by R T Green
‘Maybe Daisy?’
‘Maybe. I planned the weekend so we could hopefully have a really good time together, which would make her more conducive to opening up.’
‘And did you… have a really good time?’
I nodded slowly, couldn't find words suitable for public consumption. ‘This morning we sat by the water and played a truth game… a bit like you and me now. It worked, up to a point. I told her who I was.’
‘Fuck. How much did you tell her?’
‘Everything.’
‘Fuck.’
‘She freaked out at first, but it didn't last long. I… calmed her down.’
‘You're a brave girl Maddie, I'll give you that.’
I laughed, went to the counter and grabbed fresh coffees. Somehow I needed the caffeine hit… needed something to help keep my thoughts together. I was opening up to Ryland Cooper, and while somehow that felt good, I knew I must keep a reign on how much I confessed. I sat back at the table, still unsure about how far to go.
‘Ok Maddie, tell me exactly what Red Mist told you.’
‘She said she hates her own people, that they're evil and heartless.’
‘That's not so good.’
‘There are just the seven of them. At the moment.’
‘I'm not going to like the next bit, am I?’
‘There's a lot more of them on the way.’
‘Fuck. Fuck!’
‘You're swearing a lot again, Coop.’
‘So would you be if you were in my fucking shoes.’ The big man was sweating, lowering his eyes as he spoke. ‘Did she tell you… who she was?’ he asked quietly.
‘No, not really. And as I said in Scott's office, she wouldn't say what was going to happen either. She just said if she told me, it was so bad I would tell you guys and that would ruin everything.’
‘I should fucking well think it would, for them!’
I leaned forward on my elbows, spoke quietly. ‘You don't understand, Coop. She said she came here originally with bad intentions but that she'd had a change of heart.’
He looked at me sceptically. ‘And why the hell would she do that?’
‘She said it was because… because of me.’
He sat back, rubbed a hand across his mouth. For a minute he said nothing, then he looked up, his eyes narrowed. ‘From what you's told me that might be plausible. But we can't take that risk. You gotta find out what's coming.’
I shook my head. ‘She won't give on that. She said if we knew we would try to stop it, but we wouldn't stand a chance. Said no one can stop it except her.’
‘Fuck.’ This time the word was whispered. He looked like he totally understood what he'd heard.
‘Coop..?’
‘Do you think she will stop it?’
‘Yes I do…I did. Before…’
‘Don't lose the faith, Maddie. Love is a powerful motivator, as I think you's finding out for yourself. Talk to her, see what she knows about Daisy. It might help.’
‘Oh I shall be talking to her, trust me.’
He swigged the last of his sugar, sat back and closed his eyes. My gut was tearing me apart again. Coop’s compassion had persuaded me to say more than I intended, and now I felt exposed. Another not so nice feeling to join the stack of others eating away at my insides.
‘Coop… how much of this gets broadcast?’
He stood up, shook his head. ‘Right now Maddie, I don't have a clue. I gotta think. Thank God or whoever is up there bringing us this shit that Scott will be gone for ages. At least I got a little time to try and make sense of this goddamn mess. You might be wise to go do the same.’
‘Thanks, Coop.’
‘I gotta say one thing. This love affair…’
‘It's ok. We both know there's no future in it.’
He smiled a sad knowing smile. ‘I'm so sorry, kid.’ He held out a hand, which I took. ‘We work together from now on, ok Maddie?’
‘Think I need a friend right now.’
‘That's a raging certainly. Now that Scott's gone to the PM it won't be long before all hell breaks loose. Daisy might be a small part of this bag of shit, but she's played one huge card. Now this has gone outside DIAL's walls, our piggy-eyed boss won't be the one calling the shots anymore. Orders are gonna come from the highest level, and there ain't a damn thing we can do other than follow them.’
Chapter 51
I slumped onto the sofa, my body like lead. I'd told Coop almost everything, but there was still one major harsh fact he didn’t know. The big man still knew nothing about Dawson's Hill or the suitcase containing… what?
I thought I'd figured it out, Zana said I was wrong. So if she was telling the truth there was one more question still unanswered. And on that theme, yet another joining the list that wasn’t getting any shorter.
Why didn't I tell Coop about the suitcase?
I poured a huge brandy, sank it far too quickly. It made me shudder. My head, already spinning so fast it was blurring my vision, fogged up even more with the sudden influx of alcohol.
Anger welled up again, I began to curse the woman who had given me my heart back and was now doing her best to break it into a million pieces. Again I sank a glass of brandy, a mess of emotions at both ends of the scale taking control of my actions.
It was dark. I glanced at the Rolex; just gone six. I reached for the phone, shaking fingers keying in Zana's number.
The state I was in, maybe not the best thing right then.
‘I was just thinking about you, Madeline.’
‘Daisy's dead.’
‘Who… who's Daisy?’
‘Yeah, figured you wouldn't know her name. The young girl you butchered and left to die in conditions not even fit for a rat.’
For a moment there was silence. ‘Your guys must have found her then.’
I exploded. ‘Is that all you can say? No remorse, no 'I'm so sorry Madeline', no… no fucking heart…’ The words trailed away.
