Cynetic Wolf
A WHISPER

My eyes fluttered open as we landed. Dazed, I squinted, exhausted. It was 21:45.

“Raek!” Zedda reached over and touched my face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. The VTOL, did we…”

Lars nodded, a proud look in his eyes. “Thanks to you.”

My head was throbbing, and I shook it to clear it. “So, everyone’s okay?” They all stared at me in the cramped craft like they’d seen a ghost. Had something happened?

Henk laughed, shaking his head. “You’re crazy, Raek.”

“Calter?” I asked. “Was it all for nothing?”

Lars shrugged. “Looks like it. We should have seen it coming.”

I didn’t say anything, it was my fault. We had nothing to show for it and were back to square one.

The doors opened, and Paer said, “I don’t know about you all, but I’m off to bed.”

Soon, they went their separate ways but Zedda grabbed my sleeve. “Shhh, there’s something I wanted to show you,” she whispered.

“Wha—”

“Shh. Follow me,” she said. “We can’t talk here.” She grabbed my hand and led me along the hallway, finger to her lips.

“Zedda, what’s going on?” She was scaring me. Why did we need to be quiet?

She held her finger to her lips again.

“A traitor, a spy, a—”

She put her hand over my mouth and pushed me through an open door.

“Fine, we’re alone. What? What’s going on?” My heart thundered.

She closed the door and locked it, body pressing against mine. “Zedda?”

“Shhh.” A light kiss on my lips. “I never thanked you for saving my life, Raek.”

Oh… “You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” Her lips embraced mine as hips rubbed across my leg, her chest pushing into me. My breath came faster and faster.

Was this really happening? “Are you sure—”

“Shut up, Raek.” She laughed. “You’re cute and I like you, but sometimes you talk too much. Just feel it, just be.”

Something triggered in me, something primal. I let go and instincts took over. Wild wolfish blood ran through me, desires unleashed. And it’s not like we could get pregnant...

It could have been five minutes or five hours… time ceased, unlike anything I’ve ever felt: raw, pure, real. When it was over, we collapsed into each other’s arms, asleep the moment our heads touched the floor.

Later that night, I awoke to her soft eyes on my face. “Zedda?”

“I was watching you sleep. There’s something about you.”

“Such as?” I knew the feeling but wanted to see her squirm. She couldn’t put it into words, and soon, talk turned to my sister, my family. “I let them down. They’re all dead because of me, because I lied.” I shivered as the brutal truth escaped my lips, and she pulled me tight.

“It’ll be okay, Raek. It’s not your fault.” I couldn’t fight back the tears, but she never let me go. I must have fallen asleep.

When morning came and I was still in her arms, I couldn’t help but smile. I could get used to this.

She was asleep and I didn’t want to bother her. It was four a.m. but I was wide awake. I’d go to the mess and bring her coffee. She’d wake in an hour or two. For some reason, I’d needed less and less sleep after my nanoSTEMs activated.

Obowe was in the mess when I got there. Was he such an early riser?

I walked over. “How’s it going?”

“There you are, Raek. I was hoping you’d be soon. We got the troop deployment data.”

No way... “Really?”

“Looks like we had it last night when we got back. The tech didn’t check Thorn until this morning. Have a look.” He replicated his display and handed it to me.

Studying the chart, I skimmed. “The animote-only bases?”

He nodded. “There are four with four guards or less. The rest have at least eight.”

Interesting. “So, odds are it’s those four?”

He shrugged. “I hope so. If it is all twenty-five... We cannot hit that many.”

“Meilo, Rhoda, Dever, and North Wal,” I read off. “Zones One and Two and two in Zone Three. Makes sense, spread the risk, especially from natural disaster.” I pulled up information on each.

“They’re all near small cities of less than twenty thousand, an average of five hundred meters above and at least ten kilometers from water. These might be it. It makes sense. These could be our backups.”

He nodded. “It fits.”

Two hours later, we were all back in the Council room.

The early birds among us had seen the data and been brainstorming for hours when Zedda walked in, a blissful smile on her warm face. A knowing grin between us as we all settled in.

Paer briefed everyone, and handed over to Obowe and I.

I highlighted the rows of the chart corresponding to Meilo, Rhoda, Dever, and North Wal, and summarized everything.

“Any way to verify any of this?” Ganla asked. “Or at least troop numbers? It could be a trap.”

I know. That’d been worrying me all morning. What if we sent teams and Calter had played us?

“We’re sending scouts,” I said. “Here’s the limited satellite imagery we have.” The screens changed to reveal four sets of overhead snapshots. “The pictures are grainy and the locations are well hidden, but there’s one thing that makes us almost certain it’s what we’re looking for. See this.” I pointed to a red and white circle. “These are VTOL landing pads. Most smaller facilities don’t have ’em but all four suspected sites do. Makes sense. Emulates want a quick reboot, and to get back to civilization. They don’t want to be stuck in the mountains or riding ground transit.”

“And scouts?” Zedda asked.

“If we could use drones, we’d have visuals in six hours,” Paer remarked. “But these bases, while secret, probably pack some major security and surveillance. We’re sending locals disguised as backpackers to get close enough to report back. Should have the last updates by 16:00 tomorrow.”

I resumed where Paer had left off. “We’ve notified local commanders and leaders of the situation. We need to act soon. The day after tomorrow, we set things in motion: attack the sites, trigger the riots, and launch primary attacks at five a.m. to catch them off guard.” I took a deep breath. “Any questions?”

Mico nodded. “What do the simulations show?”

“We stopped going off sims a long time ago,” Paer said. “Too many variables. We have a shot, it might be a small one, but we can pull it off. Let’s focus on that, people!”

She gave a rundown on best case scenarios while I excused myself to run to the bathroom.

It was happening. I couldn’t believe it.

When I got back, Lars had a holo playing in the center of the room. I realized what they were watching.

“You’re not going to believe this, kid, a hundred million views since yesterday!” he burst out.

I froze in the doorway. “A hundred million?” I murmured once my mouth was working again.

“One. Hundred. Million.” Lars laughed. “The GDR must be shitting themselves. It’s been blowing up. They’ve delisted it 253 times but people are reuploading. The numbers keep rising and rising. You’re famous, kid.”

“I don’t want to be famous,” I said. “I want this to work. I could care less what people think about me.”

“You might not care,” Paer replied. “But they sure do.” She pointed to the skyrocketing view counter.

I rolled my eyes. “Let’s get back to business! There’s a lot to—”

“No!” Zedda retorted, staring me down. “This is important. This is what we needed, what we hoped for. You need to do another. People need to know what to do. It’s what we wanted. It’s what you wanted.” She gave me a hard look. “We need people to fight. They need you.”

“She’s right,” Lars added. “We need another video for when the attacks start, to coordinate this thing.”

Of course, they were right. “Fine. What do I need to do?”

Filming wasn’t as easy this time. The day passed in a blur, one painful take after another until Lars was satisfied. If that wasn’t bad enough, the mess was a bombardment of people. Everyone knew my name and wanted to talk. It was way too much.