CHAPTER TWELVE
He showers and then sleeps for a while.
Three hours is plenty.
When he wakes, all the memories of last night return, demanding organisation. Kade usually works out in the mornings, but today he skips it entirely. Instead, he downs a handful of painkillers and sits through an examination from the medic, wincing while his inner ears are checked.
‘Healing fast, like always,’ the man proclaims. ‘So.’
‘So?’
‘Is he a Brightling like they’re saying?’
Kade sighs.
The whole Tower is abuzz with rumours about the demon man who broke in despite all the security measures, the Brightling, the devil himself.
‘He’s just a man.’
‘Just a man who faced you and lived?’ the medic asks doubtfully, brow lifting as he finishes the last of his checks.
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Apparently so. All right. No strain on the stomach, no loud music for a few weeks. I’d say take it easy but we both know you won’t.’
Kade gives a shallow smile. ‘Correct.’
Before he leaves, Kade goes down to the Cold Room to look over the bodies himself.
Nothing invasive. He just needs to see them before they’re gone.
Kade apologises quietly to each of them, feeling the weight of every loss.
Out of the eighteen people Lachlan Tanner killed, thirteen died from near-perfect shots to the head.
The others took centre-mass rounds to the chest.
Clean. Efficient. Controlled.
Gage is the hardest to look at, mostly because Kade knows what the loss is going to do to Seth, who he goes to check on immediately afterwards.
He finds him in the training room, sparring.
Excellent choice, exactly what Kade would recommend.
Burn it out.
‘Hey, can I join?’
Seth shrugs.
Kade picks up the pads.
?
Coffee in hand, Kade goes to the Watch to speak with Finn and Cole.
Unsurprisingly, the boys have compiled individual theories about Tanner, as well as a more rounded file on him that Kade takes and scans.
He knows that fucker will be back today.
‘OK.’ Kade looks at Finn. ‘Give me your best.’
‘I think he’s a Brightling,’ Finn says while Cole rolls his eyes. ‘I think what he can do represents a major evolutionary leap within the Brightling phenotype, and we need to study it.’
‘He’s nothing like the government profile of a Brightling.’
‘Oh well, if the government says it, we should obviously trust that completely,’ Finn says flatly, sarcasm dripping from every word while Cole bristles beside him. ‘That profile is intentionally vague so when the panic finally peaks, they decide who burns.’
‘Stay on topic,’ Kade bids. ‘So you think magic?’
‘He’s a Brightling. I’m sure of it.’
‘Why have we never heard about anything like this then?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Cole? What’s your working theory?’
‘I think,’ Cole says, ‘that he’s utilising some kind of highly advanced body armour we can’t detect. I think it shielded him from heat seekers and camouflaged him in the tunnels, and I also think it’s capable of producing something similar to an EMP on a smaller, localised scale.’
‘Body armour?’
‘Like a second skin. We’ve seen prototypes close to it already, and the best engineers are always years ahead of what they release publicly.’
Finn shakes his head. ‘Armour doesn’t explain the double hole in his boot. That was through and through penetration.’
‘We would need to run tests, but that is my working theory.’
‘I agree we should test him,’ Finn says.
They both look at Kade. ‘What?’
‘Maybe you could ask?’ Cole suggests lightly.
‘Why me?’
Between the two, they have enough tact not to answer, but it rankles anyway. ‘I want to know who his friend is.’
‘We’re trying to compile a list of associates, but he covered his tracks well.’
‘He mentioned a woman.’
Finn asks, ‘You think it’s Céliane? There’s no word of Last Light.’
‘All the more reason to think she might be in town,’ Kade says, offhand. ‘How’s reparations?’
‘We’re already back up in most areas, just some externals that need work but we’re solid overall.’
‘Good. You two should sleep soon.’
‘Later,’ Cole says, already back to work.
Riley walks out, dressed for the new day.
‘Morning, boss,’ Kade greets, watching him carefully.
‘Kade,’ is all the greeting he gets in turn, fairly standard. No one hates mornings more than Riley Harker. ‘Boys,’ Riley directs to Finn and Cole, ‘No more wasting time on the weirdo. He poked a lot of holes in our Tower. We need to prevent anyone doing the same.’
‘Wait, what do you mean?’
‘I mean don’t waste time on him.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Kade blurts out, looking between them. The look he gets from Riley is a flat warning. Kade rolls his eyes only slightly, back teeth grinding together for one indulgent moment. ‘Sorry, boss.’
‘You should be running drills.’
‘The teams are on it.’
‘Then what do I need you for?’
‘To protect you.’
‘Hard to do that when you’re playing your own games.’
‘I’m not—’
‘Uh, sorry to interrupt,’ Finn says, ‘but he’s at the gate.’
Riley stares at the screen. Kade’s pulse jumps.
In broad daylight, there he is.
Lachlan Tanner.
He’s in surprisingly normal clothes.
Jeans, sneakers, a hoodie, his dark hair tied up.
No backpack, no visible belongings.
Kade still remembers the photograph.
