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

then I saw the codes beginning to shift.

“Shit! Get out of there, Cutter!” and Tens sounded way more excitable than was good for me.

I got, coming back to the real as the light in the closet began to strobe.

Well, that couldn’t be good.

I slipped out of the cupboard, and headed out into the hallway.

“Tell me where to go, Tens.”

But it wasn’t Tens who answered.

“The boss is kinda busy,” Rohan said. “I’ll be your guide for today’s ill-fated expedition.”

“Yeah, thanks, kid.”

“Your gratitude has been noted and your skepticism acknowledged.”

“Rohan!”

“Oh, and Cascade will be with you shortly...” I was looking around the corridor for the tell-tale silver flash of the dog teleporting in, when the kid added, “... in your mind at least.”

“Rohan!”

He ignored me.

“Go left... Now!”

I went left, snapping open the stairwell door seconds before I ran into it.

“And down!”

“Down?”

The initial plans had all pointed to the cubs being housed upstairs.

“Nothing’s above board here,” he told me. “Government or not. This has to be one of the most nepotistic and twisted regimes Tens has ever had me study.”

“Delight should fit right in, then.”

“Yeah,” Mack interrupted, “and you be sure to tell her that yourself, when she gets here. Right now, though, you need to concentrate, or I’m going to come down there and kick your ass ten ways to stardust.”

Oh, he was, was he? I could do with a real fight.

“Be careful what you wish for...” Rohan’s voice took on a teasing lilt, and I lifted my head to see what he might be talking about.

“Go one more flight and take the next door to your left.”

What was it with this kid and going left?

“I don’t make the plans; I just read ’em, and Tens and Mack would kick my ass if I steered you in the wrong direction, so go left... Now!”

I went left as he said it, through another door and into a short length of corridor.

“And run!”

I ran.

“Left!”

Another door was in the way, but it opened easily enough, and I bolted through coming to a slow halt as what I’d run into started to make a horrible kind of sense.

‘Uh, Mack... It’s not just the cub.”

I scanned, taking images in the implant as I turned, very slowly, from my left to my right. At the same time, the stench hit me, and I gagged.

“I’m gonna need a little help down here.”

“They’re not the mission.”

“They are, now.”

“You and I are going to have words about this, Cutter.”

“Sure. Beat me up, later, and sling me in a tank, but help me get these guys out of here.”

Silence.

“Please, Mack.”

I did a slow pan, making sure I caught the tanglers, whips and various other...implements lined up along the wall of the large, open bay opposite the side of the room where the cages were. I didn’t know the purpose of either the instruments or what went on here, but I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving any of the critters in the cages to any more of it.

“Please.”

“Well, fuck me, Cutter,” Mack said, materializing out of a shaft of silver light. “You’re just fucking lucky that Tens managed to drop the teleport block on this building, aren’t you?”

“If it’s any compensation, I reckon that’s an Odyssey operative chained to the wall...” I managed, pointing while trying not to look.

Mack grabbed me, and spun me to face him. Placing a hand on either of my shoulders, he bent forward until his forehead was touching mine.

“I’ll take care of things here,” he said. “Go find the cub.”

“You can’t leave any of them behind...”

He gave me a gentle shake.

“I won’t. I promise.”

And I only hoped it was a Mack promise, a contract promise, and not something that would let me get the job done, but have me discovering, later that he hadn’t done what he’d said he’d do.

“Go,” he snarled, turning me about, and pushing me in the direction of the door at the other end of the walkway to where I’d come in.

Around us, several creatures shuffled uncomfortable away, and I heard him sigh.

“Tens, I’m gonna need Doc and a team. I think Steps left one on stand-by.”

So, not a medical team, then, although I was pretty sure he’d need one of those, too. I made the door, just as Ten replied.

“That’s a pretty big job, boss.”

“We need them ship-side,” was all Mack replied, before I was through the door and out the other side.

Once it close behind me, I couldn’t hear anything else they might be saying.

Like maybe Mack changing his mind and rescinding everything he’d just said.

“Girl, when we get back, you and me are gonna talk about your trust issues...”

“You gotta have something before you can have issues with it.”

22—Kids and Cubs

Instead of the cages and torture bays lining the other corridor, this one was flanked by clean, white walls, even though the floor underfoot was still a hard, tiled surface. I looked for doors, and found some.

“Te... Rohan?”

“I’m here. Tens is a bit busy with the teleport team, and Stepyan’s 2IC has some choice words about your heritage.”

I just bet he did, given he’d have to allocate space and rations for the ten or fifteen or so creatures occupying the cells behind me. Still, it was good to hear that Tens was busy with the teleportation team. Meant maybe they’d really succeed in getting everyone out. Rohan cut through my train of thought, pulling me back on track.

“Just hurry up, down there, because some of those defenses you pissed off earlier, keep trying to throw me out of the system, so they can reinstate the blocker. If they get it back up, I may not be able to turn it off, again, and then we really won’t be able to help anyone.

I got it. I left him alone, and leant on the wall. While it would have been nice to ask him to patch me through to the system, I didn’t want to distract him from keeping that teleport blocker down. He was right about the defenses. They really were