‘Yes, Mum,’ Luna said. ‘So how’s your stakeout going?’
‘Well, there’s good news and bad news,’ I said. ‘Good news is that I’m pretty sure I’ve found Cinder. Bad news is that apparently I’m not the only interested party.’
‘I know this is a crazy thought,’ Luna said, ‘but maybe if you want to talk to Cinder, you could just call him?’
‘Believe it or not, that did occur to me,’ I said. ‘I’ve got an emergency contact that I was using last year. When I tried it, I got “the number you have dialled has not been recognised”. And when I tried to trace him, I ended up at a place in Bethnal Green that by a funny coincidence just happened to have burned down last month.’
‘Think that might be something to do with the guys you’re looking at right now?’
‘Let’s just say I’m getting the feeling that I’m not the only one having trouble with uninvited guests these days.’
‘In which case he’s probably not going to react that well to you turning up at his front door.’
‘Probably, but I’m kind of on a clock here,’ I said. ‘Talisid’s authorised me to contact Onyx, but he and Bahamus aren’t going to wait around for ever. And if I’m going to walk into Onyx’s mansion, I need an in.’
‘Doesn’t sound to me like where you’re going is any safer, but your call,’ Luna said. ‘Your beacon on?’
‘Yup, and Anne’s standing by,’ I said. I’d been tempted to bring her along, but there are diplomatic advantages to being alone. ‘Feel free to hang out with her if you feel like giving me some backup.’
‘You’re lucky I don’t have much of a social life,’ Luna said. ‘Just make sure to call before you get shot this time.’
‘What do you mean, “this time”?’
‘You heard.’ The connection closed with a click. I shook my head, turned my attention back to the industrial park ahead of me, studied it for a moment longer, then jumped down to the fire escape.
Divination is handy for getting into places you’re not supposed to be. I made my way across the street, up onto a low rooftop, through the razor wire and down into the industrial park without really thinking about it. Most of my attention was on the shadowy forms I’d glimpsed moving into position earlier. Without my vantage point I couldn’t see them any more, but I could track them through the futures in which I encountered them. From looking at what would happen in those futures, I’d already established that they weren’t friendly.
The interesting thing was that four of the presences had the solid, reactive future lines of constructs … and pretty simple constructs too. They were also even more hostile than the human members. Having constructs in the area under kill-on-sight programming strongly indicated that whoever these people were, they weren’t interested in a peaceful resolution.
The bad news was that while I hadn’t been detected so far, I couldn’t see any realistic way to make it into the warehouse without changing that. The building had only a limited number of entrances, and all of them were within clear view of at least one observer. I’m pretty good at avoiding notice, but I can’t turn invisible in the way that illusionists or radiation mages can. If I wanted to get inside, someone was going to see me.
But they don’t know that I’ve seen them first. Let’s take advantage of that.
I turned right and began working my way around the warehouse, aiming for the east side. Twice I had to stop and freeze, letting the shadows hide me as a watcher got a little too close. The night was warm and breezy, and the rushing traffic from the nearby A road hid the sounds of my footsteps. I turned a corner and down an alley. To my right was a line of garages; up ahead was a single, unmarked door.
The figure hiding in the shadows saw me instantly, and I felt violence flicker in the futures. The orange glow of the lights silhouetted me but left him hidden, and I kept to a steady pace. I passed his hiding place without slowing and came to a halt in front of the door.
I put a hand to my pocket and searched through it, taking out something and studying it with unseeing eyes. Beneath my jacket, my shoulders were tense. If this guy decided to just shoot me, I was going to have to move very fast. I was wearing my armour, but at this kind of range …
The futures spun, then settled. There was a very quiet whisper of movement, just barely audible over the wind, as he slipped out of the shadows and moved up. I didn’t react as he stepped in behind me and lifted an arm to bring the butt of his gun down on the base of my skull.
The best way to take someone out in a fight is to catch them by surprise. The second best way is to make them think they’ve surprised you. As the blow fell, I spun right. The gun whistled past my ear as I kicked the man’s leg out from under him. He staggered, going down to one knee, and before he could recover, my stun focus discharged into his neck. Energy flashed through him and he jerked and went limp. The gun clattered to the ground.
I picked up the pistol – it was an automatic of some kind – and engaged the safety as I studied my attacker. As I got a better look at him in the orange light, I downgraded him in my mind from ‘man’ to ‘boy’. He couldn’t have been much more than twenty, but he was wearing body armour and that gun hadn’t been loaded with blanks. I didn’t recognise him, but I hadn’t really been expecting to.
Better not hang around. I stepped to the door and knocked, the sound echoing through the metal. My stun focus is a simple life effect: it’ll put someone down, but for no more than a few minutes, five or six if you’re lucky. Charging it takes a while and I didn’t want to be around when this guy woke up.
Twenty seconds passed, then thirty. I knocked again, louder. I knew that the people inside could hear me, but …
The futures shifted and I looked ahead. Shit. Someone had heard something. Two people were approaching from behind the garages; worse, they were bringing one of the constructs with them. I hammered on the door more loudly. Still nothing.
No time to be subtle. I leaned in close to the door, pitching my voice to carry. ‘Kyle! It’s Alex Verus. I’m not with these guys. Open the door!’
I heard someone call out a question from behind. ‘I know you can hear me,’ I snapped at the door. ‘What, you want proof it’s me? Last time we met was outside Richard’s mansion. Anne spotted you by your missing leg. She didn’t realise it was you at first, because she wasn’t around when you lost it and when Deleo and Cinder killed every single one of—’
The door jerked open and I found myself staring down the barrel of a very large revolver. The person behind the gun was in his early twenties, lean and dangerous-looking with close-cropped hair, and we stared into each other’s eyes for about two seconds. Then he lowered the gun, and I darted inside and helped him slam the door.
The inside of the warehouse was dark and smelled of oil and metal. Distant shouts drifted through from outside, but Kyle ignored them as he slammed bolts across the top and bottom of the door and turned up the corridor. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he said curtly.
‘I would have been just as happy to talk over the phone,’ I said to Kyle’s retreating back. ‘Except someone doesn’t answer their voicemail.’
‘Sure, we’ll just have a public number for our personal phones,’ Kyle shot back. ‘And while we’re at it, we can add a note saying “PS, please don’t trace us”. You been paying any attention to what’s going on?’
Kyle is an adept, an ex-member of a vigilante group called the Nightstalkers who went after Deleo and me a few years back. It worked out badly and Kyle was one of only two survivors. Somehow or other, by the time I saw him next, Cinder had recruited him. I had no idea what the two of them had been up to since.