by C. G. Hatton
Problem was, it wasn’t just me…
Genie was watching. I could see her shadow in the entrance to the tunnel, the big guy looming behind her and shooting out over her head to cover us as we ran towards them.
Parish yanked on my jacket and pulled me close, swearing as a shot winged my arm so close the cloth tore.
She held me there, fractions of an inch from being taken out by a sniper, and she whispered so close I could feel her breath, “You do not die today, Luka. Do you hear me? Whatever happens. This is not your time. There is a war coming. And more people than you know need you to survive that war. Use your luck. Use every trick you have. When you find her, you’ll know. And when Hilyer needs you, be there. Now get into that damned vault. And get that amulet. Because it is key to more than we can imagine.”
My heart was pounding so fast I could hardly hear.
She squeezed me tight, and murmured, “Go.”
I moved as she shoved me. I could see Genie as I ran, itching to come help us and glowering at me at the same time, a cascade of conflicting emotion flaring in her body language, her expression pained.
I didn’t hear the shot that took Parish down again but she fell into me and I fell. Landed right on my broken arm, her weight on top of me, pain flaring so bad, through my arm, my chest, that I almost blacked out. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t move for a second.
I wanted her to roll off me, grab me and cuss, shout at me to move.
But she didn’t.
I wanted to call through to Sienna and have her yell at me to move my ass.
I wanted Hil to shove me, laugh at me and tell me I had to suck it up.
I wanted Charlie to pull me out of there and hold me close and tell me everything was okay.
But it wasn’t.
She was bleeding, a warm trickle dripping onto my neck as I lay sprawled there, blood pooling beneath us so my hand slipped in it as I tried to brace myself to move. It felt like we were enclosed in a quiet bubble of still time, as if we had all the time in the galaxy. I tried to shift to look at her, check her pulse, check she was still breathing, but every slight movement was sending shards of agony through my chest.
Distant shouts started to filter back in then time accelerated, sounds crashing back magnified. Her weight lifted from me and I was dragged up, the big guy hissing in my ear, “I’ve got her. Go.”
Shots were pinging off the stanchions and gantry around us.
I ran, head down, aware of pounding footsteps behind me.
Genie backed away as we ran in. I doubled over, coughing, spitting blood again, right arm hugged around my ribs. I’d lost the gun.
I raised my eyes, reluctant, a knot in my stomach, not wanting to see Parish lying there dead.
The big guy was setting her down.
He looked up at me, eyes narrow, reaching to toss her kit bag towards us. “Get the hell out. Go.”
A volley of shots peppered the entrance of the tunnel, sparks flying, steam spraying out as pipes were pierced.
He shouted again, “Go,” ducked forward and started firing out along the gantry.
Genie picked up the bag, glared at me and stalked off into the darkness.
I stared at Parish. Her eyes were closed. She was wearing body armour, she should have been okay, but she was lying in a pool of blood. I’d known her for barely two hours, and even so I wanted to stay, I desperately wanted to stay. I wanted to know she was okay, I wanted to know if she’d been at Derren Bay, I wanted to know how she knew what she did about me, but I could almost hear Sienna saying in my head, drumming into me, like she had every tab for the past two years, ‘Don’t be stupid, don’t screw up. If an ET tells you to run, you run.’
I couldn’t breathe, my chest on fire. Parish wasn’t okay. She was dead because of me. The girl, Moon, was dead because of me. I had a numb hollow spot that was worming its way into my soul…
But Sienna was out there somewhere. McIntyre was out there somewhere. The amulet was two klicks north. And now the tab was officially mine. The knot in my stomach was icy cold. This wasn’t how I wanted it.
The big guy yelled again, harsh and coarse, “Go.”
I turned and ran.
Genie had got a flashlight from somewhere, Parish’s bag probably, the beam a red tac light that sent eerie shadows dancing ahead of us as we worked our way through the narrow tunnel, ducking past conduits and squeezing past knotted tangles of cables and pipes. We’d slowed to a walk. I’d had to even before we got to the places where the tunnel narrowed.
Somewhere along the way the echoes of gunfire had faded.
Genie still hadn’t said a word, hadn’t looked at me and had barely acknowledged I was there beside her. It was only when the pain in my chest hit unbearable and I stopped, muttering a strained, “Wait,” that she turned to me.
I coughed, spluttering blood that I caught in the crook of my elbow, wiping my mouth as if I could hide it from her. Not that it made much difference. I was pretty much doubled over. I wanted a patch from that bag.
“Genie…”
The look she gave me was pure ice. “Don’t call me that.”
She turned and walked away, disappearing into a red-tinged darkness.
“Genie, wait.”
She let me limp after her for a couple hundred yards then she stopped.
The only light was that faint red cast from the tac light.
She threw the bag at me and walked away.
I was struggling to breathe. I didn’t want this to be happening.
“Wait. Genie, wait.”
The bag was at my feet and the red light was disappearing down the tunnel.
I wanted to go back in time. I wanted the whole galaxy to stop and spin around and reset.
