glanced over and had the decency to look chagrined. “Both.”
“Uh-huh,” Terror said, not at all surprised that Vicious had been in contact with the Valiant.
“I’m doing it to protect you,” Vicious insisted. “I had a feeling you would try something like this, especially after Brook helped me see how important Maisie is to you.”
“Brook?” He frowned. “What does she have to do with this?”
“At the dinner Raze and Ella hosted, I mentioned that you were sneaking around the ships with earplugs. I thought you were losing your mind, but she told me about the deaf woman who helped you and that you were trying to understand what life was like for her and maybe feel closer to her.”
Terror bristled at the sudden feeling of exposure. “I didn’t realize I was dinner party gossip.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Vicious scoffed. “You know it wasn’t like that.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so.”
They walked in tense silence. Eventually, Terror asked, “Well?”
Vicious didn’t need him to explain what he wanted to know. “After the gas attack and the bombs, I went to Savage and talked to him about you and Maisie. He agreed to authorize a Shadow Force op. I took that to Orion, and he agreed to let you do this off-the-books if I came with you.”
“As my babysitter?”
“Basically,” Vicious confirmed. “The trade-off is that we have QRF on standby plus medical rescue and a dedicated drone.”
Terror glanced at the heavy canopy. “Not likely that drone can see anything.”
“No, but it can follow our chips. Keep tabs on us in case we get chased and eaten by a bear,” he joked.
“That almost happened to Brook.” Terror slowed his pace as Grim knelt to examine tracks up ahead.
“What? A bear?”
“Yeah.” He reached for the canteen on his belt and unscrewed the cap. “Tor told me all about it. Said she was trying to get out of a vent shaft and some big ass bear stepped on the grate over the exit. Looked like it wanted to eat her, but it couldn’t get the grate to move. She barely made it out of the shaft before the explosives detonated.”
Vicious shook his head. “They asked too much of her.”
Terror shrugged and took a long drink of water, then handed the canteen to Vicious. “She accepted the risk to get her reward.”
“Still,” Vicious said, handing back the canteen. “I don’t like it when we use women like that.”
“I know.” His friend had a soft heart when it came to women and children. He was the sort of man who believed deeply in protecting the innocent and the weak. Vicious still hadn’t forgiven him for the shit he pulled with Naya.
“We’ve got a problem.” Grim stood up and scanned the forest. “There’s another set of prints here.”
Terror’s gut clenched. “Man?”
Grim shook his head. “Woman. She’s taller and heavier.” He raised his hand to the lower part of his chest to indicate her height. “She’s carrying a weapon on her left hip.”
“Oh, come on,” Vicious called out in disbelief. “There’s no way you can tell that from a boot print.”
Grim settled his cold gaze on the general. “You calling me a liar, sir?”
“No,” Vicious quickly replied. Walking closer, he crouched down to examine the boot prints. “How can you tell?”
Grim crouched next to him and pointed as he taught. “Length of the stride. Depth of the imprint.” Grim turned back to the trail. “She’s good. She picked up Maisie’s trail and is following it. She’s also equipped for this kind of hiking. There are spike holes in her boot prints.”
“A hunter?” Terror guessed.
“This high up?” Lethal seemed unconvinced. “We’ll be above the timberline soon. Whatever lives up there is going to be too heavy for one woman to carry down on her own. She’ll have a partner somewhere if she’s planning to pack out the meat.”
“Probably,” Grim agreed. He grew quiet as he moved a few feet ahead, crouching down to sweep away some brittle leaves. He tilted his head as he studied whatever he had uncovered and then followed the new trail a few more feet, pausing to sweep away debris as he walked. “Dogs. Two of them. One bigger than the other.”
“Domesticated?” Vicious asked and caught Terror’s eye. There was no need for his friend to explain why he was asking. Years earlier, when they had been undercover as young men on a prison planet, they had witnessed wild dogs tear into and devour a group of prisoners who had tried to escape the compound. It had been