‘An agent is on his way to her as we speak. She lives above the gallery, so we can keep a close eye without alarming her, I’m sure.’
‘Good.’ He rang off and handed the phone back to Gabriel.
Gabriel shoved it in his pocket without looking at it. ‘If he touches her I’m going to fucking kill him.’ He shook his head, as though throwing off a vision of stabbing the fox spirit through the heart. ‘If we can work out what he wants, we have a better chance of stopping him.’
‘Agreed.’
Gabriel began pacing. ‘Let’s go over what we know.’
‘One,’ began James, ‘Major Cael West, a vampire on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, was recruiting there, we assume, for his coterie, Michael called it. He attacked me because he wanted someone with medical experience in his gruesome squad. For a specific task, I wonder?’
‘Frazer didn’t seem to care,’ Gabriel noted. ‘What is it with thugs like West trying to impress some worse bastard. Like they’re a demented pit dog taking a dead rat to a new master.’ He stared at James with horrified surprise at what had come out of his mouth. ‘God. Sorry, Jamie.’
James dismissed the slip. ‘I’ve been called worse, love. So – West is dead and Frazer gave next to no fucks about that, which means he can work around not having West in the plan. We have to assume that West’s yahoos, however many there are, are still working for Frazer.’
‘Yahoos that, along with West, murdered several of my friends, with a view to involving me.’ Gabriel stopped pacing and dropped into a chair, face in his hands. ‘Jesus. How did he even know about me?’
‘Google? Or Debrett’s.’
‘It’s not fucking funny.’
‘I’m not joking. Either he stumbled across you and Michael by accident, or you’ve both been targeted from the start, which makes more sense. Frazer, West and their crew are supernatural beings. No doubt they know about the Bureau. Assume they’ve been working from the Bureau outwards, trying to find a weakness. They find out about Michael; look into his family history. Either through online searches or the peerage guide, they discover there’s an earl one generation up, and a wayward artist brother further down the bloodline. They could’ve gone in for random vampire killings to attract the Bureau’s attention. That wouldn’t necessarily attract Michael’s specific interest. Tying them to you meant that Michael took a personal interest. It’s why we were both at the Blakely ball. That’s the intel we were both fed.’
‘Right.’ Gabriel scrubbed his hands through his hair, leaving it even messier. ‘But that whole thing didn’t go exactly to plan, did it? So it’s not like they’re masterminds of the criminal world. They nearly killed Michael outright when he fell. He ended up scratched instead of bitten, though that’s been bad enough.’
‘It looks like it’s all aimed at recruiting Michael for Frazer’s gang.’
‘But what for? There’s got to be a bigger plan than adding a man with a Saville Row suit for every day of the week to the payroll.’
‘Michael must be more important than that, in the scheme of things.’
‘Well, until a month ago, I thought he was a civil servant working directly in the House of Commons.’
‘An important job?’
‘The secretary to the permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office.’
‘Important, then. That role has a lot more continuity to government services than actual politicians, doesn’t it? Even if it’s mostly a cover position, he’s obviously the liaison between the Bureau and the Government.’
‘Frazer must have long term plans,’ decided Gabriel. ‘Something that involves not only getting a mole into the Bureau – other agents might have done as well for that – but government. What would a fox spirit want the ear of the government for?’
James shook his head. ‘I don’t think it’s solely about influence. Michael’s infected, but can he infect others? If not, can he bring Frazer in to recruit directly? Michael’s a foot into the House of Commons. Isn’t your father a foot into the House of Lords as well? I know sod-all about fox spirits, but I know a thing or two about vectors for the spread of disease.’
‘But what’s it all for? Say he forces me to do something that’ll force Michael to make a choice to surrender himself to Frazer’s influence. What does he want with that influence? Why on earth would a fox spirit want to control the British Parliament?’
‘Stop thinking about him as a just a fox. He’s a predator.’
‘Fine. What does a predator want?’
‘Blood,’ said James automatically. ‘If I needed to hunt, that’s what I’d need. On a grander scale? Ways to hunt blood more safely. So. What does a fox want to hunt?
