Twig

by wildbow

“Ha ha. Alright. Focusing.”

  “How is your lipreading?”

  “I’ve been focusing on it. We’ve known we’d probably be needing it. I should manage pretty well. We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Let me know if you’re not picking up everything. I’ll translate.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  Jessie pointed. We changed course.

  We were mostly silent as we finished eating and wiping our hands clean, making our way to where we needed to be.

  One building had stairs that ran up the outside to a porch that overhung the lawn. We borrowed use of the stairs, climbing up halfway, but without standing on the porch itself.

  Jessie reached into her bag and I reached into mine, and we both pulled out binoculars.

  It took about twenty seconds to find Fray. I spotted her first.

  She had toned down the lipstick and wore a hat that folded up on the one side, but she hadn’t jumped to wear any particular disguise beyond that. The stitched girl was with her, wearing a jacket that was lighter than the morning chill called for. The stitched girl’s boy was nowhere to be seen. Fray’s Bruno, the headsman, Warren.

  Avis, too, was with her. Avis… didn’t look good. I’d braced Junior to expect Avis to look haunted, but the woman appeared hollowed out. More experiment than experimenter, gaunt, not quite able to look like a member of the crowd, even with the concealing cloak she wore. Not that the cloak helped, draping down to cover everything from the shoulders down, but it was a sight better than openly wearing the wings that she likely never removed, now.

  Still, she and Fray talked.

  I turned some things around in my head, adjusted, changed focus, and let some walls down.

  I imagined the voices, pulled out the stops as I focused on the act of lipreading, and put it all to work.

  “…long do you need me to stay?” Avis asked.

  “Not long at all. Once we know we’re clear, I’ll signal you or openly ask you to see to other business.”

  “I don’t like leaving you,” Avis said.

  A vehicle momentarily blocked our view of the conversation. My mind, primed to fill in the blanks, immediately jumped in five different directions, as to where the conversation might go, and how Fray might respond.

  The horse and carriage passed, and I took a moment to get a grasp of what was being said.

  Fray: “…the reason I keep you around is for the company.”

  “…company to keep,” Avis said. I missed the first word. I could have asked Jessie about it, but I wanted to test myself, force my brain to adapt where I hadn’t been able to push it to on my own.

  Fray reached out to touch Avis’ arm, which was covered by the long black cloak. “Who else can I have good, long conversations with?”

  Avis smiled.

  Then the pair of them were out of sight, blocked from our line of sight by an intervening building.

  We picked ourselves up, bags in one hand, binoculars in the other, and hurried to the next vantage point.

  “Warren is probably coming on another train. Too conspicuous. Might show up with a group of Brunos he can blend in with,” I said.

  “That’s quite a thing to imagine,” Jessie said.

  “Indeed! I bet you would—”

  “Don’t even say it, Sy. We only just finished the conversation where you said you wouldn’t give me a hard time.”

  “About trains,” I said. “Other things are fair game. Why? What did you think I was going to say?”

  “I don’t even know. But it was going to involve trains. And I guess men, or some association between hobbies and work. What were you going to say?”

  “A bunch of hulking men, crammed together in a train car—”

  “Oh, ew,” she said.

  “Talking about muscles, oiling their bodies like the gladiators of old, to show—”

  “Stop. Mercy. I cry mercy.”

  I stopped.

  “I much prefer the image of many large, musclebound men sitting in seats too small for them, dressed to the nines and waiting for the tea cart, acting like gentlemen.”

  “I see, I see,” I said.

  “Because it’s amusing and funny, not because of anything your perverse mind can piece together.”

  “Understood,” I said. “So that’s where your mind goes. I’m learning so much about you, today.”

  “Whatever else you’re thinking or about to say, keep it to yourself,” she said.

  There was a fence bounding a yard at the corner of one street.

  “Are we clear to peek at them?”

  “Assuming they’re walking at the same pace they were? Yes.”

  I gestured. “Up?”

  “Catch,” she said. “Also, tree.”

  She threw the binoculars into the air, put her hands together just in time for me to step into them, and helped boost me up. I skipped up to the top of the fence and perched there, glancing up momentarily before reaching out to catch Jessie’s binoculars.

  My view was blocked by a tree. I raised the binoculars and peered through the branches.

  We were on track. Fray was on course to rendezvous with Junior and the other members of the Rank.

  I watched their mouths, but could only see Fray, and for only part of the statement.

  “…our room. Then we’ll need you to swing by—-tul. You know———to cover. I trust you to handle it—ven your past experience.”

  Avis said something a branch didn’t want me to catch.

  Something-tul?

  Beattle?

  I hopped down before Fray and Avis could advance far enough along the street that they would see me. We were keeping ahead of them and off to the side, and there weren’t a lot of positions where we could keep sight of their faces and also stay out of sight. Avis should have good eyes, if she stuck with the ‘bird’ theme.

  “I didn’t think you’d be able to see, what with the tree,” Jessie said.

  “Wasn’t too bad. I think Avis is visiting the local Academy. Fray and Avis talked before about Avis leaving Fray and going off somewhere, right?”

