Ninja School Mum

by Lizzie Chantree

  ‘I’m so sorry!’ exclaimed Thea, seeming to kick herself for grabbing the fragrant offering impulsively as she left her garden.

  ‘It’s not your fault. It’s not as if you’re so desperate for a real friend that you picked up anything that might persuade me to stay.’ said Skye morosely, not knowing how close to the truth that was. ‘If I was nicer to people, someone else might have bought me flowers in the last seven years,’ she tried to joke, but it fell a bit flat with the tension in the room. Thea stared at her sympathetically and gently pushed the vase of flowers further away across the table, although they couldn’t go far as the surface was so small.

  ‘Let’s sit down and you can tell me what’s happened.’

  ‘I think someone’s following me,’ Skye said seriously, a steely tone coming into her voice. Thea looked really worried suddenly and Skye berated herself for being weak and burdening someone else. ‘I should be handling this alone. Normally I would sort out the problem without a moment’s hesitation, but this time my instinct was to call you.’ The comment made Thea blush with pleasure as she looked at Skye.

  ‘This, in itself, frightens the life out of me! I hate relying on anyone but myself, it just leads to pain for everyone involved,’ said Skye.

  ‘Why would someone be following you?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Thea gave Skye one of her hard stares and Skye sighed in exasperation, pushing her chair back and moving to stand by the sink. Staring out at the back garden, she scanned every inch of the property. Thea sat patiently, hands in her lap, as though she was waiting to find out what they would do next. Skye realised Thea was usually the technical handler and organised the finer details, but that was after someone else made the decisions and told her what to do. No doubt she completed the task with expert skill and minimal fuss. But now it looked as though Thea was actually quite excited about the prospect of an adventure. She had probably been bored with babysitting and pretending to play dumb, however much she adored her daughter and niece, Skye realised.

  ‘I may be overreacting,’ said Skye carefully.

  ‘But you don’t think you are?’ asked Thea, turning her chair to face Skye, who was now pacing the room. This wasn’t the best idea as it was a tiny space and, as soon as she had taken three strides, she had to turn and come back again. Thea leant out an arm to stop her progress.

  ‘We had several run-ins with the people who killed our team and I pleaded with our handler to move the task to another group at LUCAN as they were starting to notice us, but he wouldn’t listen. The night of the explosion, two of their people died as Reece tried to fight his way out, apparently. It was horrific as our assignments were usually extracting important people or information from diplomatic situations and didn’t involve people getting killed. I wasn’t even there that night, but as part of a team which was assassinated, I’m determined they won’t get me too. My son needs me.’

  ‘When I was called in and was told what had happened, my world blew apart.’ Skye drew a shaky breath and looked up to see tears in Thea’s eyes. It was good to see that, after seeing so many people lie to, and kill, each other, Thea was still human and felt things deeply, probably especially since she’d had Flo.

  Skye’s own eyes were starting to feel a bit red and sore. ‘They said the target had gone to ground and they would have to give me a new identity for my own protection. For my team to have been hit, someone must have known they were coming. I told Reece I had a bad feeling about it, but he shut me out and told me I had to protect our baby. They must have had someone on the inside and I couldn’t take any chances, so I went to my parents’ cottage and pretended to wait, while I found a way to get us to the safe house Reece and I had built in case we ever found ourselves in trouble. I was so full of grief and anger that someone had betrayed Reece, and might try and hurt Leo and me too, that I used my own contacts to get us out. Then I found I was scared there, too, after a while and I ran again.’

  Thea turned towards her and it was clear that her earlier adrenaline rush had turned to fury at the thought that anyone would dare anyone try to hurt Skye and Leo. Skye knew the other woman felt an unexpected connection to her, full of sadness and anger for the way they’d killed her field team and now they wanted to kill her too.