‘Chickens,’ Gabriel offered. ‘Small game. No, we have to think bigger. Foxes are notoriously clever. They’re fast, cunning and opportunistic. But this isn’t any fox. This is the epitome of fox- ness. A fox spirit.’
‘So he wants…’ James tried to picture it. ‘The metaphorical chicken coop. The Bureau and the politicians.’
‘Not the chicken coop,’ said Gabriel. ‘That’s only a captive feeding ground. Something bigger. Does he want the farmer? No. A fox doesn’t want a farmer. They’re the enemy and they fight back. Foxes hunt livestock.’ Gabriel’s eyes went wide as the thought struck him. ‘If Frazer can get command of the coop, though, he’ll have access to the whole damned farm. Chickens, sheep, piglets, the lot.’
‘It’s a grand analogy, but what’s the farm, here? London? Surely that’s just a particularly large chicken coop.’
‘Try all of the United Kingdom.’
‘Jesus,’ breathed James, horrified. ‘That’s a farm worth murdering for. Fuck, the scope of this is way out of our league.’
‘Only if he succeeds,’ said Gabriel. ‘But he makes mistakes. He slipped up with Michael at the ball, and we’ve bought extra time. Neither of them knew you’d be part of the equation, which meant West failed in his attempts to turn me as well. Fuck this. Fuck him. I survived my father and years of psychiatric treatment and living on the streets. And you’ve been a brilliant badass since day one. We’re not in his league. We outclass the son of a bitch.’
He jerked his chin up at the end of this speech, daring James to contradict him, but James was grinning.
‘Fuck, aye, we do.’
Gabriel’s phone buzzed. He plucked the device from his pocket to check the message. He went chalk white.
James snatched the phone out of Gabriel’s hand before he dropped it. There on the screen was a text message and a photograph of Helene Dupre. Helene had changed into a new dress – a dress of pale salmon pink, with little blue forget-me-nots scattered all over the skirt and sleeves.
A flamingo covered in tiny blue flowers.
Her wrists were bound in a pale pink scarf and she was gagged with a length of stocking. Her brow was smeared in blood. She did not appear to be conscious.
Below the image was a text message:
Meet me with your brother in two hours.
If he comes you can have your French hinny back.
Don’t tell him it’s me. Daft fucker’ll put up a fight.
Want her back in one piece don’t you?
Gabriel called Miss Webb and began by hurling abuse until James confiscated the phone.
‘Our agent’s dead,’ she told him grimly. ‘Frazer sent three of them for her. I’ll give her this, she fought them. I’m loading up the CCTV footage now. She stuck one in the face with her keys and sprayed another in the eyes with her Estee Lauder atomiser.’
Gabriel passed from furious to frantic to stone cold. He reached across James to tap the speaker on.
‘We have to plan this out,’ he said. ‘We have to get a step ahead.’
The three of them argued about the plan, particularly when Webb suggested London Bridge Hospital as the rendezvous point.
‘We have someone who does discreet bloodwork for us there,’ she argued. ‘They can get us in,
and Mr Dare would plausibly go there for results.’
‘Does he need a plausible reason to be anywhere?’
‘We want Frazer to think your brother is walking into a trap unawares.’
‘He is walking into a trap,’ James pointed out.
‘But not unawares.’ Webb’s exasperation was beginning to show. ‘Has it escaped your memory that you have visions of probably Gabriel falling to his death from a height. London Bridge Hospital, it may surprise you to learn, has a roof.’
‘Everywhere has a roof, Doctor Sharpe.’
‘Not Hyde Park. Not the Serpentine.’
‘What possible reason could I have for sending Mr Dare to a garden?’
‘Fuck plausibility.’
‘We need a place where our people can get in unobserved. A park is too open. The hospital building gives us access, cover and medical back-up if it’s needed.’
‘I can provide back-up.’
‘You have your own set of instructions,’ Miss Webb rejoined waspishly. ‘If you want your Ms Dupre to survive.’
James turned to Gabriel. ‘Don’t tell me you’re doing this. You know what Datta saw.’
