The Transporter's Favor

by C. M. Simpson

  “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 have that stim pack on stand-by, because I was probably going to need it—and that was something else Mack could be damned about, too!

  “Nice to see nothing changes,” Mack muttered. “Girl’s still got more attitude than is good for her.”

  And I could feel him wondering why he’d told me.

  Well, sucks to be you, I thought, and felt the box crack open the tiniest, tiniest bit, and sucks to be me, too.

  “You’ll live, girl. We’ll sort it when this is done,” was as tight a private comm as Mack could make it, and he was gone before I could say something both of us would regret.

  If anyone in the conference room had been privy to what had passed between us, none of them had a comment to give. I’d gone four steps in, before I’d registered just how many people were already there. Whether it was by design, or by accident, the team I’d trained with had assembled either side of the door, and it wasn’t until I was past them that I realized there were other faces beyond their ranks.

  I stopped. Crowds don’t bother me. Small spaces don’t bother me. Crowds and small spaces, however…. Yeah. Not a good combination. Mack stopped behind me, and I got the sudden impression that he didn’t like the number of people in the room, either. He laid a hand on my shoulder.

  “Ease up, Cutter. They’re not going to bite.”

  He had a point. I looked for Delight—and she started speaking as soon as she saw she had our attention.

  “Cutter—Scarpil has your gear. Yours, too, Mack.”

  We turned as one, and Scarpil slid two duffels towards us.

  “To make sure there’s no fighting,” he said, as if he knew either of us well enough to make the call—and then I realized he’d been looking directly at me, and figured he might have a point, because I really would fight to get my share of the toys.

  Mack and I tooled up in silence, while Delight assigned the teams.

  “Six and Four are clearing the habs,” she said. “We needed an early start and Wanderer is teleporting them as each one’s locked down. Once they’re done, everyone will need to be ready for a quick flick onto one of them if things go bad. Six and Four will begin evac as soon as Two and Three have secured the Banter and locked down her repair bays. We’re going to use the Shady’s tactics of storing folk on the repair docks until retrieval has arrived. Sugarsides, Limelight, Dreamstar and Mitan’s Hammer are expediting transit to reach us—and passenger compensation will be in order when we pull them out of stasis.”

  She shrugged.

  “It can’t be helped. Melerom and his valet will make an appearance, if we need them.”

  I caught the thought that they’d make an appearance, even if we didn’t, and wondered who they were.

  Delight scowled at me, and I threw her a smile. Now, she knew how I felt when she got into my head all unbidden. Before she could say anything, however, Wanderer interrupted.

  “Mr. Costoganzi has escaped on schedule, Agent—and the lupar were suitably accommodating once they had verified his survival; they are not impressed with your theatrics. The Dasojin craft reports that Mr. Bennett is undetected, and standing by.”

  “Thank you, Wanderer.”

  Delight tilted her head, and my stomach sank—even though I knew it was going to happen, even though I knew it needed to happen.

  “Fuck it all,” I said, as Mack reached over and grabbed me, and Pritchard stepped out from behind Scarpil, auto-injector in hand. “That shit had better work a bit faster, this time, because we’re gonna need it.”

  The sting had a bit more punch to it than I remembered, and I wondered if they’d tweaked it again.

  “How else do we make it work faster?” Delight demanded, even as I felt Pritchard step away.

  Mack held me a bit longer than required, but I couldn’t work out if that was because he needed to, or he figured he wasn’t going to get another excuse for a while. Whatever, right? I just leant my head into his chest, and waited until he decided I wasn’t going to slug him. Given how much the man was in my head, that took a good while longer than it should have.

  “Quit your bitching,” he murmured, as Delight continued with her briefing.

  “Teams One and Five are on stand-by, until we discover where the Dasojin craft are being kept. At that point, we will be providing support for their extraction. This mission has full teleportation coverage, but it may not be enough, so be prepared to improvise. Questions?”

  “What if the Dasojins are being held on a wolf base?”

  And we all turned to look at Rohan. He was sitting beside Tens, Cascade’s head on his lap.

  “And I thought you had a nasty turn of mind,” Mack murmured.

  Rohan looked over at him, and shrugged.

  “Point,” Delight said. “If the wolves have our Dasojins, they have been warned that we will protect our allies.”

  She raised her hand.

  “Having said that, however, I don’t want any more damage done to their facility than we need in order to extract our allies, and our ‘escaped’ prisoner. I don’t want to be fighting a war with the lupar at the same time as we have the arach coming after us. That’s a bit of a stretch, even for us, and we’ll need to negotiate a peace with them when we’re done. Do no more damage than you need to, and do none where possible. Try not to kill them. If you are captured, we will come for you. Am I understood?”

  Her question was met with a soft growl of acceptance, and I felt it raise goosebumps on my arms. Even Mack gave a low-voiced rumble of assent, which made me want to know what made him so at home with the chorus. He ignored the thought, but I decided I’d follow it up later. The man had to talk to me eventually.

