by C. G. Hatton
•
It felt like he’d been run over by a truck. Hil unfastened the body armour beneath his coat and felt tenderly across his chest.
“You’ll be fine,” Pen said and slapped him on the back. “It’ll match your other bruises. Come on, we’ve got our man. They’re waiting for us.”
Hil reached down and picked up his gun, tucking it back into place. Out in the corridor it was quiet, two bodies lying sprawled in an open doorway. He forced a deep breath and followed Pen to another staircase.
Two flights up and the house was quiet and dimly lit, plush carpets with hidden lamps casting soft light. Faint sounds of music drifted along from somewhere. Three more bodies in expensive suits lay on the floor of the top landing, handguns left where they’d dropped. Two of Pen’s men were standing by a doorway further along the hall.
They were waved through without a word.
The man from the surveillance tape was sitting in a chair that had been pulled into the centre of the bedroom, slumped to one side, clutching a bleeding wound in his right arm. He glared with arrogant disdain at Hil as he entered, grey eyes flashing just as he remembered. Yani and two others stationed themselves around the room, Yan at the door which he closed as they went in. A dampening patch had been taped to the guy’s neck but no one had bothered to tend to his gunshot wound.
Pen wandered off to one side, casually looking around the room.
Hil stood back, watching, his heart rate refusing to settle. More bits of memory clicked into place as he stared into those grey eyes. He had seen this guy before, at Mendhel’s safe house on Earth, right there at the beginning. He’d been there waiting for them, holding a gun to Mendhel’s head while he explained what they had to do.
Hil pulled the gun from his waistband and held it calmly down by his leg. The guy was smirking.
“Hil,” Pen said as he was twitching to take aim at the guy, “there’s some of their kit in that room,” and nodded towards an adjoining door, “go check it out. Go do your thing.”
Hil held his breath for a second, still staring right into those cold eyes, then he nodded and slipped through the door, leaving them to it.
The other room was set up as a temporary office, terminals hooked up to screens and data boards strewn on a table that had been cleared of its usual bedroom paraphernalia. He gained access quickly and easily bypassed their security, working fast as he was trained to do and ignoring the thumps and muffled shouts coming from the room next door. Whatever they did to the guy wasn’t bad enough.
None of the data he got to straight away had any ID codes at all, nothing to give away who these people were or where they were based. It was all superfluous junk and a lot of detail about him and LC which was disturbing to see. He lingered on a medical report that detailed his recent injuries and the electrobe poisoning. No one should have been able to get hold of this stuff but there was also nothing to give away the source of any of that information, nothing to tie it to Martha.
It was second nature to be patient though, and he’d hacked his way into some of the best systems around; this was very good but he soon had access to the deeper levels.
There was a stifled scream from next door and he couldn’t help the small half-smile as he eased his way in and started to backtrack towards the corporation itself. Twice he nearly tripped auto-destruct alarm sequences and as soon as he got a feedback shock into his own implant that sent a searing probe crashing against his own defences, he knew he was nearly there. He got what he needed, got out and when he looked up, Pen was at the doorway watching.
“You have anything you want to say to this bastard?” Pen said quietly.
Hil nodded and pulled out his gun, following Pen back into the bedroom and walking straight up to their prisoner, pistol up in a grip that was aimed right between those grey eyes. The guy had been taped to the chair, arms, legs and chest, and was looking rough, eyes still glinting but hooded and swollen, blood dripping from cuts across his lip.
Hil stopped when the barrel of the gun was resting against the guy’s forehead.
“Where’s Anya,” he said quietly.
The smirk widened and he said smugly, “You’re assuming she’s still alive.”
One of Pen’s guys slapped him across the back of the head.
“Where is she?” Hil said again, finger tightening on the trigger, every ounce of him wanting to squeeze it, for Mendhel, for LC, for Anya. He kept the aim steady, managing to keep the trembling he felt inside locked away.
The guy blinked slowly and casually as if he was bored. “She was easier than Mendhel,” he said, staring Hil in the eye. “She begged me to do it. She screamed and screamed until I cut her throat.”
The trembling threatened to surface. No one moved or said a word. He didn’t believe it and looked into those eyes to see the lie, but there was nothing. Hard, cold malice and nothing else. Hil squeezed the trigger a fraction and abruptly let his arms fall to his side.
He turned to Pen. “I’ve got everything I need. I don’t believe him but I have enough information on them to find her.” He looked back at the guy and watched his expression change as he said, “It’s Zang Enterprises and I know where they are.”
Considering how hard it had been to break their system, it wasn’t surprising to see the guy scowl.
“I know everything about them,” Hil said coldly. “Do what you want with him.”
Pen raised his eyebrows in an unsaid question.
“I’m not a killer,” Hil said simply.
“No, but I am,” Pen said.
Hil nodded and turned away.
“You killed my brother,” he heard Pen say softly and he slipped out, leaving them to it, his heart hammering in his chest. As he walked away, the screaming began in the room behind.
A couple of days later word came through to the desert encampment that it was all ready. Pen went through the inventory then they sat outside and drank beer and toasted Mendhel and Anya, and downed one for LC as the sun set.
