‘We’ll get to that,’ Thiago said before Lina could answer. ‘Coffee first.’ He set some in front of Lina, along with a plate of bread and honey, and she tilted her head back to smile at him. He did not smile back.
‘Thiago said you found the fox, love,’ Lina said to her sister, cradling the mug in both hands, gathering strength from the heat. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that. It’s a bit yucky, huh?’
Xander snorted and Kai reached Lina’s side, lingering like a pale shadow, resting his fingertips on the table but not sitting.
‘Yeah,’ Genni said, edgy, holding herself tightly. ‘Was that the same people?’
‘It died in the forest,’ Kai whispered and Lina glanced at him, wondering.
‘It did,’ she said to him, Genni’s gaze flicked from Lina to Kai, frowning. Silene rose to her feet sharply. ‘We’ll find out who it was from all our cameras. It was a very silly thing for them to do.’
Xander snorted again and muttered something derisive under his breath. Another time, with another boy, Lina might have challenged that. Silene came to the table, giving Kai a wide berth before pulling a bottle from her pocket and shaking tablets into it. Xander looked from the tablets to his mother’s face, colour rising beneath his thin stubble.
‘They were after me,’ Silene whispered, dry swallowing the tablets. Lina winced and Thiago passed behind her so closely that Kai had to slip out of the way at the last minute. Lina frowned at Thiago as he leaned against a window, but his eyes were on Silene.
‘The monster’s coming,’ Kai whispered. Silene flinched. ‘He’s hungry.’
‘Why were they after you?’ Genni asked Silene as if Kai had not spoken. Lina felt cold trace a pattern down her spine. Had Genni spoken to Kai at all? She could not remember.
‘Why?’ Silene said on a gasp. ‘Because they hate me. They want to get rid of me. Someone always wants to get rid of you. And they want to punish me for–’
‘Mum,’ Xander cut her off, tension bulking his shoulders.
‘But it’s true, darling. I thought we could leave it behind, but it’s here too. You don’t see it, so you think if they arrest them all it will be over, but it won’t and she knows why.’ Pointing a ringed, unsteady finger at Lina, and Lina saw their eyes all turn to her, aware of the slow pulse of pain in her ankle, her woundedness.
‘I think,’ Thiago said, and the eyes all slid away. Lina took a breath, then another. ‘I should update you on ESF’s response to these events.’
Lina had reached decisions in the moments before the trap, and she needed to act on them now. Remember that the trap was not the end of anything. Xander was still trying to protect Silene from rumours of her guilt. Or from actual guilt; a fight gone wrong over infidelity or that last attack in South London where so many children had died. Thiago was telling them about the taskforce while Lina watched low gilded sunlight touch the upper edges of the mist. It was quiet outside, the meadow birds waiting for warmth as the swifts climbed above the mist to feed.
‘So when will they come, this taskforce?’ Xander said challengingly. Silene was resting her head on one hand, the other flexing on the table, almost vibrating.
‘That depends on the weather.’
Xander was silent for a moment, thinking, and then looked at his mum. She smiled, but her eyes were slipping in and out of focus, and Lina thought she might fall asleep right there.
‘Then you need to get us out. We’ll stay in Sofia.’
‘What was that, darling?’ Silene opened her eyes wide and straightened like a drunk might when accused of being drunk. ‘But we can’t leave. Not until someone confesses and they call it off, then maybe.’ She shuddered, glanced at Kai and shuddered again. Lina touched the back of Kai’s hand, Thiago and Silene watched her. ‘They sent it here after me, look, and she’s helping it. And...’ Inhaling raggedly. ‘They’d rather it was me, don’t you see? Better a jealous wife than a security failure.’ She laughed gaspingly, too high. ‘So they won’t give up until they can prove it or until they kill me. Look at her father. He knew it wasn’t them and they stabbed him, darling! Just like ... just ... I never wanted the blood, darling. We can’t leave. Not until Dev is here to protect us.’
Lina held herself still and met her sister’s too-bright eyes steadily. Yes, she wanted to say. He was stabbed, but he survived, just like we will survive. And, It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.