‘I know what she thinks she saw,’ said Gabriel, ‘But Anthea’s right. We have to make it look like we’re leading Michael into a trap, but we have to be able to set the trap for Frazer. The hospital gives us scope that none of the parks offer, and everywhere else has a roof anyway. It might not be me. Datta says I’m responsible for the raven falling. I’m hardly going to fling myself off a building on purpose. Maybe it’s Frazer she’s seeing. I’d throw him in front of a bus for tuppence.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ asserted James. ‘And I’m staying with you.’ James’s fangs had descended in his anger.
‘You’re doing no such bloody thing. I don’t need a fucking babysitter.’ Instead of recoiling from those sharp teeth as a sensible human should, Gabriel grabbed James by the collar and dragged him up until they were nose to nose.
‘You have to go after Helene,’ Gabriel growled. ‘I need you to do this. I can’t have anything happen to her. I trust you, Jamie. You can get her back. Anthea and I know what we’re doing.’
‘You haven’t a bloody clue what you’re doing. We’re all making this up as we go along. It could go tits up in a dozen ways. I can’t have anything happen to you.’
‘It’s dangerous for everyone,’ Miss Webb snapped out over the speaker. ‘If you want to be a step ahead, this is how we do it.’
James and Gabriel grasped each other’s hands.
‘Fine,’ James agreed through gritted teeth. ‘I’ll call Datta. You get onto Michael.’
‘I’ll handle Mr Dare,’ said Miss Webb coolly. ‘Tavisa already has her head around our other contingency plans. She’ll debrief you, Doctor Sharpe.’
She rang off to make her calls. James called Sergeant Datta and they arranged to meet at the gallery. Gabriel received Miss Webb’s text with confirmation of the rendezvous at London Bridge Hospital.
James put on his field jacket and headed for the door. He went back to Gabriel. He tried and failed to speak.
‘You can do this,’ said Gabriel quietly, leaning into him, brow to brow. ‘We can do this. I trust you. With my life. With Helene’s life. And Michael’s.’
With a gulp, almost a sob, James wrapped a hand around Gabriel’s neck and drew him down for a hard kiss. ‘I’ll come back to you, soon as I can.’
‘Of course you will.’ Gabriel mustered an affectionate smile.
‘Stay off the roof.’
‘I hope to.’
They kissed hard again, too frantic to be gentle. Finally, James tore himself away. He broke into an inhumanly fast run towards the Dupre Gallery.
Gabriel took a breath and held it until his fingers stopped shaking.
Then he sent a text to Niall Frazer.
London Bridge Hospital. 4pm.
He thinks it’s for a blood test.
Chapter Twenty
The helicopter was small, light and, strictly speaking, did not have clearance to land on the rooftop of London Bridge Hospital, by the Thames. The hospital roof had barely enough space for the landing – its area being made up of flat, square planes that corralled a curved, clear skylight running along the centre.
The small chopper touched down and the passenger alighted, ducking under the rotors. Then the machine lifted off again, swooping like a dragonfly.
Michael Dare straightened his spine; smoothed down his suit; ran the palms of both hands over his hair. Once more impeccable, he tilted his head, listening.
‘Gabriel.’
‘Michael.’ Gabriel stepped out from the shadow of the stairwell door at a corner of the rooftop.
Not a blood test. A trap. Michael closed his eyes. What I cannot see, I cannot betray, he thought. He could sense that the fox was listening. An alien part of him was joyful at the knowledge. Something foreign that wanted to wag its tail, roll on its back, show its belly.
Michael shuddered and grit his teeth. He deliberately bit the inside of his lip, drawing blood. He had command of himself yet, but not for much longer. As he listened for a creature who was listening through his blood, he also calculated steps to the edge of the roof; the time it would take to fall. How many seconds of fear would he need to endure before the end came?
He shouldn’t have left Anthea behind. Or he should have contacted Sergeant Datta. They had made promises, and it appeared that soon, those promises would have to be fulfilled.
Perhaps it was the fox in him that made him leave Anthea and forgo the call to Datta.
Michael berated himself for the untruth. He was not accustomed to lying to himself. He’d known it would come to this, and had walked willingly into this trap, because the fox in his blood had told him to.
The thought made him ill with terror. Michael had never been afraid in his life, before now. He didn’t much like the feeling.