“Go finish this,” Pen said, raising his glass.
Hil nodded. “Here’s to Martha and whatever the hell I did that was so bad she turned into the double-crossing bitch queen from hell.”
“You live in a den of thieves, what did you expect?”
Pen had always hated the guild. Hil bit his tongue as the urge to defend it automatically kicked in.
“I always knew your guild would tear itself apart,” Pen said.
“Two people selling us out aren’t going to tear it apart.”
“The rot has to start somewhere.”
Hil drained his glass and reached for another bottle. He’d lost count of how many they’d had and would feel it in the morning; Aston-brewed beer was strong, much stronger than anything the guild kept in the barracks for them.
“Well, this is where it ends,” he said.
They were both quiet then. The sounds of the desert drifted across into the settlement on a breeze that was starting to get a chill edge.
Hil rubbed his forehead feeling the outline of the scar from the crash. “You know, that bastard even had medical notes on me.”
“Zang is a big organisation. What else did you get from their files?”
“The place they gave me as the drop off is one of their facilities. Same type as the one where they took me after I crashed. I couldn’t find anything on why they shot me down, it looks like I was on my way there. I don’t get it. They kept me for five days. All that bastard had in his files was an entry saying I didn’t have the package and they couldn’t get anything out of me. I don’t remember it.”
He couldn’t say anything to Pen but he knew now why he couldn’t remember. The Chief had been right, it wasn’t entirely down to the knock on the head he’d taken in the crash. LC had hardly been able to walk but they’d made it out and Skye had flown them to a safe haven, a place they only ever used when they needed to disappear, and they’d come up with the plan for Hil to take a phony package back to give LC time to hide u
ntil they figured out what to do. They knew a guy there who could come up with anything, no questions asked, and he’d delivered. He’d come up with a package and they hadn’t asked what was in it. The seals on it were enough to fool anyone for a while. They’d laid low for days and the guy had managed to find painkillers for LC that were way beyond any legal spec, and even then didn’t seem to have much effect, and some wacky substance he’d promised would wipe Hil’s short-term memory. They hadn’t asked him what it was. They just knew that no one could know what had happened.
Hil rubbed his eyes.
“They’ve increased the bounty,” Pen said. “There are some big names chasing it. I wasn’t joking about spending a fortune to keep them at bay.”
“I don’t understand why they didn’t just pay the guild for the tab. That much money. We would have got it and delivered it right to them. Why all this?”
“Corporations like Zang are an entity unto themselves. What I don’t understand is why the Earth military is so interested. That’s what has blown the whole situation off the scale. You sure you didn’t stick your hand into Earth’s cookie jar?”
Hil shrugged. “I don’t know where we went. It was a bitch to get into though, I can remember that now.”
Pen leaned forward and beckoned for another beer, sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, head to one side looking intently at Hil. “Is there no other way?” he said sombrely.
Hil cracked open a bottle and slid it across the table.
“It’s not just Kase and Martha,” he admitted, opening up about the guild to someone outside like he’d never done before. He felt like he was the one betraying the guild. It was absurd. How the hell had things got twisted around like this? “I can’t go back because I don’t know how far it goes. There were things that were said when I was pulled back there after the crash, things that didn’t make sense but now… Now, I don’t even know if I can trust NG. And the guy that’s supposed to be handling me over this…”
“Quinn?”
Hil nodded. “He set everything up so I was alone on Abacus. Kase and Martha were there but no other back up. How does that look now? Quinn must have known. He must have, which means he’s in on it, and if he is, who else? Shit, Quinn always hated Mendhel. He hated that we were always top of the standings. You could see him seething about it every time we came back. The son of a bitch.”
Pen poured out a glass, slowly emptying the bottle. “Things aren’t always as they seem, Hil. Don’t assume you know everything there is to know about a person. People aren’t always what they appear. You know, I was serious when I said about going private. You can stay here. You don’t have to do this, bud. Stay here and work with me.”
Hil was surprised to find his glass empty again and concentrated on that instead of letting Pen’s words filter into any possible level of consideration. He set the glass on the table and reached for another bottle, the resolve to have another drink adding weight to his resolve to carry out his plan. “You know why I can’t do that, Pen. It’ll never end. They know I’m a link to LC. I can’t go back to the guild and I can’t stay here.”
Pen understood because he let it go and let the conversation fade, both of them quietly drowning out any thought of tomorrow. The sun finally dropped below the horizon, an orange ball that took with it the last heat of the day. Lights began flickering on around them as the settlement prepared for night.
“I’m sending Zang a message,” Pen said casually. “Their man should never have come here. His cronies will be going back with the clear understanding that whatever deals Zang has made don’t carry here. I have people out looking for Anya and now we know it’s Zang, we can make them pay. I know that doesn’t solve your problem.”
“I don’t have any choice. They want the package. I need to take it to them.”
“If you do find Anya alive,” Pen said, “bring her back here.”
“I will,” Hil said, knowing fine well that Pen knew that was something he couldn’t promise.
“Mend should’ve come out here. I always told him that guild of yours would get him killed.”
