Predator Code (Tales from Wildhearth #1)

Chapter 32 - Careful What You Steal For

The dots were finally joining together. Finally, some semblance of an ending was in sight. Jett let herself bask in it for a moment, revelling in the rare sensation of being in control for a change. She'd done her time scuffing around in the shadows, hiding, running, and gathering with the wolfkin snapping at her heels every step of the way. Now they finally had the means to turn the tables and take the fight to their foes.

Given the lengths she'd already gone to, scraping together the funds to bribe the train guard a second time was a trivial matter as far as Jett was concerned. As long as Bronco could make good on his statement, they were going to Belforra.

Rapid's guards turned dubious eyes on the big vulkin. Rapid himself smirked, folding his arms and leaning against a supporting girder. He gave Bronco a nod.

"Sneakier than you look, eh?" he chuckled. "That's all well'n'good, but I'm gonna need you a little heavier on the details before I stick my neck in a wolf's mouth over this. How'd you track down a fence like that? Those folks don't send up a flare for anyone who comes knockin'."

"Hard as it might be to believe," Bronco rumbled, "being a watchguard isn't all fangs and fighting. Sometimes we do need to use our brains."

"You're right. It is hard to believe." Rapid flashed a fanged smirk. "So what's the story?"

"Zanzihar was an amateur—a lot of stamps but not a lot of street smarts. People noticed him when he went places a Silkie shouldn't."

"Went poking around with some seedy criminals, eh?" Karno cast an apologetic glance at Rapid. "No offence."

"None taken, wolf."

"I followed the transaction trail, canvassed the local areas for witnesses who might have seen him." Bronco shrugged. "I am a watchguard, after all. People were all too happy to help track down the killer of a Designate. Can't have the Silk feeling unsafe. Once I tracked his movements, I staked out the places he shouldn't have gone. You can find a lot of interesting kin that way."

"So, who're we dealing with?"

"I am dealing with them." The vulkin fixed him with a dangerous stare. "They took enough chances by even speaking with me. We bring the caps, they can get us to Belforra, but there are a lot of paws to shine to keep it muzzled. We do this my way, or we don't go."

Rapid glanced at his subordinate. Brushki gave a non-committal shrug. To Jett, it didn't look like an endorsement either way, but it seemed to be enough for Rapid. The albino turned back and made a sweeping gesture to the group.

"Alright, I'll bite. Take ya for a lotta things, Bronc, but I don't think there's a bone in that big skeleton o' yours that knows how to lie."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Rapid grinned. "So, whatcha think your little Silk pal found in Belforra that was worth killing over?"

"This," Jett interjected, swinging her pack off her shoulders. She reached into her rucksack to retrieve the block drive containing the precious stolen data. Raising it into the light, she looked pointedly at Gallant. "You said you were a medicary?"

The deerkin nodded. "That's right."

"Are you good at it?"

"Excuse me?"

Jett sighed, shaking the block drive insistently. "How good a medicary are you?"

"I'm pretty good," Gallant snapped. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"We found something in the enforcer headquarters that frankly scares the tail off of me," Jett explained. "I'm a tech-breaker—a damn good one, mind you—but biology is not exactly my area. Maybe you can make some sense of what we found on this drive. We pulled the data from the enforcers' central computer."