Risk Be Damned

by Natalie Grey

  “Are you alright?” Arisha appeared at his side. She was holding two mugs of beer.

  “This place is very strange,” Stoyan remarked as he took one of the mugs of beer. He tried to remember what he had been thinking about before Arisha appeared. “It is difficult to believe that we are part of the night sky now.”

  “It frightens me a little bit,” Arisha admitted. “I like it, but it goes on forever. It’s so much bigger than anyone or anything I’ve ever seen.” She looked down at her beer, “It makes me wonder if everything that matters to me is unimportant.”

  “What does matter to you?” Stoyan asked curiously. “In the hideout, you said you wanted the truth. What would you do with the truth?” He gave a half smile. “I suppose you have it now.”

  “The truth is more complex than just seeing something happen,” Arisha explained. “The facility in the mountains got bombed. We know that. But that doesn’t tell us why or how. Was it an enemy or a friend? Why waste so many resources to destroy it like that? Every fact comes from a whole web of reasons. That’s how the world works.”

  Stoyan leaned against the glass and looked down at her. This woman had every quality that annoyed him in humans. She stuck her nose in places it didn’t belong, she wanted to understand a world she was not a part of, she claimed to understand things that there was no way she could understand. But she fascinated him, and he told himself that it was not just her figure that was drawing him in.

  Then he realized what was different about her. What he hoped was different about her.

  “What will you do when you understand the whole world?” he asked her. He suddenly realized that he was leaning up against a sheet of glass, with only that between him and the void of space, and straightened up hurriedly.

  Arisha tilted her head. “What will I do?” she echoed. “Write it down, I guess.”

  “You don’t want to be in politics?” Stoyan asked. “Make policies, change the world?”

  “No.” She shook her head emphatically. “Not that. I want people to read my work and understand the world. Does that make any sense?”

  Her father told her that she was wasting her time trying to search for the truth. Her mother told her to find a husband. Her older brother reminded her that she was writing travel stories, not covering important events. Even her friends liked to tell her that she was reaching beyond herself. To her surprise, though, Stoyan smiled.

  “I like that,” he said quietly. “You want to see the way things really are, not just the way they seem. I don’t think that’s unimportant or small, no matter how big space is.”

  Arisha smiled up at him. “And you? What’s most important to you?”

  “Family.” Stoyan looked down at his beer. Despair returned. “Or at least, that’s what I would have said a year ago. I would have told you that if a family stuck together, everything would be okay. But I’ve realized that’s not true.”

  “How do you mean?” Arisha led him to a small pair of barstools and a round table between them as they opened up, and the two of them leaned in to speak quietly to one another.

  “When Irina went missing, our pack leader told me that he would make sure she was found.” Stoyan set his beer on the table and sank his head into his hands. “But I knew he was afraid. You see, a lot of people had gone missing, and when their pack went to look for them, the whole pack would disappear. I knew what he was afraid of. I understood. But I saw him make the choice to leave Irina wherever she was—not to search for her. I couldn’t stay with my pack after that.”

  It had been the youngest pack members who left with him, all of the ones who still believed there was a way to stand up against whatever was happening. Evan, their pack leader, let them go without a fight. He didn’t believe in his own choices enough to argue, and that made it worse in Stoyan’s eyes.

  “I wanted a pack that would never sacrifice its members,” he told Arisha. “That’s who I’m trying to be. I don’t want anyone left behind. Even people like Filip, people who aren’t … strong. I do what I can to keep them safe. But I’m afraid I’m not strong enough, and when I sent her a message, she didn’t respond. I’m afraid she thinks I’m not strong enough, either.”

  “You are strong enough,” Arisha told him. “You are doing everything you can to save your cousin, and Bethany Anne will help you. You’ll see. We’re going to go back to earth, Stoyan—and we’re going to save your cousin. She’ll see your message and she’ll know you’re still fighting for her. If she didn’t contact you back, she has a reason. You’ll see her again, I promise.”

  Stoyan clasped her hand with a smile.

  Arisha smiled back, blushing, and looked around. “Uh … should we explore the ship?”

  —

  “Assuming he was telling the truth, this is bigger than we imagined.” Lance stared at the map with a frown.

  “He was telling the truth,” Bethany Anne replied. She counted the dots one more time: eighteen of them, each indicating buildings, operations, or fully-fledged research facilities owned by Hugo Marcari. With the revelation of Gerard Cordova, the final puzzle pieces had fallen into place.

  “Who the hell is this man?” Nathan was frowning. “I didn’t think the old nobility was a thing anymore. Spain doesn’t have a King, does it?”

  “No, but think of him as the son of an alpha,” Stephen suggested. “The pack is following someone else, and he wants it to follow him because of who his father was. He doesn’t deserve it, he hasn’t earned it, but he wants it.”

  “Because …? Help me out here.” Nathan shook his head.