“He was the best handler I’ve ever known,” and that was an absolute truth. No one else was a patch on Mendhel. He’d been the only one who could keep LC under control. And the only one who’d stick his neck out when they screwed up, and give them space to screw up so they could learn. Hil missed him, more than he’d had time to realise.
They clinked glasses.
A door opened behind them and they both looked to see Elenor heading down the steps. She didn’t say a word, just smiled at Pen and set a tall bottle of pale liquid on the table with two small shot glasses. She touched Hil’s shoulder as she left, squeezing gently. He watched her go back inside. Martha had never been that gentle. They’d been a whirlwind together and he was honestly not sure what it had been that had torn them apart. Maybe he had done something but it sure as hell wasn’t anything intentional. It was hard to think that things had gone so wrong she’d sell them out like that. She hadn’t just betrayed the guild, she’d targeted him and LC for the suckers who would go running off to do their bidding. She’d known exactly what to do. Threatening Anya gave them Mendhel and LC, and Hil was a given after that.
“Pen, if you see LC again…” he trailed off, not really knowing what he’d meant to say in the first place.
“Don’t you worry about LC, you have enough to worry about. Your plan sucks,” Pen said bluntly, mostly the beer talking.
Hil shrugged. It did. What could he say?
He picked absently at a graze on his arm that he’d picked up courtesy of the desert floor in a sparring session with Yani. Elenor had refused to look at it at first, telling him it was his own fault and if he wanted to inflict more damage on himself she was having nothing to do with it. She’d folded and had cleaned it up for him. Pen was lucky, she really was good. His wrist had held up well and the headaches were mostly gone. Elenor was good for the big man. He could see it in the way they were together. Pen had rescued her and now she was holding him up. How did you find a woman like that?
“I’m sorry I’ve dragged you into this,” he said. “You and Elenor, you don’t need any of this mess.”
“You didn’t do this, Hil. You and LC are family here, don’t ever forget that. The bastards that killed my brother and took his daughter are the ones who did it.”
Pen took the tall bottle and poured two shot glasses. He held one out. Hil took it and they both drank the whisky in one, a shot of hot fluid that burned its way down.
“Look after that woman,” Hil said, gesturing back towards the building, the liquor igniting a spot of envy deep inside, thoughts of Martha mixing with images of Sean O’Brien.
Pen smiled. “You don’t have to worry about me either.”
“You’re lucky, Pen. Every woman I’ve ever gotten close to either ran a mile or turned into a clinging harpy. Or stabbed me in the back.”
“The one consistent thing in all those failed relationships, Hil, is you. Think about that.”
Hil laughed and grabbed the bottle. He poured two more shots and raised his glass. “You’re a good man, Pen. You’d be a great handler.”
Pen nudged his glass with his own. “You take care of yourself, Hil.”
They drank the fiery liquid and the rest of the bottle after that. Hil was having a problem focusing on anything and enjoying the fact that it was self-inflicted for once. He leaned on the table and felt his eyes closing.
Pen slapped him on the back. “Come on, bud. It’s a big day tomorrow.”
Hil sat up and rubbed a hand over his eyes.
Pen stood up and leaned forward onto the back of his chair. “What the hell was it that you went to steal, Hil?”
Hil stared intently into his glass.
He could feel Pen staring intently at him.
“You know, don’t you?” Pen said.
“You don’t want to know, Pen. It’s best you don’t know. It’s best that no one ever knows. That
’s why I have to do this. I’m going to end it.”
Damn right he was going to end it and he was going to take as many of them as possible with him.
Chapter 24
“Knowingly leaving Hilyer to run loose was not a popular decision,” the Man said. “Are you aware that Media backed Legal when they tried to lodge a petition to dissolve Acquisitions as an independent section?”
NG paused, the goblet half way to his lips. He’d accepted the wine reluctantly and had been taking his time with it. He took a breath then took a long drink, feeling the hot alcohol hit his bloodstream. Juggling the four sections of the guild was a constant battle that he found exasperating at times.
“Zach Hilyer is incredibly resourceful,” he said finally. “Ultimately he was our best chance of finding LC and that could only have happened if we gave him enough rein to run free. The Chief agreed with me that it was the best course of action and I backed him when Legal and Media started to give him a hard time. Acquisitions has to stay independent. Like it or not, the work they do is some of the most important of all four sections. It’s the work of the field operatives that gives us our advantage. The others might not like it but they do know it.”
The Man nodded slowly and leaned forward. “And while our people were squabbling behind closed doors, Earth dared put out a contract on two of our operatives and the Merchants’ Guild moved to usurp our position in the open market. And the insolent corporation that defied us all to initiate this sorry affair quite arrogantly ran rings around everyone.”
NG finished his wine with another gulp and placed the empty goblet on the table, wilfully courting another refill. “That’s why Hil was the best person to throw out there to face them head-on. The eccentricity that’s the very base of our power can be stifled in some circumstances. Sometimes, one wildcard thrown out of the pack is what it takes.”
•
Hil strode through the station, chin up, shoulders back, and with the old cocky confidence he’d not felt since before LC had grabbed him that day and said they had a problem. He carried a bulky bag, borrowed clothes hiding the massive pistol which was deactivated and wrapped in a cloth.
