Hell and High Water

by Charlotte E. English

  ‘I’ve got people tailing Brianne but they’re bound to lose her soon. We have to get on that.’

  ‘Did she see you?’

  ‘Showed no sign of it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much. If you’re done with your little holiday, shall we go?’

  ‘I’m finished here.’

  ‘Yes? You get everything set up?’

  I nodded. ‘The waters will watch for me. Everything that goes on in here for the next twenty-four hours, I’ll know.’

  ‘Great, well. Better be worth this little adventure.’ Daix turned and walked out.

  I followed, at a safe distance. She had a point: getting myself snatched by Brianne had been a risky strategy, and one I’d had to conceal from Tai. She’d never have gone for it, and with reason enough; it could have turned out a lot worse. But we needed an edge in this putrid game, and I’d willingly taken the gamble. ‘Was it absolutely necessary to set yourself on fire?’ I said to Daix as we walked out of the big front doors.

  ‘High visibility. Figured I’d make it easy on you.’

  ‘Good of you. Oh, and by the way, I was betrayed.’

  ‘Oh?’ said Daix, letting her flames die back a bit. ‘By whom?’

  ‘One Rudy Mathis. Acquaintance of Tai’s. Some kind of metalhead with a nice guy complex and a crush on Brianne. And, I think, on Tai.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And, it took me a little too long to figure him out. If you’ve got your phone, better warn Tai. He might go after her.’

  Daix rolled her eyes, extracted a phone from her pocket, and punched a message into it with unnecessary force. ‘Amateurs,’ she muttered, shoving it back into her pocket.

  ‘I am justly chastised.’

  ‘I meant Rudy Mathis. What, some kind of idiot with a grudge? Is that what we’re dealing with now? I remember when criminals used to be professionals.’

  ‘I remember when we used to be professionals.’

  She was kind, if condescending enough to pat me on the shoulder. ‘Never mind Fi, you’ve still got me.’

  ‘And Tai, if she’ll forgive me for this stunt.’

  ‘Do we have to tell her?’

  ‘Of course we do.’

  ‘I’m just saying. Maybe we don’t have to tell her. I don’t remember signing any full disclosure agreements.’

  ‘Of course we have to tell her. It wouldn’t be right not to.’

  ‘It wasn’t right not to tell her before we pulled this “stunt.” What’s wrong with not telling her afterwards, either?’

  To my chagrin, her logic held up at least as well as mine did.

  I’m not even sure why I was so worried about telling Tai, either before or after. Daix I’d enlisted to my cause without a moment’s doubt — because I knew she’d be up for it, and I also knew she wouldn’t care about the risks, either to herself or to me.

  Tai would care. About the latter, if not the former. She’d been showing some mother hen tendencies, which I hoped would wear off given a little time, and (hopefully) a lack of Ravensbrück-level disasters. I could hardly tell her I was capable of looking after myself; hadn’t we all proved how spectacularly untrue that could sometimes be?

  Plus, I was a hypocrite. I was more worried about Tai out there alone than I’d ever used to be, back… before.

  We’d lost confidence in ourselves, and in each other. Hopefully, both of those things would improve with time.

  ‘So where are we?’ I said, when we reached the street. The darkness and general dereliction were no help to me in pinpointing our location, though the source of the unpleasant smells became clear: this was a fly-tipper’s paradise.

  ‘Old car factory,’ said Daix. ‘West Hendon Broadway.’

  The same place the auction was to take place on the morrow. That’s what I’d been hoping for, though the confirmation cost me a moment’s unease as well. Dumping me in there proved my fears about the ultimate goal: I was to be sold off at auction. I, or my pearls, or more likely both. I wondered how long it would take Brianne to realise she had stripped me of a fake set.

  I knew what to expect when I returned home. Before I’d left my flat, I’d hidden or removed anything I didn’t want a burglar to discover, though this didn’t include the sealskin they’d undoubtedly be looking for. I didn’t keep that at home. Or at the studio.

  ‘You were lucky, you know that?’ said Daix suddenly. ‘Hiding your real pearls on a string around your neck? Wouldn’t have taken a lot of searching to find them, hm?’

  ‘She thought me caught unawares,’ I said. ‘We’ve been retired so long, we’re civilians now, at least in her eyes. I was in no danger.’

