by Natalie Grey
“Oh! Uh, you probably don’t need to do that.” Tabitha winced, hoping against hope that her mother wouldn’t realize what she’d seen was two dead assassins. “You know, Mom, you really don’t need to—”
But the street was empty when her mother opened the door. Apparently Gabrielle had been busy getting things taken care of.
Tabitha sagged against the door frame in relief. “Phew.”
“Hmm?” Her mother looked at her.
“Nothing. I, uh, have to go. Selise needs to finish her homework, and I’ll be home again soon, I promise.” Tabitha wrote down a new email address. “I don’t have a phone right now, but I’ll get one so I can call you.”
“Please do.” Her mother kissed her on the cheek and enfolded her in another hug. “I never lost hope, but part of me always feared the worst. To know you are alive and safe—it’s a miracle. I can hardly believe it. Those who helped you escape, they are heaven-sent. I will pray for them.”
Tabitha thought about Michael’s sensibilities and smiled. “I think they’d like that.”
She left her family waving at her from the open doorway and headed into the streets with her hands in her pockets. Her heart was full.
A shadow appeared at her side with the distinctive click of heels on pavement, but Gabrielle didn’t speak. She let Tabitha walk in silence. It was clear to her that Tabitha was happier now, and that she had done what she needed to do. She’d not only made sure her family was safe, but was the one who had taken action to ensure it.
“Thanks,” Tabitha said finally. “I know this wasn’t exactly a fun girls’ night out with bad jokes and drinks and all that.”
“Believe it or not, I quite enjoyed myself,” Gabrielle said cheerfully. “I’m glad you were willing to accept help. Choices you have to make on your own, but as for what you do, you can always call on your allies.”
“D’you think...” Tabitha swallowed, and considered. “Do you think that someday maybe I could help someone else like you helped me?”
Gabrielle answered without hesitation, “I do. I really do.”
“I’d like that,” Tabitha confided.
But she stopped dead the next second, the smile fading from her face.
Joaquin stood in the road in front of them. He was unarmed, and his expression was miserable.
“I heard,” he said finally.
Tabitha crossed her arms and said nothing.
“That Santino and Thiago are dead,” Joaquin clarified. “It can only have been you two, so I thought I’d make it easy for you to find me.”
Tabitha still said nothing.
“You can kill me,” Joaquin told her. “I won’t make a fuss. Just… If I can bargain for anything with you, please don’t hurt my family. Let my death be the end of it.”
Something in Tabitha snapped.
“You think I want to harm your family?” she demanded. “You think I’d take my anger at you out on defenseless and innocent people?”
“I hurt you. I sold you out.” Joaquin shook his head. “Your family could have gotten hurt—I saw the guards there.”
“So maybe that means I know how awful that is, not that I would ever do it!” Tabitha shot back. “You know what sucks about all this? About seeing you again? You’re a coward now, and you’re stupid—even stupider than I was. I was, what…thirteen? Fourteen? Well, what’s your excuse? Even I didn’t let my family get caught up in my shit.”
“I don’t have any excuse.” He met her eyes. “Even though I knew it was stupid, I told myself I had no choice. I told myself the city was big enough that I could disappear and not have them know where I’d gone once I’d made enough money, but I was wrong.”
Tabitha stared him down.
Still at her side, Gabrielle watched patiently. Killing Joaquin would hardly be difficult. She could be at his throat before he even had a chance to scream, but she found that she had no idea what Tabitha would do now.
Tabitha had admitted to wanting Joaquin dead, but it was one thing to want that when you were powerless, and another to have that power in your hands.
Joaquin sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “I did the wrong thing. I know that.”
“Oh, for the love of… I’m not going to kill you, okay?” Tabitha shook her head angrily. “I don’t just go around killing people because they made a couple bad choices. Those guards are dead because they stood by and watched innocent people get killed—or killed those people themselves. Santino and Thiago are dead because they didn’t care who they used or how they used them as long as they got whatever they wanted. You… You’re just stupid.”
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“No. For one thing, I like that you had the balls to argue for your family.” Tabitha gave a surly shrug and blew out her breath. “For another, someone gave me a second chance not too long ago.”
“I-I can’t… Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet.” Tabitha gave him a look. “Here’s the deal, okay? I’m going to let you walk away tonight, and you’re going to go home and say something nice to your family. And if you ever, ever try to screw someone over again ‘because you needed the money,’ I will make sure that what happens to your dick is a warning to every other man on the planet. No, you know what? Let’s throw everything in there. I want it to be a warning to everyone.”
Gabrielle stifled her laughter with her hand.
“And I will know,” Tabitha said, pointing a finger at him. “You might think I won’t, but I will. Remember that. Oh, and one other thing.”
“Yes?” Joaquin’s face was grayish now.
“Get the hell out of here, I don’t want to see you ever again.”
Gabrielle pretended to shade her eyes as she watched him practically run down the street. “Wow, look at him go.”
“Uh-huh.” Tabitha tilted her head to the side. “Got some good speed there.”
