Chapter 23
Chapter twenty-three
Hallie woke to an annoying buzzing sound, completely different to her normal phone ringtone. With a start, she sat up in bed and reached for the unregistered phone that Zurine had given her the day before.
“Hi, this is Hallie,” she answered, voice a little rough from sleep.
“It’s Zurine.” The sound was clear although Hallie could hear a faint echo at the other end of the line. “Did I wake you?”
“It’s alright. It was a late night,” Hallie said, and got out of bed, heading for the living area and her notebooks.
“I will send you a text in a moment but I wanted to call first.” There was a pause and Hallie waited, sensing that the other woman was not done. “What I have found troubles me.”
“In what way?” Hallie asked, completely awake and alert now.
“There are some serious players involved in this. Serious. Findo is not the only one. Please take great care when you approach him. He is well protected and guarded.” Even through the phone line, Hallie could hear Zurine’s own fear and feel the honesty in her words.
“Thank you for the warning. I will take it to heart,” Hallie said, a chill running across her skin.
“See that you do. As well as Findo Trask’s location, I have also learned that an individual by the name of Russet Welliver entered the port at Daydawn in the past few days. This name will not mean anything to you, but it will be known to those you work for.”
“Thank you for that extra information. I will pass it along,” Hallie said. She hesitated, thinking over what Zurine had said and not said, and then asked. “Are you safe?”
“As safe as I can possibly be,” Zurine answered. “It has been an interesting experience encountering you, Hallie Talbot. I wish you well.”
Before Hallie could form an answer, the line went dead. Hallie didn’t bother to try to reconnect the call. Zurine would not answer.
After a breath, the phone in her hand buzzed and a text message appeared with an address that made Hallie’s brows shoot up. Findo Trask was in Daydawn. And not just Daydawn, but in midtown, if Hallie’s memory of streets was correct.
She went back to her room to pick up her own phone and called Girard.
“Zurine Halinburn just called with Findo’s location and some more information.
She was very clear that he’s with some dangerous people, so I think we need the tactical team.
Meet you out front in ten minutes?” she said as soon as he answered the phone, sounding just as groggy as she had when Zurine had called.
“Ten minutes. Got it,” Girard said, and hung up.
Not much later, Hallie was in the crowded conference room at the investigators’ offices.
It was full not only with the files, papers, and photographs that the investigation team had gathered, but also now with people.
As well as her and Girard, there was a quartet of heavily armed tactical team members, the director, and a handful of other investigators.
So far all Hallie had been able to say was that Zurine had given her an address where they might find Findo Trask and that it would be dangerous.
At that point the director had summoned everyone else and pulled out a large map of the relevant section of midtown, spreading it across one end of the table ready for when the tac team arrived.
He’d been so focused on that that Hallie had not been able to bring up the other information Zurine had given her.
Right now, Yasir Rojas and Frollo were bent over the map with the director, talking fast about entrance and egress, strategies for containment, points that might be rigged with traps and points where they might be ambushed if they went in to get Findo Trask.
The address that Zurine had provided was the far end of a residential street with only one vehicle access in or out, although Hallie could easily spot a few ways that a determined person might get out of the house and away across the garden fence or through the neighbouring properties.
That possibility had definitely occurred to both the commander and the director.
They’d floated the idea of waiting until darkness to go in and get Findo, but with the Conclave having its opening session in the afternoon, they decided they could not afford to wait.
In the middle of their discussions, Jasper was also setting up the big screen at one end of the room for an overhead view of the area and whatever photographs they had from street level.
The street was in an upscale neighbourhood of detached houses with large gardens all set back from the road and screened with hedges and trees. The sort of place where a veondken like Findo would stand out but no one would say anything as they were too concerned about their own business.
From Hallie’s perspective it was reassuring that the tactical team were taking such good care and being so thorough in their preparation.
It was also quite unsettling to realise just how much information they had been able to access so quickly and easily about midtown’s streets.
She couldn’t help but wonder just what else the hochlen had in their databases.
