Mack 'n' Me, page 28
“You are not Master Bastien.”
Trust the Ghoul to have chosen those alluring female tones.
“No. He’s dead.”
I felt it reach into my head.
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
The engines started to cool.
“Does that mean my services are not required?”
“Ye... Services?”
“I was contracted to Master Bastien. If he is dead, then my contract is terminated, and I must look for another. I will do that from here.”
“What sort of services do you offer?”
“Transport,” the ship said. “There are three of us, and Master Bastien pays handsomely for one of us to be on stand-by here, at all times.”
“And are you discreet?” I asked, feeling the start of a plan uncoiling in my skull.
The door to the ship’s hangar slid closed behind me, and my head felt suddenly quieter.
“We should have privacy, if you wish to negotiate a contract,” it said. “I’m afraid you had eavesdroppers. They will find that more difficult until I turn off the shielding to this compartment.”
Its... her? Her. Her words reminded me of the links inside my implant, and I sank inside myself to deal with them. I found that I was, for the moment, alone.
“They cannot access the link while you are inside the hangar. They will come, but they are busy.”
I knew they were busy. It would take a little while for Delight’s people to have their teams in place, and Mack would have to send for his own teams, if he wanted to come after me. Given that he needed Tens to monitor Delight and her people, I figured I had a little time.
“So, I can lock them out?”
“Certainly. Are you doing this for privacy, or security reasons?” the AI inquired.
“Security,” I said, although the privacy benefits would be welcome.
“May I check your work when you are done?”
I baulked at that, but the ship continued.
“Your security affects my security,” she said. “I would like to know your head is secured against hacking attempts. I can ensure your head remains your own for the duration of the journey, but am obliged to remove any extra precautions which are not paid for, at journey’s end.”
Oh. Well, that sounded fair to me.
“Okay,” I said. “Give me a minute, and then you can check the links.”
I thought about what I was about to do. I really did. I weighed the relative security of working for Odyssey for the rest of my life, against finding my own path, and working out what that life should look like for myself, and knew I might not have another chance. Even knowing that I’d spend the next few years running from the likes of Agent Delight and Mack, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take that chance.
I ran a diagnostic through my implant, seeking out the links that had been put there by Mack, Delight, Bendigo, Tens, and Bastien, and I shut each one down. Now that Bastien and Bendigo were dead, I was able to remove their links. I tried it with the others, but found they’d be quicker to lock than remove. I even found the tracker Odyssey had planted the last time I’d been in their hands.
Goddamnit! That was the final straw. I knew I’d have to replace the implant, but I figured there was nothing in this one I was going to miss—except maybe Rohan. As dumb as it sounds, I didn’t want to kill his link, but Tens knew it was there, and so did Mack, and neither would hesitate to use it to come after me.
I shut the link off, feeling the echo of sadness at having to walk away from the first real friend I’d made since running away from home—and then I choked down a laugh. Rohan had learned a lot from Tens, and his was another link that would take more time to remove than I had. Little rat.
When I was sure I had found and locked down, or removed, all the links, I turned to the AI.
“Ready.”
She found three more, and locked them tight.
“Now, you will be secure for the journey. We should discuss price and payment.”
I named a price that was half of what I’d accrued in the two years of extra missions and Odyssey recruitment pay.
“That depends on your destination.”
“How far will it take me?”
Two moons over was not enough.
“I need a world to disappear on.”
I figured I could find an employer when I got there, that this was one thing the ship didn’t need to know.
“The closest is Depredides,” and she named a figure that took two thirds of what I had—and didn’t leave enough to get the compromised implant out of my skull.
“You will also be able to spend time in the regen tank we have on board.”
I would? I did? Did I need to?
“The nanites were not shielded,” she said, and I realized just how much I was starting to hurt. So, no new implant, but I’d have healed up by the time we made landfall?
“Yes.”
It took me seconds to decide I could live with that.
“I need to access my accounts and transfer my funds.”
“You can do that from on board. We can verify you have sufficient prior to breaking orbit.”
I didn’t want to ask what she would do if I did not, figured I could cross that bridge if I got to it. She popped the hatch, and I climbed on board. The minute the ship dropped the shields to the hangar, though, every link in my head went live... or they tried to.
I chuckled as neither Rohan, Mack, Tens, nor Delight broke through the locks the ship had put down. Nor did any of them think to wall off my accounts, before I’d accessed them. Maybe they still thought I was coming back.
I cleared my accounts, transferring the amount my transporter required to the account she designated. As we broke atmosphere, another thought occurred to me.
“You never told me how discreet you were.”
“There are levels.”
Of course, there were.
“Any I can afford?”
“The basic level is included in the fee you have paid.”
Great.
“How much time do I have?”
“Three days before the drop-off point can be bought, are standard.”
“It will do.”
“You are running from Odyssey, are you not?”
“Yes,” and I didn’t want to know how she’d worked that out.
“You let me into your implant. You have had an interesting couple of years. The identity of your location will be of some value, and bidding will take at least a week to resolve. Where you go after I drop you off, is entirely up to you.”
“Fantastic.”
“Welcome to life on the run.”
I had no way of answering that, but I didn’t have to. The ship’s comms board lit up like a Terran Christmas tree.
