Paper Children

by James Fahy

  “You keep saying he.” I said. “What ‘he’ could get into Blue Lab, unnoticed, past all of our security, to… to… kill me and my team? With strength like this? Are we talking vampire? Tribal, what?”

  “It was Chase,” Cloves said quietly from her chair. I looked over at her. She had crossed her arms and was looking at me levelly. “From the description the director has given me, Harkness. It was Chase Pargate.”

  I didn’t speak for several seconds. Chase Pargate, ex-Cabal with a big grudge, master of disguise, reckless and resourceful. If anyone could bypass all of Blue Lab…

  “Pargate killed my friends?” I whispered. “How can you be sure it was-”

  “The security cameras were compromised,” Coldwater explained. “This was a planned attack, and carefully thought out. There’s not a shred of visual evidence, and I’m certain he didn’t intend to leave any living witnesses to identify him. I shot so many volts into that shit, he should have fried on the spot. He should have been dead.” She looked hard at Cloves. “Although from what Veronica here tells me, this man has already been dead once before, so heaven knows.”

  “When the director described the attacker to me,” Cloves said. “I pulled up his old Cabal ID file.” She flicked a thumb to her mobile datascreen, which rested on the arm of the chair behind her. “She identified him from his old log.”

  “Except he looked younger,” Coldwater told me. “But again… this seems only to be news and new information to myself.” She looked from myself to Cloves, and several moments passed when nobody spoke. The room was silent except from the machines giving the illusion of life to Griff’s corpse beside me.

  “I am truly sorry for your loss here, Dr Harkness,” Coldwater said. “But we have little time to mourn.”

  I looked up at her.

  “The incident tonight, at Christchurch. Veronica has briefed me on events there. This was another attempt to take a child. That makes three altogether, and this latest one blows my theory out of the water.”

  I deliberately didn’t look at Cloves. So, clearly, in her briefing she had deliberately not mentioned to Coldwater the information on the other missing children we had discovered. “Your theory?”

  “Both Melodie Cunningham Bowls and Cora Winterbourne come from influential families. Both ardent and vocal Mankind Movement supports,” she said. “I had thought there was a link there, that somehow these abductions were directed at the Mankind Movement themselves. Some kind of guerrilla GO lashing back at those who would deny them rights and equal footing.”

  “But the girl at Christchurch this evening?” Cloves said. “Her grandfather is a vocal GO supporter. His campaigning on their behalf is well documented. He couldn’t be more opposed to the Mankind Movement if he tried.”

  “So it would seem this… thing… is indiscriminate,” Coldwater concluded. “And Chase Pargate, who is neck deep in both the kidnapping scenes and the vampire murders, is prepared to kill anyone who is getting close to finding out why.”

  Exhaustion and grief were rolling through me in waves. I needed to sit down. But not here, in this room, with these two women and my two dead friends. I’d rather have been anywhere. I’d rather have been up to my eyeballs in Sanctum with Lucy than here in the hospital. A hopeless sadness was engulfing me, but it was battling with a roar in my blood that felt almost biblical, and it took me a moment to identify what it was. Vengeance. I wanted vengeance. I wanted to find who had done this to my team, and make them pay.

  Dee had been so angered about the poor children in the Slade. The unspoken masses. He had wanted to blow it open, to speak for them, the voiceless that Cabal didn’t care about. And he had been silenced.

  And Griff… my Griff. I could feel my eyes beginning to sting. My fucking digestive biscuit. Not a superpower in sight but he had died trying with his last breath to protect someone else, even someone like Coldwater. My hands were in such tight fists I felt sure my fingernails would draw blood. I tried to control the anger rising in me. I couldn’t afford to let it overflow. God knows, the last thing we needed was for me to turn all Pale and devolve around my superiors.

  I mustn’t let Lucy see them like this. This was the only clear thought in the riot of my mind. This sight would be my nightmare to bear, no one else’s. She had been through enough already.

