“I think I should get dressed now,” she said, although she made no attempt do such a thing. She was still looking right at me. I pulled her close and kissed her properly, fulfilling the promise of the earlier kiss. She pushed her body up to mine, and I was finally able to touch her sweet-smelling skin. The next minute passed in a frantic blur until a tiny voice called out, bringing us both back to reality.
“I should leave you to get dressed,” I said, hoping that she’d ask me to stay, but, of course, she didn’t. Her daughter was in the next room and needed her. I walked back to my room unsure of all the new feelings pumping through me, and my head full of questions. Why had she kissed me? Was it because I had helped her? Given her a bed, bath, and food for her and her daughter? I knew exactly why I had kissed her. I’d wanted to from the first moment I saw her. Ok, well not exactly the first moment; she’d been a tiger then, but when I saw her change back into her human form, I’d lost my heart right then and there.
Just before eight, I went to collect Aaricka. Iris was already there, playing with Nikka and one of her old teddy bears.
“Quinn is outside by the back door of the castle,” Iris said. “You’ll have to be quick if you don’t want to be seen. Take Aaricka through the servants’ quarters, they should all be out around the castle doing their duties by now. Oh and by the way, can you take these for him?” She handed Aaricka some clothes for Quinn, presumably for when he turned back into a human.
Aaricka thanked Iris and gave Nikka a kiss before slipping out of the room behind me. Iris’ suggestion of going through the servants’ quarters was a good one, as we encountered no one until we came upon Quinn waiting outside the back door. He was in his horse form. I felt kind of strange jumping on the back of a horse I knew could turn into a human at any time, but Aaricka had no such qualms. She leapt up onto Quinn’s back and grabbed hold of his mane.
“Shouldn’t we saddle him up first?” I asked stupidly, not knowing the etiquette in such situations.
“Just get on, will you. He’s already given us permission.”
She had to pull me up, as I couldn’t do it alone without the use of stirrups, and I ended up behind her, her soft body pushed up against mine. In any other situation, I’d have been thrilled, but I was too aware that I also had Iris’s long-haired boyfriend between my legs.
“Shouldn’t I go in front of you so I can steer?” I asked.
“He knows where we are going,” she replied.
He set off so suddenly that I had to grip onto Aaricka to stay on while she held on tightly to his hair. It was nothing like riding the unicorn, which had had a nice soft leather saddle between it and me. This was uncomfortable, and I knew it was, at least, a couple of hours from the Royal Castle to the border of The Heartlands. Goodness only knew how much further the factory was than that.
In the end, it took about three hours, riding over wild moorland to get to the border. A huge wall I’d not seen before had been erected between the two kingdoms. A gap in the wall was being manned by a very skimpily dressed Heart soldier.
Shit, I’d forgotten about this. Ash mentioned that they had closed the borders a few weeks ago, but I’d put it to the back of my mind.
“What should we do?” asked Aaricka, turning towards me.
Usually, I would have just walked up to the guard, and as a royal, I’d get let in, but both my sister, Star, and my brother, Ash, had been turned away at these border crossings. The Clubs weren’t really welcome in the Heartlands anymore, neither were the Spades. I was still deliberating our course of action when Quinn bolted, making us both hold on for dear life. The guard didn’t stand a chance of stopping us, even though he tried by waving his hands around manically.
Quinn kept up the pace, running like the wind away from the soldier, who was shouting at us to stop, which of course, we didn’t. In fact, we didn’t stop until we reached the town of Cosmea, the capital city of The Heartlands and the home of the Heart Royal Palace. On the outskirts of town, Quinn changed into his human form and dressed himself in the clothes that Aaricka had brought for him.
“Where is this factory?” I asked Aaricka as we followed the path that would take us to the town. Hundreds of fancy houses lay ahead of us including the royal palace in the distance. Something about seeing it made me nervous, knowing that my sister, Star, had spent a week being locked in its dungeons.