  ‘Pride comes before a fall, as we’ve proved,’ said Daix, with unwonted seriousness. ‘What were you going to do if you were wrong about her?’

  ‘You mean Escape Plan B?’

  ‘Tell me you had an Escape Plan B. Please.’

  ‘Course I did.’ I smiled. ‘I didn’t hide all the pearls around my neck.’

  Daix stopped walking, and eyed me with deep suspicion. ‘Where else could you possibly have… oh.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Oh. Fi, that’s not right.’

  I shrugged. ‘I was pretty sure even Brianne wouldn’t search me that thoroughly.’

  Daix shook her head, and resumed walking. ‘I wouldn’t put it past her.’

  ‘That’s why I had Escape Plan C.’

  ‘And that was?’

  ‘You.’

  ‘Ha. And I thought I wasn’t allowed to burn the place down.’

  ‘Not today. Maybe tomorrow.’

  ‘I look forward to tomorrow.’

  ‘So these people you have on Brianne’s tail? Were we doing something with that?’

  ‘Oh. Right.’ Daix called somebody. I waited in silence.

  ‘Yep,’ she said, hanging up the phone again. ‘They lost her.’

  ‘You need better people.’

  Daix shrugged. ‘Would’ve been nice if you could’ve got some kind of tracking device onto her. You know they have things like that now?’

  ‘Handy, and I’d love it if you’d get hold of some. But I hadn’t the opportunity this time. Befuddled kidnapping victim, remember?’

  ‘Oh, did she drug you?’

  ‘Heavily.’

  ‘Bitch.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Fi, that does mean she’s not completely underestimating you. You realise that, right?’

  ‘Got it.’

  ‘Just making sure.’

  I smiled. ‘If we don’t have anything else on the agenda for tonight, here’s where I leave you.’

  ‘Deserter.’

  ‘Stuff to do.’

  ‘Like, straighten up your flat.’

  ‘Yes. Later.’

  I resisted further questions from Daix, wandering away from her. She didn’t follow; she had her own stuff to do.

  I was heading for the river. We were close enough that I could smell the water: clean, sharp, with the faint, underlying foulness of pollution. You don’t get clear, pure water anywhere near a city, let alone running through it.

  I didn’t pause when I reached the shore, but dived straight in, shifting mid-air. When I hit the water I was seal-shaped and fur-clad. I swam hard and fast, heading for Faerd’s waters. In nocturnal terms, it was early yet. He’d be awake somewhere. I had a plan to put in motion, for which I’d be needing his help, and it had to be in place by the morning.

  Chapter Fourteen: Tai

  Heads-up,ran Daix’s message. Rudy’s full of shit. Keep clear.

  That was it.

  I’d arrived home alone. Daix’s fabulously vague communication had arrived shortly afterwards.

  What? I texted back. Full of shit how? Keep clear why? I resolved to enrol Daix in a communications seminar at my earliest opportunity.

  Being Daix, she did not deign to respond.

  Coronis had been busy in my absence. The house was…dishevelled, to say the least. The mishmash of paraphern
alia that Mea and I owned between the two of us — an eclectic mix of books and DVDs (mostly mine), video games, knickknacks and odd kitchen gadgets (mostly Mea’s), and assorted unclassifiables — were largely transferred from their regular haunts to every other conceivable surface in the building.

  Coronis stood in the midst of this chaos, engaged in a frenzy of activity. She barely looked round when I came in. ‘I can’t find anything,’ she growled. ‘All this crap and not one thing of use.’

  ‘Nothing about Brianne, hm?’ I said, stepping around a stack of shabby paperbacks to hang up my coat.

  ‘I started in her room. Nothing. Nothing anywhere.’

  Having ransacked every space in the house, including the bathroom and the kitchen, Coronis had clearly done a thorough job. She was agitated; she barely stood still for more than two seconds together, and her wings were a silvery blur of motion.

  ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘Coronis. It’s okay to stop.’

  ‘But I haven’t found anything,’ she said, the last word breaking in a sob. ‘I haven’t helped.’

  I moved her way with vague thoughts of offering comfort, though I wasn’t sure what; was a hug going to help? But she rounded on me. ‘You must have come up with something, right? What did you pick up at the Puca? Do you know where she is?’

