“She hasn’t?” And now Mack seemed more than a little bit annoyed. “I’ll speak to her about it.”

  He would? My heart skipped a beat, and part of me forgot we were supposed to be annoyed with him.

  He held out his hand, and I passed him back the glass.

  “Get dressed,” he said, waving the glass in the general direction of my wardrobe—which was about when I realized I’d woken up in my personal quarters.

  “I don’t suppose you’d…” I began, but he stopped at the door, leaning on it as he shook his head.

  “You know the drill.”

  I sure as shit, did. He and Tens would keep a very close eye on me for about the next twenty-four, and when they were sure I was committed to the mission, they’d ease up. Once the mission was over, however… I huffed out a sigh.

  “Isn’t Tens keeping tabs on me on the cams?”

  And, just like that, I was whining, again. Mack wasn’t impressed.

  “Quit your bitching,” he said. “You didn’t run off so often; we wouldn’t have to watch you so close.”

  Well, damn.

  I stalked over to the closet as best my wobbly legs could take me, slammed open the door as best I could slam a door that just wasn’t designed for it, and pulled out the lower drawer. It was a relief to see Mack had remembered the armored underwear…and there was another pair of boots—probably because he hadn’t been sure what I’d be wearing when they made their grab.

  It wasn’t like we’d gone back to the flat for my gear.

  “Your duffel’s in Stores. I’ll have Stepyan send it up when the mission’s done.”

  Oookay, then. I took a closer look at the boots, and realized they were brand, spanking new, and even better than the last pair. Pleasure curled through me, and I did my best to hide my smile. Honestly, the man was…

  “What?” he asked, and I shut down that line of thought, and focused on the rest of what I had to wear.

  I swear that man could smirk the loudest of anyone I knew, because I could hear it—clear across the room—even though it didn’t make a sound.

  There was nothing I could do about the happiness that rose every time I saw the boots, but, to my surprise, neither Mack, nor Tens had anything to say about that. I wondered if Mack would tell me where he’d found this pair, but he didn’t say a word.

  I got dressed, ignoring the man by the door, and, when I was done, right down to my nice new boots, he led the way out of the room.

  “We’re in Briefing Room 9,” he said, disposing of the bucket on the way.

  My heart sank. I’d been hoping there’d be time to hit the cafeteria on the way through.

  “And it’s Odyssey’s turn to bring snacks.”

  I groaned. Delight had about as much catering sense as a water buffalo on the rampage, and Pritchard… Well, who knew what that man thought was a good offering for an inter-team briefing?

  Turns out, he knew a darn sight more than Delight.

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  “We should get you to bring snacks more often,” Tens said, so I didn’t have to, which was a good thing, since the first thing Pritchard did as I walked through the door was hand me a bowl of something creamy, savory and oh. the. Stars.

  I’da asked him if he was married, but I was too busy stuffing my face. He caught the thought, though, and his lips gave the briefest twitch, which, for Pritchard was as good as a broad smile. His response had me rolling my eyes.

  “I figured there had to be some way to shut her up while the grown-ups talked.”

  Grown-ups, hey?

  I raised an eyebrow as I took a seat between Mack and Tens, and decided it was a good thing Pritchard was already taken when he set a warm bread roll on a plate beside me. Who cared why he’d done that? I was damned hungry.

  That pay packet had been supposed to cover the almost overdue rent, and enough food for the next week. How Chief had thought anyone could live on those wages was anyone’s guess, but I’d needed a place to get settled while I dodged my past, and he’d been the first one to hire me…and I’d kinda reached that point in my running away that I needed to stop, and find more funds.

  Figures Mack would catch up with me just as I was getting comfortable.

  “At least I got to you first…”

  Yeah, man had a point. It coulda been Delight.

  “Or worse.”

  There were worse?

  “There’s always worse, and they’d just found out you were on world.”

  Well, that couldn’t have been good.

  “It—"

  “It’s a discussion for another time!” Delight snapped, and she sounded more than put out.

  Mack shrugged, but he didn’t finish what he’d been about to say.

  I scraped my spoon through an empty bowl, and then used the bread roll to mop up what was left. Catering was one of the few good things I remembered about Odyssey.

  That thought earned me a glare from both Pritchard and Delight, but it didn’t stop Pritchard from replacing my bowl with a plate of pastries.

  “Still trying to keep me quiet, huh?” I asked, picking up one of the ones on the top, and I wondered when the ‘grown-ups’ would get around to discussing their mission, instead of me.

  “Kid’s got a point,” Delight said, and they got right down to business.

  “They’ve taken her up onto the orbital,” Delight said, “So now they’ve got more than just a child as hostage.”

  I stopped chewing, the food forming an unwieldy lump in my mouth, while ice coated my innards. They all knew how I felt about airlocks. Delight tilted her head, and gave me a particularly evil smile.

  “Gonna have to deal with it, short stuff. You’ll be needing to take an EVA.”

  “She’ll be needing a whole new set of underwear,” Tens muttered, and I scowled at him. Whose side was he on, anyway?

  Pritchard distracted me before the situation devolved into a fight.

  “Eat your pie,” he said, picking one up off the plate and stuffing it into my mouth when I took a breath to protest.

  He let go of the pie, and I grabbed it before it could fall to the table, biting down on it in the process. Flavor oozed over my tongue, and I froze.

  This was… Stars alive, that was good! Fine, I’d eat my pie. I eyed the pastries on the plate in front of me, while the others got down to discussing exactly what interference Mack and Tens would be running, while I was infiltrating the private arm Bluebirds owned on the orbital.

  I let them get on with it while I finished the rest of what was on my plate, and then I bounced through Tens’s systems, infiltrated the Odyssey cruiser’s outer security layer and opened one of the back doors the designer had left to the file storage for its scans. It didn’t take me long to work out we’d left Chief’s world and his restaurant far, far behind, and were fast approaching the one they were running the mission on.

  Only problem was…

  I duplicated the files I needed, found the link the cruiser was using to communicate with the orbital, and slid on into the orbital’s systems.

  And then I slid just as quickly out of them.

  Well, sonuvabitch! Who knew that sucker was so well protected?

  I headed for the back door in the cruiser’s system, hoping to get back to my own skull, before anyone had realized I’d left it—and was not impressed to find Delight and Pritchard propped against it, waiting. I stopped, just out of pixilated grabbing range, and stared at them. They stared back.

  And then Delight smiled.

  Among the things that scared me, a smiling Delight ranked pretty high. Not quite as high as airlocks, and nowhere near as high as needles, but pretty damned high, all the same.

  I backed up a step, and neither she nor Pritchard moved.

  Well, that couldn’t be good. It was hard keeping an eye on the pair of them, while I looked over my shoulder but I managed it. Huh. Who knew security protocols could sneak up on a person?

  Oh.

  Since they were a wet wire.

  I dodged the first programmed grab, and rolled to one side just as the walls started closing in. Scrambling back meant I’d be in range for Delight or Pritchard to have a shot. Staying where I was left me at the mercy of the system’s guard.