  “We have to be sure,” I said. Both of them were watching me carefully. “We have to be certain it was Chase.” I looked from one woman to the other. “Because whoever did this, whoever’s doing this, I’m going to kill them.”

  Coldwater sighed, reaching out and leaning on the metal grill at the foot of Griff’s hospital bed for support. An unreasonable part of my mind wanted to slap her hand away. Don’t touch him.

  “I understand you’re angry, Doctor-”

  “You’re not even close…” I said with a dry snort of empty laughter, “to understanding how angry I am… with all due respect… Director.”

  Coldwater pressed on. “But you are not an executioner. You are a Liaison. We need to bring this man in. If we’re going to stop these killings, if we’re going to save these children, then-”

  “I don’t need Cabal’s permission to avenge these deaths,” I said. “Do you honestly think-”

  “Harkness,” Cloves said sharply. “That’s enough.”

  I reined it in, biting my tongue. Coldwater was looking at me coolly through swollen eyes.

  “The director here has a point,” my boss continued. “The thing we saw tonight at Christchurch, we don’t know where it fits, what it is, what it wants. We cannot kill our only lead.”

  “And we do have proof,” Coldwater added.

  “Your eyewitness account?” I asked. I was aware that the sneer in my tone was treading very thin ice with some seriously high-up Cabal here, but I couldn’t help it. I felt broken.

  “No. DNA proof,” the director replied calmly. She even gave me a small sad smile, as if letting me know that she understood that I was lashing out in grief. She crossed the room and scooped up Cloves’ mobile DataPad from the chair, flicking through the screens swiftly with her thumb, resting the pad on her bandaged arm.

  “I understand all too well,” she said. “You’re a scientist. You act on facts and evidence, not on whispers and hearsay. Why else do you think I insisted on you in this current role in the first place?” She seemed to have found what she was looking for. “In the world of the Genetic Others, so much is smoke and mirrors, so many mind tricks and shadows. Cabal’s very motto is about clinging to the light, Doctor. To facts and truth.”

  She handed me the DataPad, which I took wordlessly, glancing down at it.

  “This is the findings from the cells your team found on that latex scrap,” Cloves told me. “The one up on the rooftop.”

  My eyes scanned the report, taking it in. “We found trace residual evidence, of dead cells, they didn’t seem to make sense. Griff was…” My throat closed up like I was trying to swallow a golf ball.

  “Running the DNA through the database, yes I know,” Cloves finished for me. “I’ve already seen this. The results finally came back this evening, not long after the attack.”

  The report I was reading confirmed what we already knew, that the trace DNA evidence came from dead human tissue, scant trace remains. But they also confirmed a match. Someone in New Oxford’s extensive database was identified. I read the result out loud from the screen. “Pargate. Chase. Cabal Agent. Age sixty-five. Deceased (killed in action).”

  I looked up from the screen. Chase it was.

  “You need to find him, Doctor,” Coldwater told me. “He could be anywhere in the city, but Cabal do not have the connections you do. If he is killing vampires as well, then the GOs of Sanctum, Dove and his clan, need to put themselves at your disposal. They have eyes and ears we don’t. We need to run him to ground.”

  “I have no leverage with Dove,” I handed the tablet to Cloves. “I don’t have the same… relationship… I had with Allesandro. All Dove wants is to h
old his stupid vampire festival and have everyone clapping hands in the street and loving each other. This killer is targeting his people as well as mine.”

  “Then you have some common ground,” Coldwater replied. “Get on it. Before the festival on Halloween please. Everyone in the city will be out in the streets for this. I need to make sure they are safe to be on. Bring Chase Pargate in.” She winced, easing herself down into the hospital chair. “I have a lot of questions for him.”

  Me too, I thought grimly.

  Chapter 19

  It was 3.00 am before I got home, trailing Lucy and a Cabal Ghost, who had been ordered on strictest terms by Cloves not to leave our side. I hadn’t argued. I didn’t have the strength to. Lucy hadn’t wanted to be alone, which I could understand. We left the Cabal bodyguard standing outside my apartment door like a golem, and I let Lucy take the bed, into which she collapsed in a sobbing heap, face down in crumpled covers and curled into a foetal ball from which she could not be coaxed.