Then she sounded tearful. ‘You shocked me… I didn't know what to say. Please believe me, I didn't want any of this. I told him it wasn't necessary…’
‘Oh come on, Zana… you're the ringleader, the one who calls the shots. It must have been your call.’
‘Who the hell told you I was in charge?’ She sounded angry through the tears.
‘That… that's what I was told.’
‘Then your infallible intelligence is fallible after all. I'm the coordinator, I organize the team, communicate with our superiors. The second-in-command if you want a tag. But I'm not the one in charge.’
‘So who is?’
‘Arik.’
I let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘Might have guessed.’
‘He didn't tell me what they were doing until six weeks ago. It wasn't even necessary, we'd got all the information we needed through our research. But he… he's just evil.’
She sounded genuine, like she was telling the truth. But my alcohol-influenced brain wasn't hearing her.
‘I don't believe you.’
‘Please... Madeline, you have to believe me. The argument you walked in on; it was partly about you but also because he came to tell me things weren't looking so good with Daisy. I freaked out.’
‘Yeah, I know all about freaking out. I’ve just seen what’s left of her.’
She was crying hysterically. ‘Please don't do this. Come and see me… we'll talk it through.’
‘Talk? That’s a fucking joke, Zana. You’re talking consists of me telling you everything and you telling me the bits you want me to know. I'm done with talking.’
‘You know why that is.’
‘I don't know anything anymore. I thought I did, now…’
‘Please don't walk away, Madeline. I can't do this without you.’
I lowered the phone, threw my eyes to the ceiling and roughly wiped away the tears with the back of my hand. When I spoke, the words were slurred.
‘I can't have this conversation right now, Zana. I need to think.�
�
‘I love you…’
I killed the call.
Three times after that she called me. Three times I ignored the call, and then finally turned the phone off. And three times more I filled the brandy glass to the brim and sank every drop.
I'd told Zana I needed to think, but the alcohol wouldn't allow it. Just past midnight I staggered to my bed while I could still make it. As I lay there feeling the room spinning around me even though my eyes were closed, images I didn't want flashed through my brain in vivid pulsating colour.
I could see Daisy's horrific face, feel the four earth walls, and smell the damp soil as it was shovelled over me.
And in my fogged-out mind I was holding the hand of the woman I loved, who smiled beautifully to me but suddenly felt as cold as ice.
Chapter 52
I woke late, my head banging. The red digits on the alarm clock said nine-thirty. I cursed myself, regretting now I'd turned to the brandy to take away the pain.
Especially as it hadn't worked; as I stood in the shower and let the warm water wash away the remnants of my deep sleep, I felt worse than ever.
I tried to eat a little breakfast, it stuck in my throat. I spent the next hours doing nothing useful; forcing my brain to get itself around the conflict between my head and my heart that seemed like world war three.
World War Two lasted years without getting resolved.
'I love you'. The last words she'd spoken. She did love me, I knew. I loved her, I knew that too. Those things weren't in doubt. It was the next question searing through my mind that didn't seem to have an answer.
Right here, right now… was love enough?
At four in the afternoon the DIAL phone rang.
‘You better get yourself down to the police station Maddie, your girlfriend’s gone berserk.’
‘Coop?’
‘The last thing we need right now is Red Mist banged up by a police force who don't have a clue who she is. Go flash your badge and tell them we're taking over for fuck's sake.’
‘What's happened?’
‘Did you talk to her about Daisy?’
The dull ache was back, ripping my gut to shreds. ‘I… kind of didn't hold back.’
‘Thought so. Maybe not the best approach you could have taken. Seems as soon as she got to work this morning she let Arik know how she was feeling. Smacked him with every goddamn thing she could find in the lab. It didn't help he was wearing magnification glasses at the time.’
‘Good for her.’
‘Echo that. But this is a complication we could do without right now. The police were called, she got dragged off to the cells, and Arik got a free ride to the hospital.’
‘I hope he's in intensive care.’
‘Unfortunately not. They released him a couple of hours ago. His ugly face is even uglier now though.’
‘I'd better go rescue her.’
‘Hang on… you ain't heard the rest yet. A while back the cops charged her with assault and released her. But it seems she wasn't finished freaking out. She cabbed it back to work and picked up her car. They've suspended her, no surprise. Her tail got a little too close, somehow she knew who they were, and in the middle of Waterloo Bridge she stopped, dragged our man out of the car and started knocking hell out of him. He reckons she's very strong for a woman.’
‘Shit.’
‘It wouldn't have gone any further, but unfortunately for us a blue-and-yellow was passing the other way. So now she's back inside and they ain't so keen to kick her out this time.’
‘Fuck.’
‘You's using my lines again. Scott's back in the building by the way.’
‘How is he?’
‘Quiet; bit shell-shocked like the rest of us. Waiting for instructions from the top, but this is feeling more and more like the calm before the storm. Just go cool your little lady down, Maddie. Let me know how it goes.’
Chapter 53
I threw open the wardrobe doors, searching for the right outfit. I had to look the part to stand any chance of extracting Zana from the clutches of the law with as little fuss as possible.