“Quite a few hochlen live in midtown,” Girard said quietly, perhaps seeing her eyes fixed on the screen and the images Jasper was flicking through. “So we have good information about it. We’re all but blind in low city.”
“That makes sense.” Hallie’s worry faded a little.
“Is everything alright?” Girard asked.
“Findo’s address wasn’t the only thing Zurine told me,” Hallie said, keeping her voice quiet. “I don’t want to interrupt the planning, though.”
“Well, tell me, and I might be able to make a call on that?” Girard suggested.
“Alright. She said that someone by the name of Russet Welliver was in Daydawn. Entered the port at Daydawn a few days ago,” Hallie said, trying to stay as close to Zurine’s words as she could.
Girard sucked in a breath and took a step forward. “Sir,” he said, voice loud enough to draw every eye in the room to him. “Zurine had more information for Hallie, and you need to hear it before going any further.”
“What is it?” the director asked, irritation making his voice sharp. He looked as if he hadn’t had much sleep.
Hallie repeated what Zurine had told her.
“Russet Welliver,” the director said, still with that edge to his voice, shoulders bowing as if under an incredible weight. “You’re sure?”
“That’s the name, yes, sir. She said you would know it.” Hallie looked around the room and saw by the very grim expressions on everyone’s faces that everyone apart from her knew the name.
“She’s right. Jasper, call up his file,” Peredur ordered.
“Sir.” A moment later and a man’s face appeared on the big screen, taking up half the space with the rest filled with text.
Hallie ignored the text for now, focusing on the face, which she had seen before.
At least once. She half-closed her eyes, trying to remember where she had seen those features.
“I recognise him,” Hallie said.
“What?” the director turned on her. “Where? Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“In Minamaan,” Hallie said, trying to hold her ground under the glares from everyone in the room.
“I saw him a couple of times at the market, when Girard and I were following Manju. I remembered him because he wasn’t local and stood out.
Like us. And then again here. Low city. He was in the crowd that gathered on the street after the raid at Zurine’s shop.
At least, I think it was him. I just caught a glimpse. ”
“You didn’t see him?” Peredur turned his glare to Girard.
“No, sir. I was still inside when Hallie left Zurine’s shop.
And in Minamaan, Hallie and I split up a few times to cover more ground, and to pen Manju Nayak in.
I would have recognised Welliver if I’d seen him,” Girard said.
“And we haven’t given Hallie our gallery of the most wanted so she couldn’t have known she needed to flag him. ”
“That’s true enough,” the director said, sighing. He turned to Jasper. “Get Miss Talbot and Abbott copies of the IDs for all Welliver’s known associates.” He turned back to Hallie and Girard. “You need to let me know if you’ve seen any of the others on your travels.”
“Of course, sir,” Girard said.
“Most wanted?” Hallie asked Girard, wondering what she might have missed.
“We have a database of well-known criminals that we would like to apprehend,” Girard told her. “All of us have images of them on our devices. But we didn’t think to provide you with one.”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” Peredur said, which both surprised and impressed Hallie.
Surprised because she hadn’t expected an apology at all.
And impressed because, despite the deep shadows under his eyes and the weariness Hallie could see as an almost physical presence weighing on his shoulders, he had still made a point of apologising.
It fit with what she knew of him. This was a man who valued his people.
“It’s no problem, sir, but thank you,” Hallie said, wishing she could find better words to let him know how much she appreciated it.
She accepted a tablet from Jasper and turned her attention to the screen, flicking through the photographs and saw that Girard was doing the same on his tablet.
“Oh, yes, him, too,” she said after a moment.
She turned the screen around so that the others could see.
“I recognise him, but I can’t remember from where.
He wasn’t with the other one. Russet. He was with other people.
Give me a moment.” She stared down at the image, half-closing her eyes.
“Oh, now I’ve got it. He was on Paradise.
He was one of the people loading the boat.
The one that Findo took off with.” She turned back to the screen and finished flicking through the pictures.
“No, not anyone else. Just Welliver and that other one.”