“I don’t really know,” she replied scanning the buildings.
“You don’t know? You said you knew exactly where it was.”
“Yeah well, I didn’t want you to think that we didn’t know what we were doing.” She bit her lip as she looked at me.
“Why don’t we start over there?” said Quinn pointing to a cluster of large buildings that looked to be on an industrial estate.
I hated for him to be right, but it looked like an ideal place to start looking.
“Do you, at least, know the name of the company we are looking for?”
“Of course, I do,” snapped Aaricka. “It’s Royal Technologies.”
“Royal? As in the King and Queen of Hearts royal?” I questioned.
“I guess so, but it’s just a name. Do you think it actually has anything to do with them?”
“The Queen of Hearts has her finger in a lot of pies,” replied Quinn. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was running this company too.”
“If it’s named after her, it will be a fancy building. The Hearts don’t do anything by half; but if the Queen is involved, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be spectacular.” I’d been to the Heart Palace on a number of occasions, and I’d seen how she liked to impress.
“Like a factory made out of gold?” asked Aaricka, pointing to one of the largest buildings. I’d not noticed it before, as it was still a long way off, but it was indeed gold.
We walked to the edge of the industrial estate, keeping Quinn in his human form so as not to attract attention. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that three people who were wearing jeans and t-shirts stood out a hell of a lot more than any horse would. I knew what the Hearts dressed like. They wore a lot of feathers and ruffles and bright colours. Their hair was almost never the same colour they were born with, and not a single one of the people going about their business was wearing jeans.
“What is everyone wearing?” asked Aaricka taking in all the crazy fashions. “Is it a parade or festival?”
“No, that’s just how they dress.”
“And you only thought to tell me this now?” asked Aaricka incredulously.
“I thought you knew what you were doing, remember?” I countered, but she was right. I should have thought of this sooner.
It suddenly occurred to me what we could do. I grabbed hold of Aaricka’s t-shirt and ripped a strip from the bottom of it.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“I have an idea!” I pulled her hair up into a huge bouffant and tied it in place with the strip of fabric. It looked bizarre, but for all I knew, it would become the latest Heart fashion. Pulling a penknife from my backpack, I hacked away at her black jeans until they were no more than frayed hot pants. Some of the denim strips I wrapped around her arms, and the rest, I rolled up into a huge blooming flower shape and pushed it down the front of her top, so she had a large flower blossoming from her cleavage. She looked utterly ridiculous, but in the Heartlands, ridiculous was one step away from being a fad. I found a patch of mud and dipped my finger in. I applied it to the top of her cheekbones and smoothed it out as much as I could so her cheeks were almost black. With her naturally black lips, she would fit in just fine. Maybe.
I ripped my own clothes in a similar manner. Hopefully, if anyone saw us, they would think we were starting some new fashion trend.
Quinn left his jeans intact but pulled off his shirt completely, revealing a muscled six-pack.
“This will have to do,” he said, putting the folded t-shirt into his back pocket. “I’m not prepared to lose any more clothes.”
I rolle
d my eyes and peeked out from behind the bush we were all hiding behind. If we were going to scope the place out, we may as well start sooner rather than later.
With a deep breath, we entered the industrial estate. Within seconds, we were being stared at, and I could see a group of young girls whispering about us.
“Maybe we should turn back,” I said. There was no way we were going to be able to do this if we couldn’t even walk down the street without being noticed.
“Don’t worry. They are just admiring Quinn’s body,” grinned Aaricka.
Jealousy coursed through me until she reached up and whispered in my ear, “I’m just glad you’ve kept your top on. I’d hate it if I saw another woman drooling all over you.”
My heart leapt at her words. Aaricka wanted to keep me all to herself! Of course, all this attention wouldn’t help us in our mission. I pulled the pair of them into a deserted side street round the back of the gold-coloured factory.
