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Ren ran a hand over his face and then over his scalp for good measure. The bright glow of lights as he walked down the hall threatened to stab through the back of his head, and the clench in his gut would have brought his breakfast to the fore if he'd bothered to eat anything. At least he couldn't blame that last bit on Grenville and the damn booze. He'd have been nauseous even if he'd been sober. The idea of seeing Lucia, of telling her the rumors about what her bonding with Inari might mean, made him want to crawl back into his bed and hide. Much as he hated to admit it, though, Grenville was right. Lucia deserved to make an informed choice, and that meant telling her everything.
Inari's smug buzz rattling across the edges of his hangover like a ripsaw didn't help his mood either, now that he thought about it.
He looked at the wolf as she walked alongside. "Just stop. I know I should have brought something else." He sipped from the coffee in his right hand, hoping the peace offering would be enough to get him in the door. "She likes coffee." At least the mugs that stocked the UOQs kitchens were decent-sized. He'd stayed at a base on Khonsu where the cups barely held two sips. It had been infuriating, and he'd taken to drinking directly from the pot instead.
He rounded the corner to where he remembered the base had put her up, but the door to her quarters was propped open. A utility cart stood outside, stocked with cleaning supplies. Ren set the coffee mugs on the cart and stepped into the room. In the back bedroom, he found a slick-sleeve recruit packing Lucia's clothes into a ditty bag. As soon as the recruit noticed Ren, the woman straightened and fired off a sharp salute.
Ren rolled his eyes. "Don't salute me. I work for a living. What's going on?"
The recruit exhaled and dropped her arm, then she seemed to notice Inari for the first time. "Is that an actual umbra wolf? I've never seen one before."
"That's kind of the point, isn't it?" Ren resisted the urge to smile; he could feel 'Ri warming to the recruit, but he needed to talk to Lucia. "Where's the occupant of these quarters?"
"Oh," the recruit said, and for a moment Ren thought she hadn't heard the question. "Oh! Mx. Sarmiento left very early this morning."
"Without her clothes."
"Well, without all of them. She only took an overnight bag. She's headed back out to talk to them, you know? The insurgents? I can't believe she'd go back after they shot her down the first time. I'm supposed to mail this stuff off to her family."
No secrets in the military, of course. "The existence and identity of any aggressor has not been determined." Ren narrowed his eyes as he growled, and the recruit took a step back. "Anyone with her?”
"Captain Snyder is providing her escort." The recruit beamed. "Those rebels won't try anything with him around."
"If she only took an overnight bag, why are you packing her stuff?" She'd already left. He was grasping at straws, but maybe the recruit would know something. "She'll be back here tomorrow, right?"
For a recruit, her DILLIGAF look had the weight of a seasoned pro.
Ren nodded. "Got it. Thanks, Private..."
"Hoskie, sir."
Ren rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "It's lance corporal. Not sir. C'mon, 'Ri." His wolf's concern had him ready to start pacing the room and knocking things over, and that wouldn't do Pvt. Hoskie any favors. He'd missed his chance, and she'd gone. The unfairness of it crushed his chest, but he felt the moment Inari changed from concern to distress. He glanced at his wolf, and in a flash, she had charged out the door and back toward their quarters.
#
INARI BEAT HIM DOWN the hall, the scrape of her claws impatient as she tried to dig their door open. Fortunately, the base expected the UOQs to get rough use, so there wasn't any damage to the finish. Ren unlocked the door and pushed it open so his wolf could bolt inside. She charged into the bedroom and shook open his ditty bag, prompting him to snap, "What the hell's gotten into you?"
Anxiety, frustration, and low, simmering anger pawed through his consciousness. At least he could understand the latter of those. For not the first time, he wished the connection between bondmates was more than empathic. The telepathy that the rangers and their wolves were rumored to have would have been damn handy about now.
His wolf ran to the living area, and Ren knelt to start cleaning up the mess she'd made. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her jump into a chair and put her paws in the middle of the dinner table. Before he could push past his shock to yell at her, she'd already clambered back down, a prize held tightly in her mouth.
That sealed it. He pushed himself back to standing. "You know better than that, 'Ri. What do you think you're doing?" He could hear the crack of command in his voice, and the bond between them vibrated with his wolf's surprise and shock. She crouched low, tail tight against her side as she slinked forward to place her parcel at his feet. Ren recognized it as the card Snyder had sent along with the bottle of whiskey. A few handwritten lines. Nothing more. He was going to throw it away but hadn't felt bothered to even make that much effort. He bent down to grab it, and Inari scurried behind him to grab a pair of ODUs and drag them around in front of him. With her nose and one paw, she dug at the thigh pocket on the trousers, her desperation and frustration beating in his blood like it was his own.
"Okay, okay. What's in the pocket then? Did I leave some ration bar in there for you?" He chuckled at the brief pulse of annoyance from his wolf but slid his hand into the pocket. He pulled out a scrap of green fabric, and Inari launched herself up to grab it out of his hand. Even after their years together, he had a moment of shock, worried that her teeth might not stop at the fabric. He'd never seen her so distraught.
She dropped the piece of fabric on the floor next to the card from Snyder. With deliberate patience she sniffed first one, then the other, then sat and offered a single yip.
Ren finally remembered where he'd seen the scrap of fabric—it had been caught on a bit of debris at the wreck. He must have tucked it into his pocket without thinking about it and forgotten it was in there.
Apparently he wasn't coming to the right conclusion quickly enough. Scorn and exasperation rolled through him in a wave as Inari very slowly and dramatically sniffed at the card, and then the scrap of cloth. She looked up at him, then lay down and uttered a single bark.
But that meant Snyder had been at the crash site without coming to find them. Had been the one meeting with the mercenary who had attacked them in the cave. Ren braced his hand on the wall as it felt like gravity had suddenly flipped and his stomach was trying to catch up. He grabbed his omni off the nightstand and called over to CentOp.
A crisp male voice answered the call. "Cent—"
"This is Lance Corporal Ren Inouye of the TJF Rangers." He gave up the override authorized by the joint forces to confirm identity with ground troops. "I have a potential emergency situation—I need the coordinates of Captain Snyder, immediately." Hopefully they didn't have too many Snyders in the officer corps.
There was a brief pause, and then, "Your code checks out. I'm sorry, Lance Corporal, but it appears Captain Snyder has turned off his transmitter."
He swallowed. "Thank you. I need a trans-orbital comm link. Let me know as soon as you can set one up."
"O...of course, Lance Corporal. I'll call you at this number. Which vessel are we calling."
"Hail the JFC Hunting Cry. And don't bother calling me, I'll be there soon." He just needed to grab Grenville and Djehuti along the way.
And hope he wasn't too late.