The Transporter's Favor

by C. M. Simpson

  “Bennett wants to see you. You, too, Mack.”

  28—Back to Work

  Bennett was waiting for us in the main conference room. Delight led us straight in, and indicated two seats. Pritchard was also waiting with a first aid kit, and a tube of nanite-enhanced gel.

  “Nice work,” he said, settling beside me and taking hold of my hand.

  Until he started applying the gel, I hadn’t realized I’d done that much damage to my knuckles.

  “Kid has a hard head,” I managed, and Mack slapped me across the back of the head. “Hey!”

  He didn’t say anything, but I could feel his presence in my head, and he wasn’t amused. I rolled my eyes, and looked over at Bennett. He was sitting on the opposite side of the table, looking very alone, no matter that he tried to hide it behind a mask of patience. I looked over at Delight.

  “So,” I said, and hissed as Pritchard ran a line of nan-gel down my cheek, “you rang?”

  “We’re not done, yet,” she said. “Bennett has two missing agents, and Abby’s lost three of her siblings.

  I resisted the urge to say that losing them had been very careless of her, since that wasn’t at all funny. Abs hit me with a jolt through the skull, anyway, and I yelped. Bennett lost some of his mask to a look of amusement, and Mack leant on me. Delight wasn’t amused.

  “When you’re quite done,” she said, “you’ll remember you still have a contract to complete.”

  That drew a look of surprise from Mack, and Delight looked at him.

  “You won’t have been briefed yet,” she said, “but Cutter and Case negotiated our assistance, and then negotiated an agreement to assist us in the retrieval of you, Bennett’s agents, and Abeona’s Dasojin counterparts. You and she have some catching up to do.”

  Mack straightened up, and I almost fell over. Up until that point I’d been leaning on him, and just hadn’t realized how much. Man was far too comfortable.

  Pritchard snorted, and finished bandaging my other hand.

  “Give it a half hour, and you can take it all off. Not before, though.” He gave me an assessing stare, and added, “You’ll need to check in with the med centre for the rest. Boy got a couple of good hits in.”

  That was an understatement, but I shrugged, anyway, and registered the stiffness in my chest.

  Man! The boy really had got some good hits in.

  “In the meantime,” Delight said, “I need you to liaise with Bennett and Abeona.”

  Mack put his hands on the table, and stood up. I followed his example. I figured I was back in his chain of command, given he was back.

  ‘You better believe it, girl.’

  Delight gave us both a look that said we were being difficult—but no more than was expected.

  “I suppose you want to talk to Case, now?”

  “Wanta point me to the comms?” Mack returned, and Delight pursed her lips.

  “You sure you don’t want to just pick up what you need from Cutter’s implant?”

  Mack slid me a sideways look, and then just shook his head.

  “I need to talk to Case sooner, rather than later. I’m betting you haven’t told her we’ve been retrieved successfully?”

  Delight shook her head.

  “Not yet,” she said. “And she’ll want to talk to you, anyway. Might as well get it over and done with.”

  Like it was some kind of chore…but there was a wry twist to Delight’s lips that said she wasn’t surprised, and didn’t really mind the delay.

  “Comms?” Mack asked, and Delight sighed.

  “Can I at least get Cutter to kick things off with Bennett and Abeona?”

  Maybe I was wrong about how she felt about the delay. She didn’t quite plead, but—Stars!—that was close. I felt Mack pause, looked over at him in time to see him give Delight an assessing stare.

  “Sure,” he said. “You need Tens and Rohan, too?”

  I watched as she let out a breath, I hadn’t known she’d been holding. Mack acknowledged it with one word, “Allies,” but it held everything he needed to say.

  From where I sat, it was clear he was calling an end to the word games, or, at the least, a temporary truce. Delight gestured towards a door at the back of the room.

  “Comms are that way. I’ll…”

  “I’ve called them. Rohan should be okay, now.” He glowered at me, before turning back to Delight. “But the wolves hit him hard, and it wasn’t the first time.”

  Delight didn’t answer that, but led the way out of the room, pausing to speak to Bennett as she did.

  “Pretty sure that catering company looks after wherever they took your boys.”

  I rolled my eyes. So much for not having left anything in the holding center’s system. Delight smirked.

  “Holding centre is clean,” she told me. “I promised nothing about the catering company’s systems.”

  Her words reminded me that the catering company and the holding centre were under two different names, and ostensibly two different corporations.

  “Nice.”

  Her smirk disappeared.

  “Get to work.”

  I pulled up a seat opposite Bennett.

  “So,” I said, “where do you want to start?”

  Before he could reply, however, Abby’s voice intervened.

  “How about we do this as a team?” she asked, and, before I could ask her how she expected that to happen, Tens, Rohan and Cascade came into the room.

  “What did we miss?” Rohan wanted to know, as Cascade bounded over to Bennett and licked his ear, before heading in my direction.

  “Dog’s got no loyalty,” I said, trying to fend him off as he nuzzled the bandages on my hands.

  Rohan arched an eyebrow, and gave a short, sharp whistle. Cascade returned to his side, sliding his head and back under the boy’s hand.

  “He’s plenty loyal,” Rohan said, “but he knows who his friends are, too.”