  ‘I’m… fairly sure I know where she’ll be tomorrow,’ I said. ‘Or at least, her skin.’ I gave her a rapid precis of the evening’s developments, acutely aware that she was in no way pleased or reassured. Her expression grew darker as I talked.

  ‘An auction?’ she exploded. ‘They’re selling her at a hags-cursed auction?’

  ‘Well, no,’ I said, gently grasping her shoulders, and inviting her to sit down. ‘They’re going to try to sell her at an auction, and I’m going to prevent them. Take a breath. Did you eat today?’

  ‘Stop fussing,’ she said irritably, but she did sit, and she did breathe. ‘Okay. What’s your plan, and how can I help?’

  ‘I’ll be there tomorrow night. So will Fi, and Daix. We’ve got a plan. Roles, disguises, schemes, everything. It’s very like old times.’ My misty smile soon faded again when I registered Coronis’s expression. ‘Er, right. The plan, is to establish whether our missing selkies are there or not, and if so, retrieve them. Plus their skins, pearls, or anything else that’s been taken.’

  ‘Just… retrieve them. Right.’ Coronis nodded. ‘Great plan.’

  ‘Details to be filled in tomorrow.’ I shrugged. ‘Or… not. I mean, we used to wing things quite a lot.’

  ‘That worked out well for you, on the whole?’

  ‘More often than it didn’t.’ I stubbornly refused to think about our last mission together. That had been the exception to a long-established rule. ‘Anyway, it’s not that we won’t be preparing at all. I’m going to the old car factory first thing in the morning to check it out. Carefully,’ I added hastily, encountering Coronis’s gimlet eye. ‘I’ll sneak. I’m good at sneaking. Once we get an idea of the space, that’ll help a lot tomorrow night. And if there’s anybody there already, all the better. I’ll spy.’ I was smiling. I couldn’t help it. When was the last time I’d got chance to commit a bit of solid espionage?

  Coronis rubbed at her eyes. ‘You’re meant to be professionals, but I have to tell you, Tai, this isn’t sounding like it.’

  ‘Harsh but fair. No, wait. Not fair. This sort of job was child’s play, back in the day.’

  ‘And that was a long time ago.’

  ‘Truth.’ I went into the kitchen, grabbed a couple of bags of crisps, and returned to the living room. ‘Here,’ I said, handing one to Coronis. ‘Eat, then sleep. And sleep soundly, knowing that I hear you and you’re right and I will work on the details of this non-plan before the auction begins.’

  Coronis, mollified, accepted the packet. We crunched crisps in silence for a couple of minutes, both of us weary. I wished I could catch a bit of sleep myself, but I didn’t feel there was time. Coronis was right: tomorrow wasn’t far away, and I had a lot of work to do if we weren’t going to screw up at the auction.

  This train of thought came to an abrupt halt when the doorbell rang.

  I was instantly alert. ‘What the hell time is it.’

  ‘After three. Who the hell rings doorbells at 3am?’

  ‘In my experience? No one with the best intentions.’ I dropped my crisps, and drifted towards the door. There’s a motion-triggered light on the porch, and a spyhole in the door itself; some of my old, paranoid habits never did leave me. I moved silently on the carpet in stocking feet, and peered through the door.

  Rudy stood waiting.

  My thoughts flew back to Daix’s near-incomprehensible message. Rudy’s full of shit. Keep clear. I still didn’t have much of an idea what that meant, but his turning up on my doorstep at this hour clearly wasn’t a good development.

  I padded silently back through to the living room. ‘Cor,’ I said softly. ‘Go into your room and shut the door. Wedge it with something heavy. Don’t come out until I say.’

  Coronis didn’t argue. She was gone in a moment, the door closing behind her.

  I went back to the front door, walking normally this time, and yanked it open. ‘Rudy!’ I beamed, slurring the name slightly. ‘Hey!’

  ‘Tai.’ He gave an easy smile. ‘You took your time.’

  ‘Just got in. Had to pee.’

  ‘Oh? Drinking party?’

  I nodded enthusiastically. ‘Was at the Puca. Downed… a few drinks.’ I giggled.

  Rudy shook his head, still smiling. ‘Drinking on duty, hm? Not too professional.’

  ‘Duty?’

  ‘The other Fatales here?’ He leaned slightly to one side, trying to see around me into the house.

