Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 428 - Wait, Can’t Wait, Too Much Wait

Chapter 428: Chapter 428 - Wait, Can’t Wait, Too Much Wait

Martha’s assessment of what I’d actually need for my project goals had been... humbling. I’d pictured myself just up on the roof with a set of sharp knives, breaking down the bear through instinct, limited prior research, and of course just pure determination.

Primal competence that would make for a good story alongside the shot that killed the ursine menace that harmed my... our...

Ahem. I’d instead received a twenty-minute education on why that was romanticized nonsense, after she talked one of her witch friends to gather more supplies.

Heavy tarps - two large ones. One for butchering on, one for setting the meat out to freeze.

Rope rated for significant weight to hoist and bleed out the probably eight hundred pound creature.

Buckets - two for the blood and close to a dozen as containers to fill with cubed, still warm fat.

Contractor bags for the viscera, keeping intestines away from the rest until I can decide what to do with them.

An extra honing stone because bear fur dulls blade edges within minutes. Though I’m not sure how well my claws might help that matter.

The list had grown long and specific enough that I’d stopped pretending I could simply go explore and raid a supply closet to get myself started. Which is why I eventually found myself on the executive floor in the tower.

...Waiting for the man Martha had contacted. Webber, she’d called him. Just the single name, offered without elaboration on her end.

One of the coven leaders - an agricultural engineer who’d been well received by other professionals in the tower when it came to keeping the food growth systems functional throughout the chaos of the last weeks.

> Also, apparently, a ’kitchen witch’. Whatever that means in practice. <

Or so Claire informed me as I sat curled up against the wall in her office, holding Asha. Wearing the full outfit, this time - a constellation patterned choli that fits just a bit snugger than when I bought it.

I’d needed to get her to handle something for me while I waited. Figuring out how to use my system rewarded bluetooth earpiece in some way that it ’patched in’ to a connection with Kyrie’s lowband implant.

This was something better left to her... I thought that an hour ago, anyway.

"I’m not saying I miss my phone - though I do, but would it not have worked?"

"Cell towers are dead. Wouldn’t help you in the long run."

She didn’t look up from the ’soldering iron’ in her hand, as thin smoke rose from where she was attaching something to a gutted police radio’s shell. I almost wanted to ask where she got those, but also didn’t want to ask questions that would make me an accessory to crimes... that no one is probably worried about punishing at this stage.

"The lowband system is the only thing left reaching across the city reliably. Because we built it like we were paranoid of the other methods failing. Funny that. I wonder if others didn’t know on some level what was coming?"

I watched her snap another small circuit board into place before that metallic smell sharpened the air again. She set the tool down, eventually, then held up the ’Frankenstein’ device after waiting about six seconds.

> Must be to cool it off. <

Ugly but functional. Smothered in hot glue, wrapped in an amber colored tape with a row of metal pins sticking out one side. I raised my chin toward the mess of scavenged components on her desk as she glances at me.

"Where’d you get everything?"

"Little wolves have sticky fingers. Omegas with nothing to do other than raid the nearest office buildings for us. Seeking to curry favor or maybe get an extra ration for their bored troubles."

"So you’re running a thievery ring using street urchins."

"Yep."

Her nonchalance makes me chuckle and she sets everything down to remove her glasses and rub at her eyes.

"What? That really is one way to assess it. They bring it to Luca, he sends half of it up to me."

Still looks tired. Must be tough being an important human in this state. Maybe even one of the most important ones.

> I wonder if she wants some of the bear meat? No, I feel like that’s something most humans would refuse. <

"Saw some of those ’field teams’ using radio already."

"We had about a hundred devices with the right bridge to use the changed frequency. All deployed to security patrol stations, search and retrieval crews, and some to the medical wing."

"Doesn’t sound like a lot."

She told me the total headcount was close to forty thousand. One radio per four-hundred people is nothing. Not compared to... well, I wonder how many used the cell towers?

Probably a couple hundred thousand devices.

"Not enough. Never enough. We have some engineers thinking about trying to modify and repair the other bands for local processing. Devices are already built for that, after all."

"You don’t think it’s a good idea?"

"Just means Lodestone or a specialized clone of our VI will need to handle all of that data. We’d need to restore fragile systems back up - only to use loads more power, constantly - just to have old local communications again."

So it is a ’cost/benefit analysis’ situation. I personally think allowing people the feeling of using what is familiar has no small value. But their power concerns are different from mine.

My container could run a small house, but it couldn’t run a drop in the tower. Probably. Maybe I’ll ask later if putting it in a connection to the grid would help.

Or maybe... if they’d like for me to start charging more batteries and such? Anything they might *want* but are weighing carefully against the fuel cost at this point.

"Adding more devices like those will also increase the power usage, will it not?"

"It will. This is just me figuring out how to go about making a civilian model with no honest manufacturing framework left over. For when we split the network into tactical and... community channels."

A thin smile crossed her face when she watched Asha shift against my chest, releasing a small squeak in his dream.

"You have no idea how bad I want to make tch-tch-tch sounds and see if he wakes up to look at me."

"If you’d like to watch him while I am busy-"

Tiny circuit boards, ribbons cables, a number of batteries, and other parts I don’t know by name rain off the side of her desk like a waterfall. Not because she bumped it and a pile slid.

"I’ll put him right here. In that basket you brought. And I won’t look away or blink."

> She literally just swept her hand to clear the space. Is this not like a jeweler just smacking his gems off the table? <

Standing to my feet, I raise my chin imperiously and glare down at her what I hope is more motherly than queenly.

"Please, blink an appropriate amount. And drink enough water. Eat if you need to. But do not feed him anything. Do not-"

"Got it, got it. Give!"

Her hands were stretched out. Her fingers waggled in an extremely disconcerting way. Truthfully, I was no longer as sure about this as I had been an hour ago after sitting down to wait.

"If I give him to you now, then I don’t get what I’ve been sitting here for."

Her chair spins, hands slam open a drawer and flings a little device right toward me. Without warning, mercy - or *throwing ability*. I had to dive forward to catch it!

"RoIP relay. Pair it to that earpiece of yours, works as long as you are in Lunarizon’s wi-fi range."

"You had this all along? Why was I watching you work on the other thing?"

"Because you asked for one that might work when you go outside."

She almost looked offended, but only long enough to not... look ’stricken’. Different from the look the fanatical Pineheart Alpha at the conclave. Still really unpleasant.

"I don’t like that face you are making."

"It’s fine. I’m fine. But there’s no way I’m finishing the testing and firmware for this prototype today, Citra. Not with a tiny puppy to play- I mean, to watch like a responsible adult."

"...I can get someone else if you are too busy to-"

"No. You can’t. And won’t. Give it to Aunt Claire!"

This grown woman made a whining, squeaking sound that reminded me of Asha. And showed off begging eyes that I have to make sure that she *never* teaches him.

> When he is older. She can’t possibly be too terrible of an influence right now. <

Questioning that weak belief in my heart, my hands don’t move away for a minute after she starts to share a hold of him with me. A really long, tense minute.

"If boss lady walked in right now, she’d chomp my head off for having my hands near your chest this long."

"You were welcome to back off and wait for me to be ready."

"You were free to-"

And an even longer three minutes until the person I was waiting for finally knocked on the office door.