  I’m not good at comforting people. I’m not good at people full-stop to be fair. I stroked her back a little for a while, sitting perched on the bed beside her, wrapped in my own grief. She mumbled between sobs about Dee and Griff, but much of it was unintelligible. Myself, I just felt numb and cold, as though someone had anesthetised me. I couldn’t feel my lips. I’m a doctor. I knew I was in shock. Dee was gone. Griff was gone. Cloves was putting out feelers for what family, if any, she could find for both of them. I felt bad for not knowing. I thought Dee may have had an ex-wife somewhere in the past. I didn’t know any of Griff’s family or friends, other than Lucy. I’d worked with them both, even tentatively allowed myself to call them friends, and god-damn it I didn’t even know how they’d taken their coffee.

  Lucy eventually drifted into sleep, and I made tea, going through the motions unconsciously with no real thought. There was something comforting in the humdrum, routine task.

  One of my windows in the apartment is a makeshift window-seat, and I curled up in it, knees drawn up under my chin, the steaming brew clasped in my hands as though I could force it to warm my icy fingers. To leech some heat and consolation from it. I stared at out my city, dark and sleeping at this hour. The glow of streetlamps pinpricking the streets and the occasional spotlight of a passing drone overhead. Somewhere out there in the night was Chase Pargate. A man younger than he should be, with dead DNA. A man with a lot to answer for.

  I couldn’t sleep. I was restless and wrung out. I wanted to be out there, hunting him down. I’m fairly sure Cloves knew this and knew that in my current state this probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I was half convinced that was why she had sent the Cabal agent to guard my door. As much to stop me getting out the middle of the night as to stop anyone, or anything, getting in to us.

  I’ve never felt like I needed anyone to lean on, except my father when I was younger. But right now, I could have done with someone to rub my back while I cried into a pile of blankets like Lucy. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Dee, pale wash on his lips and looking like an obscene and unfair effigy of himself, cold and still. Or else Griff flashed in my mind’s eye, with his horrific head injuries, every part of his brilliant mind smashed to pieces.

  But who did I know that I could lean on? Cloves? Certainly not. Oscar Scott? He had a good heart I thought, but the emotional range of a teaspoon. I found myself wondering again where Allesandro was right now. I’m not a damsel in distress, and I didn’t need saving, but right now, I could do with someone to at least plot murder with.

  Chapter 20

  I was only aware that I had fallen asleep at all when I was jerked awake by my phone ringing. I was still on the windowsill, stiff and cold and scrunched into an uncomfortable position. The sunlight slanting through the glass told me it was morning. It still felt early, but the sun was fully up. It looked a crisp and bright day outside. I had fallen asleep with my phone clutched in my hand, wondering if Cloves would call with any update on what we were doing with the Dean of Christchurch and his granddaughter, but she hadn’t.

  Blearily I raised the ringing phone to my ear, fully expecting it to be her.

  It wasn’t.

  “Phoebe Harkness?”

  I frowned, trying to uncurl myself from the windowsill, which wasn’t easy as one of my legs had gone to sleep. I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. The voice on the phone was female, and sounded breathless, almost sobbing.

  “Is this Doctor Phoebe Harkness?” she asked again urgently. I realised she was whispering.

  “Yes, who’s this?” I groaned.

  I heard her give a shaky breath, half relief, half panic. “Dr Harkness, I need you to meet me. It’s urgent-”

  “Wait, wait. Who is this?” I was fully awake now, looking around my dark and tiny apartment. Through the open bedroom door, I could see Lucy tangled in the bedsheets, fast asleep.

  “It’s Elise,” the caller whispered urgently. She sounded as if she had her hand cupped over the mouthpiece of her phone “From the club. From Sanctum. We’ve met before.”

  This got my attention.