It’s branded into him.
‘Well,’ Riley says, tone dry, gaze fixed on the screen. ‘Nice of him to use the front entrance this time.’
Cole asks, ‘What do you wanna do, boss?’
Riley looks at his bodyguard. ‘I don’t think he’s here for me.’
‘I didn’t invite him here.’ Something about Riley’s attitude today is deeply irritating. ‘It’s not my fault he thinks I’m someone else.’
Lachlan isn’t pressing the gate buzzer; he’s just waiting there.
Kade stares.
I’m your psychopath, Jules.
‘If you ask,’ Cole points out, typing still, meanwhile, on-screen, Lachlan turns to rest his back against the gate like he’s settling in to wait, ‘I bet he’d submit to testing.’
‘Not my decision.’
Riley looks at the screen. He’s considering.
‘Bring him in, make him play nice,’ Riley says, pushing away from the console. ‘I want him where we can keep an eye on him and if you tell him to, he’ll behave.’
‘Behave? This fucker killed eighteen of our people.’
‘Believe it or not, Kade, I’m aware of that.’
Riley heads back upstairs towards his room, but Kade follows him this time, leaves his coffee in the Watch.
Thirteen steps lead up into the suite. The entrance is permanently open; no door fitted into the frame, and above it a reinforced hatch leads onto the roof.
Riley’s bedroom is completely windowless and there’s almost nothing inside.
A heavy reinforced bed covered in black silk.
A wardrobe, a chest of drawers by the bed and a single bookshelf holding battered adventure novels and an old atlas whose spine is crumbling.
No TV. No screens. At the back of the room is the door to the en-suite bathroom.
There are only two rooms at the top of the Tower and they’re both Riley’s.
Kade hates that this is where Riley chooses to live. Every time he steps inside this concrete box, he feels vaguely nauseous, can’t wait to get out.
‘You can’t talk to me like that, even just in front of the boys.’
‘Riley, please, why are you—?’
‘He’s here for you,’ Riley cuts across, pulling on his gun straps before slipping into a jacket. ‘He’ll do whatever you say.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Am I wrong?’
‘We don’t know anything about him. This could be a play. It could be Sorrenko stepping it up. It could be—’
‘If you ask nicely, he’ll submit to testing.’
‘I thought you didn’t want the boys doing research on him.’
‘I don’t need his background. I want to know how he achieved this.’
‘Do you know him?’
‘He’s never seen me before.’
‘That’s not what I asked.’
‘You’re the one he wants.’
‘I’ve never seen this guy before in my life! It’s not my fault he’s displacing his trauma onto me or whatever the fuck! I know you’re still mad that I left my post to go down and meet him head on but something was off about him from the start and I knew he was gonna make it up here. I just wanted—’
‘You wanted a good fight.’
‘I wanted to keep you safe.’
‘Whatever you say. Get him to submit to the tests.’
‘What kind of tests?’
‘The boys know what to do. Meanwhile, get the truth out of him about the ritual. As much detail as you can.’
‘Maybe I should ask you what the truth is.’
Riley holds his gaze easily. ‘Go on then.’
‘Is any of the stuff he’s saying true?’
‘He was the bodyguard who went down for the deaths of the Penhalyx kids.’
‘And you’re positive I’m not this Jules?’
Riley says, ‘Jules Penhalyx is dead.’
Kade’s anger rises hard enough to crest, but there’s nowhere for it to go. He swallows it back down; lets it burn through him rather than saying something catastrophically stupid and make things worse.
‘Fine,’ he bites out. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You need to work that anger out,’ Riley tells him, selecting a pair of shades. ‘It’s not useful to either of us.’
‘Are you going out?’
‘Yeah.’
Kade’s heart leaps. Riley hardly ever leaves the Tower.
‘I should go with—’
‘I want you here with him.’
‘What?’ Oh, that hurts. ‘Why?’
‘Because he’s an enormous threat and you’re my best.’
‘I’m your bodyguard.’
‘And I’m your boss. Your place is in the Tower.’
‘I’m sorry, Riley,’ he says louder, means it now, can’t bear the thought of Riley leaving the Tower, unprotected, alone, without Kade. ‘Please.’
Riley catches Kade’s face in one hand, cool blue eyes studying him closely. ‘We’re not joined at the hip. I need you here with him while I’m out. You’re the one I trust.’
‘But—’ Kade bites it back. ‘OK, no problem. I’m sorry.’
‘I’ll be back before sundown.’
‘Heard.’
?
Kade walks out into the cool sunshine to greet the intruder, who’s waiting very patiently by the gate. Lachlan has shades on, facing towards the sun like he’s catching tan. He seems entirely at ease, relaxed even. Kade is anything but.
‘Hey, you,’ Kade says, aggressively.
‘Hey, you,’ Lachlan says, affectionately.
‘Why are you here?’
‘Where else would I be?’
‘Literally anywhere else on earth.’
‘Wanna hang out?’
Kade scowls, the pair divided by the bars of the gate. ‘You killed—’