Because Mack’s medic had strictly advised against Cutter being put on stims. Something about it being bad for the girl.

  Bad for the girl? Delight thought. More like it’s bad for the rest of us.

  Cutter on a stim pack was like a two-year old on a blend of high-grade sweets, and way too much soda.

  “Kendrik…”

  “I noticed. Trust me, we’ll keep a lid on her as best we can,” the overwatch lead assured her. “In the meantime, DUCK.”

  Delight threw herself into a roll, hearing the whistle and snap of something flying past her, making Jeremy’s warning redundant.

  “Shard spinners!”

  “Yeah?” Cutter sang back. “Now, tell me something I don’t know.”

  “I bet you could catch their harpoons as they come in and yank them off the walls,” the Marine retorted.

  “Jeremy!” Mack’s roar of disapproval didn’t quite drown out the chuckles coming from the Marines.

  “Congratulations, Delight!” Mack snarled. “You’re on child care duty!”

  “But…” Delight began, but Mack hadn’t finished.

  “I’ll take Pen. Tens has the flyer. You have the kid. It’s only fair, given your Marines are going to have to keep my girl safe.”

  His girl? Delight wondered, just as a large crystalline body flew off the wall and smashed into ground. She didn’t bother teasing Mack about it.

  Penny, the flyer and the child had just swept out of a side canyon, one Delight mapped back to one of Cutter’s ripples in the wall. It looked like the girl had her uses, as annoying as that was.

  Delight surged forward, trusting the Marines to cover them as she, Mack and Tens went for the fleeing trio, and Cutter continued her introductions to the local wildlife.

  A shard slinger smashed into a moving section of canyon wall, and an outraged roar followed. A second roar answered it, and then a third…and then another group of metal-suited figures jogged around the canyon bend.

  “Not friendly!” Tens shouted, launching himself at the flyer and bringing the slender-figured female down.

  Delight put on a burst of speed to catch up, just as Mack tackled Penny to the ground and pinned her there. Jeremy’s squad leaped over them interposing themselves between the incoming blaster fire and the group. Their suit shields sparked and rippled under the impact of both solid and energy bolts.

  Cutter ran past her, heading toward the roars, three of the Marines taking rear guard following close behind.

  “Make sure you get her back on board the shuttle in one piece,” she instructed, “And keep her alive, until then.”

  She received a chorus of ‘oo-rahs’ as they bolted past.

  “Kendrik, how are we for sliders?”

  “You know how hard those things are to track?” Kendrik replied.

  “Your point?”

  “You’re lucky we’ve hacked Multi-Faceted’s systems and found out how they do it,” Kendrik answered. “You’re clear so far, but the amount of resonance you’re creating in the crystal, that’s not going to last much longer.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  An anguished roar was cut abruptly short by an explosion, followed by the tinkle of shattering crystal and Cutter’s gleeful laughter.

  “Who gave that girl a grenade launcher?” one of Jeremy’s corporals demanded.

  “No one, corporal. She launched that grenade herself!”

  Delight groaned, but headed for the flyer. A swift glance assured her she wasn’t on child care duty. There wasn’t a hope in all the stars that lady was letting go of the pod harnessed across her chest.

  “You good?” she asked Tens, and he nodded.

  “Call the shuttle in. I’ll cover you and Mack.”

  “Who’s covering Cutter?” Mack wanted to know, shepherding Penny to her feet.

  “Corporal Lankash,” Delight told him. “He and his will get her back.”

  “Promise?”

  “Oo-rah!” came growling back from the Marines, followed by, “Oh no, you don’t,” and “Race you to the shuttle, Cutter!”

  Delight wondered why they’d get her to do that, but Jeremy explained. “She’s cleared the area of shard spinners and cats. We need her covering the shuttle.”

  And that was all it took to get the girl haring off toward the shuttle’s new set-down point.

  Delight’s implant squawked with disapproval as Multi-Faceted made its feelings on an illegal landing clear. It said something about ‘company assets’ and ‘reward for retrieval,’ only to be answered by a counter-offer from Gleam, their rivals for Togaresh’s mineral wealth and export industry.

  As the conversation devolved into a slanging match regarding mining rights, contested title, IP violations and research rights, Delight joined Jeremy and his squad in holding off the incoming company goons.

  “You reckon any of them know anything worth our while?” she asked.

  “Second row. Third man on the left, second man on the right,” came Cutter’s quick reply, and Delight raced toward the team.

  She wasn’t sure how widely Cutter had broadcast that, but she wasn’t going to give either target time to disappear. Voices started shouting in her ear.

  Jeremy wanted her to ‘fall back.’ Kendrik had something to say about a data spill and not wanting her to be the source of one. And at least one of the Marines was ‘Wait for me, Ma’am!’

  Delight snorted. Since when was she ever a ‘ma’am’ to these guys?

  She heard them coming after her, but knew they were there for support. Not a single one would risk her wrath once she had an objective in sight. Jeremy might be furious with her, but Odyssey needed the data, and that was her primary mission, not some squalling infant with an interesting genetic heritage…at least, not yet.

  Given some of the other junior experiments Odyssey had recently uncovered, there was bound to be some cross-over, but not for this mission. She just hoped Cutter held it together long enough to not only make it to the shuttle, but to make a difference in keeping it aloft once it hit the air space.

  Keeping it aloft, she mused, crashing into the front ranks of the Multi-Faceted security squad. Figures there’d be a scientific type on hand to help them with their handling of the pick-up, if only to preserve the flyer and child’s genetic material when they took them down.

  She reversed the take-down, targeting the two more lightly armored individuals sheltering behind the security forces. The Marines took care of the rest, not killing them outright, but putting them under and dragging them back toward the shuttle at a run. One relieved Delight of her scientist, then took up station beside her.

  “Time to go, Ma’am,” he told her, when a section of the crystal wall in the canyon behind them slid open. “My shield’s got room enough for two.”

  Knowing Jeremy would appreciate that, Delight moved in close to his side, running in step as he adjusted the force shield to cover both their backs.

  Mack, Tens and their respective packages were already aboard, and Corporal Lankash had wrapped both arms around Cutter and was holding her pinned to his chest as he gave her suggestions on what to do with her restless energy.

  “I bet you can’t hack that secondary secured system in Multi-Faceted’s research compound while you track Gleam’s transmission and break its code,” he teased, giving Delight and Jeremy an anxious look.

  “I bet I can get it done before you,” Tens challenged, and Cutter’s face stilled with concentration.

  She was still stimmed enough to glare at Delight as the agent walked past.

  “Nice baby-care,” she sniped, only to be distracted by Tens before she could continue.

  “I’ve found the first node,” he informed her. “That’s one less cake I’m baking this week.”

  “Sonuvabitch!” Cutter swore, and her face blanked.

  The hatch closed and the shuttle started to lift as Delight took a seat opposite the girl.

  “And I bet you can’t keep this shuttle flying long enough for us to get out of the canyon,” she taunted, to the pilot’s almost immediate irritation.

  “Hey! Hands off my controls!”

  Delight snickered, but her face grew anxious when Cutter blanked out again. The girl usually had no trouble staying both in the real and in the virtual when she was stimmed. For her to be fading back into herself meant the pack was wearing off fast.

  Delight glanced over at Mack, catching his worried frown. To give the man credit, he was also keeping a close eye on Penny Blackworth, whom he’d settled beside him. Penny said nothing, but her eyes were watchful as she laid a hand on the flyer’s knee, reassuring her.

  “Almost there,” she soothed, and Delight turned back to Mack.