Chapter 5
Chapter five
Hallie had spent a great deal of time in her career as a skip tracer making her way, carefully and quietly, through abandoned and empty buildings, always knowing that the space might not be as empty as it seemed and that her fugitive could be hiding in the shadows.
She hadn’t been allowed to carry weapons as a skip tracer, but her fugitives also hadn’t had access to powerful automatic weapons, either.
As she made her way through the dark corridors of the house she wished for something as simple as an old warehouse to clear, with only a length of old metal pipe or a discarded bit of wood in her hands to use to defend herself.
She had remembered to check her gun to make sure she had plenty of bullets, and was holding it in the two-handed grip that she’d been taught in her weapons training, just before she and Girard had left Daydawn.
The training had been two full days of intense work with the commander of the Conclave Investigators’ tactical unit.
Yasir Rojas had been unfailingly patient with her many questions and seemed to find her hesitation to learn how to use the more powerful weapons something to be admired not criticised.
If she couldn’t have Girard beside her, she would wish for the commander, and perhaps the rest of his unit while she was wishing for things that were impossible.
The tactical team would make quick work of searching the house and restraining any other intruders.
She made her way back through the ground floor, checking the grand sitting room with its crimson and gold tiles and floor cushions, then on past the dining room to the kitchen.
The bodies of Kasmo and Oreste were still where they’d fallen.
Hallie’s throat closed up and her eyes stung as she had to step over Oreste to get into the kitchen and past Kasmo’s outstretched arm to get into the pantry.
There was no basement, which was a small relief, but Hallie still had to cross back through the kitchen and past the dead to get out into the corridor again.
Kasmo and Oreste’s rooms were tucked away in a narrow, plain corridor on the other side of the kitchen. Small rooms, both meticulously clean and tidy, with equally clean and tidy bathrooms and walk-in wardrobe spaces. There was another servant’s room, which was completely empty.
After that, Hallie checked the other rooms on the ground floor, which she and Girard had never used. A guest bedroom complete with a still-locked door leading out to the garden courtyard, and a couple of other large rooms that were currently empty.
With the ground floor clear, Hallie made her way up the wide, shallow stairs.
There were four large bedrooms on the upper floor, each with their own bathroom and walk-in wardrobe.
The first one she came to was empty, nothing moving in the shadows.
The second door - the one to her room - was slightly ajar and her breath hitched.
She was sure she’d closed the door when she’d left earlier in the evening.
She took a slow, deep breath, trying to steady her hands, then pressed herself against the wall beside the door, listening hard.
She thought she could hear movement, although it wasn’t so much sound, more the feeling that she was no longer alone.
She nudged the door open with her foot and then ducked back immediately at the sound of a gun firing.
The bullets slammed into the wall opposite the door.
Not giving herself time to think, Hallie ducked and rolled through the open doorway, coming back up to her feet with her gun held ready and firing at once when she saw the dark shadow between her and the window.
Glass shattered, oddly loud after the gunshots.
There was a scented candle burning in her room, caged in fine metalwork.
It was almost at the end, sputtering slightly in the safety of its holder, but still giving a little bit of light.
Enough for Hallie to see that the other person was clad head to toe in black, like the ones she’d met downstairs, and was pointing their gun at her.
She threw herself sideways, diving across the impressive width of the bed and onto the floor on the other side, rolling again as she met the floor and coming back to her feet closer to her attacker.
As her attacker brought their weapon around to aim at her, Hallie charged forwards, leading with her shoulder, hitting their midsection before they were able to fire.
The point of her shoulder hit the unmistakable wall of body armour under the black cloth and she changed tactics, holstering her gun in a smooth move and grabbing hold of the attacker’s wrist, twisting their arm so that they dropped the gun.
They made a low, soft sound of pain but didn’t stay still, countering Hallie’s move by snaking their free arm around Hallie’s neck and pulling so that she was pressed back into the body of her attacker.
Hallie kicked back, lifting her heel as high as she could, aiming between the attacker’s legs.
She was rewarded by another sound of pain and a slight loosening of the grip around her neck.
She grabbed hold of the attacker’s forearm with both hands and pushed out, using the extra strength of her hochlen nature, enough to loosen the hold so she could wriggle free.
She reached for her gun again, wielding it like a club and aiming for the knitted covering over the attacker’s head and hair.
There was no body armour there. The gun hit the cloth with a sickening crunch and the attacker staggered back, tumbling to the floor.
Remembering the other weapons that the ones downstairs had carried, Hallie aimed her gun at the fallen figure, waiting for them to regroup and get back to their feet.
When they stayed down, she nudged the nearest boot with her foot.
The attacker moved, lunging forward, trying to grab Hallie’s leg.
She made an undignified squeal of surprise and jumped back, firing into the centre mass.
Despite the body armour, she knew a bullet at this range would hurt.
“Stay down,” Hallie ordered, making her voice as firm as she could while her heart thudded in her ears and her lungs were working with short, hard breaths.
“I don’t want to kill you. Do you understand me?
” A sinking feeling took hold as she asked that.
She’d never had to deal with different languages in low city.
The attacker muttered something under their breath and then said something rude about Hallie’s parentage, in accented but understandable common tongue, which told Hallie two things.
First, she was dealing with another man and second, he’d understood her, which took care of one potential problem at least. She was still left with the task of containing her attacker so he couldn’t hurt her or, worse, get free and find Girard, who was in no position to defend himself.
“Stay down,” Hallie said again, worry for Girard giving her voice a hard edge.
She took one hand off her gun, searching at her back for her flexi-cuffs, only to remember that she’d used them on the living attacker downstairs.
Muttering a curse of her own, she cast an eye around the room, looking for something else she could use to tie the man up.
Her gaze landed on the tie-backs for the drapes over the window.
Flexi-cuffs, or rope, would be better, but the ties were better than nothing.
At her hip the zauber stirred. If the artefact had possessed a throat, it would have cleared it in an almost deferential way.
Can you do something with the ties to make sure he can’t escape? - Hallie asked the zauber. The wordless reply she got was the equivalent of a teenager rolling their eyes as if she’d asked them to do the most mundane and boring task in the world. Fine. Do that.
Hallie grabbed the ties from the curtains and holstered her gun again, approaching the prone figure. She was surprised when he didn’t move, and then felt the current of power emanating from the zauber. It seemed that the artefact had decided to help. Very useful, thank you - Hallie told it.
With the zauber’s help, it took little time to tie up the attacker.
Removing his head covering revealed a mass of blood which made her grimace, along with pale skin and dark blond hair.
It seemed that all the attackers were not locals.
That was interesting. A quick search of his person and she found another gun and a single knife, stowing them in the small safe in the walk-in wardrobe.
The attacker didn’t stir, or even open his eyes as she moved past him.
Conscious that she still had two more rooms to go, Hallie left him lying on the floor, in darkness scented with jasmine, as the candle had finally died, and headed out into the corridor again.
To her great relief, the rest of the floor was empty. She came back to the top of the stairs and started down, then remembered that she still had the director connected on her mobile. She pulled the phone out of her pocket as she reached the ground floor.
“House is clear. Three attackers in total. One dead, two are tied up,” she said into the phone.
There was a long pause, long enough that she wondered if the line had been disconnected, checking the timer running at the top of the screen and seeing that the call was still in progress.
The time elapsed gave her a jolt. Not even a quarter of an hour.
Not nearly enough for everything she’d been through.
“That’s good news. Well done.” Peredur’s voice echoed at the other end of the line, as though he was on speaker phone as well. “I’m arranging for backup for you. It might be a little while, but you’ll have friendly company as soon as possible.”