“We’ve not been rumbled as Clubs and Spades, but it doesn’t matter if everyone is staring at your naked chest!” I hissed at Quinn. “We are still standing out!”
“What do you suggest?” Aaricka asked back. “We don’t have anything else for him to wear and he’s already said he won’t let you at his t-shirt.”
Behind Aaricka were a number of sacks with the logo of some company printed on them. They must have been from the factory that backed up to Royal Technologies. It gave me an idea. I pulled out my knife again and sliced it through the sackcloth. Thousands of bits of grain poured out scattering across the floor. I lifted the sack and turned it over, emptying it of its contents. Once there was not a grain left, I cut out armholes and a head hole and passed it to Quinn. He took it without resistance and threw it over himself.
“This is fucking itchy,” he moaned. “I hope it’s worth it.”
“It will be if we are successful.”
“Hey, look. A fire escape!” pointed out Aaricka, motioning to a door at the back of the Royal Technology building.
“No handle,” replied Quinn. “It will only open from the inside.”
“Right!”
Back on the street, no one batted an eye at us, which just goes to show how stupidly the Hearts usually dress. The gold building was situated at the very heart of the estate and, as anticipated, was utterly overly decadent and obnoxiously indulgent. The whole building was covered in gold leaf with ornate stone masonry at the entrance. Engraved into the stonework at the front of the factory were the words Royal Technologies above an entrance so grand it could be confused with an entrance to a palace, not a factory. The forecourt in front of it held a double-sized statue of The Queen of Hearts standing in a classical pose holding an urn with water pouring out of it into a pool below. The whole thing was utterly vile, and yet, the Hearts were walking past it as though it didn’t make their stomachs churn just to look at it.
Beyond the factory, I noticed for the first time, others that were similarly decorated. It looked like the Queen was involved in a lot more industry than I had previously known.
“What do you think those are?” asked Aaricka, obviously spotting the same buildings as me.”
“I don’t know, but we know this is the one we need, so let’s not worry about them. Look, there is a cafe across the road. Let’s get something to eat, and we can watch the entrance from the window and come up with a plan of action.”
The cafe, in stark contrast to the buildings surrounding it, was plainly decorated with a modern white interior. Twelve tables filled the small space behind which was a counter with a number of cakes and pastries sitting on it. A large menu filled the wall behind it. A young girl with bright blue and pink hair took our orders as we took the seat nearest the window.
For ten minutes until our food arrived, we watched the comings and goings of the people that worked there. Everyone that entered held something I could only assume to be a pass up to a reader on the wall next to the front door. When they held it up, they went through a turnstile, and it seemed they exited the building in the same way. There was also a main reception door where anyone could enter without a pass, but I could see a couple of receptionists and a guard checking everyone that entered.
By the time our food came, I was none the wiser as to how we were going to enter the building.
“Any thoughts?” I asked as I tucked into my tea-smoked snapper. Quinn had ordered some weird vegetarian food that looked suspiciously like a plate of grass, and Aaricka had opted for the meat plate, rare.
“Both doors have their problems,” began Quinn, chewing down on his leafy meal. “There was the fire escape round the back where you found this itchy piece of hell I’m wearing or those two entrances there. The fire door will only open from the inside so that rules that one out. The main entrance would involve us getting past the guard and receptionist, and the employee entrance will only open if we have a pass, which we don’t. I’m guessing the whole building will be locked and impossible to get into once everyone goes home for the day.”
“I thought this would be so easy,” moaned Aaricka. “It was so simple to climb up the side of the chocolate factory and get in, that I had assumed it would be the same here.”
I wiped my mouth of the snapper juice. “You’ve got to remember that the Hearts are much more technologically advanced than we are. I’ve been to the palace a number of times in the past, and you can’t get in or out of there without placing your hand on a plate on the wall. It recognises your palm print and is only programmed to let certain people in.”
“You should have murdered the queen when you had the chance,” muttered Aaricka sulkily.
