Though, she wondered, who was?
Mr Nemo took another gulp of whiskey before continuing and Irene wondered at his stamina. ‘I’ve had a local agent arrange finance, accommodation, identity papers and anything else you may need, which will be handed over when you arrive.’
‘Technical equipment?’ Indigo demanded. ‘If you want me to do my job properly, I’m going to need suitable computers and tools.’
‘She’s been instructed to obtain local high-end technology. Everything which you could possibly ask for. You’re working for me now, Indigo, remember.’ His tone towards her was avuncular, but there was a vicious note beneath the pleasant surface. Irene wondered what had happened between them to merit it. ‘There are some things which you don’t need to worry about any longer.’
Indigo visibly bristled but forced a nod, and Irene marked off another probable role on this team of theirs. Indigo, apparently, was technology and computer systems. Which was interesting. Kai had spent time on a world with a high level of technology and had experience in the area. But not all dragons were interested – or even enthusiastic – about that sort of thing. Ernst was obviously muscle. (Too obviously?) Tina was transport. However, what were Jerome and Felix meant to be doing? Or Irene herself?
‘Are you going to want reports?’ Jerome asked.
Mr Nemo shook his head. ‘You’re all experts in your fields. I intend to sit here in comfort till you return with the painting. Besides, frequent couriers might be . . . noticed.’
Something that had been puzzling her resurfaced. ‘Mr Nemo,’ Irene said, ‘when Kai and I came through the airport, at Paradise Island, there were a lot of your . . . fans there.’
‘Fans, my dear?’
‘Enthusiasts with weapons, who turned the place into a war zone. They were desperate to find you. The moment they discovered Kai and I were visiting, they targeted us. So I have to ask – just how secret is this job of yours? Is this public interest in you going to be a problem?’
Mr Nemo leaned forward confidingly. His face was damp with sweat and pink from the heat, but it didn’t make him look vulnerable. Metaphors flickered through Irene’s mind: a poisonous toad squatting in its lair, a great wyrm curled up in its place of power, an octopus extending its tentacles. ‘Miss Winters, I assure you that nothing’s known about what I’m after. However, while I was recruiting, it did become known that I was looking for people with very specific skills. You saw the results.’
‘Indeed,’ Jerome said, putting down his chopsticks. ‘You ended up with a mob on your doorstep, after the job and the reward. Perhaps you showed your cards too early?’
‘They’ll never find me. But if they did, they’d get more than they bargained for.’ Irene didn’t like the look of Nemo’s smile as he clapped his hands together. ‘And now for the next course. I do hope you all enjoy fugu sashimi.’
The moon laid a trail of silver across the surface of the sea. Kai stood by the closed windows, sensing the deep pulse of the tides and the movement of the ocean. It was familiar to him in any world and any place, as much a part of him as the blood in his veins. He could always call on the waters to protect himself – and Irene.
She slept, but restlessly. He knew how concerned she was for the world where she’d grown up.
But as he was the one awake, apparently he was doing the worrying for her. He wondered if this was one of those things that nobody ever told you about relationships – or, at least, the sort that went beyond a single night’s pleasure or a brief but passionate affair.
A year ago, he hadn’t met Irene. He hadn’t known that there could be someone – outside other dragons – who would be prepared to risk their own life for him.
Irene had said, truthfully and sincerely, I am responsible for you, and you are under my protection. At first he’d had to suppress a laugh – after all, how could a human possibly have that sort of a relationship with a dragon? But then he’d realized she’d meant it. And she’d proved it, time and time again. Vale was a human too, but also a stalwart friend. There were even a few Fae who might not be utterly worthless.
Kai reflected gloomily that it would be a relief to shed all these thoughts, thoughts that challenged his traditional upbringing at court. However, if he wanted to deserve his father’s respect, he had to be an adult, rather than be trapped inside a cage of his own prejudices. But it seemed unfair that such a virtuous, noble resolution should be so hard to keep.
Light flickered in the room behind him and Kai turned to see that the television had switched itself on. Mr Nemo was perched in the same chair, heavy-lidded eyes fixed on him. The glass window in the background revealed an octopus spreading its tentacles across the ocean floor, graceful in its delicate movements. In her bed Irene slept on, unmoving, peaceful at last.
