Page 111 of Throwing Fire

“You never know. She could have a Cloudlands contact. Wouldn’t hurt to flush them out.”

“My friend ... you cannot think I left such a threat to my people alive.”

Fuck. He killed her. No wonder he’s so torn up.

I squeeze his shoulder. “Stay here. Stay with Tee. I’ll tell you what B had to say when I bring you back his head.”

“Is that an offer, or an order?” he bristles.

Oh, he is one pissed-off rat-man today. “An offer.”

He rubs his paws over his face. “Thank you, for the offer. I will see this out. I owe it to the families of the dead.”

He owes it to himself to take some time to mourn but he won’t thank me for saying that right now. And maybe he needs the distraction. “Right. See you in ten.”

I’ll use those ten minutes to figure out what the hell to say to him. Somehow,I’m sorrydon’t seem good enough.

When Acker joinsus in the central cavern, he’s wearing his genSkin and Orclas teeth, carrying the kukris I made for him at his waist and his scythe over his shoulder. He doesn’t look like he wants to hear any of the platitudes I’ve come up with, so I keep them to myself.

I glance at Kez, who looks like she’s swallowed a few platitudes of her own. She’s still fussing with the sling she’s rigged for me. I let her, because it really is helping and I like the attention.

Acker leads us out through the tunnel to the warehouse exit. It’s much more heavily guarded than it was when Kez and I came through. Acker nods to the guards as we pass, mostly rat-men and women. I recognize a few of them from our trips to the Deeps. I meet their eyes and nod when they do.

In the empty warehouse where we met Tiacha, we meet our extraction team. Three men and a woman. The men are muscular, armed and wired. They wear blue shades that cast flickering shadows onto their cheeks.

One of the men looks pretty damn familiar, as do those blue shades.

I nod at the fourth member of the team, a woman, who is neither armed nor wired. She’s wearing tight red and black silk today, but she’s softened the look with a floral scarf around her hair. “Payton,” I say in greeting.

“Mister Snow,” she says. She takes in my sling with a glance and does not offer to shake. She gives Kez a cheek-peck, though.

“Thought you were meeting us on the ship,” I say, not liking any change of plans.

“We’ve already had trouble this morning. The ship I initially hired has been grounded. Mechanical difficulties.” She raises an eyebrow. She doesn’t believe that any more than I do. “I’ve had to bring in a new team with their own transport. I thought I better come myself.”

“Good thinking,” I approve.

“This is Exeter, the team leader,” Payton says, introducing the familiar-looking merc.

I open my mouth to say we’ve met but close it when Kez elbows me in the side. I glance at her and realize what she’s realized. Exeter never saw either of us, and there’s no reason to let him know we saw Myhre question him and Mike.

I turn back to the merc with a nod and assess him face-to-face.

He’s a bull, I can tell straight from the off. It’s not the slabs of muscle, which are from sweat rather than chemicals. It’s not the tightly corded jaw or neat professionalism of his gear. It’s his neck. Something about the way he holds his head. It wasn’t obvious during the debrief, or maybe he wasn’t doing it ‘cause he was dealing with Myhre instead of me. But it’s obvious now. He’s a few centimeters shorter than I am but he doesn’t look up at me. He holds himself in a way that takes in everything and meets it head-on, locking horns with anything in his way. This is a man who never backs down.

I like him instantly.

Exeter doesn’t offer to shake, either because of my strapped hand or because he wants to keep his hands free in case he needs to kill something. “Mister Snow.”

“Just Snow,” I tell him. “You with Mike’s outfit?”

“Sabadeen Securities,” he confirms.

“Good to meet you. This is Kez and Acker.” I tip my chin at each of them by way of introduction.

Exeter nods to each of them. When he reaches Kez, he offers his hand and when she holds hers out, he kisses her knuckles.

Maybe I don’t like him as much as I thought I did.