  Jessie nodded.

  “That means you and I might be breaking apart, one watching Fray, the other watching Avis. What they’re talking about right now, it looks like something they couldn’t handle during the train ride, so it’s at least somewhat sensitive.”

  “Stands to reason.”

  “Also, thank you. That thing with the boost, and throwing the binoculars, and me catching them? Thank you. I didn’t tax your shoulder?”

  Jessie shook her head. “It’s been a bit better. But maybe we shouldn’t do that again today?”

  I nodded.

  “I’m glad it tickled your fancy,” she said.

  The next vantage point for us to reach was a little ways away, but it was the second-to-last.

  “You’re in a good mood,” Jessie observed.

  “The boost thing was a boost.”

  “Beyond that.”

  “Getting a good few hours of sleep was a lift, moodwise,” I said.

  “Sitting on cold stairs.”

  “Even so,” I said. “I’m excited. Fray. Something great in the works. Good company.”

  “Including ghosts,” Jessie said.

  “Them too,” I said. “I’m less certain about the elements we have in play. We can’t control their every move, not yet.”

  “Yet?”

  “Maybe one day. But free will and sheer variance in people means there are a hundred of little things that could go wrong. Things I used to exploit.”

  We settled into our hiding spot, leaning against a wall rather than crouching, keeping an eye out for Fray.

  “It’s good to be wary, Sy.”

  “Maybe.”

  Fray appeared, continuing her steady walk. She had company.

  A boy, roughly of an age to match Ashton, Abby and the twins’ apparent ages.

  I focused on the lipreading, raising the binoculars to my eyes.

&nb
sp; The boy was shaking his head. He said, “No.”

  “Strange creatures? Or rumors of strange creatures? Experiments without owners?”

  “No.”

  “Nobody moved into the area? New faces?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Altercations? Problems?”

  “Last night. There were gunshots. A lot of people walking around.”

  “Where?”

  A shrug, a response I didn’t see. A negative response. Unsure.

  “Could it have come from that area down there?”

  She gestured in the general direction of the Rank’s lab.

  “Guess so.”

  “Interesting. The people walking around, none were Academy?”

  “No. Locals, looked like.”

  I glanced at Jessie, and we exchanged a series of gestures.

  I left Jessie behind, hurrying onward.

  The boy had been paying attention. He’d likely been contacted in advance, paid, to keep an eye out.

  The simplest answer was that the same person that had picked up shipments or delivered Fray’s messages had also set that up, at her request.

  I ducked through the streets, zig-zagging this way and that. I couldn’t remember the exact location, but it was an oddly positioned building, where the streets formed a very long and narrow ‘x’ rather than a perfectly square one, and the streets were wide, which meant I had to find the wide street—

  I found the wide street.

  And then find the intersection with another wide-but-not-as-wide street. I found that, and spotted familiar territory.

  I approached from the side, and knocked on a window.

  A worker opened the window.

  “Bring Junior,” I said.

  My heart pounded. Fray wasn’t that far away. She might even pick up the pace if she sensed that there was something afoot.

  Junior appeared at the window.

  “I thought you weren’t going to show up this morning,” he said.

  “She knows something happened last night. Keep it simple. Some of the locals found out you were dealing out of here, because of the comings and goings at night, and they came asking for money. You fired the shotgun a few times, and they decided to come back another time. Tell the others. If they can look upset about it, that’s great.”

  “Understood. What—”

  “Do it now, Jun,” I said. “There’s not a lot of time for this last minute alteration to the script.”

  I ended the conversation by pushing the window closed.

  I approached the corner of the street I needed to cross, and I saw Fray making her way to the building.

  I took a longer, more circuitous route. It unfortunately meant that I would miss the opening of the dialogue between Fray and Junior.

  And then some, it seemed. I’d hoped for a passing wagon to provide some cover as I crossed the street, but there wasn’t much traffic at this hour.

  Five minutes passed. I didn’t hear any commotion, but neither Fray nor Junior were really positioned to cause any.

  Finally, a carriage passed. I used it as cover to cross the street while staying more or less out of Avis’ field of view.

  I made my way to the last vantage point. It was an apartment building across the street, low to the ground. Jessie was already there.

  “Please tell me it’s going well,” I said.

  Jessie was peering out the window with binoculars. “Well enough. Fray hasn’t given any signs. She’s interested in the enterprise. Or she’s pretending to be.”

  I was eager to settle in and see for myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jessie, but I trusted my own reads of people in particular.

  “This is Leah,” Junior introduced Rita.

  “Nice to meet you,” Rita said.

  “Remind me, what do you do here?” Genevieve asked Rita.

  “Leah is—” Junior started.

  “I want to hear from her,” Genevieve interrupted.

  I lowered my head, banging my forehead with the heel of my palm.

  “Watch,” Jessie urged.

  I looked up, focusing on the scene.

  “…refine what we have, ideawise,” Rita said. “New drugs. Twists on existing ones.”

  “Excellent,” Fray said. “I hope we have a chance to discuss that at some point. Drugs, and especially combat drugs, are something I’m hoping to make use of at a later date.”