  “No, he doesn’t,” whispered through the implant, and I scowled.

  Delight ignored the pair of us, and Wanderer’s voice intruded.

  “Mr. Costoganzi has arrived at his destination, a wolf base located near the Vameran’s Arc jump point. Teleportation coordinates confirmed. Abby has interfaced with the station, and I am in. Data download has commenced.”

  “Patch us in so we can see what is going on—and move Teams Two and Three to their required positions. Commence operations.”

&nbs
p; Lightning danced around us, the teleportation taking effect as the Wanderer dispatched the teams to where they needed to go. When it cleared, it was no real surprise to find that Team One still stood around Mack and me, while Team Five occupied the other end of the room. It was a surprise to see that Pritchard had gone.

  “He leads Two,” Delight told me, “and I need someone of seniority on the station when it’s taken.”

  It made sense—and I’d already known the two could act autonomously. It’s just I’d rarely seen it. Delight flashed me a tight, hard smile, and then the feed from the wolf base lit up one wall. Cool. I hadn’t been expecting visuals, as well.

  31—Locating Dasojin

  Whatever Abby had done to get Wanderer into the lupar’s system, I hadn’t expected to see either of them so far embedded—or sneaking a signal out so that we could eavesdrop on what was a very private conversation. Abby played her part perfectly, acting the part of blind captive, systems down—or, in her case, hidden from detection—as Costoganzi made the final approach. I couldn’t believe it when she allowed herself to be landed as docile as you please.

  We wouldn’t have found the wolf base in years of trying, not in the asteroid field, or even from the Vameran side. That sucker would have blown us all into stardust, if we’d try to jump into the system from that point—and none of the mining company’s shuttles had ever flown there direct. Its presence made me glad we hadn’t tried to jump through the Vameran’s Arc jump point the first time we’d visited. It was what happened after Abby touched down that was more interesting.

  The wolves had turned out all honors for Costoganzi’s visit, or so it seemed.

  The oligarch hurried out of the hatch, leaving the lock-down to the hangar crews.

  “There,” he said, beaming at the two squads of wolves that had assembled at the hangar’s edge. “One Dasojin ship, as promised.”

  He was smiling, making a wide-armed gestured towards Abby’s shell, as though he’d single-handedly brought her in—as if he ever could! The wolf leader lifted his muzzle, his ears pricked as he assessed Abby’s form.

  “I agree. She is a nice ship,” he said, and Costoganzi relaxed, hurrying forward as he extended his hand in greeting.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure,” he said, “Pack Leader…?”

  And Rohan groaned, smacking the palm of his hand into his forehead.

  “The man has no idea.”

  “He’s about to,” Delight was matter of fact, and we all looked to the screen.

  Behind Costoganzi, the hangar crew had finished their task and closed ranks. They’d also closed the distance, between them and the businessman, and stalked to within two meters of his back, before he noticed anything was amiss. He half-turned, his brow creasing as though he did not understand what was happening.

  “I seek sanctuary,” he said, but the formal phrasing was sharp and hastily delivered, almost like he was issuing an order and acceptance was a foregone conclusion. He gestured towards Abby, surprised when the nearest warrior grabbed his hand and pulled it up behind his back, pushing him to his knees.

  “I give you the ship in payment!”

  Rohan shook his head.

  “He still doesn’t get it.”

  “Give it a minute.”

  “The ship is an Odyssey ally,” the wolf said. “We have a pact regarding their allies.”

  “But they don’t know!” Costoganzi’s voice rose in desperation as his other hand was taken and bound behind his back, a wolf knee set between his shoulder blades keeping him on his knees. “Pack Leader…”

  “Process him, and put him in the cells. We will see who offers the highest reward for his retrieval.”

  “Yes, Hunt Master!”

  That last came out in a chorus of barks, and the pallor of Costoganzi’s swiftly lifted face, showed his realization of the mistake he’d made—both in trusting the wolves without sealing the contract first, and of demoting their leader in his opening address. I glanced at Rohan’s face, trying to see how the youngster was coping.

  He was pale, and he showed no trace of amusement at the mistake Costoganzi had made. None, at all. Delight caught the direction of my gaze, and spoke.

  “He’s lucky they see a profit in letting him live,” she said, and the boy nodded.

  When she spoke, again, she addressed him directly.

  “Cub!” she snapped, and he jumped. “Can you assist in his retrieval, and the retrieval of the Dasojin ship?”

  And Rohan lifted him head.

  “Yes, Agent,” he said, his voice firmer than I’d expected. “I can do that.”

  “Good. Wanderer, do you have the coordinates?”

  “I do, Agent Delight.”

  “Port!”

  The Wanderer’s “Yes, Agent” was lost in the silver of a teleport wrapping around me.