‘Fuck’s sake,’ Xander muttered, his hands fisted, ‘So what then? We just hide in the house? Wait till they find the balls to come for us here?’ Kai laughed sibilantly. ‘And what about Dev anyway? What the fuck are you doing about him?’
‘You could find him, couldn’t you?’ Genni said to Xander as if utterly sure of the answer. ‘With his tag and all the cameras and things, you’d be able to find him easy.’
Xander shifted, ran his fingers over his tablet, opened his mouth and closed it again.
‘I doubt it,’ Thiago said. He knew something, Lina realised, or suspected it. Was the EM tech being used to hide Dev from both satellites and Lina’s waiting drones?
‘He’s coming to protect us,’ Silene said, beginning to sag again, focus drifting. A tracery of sunlight blossomed across the table. Lina reached both hands into it, and outside a swallow began to sing.
‘When he’s here, he’ll stop it. He’ll know how. And he’ll know about you too,’ looking at Lina again, through her. ‘You’re working with them, I know it. Xander said you ... darling? Was it so they leave her father alone? Or to keep that man alive? Dev will stop you though, stop you...’ gesturing with one hand and Kai shifted. Stop her from talking to Kai, befriending Kai, stop her from hearing something that Kai knew?
‘Stop her, will he?’ Thiago said, and the sound of his voice made Lina almost rise from her seat to go to him. But Xander’s head came up like a wounded beast.
‘He won’t need to. She won’t tell anyone anything, because otherwise I’ll tell everyone what I know.’
The sunlight strengthened and a green woodpecker laughed, the treeline visible through the mist now as a lacework of shadows. Oh Genni, Lina thought sadly, you did not deserve any of this.
‘And what’s that?’ Thiago spoke very quietly, but Xander looked at Lina rather than meet his eyes.
‘That she used to sleep with one of the guys who killed my dad.’
Genni’s head was bent, as if frightened of what she might see, or say, and Kai drifted slowly around the table, his eyes moving between Xander and Genni thoughtfully.
‘See?’ Silene whispered. ‘Darling, see? That’s how she knows.’
Thiago laughed and Xander flinched. ‘That’s it? London already know that. So does ESF. It means nothing. And she’s working with no-one. It was her caught in a trap two days ago, in case you’d forgotten.’ He made a fractious, restless movement and Lina wanted to touch his wrist, to say, I’m okay, T. We’ll sort this. Don’t worry. Not so much because she believed it but because it was what he needed to hear.
Xander stared at Lina as if it had never occurred to him that ESF might know and still protect her. As if he had also forgotten about the trap and her blood. But then his face shifted, his heavy hands pulling his tablet against him like a shield. ‘Yeah well, I’ll bet there’s more.’
‘Why is it important?’ Genni asked, and Xander froze in the act of pushing away from the table.
‘Cos...’ He looked at his mother, ‘cos anyone who was behind my dad’s murder deserves to die. That’s why.’
Genni looked at Lina and for a moment, for a heartbeat, Lina saw agreement on her face. Not sympathy for the dead man but empathy for the son, and that same anger as before. Someone must be to blame for all this hurt, and perhaps it was Lina. Kai moved closer to Genni, watching her, his amber eyes narrowed catlike.
‘No,’ Lina said, not sure which child she was speaking to. ‘No, don’t–’
‘Xander, darling,’ Silene’s voice was brittle as a husk and as she rose to her feet, she wavered. ‘I cannot ... all the blood ... help me, darling.’ Xander hesitated and Lina’s ankle sang, but when she thought he might stay, hold onto his vengeance, his shoulders dropped and he grabbed at his mother’s arm not gently but bearing her up. Silene looked at Thiago where he was leaning darkly against the window. There was blue in the sky now, Lina’s leg was burning miniature suns.
‘You have to stop them getting me. You and Dev. It wasn’t my fault, I told him–’ Xander pulled and she fell silent, her free hand cradling her cheek, fingernails making craters on her skin.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lina sighed into the silence that followed, watching the shades of brown pulled from Genni’s hair by the backlit sun. ‘We need to sort your hair out, don’t we?’ she said. ‘I’ve got some conditioner that should suit it, and some oils, I think.’