  But Skye’s stomach plummeted. This was a quiet suburban area and Thea’s whole family lived here, as well as Skye and Leo. If there was an assassin out there, she knew he wouldn’t hit civilians, but if anyone close to the target got in his way, he wouldn’t think twice about taking them out too. It would have to be done with minimal fuss as they wouldn’t want hysterical locals running amok, nevertheless, they would get the job done.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Skye watched the tumult of emotions flit across Thea’s face and felt sick that she had ever brought her to her house. She should have known better and would understand if Thea ran for the hills or exposed her secrets to the other school mums and dads, as she and Leo were a very real danger to their offspring.

  ‘I’m sorry for asking you round, Thea. It might not be safe for you to be here. You should go.’ Skye began collecting Flo’s baby bag and placed it over the pram’s handles.

  Skye didn’t know Thea well enough yet, but she could sense she was obstinate and telling her to go snapped her out of her very real concerns for her friend and made her focus on what to do.

  ‘You said you’re not safe. What’s changed since last week when you were looking relaxed and settling in? Why are you suddenly sure they are looking for you after all this time?’ asked Thea.

  ‘I think I’ve seen the same man watching me twice now, but he’s clever and I never get a proper look at him. It’s what alerted me to him in the first place. It’s an occupational hazard to scan every face I pass and I notice people’s body language.’ Skye saw Thea’s body go stiff with alarm and she could see the pulse racing in her neck. She hated scaring her, but this could be a very real threat. ‘The signals he was giving out were quite off. It’s exhausting to be constantly alert, which is why I’m probably scowling half of the time,’ she joked, trying to lighten the mood and not terrify poor Thea. Skye could see that her friend was visibly shaken and realised that she probably didn’t get to see any dangerous activity from her fortified office at LUCAN. Skye was scared, but she was ready to take action. Thea had gone red and looked like she might vomit at any moment.

  ‘Have you got a plan?’ asked Thea, visibly trying to calm herself down and not be a baby in front of Skye, who had dealt with things like this every day when she worked at LUCAN.

  ‘Track him down and dismember him?’ said Skye, in mock seriousness. Thea appeared slightly shocked and Skye laughed finally as Thea slumped further into her chair and smiled too. ‘I’m only joking. I have had to fight people, but I haven’t actually killed anyone. That’s not to say I haven’t knocked out a big beefy guy or two,’ she winked with a conspiratorial smile.

  ‘Do you really think you’re in danger, or are you just feeling a bit spooked?’ asked Thea, straightening her back as if garnering strength from Skye’s no-nonsense approach. Skye had been visibly shaken when Thea had arrived, but her training had kicked in now and she was striding around the very small kitchen again and reaching for a box that Thea looked horrified to see contained a very sharp set of throwing knives.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ replied Skye honestly, absently picking up the knives to check they were razor sharp, then putting them back in their box and tiredly rubbing her eyes. It was at times like this that she wished Reece was around to share the burden of protecting their son. ‘He didn’t seem threatening and I’ve just glimpsed him from a distance. Have you noticed anyone following you?’

  Thea rubbed her muscles and Skye could see she was tense. ‘Mentally scan the last few days to see if you’ve seen anyone new around town.’

  ‘I don’t have your training Skye, so I could probably walk straight past someone and not think anything of it at all. You’re trained to decode b
ody language and the nuances of a person’s behaviour whereas, unless I was aware of a threat, I wouldn’t know how to stay undetected.’ Skye knew she was right. Thea was trained to hack computers and create new identities for people. How the hell was she supposed to know if she was being followed? They could walk straight up to her and she would offer them a wave of welcome and a jaunty ‘Hello.’ Skye sighed in frustration.

  ‘I really have no idea,’ Thea said honestly, watching Skye place the box of knives back up high above the kitchen cabinet.

  ‘We’ve spent a lot of time together, so I think I would have spotted anyone following you,’ said Skye absently. ‘I’m sure I’m overreacting. They told me the threat had been neutralised, but I didn’t know who to trust.’

  ‘So why did you run?’ Thea asked. ‘I really want to know the answer to try and work out who you are. If you thought it was safe, why run?’ she asked again when Skye didn’t immediately answer.

  Skye raised her face to the heavens as if asking for forgiveness and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. ‘I was angry at Reece for not being more careful and mad as hell at LUCAN for not protecting my team. I know they said I was safe, but they also said that about the original operation the team was on.’