‘Blood tests?’ he said. ‘Really, Gabriel?’
‘It sounded plausible.’
‘I suppose it does.’
‘You came anyway.’
‘There’s little point in delaying the inevitable,’ said Michael. ‘What did he offer you for this betrayal? I hope you don’t mind my asking. It is simply that I can’t imagine what constitutes 30 pieces of silver for you. I thought you cultivated a lofty disdain for monetary reward. Oh. Of course. Not silver. A life for a life. Who has he threatened?’
‘Helene Dupre went missing three hours ago.’
‘Not James Sharpe?’
‘It’s difficult to threaten James.’
‘And killing him outright would not serve Frazer’s purpose,’ Michael noted.
‘He needs me cooperative.’ Gabriel’s voice shook on the last word.
‘Of course. Doctor Sharpe is searching for Helene, I imagine.’
‘Well, of course he is, man,’ said a lilting voice, with its drawn out Geordie vowels and the soft roll of the r’s.
The brothers turned to see a small, sleek fox – the actual red and white animal – pad into the sunlight on the rooftop. It was smiling.
Gabriel blanched. Frazer wasn’t supposed to be here. There were meant to be agents at all the entrances. They were meant to have checked all the rooms and wards. He’d only come onto the roof to meet Michael’s helicopter. Frazer wasn’t supposed to corner them up here.
The fox’s mouth stretched into strange, wrong shapes as it spoke.
‘It’s funny, watching you trying to work it out. Your brow does that wrinkling thing.’ The fox drew its own brows together, mimicking Gabriel’s furrow of distress.
‘A vampire brought him up here,’ murmured Michael. ‘The moment you made the rendezvous point. Isn’t that right, Mr Frazer?’
‘You’ve got lovely manners for a bureaucrat,’ said Frazer approvingly. ‘Yes, that’s right. I had one of West’s boys drop me off and then he went back on NannyWatch for Dupre, before
your men- in-black got here to take up their positions. We’ll do something about their inefficiency, when you’re running the Bureau for me.’ And the fox winked at him.
Michael flinched.
The fox rose on its hind legs, fur receding, long nose shrinking, paws spreading. Then Niall Frazer stood naked on the rooftop, grinning, his ember eyes fever-bright.
The fox within Michael swelled, and the red fur grew on the back of his hands. On his face. He whimpered and grit his teeth, and then glared, and the change halted.
‘Oh, hark at you,’ said Frazer, like a proud parent, ‘still trying. Bless. What do you think is keeping you human now, hmm? It’s not like you have much to hold onto in a human life. No wife. No bairns. You only speak to your Da on business. There’s no-one who actually matters. Except him.’
Gabriel stepped between Frazer and his brother. ‘We’re here. Where’s Helene?’
‘Safe.’ Frazer’s nudity did not in the slightest diminish the threat of him. Rather than vulnerable, Frazer was at ease and in command. ‘I’m not finished with her, yet. Nor you.’
Gabriel’s gaze darted to Michael.
‘I’ve had Michael from the start, you idiot,’ Frazer’s grin was unpleasant. ‘It’s not like I needed you to get him here. In another week I could whistle for him, and he’d come running.’
Gabriel didn’t dare look at his brother any more. He could hear the change in Michael, though. The sharp, shallow breaths, schooled back to evenness.
‘It will make it so much easier, mind, if he doesn’t have any conflicts of interest, at least when it comes to choosing between you and me. Once his loyalty to you is knocked on the head, all the other conflicts go away.’
‘Such as?’ Michael asked, tone conversational.
Frazer cocked his head at Michael. ‘You haven’t asked why me? yet. Aren’t you curious?’
‘Fine,’ said Michael tersely. ‘Why me?’
‘Because, pet, you’re the fulcrum. You hold a senior position in the Bureau of Uncanny Sciences – shit name, by the way, we’re going to do something about that when I’m running the joint. And I am going to run the joint. You’re going to make sure I get in, and then we’ll have no more of this hunting creatures and keeping the world safe for prey. I mean humans. No, I really do mean prey. All the pretty chickens will belong to us.’
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