What the fuck?
“No. Look. Remember the first trip through Vameran’s Arc.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“Gotcha,” he said. “I’ll get Abs to check that out. Good thinking, Cutter. Now get dressed.”
As if he knew just how undressed I currently was!
“Don’t make me come in there!”
That had possibilities.
“Cutter!”
I blushed. He hadn’t been meant to pick up that last thought. My mind had kinda been going rogue, and I’d missed him. Shoving that thought aside, before he could respond…or worse, Tens or Delight, or—and I felt my face grow hot at the thought—Stars forbid—Rohan, who was far too young for such things.
“You wish!” was not what I wanted to hear, and the brat popped back out of my head, laughing fit to burst.
Going three rounds to put the little shit back in his place was starting to look like a necessity. We had no time, though—and no time to heal, after, anyway—so I changed the subject.
“Rohan, did you see anything in the delivery manifests to the Rumah Aman that would identify the ships bringing the miners in?”
“Checking,” came as a Rohan and Tens duet, and my guess was that the only reason Abby didn’t join them was that she was too busy checking the jump point from Vameran’s Arc into the asteroid belt for traffic.
That little hole had been in the wolf’s neighborhood for so long, I’d have been surprised if they hadn’t worked out a way to leverage it.
I was dressed and wondering where my weapons were before anyone had time to respond, when the next thought crossed my tiny little mind. Given it wasn’t in Mack’s remit, and that Rohan, Tens and Abby were busy with other things, I only had one other person to turn to—and rather than nudge that system, I just started talking, knowing the ship would pick up my voice and, hopefully, respond.
“Hey, Wanderer, what other ships are in-system?”
Because there had to be some, right?
It might be the ass-end of the universe, but it was still at a junction between two shifter territories, and it was a major mining centre, despite the fact it didn’t advertise much—and that meant there had to be some kind of trade going on, probably illicit, but still there, and that meant there had to be ships, in-system, or leaving, or something. Right?
“Correct,” Wanderer answered. “There should be ships in-system. I am picking up traces, but finding no ships. Message traffic contains indications that the knowledge of Oligarch Costoganzi’s capture has reached the sector ahead of us, and the mining company is continuing its operations at an increased pace in order to harvest as much ore as possible before Odyssey arrives to close it down. Ships departed the system shortly thereafter. I do not know when they will return, or in what numbers. There was talk of ‘other measures’ being in place.”
“The charges…” I began, remembering the explosives set to blow the laborer’s habitats.
“It was fortunate your team deactivated them. Impulses were sent within minutes of me arriving in-system. Lives that would have been lost have been saved…although, I strongly suggest non-mining personnel aboard the habitats be rendered inactive before they decide to manually destroy the evidence, so to speak.”
“Done,” Delight said, interrupting. “Teleporting Teams Six and Four. Wanderer, initiate a bounce jump as each team requests.”
“Done, and done,” Wanderer replied. “Nice talking with you, Cutter.”
The ship left my head, but Delight did not. I swear I could see her tapping her foot. Inside my skull. It was kind of annoying.
“Get your ass to the briefing room, kid. Your weapons are waiting.”
Up until that point, I’d been sort of just standing in the san and staring at the door. It had been a closed door, but now it was wide open, and I was looking at Mack. His chest, mainly. It wasn’t a bad sight, even covered in armor.
“That’s how you usually see it, Cutter. Why the admiration, now?”
Well, shit!
“Get out of my head, Mack.”
He smirked, and gave me a slantways look, and I pretended he hadn’t caught me remembering how he’d looked in the wolf pens, no matter how fast I’d shut it away after he’d asked the question.
“Nice to you know you care.”
“Delight wants us up in the conference room,” I said, brushing past him, when all I wanted was to stop and lean into him.
“Stars, girl, but your timing is way off for this,” he said, and kept his voice to a low murmur.
I felt myself go red, the heat setting skin ablaze all the way to my hairline, figured I’d shut this down while I still could.
“Don’t sweat it, Mack. I know you’re taken—and it isn’t me. I’ll live, okay?”
I didn’t wait for a reply, but he reached out and grabbed my shoulder, trying to spin me around.
“Hells, yes, it’s you.”
Like he said, my timing was way off for this—and Delight was waiting.
All I wanted to do was stop and wrap my arms around him, and there was no time. None.
“Take your hand off me, Mack,” I said, and it came out as a growl.
At least he did as he was told.
“We’ve got a mission to run. Catch me after.”
Man looked like I’d hit him with a tangler, but it couldn’t be helped. We both had a job to do, and this, this? We didn’t need it, right now. There was no time to deal with it, and no way we could afford to let it to distract us. I blinked away the frustration before it could fall as tears, and stalked towards the conference room, doing what I’d learned to do a long time ago when emotion threatened to unravel the rest of me.
I stuffed it into a small, small box, and threw myself into the job.
Of course, the emotion was usually fear, and this, this really wasn’t, but what could I do? I didn’t have any other way. I was going to throw myself into the mission, and the Stars could evaporate before I failed.
And Mack be damned!
Delight had better