Mr Nemo put his finger to his lips, then gestured towards the suite door. A clear invitation for a private discussion. After a moment’s hesitation, Kai accepted the challenge and noiselessly left the room.
A screen on the wall opposite flickered on, resolving into yet another image of Mr Nemo. It was as if the man was crawling round behind the walls of his lair, scrambling from screen to screen to keep pace with his guests. ‘Prince Kai,’ he said, ‘I hope I’m not disturbing you.’
‘Not at all,’ Kai replied warily.
The light from Mr Nemo’s desk lamp carved deep shadows into his face, bringing out the skull beneath the skin. ‘Don’t worry, this doesn’t concern Miss Winters – or the new truce. I haven’t formally signed up to it yet, though I see its possibilities. But it’s late, and I’d said we could . . . chat. Do you have any questions?’
Kai had been pondering dozens earlier, but could only think of one now, under Mr Nemo’s hooded gaze. ‘You’ve made it clear this job is urgent. But you’ve insisted we stay overnight, rather than beginning immediately. Why?’
‘It’s the nature of the transport Tina’s arranging. She’ll be your driver throughout,’ Mr Nemo answered.
‘Why couldn’t you have had it ready for earlier this evening?’
‘I couldn’t be sure that you’d all agree to the job: I might have needed to bring someone else in – and I couldn’t have the transport sitting around waiting. Trying to keep Tina in one place is an achievement in itself. Logistics, Prince Kai.’
For some reason, Kai wasn’t entirely convinced, but Mr Nemo had moved on. He leaned forward in his chair, unclasping his fingers. ‘You don’t have any other questions?’
‘Oh?’
‘Concerning the other dragon who is my . . . guest? I thought you might want to air them, while we’re in private.’
Kai felt the heat of anger in his belly, the prickle of nascent claws at his fingertips. He controlled himself. ‘That person is not my concern.’
‘Really? I would have thought that Princess Qing Qing is—’
Kai cut him off with a single furious gesture. ‘Do not refer to her by her original name! She has disobeyed her parents and broken with her family. She does not deserve the name her parents gave her.’
‘Dear me.’ Mr Nemo chuckled again, his whole body shivering with morbid amusement. ‘I must apologize. I know that the lady – let’s call her Indigo, shall we? – is on the outs with her family, but I hadn’t realized it was that bad. It sounds positively criminal.’
‘It is,’ Kai said curtly. ‘And she fled the consequences of her actions.’
He had never met Qing Qing, but he’d seen pictures of her in his father’s palace, before they’d been taken down. She had shamed both her parents – Kai’s father and her mother, the Queen of the Western Lands – by trying to raise open rebellion against their rule. Now her name was no longer spoken.
Mr Nemo nodded understandingly. ‘I can imagine that her family might want her back under their control. She might be a danger to them . . .’
Kai had no intention of discussing his family any further with this Fae. He shrugged.
Mr Nemo chuckled again at his stubborn silence. ‘You s
hould remember, if you help in this retrieval, I will owe you a favour. There might be quite a large favour I could do you – and your family. One you’ll have already paid for.’
Kai felt the heat of anger again, and his eyes glinted red. ‘We have no need of your services.’
‘Then think of yourself,’ Mr Nemo said, meeting Kai’s furious gaze through the camera. ‘Wouldn’t your father be pleased if you could place Indigo back in his care? I can help you with that.’
The offer hung in the air like the shadow of an incoming tide: not yet fully present, but impossible to turn back. ‘What is she doing here in the first place?’ Kai demanded, hoping for some answer that would allow him to say no.
Or did he really want a reason to say yes?
‘The lady was imprisoned by a powerful Fae,’ Mr Nemo said. ‘I knew of her talents – her technological talents – and I took steps to obtain custody. I have assured her that if she carries out my request, I will grant her her freedom. Freedom from me, at least. Freedom from her family . . . well, that’s another question entirely.’