“We are being hailed by two ships, and the complex we just left, on the world below. All calls have the same point of origin.”
I sighed.
“Put Tens through.”
He was not impressed... or maybe he was. Either way the vid showed him smirking.
“You leaving us, girl?”
“Running just as far and fast as I can get.”
“You cleared your account.”
“Yup.”
“Delight is not amused.”
“She never is.”
“And Mack is pissed.”
“That hasn’t changed.”
The smirk curled upwards, and then vanished.
“Rohan says thank you for the puppy.”
And it was my turn to smile, right up until Tens added, “Anything I can say?”
“To get me to come back?”
“Your bonus for the last job is getting smaller by the second.”
“What do you want, Tens?”
The ship cut in, before he could respond.
“Warp in twenty,” and I was glad someone wasn’t taking chances.
“Mack says get your ass back on board.”
“That’s sweet of him.”
“Delight says she’s going to kick your ass.”
“She has to catch me first.”
Tens sighed, and all amusement went from his face.
“He will come for you,” and the only person he could ever mean was Mack.
I felt my heart do a happy skip, even as sadness crashed through it. I hadn’t been banking on feeling this way about leaving Mack behind. I felt my throat constrict, and swallowed against the urge to cry.
“I know.”
“And I promised Rohan I’d help Mack bring you back.”
Now, that was sweet. I cleared my throat.
“You’ll have to beat Delight,” I said, and felt the first frisson of fear.
Maybe I hadn’t thought this through... but the thought of continuing to work under Delight’s shadow was unbearable, so I knew I had no choice. The ship spoke, again.
“Warp in five, four...”
“We will find you, Cutter.”
I smiled, as the pressures of warp closed around me, and I said goodbye the only way I knew how.
“Yeah? Good fucking luck!”
Because they were going to need it. I was going to make damned sure of that!
Author’s Notes
Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins came into being by accident. I thought I was writing the story that came next, but the beginning didn’t work, and I went back to write what was missing. Turns out there was an entire book that needed to be there, and I discovered a lot more about where Cutter came from than I’d ever suspected.
She was an ordinary girl...who tried to escape a mundane and unsavory situation...and ended up in something not quite so mundane and even more unsavory—and that’s when her adventure truly began.
Where did story actually come from?
Cutter grew out of a series of flash fiction that I wrote because it was funny to have the main character slug her boss, every time she returned from a mission—and I always wondered why she stayed. Well, now I know.
Originally published under a different cover, this edition has gone through another round of editing to bring it up to my current speed, and was held back from re-release until this series was complete.
I have included a list of my other work in the next few pages, and thank you for keeping me company on this writer’s journey. I’d like to say I know how Cutter’s journey is going to end, but I don’t—just as I don’t know how the years ahead are going to turn out.
We can only hope for the best, and do our best to make our tiny corners of this world the best places they can be. I wish you all the best for whichever part of the world you’re facing and the years to come.
The next book in this series is already written, and you can find more news of my work, or follow me as I create more stories, at any one of the following locations:
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/C.M.-Simpson/e/B0086QFGFO
Blogspot: http://cmsimpson.blogspot.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMSimpsonWriter/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/cmsimpsonauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simpsoncolleen1
Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCjOK2SvOHoT_ru9rlnlVS-g
The cover art for this book was created by Moonchild Lilja and you can find her work at fantasybookdesign.com
Other Work by C.M. Simpson
The Magic Beneath Paris (with Michael Anderle)
#1 Trading into Shadow
#2 Trading into Darkness
#3 Trading Close to Light
#4 Trading by Firelight
#5 Trading by Shroomlight
#6 Trading into Daylight
#7 Trading into Stormlight
#8 Trading to the Deeps
Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey
#1 Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins
#2 Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host
#3 Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach
#4 Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter’s Favor
#5 Mack ‘n’ Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9
#6 Mack ‘n’ Me: Diplomacy 101
C.M.’s Collections
#1 365 Days of Flash Fiction
#2 365 Days of Poetry
#3 A Collection of Dragons
#4 Tales of Mack ‘n’ Me
I also have work in the following publications:
The Expanding Universe: Volume 4
Dragonscales Anthology: Volume 2
About C.M. Simpson
Born in Far North Queensland, I ended up being dragged over most of the state before the age of ten—and then into the Northern Territory and back, so that I attended four different primary schools and two high schools by graduation. In a country that inspires the imagination, and in towns that made me dream of worlds beyond my own, I started writing early, and reading voraciously.
In high school, I discovered writers like Anne McCaffrey, Harry Harrison, John Christopher, Douglas Hill and Alan Dean Foster. They kept me company—and semi-sane—through most of my young adult years, and beyond. I’ve done time in the Royal Australian Air Force, worked as a governess and teacher, and been an analyst, and, all that time, I kept writing, and exploring both my worlds and those I was privileged to be invited to share. Now, you can find my stories in ebook form at most of the major distributors. Thank you, for sharing this part of my journey with me. If you would like to share more of it, you can find my blog, here: https://cmsimpson.blogspot.com/, or sign up for my newsletter. Hope to see you there.
C.M. Simpson, Mack 'n' Me