  “He believes that the system of a King and a noble class is ordained by God, and that the chaos in the world is related to the fact that people do not follow nobles anymore.” Stephen raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “It’s not an uncommon thought.”

  Bethany Anne snorted. “You forget how old you are. It ‘wasn’t uncommon’ back before the French Revolution, but no one these days really knows what the nobility does. We haven’t lived with one. Even this guy hasn’t ever lived in a world with a noble class.”

  “That’s true. Sometimes I forget how young you all are.” Stephen looked around himself. “Where’s Gabrielle? She’d understand.”

  “Off dealing with some crisis in Europe.” Bethany Anne waved her hand and gave a bitter laugh. “And if Hugo Marcari wants to try to get the world to behave, he can be my guest. It’s going to be a lot harder than he thinks.” She let her head drop onto the table in front of her and groaned. “If he would only stop torturing people to death, I could ignore him.”

  “That’s about the way of it.” Lance gave a sigh. “So what are we going to do?”

  “Go after Cordova,” Jennifer said at once. She slid a stack of papers across the desk to Bethany Anne. “This is just a small part of what Arisha was able to research during the flight. This man is Hugo’s second in command, he’s really the one most people are afraid of. He makes a lot of calls on the fly—without him, Hugo is going to be a lot easier to take out.”

  “We should go straight for Hugo,” Nathan objected.

  “We don’t know what these experiments are.” Jennifer shook her head. “They’re taking whole packs. That’s all we know. Without Stoyan’s cousin, we don’t have any more insight. It would not be a good idea to attack him without knowing what kind of weapons he’s built.”

  “All right, so what’s your plan to take out Cordova?” Nathan settled back in his chair and crossed his arms. “If you’re right, he’s at least as dangerous as Hugo, if not more so.”

  “He has a weakness.” Jennifer looked a bit queasy as she explained. “He likes hurting people. Arisha is pretty sure he was sent to punish leadership at the facility you saw. But he didn’t get the chance. We’re fairly sure he’s going to try to take that out on someone else. Now, right now, ADAM thinks he’s headed back to Spain. But it looks like his next stop after that is the other facility in Bulgaria … with a stop-off in Sofia first. If we can tail him from th
e city, we can follow him into the facility, shut it down, and take him out in one strike. From there, we’ll know what we’re dealing with when we go for Hugo.”

  Bethany Anne and Stephen exchanged a look. Both of them were nodding.

  “They had better hope,” Bethany Anne said conversationally, “that their experiments aren’t something that will piss me off even more than I already am.” She pushed herself up. “Make it happen. Nathan—you going with them?”

  “I was going to ask if I could, yes.” Nathan nodded. “I want to talk to Stoyan’s Alpha.”

  “Do it.” Bethany Anne left, still shaking her head.

  Lance looked around the table, “I don’t know about you all, but I don’t think these people have a chance in hell of not pissing her off.” He pushed himself up. “And with that, I am going to go have a beer.”

  —

  “Oh, this is good.” Marcus took a sip of beer and nodded appreciatively. “This is very good.”

  “The best you’ve brewed,” William agreed, nodding along to Marcus’s comment. He drained the mug. “I will be pleased to sip in a second…So,” he waved impatiently to his friend, “Gimme!”

  “That’s how you treat my creation?” Bobcat gave a mock-wounded expression. “Definitely not, no more for you. I worked hard on that beer.”

  “And it shows! Come on, you know you want to pour us another round. We’ll say nice things again.” William grinned, “Besides, beer was made to be consumed.”

  “He’s right, you know.” Marcus drained his own. He looked around as Lance walked into the bar and waved for the General to come over. “Hey! Come taste Bobcat’s latest creation.”

  “I’ll never say no to that.” Lance came to take a seat at the bar. “Got enough for one more?”

  “For you? Always.” Bobcat poured a mug and slid it across the bar.

  “What about ours?” William asked plaintively.

  “Hmmm.” Bobcat took the two mugs and poured each a half-full round. He held them just out of reach. “Perhaps you could say I’ve outdone myself.”

  “You’ve definitely outdone yourself,” Lance agreed. He took a second sip and looked at Marcus and William. “It seems like a small thing to say to get your hands on another beer, gentlemen. I’d agree with him.”

  “I’d agree with him, too, except I know him.” Marcus frowned. “I don’t think that’s the only thing he’s going to make us say.”

  “I think you’re right,” William agreed.

  “I guess Lance and I will drink all the beer, then.” Bobcat took the two mugs and put them down in front of Lance. “Better call the Queen and tell her you’ll be out of commission for a while.”

  “Didn’t you know?” Lance grinned at him. “I don’t get hangovers anymore. Little gift from the Kurtherians.”

  “Lucky.” Marcus took a sip of his own beer.

  “Okay, okay!” William gave a groan at the sight of the beer. “You’ve outdone yourself. What else do we have to say?”