Gabrielle nodded. “I think you did the right thing, for what it’s worth. He screwed you over, but you were right. He did argue for his family, and he didn’t try to escape the consequences of what he did. If you killed everyone over the first infraction, you’d—”
She looked around in confusion. Tabitha had disappeared into thin air. It took a moment of looking and a few exploratory sniffs to identify the direction the woman had vanished in.
“Tabitha?”
“Over here! This way!” Tabitha shouted. “It’s urgent! Come on!”
EPILOGUE
“I have to say,” Gabrielle said a few minute later, “I don’t think this qualifies as urgent.”
“Good choripan is always urgent,” Tabitha explained.
The little hole-in-the-wall restaurant was furnished with rickety chairs and metal tables covered with red and white tablecloths. Smoke hung heavy in the air, as did the smells of oil, onions, meat, and fried bread.
A man came out of the back and set down two bottles of Coca Cola, and Gabrielle stared at the soda, then back at Tabitha.
“Coke? Really?”
“That’s what you drink with choripan,” Tabitha explained. She picked up her sandwich and took a nibble. “Mmmm…”
Gabrielle took a bite and chewed. “You know, this is pretty good.”
“It’s hard not to just wolf it down,” Tabitha explained. She shook her head. “But I want to savor it, you know?”
“Well, you’re going to be nearby most of the time, right?” Gabrielle asked. “So you can get these when you come to see your parents or whatever.”
“I suppose I could,” Tabitha agreed. “You know, it doesn’t taste quite like I remember, though.”
Gabrielle smiled. “You mean, it doesn’t taste the same way it did when you were half-starving and living on rice and it was your one indulgence?”
“I suppose,” Tabitha said, around a large mouthful, apparently having given up on her plan to savor the sandwich.
“I’ve been there,” Gabrielle confided. “Food tastes better when you’ve been sleeping on
rocky ground and living on limited rations. You’re tired, you’re hungry—well, humans get hungry, anyway—and a bite of something even a little luxurious tastes like heaven. Hell, if you get hungry enough even rice tastes good.”
Tabitha smiled wanly. “I guess that’s true. I just wish it tasted like… Well, like it used to.” She shrugged and brightened, and picked up her bottle of Coke to clink it against Gabrielle’s. “Now it’ll taste like freedom, I’ve decided.”
Gabrielle laughed and toasted her. “A good meal for freedom. No lines, no need to dress up. Just you in your old neighborhood, enjoying your favorite food.”
“Exactly.” Tabitha scooped up a stray onion. “You know, this night has been really weird. When I was here before, everyone else controlled everything. Now I’m in control. It’s unsettling.”
“That’s growing up, cherie.” Gabrielle smiled at her. “That’s growing up. And yeah it feels weird, but it’s good weird, isn’t it?”
“Very good,” Tabitha admitted. She considered. “So what do we do now? We told Michael we might be gone for a couple of days.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Gabrielle grinned. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to shop our asses off. We’re going to get a super-swanky hotel room with the biggest beds you ever saw. We’re going to get massages. We’re going to have amazing drinks. And we’re going to get a few more choripanes while we’re at it.”
“Hell. Yes.” Tabitha held up her hand for a high-five. “Let’s get on that.”
FINIS
Seed Vault
By Natalie Grey & Michael Anderle
CHAPTER ONE
Romania
Alexi loped through the forest, big paws striking the ground and propelling him forward, rich dirt and loam redolent in the air.
He knew what humans thought of bears: that they were big, lumbering, terrifying. But to him, this form was freedom.
He felt graceful as a bear. He was muscle and purpose, a creature that did exactly what it was made to do.
Things were simpler when he shifted.
Simpler, but not entirely without sadness.
He was missing Ecaterina today. His niece had left years ago now to aid TQB, and though Alexi knew she was happier there than she had ever been here, he missed her smile, her humor, and her company.
Ecaterina loved the outdoors. Like Ivan, she could handle herself in a forest or in the mountains. She understood the dangers and respected them without letting fear trap her.
More and more, children like Ecaterina and Ivan were leaving to go to the cities. They were growing up with different concerns than a love of the forest.
It made Alexi sad to think about it.
He was hopeful that he might see her soon, however. Ecaterina had had a daughter not too long ago, and had promised to bring the baby home to meet everyone.
And Alexi approved of the man she had found. Nathan was a strong Wechselbag, a man with innate command but no love of power. He would make a good match for Ecaterina. He was the sort of man you trusted implicitly.
The spring breeze was carrying the scent of snowmelt and new greenery to Alexi’s nose when he heard the unmistakable clang of a trap and the anguished scream of an animal in pain. He skidded to a halt, head whipping around toward the source of the noise.
He ran as quickly as he could while still being careful. If there was one trap, there was always another. That was a rule in the forest.
Anger was starting to beat low in his chest. He could hear a growl bursting out of him.
The scent of blood caught him not too far away and he slowed, padding carefully and avoiding the piles of recently disturbed leaves. There would be traps there, as well.
A young buck was thrashing wildly in the jaws of the trap. His foreleg was shattered, and he had snapped another in his panic. There was foam at his jaws, and his eyes rolled sideways in terror when he saw the bear appear.