  ‘I heard about your team,’ said Thea very quietly, as if she didn’t want Skye to hear her. Thea began wringing her hands in her lap and Skye noted the movement and frowned again at the sign that Thea was deeply uncomfortable about something and it was more than just a possible stalker.

  ‘What?’ said Skye, thunderstruck. ‘How?’

  ‘We’d all heard about you lot. You were the elite team that always got results with nominal disruption. We didn’t know exactly who you were, but there were rumours about you. We also heard about the explosion,’ she said as gently as she could. ‘Everyone was in shock. If it could happen to you guys, what hope was there for the rest of us? We were told that the whole field team died,’ she said apologetically.

  Thea looked like she had something else to say, but was hesitant about divulging too much and Skye gave her a hard stare and told her to get on with it. She didn’t mean to be harsh, but this day was getting worse by the minute!

  ‘I do think you’re safe,’ Thea conceded. Skye noticed she was trying to avoid looking straight into her eyes, as if she knew she’d see censure there for letting Skye suffer if there was no cause.

  ‘Why?’ Skye demanded to know.

  ‘Because they caught your handler, Marcus, trying to run. He’d made a deal to eliminate your team. Everyone was rocked by the revelation that we had a mole at LUCAN. Security was changed and all protocols tightened up. I was based in Norwich, but was called over to your area in London.’ Thea hesitated before continuing, still looking at the floor. ‘Everyone in the agency started questioning everyone else’s motives for a time. It was horrible to have that fear every day,’ she looked up apologetically at Skye when she saw her flinch.

  Skye was furious. She’d been carrying that burden for years and the strain was starting to show. She gulped down the bile that was forming in her throat, her mouth dry from being so tense.

  ‘Everything settled back down after a while and it was work as usual,’ Thea said hesitantly, waiting for Skye to explode in anger.

  ‘Business as usual,’ said Skye bitterly. She let out the breath she had been holding but squared her shoulders. ‘You don’t think there’s danger? Why the hell didn’t you tell me that straight away when I said how worried I was?’ she raged.

  ‘No, I don’t think there’s any vulnerability, if that’s what’s causing you to worry.’ Thea was wringing her hands in her lap again. She must have realised by the spark of anger in Skye’s eyes that she wanted to slap her for being such a wimp. How could she not have told Skye about Marcus straight away? ‘I didn’t tell you as I thought it would cause you even more pain. You trusted him and he let you down. I’m so sorry, Skye.’

  ‘I knew it had to be someone on the inside,’ seethed Skye. ‘I want to kill Marcus. He assassinated my whole active team.’ She put her head into her hands and tried to stop the pounding in her brain. ‘He murdered Leo’s dad.’

  Thea looked like she was about to burst into tears herself, but rushed forward to take Skye into her arms as she wept. ‘Skye,’ she pleaded. ‘LUCAN took care of it.’

  ‘What if they didn’t?’ said Skye, angrily brushing the tears from her eyes for being so pathetic and weak and not wanting to listen to reason. She never usually cried and having one friend wasn’t about to make her soft all of a sudden. She shook off the fragility she had shown and stared at Thea.

  ‘They did,’ said Thea miserably, visibly quaking with nerves at being faced with the real Skye. ‘He had a terminal illness and wanted money for his family. He was already getting paid a fortune, but he was using heavy drugs to ease his pain. Someone found out and blackmailed him. He didn’t know they wanted you dead, just out of action.’

  ‘I still want to kill him!’ raged Skye, without a moment’s hesitation. She was fleetingly sad for his suffering, but the grief and misery he had caused so many others was beyond comprehension.

  ‘He’s dead, Skye,’ said Thea as Skye slumped down into the chair opposite her and grabbed some painkillers from the drawer near her seat, throwing them into her mouth dry and gulping them down with difficulty. ‘He explained to the agency that he told the target you were dead. He was horrified that they’d killed everyone and full of terrible remorse. He thought they would just beat the men up a bit and frighten you all into leaving them alone.’

