Chapter 103: Does it Really Matter?
"What’s up is that I am not very happy with you, Midnight. And here was me thinking that you wanted to be friends. Is this any way for one friend to treat another?" I asked the wolfman. He was clearly not expecting any calls seeing as he was lying in bed.
"I don’t understand," he replied, a look of confusion passed over his face. It was kind of like seeing a golden retriever confused, and it was all I could do not to laugh.
"I have fifteen unknown ships at our meeting point," I said smoothly. Dressed as I was, it would be hard for him to be able to read my tells. Well, except for my four claws tapping out a beat on the armrest.
"I don’t understand," he repeated for the second time.
"You don’t seem to understand a lot," I replied, not at all amused. I was hoping that he would become a good client, but that’s not how it looked right now.
"Just tell me, Merciless," growled the wolf as he flung the sheets off of his body and stood up. I wasn’t surprised to see him completely covered in fur from head to tail, but I was more than a little relieved that he slept in pants.
"When we arrived here, there were 15 ripples in space," I said, telling him like I actually knew what I was saying.
"Understood," said the wolf, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
"A male of few words," I joked. "But I think I should explain something. I am currently locked onto each one of the ships. If you aren’t claiming them, then I will blow them up. Please don’t push me on this matter."
"Understood. But please believe me that I have nothing to do with those ships," said the wolf, and I watched as he passed numerous crew members before reaching the bridge of his ship.
"If they aren’t yours, then I will take great pleasure in destroying them. I don’t like to be set up or betrayed Midnight."
"I didn’t do it," the wolfman assured me. "Blow them all up. I will deal with any consequences."
"Now, now. There is no need to be going that far. But if you want to help, if anyone asks, or even if they don’t, just say it was a Sisalik ship that did it. Understood?" I said. I wasn’t about to leave survivors, but someone needed to spread the word. Might as well be Midnight.
"Done," he agreed as he sat down in the captain’s chair. He made a signal, and all of a sudden, I was off of his private comms and onto the main screen. "I’ll contact Tyris to see what is going on."
"And if he says something different?" I asked cocking my head to the side.
"Then the ships will still be destroyed by the Sisalik. You aren’t supposed to arrive for another three hours." Midnight gave me a very toothy grin, and under my veil and hoods, I returned the look.
"It is always such a pleasure working with intelligent beings," I said with a nod of my head. I gave Jun Li a look. "Fire," I said, once again in English.
"Firing," repeated Jun Li, and as soon as he finished saying the word, there were fifteen explosions in front of us. I couldn’t even see the ships in the darkness of space. I shuddered, thinking about what I would have been walking into if I didn’t have that nagging feeling in my stomach.
Jun Li, in his infinite wisdom, had split our screen between Midnight and the balls of fire exploding. The explosion didn’t last long, nothing more than a mere blink of an eye before the lack of oxygen killed the flames. Jun Li turned on all of his lights, and we could see the debris from the crafts drifted along invisible currents, pushed out by the force of the explosion.
"Huh," said Midnight as he leaned back into his chair. "I almost have to wonder who they were there for," he mused.
"Does it really matter?" I asked curiously. I mean, whether they were there for him or for me, they were now all dead.
"No, but our Alpha has been wanting us to come home; I just wondered if they were sent for that reason."
"Awe, is Wolfie having second thoughts now that I have destroyed all the ships?" I asked, my voice laced with sarcasm.
"Not at all," said Midnight reassuringly. "If they were sent by the Alpha, they were there to kill us. The Alpha might say that he wants us home. But there can never be two Alphas on the same planet. We don’t get along well."
"Then, no matter what, I guess I did you a favor," I smirked.
"I guess you did," he said with a nod of his head. "You have also pointed out that I might have a zmaj in my bed."
"I’m sorry, have you seen the size of those things? I think you would be more than aware if you had one of those in your bed," I said with a chuckle.
"Very true," he conceded. "But that still doesn’t change the fact that it was Tyris that had to have planned it."
"I figured he was either law enforcement or an arms dealer," I said, giving him a brief glimpse into my thinking. "If he were law enforcement, then he would want to get rid of any arms dealers, especially with little to no bottom line. On the other hand, if he was an arms dealer, then I was competition, and he would want to get rid of me for that."
"Interesting thinking. How did you come up with it?" asked Midnight as another wolf cut through the screen and handed him something.
"No one changes the date, time, and location of such a big handoff at the last minute like that," I said with an obvious shrug of my shoulders.
"Well, he is now trying to get in touch with me. Should I have him join the conversation?" asked Midnight, his upper jaw curling into a sneer.
"Funny that as soon as those ships are destroyed, he starts making calls," I pushed. "I wonder about his impeccable timing."
"I’ll ask him that myself," said Midnight letting out a howl of laughter.