“Maybe, but I think it would have been the height of bad manners to kill off one’s host in the middle of a dinner party.”
I didn't mean to be funny, but Aaricka burst out laughing, and even Quinn cracked a smile.
The empty cafe began to fill up for the lunchtime rush, making me feel relieved that we had gotten the table by the window when we did.
A lot of the people who were lining up for a takeaway sandwich or similar were from the factory. We’d watched them file out from the employee’s entrance and cross the road to get here.
When we’d all finished our meals, I asked the others if they wanted a coffee. I was surprised when Aaricka stood up and said she’d get them.
When she came back with a massive smile on her face along with a tray of coffees, I knew something was up. She beckoned us in closer so she could keep what she was about to say just between us.
“Look what I have,” she said, moving the tray an inch so we could see what she had secreted under it. Poking out was unmistakably an employee pass.
“It won’t work,” I said. “I know a little about these systems and the passes not only let you in, but they record who has entered the building. If we use this after closing time, it will probably trigger some kind of alarm.”
“So we go in now,” replied Aaricka, raising her eyebrows.
“In broad daylight? That’s insane. Plus, you’ve only got one pass. What about the rest of us?”
Quinn nodded. “Not to mention the fact that as soon as the girl you stole that from notices that her pass is missing, she’ll go right to the reception where they will issue her a temporary pass and cancel this one.”
“Really?” replied Aaricka sounding disappointed.
“Yes, really.”
“So what if I go in now. You stop the girl from going back to work somehow, and then when it’s going home time I open the fire escape door? We won’t need a pass for that.”
“In theory, it could work,” mused Quinn.
“I don’t like it. You’ll have to be in the building for another five hours, at least. What are you going to do for that length of time? What if you get caught?”
“I like it when you worry. It makes your nose scrunch up in such a cute way.” She leaned a little further towards me and kissed me on the nose.
It was such a sweet gesture and made my heart sing,
despite my brain telling me she was only doing it to placate me. She downed her coffee, pointed at a girl having lunch with her friend, and then winked at us before picking up the pass and leaving the cafe.
I watched her cross the road and get into the factory with no problem at all.
“She is something else!” remarked Quinn.
“She certainly is!” I sighed. Whatever wheels she had put in motion, we now had to follow through with and pray to Monsatsu that it would work.
“What are we going to do about the girl?” I asked. It wouldn’t be long before she finished her meal and noticed her pass was missing.
“I have an idea.” I watched Quinn saunter over to the two girls. The one whose pass had been stolen had long, blonde hair with pink streaks, and the other had a short black crop, which was shaved on the side and had a gold tattoo just peeking out from under the stubble.
He had a short chat with them, which resulted in the blonde one animatedly squealing before rushing out of the cafe, leaving her lunch half-eaten and her friend looking glum.
Quinn returned to his seat and calmly began to sip his coffee.
“So?”
“So what?”
“What did you tell her?” I looked over at her friend. She looked utterly miserable. I wondered if he’d told them that someone was dying before remembering the joy on the blonde girl’s face.
“I appealed to the inherent Heart narcissism.”
When I raised my eyebrows in confusion, he continued.
“I told her I was a talent scout for a modelling agency, and that she could be the next big thing. I told her to go home and put on her sexiest clothes and go to the beauty salon for a professional make-over, and I’d meet her back here at eight o’clock to take her to a photo shoot.”
“And she bought that?” I asked incredulously.
“Take a look around you. The Hearts are all so far up their own asses that they can see daylight out of their mouths. I took a shot. She went for it.”
“But she’ll turn up here at eight o’clock, and we’ll be gone.”
“Exactly.” Quinn grinned.
“She might end up losing her job because of this. She can’t just take an afternoon off work and expect her employers not to mind. Plus, how much does a professional makeover cost? What if it’s more than she can afford?”
Seven of Clubs (War and Suits Book 6) Page 8