Beyond Redemption (Thieves' Guild Origins: LC Book Two): A Fast Paced Scifi Action Adventure Novel
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“This isn’t what we are,” I said.
Hil shook his head. “You don’t know what I am.”
He had his shirtsleeves rolled down but I could still see the edge of the tattoo on his wrist. He saw me looking and pulled his sleeve down as he tucked one gun into the small of his back and picked up another.
“You want to know what it means?” he said, not looking at me, a set to his jaw.
I was guessing it was some kind of prison or gang tattoo. “Jem said you killed a cop.”
He didn’t deny it, taking his time to load the gun before he turned and looked at me, leaning back against the cupboard, the gun in his hand. “I didn’t know he was a cop. He was undercover. Just another guy who was beating the crap out of me.” He looked like he was trying to gauge my response, like he was expecting me to be shocked. “I didn’t exactly have anyone to vouch for my side of the story.”
“Mendhel got you out of it?”
He nodded. “Looked like he got you out of some shit too.”
It wasn’t a question but I said quietly, “He did.”
“And then they send us here…” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe the mess we were in, scratching at the dressing on his neck.
I couldn’t believe the mess we were in.
“I shouldn’t have left Jem,” he said vaguely.
“We didn’t have much choice.”
The rumbling of the DZs outside was getting louder.
I left the gun on the floor and went and opened the door a crack. It looked like the sun was setting, dusk moving in. They’d established a perimeter about a hundred metres out, auto-sentry guns, infantry in full-on powered armour, DZs swinging their turrets round to point at us in our little hut.
“I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I’m not sitting in here waiting for them to storm in and kill me.”
As I watched, the Commandant, McIntyre or whatever his real name was, climbed out of a jeep directly in front of us and stood there, hands on his hips, glowering, as his entourage buzzed around him, setting up mobile comms and ops like they were facing an enemy army.
I closed the door and turned to Hilyer.
“I’m not going to surrender.”
My stomach was cold as he said it. I looked down at the kid who was lying there, still unconscious. I didn’t know why they wanted the Emperor dead. It felt like we were caught up in stuff that was way bigger than we’d ever know.
Hil picked the gun up from the floor and threw it to me. “I don’t think you’ll get much chance to fire it.”
He came and stood next to me at the door.
“You ready?”
I nodded.
We flung the door open and ran out.
The wave of intense pressure that hit us was immense. I stopped in my tracks, skidding to a halt, aware that Hil was doing the same, both of us ducking instinctively, the hairs on the back of my neck bristling and my skin crawling.
All around the cordon surrounding us, there was the clatter of guns as the soldiers dropped their weapons, putting their hands in the air, the tanks powering down, the barrels of the auto-sentry guns flopping to point at the ground.
The Commandant was staring at me, eyes narrow, mouth taut.
I wanted to crawl back into the hut, flinching from the oppressive mass above us, but I glanced across at Hil, and we both looked up.
It was huge. Unbelievably huge and even more intimidating this close up. Silent. Big as a city block. Just hovering there. There was no downdraft, no heat, no noise, just this incredible feeling of mass so close it was worse than uncomfortable, it was painful.
Hil laughed. He spun around, arms flung out, head upturned, and yelled, “Holy shit.”
I backed away, throat so dry I couldn’t swallow and a pressure pushing against my chest so bad it was hard to breathe.
“How did it know we were here?” I mumbled.
Hil turned, a huge grin on his face. “Because I told her. You’re not the only one that can hack into a comms system.” He looked up and shouted, “Holy shit, Skye.” He made this overly theatrical gesture of shrugging as he looked back at me. “What the hell do we do now?”
I had no idea. We didn’t know how the guild operated. There’s something awesome about being valued. And knowing that I’d never be left behind is what kept me going. Too many times to count.
They came for us. Sienna was with the Security forces that landed, descending out of nowhere, supporting a bunch of extraction teams, and blitzing the place, sending the Spearhead contingent scattering. They pulled us out, told us the Emperor would be fine, and took us back to the Alsatia. We never really found out what happened once we’d been extracted. I heard someone say McIntyre got away. I don’t know what happened to Jem.
Sienna told me afterwards that they thought they’d lost us when we were taken from Redemption. We sat in the mess, way after everyone else had disappeared off to bed, and she gave me the biggest hug anyone ever has. I didn’t tell her about Arianne. I’ve never told anyone. And now Mendhel is gone, I guess none of it matters anyway.
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Luka closes his eyes and says quietly, “Incoming.”