  Wait! We were going into a hangar containing three squads of wolves?

  “Unless you’d rather try finding him in a station we don’t have the layout for…” Delight’s voice echoed in my ears as the light faded, and the hangar came into being around us.

  Mack and Tens rolled into the wolves nearest, and I realized we’d been sent in alone, since there wasn’t a single one of Delight’s team rolling with us. Rohan grabbed Costoganzi by the scruff of the neck and began dragging him back to Abby’s shell.

  Well, that made sense, but Delight had more to say.

  “I want where they’re holding the rest of the Dasojin ships, Cutter. Rip it out of their systems.”

  I didn’t need any more than that, trusting Mack and Tens to keep the wolves off my back, as I skated through a link to Abby, and discovered the wolves had found her connection to their station, and locked it down. They clearly hadn’t found the path Wanderer had made, but it was only a matter of time.

  I slid back out, noted that Mack and Tens had taken out their opponents, and were dealing with another two. The wolves around the Hunt Master hadn’t moved, held in check by their leader’s upraised fist. He caught my eye.

  “Odyssey?”

  “Yes, Hunt Master,” I barked back, the address sliding off my tongue without thought.

  I don’t know what he thought of that, but I didn’t have time. Mack and Tens needed to fall back to Abby, and I needed… I looked around the hangar. I needed… Found what I wanted—a stand-alone terminal probably used for inventory. With one quick glance at the boys, I ran for the terminal, reaching into the pouch at my waist that held the jack and line.

  I was plugging it into my skull, before Mack could say anything, aware of the big, black dog running beside me, the pounding footsteps as Rohan raced out of Abby’s hull, and made for the terminal, as well.

  “Cutter!”

  Well, Mack could just wait. I had a job to do.

  The Hunt Master might have been content to let us take Costoganzi and retrieve Abby. His tolerance, however, did not extend to us hacking his station. Funny that.

  I slid to a stop in front of the terminal, as he barked out a sharp lupar command. Rohan slid in beside me.

  “I will hold them. You have…maybe thirty seconds. Establish the connection and unjack. You hear me?”

  Gotcha, boy, I thought, but didn’t have the coordination to say it out loud. I shouldn’t have to, either, if he was as well-embedded in my head as Mack and Tens. He’d get me.

  “I’ll bloody well get you,” Mack growled, and I heard the clash of weapons and a lupar yip of pain, over which came Delight’s voice, ordering weapons be kept cold.

  “You go weapons live Mackenzie Star, and I will shoot you myself.”

  Well, damn. She was serious about this diplomacy shit. I wish she’d make her mind the fuck up.

  Which was when I slammed the jack home, and ripped into the station’s systems. Well, damn. Those fuckers had a teleport shield in place. Bit late for that, assholes. We’re already here.

  “Yeah, but we aren’t leaving unless we
get Abs undocked and the hangar bay open.”

  Truly? Cool beans!

  “Dasojin, Cutter. Find me the HMTs, first! You get your asses captured, and we’ll haul you out.”

  Eventually, Delight. That’s what you meant to add, right? Cos I can kinda hear you when this juice kicks in. And holy wow! You kiss your boyfriend with that mouth? Cos, damn!

  But I’d found it, the second wolf base in system, and I’d jammed their comms good. Now, I just had to—

  “Dammit, Cutter, I told you to make the connection and unjack! I do not want to be puppy chow, again!”

  Rohan! Shit! Sorry, boy.

  I ripped out the plug and turned, felt his arm go round my waist, even as Cascade made a darting lunge at a bigger shape that had gotten too close.

  “Keep chasing the data, Cutter. I’ve got you.”

  “Move your ass, boy!” Mack, and he sounded unhappier than usual.

  “Data!” Tens roared, inside my skull, and then he was working with me, the two of us fending off defensive programs much better than I could on my own, as we traced the links to the second base, ripping out schematics, coding, locations, locking down hangar bays, tearing into the teleport lock, but not making as much progress as fast as either of us wanted.

  Rohan hauled me on board Abs, fighting a rear-guard action with Mack, as we tumbled through the hatch—which Abby slammed shut, even as she started the alarm for clearing the hangar. That pulled the wolves away from her hull faster than we could have hoped. It even got them out of the bay before the hangar doors opened.

  “Don’t come back,” Wanderer said, as Mack and Tens made their way forward to Abby’s cockpit. “Start HMT retrieval. Abeona will take you.”

  “Delight,” Mack snapped. “You are going to add a bonus to our contract for retrieving those miners, rescuing Abby, again, locating your allies, and for finding you the evidence you needed to put this bastard away.”

  This bastard? And I realized we had a barely restrained Costoganzi in our midst. It was easy to fix. Glazers were part of my normal load out, even if my only regret was that I only got to shoot him once… Okay, maybe twice just to make sure, or….