  “Hmm.” Bobcat took another sip, considering. “That I’ve outdone you two.”

  “Hell, no, I won’t!” William snatched his hand back.

  “Then no more beer for you.”

  “I’ll say it,” Marcus suggested. He shrugged his shoulders at Bobcat. “We’ve made some good beer since we opened this place, but he’s still ahead of us. I think this is the best so far.” He held out his hands. “Do I get mine now?”

  “One last thing,” Bobcat held the mugs up. “You have to say it’s better than anything you ever could make.”

  “I knew it! I knew you’d make us say something like that.” William jabbed a finger at him. “And no way. I can absolutely make a better beer than you can.”

  “I don’t think you can,” Marcus said smugly.

  Lance watched the standoff, drinking his beer contemplatively. Finally he suggested, “Well, it seems like there’s only one way to settle this.” All three men looked at him. Lance shrugged, “I think you have to have a contest for who can make the best beer. I’ll take the bullet and judge it for you.”

  “A contest.” Marcus nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

  “If you think you can outdo me, you’re welcome to try.” Bobcat gave a grin.

  “Are you going to allow outside help?” Lance asked them. “And what’s your time frame? You’ll need a few batches to perfect things. I’ll help with those, too.”

  “Right.” Bobcat was laughing. “Say, six months? And they can have as much help as they need. They’re not going to win anyway. Anyone can help. But dibs on Pete - that man knows beer.”

  “Dibs Richard and Samuel,” Marcus shot back. “They know more.”

  “Well … shit.” William looked at Lance. “I should have spoken up sooner. Who am I going to have to help me out?”

  Lance considered this, and a slow smile spread across his face. “Didn’t Barnabas say he used to be a monk?”

  “Yeah.” William frowned. “Why?”

  “Because monks,” Lance informed him, “used to make a lot of beer. I’ll bet old Barnabas has quite a few tricks up his sleeve.”

  “No fair!” Bobcat looked at Lance in disbelief. “The judge is trying to sway the results!”

  “I am not. He was the only one left to ask.” Lance took the last sip of his beer. “Plus, he’ll need a lot of help to have a fighting shot against Marcus, Richard, and Samuel. And you’d better hope Pete’s as good as he says he is.” He nodded to all of them. “But, for the sake of thorough investigation, I will take it upon myself to find a full panel of judges. Gentlemen, I’ll see you six months from today.”

  Bobcat eyed his partners contemplatively, “You guys should just quit, now. It will save you from a very ignoble defeat.”

  William and Marcus chuckled.

  Bobcat reached over and locked his latest creation from dispensing any more beer.

  “Hey!” William called out.

  “What’s the idea here?” Marcus asked.

  Bobcat smiled, “Sorry gentleman, but it would be rude to continue teasing you with this beer when you have to deal with drinking six months of your own results.”

  He took a sip from his mug before finishing his thought, “Consider it tough love.”

  —

  Irina and Hsu heard the breaking branch at the same moment. It was impossible to tell how the sound was different from the normal sounds of the forest, it just was. Hsu froze, uselessly, and a second later, Irina slammed sideways into her as a gunshot echoed through the forest.

  “Stay down!” the werewolf hissed. Her head whipped around and she narrowed her eyes into the underbrush. “Five of them, coming this way. The pistol is still loaded?”

  Hsu nodded. She couldn’t seem to speak. Adrenaline was making her breath come shallow.

  “Good. Get to that ridge, stay down, and don’t move predictably. If anyone strays far from the group, shoot them.” Irina pointed, waited for Hsu’s nod, and took off.

  She didn’t wait to see if Hsu followed her instructions, she just took off across the hill, shedding layers as she went. The woman was a scientist, she probably didn’t know how to use a gun. In fact, Irina should probably just have told her to stay quiet and not shoot anything.

  She hoped that didn’t come back to bite her in the ass.

  She dove sideways and rolled as she kicked off her boots and struggled out of her pants. She pushed herself up on bare hands and continued on, picking her steps more carefully now.

  She could see them now as she ran: five figures in bulky snow gear. Even in this form, her eyes were unusually sharp. She could see the labored way they moved as they scrambled along the hill.

  They weren’t used to the gear. That was good. They also weren’t very well trained.

  They were far enough away that it had been stupid for them to try that shot. Only a sniper could have made the shot at that distance, and a sniper would have had the sense to pick their spot more carefully.

  One of them dropped aw
kwardly to a knee and aimed again, and Irina picked her moment. There was no time to salvage the tee-shirt and underwear she was wearing. She transformed and leapt over the path of the shot.

  She howled her pleasure as she ran. This was her true form, where she could push herself to the limit. She slid through the bushes and put on a sudden burst of speed as another shot echoed behind her. Twenty yards and she could jump. Ten, five—her muscles bunched and she threw herself into the air. She took the first man in the throat as his muscles froze in terror. Teeth ripped through skin and muscle and he gave a gurgling scream.