I don’t know when I snuggled up next to him, but I have tight hold of his hand.
“They’re ours,” he says.
I don’t want to move but I look up to see Hil, followed by people I recognise, people I feel I know even though I’ve never met them, Sean O’Brien and Hal Duncan, all of them breathing heavily like they’ve been running, and not just running, worrying, beyond relieved to see us and to see that he’s still alive.
Just.
“I can’t stop the bleeding,” I say, feeling very small.
Hil offers me his hand. “Come with me.”
I let him lead me away as the others sit by Luka and start to fuss. I glance back over. Sean has her hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently, reassuring him as Duncan tries to patch him up. I can’t hear all of what they’re saying, but I catch mention of them needing NG, that something’s not right, and I know it’s bad.
I must be staring because Hil sits himself down in front of me, blocking my view of them, a grin on his face like he knows what I’m thinking.
“He’ll be fine,” he says and puts his gun on the floor between us, starting to strip it, laying out the pieces and wiping each one carefully.
It takes him a minute to look up. “What’s he been telling you this time?”
“Your first tab.”
“Ah,” he says. “You want to know what really happened?”
I nod, stupidly. I want to know everything.
“LC was a little shit. Seriously. But he was a runt of a kid when he turned up and he could do no wrong. He had these big puppy dog eyes and he’d pull this little face that made everyone melt. He got away with whatever shit he wanted.”
He pauses, adding a drop more oil to the gun’s mechanism.
I can’t help asking, “What about you?”
“Me? You want to know what he didn’t tell you? I didn’t hate him. It was the only way I knew I could keep him alive. He was naïve as hell. My orders were to watch his back, keep him out of trouble. He was just a kid after all. Hell, we both were. I figured the easiest and safest way to keep us both alive was simply to take over. I’d been in prison, I knew how it worked possibly better than anyone, so I became the daddy, the head honcho, the big kahuna…” He smiles. “If anyone in that prison had found out I was protecting him, we both would’ve been as good as dead. As it was, no one dared do anything unless I gave the order. He got roughed up a little but nothing to spoil those damn good looks of his.” This time Hil grins.
“He said you tried to leave.”
“He told you that, huh? Well he wasn’t lying, but the truth was way more complicated than that. But isn’t it always?” That quiet smile again. “I was running, Spacey, like I had been all my life. I always thought I was running towards something. Something bigger, better. But the truth was I was running awa
y. I’d always been running away. LC gave me a reason to stop running.”
I look at him, the unspoken question on my lips.
“The reason?” The grin is back but this time there’s a thoughtful look in his eyes. “He believed in me. He was the first person to actually believe in me. He didn’t want anything from me, he didn’t need anything from me.” He pauses again. “LC wears his heart on his sleeve. As much as he pretends to be cold and indifferent, he cares. Sometimes I think he cares too much. But that’s how we need him to be. He believes in all of us. You need to believe in him.”
I watch as he starts to reassemble the gun, leaning slightly to see if I can see Luka, see that he’s okay. Except he’s not. And from the look on Sean’s face, I don’t know if he’s going to be.
Hil looks up. “It was when we got back that things got really cool. Next time you’re caught behind enemy lines, you need to ask him about Temerity.”
Next time? I can’t help the shiver. “Are we clear now…? Are they gone?”
He glances back over towards the others and looks back at me, giving a small shake of his head.
“They won’t ever be gone, will they?” I say.
“No, they won’t. But, Spacey, what did LC tell you? In all of this… what was the one thing he told you that matters more than anything?”
I lift my chin defiantly. “That no one messes with the Thieves’ Guild.”
“Damn right,” he says. “Don’t forget that. Don’t ever forget that.”
•
Defying Winter (Thieves’ Guild Origins: LC Book Three) is due out in 2020…
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Also available from C.G. Hatton in paperback and eBook:
Residual Belligerence
(Thieves’ Guild Book One)
Read the first book FREE on Kindle
Blatant Disregard
(Thieves’ Guild Book Two)
Harsh Realities
(Thieves’ Guild Book Three)
Wilful Defiance
(Thieves’ Guild Book Four)
Darkest Fears
(Thieves’ Guild Book Five)
Arunday’s Convergence
(Thieves’ Guild Book Six)
•
Kheris Burning
(Thieves’ Guild Origins: LC Book One)
Beyond Redemption
(Thieves’ Guild Origins: LC Book Two)
Defying Winter
(Thieves’ Guild Origins: LC Book Three)
is due out in 2020
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