’t sound like he meant it.
“You and whose army…” I sent back, only to hear Abby clearing her throat.
“Can we get back to what we’re doing next?” she asked, managing to sound prim, proper and reproving despite the tinny tone of the speaker.
“Sure, Abs,” I managed. “Why don’t we start with Delight explaining what accesses she had the Hack Team put in, what protections are in place, and what they’ve already found, and then you can add anything they might have missed, and Bennett can give us any Sharovan specifics we’ve all overlooked.”
Delight gave me a look of mild disbelief laced with exactly what she thought of me for calling her and the Hack Team out. Abby’s reply was saccharine sweet.
“That will do nicely for a start.”
Delight huffed out a sigh, and got back to her feet. Whatever her reaction said about me, however, the briefing she gave had clearly been prepared in advance. According to Delight, and the Hack Team, we had three avenues to pursue, and they had promising leads for each. Abby made it four, and then we let Bennett weigh in.
The man clearly deserved the investigator’s title he wore. He bulked out Abby’s lead, and added to both the information known and the avenues to explore, earning a reproving “You’ve been holding out on me,” from Abby. The search didn’t take long after that, no matter how many hours the clocks in our heads told us we’d worked.
“Wanderer,” Delight said, and the ship answered, before she could ask.
“We are underway,” she said. “Your teams are in training.”
Delight’s brows rose.
“Both of them?”
“I have broken all six of them out of stasis,” Wanderer said. “You will need to secure cooperation at Rigel’s Banter, the mining headquarters, and from within the asteroid belt itself. You will need all your teams. I have started them on Primer 7. Those that get through that unscathed will begin on Primer 9, tomorrow. The rest will be in regen, from which they will all progress to Primer 10.”
Delight sank back in her chair.
“That’s a tough rotation.”
“You will be operating on the edge of lupar territory, and against the sort of force required to subdue and keep a HMT ship locked down, during extraction and forced transfer. The reconditioning team may also be present. Have you ascertained if the facility is lupar or human-controlled?”
“Lupar.”
“Captain Star,” the Wanderer continued, “Case has told me to confirm that she and her escort will reach K’Kavoran space in a month of easy travel. She wishes to release the crew for planetary leave and to rotate them through assistance duties with the vespis and their human and weaver allies.”
“Approve it,” Mack said. “We’ve been away from them long enough.”
Which was true.
We’d spent a Terran standard year away from K’Kavor, hadn’t been back to the sector since the arach advance force were driven from the planet. Odyssey had handled the post-invasion mop-up, and we’d taken the crew for rehab, counselling, and recuperation in one of the inner sectors at Odyssey’s behest. Couldn’t say they were anything if not possessive of their allies’ good health.
“It’s because we want you on deck when we need you,” Delight said, and I realized I’d drifted, again, that the rest of them were staring at me.
“When we’re done with trips down Memory’s Lane,” Mack said, and I felt myself blush. Man was in fine form given he’d just been dragged out of the wolf lock-up.
His look turned to a scowl, and I blinked. The man also needed to get the Hell over himself.
“Three rounds,” he said. “You owe me.”
Oh, yeah? I pushed my seat back.
“Later!” Delight snapped, and pulled up a map of Rigel’s Banter and the nearby asteroid belt. “Cutter, sit down! Mack…just… Bennet, you’re up. Sharovan do security for Selimen, right?”
“Yes,” he said, drawing it out, as though he didn’t know what she was driving at.
“Good. Odyssey are taking over Selimen’s holdings. You’re our
