Nick couldn't help grinning at that, knowing exactly what Morgan's reaction to that would be. "If you succeed, Morgan will flay the hide off you for such damned stupid showmanship."
"Yes...and then he'll kiss my bony arse for capturing a returned transportee. And I'll be on the front page of theTimes , with scores of women begging for my attention."
Nick's smile turned wry. "That's not as enjoyable as you might think," he informed his friend.
"No? Well, I'd like to try it, nevertheless." Sayer cocked his brow expectantly. "Are you game?"
Nick nodded with a sigh. "Where do you want to start looking?"
"Reports are that Follard has been seen in the slums between Hanging Ax Alley and Dead Man's Lane. It's like an anthill with all the holes in the walls, and tunnels between the cellars-"
"Yes, I know the place." Nick kept his face expressionless, although he was aware of cold distaste coiling in his belly. He had gone in those slums before, and even with his high tolerance for the horrors of the underworld, it was a nasty experience. The last time he had visited Hanging Ax Alley, he had seen a mother prostituting her child for gin, while beggars and whores crammed in the narrow lanes like sardines.
"We'll have to search quickly," Nick said. "Once they realize we're in the area, word will spread fast, and Follard will slip away before we ever clap eyes on him."
Sayer grinned with barely repressed enthusiasm. "Let's go, then. You lead the way."
They left the tavern and made their way through streets bisected with open gutters, the stench of dead animals and rotting garbage hanging thick in the air. The decaying buildings leaned against each other as if in exhaustion, groaning with every strong wind that blew against them. There were no signs to identify streets, nor were there numbers on houses or buildings. A stranger to the area could easily become lost and quickly find himself robbed, carved up and left for dead in some dark yard or alley. The poverty of the slum inhabitants was unimaginable, and their only escape was the temporary one to be found in a gin shop. In fact, there was a gin shop on nearly every street.
It bothered Nick to see the wretchedness of the people around him, the skeletal children, the degraded women and desperate men. The only healthy creatures to be found were the rats and mice that scuttled across the street. Until now, Nick had accepted all of this as an inevitable part of life. For the first time, he wondered what could be done for these people. Good God, they needed so much that it nearly overwhelmed him. He remembered what Lottie had said to him only a few days earlier..."There must be some issue that concerns you,"she had said."Something you want to fight for..." Now that he'd had time to consider it, he had to admit that she was right. As Lord Sydney, he could accomplish far more than he ever had as Nick Gentry.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Nick glanced cautiously at Sayer, who was clearly thinking of nothing more than finding Dick Follard. Just as he should be. No distractions, Nick warned himself, even as another voice filtered through his mind.
"There comes a time when a man has tweaked the devil's nose once too often, "Morgan had told him." And if he's too stubborn or slow-witted to realize it, he'll pay with his own blood. I knew when to stop. And so must you..."
It was indeed time to stop, although Nick hadn't known it until this moment. After helping Sayer with this one task, Nick would finally let go of his identity as a runner and reinvent himself once more. This time as Lord Sydney...a man with a wife, a home, perhaps even children someday.
The idea of seeing Lottie pregnant with his child caused a sweet pang in his chest. Finally he was beginning to understand why Sir Ross had found it so easy to resign from the magistracy when he'd married, and why Morgan valued his family above all else.
"Gentry," Sayer muttered. "Gentry?"
Lost in his thoughts, Nick did not notice until Sayer spoke once more.
"Sydney!"
Nick gave him an inquiring glance. "Yes?"
Sayer was frowning. "Keep your wits about you. You seem a bit distracted."
"I'm fine," Nick said curtly, realizing that he had indeed been preoccupied. In this place, that could be a fatal mistake.
They ventured into the slum district, and Nick assessed the area with a critical glance, trying to remember what he knew of the warren of alleys, tunnels, and crossways between buildings. He passed a hand lightly over his chest, checking the reassuring weight of an iron-filled leather cudgel in his coat pocket.
"Let's start with the buildings on the north side of the street," Nick said. "We'll work our way to the corner."
Sayer nodded, his body tensing visibly as he prepared for action.
They searched the buildings methodically, pausing briefly to ask questions of those who seemed likely to know something. The rooms and burrows were badly lit, not to mention crowded and fetid. Nick and Sayer met with no resistance, although they were the focus of many suspicious and hostile stares.
In a workshop near the end of the street-ostensibly a buckle-maker's shop, but in reality a harbor for coiners and forgerers-Nick saw the betraying flicker in a scrawny old man's eyes when he heard the mention of Follard's name. While Sayer checked through the shop, Nick approached the man with an inquiring gaze.
"Do you know anything about Follard?" Nick asked gently, fingering the edge of his own left sleeve with his opposite hand, in a signal well-known to those in the London rookeries. The subtle gesture was a promise of payment for valid information.
The man's paper-thin lids lowered over his yellowed eyes as he considered the offer. "I might."
Nick crossed his palm with a few coins, and the old man's wrinkled fingers closed over the money. "Can you tell me where I may find him?"
"Ye might try the gin shop on Melancholy Lane."
Nodding in thanks, Nick glanced at Sayer and indicated with a swerve of his gaze that it was time to leave.
Once outside, they headed swiftly to Melancholy Lane, just two streets over from Hanging Ax Alley. As with most gin shops near Fleet Ditch, the place was heavily packed long before noon, with drunken patrons sitting on the ground in a stupor. After conferring briefly, Nick went to the entrance of the shop, while Sayer circled the dilapidated building to find the exit in back.
As soon as Nick entered the shop, a few ugly rumbles went through the crowd inside. It was an unfortunate fact that a runner's height and size made it nearly impossible for him to blend in with a crowd. It was even more unfortunate that Nick had made countless enemies in the underworld once he had given evidence against his criminal associates and went to serve at Bow Street. That hadn't exactly increased his popularity in Fleet Ditch. Ignoring the threatening murmurs, Nick glanced over the crowd with narrowed eyes.
Suddenly he saw the face he had been looking for. Through his travels from one continent to another, Dick Follard hadn't changed one whit, his ratlike face surmounted with the same shock of oily black hair, his sharp teeth giving his mouth a serrated appearance. Their gazes met in a moment of icy, electric challenge.
Follard was gone in an instant, slipping through the crowd with the ease of a rodent as he headed to the back of the shop. Nick shoved past the mass of bodies in his way, plowing through them with blind determination. By the time he reached the alley, Follard had disappeared into a complex network of fences, walls, and side streets. Sayer was nowhere to be seen.
"Sayer!" Nick shouted. "Where the hell are you?"
"Over here," came the runner's hoarse cry, and Nick spun around to see him climbing a six-foot-high fence in pursuit of Follard.
Following swiftly, Nick clambered over the fence, dropped to the ground, and ran full tilt down a dark alley shadowed by the overhanging eaves of the buildings on either side. The alley came to an abrupt end, and Nick skidded to a halt as he saw Sayer staring upward. Follard was scaling the deteriorated outside wall of an ancient three-story warehouse, resembling an insect as he sought fingerholds in the broken brick surface. After ascending two stories, he finally managed to reach a hole large enough for him to scuttle into. His bony frame disappeared inside the warehouse.