CHAPTER THREE
Lachlan Tanner cuffs himself before shuffling inside the body bag and zipping it up at the top. He then lies there on the floor, quiet and compliant.
Riley unlocks the bars.
Kade, Luca and Mara move in. With guns trained carefully on him the entire time, they check he’s secure. Mara locks the zip at the top and then two others bring in a body box from the Cold Room.
‘You’re going inside now,’ Kade tells him. ‘Remember our deal.’
‘I remember,’ the muffled voice assures him.
Kade and his team keep their guns trained on the box the whole journey to the basement. There are four rooms used for holding. People are already working on fixing the hatch and securing everything. The tunnels are locked up tight. The Mesh is still down in various places.
‘In here,’ Kade directs.
The Drowner.
Dark composite walls, seamless and pressure-sealed, lit by submerged ceiling strips bleeding thin blue light through reinforced glass.
The floor slopes gently toward a central drain.
Recessed nozzles sit dormant overhead. The air smells of metal, stone and machinery.
The acoustics are dense. A fixed chair sits at the centre, bolted to the floor.
It’s a holding room, yes, but it’s also an interrogation room. A really fucking effective one.
They rest the metal box upright against the wall. ‘We’re removing you now,’ Kade informs Tanner. ‘If you want to talk to—’
‘I already agreed,’ he interrupts Kade. ‘Just get me out.’
Kade steps back, gun in hand. Luca mirrors him. ‘Do it.’
They manoeuvre Tanner out of the box and into the chair where they strap him down. He allows it all, passively neutral but for the way he never once takes his eyes off of Kade.
He is, Kade decides, sharp, intelligent and objectively attractive.
Kade was told his own age by his boss. He has no memory of birthdays before waking up here, a member of the Iron Star family without memory of anything before. He’s twenty-seven years old.
The intruder seems to be in his early thirties.
‘He’s secure,’ Mara informs him.
Kade nods. ‘Give us the room.’
They all leave, closing the heavy door behind them.
Riley is safely supervising from up in the Watch.
Kade is taking the lead.
Lachlan Tanner looks around. ‘What’s this?’
‘We call it the Drowner.’
A weird little smile crosses his face. ‘Of course you do.’
‘I’m going to ask you questions now, Tanner.’
‘Lachlan. I need to ask you questions too, though.’
‘Why don’t we trade, then? One for one.’
‘Sounds good.’
Kade has no intention of giving this fucker information, but he’s good at evading questioning. Luca calls him slippery.
‘I’ll start,’ Kade says. ‘Why did you come here?’
‘To enact justice for what happened seven years ago.’
‘What happened seven—?’
‘My turn.’ Kade falls quiet, allows it. Lachlan is watching him like a hawk. ‘Do you have a memory gap?’
‘I’ve lost time from a knock, yeah.’
‘No, not a few days from a minor head injury. Answer my question. Do you have a memory gap, yes or no?’
The decisive authority in his voice sends something cold and warm running down Kade’s spine, twin sensations that render him briefly confused. ‘Yes, I do. What happened seven years ago?’
‘Jules and Mimi Penhalyx were kidnapped and ransomed by Iron Star. The rescue attempt backfired. Both were killed. Their bodyguard went to prison for manslaughter.’
Kade narrows his eyes. ‘You were the bodyguard?’
‘I was.’
‘How long did you serve?’
‘Seven years.’
‘Wait, you think I’m—?’
‘My turn, Kade.’ The use of the name feels weirdly personal. ‘Tell me your earliest memory.’
‘That’s not your business.’
‘You are my business.’
‘No.’
‘Then you’ll never know how I survived all those excellent headshots.’
Kade grits his teeth.
‘My earliest memory is my boss helping me recover from a serious injury.’
‘Head injury?’
‘My turn. How are you still alive?’
Lachlan gives an insolent smile. ‘Magic.’
‘Are you some kind of jacked-up Paranatural? Explain—’
‘Do you have dreams about things you don’t remember?’
‘I dream of sharks swimming up to me while I’m standing on the sidewalk.’
Rather than seeming pissed off at the non-response, Lachlan says, ‘Sharks signify betrayal and hidden danger, so I’m not surprised.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Someone taught me dream meanings once.’
‘Explain to me how you survived. Explain what I saw.’
‘There was a ritual I performed that gives me protection until my task is fulfilled. It is,’ Lachlan declares flatly, holding Kade’s disbelieving stare, ‘quite literally magic.’ Kade wants to ask what task he’s set on fulfilling but knows now to wait his turn. ‘Tell me about your family.’
‘Iron Star is my family. No parents, no siblings, no one but the people you came to kill.’ Lachlan makes a face like he wants to say something nasty, but Kade is too quick. ‘What task did you come to fulfil?’
‘I told you. Killing everyone involved in what happened seven years ago. It was Iron Star who took you and Mimi. I saw Harker put a bullet in her and then you. I was too slow. I...’ Lachlan swallows, trails off and doesn’t finish.
‘Why did you go down for it?’
‘Iron Star had resources then as I’m sure they still do now.
