Blaedergil's Host by C.M. Simpson (reading well .TXT) 📕

at Pritchard, but he just raised his cup in her general direction like he was making a toast, and didn’t budge an inch. Delight hesitated, but he ignored her, closing his eyes to better appreciate his next sip of tea, so she rolled her eyes and stamped her way out the door. I didn’t bother looking at any of them as I followed.

It wouldn’t make any difference, and Delight wouldn’t appreciate the delay.

“Darn tootin’,” she muttered, as she hurried down the corridors to her quarters.

I didn’t wait for an invitation, but followed her inside, not even flinching when she closed the door behind us.

“You got everything?” she asked, and I named six items Pritchard had suggested that I didn’t have.

She flounced over to the drawers beneath her wardrobe, and pulled them out... and I sooo wasn’t going to tell Mack what she was keeping in there. Delight gave the briefest of grins as she caught the thought, but she didn’t slow down.

She pulled out a body-suit, and a similar set of civilian clothes to the ones I’d chosen.

“Good choice, by the way,” she said, dragging out a combat suit that might have been the twin of mine.

“What?” she said, “Mack didn’t give me time to prep before the meeting, so I’ve got to do it now.”

I didn’t say anything, but wondered exactly how late she’d been planning on leaving it.

She didn’t bother answering that, but stripped down, and started pulling the body sock on.

“Armor,” she said. “If I’m going point, I might need it.”

I nodded, trying to look anywhere else but at her. She ignored my discomfort and kept going, making small talk as she went.

“You should get Mack to get you some. Kind of missions he sends you on, you need it.”

I wondered why she cared, but I agreed. Between the little trip into Ghoul’s catacombs and the last run to Costral, body armor sounded like a nice addition... and a parachute. Yeah, after that last jaunt off the roof of Blaedergil’s mansion, a parachute would do just fine. Who knows how many other heights I was going to be leaping off in the hopes Tens and his team could catch me.

“Chute would get in the way of the grab, and be a pain in the ass when they brought you on board,” she said, “not to mention make you easier to find for the hostiles.”

As opposed to being a splat mark on the sidewalk? I wondered, but I didn’t say it. Delight had moved to being dressed, and was now stowing her gear in the pockets and pouches on her suit.

“Those EVA suits are going to be a bitch to retrieve,” she said, and she raised it like she was talking about the weather. Small talk, right? But she had a point.

“I’ll mention it to Mack,” I said.

“How do you think he’ll feel about losing them?” Delight asked, and I stared at her.

She held up a vial that held a coalescing swarm of grey.

“Nanites,” she said. “Dust chompers. Short-lived but effective. We sprinkle enough of them on the suits once we’re out of them, and no-one will be able to tell where they came from. Keeps Mack and the ship in the clear.”

I turned the idea over in my head, weighing the chance of Mack being able to retrieve the suits, against the risk they posed if they were traced back to the Shady Marie. I knew scrapping the suits would be the best option, but they weren’t mine to scrap, and I really didn’t have time to go check with Mack. I was just about to tell her to go ahead, when Mack intervened.

“Nan them,” came from Mack, and I wasn’t too pleased to realize him and Tens were still inside my head.

“What? You thought we’d leave you alone with her?” Tens wanted to know, and Delight pouted.

“They don’t leave you alone for a second, do they?”

I shrugged.

“Would you?”

She cracked another short-lived smile.

“Not in a million years, short stuff. Come on. Time we went.”

24—Werewolf Diplomacy

Delight and I were waiting just outside an airlock, when we felt the faint vibration of the docking mechanisms locking into place. Case had brought the ship in smooth, but the station operators weren’t quite so gentle. I could imagine the pilot cussing a streak at the jostling her charge was getting, and figured it was time to cycle the lock.

Delight laid a hand on my shoulder.

“Not yet,” she said. “Sensors will pick up the activity. Wait until Mack opens the cargo hold and passenger hatches.”

I waited, eyeing the airlock with only a small amount of apprehension. Going into it in an EVA suit made a shit ton of difference. Going into it with Delight? Yeah, well I had to admit that made a difference, as well.

“Glad to hear it,” she said. “Now, focus. Don’t go getting all sentimental on me.”

I focused. Going through the airlock was still difficult, but I didn’t have a meltdown like I’d feared, and we were out and moving swiftly along the belly of ship and station, while Mack was greeting the inspection team.

The walk across the station took a full hour, and I expected to be called out on it at any moment. It wasn’t until we reached the hatch outside the Corovan pharma’s section that I started to relax.

“See? Not so hard, was it?” Delight asked, as she manipulated the locks on the maintenance entry. “And in we go.”

I followed her through, feeling just a bit weirded out that I hadn’t had to open my own way in.

“Stop your bitching,” she said, cycling the airlock closed behind us. “Storeroom’s that way, and you’ll get your turn, soon enough.”

I wondered how Mack was going. He was supposed to be obtaining tourist visas for a hunting party... and Delight said the process might take a week. Mack said they only had around a day before the raid on the pharma had consequences, but Delight had laughed.

“Odyssey will be here, by then,” she said, “And the Feds won’t be