CHAPTER THREE #2
It’s only when he’s out of the room that he takes several deep breaths.
Luca is right there, hand on his shoulder. ‘You OK?’
‘Fine.’ Kade nods briskly, glances at the control panel. ‘Drown him.’
?
Kade returns to the Watch so he can monitor Riley’s conversation with Lachlan after they swap over. By the time he gets up there, the Drowner is fully flooded. ‘Drain it,’ he tells Cole, who controls it remotely.
The water drains fast.
Lachlan’s body chokes the water out from his lungs even faster.
The process looks painful, but Kade doesn’t care, too shaken by all he’s seen and heard. It’s not remotely surprising that drowning doesn’t kill him if bullets to the face didn’t. Unnerving, but not surprising.
Neither Cole nor Finn express their well-hidden fascination, nor do they voice any theories for which Kade is grateful. He watches the monitors in silence as Riley tells his escort to wait outside and then goes inside to speak with Lachlan.
The sun will rise in a couple of hours.
Kade needs to sleep, but he has to see this first. Among the numerous things Lachlan mentioned, “Harker” sticks out in Kade’s mind.
‘Volume up,’ he tells Finn.
Riley closes the door behind him, which locks heavily. Kade wishes he hadn’t done that but knows Riley’s predilection for privacy.
‘So,’ he says in open-ended greeting to Lachlan. ‘You wanted me, I’m here.’
Kade leans closer. ‘Zoom in a bit.’
Lachlan shakes his head, vaguely nonplussed. ‘Who the fuck are you?’
‘Heard you were asking for me.’
Lachlan peers at Riley. ‘You’re his son?’
‘I’m nobody’s son.’
‘You’re Troy Harker’s boy, aren’t you? The psycho.’
Riley remains unfazed. ‘And you’re Lachlan James Tanner.’
‘Where is Troy Harker?’
‘Lachlan James Tanner enlisted at seventeen with his mother’s written consent.
He was pulled out of infantry and moved into special operations early.
Resolution Branch. Then, when honourably discharged, he transitioned into private security at twenty-three.
Landed a five-year contract as primary bodyguard to the son of Alistair Penhalyx soon after.
Full neutralisation authority. That contract never made it to renewal, though, did it? ’
‘How do you know about RB?’
‘It’s in your file.’
‘That would never be in my file. Where is Troy?’
‘Your attempt to extract the Penhalyx kids from a kidnap scenario was unauthorised and when combat escalated, two bodies were recovered. You had a good lawyer, so it landed on manslaughter. You caught fourteen, served seven. Psych profile flags a dissociative calm under lethal stress, survivor’s wiring formed early by childhood instability.
Compartmentalisation, emotional minimalism, and an unshakable drive to complete objectives regardless of personal cost. All in all,’ Riley says, reciting from memory because there’s nothing in his hands, ‘the perfect cocktail for a bodyguard.’
Lachlan stares. ‘Apparently not.’
‘So, you’re fresh out and you decide you want a little payback.’
‘There’s nothing little about it. Where is Troy Harker?’
‘He’s dead.’
That seems to genuinely disappoint Lachlan. ‘Who got him?’
Riley doesn’t answer that. ‘Who knows about you being here?’
‘Who killed Troy Harker?’
‘Are you working alone?’
‘You know, you’re barely older than Jules. Your crew’s young.’ He seems to be studying Riley. ‘Did you kill him? Clean house, fresh start, that it?’
‘Is someone funding you?’
‘Oh, you did, huh? Well.’ Lachlan sighs. ‘That complicates things.’
‘Does anybody else know about you coming here?’
‘I work alone.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Someone else knows about you coming here.’
Lachlan shrugs. ‘An old friend.’
‘Penhalyx?’
‘No.’
That seems to satisfy Riley. ‘Tell me about the ritual.’
‘Why?’
Kade listens carefully.
Riley tips his head, calculating. ‘Would you like to speak to Kade again?’
Lachlan sneers. ‘Congrats on finding the carrot, kid.’
‘Would you?’
‘What I would like is for you to let him go.’
‘Let him go?’ Riley echoes with faint amusement.
‘Yes.’
‘You mean fire him?’
‘I mean release him. You’ve done it well. I give you that. Indoctrinated him, fucking Stockholmed him so hard he doesn’t even realise it. If you let him go, I’ll get you whatever you want.’
‘What,’ Riley asks softly, ‘do you imagine I want?’
‘Money. Power. Just name it.’
‘I don’t desire that which I already have,’ he answers plainly. ‘Kade is family.’
‘No, your fucking father stole him then executed him and his sister in front of me. I don’t know what went down after. I don’t know how you hid him, but you did a good job. All identifying marks changed, even his dental records won’t match. I only want you to release him.’
‘All right,’ Riley answers, glancing up at the camera. ‘Kade, you’re fired.’
Kade grips the edge of the console tightly. ‘Very fucking funny.’
‘Now, here’s what’ll happen next,’ Riley explains to Lachlan, starting to circle him.
‘Kade’s gonna tell me that’s hilarious, then he’ll tell me to go fuck myself, he’s not going anywhere.
I might push harder, maybe even kick him out of the Tower.
He’ll find a way back in because he helped design the place.
Kade is my best. He’ll do whatever he has to until he’s standing in front of me to say again, a little louder, go fuck yourself, Riley Harker, and then he’ll probably shower and take a nap because this is his home.
We’re family. I can’t let him go when he has free will. ’
‘So he goes out a lot then?’
Riley is studying him as he circles. ‘What’s this tattoo?’
‘You let him out to go wherever he likes?’
‘He’s my bodyguard. He stays with me.’
‘He didn’t, though, did he? He left his post, came to head me off.
‘The ink looks fresh, but it’s too deep to be new.’
‘He’s gonna figure out what you did, and that you hid it from him.’