Harker was a skilled suppressor. Unbeaten at managing overflow, as the old man called it.
I served half of a fourteen-year sentence and for each of those years, I swore revenge for what they did to you both.
’ He looks around. ‘How much of this place did you design yourself? It was nothing like this the last time I saw it.’
‘A fair amount.’
‘How long did it—?’
‘Prove what you’re saying.’
Lachlan inclines his head. ‘I can prove it easily.’
‘Do it then. Prove to me that this is real.’
‘You have a crescent moon tattoo on your wrist.’
‘Wrong.’ He shows Lachlan the Iron Star ink.
Lachlan frowns. ‘All right. You have a…’ He clears his throat. ‘A small scar shaped like a rose on your inner thigh. Left side, very high.’
‘How small?’
‘Two inches.’
‘Wrong.’
‘I’m not wrong.’
‘There is a scar on my thigh, but not like that.’
‘You can quibble about shape if you—’
‘It’s a burn scar. At least ten inches square.’
A dent forms between dark grey eyes. ‘He’s removed your identifying marks,’ Lachlan mutters under his breath. ‘Oh my God. He’s literally made you unidentifiable. Did he change your teeth too?’
‘No one changed my teeth.’
‘I bet you’ve lost a couple though.’
‘Everyone worth their salt loses a back molar.’ Kade takes his turn with the questions. ‘What’s this tattoo on your chest?’
‘It’s from the ritual,’ Lachlan answers. ‘Are you still allergic to strawberries?’
‘I…’ Kade freezes up, thrown. ‘I am allergic, yes.’
‘And what about—?’
‘How old am I?’
‘You were seventeen when I met you. Twenty when I lost you, so twenty-seven now. Twenty-eight in November.’
Kade blinks softly. ‘November?’
‘Yeah. Why, did you not know?’
Riley had always said it was January fourteenth. ‘What date?’
‘The eleventh of November.’
Kade sets it aside. ‘How did I get the thigh scar?’
‘The rose? You got it on your nineteenth birthday. We had to keep it a secret from your father. I was the one who stitched it.’
‘Why did you need to keep it a—?’
‘Does Harker lock you up in here?’
‘I’m First Captain and his bodyguard. My place is in the Tower.’
‘Answer my question.’
‘I just did. How old are you?’
‘Thirty-four.’
‘Bodyguard in your twenties is kind of young.’
‘That’s exactly why Penhalyx hired me,’ Lachlan intones dryly. ‘I was just young and stupid enough to sign the contract, and I wasn’t the first choice, anyway. Plenty came before me. You had a tendency to go through them back then. Are your fingerprints burned off?’
‘Industry standard. How did you know about the Touchtrail?’
Lachlan’s expression softens. ‘The Starmap.’
‘What?’
‘That’s what you called it before.’
‘I’ve never called it that and how did you know it was there?’
‘The deeper I made it through your tunnels, the more I started to think we had a friend in common. The Starmap was a guess, but I should have known then that it was you.’
‘Why?’
‘You designed it for the Estate. Little stars and guidance marks carved into the lower walls for you and Mimi to find your way safely in the dark in case of emergencies. You called it the Starmap.’
‘Bullshit.’
Lachlan sighs, looking around. ‘I didn’t see it before.’
‘See what?’
‘That this is all you, isn’t it? This place was an old high rise before. Tough as nails but crude as fuck. The base, the tunnels, all your clever upgrades… we talked about building a place like this while we were on Sable Key. I think we have a very talented mutual friend.’
Kade wonders if he’s talking about Lee.
‘I don’t know what—’
‘The Ivy Wall was your invention.’
‘You mean the Vine Mesh?’
‘A series of fibre optics woven beneath laminate, creating seamless flow capture, a concept you invented, by the way. Yeah, that was all you. We called it the Ivy Wall. You said it was better than cameras in the corners like spiders.’
‘There’s no fucking way.’ Kade feels vaguely dizzy. ‘You’re wrong.’
‘I was only wrong about believing that you were dead.’
Staring at the walls, Kade slows his breathing, focuses on what’s real, what he can feel. Feet. Knees. Knuckles. Ears. Thirst.
He presses his thumb into the tattoo on his wrist.
‘I taught you that,’ Lachlan observes quietly.
‘What?’
‘Your wrist. It’s your Neiguan pressure point. You’d get sick and dizzy whenever you had an anxiety attack. I taught you how to press it for relief. You tattooed a small crescent moon there yourself years later, stick-and-poke.’
‘Liar.’
‘Do you still count the rings in a cut-down tree?’
Kade’s face goes warm. ‘Stop talking.’
Nothing in this room went the way he expected.
It’s like he’s the one drowning.
‘I’d know you anywhere,’ Lachlan whispers. ‘No matter the name.’
‘I’m leaving now.’ Kade swallows hard, turning away. ‘Boss’ll be in soon.’
‘Kade,’ Lachlan calls out softly when his hand touches the door.
‘What?’
‘I’m so sorry for letting you down.’
Jaw gritted tight, Kade doesn’t look back, doesn’t trust himself to speak.