If I’d just let McIntyre walk away, that day he’d roasted Charlie in the garrison’s mess hall, without having to be such an idiot and pick his damned pocket… Charlie would be alive. Parish would be alive.
Darkness closed in around me.
I couldn’t stay there. I had no idea how far behind us McIntyre was. I leaned down to pick up the bag, managed to not pass out, and staggered after her in the dark, bumping my head on a pipe. In a twisted way, being told I was officially assigned the tab had drained away every ounce of the burning curiosity and determination I’d had to go after it, leaving a cold chill of apprehension that I’d messed up and was about to mess up even worse.
When I caught up with her, Genie had stopped. She was just standing there, staring at me, a glow of red reflecting off the tunnel walls in a haze around her.
I stopped short, wary, not sure what was going on. “Genie?”
“I told you, don’t call me that.”
We must have been less than half a klick from Camborne.
“What…?” I took a hesitant step forward.
She backed away.
This was the last thing I needed and I didn’t understand.
I let the bag drop to the floor. My shirt was sticking to my chest, the wound throbbing again with a dull thud, any energy I had left dissipating as we stood there. I pressed my hand against it. I didn’t need to look to know it would come away red.
I hated to admit it but I was struggling. “Genie, I need a hand…”
She didn’t move but she said, with chilling clarity, “I’ve never seen anyone die before.” She narrowed her eyes. “But you have.”
My heart was sinking into my stomach as fast as my blood pressure was dropping.
“I can tell by the look on your face.” She took a step forward, her expression hard and accusing, the eerie red shadows dancing around her as she moved. “And those people knew you. How did those people know you?” She sounded disgusted. Another step… “I was starting to think you’d been sent to spy on us, that your family had sent you to spy on my family… to steal our corporate secrets… but that’s not it, is it? I don’t even know who you are…” Her voice wavered before she gathered herself again and threw in a hand grenade worth
y of her father. “Because I might not have heard what that woman Parish said to you back there,” she said, every word clear and sharp, “but I saw her speaking to you and she called you something that I am damned sure wasn’t Felix.”
Chapter 23
She walked closer with an icy, “Who are you?”
“Genie…”
She shook her head, eyes glinting in the red light. “I told you, don’t call me that. Not unless you want to tell me your real name.”
I shook my head slowly. I could see the pain of betrayal in her eyes, and the sick cold knot that had never really left my stomach from the moment Benjie had turned on me twisted, shadows leering from the pipes and conduits around us like ghosts come to haunt me, taunt me for being worse. I was worse than Benjie. Worse than Kat when she’d turned on me. Third time lucky and this time it was me that was the twisted bastard who’d taken Imogen’s hard-earned trust and feelings, and recklessly, brashly, toyed with her.
“I can’t.” Just breathing those words made swallowing painful.
I wanted none of this to be happening.
I wanted her to smile and hold me and tell me that nothing else mattered.
“How long?”
I blinked. “What?”
She sucked in a deep breath as if she was calming herself the way her mother calmed herself, and she said, slow and deliberate, “How long have you been playing me?”
McIntyre had to be somewhere near, closing in on us. Someone had bombed the capital city to get hold of us. And we were standing there, in a dark tunnel, while the girl I’d fallen for, badly fallen for, saw through every wall I’d ever put up.
“I don’t want to lie to you.”
She raised her voice, almost shouting, “Then don’t.”
She’d never been just a mark. However much I might have tried to fool myself otherwise.
I forced myself to say, through the lump in my throat, “Since the school.”
She caught herself as if I’d surprised her by telling her the truth. “Since the school…? My god, is that why you were sent there? Kristian too?” She gave a small hard laugh, glancing away into the shadows behind her before snapping back to face me. “So who are you?”
It was one of the first things Mendhel had ever said to me. Don’t ever reveal that you are Thieves’ Guild. To anyone. Ever.
“I can’t…”
As it was, that choice was taken away from me.
Figures emerged behind me, no sound, moving the way special forces soldiers move, tight restrained motion, guns up, no giveaway noises as they brushed past me. I tensed, expecting them to grab me but they didn’t. They moved past like shadows, like wraiths, surrounding us. I glanced over my shoulder, backing away as another figure stepped forward into the red glow, walking past me to stand next to Imogen.
“Thieves’ Guild,” Con McGoldrick said, that accent hard and accusing. “I do believe we’ve met before, Mister Anderton.”
A hand from behind descended on my shoulder. I didn’t react. This was Genie’s family. I might be in the shit but she was safe. She was looking at me with unbridled disgust, but she was safe. That was all that mattered.
McGoldrick gestured and I was pushed forward. I used to have this legendary reputation at the guild for never having been caught. No one knew about this. As far as anyone outside was concerned, we’d been rescued. I had no idea how McGoldrick knew who I was… unless he was working with McIntyre. My stomach clenched, mind racing back over every conversation, every minute I’d been at their estate… I hadn’t given myself away, I knew I hadn’t…
The voice that whispered inside my head almost sent me to my knees. “Good to see you again, Luka.”
Spearhead.