  “I’ve heard good things about your qualifications,” Rita said. “If you could share any insights on what I’ve been mulling over, that would be fantastic, but right this second, it looks like vat three is—”

  Then she turned away, hurrying to a counter.

  “The heat is too high,” Fray casually observed.

  “I know!” Rita said, looking over her shoulder. “The knob gets wonky, so it’s a bit touchy where I have to eyeball it first thing in the morning, before figuring out what it’s actually set to.”

  I watched the interactions continue, holding my breath, studying what I could make out of Avis and Fray’s expressions.

  It was a solid minute later when I let myself breathe again. There were no signs that Fray was suspicious.

  “Yeah,” Jessie replied to the exhalation. “I know.”

  “Where did you find her?”

  “Rita? Luck that I ran into her in the first place. Observation, that I saw something of merit in her when I ran into her. There’s a reason I wanted to pay double what we paid for the others to get her.”

  “Good find. I want to keep her, however this turns out.”

  “Might take some doing,” Jessie said.

  Junior was taking the lead, handling ninety-five percent of the chat with Fray. He was clever, and Fray… if she had any proper weaknesses at all, she enjoyed engaging with clever. So long as they could keep talking, things were good.

  If Fray started talking to Rita about the particulars of some combat drug regimen or another, then it would all fall apart, but at this stage, I trusted Junior or Rita to handle things.

  Avis was visibly getting restless, moving about the lab, which made me restless. But then Fray turned her head, and gave the signal.

  “She’s going to see to some other things,” Fray explained to Junior.

  “If you need anything in particular, I’m sure some people here would be happy to get a break from the usual lab work,” Junior said.

  “I appreciate the offer, but this is hardly a relief from lab work. Boring things,” Fray said. “An awful lot of negotiation and communication with different people.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Junior said, smiling.

  I watched Avis as she left the building, looked around, and then headed off, walking briskly.

  I began to get my things together, watching her as she walked down the street.

  “Heading toward the Academy,” I observed. I pulled my bag over one shoulder. “I guess I am too. Don’t fall asleep here.”

  “I don’t think I could sleep if I tried. My nerves are shot,” Jessie said.

  “Everything’s in motion,” I said. I watched as Avis disappeared down one street.

  I watched as two bystanders suddenly ended their conversation, exchanged a glance, and then turned to follow her. They weren’t so hot on her heels that it looked like they were going to rob her.

  No, that kind of distance was good for a game of chase. Of tailing a target, with one in the lead and the other trailing behind. They would change it up, so no one was visible and obvious for too long of a time.

  Practiced tailing of a target.

  “Everything, and everyone,” I amended my statement. “Those two weren’t members of any of the gangs we collected, or any of the gangs we ignored?”

  “No,” Jessie said.

  “Bounty hunters? Who are very intent on…” I trailed off, letting the sentence die. I couldn’t find my way to an answer.

  No, they were doing much the same thing we were.

  Tracking Fray’s
people. Seeing what they did.

  “A major player. Cynthia’s people, or Academy,” I said.

  This made matters harder.

  Previous Next

  Bitter Pill—15.6

  The two men I was following were good. I followed them as they followed Avis, and that gave me ample opportunity to study the pair.

  Their choice of clothing and hairstyle were accurate enough to fool me. If they hadn’t been actively following Avis, then I wouldn’t have given them a second look. Overalls tucked into wading boots and a sweater for one. Vest, shirt, and slacks for the other. Their hair was messy, only nominally combed back or parted, and their hands. Oh, thing of beauty, they had the calluses of hard manual labor.

  Their guns, I noted, were well hidden. I actually had to look to find them, I watched how fabric moved and judged where the weight was, and then deduced the rest.

  There were other hints I was able to catch, as they alternated, one walking briskly to pass the other and get closer to Avis, while the other fell behind, staring in a store window or taking a slightly different path. I could draw pretty darn close to them while they kept a careful eye on their partner and on the more distant Avis. They had shaved at just about the same time, and it hadn’t been that long ago. They had eaten the same food from the same place, and they had done so recently enough that I could smell it as I drew within a few feet of them.

  They had received the call to turn up here very recently. That pointed to two possibilities.

  The first possibility was they had received word that Fray was on the train, and their hope was to do what we were doing and intercept the plan rather than intercept her, exactly. News of Fray being due to arrive could have fit into the timeframe here. She would’ve had to be sighted while she boarded in the middle of the night, this morning, the message delivered before the sun had risen this morning. The timing, the distribution of the key elements, and the objective would suggest Cynthia more than anyone else.

  Expert elements like this pair would have been assigned to another task in this area if they were here now, which raised questions about what they were doing, what Cynthia would have been doing. It hinted that the task and subject they’d been assigned to were lower priority than Fray and Fray’s actions, and—

  I stopped myself there.

  The second was that they had been tipped off. It would have had to occur within the last four or five hours. The Academy moved slower, with instructions passing up the chain of command and key assets, which would mean they got the info four or five hours ago. Cynthia would move faster and more aggressively.