  He paused, catching my eye, and I noticed the bruise marring his cheek.

  “Thank you.”

  I really couldn’t think of an answer to that, so I waved a hand towards Bennett.

  “This is Investigator Bennett, from Sharovan. We’ve contracted to help him retrieve a couple of rogue employees.”

  Tens cocked his head, and laid a hand on Rohan’s shoulder.

  “Care to elaborate?”

  I heard Bennett draw a breath, but Tens was already rifling through the files in my implant, pulling the ones tagged with Bennett’s I.D. Rohan must have gone along for the ride, because the look he cast the investigator was little short of murderous, when they came to the memory of our capture on Depredides.

  “Steady, Rohan,” I said. “You’re only getting half the story.”

  Judging from the look on Tens’ face, Rohan wasn’t the only one. I was only glad when they kept watching, and moved onto the next file, although Cascade being shot came close to breaking a barely held truce between emotion and commonsense.

  The explanation he gave, later, didn’t work too far in his favor, either.

  Rohan was as possessive as Hell of his dog.

  Mack returned just as they reached the agreement we made to find Bennett’s missing personnel, and he just dug right into the files the boys had already pulled. I saw the look on the investigator’s face, and shrugged.

  “Sometimes you’ve just got to let them get it out of their systems,” I said. “They seem to think I don’t share anything with them.”

  Mack snorted.

  “That’s because you don’t. Not when you can help it.”

  I leant back in the chair, tilting my head so I could watch him come towards the seat beside me. He was still leafing through files as he reached across the table and offered Bennett his hand.

  “Bennett is it? Nice to meet you.”

  Well, that was almost civilized.

  For Mack.

  And then I watched him tight
en 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 liaison with Sharovan and acting liaison with Selimen’s, until we change our minds.”

  I watched Bennett’s jaw drop open, and then he snapped it closed, and blinked a couple of times.

  “I can do Sharovan,” he said, “but it’ll take me some time to get up to speed with the rest of the company. Costoganzi had a lot of secrets.”

  “Then you’ll ferret them out, report them, and find me who, in each branch or subsidiary, is best to approach. You will hunt the rotten apples and dig them out of every barrel we’ve just inherited, preferably before they have time to do something we’re all going to regret.”

  Bennett’s face closed over, and he pushed himself back from the table.

  “I… If you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do,” he said, but Delight shook her head.

  “Your primary task is to give us the security run down on the mining operations out at Rigel’s.”

  He gave her his best blank look.

  “As far as I was aware, we had no mining operations at Rigel’s. As I said, I have a lot of work to do. If you’ll excuse me.”

  Delight narrowed her eyes at him, but Bennet didn’t give in.

  “Abs?” he said. “I’ll need that terminal, if it’s free, and I accept your offer.”

  “Her offer?” Delight demanded, and, this time, the smallest of smiles cracked Bennett’s mask.

  “Quarters and Dasojin’s assistance,” he said. He might not have said more, but Delight insisted.

  “In exchange for what?”

  Bennett looked to the ceiling, and then made his way to the door. He might not have made it, if Abby hadn’t responded via the room’s intercom.

  “Well, Hon, with his position at Sharovan in question, I made the nice man an offer. Dasojin need an investigator—and we’re always glad to hire him out at Odyssey’s request.”

  Bennett slipped out the door, g
one before Delight gave Abby her answer.

  “You, me and him are going to talk,” she said, then added, “as soon as the mission is done.”

  “Sure, we are, Hon, but the paperwork’s signed.”

  Abby’s tone had a happy lilt, and the look on Delight’s face was as frightening as it was comical. I really hoped she was never that angry with me. Never. Pretty sure, though, that Abs had this one sewn up tight, and had already made darn sure Bennett was safe. From what I could see, Dasojin protected its employees a whole lot better than Odyssey did.

  “Sure,” Delight snarked, inside my head, “and you be sure to tell that to the three missing HMTs and their shells, too.”

  Well, that told me.

  I shrugged, rolling her words away and focusing on the map of the mining outpost nearest Rigel’s Banter. If I were a nasty-minded oligarch working in conjunction with the shadiest of star-roving wolf families, where would I hide a mining operation that was acting as cover for a black-market HMT sales and separation yard? Where?

  I stared at the map, and then hooked into the data stream that would take me to a more recent scan of the mining field, because, if I was such an operation, then I probably wouldn’t have those shadier areas mapped where folk like Odyssey could just grab them, right?

  I heard a distant ‘wuff’ and someone shout my name, but I figured there was nothing anyone would need me for, and this was the kind of stuff I retrieved, so they’d manage while I was gone.

  After all, I wasn’t going to be that long.

  29—Mining the Recon

  Turns out I was gone a lot longer than I’d thought I would be, but I hadn’t gone alone. I’d slipped through the top layer of the net and worked my way into the outer layer of the Rigel’s Banter observation scans, by the time Cascade, Rohan, and Tens had caught up with me.

  “Wow, the whole gang’s here,” I managed, and Tens gave me a mental slap upside the head.

  “You’re not the only information specialist on board,” he said. “Abby’s not happy with being left behind.”

  “I figured Abby was busy enough as it was,” I said.

  “She wants a full report.”