Page 58 of Treasured By the Hunter

“Nice to meet you, Zoey.”

“Yes! Nice to meet you,” said a voice from Aaron’s laptop.

I perked up. It sounded simultaneously familiar and not.

“That’s Pip,” Aaron said.

“He meanstheirPip, not our Pip,” Lenny clarified.

“Yeah, I figured Pip and Kan’n wouldn’t agree to come,” I said, “and that’s why Sam isn’t here.”

Aaron shook his head. “Your Pip sounds more difficult than ours.”

“I knew it! I’m thebestPip!”

“Well, you’re supposed to be focusing on the nest right now.”

“I am! I am!” Pip was silent after that.

There were many different feeds on the screen, and I couldn’t find the one that belonged to Harb’k. Some icons on the screen weren’t in English, and I assumed those were names. I did hear his voice occasionally though, and my heart sped up every time Idid. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out which of the feeds was his.

“Hey guys,” Pip said suddenly. “We have a problem. I detect an unknown shuttle in the vicinity.”

“Here? Or there?” Aaron asked.

“Here.”

“And you are sure it’s not one of ours?”

“Positive. It’s not on the map. But I can hear it singing to itself. It’s the most tone-deaf shuttle I’ve ever heard,” Pip griped. “If it can’t even hit those notes, how could it hit a flyer?”

“Do you think it knows you’re here cloaked?”

“I don’t think so. If it does, it hasn’t said anything. It just keeps humming.”

“Do you detect anything else strange happening here?”

“There’s movement on the roof. Let me go see.” There was a pause. “Oh, they’re just changing guards.”

“Harb’k mentioned being shot at by a mystery shuttle the other day too,” Lenny said.

I perked up at his name.

“But he wasn’t able to give us much information. He was a little… distracted… at the time.”

I knew by the way Lenny avoided looking in my direction the reason for Harb’k’s distraction. I felt like crap for being too chickenshit to tell him the truth.

Heather was the only one who knew, since she’d seen the original report from when I’d been in the medical unit at the lab. She’d tried to hide that look of pity that everyone got when they found out, but I saw it anyway. Or maybe I’d imagined it. Ididn’t know. I was so sensitive when it came to this subject that I couldn’t tell.

“We’ll keep an eye out for anything odd,” Aaron said “But for now, Pip, just focus on the nest. I think they’re ready to go in.”

“Hey, it’s our guys!” someone shouted, pointing to the video that showed the fighters from Sanctuary.

It took just under two hours for them to clear the place out. With the help of exploratory drones and Mountain Pip, Lenny and Aaron guided the hunters through as they systematically burned the nest from the inside out. As they did, any scourge trying to flee the nest was caught and dispatched by the humans waiting outside. There were even humans in shuttles shooting down any that tried to escape by air. There was nowhere to run.

My first glimpse of the queen had me gasping. The bitch was huge, a bloated monstrosity that had grown so big that it could no longer use its legs and had to rely on scuttlers to feed it. She was surrounded by hundreds of wet, shiny eggs. I wanted to throw up. The hunters surrounded it, aiming their streams of fire at it, and her shrieks filled the room.

Those still watching the fight broke out in applause. Clark, who’d been watching behind me, was grinning. I wondered how long it had been since these people had something to celebrate. I hoped it meant Clark would have an easier time convincing his people to continue working with hunter-friendly groups. I was sure there’d still be some people who were staunchly against working with aliens, but this was a good start.

---