It pulsed a burst of pain deep behind my eyes, just to make sure I knew exactly what predicament I was in. In case there was any doubt.
And for a machine, it sounded damned satisfied with itself when it added, in a rippling murmur, “You didn’t think I would give up on you that easily, did you?”
I don’t know why I was surprised. I didn’t react, kept walking and stared at Genie as her uncle put his arm around her shoulders and steered her away, towards Camborne. Her home and safety.
Except I didn’t understand why McGoldrick would be working with Spearhead and McIntyre…
It felt like trip wires I hadn’t even seen were suddenly glinting in the faint red light all around me.
Spearhead laughed. “I’ve been looking for you, Luka. You don’t get to trash a mission that important to me and just walk away.” Another stab of pain. “Imagine my delight when you turn up at the very school that has been such an asset to our organisation. With young Zachary of all people. Both of you. Just walked right into one of – my – establishments.”
I swallowed back any comment it was tempting to make, refusing to rise to it, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, the hand still heavy on my shoulder.
“And yes,” Spearhead whispered, insidious and gloating, “I now know all about DK Pharmaceuticals and its connection to your precious guild. Thank you for bringing that golden nugget of intelligence to my attention.”
The cold knot clenched even tighter. I needed to warn someone. I needed to warn Hil.
“Too late.”
I ignored it, no idea how it knew what I was freaking thinking. I needed to contact Sienna.
I tried the Senson.
…and came round as I was being dragged up from the floor, Genie and her uncle still just in sight so I hadn’t been out for much longer than a few seconds or so.
Spearhead was still a prickling presence inside my head. “I would say ‘not smart’,” it goaded, “but I need you to be smart, Luka. I want you to be smarter than you have ever been in your life. I want you to get to the Kilkenny’s vault for me.”
I laughed then, laughed out loud as I was being pushed forward again. “That’s impossible.” I thought it, same way I’d send through the Senson. I didn’t care whether it could hear me or not. “The vault is DNA encoded. One person. There’s no way I can get in.”
“Pay attention now, Luka. I didn’t say get in. I said get to it.”
I stumbled on a cable that was snaking underfoot, pain lancing into my chest. Whoever was behind me gripped harder to keep me upright. Genie glanced back over her shoulder at me. I couldn’t make out her expression in the darkness but I could guess.
I should have known better than to argue but I thought back at it, “What’s the freaking point in that when I can’t get in?”
“Be smart, Luka. Look around you…”
I was in a dark tunnel. Deep under the cold wasteland of Winter. Hacking into the comms conduits and power cables down here would have no bearing on the vault, I knew that. There was nothing else around me. McGoldrick, a couple of his heavies… that was all… and Genie.
A cold shiver washed over me.
No.
Spearhead breathed into my mind, “Clever boy.”
I could see as we started to catch up that Con McGoldrick was holding Genie as firmly as the asshole behind me was holding my shoulder. His words to Redmon Kilkenny that first night came echoing back, sharp and clear… “We know you have the key.”
Shit. This wasn’t a rescue.
I shrugged off the guy holding me and staggered forwards, yelling out, “Genie, wait. Don’t…”
The blow to the back of my head sent me to my knees, and a jolt of energy from Spearhead straight into my brain shut out the lights.
They must have carried me the rest of the way. I woke up as I was dropped to a cold floor, a medic leaning over me and shots stinging against my neck.
“Keep him alive, for Christ’s sake,” someone was saying, McGoldrick, I reckoned, “at least until the little shit has done what we need.” It was the exact same tone he’d used to speak to Dayton out in the desert. “Get him on his feet.”
The medic pulled up my shirt and stripped off the trauma patch with a muttered curse. “This boy sh
ould be in the hospital.”
“Just get him on his damned feet,” McGoldrick snapped. “He’s the only one that can do it, and we’re on the clock here.”
If they needed me, then he’d just made a mistake.
The medic leaned close as he pressed another trauma patch against my ribs. “How many of these have you used?”
I couldn’t speak, the burning pain spiking, worse than any TP I’d ever had before.
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Including this?”
I didn’t know why he was so bothered.
I breathed, “Four.”
“Jesus, don’t use any more.” He taped it and backed away, saying louder, “He’s all yours. And yes, you’re on the clock.”
They pulled me to my feet. We were still in the tunnels. I steadied my balance and raised my eyes, squinting at a blast door in front of us.
I knew where we were.
A pulse of adrenaline amplified the pounding in my chest.
McGoldrick was standing there, a knife in his hand and Genie at his side.
He gestured towards the door. “Let’s see what you can do.”
Genie was pale, a red mark welling on her cheek as if she’d been hit, but holding her head high in defiance. She caught my eye with that steely stare that was such a family trait and mouthed silently, ‘Don’t.’
I didn’t intend to.
They pushed me towards the door. I didn’t resist but I turned to McGoldrick with a couldn’t care less shrug. “The minute I crack the securities, you’ll kill me.”
He narrowed his eyes, and in one lightning-fast movement he had Genie in front of him, his arm around her, knife held at her neck. “If you don’t, I’ll kill her.”