  “Elise?” I startled, rubbing sleep out of my eye. How on earth had my least favourite Helsing groupie gotten hold of my home number. “What the hell are you… what’s wrong?”

  I could hear her crying softly, muffled. She sounded distraught and terrified, but she was trying to be quiet.

  “I can’t…”

  I stood up, pushing my tangled hair back from my head. The girl sounded bad. “Elise, just… just calm down. Tell me what’s wrong?”

  “I didn’t know…” she sobbed. “I swear I didn’t know. Oh god, all those people. It’s not a demon. It’s not… they’re all going to die. He’s too strong…”

  “You’re not making any sense,” I pushed the phone against my ear. I tried to keep my own voice calm and reasonable, hoping it would soothe her. “Just calm down, okay, and tell me everything. What are you talking-”

  “No,” she replied urgently. “It’s not safe. I can’t talk here. I could be heard.” She sobbed again. “Oh god all those people. Doctor… I didn’t know who to call. But, you have to help Allesandro. He’s…” She took a shuddering breath, trying to steady herself. “You have to meet me. I’ll explain everything. Will you meet me?”

  Elise sounded so desperate. I was already hunting around the room for my shoes. “Where are you?” I said. “I’ll come to you.”

  “No no no… not here. Meet me…” She made another noticeable effort to bring her breathing under control. “Meet me at the Castle. It’s public there. It’s daylight. The tower. Somewhere out in the open.”

  Oxford Castle? Between the Tower of Five Orders at the library and the bell tower of Christchurch, I felt I’d seen enough high places lately. But before I could reply, the line went dead.

  “Elise?” I took the phone away from my ear and stared at it.

  What in the nine realms was going on?

  *

  The Cabal Ghost was still outside my door. Still awake and still alert and still silent. I wondered if Cabal had them genetically modified as part of the training programme. Maybe in one of their contracts with PAPER they’d had the need to sleep removed.

  I had grabbed my coat and, deciding to leave Lucy where she was, headed straight out. I didn’t want to wake her. She’d been dragged into enough trouble by me as it was already. She was better off here, out of harm’s way. I met the guard’s stony stare as I left.

  “I’m going out.” I said defiantly. I tilted my head back toward the apartment as I stood in the doorway. “My friend is still in there. She’s in pieces. Stay here and look after her, okay?”

  His jaw worked. “My orders were that you both should wait until Servant Cloves arr-”

  “I need tampons,” I almost yelled at him, the idea popping suddenly into my head. When in doubt, embarrass your opponent by reminding them of scary and arcane bodily functions of which they are not aware.

  He didn’t flinch. “I can order some in f
or you.” He reached into his pocket for his phone. Damn, that hadn’t worked. I grabbed his hand, stopping him in surprise.

  “Wait,” I said, staring at him. “You’re…” I searched my memory, roaming his anonymous face.

  “You’re Kevin!” I exclaimed. His eyes widened with surprise.

  Ha-ha. Got you Agent K, I thought smugly to myself.

  “How… how do you know my name?” I’ve never seen a Cabal Ghost look flustered before. He was peering at me suspiciously, as though he suspected me of being a witch.

  “The other day… you were… working… at the library. At the Bod, right? You helped a girl? She fell and twisted her ankle.”

  His look of superstitious alarm deepened.

  “How would you know that?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I know everything,” I said. I let go of his hand and pointed through my open door. “That’s the girl,” I told him. “Lucy. You gave her your number.”

  “She never called,” he mumbled.

  Of course she didn’t, you dumb lug, I thought. You have a pulse and zero fangs.

  “She’s been busy,” I said, not unkindly. “But she’s there, and she’s very fricking upset. I need to go out and she needs protecting until I get back.” I reached past him and closed the door, shutting us both out in the corridor. “So I need you to stay here and watch over her, okay, Kevin?”

  “I didn’t realise it was her-”

  I slapped him on the arm heartily. “I can trust you right? Don’t let her leave, don’t let anyone in. Just stay here and do what you do. I’ll be so super quick.”