DIAL had furnished me with the means to impress Zana. Hanging there were way too many clothes, likely costing the tax-payer more than the GDP of a small country. None of them were anything close to what I would dream of wearing in normal circumstances.
But normal circumstances were a million miles away right then.
I dressed quickly, a white buttoned top, deep navy-coloured suit with the skirt a respectable distance below the knee, and black Jimmy Choo stilettos with a four-inch heel. Glancing at myself in the full-length mirror, I looked like an accountant.
The things I do for Zana.
I strode into the station wearing my no-nonsense face. That wasn’t so hard, I was in a no-nonsense mood. The desk sergeant looked me over suspiciously. A thick-set man, his head was shaved, and his mouth naturally turned down at the edges, making everything he said look like he was sneering sarcastically. Which from the look of him, he most likely was.
He gave me the creeps, something that actually helped my rather foul mood. ‘You have someone here…’
I didn't get any further. Even through the doors to the nearby cells I could hear her, hammering on the door and shouting obscenities.
‘I take it you're referring to her?’ the desk-sergeant said grimly. ‘You her brief?’
I flashed my badge to the man, who raised his eyebrows and looked me over again. ‘If you're expecting us to release her you might be disappointed,’ he said. ‘But I can't make that call.’
‘Then find someone who can.’
The sergeant threw me a disdainful stare and disappeared through a door. I glanced around; it was a depressing hole of a place, scruffy walls with a shitty-brown colour on the bottom half and once-cream paint above, which looked like it hadn't been decorated since the Ripper was terrorizing the town.
A run of tatty metal chairs sat along one wall, bits of rubbish scattered on the floor beneath them, discarded by people who had no doubt sat and waited for interminable hours to be attended to, one way or another.
Clearly no one gave a shit. God knows what the cells would be like.
The sergeant's voice dragged me away from the morbid surroundings. ‘Chief-inspector Bullock will be with you in ten minutes or so.’
‘Make sure it's no longer.’
He looked at me like I was a criminal. ‘You're welcome to go and see if you can calm the bitch from hell down.’
My anger flared up, but I managed to just let it show in my eyes as I stood right next to the man. ‘I would advise you, sergeant, to keep your opinions to yourself. If you don't show a little respect to someone you know nothing about, you may find your own life turning into hell.’
The sergeant grinned sarcastically, but there was a hint of nervousness in his demeanor as he led me through the door to the cell block, and turned the key in the lock of number four. ‘She’s all yours.’
Zana had given up letting the staff know she was there, and was sitting quietly on the hard vinyl bench facing slightly away from me, the hood of the red cape shrouding her head. She didn't look around. My heart began to pound; she looked a pathetic, forlorn sight. I wanted to reach out and hold her tight, but that stood a pretty good chance of ruining any chance I had of getting her out of there on a professional level.
I heard the key turn in the lock again, grateful that the desk-sergeant wasn't interested enough to stick around. We were alone.
‘Zana.’
She was on her feet in a second, running towards me. ‘No!’ I moved quickly away from her, whispered, ‘Cameras.’
She stopped, the tears running down her face. ‘I'm sorry, Madeline,’ she said.
‘What the hell were you thinking?’
She turned away, I saw her head lower. ‘I…I'm falling apart. And you're the one wielding the big hammer breaking me into pieces. I told you I can't do this without you.’
‘I know.’
‘Then help me… please.’ The voice was meek, pleading.
‘I'm trying to get you out of here, but you're not making it easy. Just waiting for the boss-man. The gorilla behind the desk seemed to want me to come and calm you down.’
‘I'm calm now.’
‘Then please stay that way. It's not helping.’
She turned to look at me, sad eyes stabbing me with their pain. ‘Please get me out of here, Madeline. If they keep me here very long it will be too late.’
Chief-inspector Bullock sat down with me in the privacy of Interview Room One.
‘So what can I do for you, agent?’
‘I want the girl released, into my care.’
He blew out his cheeks. A tall lanky man, he had the air of someone who had lost all faith in his fellow human beings. His hollow face looked like any ability to raise a smile had long since left him; nicotine-stained fingers on both hands confirmed to me his smoking habit was a necessary part of helping him get out of bed and make it to work each day.
‘You see Miss deWinter, you may be one of those faceless people who believe they keep the country safe, but I'm the guy on the front line who actually gets to clean up all the shit on a daily basis. This is my turf agent, and right now I'm seeing a bog load of shit sitting in cell number four. I can't release a prisoner I perceive as a threat to innocent folk.’
I groaned to myself. Bullock had hit the nail on the head with his last sentence, unfortunately without knowing that keeping Zana locked up was likely to be the very cause of any danger to innocent folk.
‘There are things going on here you don't know and can't be told, chief-inspector. I want the girl released, right now.’
Bullock shook his head. ‘No can do, not until I'm sure she's no risk.’
I leaned forward, fixed a cold stare into the thin man. ‘I will take this to the top if I have to, Bullock. The very top. Do you understand me?’
The chief-inspector sat back, raised his eyebrows. ‘Level with me, agent. Are you saying this is a matter of national security?’