Kai bit his lip and tasted blood. He couldn’t possibly accept an offer like this from a Fae. It was unthinkable. There was certainly some sort of trick involved. There had to be. Finally he said, ‘I have already agreed to cooperate in this theft. This late-night bargaining . . .’
Caution cut off his last few words before he could definitely say no. What if there was a way to make this happen? If he turned it down here and now, would Mr Nemo hold him to that later? Was it so wrong to make a bargain like this, when everybody stood to gain from it?
‘There’s no hurry,’ Mr Nemo replied. His lips curled in a smile that bared sharp teeth all the way to the gums. ‘You can give me your answer when you return.’
Irene had seen dungeons, bloodstained theatres, battlefields and conflagrations – but now she had truly experienced hell.
And it was inside a minibus with four Fae and two dragons.
She wasn’t quite at the point of stepping out onto the motorway to play with the oncoming traffic, but it was close.
They’d left Mr Nemo’s island by private plane, with Tina piloting. Then they’d transferred to the minibus and Tina had taken the wheel. As Irene suspected, her talents lay in transport and motion: she was able to transfer seamlessly from one world to another while travelling, as some Fae could do.
What most Fae couldn’t do was carry multiple people along with them. However, it seemed Tina could manage half a dozen passengers, including the dragons, with ease. They’d started in America. Now they were approaching Vienna. Roads had reeled by outside the minibus windows – desert plains, country fields, dark cityscapes, rustic villages – each of them there for a few minutes and then shifting to something else. The other Fae had treated this as merely a normal method of travel. Indigo had been silent, and Kai had muttered something about feeling travelsick. But they’d been able to cope with the journey itself, as had Irene. The company was another matter. Everyone had retreated into a separate corner of the minibus, and given that there were only four corners, tempers were fraying.
Ernst cracked his knuckles. Repeatedly. Then he did it again. Jerome was unable to sit with his hands still: he was constantly practising card draws or dice throws. In the enclosed space the rattling of his dice on the floor competed with Ernst’s knuckle-cracking, like two clocks out of synchronization with each other. Irene found herself hoping each time that they would find the same rhythm, and she itched with frustration every time they didn’t. Felix sat in his corner, unwilling to talk, even to Jerome. Occasionally he twitched, looked as if he was about to say something, then retreated into silence again. Kai was brooding over something himself and occupied a seat as far as possible across the minibus from Indigo. Indigo herself ignored them all with glorious disdain, fiddling with a small piece of electronics from a locked briefcase which she wouldn’t let out of her reach.
As for Irene, her main source of irritation was that there wasn’t anything to read. Not even briefing documents. In fact, it was rather worrying that there weren’t any. Possibly she’d been spoiled by her work for the Library, but she was used to having at least some background information when she went out on a job. They’d been given passports, credit cards, cheap burner mobile phones and the address of their base in Vienna – and that was it.
She was in the front passenger seat, next to Tina. This wasn’t actually a privilege. Tina was not a reassuring driver. She cut across other cars with casual disdain, in pursuit of some distant ideal of speed which existed somewhere beyond the vehicle’s speedometer, responding to shouts or horns with a sneer and a gesture. Irene found herself constantly having to bite back gasps of panic. And Tina seemed incapable of any conversation other than the road ahead and how to handle it. She was immersed in her purpose, her mind full of speed and travel, and there was no room for anything else – no real personality was left. If Irene had needed warning about what happened when the Fae abandoned their humanity for their archetype, then Tina was a living example.
‘You will slow down to the speed limit once we reach Vienna?’ Irene said finally, trying to sound firm rather than nervously hopeful. ‘We’ll want to stay under the local cops’ radar.’
Tina shifted something she was chewing from one cheek to the other. ‘Not a problem. I’ll be strictly one kilometre under the limit. Maybe half a kilometre? I don’t want to overdo it. I’d have been there already, but with people in the back weighing us down like they are, it takes me a longer run-up to change spheres.’
‘Relax,’ Jerome called from his seat. ‘Tina knows her job. I’ve worked with her before.’