  ‘Pheriko and Orandine? No. They don’t live here, Rudy.’ I made an expansive gesture. ‘Said it wouldn’t work for us to live and work together.’

  ‘I’m not talking about your bandmates,’ said Rudy. ‘I’m talking about your old partners.’

  So. Rudy had heard stories after all. I let the drunk demeanour fade a little. ‘And why are you looking for them?’

  ‘I’m not. I’m just making sure.’

  ‘I never gave you my home address, did I?’

  ‘Nope.’

  Rudy moved fast. He blocked my attempt to shut the door on him, barged inside, and grabbed me by the hair, pulling it and twisting it. I felt a sharp pressure in the small of my back: probably a knife.

  ‘Ow,’ I snarled. ‘Rudy, what the fuck.’

  He shoved the front door closed, and pushed me ahead of him into the living room. ‘You keep in touch with them all this time?’ he said, speaking rapidly. ‘Stayed friends?’

  ‘Not even a little bit.’ I kept a wary eye on him as best I could, letting him walk me into the centre of the room. He stood looking around, visibly frustrated.

  ‘Right, sure. So Fionn wouldn’t, say, give you anything important to keep for her? Like when the two of you showed up at Eventide together?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge—ow.’ Rudy had yanked my head back, a gesture of frustration.

  ‘So all this mess. That wasn’t you having the same idea?’

  ‘What? Rudy, I’ve no idea what you—ow!’

  ‘Did you find it, Tai? You’d better hand it over.’

  ‘I’ve no idea what you’re on about, but you’re pissing me off.’

  ‘Poor baby. I’m talking about Fionn’s sealskin. Are you keeping it for her?’

  ‘That’s what you’re after, hm?’

  ‘You give me that sealskin and maybe I won’t torch your place.’

  ‘Tsk. Rudy, you were always the nice one.’

  ‘Much good it did me. You never looked twice at me, did you?’

  ‘Is that what this is about? I wouldn’t fuck you?’

  ‘Stuck-up bitches think you’re—’

  He got no further with this charming sentiment, for I’d turned in his grip, grabbed the hand that held the knife, and yanked
it away from me. In the same movement, my free hand landed him a smashing blow to the jaw. He stumbled back, clutching his face.

  ‘Now, if you thought these were some sort of cute affectation,’ I said, holding up my gauntleted fists, ‘you’ve learned differently.’

  His face twisted with rage. His arm whipped up; he hurled the knife at my head.

  I dodged with embarrassing ease. ‘Appalling throw,’ I chided. ‘Face it, Rudy. You aren’t cut out for this shit. You’re a drummer, not a thug.’

  He began grabbing random articles from the heaps of stuff around him, chucking each one at me. He had some aim, and strength enough to throw with force. I winced as something heavy struck my arm, and bounced off.

  ‘Did Brianne put you up to this?’ I persevered. ‘Met her at Eventide, did you? I bet you were flattered by the attention. Egotistical enough to imagine she meant it. What has she had you doing for her, hm?’

  ‘That sealskin,’ he growled. ‘I’ll find it, with or without your help.’

  ‘So that’s your big assignment? Smash and grab? Take back the trophy, win your prize?’ I was growing angry. The next object he threw — a book — I caught mid-air and hurled back at him. It hit him in the face.

  Rudy didn’t answer. Hags knew what bullshit he’d spun to justify his actions to himself, but I could see I wasn’t going to reach him with words.

  ‘Her sealskin isn’t here,’ I spat. ‘Nor is it with Daix, so forget that idea. Now get the hell out of my house.’

  ‘Like you’d tell me the truth—’

  Unwise. Rudy received the benefit of another polite introduction to my gauntlets, and retreated from the encounter with a bleeding face and a possible fractured jaw. He backed up, howling — and ran.

  I gave him thirty seconds’ head start — just long enough for him to imagine himself unpursued, and for me to acquire a coat, and shoes — and then I took off after him.

  If I was lucky, Rudy would flee straight back to Brianne — and I’d be only a minute behind him.

  Whether Rudy was trying to reach Brianne or not, I soon realised where he was headed.

  He ran straight for the Selkies’ Pearls club.

  Obviously the news of its abrupt demise hadn’t reached him.

  ‘The fuck,’ he snarled, and stopped, panting for breath and cursing, before the burned-out wreck of the once luxurious nightclub.