There was no saving him. Too much blood was on the leaves, and too many bones had been broken. Alexi snarled his frustration, and immediately regretted it when the buck gave a scream of terror.
And without words, there was no way to tell the buck what must happen. Alexi hung his head for a moment. Then, as the buck quieted, he padded closer.
All that was left was the quickest, most merciful death.
But this death should never have happened at all.
He tried to keep his anger from being visible as he looked up to meet the buck’s eyes. The buck knew his death was coming. He knew, too, that he could thrash his head and hurt Alexi, but he did not try as Alexi came closer.
He stayed still as Alexi took his life in one quick slash of his claws, and the light faded from his eyes.
All that was left then was to deprive the trappers of their prize. Alexi snapped his jaws at the trapped leg, and dragged the body into the underbrush, to a place he knew was safe.
There, he shredded the body patiently. He took bone and meat, raked his claws over the hide, and left a body that would feed the wolves of the forest well enough … but be useless to a human hunter or fur trapper.
Alexi had no qualms with the hunters who stalked their prey patiently through the forest. Wolves and bears hunted with claws and teeth, humans hunted with bows and guns. It was the way of things.
Everyone had to eat.
But when a hunter decided to stay in the comfort of his own home, and use metal traps to kill a beast he never saw alive, never took the time to hunt himself—then Alexi had a problem.
And he was going to make sure they paid for what they had done.
Then he left for his home, and for the bar where he found both friendship and information.
He wanted to find out who had left these traps out … so he could make them tell him exactly where each one was.
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Bethany Anne unrolled the blueprints with a flourish and smiled up at the assembled crowd.
There was a long pause.
“Well?” She grinned at all of them. “Come on, what d’you think?”
Gabrielle looked fixedly at the ceiling. Ecaterina was chewing on her lip. Bobcat had the vague look in his eyes that meant he was thinking of Yelena, and Yelena had the faint blush of someone who knew she was being thought about.
Ashur and Bellatrix offered no opinions.
“Uh….” Nathan finally cleared his throat. He didn’t want to be the one to ask, but clearly, no one else was going to. “What is it?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Bethany Anne tapped at a picture embedded in one of the blueprints. “It’s the seed vault at Svalbard.”
“Yeah.…” Nathan looked around himself for someone who might take up the questioning.
Everyone studiously avoided his gaze. Ecaterina had discovered a deep and abiding interest in her fingernails, Gabrielle was adjusting her shoes, and Bobcat and Yelena still seemed unaware that anyone else was in the room with them.
Nathan sighed. He wasn’t going to get any backup on this. “And what’s a seed vault?”
“Really, none of you know about this?” Bethany Anne looked around at all of them. “It’s super cool, it’s been on the news….”
“Since when are you interested in gardening?” Gabrielle asked delicately. She rubbed a thumb over deep purple nail polish and crossed her legs, sitting back in her chair with a faint frown.
“It’s not gardening,” Bethany Anne said, disgruntled. She couldn’t believe that not a single person in this room had heard about this. She and TOM had stayed up the night before, reading all about the facility at Svalbard—but she had known about it for years before that. “And I’m allowed to have non-military interests, you know.”
“We kind of thought you’d covered that with the shoes,” Nathan offered.
He then took one look at Bethany Anne’s face and resolved never to speak again as long as he lived.
ADAM projected his voice over the speaker systems in the meeting room. “The seed vault at Svalbard
is a repository that can hold up to 4.5 million different types of seeds, serving as insurance against the loss of biodiversity.”
“I see. Thank you, ADAM.” Nathan looked around, glaring at the others to start talking. “Anyone else have any questions?”
It turned out he didn’t need to be quite so emphatic. Ecaterina was now genuinely interested. She guessed, “You want to build one for us.”
She had always loved the abundance of flowers, berries, and trees in the mountains around her home, and had wondered often about how the relatively simple gardens on the Meredith Reynolds would affect the community they were building.
She had kept such thoughts to herself until now, not thinking that anyone else would be interested.
But it seemed like Bethany Anne was interested.
“Yes.” Bethany Anne smiled at Ecaterina’s obvious enthusiasm. “I know it’s not a top priority, because we’ll have enough food and air treatment, and military projects really need to be where we spend most of our energy.
“But I think it is good to have projects that aren’t so…stressful.”
Nathan nodded. It had been well-known in his pack that the Wechselbalg who tried to devote themselves entirely to duty without any time to decompress or have a good time, burned out quickly.
Hell, Gerry had even liked to bake. A surprisingly large number of conversations about the pack had taken place over fresh scones and elaborate braided loaves of bread.
If Nathan ever told anyone about that, though, he was sure he would be dead by the next morning.
He cleared his throat hastily, “Yeah, sounds like some downtime would do us good.”
Bobcat was also nodding. His pet projects, including his own vehicles and his beer, were what had kept him sane over the years of intensive work. Something like this, with completely different specifications from anything else they were working on, would be a good side project.
Ecaterina could think of only one thing, however: “Where will we get the seeds?”
Bethany Anne smiled. The start of the meeting hadn’t necessarily been promising, but this new wave of enthusiasm was making her very happy.