‘Why’s she think someone wants to kill her?’
Thiago was looking out to the leavening sky, his eyes black slashes. Kai sat beside Genni, mimicking the placement of her hands. She still did not look at him and that same icy spider trailed Lina’s skin. Something was very wrong here, but she could not fathom what it was.
‘I think,’ she said slowly, ‘she is frightened someone from London blames her for her husband’s death, and will either arrest or ... send someone to kill her.’
Once upon a time a child might have questioned why the government might kill a murder suspect, but Genni did not even blink. ‘The same people that tried to kill Dad. But if they think the resistance did it, then why would they be after her too?’
Lina tried to untangle Silene’s incoherent words, cold in her stomach and a wooziness creeping up her limbs. ‘I’m not sure she’s thinking anything very clearly, to be honest. But she thinks Dad knows it wasn’t the resistance. She said: He knew it wasn’t them, so they stabbed him.’
Genni hands were running over her arms, plucking at the cloth. Lina forced herself to smile, to shrug off the unease and confusion. ‘She’s quite unwell, I think, love. Don’t pay her any attention. Dad’s okay and we’re okay.’
Thiago pushed away from the window. ‘I’m going to Panichishte.’
To see if his contact in the BB would tell him any more. ‘Will you warn them,’ she said, ‘about the taskforce?’
‘No.’
‘T,’ she said quietly.
‘No.’
‘We’re warning Iva,’ she said.
His anger faltered and he breathed out harshly. It was as much agreement as Lina would get, but it was enough, so she changed the subject. ‘How are we going to get Devendra Kapoor back?’ Genni tilted her head and Kai did the same. Dark and light, shadowy eyes and translucent, but in a multitude of ways exactly the same.
Thiago studied her face. ‘That’s what I want to find out.’ Lina nodded. ‘You should rest. Need a hand down the stairs?’
‘No thanks.’ Although she wasn’t entirely sure about that. After another careful examination of her, he left.
Genni and Kai were both watching her expectantly, and it took Lina a moment to realise Genni had asked a question. ‘Sorry, love?’ she said.
‘Who is it after Silene and are you part of it? Is it the resistance? But why did you–’ cutting herself off, fingers digging into flesh. Kai tilted his head and hummed a quiet descending chord. Lina closed her eyes. She had earned that suspicion perhaps, but dear god it still hurt.
‘She thinks it’s the State,’ she said. ‘No, I’m not part of anything and god knows why she thinks I’d be helping them. I guess no-one has confessed,’ however meaningless such a confession would be, ‘and she said State won’t want to admit that terrorists could kill someone so important without inside help. She’s a political reporter, so she’ll have enemies who might want to see her ... removed.’ She looked at Kai, wrestling sorrow and ghosts. ‘Xander is trying to protect her from all of that, I think.’
‘He’s a hacker.’ Genni said it with wonder, releasing her hold on her arms. ‘He’s teaching me.’
Kai had something in his hands, although Lina had not seen where it came from. The rib bone, she realised, and remembered the fox waiting for her down in the lab.
‘She doesn’t see what he is,’ he said. ‘And she wouldn’t protect you if the monsters came, would she?’ He turned the rib bone and pressed the tip into the table as if it were a blade. Genni shifted but did not speak, and Lina chose to address the easier statement.
‘You will be careful, won’t you?’ Genni looked up, that ready anger rising like a fire. ‘Not just about what you say to him, but ... it’s very, very illegal,’ she said. ‘The things he does. And you don’t have State status to protect you.’
‘I thought you said I was safe here.’
‘Yes,’ Lina wanted to sigh. Her leg was agony and she was so tired. She held herself still and spoke quietly, remembering Thiago saying that enough money would buy someone willing to risk coming even here. ‘But it’s not worth the risk, Genni love. It really isn’t. Dad would say the same; you know he would.’
Genni did know, that much was obvious, but she wasn’t about to admit to it. Instead she rose and moved towards the sofas. ‘Yeah well he’s not here, is he? And whose fault’s that?’
Lina closed her eyes.
‘She blames you for the monsters,’ Kai whispered, the bone held out before him. ‘I don’t.’
