Mack 'n' Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 by C.M. Simpson (top ebook reader txt) 📕

that Mack kinda stood to one side in my head and watched me work, until I had my head around what it was we were going into—and precisely why. It wasn’t about the contract, anymore. It wasn’t even because he’d given his word.

Man was pissed and—by the time I’d finished sorting through the files—so was I.

“We’re doing the job,” I agreed when I surfaced back into the real, and then the smell hit me. “What, in all the Stars, is that?”

Because it smelled great. It smelled more than great; it smelled delicious, and I was starved. Mack picked up his knife and buttered a slice of bread, and I looked down at the space in front of me. Breakfast was long gone, its remains cleared away, I don’t know how long ago. Lunch sat in its place.

“How long was I in there?”

“Four hours.”

That was a lot of data.

“You were supposed to absorb it while you slept.”

Given what I’d just read, I wouldn’t have slept real well.

“I think I preferred wading through that while I was awake.”

“Eat your stew. You’re late for training.”

At least he wasn’t arguing the point. I ate the stew, and we hit the mats.

“I thought we were heading out to the range.”

“We missed the boat with the reading you had to catch up on. I’ll book you in for double, tomorrow.”

Fantastic.

We hit the mats in triple quick time, and I hit the mats a hundred times more. Damn. Mack might have a point when he said I was out of practice.

“Yuh think?”

And over I went, again. This time, I tried hooking my legs around his and bringing him down that way, but I was exhausted, and he weighed a ton. For most of the week, we continued working in perfect concert, in full agreement that the operation that had let the Rennet’s World wolves take the cub had to be shut down, and I spent the first three nights comatose as my body repaired the damage I’d done in less time than it was meant to. On the fourth night, I started doing my own digging. After hours. Without Mack’s supervision. On the fifth night, I hit a snag.

“We might need to bring Odyssey in,” I said, and Mack scowled.

“What have you got?”

“The Rennet’s Wolves aren’t just tied into the government of Rennet’s World; they are the government... and the building we’re planning on hitting isn’t some private enterprise; it’s a government asset.”

He was silent for a moment. Both the points I made usually meant he’d be calling Delight and Odyssey for advice, but calling in Odyssey meant he’d have to tell them about the contract, and he’d have to break his word to the wolf captain back on Alpha 9. Personally, I was pretty sure we’d stepped into some intra-wolf politics, and that the stuff was going to stick.

And stink. Let’s not forget that. It was sure as all the Stars above going to stink.

“Mack?” I asked, when the silence extended far longer than I’d realized.

“You’re going in alone,” he said. “Boy can cut his teeth on something else.”

“You want me to go ahead?”

“No choice, girl. This business is built on us keepin’ our word—and Stepyan and Case need us back on time to pick them up.”

I wondered exactly how Stepyan and Case and their nominated targets were involved in this, and decided that knowing didn’t change what needed to be done. I could only think of one flaw to the plan.

“Did Tens get that message off to Delight?”

Delight was our contact point. When she wasn’t available, because she was off doing some kind of sneaky beaky black op, our messages went through to her Operations department, and sometimes the help or advice we got was somewhat unexpected. Given what Mack was asking me to do, unexpected would be bad. Mack, of course, had an answer for everything.

“Yeup, but it doesn’t matter. They’ll be looking in the Alpha Nine system, not over at Rennet’s. By the time they connect the dots, we should be done and heading back.”

“You know Delight is going to kick your ass three ways to stardust when she finds out.”

“If she finds out.”

“It’s Delight, Mack. Of course she’s gonna find out.”

“Just make sure you can get the job done, Cutter.”

He might have cut out then, but he was back inside my head, shortly after.

“How much access does Delight have to your head?”

“Access?” I thought about it, remembering the times when she’d appeared inside my implant without so much as knocking. “I don’t know. I think Tens can lock her out, but not always, and not with any guarantee. She has a pretty good hack team, and they’ve been inside my head often enough.”

Again, he was quiet, so I tinkered around with the building and the plans, trying to isolate how I was going to work out where the wolf captain’s pup was, and how fast I could get in to retrieve it.

“Did he say how big the kid was, or how much he weighs?” was the next question that came to mind.

Mack flicked me a copy of the contract, and, while I wished I could say it came as a surprise, the fact those details weren’t included didn’t.

“You find him; we’ll port you out of there,” Mack said, as though that settled things.

I only wished it did.

“I was hoping to pack him a vest.”

“What if he’s in dog form?”

“What did we use for Cascade when he was a puppy?”

“Girl, that thing has never been a puppy.”

I waited. With a sigh, Mack gave in.

“Fine. We stuffed him in a locker.”

“You what?”

“You heard.”

I had; I just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

“Cope.”

Screw you, Mack.

“Not today,” which gave me a vague sinking feeling I had no time for, as he continued, “Now, what have you come up with?”

I gave him what I had, and then added, “I’ll need to refine it.”

“You’ve got until this time, tomorrow.”

“You gonna waive tomorrow’s training?”

“You wish.”

Fantastic. I wondered what Delight’s range was, and whether she’d bother to drop by via the