Chapter 33 Until Next Time
Cyrus’ jaw clenched, his teeth grinding slightly as he continued to listen to Agent Gelite Sotinos, the newly arrived ship’s Captain, go on and fucking on.
“You can’t be serious?! We—”
“Are you in charge here, or am I?” he asked darkly, his voice lowering threateningly.
The Centaur paled. “I… You literally have Cryptid Means First and Second in Command trapped, not to mention the infamous pirate, Calico Delgrim, and you are just going to—”
“Yes,” Cyrus ground out. “It is not for you to question, so don’t. Do not put their names in your report—you didn’t see them. And above all, I want you to keep your fucking mouth shut. Is that clear, Agent Gelite?”
Cyrus had always believed that it would be a disservice to the world if they locked Ender up, and his mind would likely never change on that.
And while this was his first blatant act of letting the man go, he wasn’t going to back down.
Calico was more of an add-on than anything.
He figured Ender would complain or become hostile if they tried to take the fucker, so it was the Succubus’ lucky ass day.
When Gelite didn’t respond, Killian, who’d been standing by his side through the ranting, stepped closer, and in a voice laced with violence and venom, he sang, “I can keep his mouth shut.”
The Cryptid took a stumbling step back, turning white as a ghost, proving once again who was the scarier of the two of them. “N-no! N-not necessary. I understand, I saw nothing, I know nothing!”
“Good decision!” Cyrus smirked, flashing his fangs. “Now, tell me, did you send a report after picking up Agent Joden in the escape pod?”
Gelite shook his head quickly. “I was waiting to make sure we had all the details before sending it.”
The threads were on their side in that case then.
“Permanently delete whatever report you have already prepared. In fact, send nothing at all. I’ll take full responsibility for sending the reports from here on out, until we reach Earth.
Now, while I go inform Ender and his crew of the good news, Killian here is going to keep you company.
” He looked toward his boyfriend. “Aren’t you, Killian? ”
“Sure am!” the Siren chimed.
“Have fun!” Smirking at how the Centaur looked like he was about to pass out when the man moved to stand by his side, Cyrus walked away, but he only made it to the exit of the loading bay before the exact people he was looking for, Ender, Soren, and Calico, walked in.
Ender was in his own clothes now; jeans and cowboy boots visible under a thick, puffy black coat.
“I heard a ship arrived,” the Gorgon mused as they reached him.
“A Bureau ship. One of the ones that left Earth around the same time mine did. When communications were lost, the nearest ship set off here. They happened to come across the man we sent in the escape pod.”
“I see,” Ender drawled carefully, while Soren’s eyes narrowed on him. Calico looked bored, but he saw the way the man’s jaw tensed.
“Right, so you have two options. Option one, we can give you all a lift back to Earth, leaving your ship behind, and—”
“And we get new fancy metal cuffs?” Ender smirked.
“No. No strings attached. You, all of you, pirates included, will be let go, as if we never saw you. Though, I will warn you, it will be cramped if you choose option one. The ship isn’t on the large size, but we’d manage.”
The two men with Ender stayed quiet, their expressions telling him they were suspicious of the offer, while the Gorgon seemed curious, with his head tilting slightly, and one brow raising. “And the second option?”
“You use the comms on the newly arrived ship to call for your own backup and ride, followed by us packing up and leaving without you.”
“The second,” Ender stated without hesitation.
He nodded. “If you’re sure.”
The man smirked. “I sure as shit am. Besides, some of your people ain’t looking too friendly. Though—” The Gorgon chuckled. “—one man does look like he is about to pass out, likely due to whatever your pretty little Siren is telling him.”
Cyrus shrugged. “We have another Ship Captain with us.”
“Always good to have more than one.” Ender’s smirk widened. “Lead the way to the functioning comms. And then I’d imagine you’ll be needing some of our supplies, with all the mouths you’ll have to feed.”
“We likely will. That brings up another topic. The children we discussed at our last meeting.”
“Leave the ten we talked about here with us, we’ll take care of them. Will even send you all updates on their progress, along with the promised notification of when they’ve been placed safely. How those reports will get to you, well…that’ll be my little secret for now.”
Cyrus snorted. “Plan to hack our systems again?”
“Maybe? Maybe not,” Ender chimed sweetly.
Ender stood back with Soren, watching Bureau agents load boxes of supplies onto the newly arrived ship, trying to not to feel bitter about the fact that everyone who was leaving would be going into a perfectly warm, temperature-controlled environment, while they’d be stuck with broke and coldness.
His eyes followed Cyrus and Killian as the two men directed things. Severo was standing next to the men, apparently doing nothing.
“We’ll have to change the frequency we use after this,” Soren stated.
That they would. It was good to be able to finally fucking call out, but even though he watched Killian delete the call data and source code, he couldn’t trust it. Mainly, as he knew the Siren could easily get it back. “Something to worry about after this.”
As things settled, with the people and supplies finally all loaded, eventually there was only them and Cyrus, Killian, and Severo left in the loading bay.
He smiled as they approached, and held out his hand. Cyrus shook it without hesitation, the man’s grip firm but not overbearing. Ender shook Killian’s hand next.
“Until next time. Though, I think it would be best if there wasn’t,” he chuckled. “I feel I may really end up in cuffs if there is.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it, you might like it,” Killian sassed with a wink.
He scoffed.
Cyrus smiled. “Take care, Ender. You too, Harpy.”
Ender nodded, and Soren just grunted in response.
He sputtered when, without warning, Severo pulled him into a hug. “See you around, Ender.”
Rolling his eyes, he hugged back. “Yeah, yeah, see you, kid.”
Ender stood there as the three men walked away and boarded the ship, smiling when Killian looked back one last time and nodded.
As the ship’s door closed, blocking them from view, followed by warning alarms of a ship undocking going off, he turned and walked away.
Time to sit on my ass and wait some more, he thought with a sigh.