‘I know,’ Lina said, wondering if her mother were here, would Lina blame her. Would she have done when she was a child? ‘I’m going to go do something with that fox,’ she said, but neither child answered her. Genni bent over her tablet with headphones over her ears, Kai watching her with his shining eyes unfathomable. She paused. ‘I didn’t say thank you for helping me when I was in the trap. Singing to me.’
Kai turned so that the sunlight fell slantwise across his face, the bones too clear. ‘I won’t let the monster hurt you again,’ he said.
‘Why did you come with Thiago and Xander?’ she said. ‘You should have stayed here with your mum and Genni.’
He blinked slowly. ‘I didn’t know who the monster was hunting.’
‘I don’t think it meant to hurt me,’ she said, although it was a partial lie and Kai probably knew that. ‘But thank you for looking after me. It was very brave and kind of you.’
‘You have to be brave,’ Kai said, turning those wild eyes on her. ‘To defeat the monsters.’
‘Yes, I suppose you do.’ She thought of him in the meadow in the dark, laying out iron nails in the barn. ‘But sometimes you have to let other people fight the monsters for you.’
Kai only smiled. The bone held like a knife was almost glowing. ‘I fought one monster already,’ he said. ‘And I thought if I fought the others too then she’d keep me. But I don’t want that anymore. If I stop the monster from hurting you then I can stay here, can’t I?’
‘Oh, Kai.’ Lina faltered, sunlight coruscating at the edges of her vision. She had found no record of his adoption. ‘I’d love that,’ she said, and realised she meant it. This strange, wild, lost boy. Where better for him to live than here in the wilderness? She thought her father would love him.
Kai blinked catlike. ‘I don’t mind if the monsters get them anymore. But I won’t let them hurt you.’
Lina reached out to touch his cheek, his skin beneath her fingers cool as the surface of still water. ‘You don’t have to fight monsters for me, sweetie. You never have to fight monsters for me.’
He leaned into her touch then pulled away, casting a look at Genni’s averted back. ‘I’m going to keep watch,’ he said and moved to the balcony as if his feet were not quite touching the ground.
‘Genni,’ Lina called, and when her sister’s head half-turned, said, ‘want to come down and do your hair?’
‘No.’
She did not look at Lina. There were so many things Lina wanted to say, but no words with which to say them, so she gathered herself onto her crutches and turned quietly towards the stairs.
An hour or so later Silene appeared in the doorway to the lab. Lina carefully laid down the saw she had been using to section the fox’s femur as Kai slipped through the door in his mother’s wake. Lina realised, thinking that, how little she still believed in that relationship. Silene was no more this child’s mother than she was Genni’s, and if there was a way for both of them to stay then Lina wanted to find it. Silene ignored both Kai and the fox which was, even with the door wide, filling the air with old death.
Lina’s fingers tensed and relaxed, then she smiled. ‘Can I help you?’
‘You see,’ Silene said, as if carrying on a conversation already begun. ‘You see, Dr Stephenson,’ flattening her hands against her stomach and then sitting very precisely, ‘It could hurt Xander.’
The fox and the widow watched Lina, and neither made sense. Because it didn’t matter if she pinpointed his death, where had the locals obtained tech that would take out the cameras? Surely that mattered more than who had actually set the trap, or swung the hammer?
Only, all she wanted was for this woman and her angry son to leave, which they would only do once Devendra Kapoor was here; and she really, really did not want the taskforce to come. Even though it had to happen, and she ought not care about relative guilt when what they’d done was bad enough. But if Iva, forewarned by Lina, did warn the nationalists, then perhaps that would be enough. Xander and Silene would feel defended, Kai perhaps would cease to watch for monsters, and the only-partially-guilty would not pay too heavy a price.
‘It could hurt Xander,’ Silene said again.
Lina forced concerned puzzlement onto her face.
‘Yes,’ Silene said, taking Lina’s silence, her expression, for agreement. ‘You can see it too,’ her eyes sliding sideways to Kai, sliding back again. ‘So I knew you understood. Someone has to be guilty and then Xander and I will be safe. You understand?’
This Is Our Undoing Page 18