And as the passengers either bickered or aligned themselves with old acquaintances, that was a big problem, Irene reflected. She didn’t know any of these people. Kai’s clear distrust of Indigo was even more worrying. She trusted Kai’s opinion and – more to the point – his knowledge of other dragons. He hadn’t wanted to discuss Indigo’s identity, but he had been absolutely clear that she was treacherous.
It was shaping up to be a wonderful mission.
‘Checkpoint ahead,’ Tina said, a moment before Irene spotted it. ‘You’ll handle it?’
‘I will,’ Irene agreed, readying herself in the passenger seat. It was time for her to prove that she could be useful too.
The minibus slowed as it drew into the queue for the roadside checkpoint. The uniform wasn’t what Irene remembered for the Austrian police. It was grey and utilitarian, and the officers were all wearing cameras mounted on shoulder straps.
In the back of the minibus the others fell dead silent as Tina drew to a halt, and one of the officers marched across. ‘Good day, ladies,’ he greeted Irene and Tina in German. ‘Sergeant Melzer, CENSOR.’ He flashed an identity paper at Tina: Irene could just make out the acronym CENSOR and the organization’s name in half a dozen languages. The English was worrying – Combined European Nations Supernatural Observation and Response. ‘Your destination and your reason for travelling, please?’
Tina shifted her gum from one cheek to the other, and jerked a thumb at Irene.
Irene leaned forward. ‘We’re on our way to Vienna – to join our co-workers,’ she said, in her best native-accent German.
‘Co-workers?’ the sergeant probed. He could see into the back of the minibus from his current angle, and his eyes narrowed at the assorted group.
‘We’re part of a new software start-up company which will specialize in cloud information gathering and storage, combined with rapid response data retrieval and blockchain implementation, for specific search functions,’ Irene rattled off. She saw the man’s eyes begin to glaze with boredom and continued with more tech-babble borrowed from marketing brochures, finishing, ‘. . . we have recruited pan-globally in order to obtain the most cutting-edge programmers and specialists –’
The sergeant’s brow furrowed. He pointed a thumb at the heavy-set Ernst. ‘He’s a programmer?’
‘That is highly prejud
iced comment,’ Ernst growled. His German had a noticeable Russian accent. ‘I am specialist in open source development and libraries.’
‘Indeed,’ the sergeant said. He clearly wasn’t entirely convinced but was prepared to file it as someone else’s problem. ‘Now, if you’ll please take this disc in your bare hand one by one – that’s right, madam – and let me observe for a moment. It’s just non-allergenic silver.’
Supernatural Observation and Response, the sergeant’s papers had said. ‘Should we be worried about werewolves?’ she asked, passing the disc to the others behind her.
‘No more than usual, madam,’ the sergeant answered, watching the disc’s progress. ‘There’s no need for you to be alarmed.’
Which might mean there was every reason to be alarmed. Irene mentally cursed Mr Nemo once again: if there were dangerous supernatural creatures on this world, he should have warned them.
Tina finished skipping the disc over her knuckles, and returned it to the sergeant. ‘Thank you all,’ he said with a curt nod. ‘Please return to your business. Oh, and you might want to watch your speed, madam. Not that it’s my job to pull you up on it, but there are speed traps nearer the city.’
‘We appreciate the warning,’ Irene said, as Tina hit the accelerator hard.
‘Is this a problem?’ Ernst asked, once they were on the move again. The snowy landscape outside sprouted warehouses and car parks as they approached the city, and the traffic clustered around them. Above, the sky was a mass of grey clouds, dismal and unpromising, as dark and ominous as the coats of a thousand massing wolves.
‘In which sense?’ Irene replied. ‘The werewolves? Or the fact that our faces and number plate are now on record?’
Indigo looked up from her tinkering with some gadget. ‘That camera he was wearing? Don’t worry about it. Once I have my system up and running, I can hack into the police records and do whatever I want.’
‘I’d meant to ask you about that,’ Felix said, finally speaking. ‘How can you be sure that your knowledge will unlock this world’s computer systems? This isn’t some sort of science-fiction movie, where you can plug a laptop into the alien mothership computer and hack into it.’
The Secret Chapter Page 9