  Skye lifted her head and gave Thea a watery glare. ‘How do you know all this?’

  ‘I was brought in to clear away any history of you all. For your safety,’ she hurried on at Skye’s look of sadness that there would be no record of Leo’s father now.

  ‘I had to interview Marcus while he was berating his own weakness and raging at the lies they had spun him. I’m so sorry,’ cried Thea, shaking. ‘I felt sorry for him at the time as he was so pathetic and ill, but he was also deranged and babbling a lot from the drugs he’d filled his body with.’

  Skye got up and moved over to the sofa in the little lounge for comfort and wracked her brain to see if she could pinpoint the start of Marcus’ betrayal. Had he seemed different before the explosion? Had he been unwell and had she been too wrapped up in her pregnancy to notice? She had thought they were friends and she now questioned her own judgement. He might have been a hard taskmaster and an annoying perfectionist, but she had trusted him with her life, time and time again.

  ‘His illness progressed really quickly and there was no cure.’

  ‘He was an easy mark,’ sighed Skye in exhaustion.

  ‘He told me he had started slipping up and the target found him drunk in a bar and offered him drugs. They let him talk and drew him in with offers of pain relief. Once he took their drugs he was hooked.’ Thea got up and followed Skye into the lounge before continuing. ‘They made him pay huge sums that he couldn’t afford. They offered him a deal. By then he owed them so much, he couldn’t refuse.’

  ‘He could have, though,’ said Skye angrily. Skye thought back to the time her harness had slipped and her wrists had got cut. She had almost died then. Had Marcus tampered with her harness? She didn’t believe for one moment he would have wanted them to live. Then they would be around to find him and discover his secrets. Maybe he had tried to start with one of the team, then moved the bar and decided to make it seem like they had been ambushed and clear them all out in one go? She remembered his piercing brown eyes and the way he looked right through you sometimes. He was quite mercenary, but she had mistakenly thought this would help him cover every planning detail of the job. It turned out he wasn’t as thorough as he thought, as she had lived and he hadn’t. Thinking this way made her stomach rise up and threatened to make her vomit. Thea reached across and gently helped Skye to her feet, a look of sympathy on her face.

  ‘He couldn’t have told the target about you,
as no one knew you weren’t there that night. Reece must have been covering your back, as he was the one who told you to stay away, and the team notes hadn’t changed. Marcus thought you died too. I had to clear everyone’s history, including yours. You didn’t need to create your own cover as you don’t officially exist now either.’

  ‘There are always ways of finding people, Thea. You know that. I have probably left a trail somewhere.’

  ‘There is a way,’ she conceded, ‘but no one is looking for you. You’re dead.’

  ‘The man in the street?’

  ‘Probably just a man in the street,’ hedged Thea. ‘Maybe you noticed him because you haven’t properly looked at a man in years? It’s about time you stopped running and made a home, for Leo, if not yourself. It doesn’t have to be here, but I have a feeling you feel at home?’ Thea called over her shoulder as she went to make them some tea, glancing up at the cupboard where the knives were stored as she passed.

  Skye knew that Thea’s easy stride hid the fact that she had a heavy heart. She liked Skye and really wanted her to stick around. She’d told Skye she’d assumed she would be a nightmare at first as she was secretive and grumpy, but said she was also sweet, funny, kind and fiercely loyal, which had made Skye blush. No one had said anything nice about her for so long.

  Thea flicked the switch on the kettle, visibly exhausted from the day’s emotional turmoil, and opened the soft grey cupboard doors to find some mugs. Skye cringed as Thea must have noticed that Skye was a bit obsessive, as the colourful mugs were all lined up with handles pointing outwards to pick up easily.

  ‘Ever efficient,’ Thea smiled. ‘Tea, the British answer to many distressing situations; it can soothe a broken heart and wash away troubled thought.’ Keeping the tea strong by adding just a dash of milk, she put in a spoonful of sugar, from the metal tin on the kitchen top, for good measure. ‘We could do with a sugar rush,’ she sighed, rolling her shoulders as if she was trying to ease some pain. Then she brightened up.