When he managed to push aside those visions, there was a pair of black eyes in a pale face and the glint of light off a scalpel waiting to take their place.
He would sit up sweating then curse as he pulled at his injury. Then he would breathe in the smell of the sacking, the dust and the antiseptic and swear to himself all over again that he would do as he had promised. Ariel was the end to all this, one way or another. And Webb would make sure it ended.
Time was an even more inconstant thing here in their hiding place than it had been in the colony above ground. The cables buzzed but otherwise he never heard another noise. He could have been sprawled in the dark for days or weeks.
There were times when Dana and Hugo were there. Dana would bully him into sitting up and swallowing protein shakes and Nutripaks, which he managed to keep down most of the time. Hugo would pace, brood, or both. If anything the pair of them exhausted him more than the blood loss.
“This supply bunker must be getting pretty empty,” Webb mumbled as Dana handed him a clean shirt after her latest supply run.
“We’ve found another. And been back to the bolthole,” Dana said. “Now, are you going to wash or do you need me to do that for you too?”
“No thanks,” he grated. “I think you’ve already seen more of me than your brother is comfortable with.”
Dana pressed her lips together and Webb hoped it was the poor lighting that made him think he saw a flicker of hurt in her eyes. Hugo didn’t appear to be listening. He was bent over a computer panel, the light from it washing his face a sickly green.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting to find,” Webb said wearily as he crawled over to the bowl of clean water and washrag Dana had put out for him.
“We’re still on the blacklist,” Hugo said.
“Of course we are,” Webb said, wincing as he shouldered himself out of his coveralls. “We won’t be cleared off it until Haven thinks it’s been made right.”
“Until we’re dead then,” Dana muttered as she sorted through their supplies.
“Or worse,” Webb said then swore as he pulled his old shirt over his head. “Have you tracked down Sol yet?”
“No,” Dana said, dusting off her hands. “He’s vanished. You need to give us the name of another Catiline member.”
“Even if I had another, no,” Webb repeated, utterly tired of this line of badgering. He soaked the rag and wiped his hands and face. A shiver ran over his skin but he had to admit the cold, clean water felt good. “Nam may have got her information from them, but we’re not as kamikaze as her. Not yet, anyway. Sol is the only one I would even think about asking about Ariel. And there’s nothing to say he’d help anyway. Ariel’s not a Ghost. For all I know, Catiline use him too.”
Dana grimaced at that. “So we just sit here and wait?”
“Wait for news,” Webb said, gingerly peeling back the bandaging to clean the wound. “See if Nam’s vendetta flushes any more information into the rumour boards.”
“We’ve been on this damn colony for weeks without so much as a peep about Ariel from anyone,” Dana growled. “What makes you think anything will happen now?”
Webb sat back on his heels and closed his eyes as he pushed back a wave of dizziness. When he blinked his eyes back open Hugo was glancing away, hiding his concerned look and going back to the panel.
“I don’t know if anything will happen,” Webb said, squeezing out the rag and watching the water go murky with old blood. “But Ariel knows who we are. The blacklist will have told him we’re here, if he didn’t know already and, for all he knows, we’re here doling out Black Crosses. He’ll be looking to get us before we get him. He’s probably looking to get us before we get him. If we’re careful, canny and patient, he will come to us.”
“With his own personal band of Enforcers with very large knives, most probably,” Dana muttered.
“Which is why we need to be careful,” Webb said, keeping his voice mild. “Now I know you’re just arguing with me because you’re bored, Hugo Junior. So why don’t you make yourself useful and pass me the gauze?”
Dana muttered something profane and grabbed the medical supplies and paced over to him. When he reached for them she batted his hands away and knelt next to him and started cleaning the stitches with a sterilising pad. Her face was dark with frustration as she glowered over her work but her touch was gentle and Webb felt himself relax despite himself.
He settled himself in a better position as Dana cleaned and bound the cut then cast a wary glance Hugo’s way, but his former captain wasn’t even looking at them.
“So, your brother and Harvey. Engaged, huh?”
Dana winced. “Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
Dana looked her brother’s way then turned her attention back to the bandaging. “Well, does it count if she doesn’t remember it happening?”
“Ah,” he said, lifting his arm to let Dana wrap the bandaging around his waist. “She’ll remember, though. She’s a tough one that one. What is it?”
Dana smoothed the look on her face. “It’s nothing it’s just…” She looked Hugo’s way again but he was still frowning at the panel. She lowered her voice anyway. “He applied for the marriage license weeks before it happened. But it never went through.”
“Why not?”
“She didn’t sign it.”
Webb blinked. “How come?”
Dana shrugged and dropped her eyes back to her work. “I think she thought he was married to his rank.”
Webb chewed on the inside of his cheek, a fluttering in his chest he was uncomfortably aware of as pity. “That’s not true is it? Or at least, not any more?”
“Maybe. But it might be too late now.”
Webb looked at Hugo again. His face had taken on a harder set than usual. “Hugo? What is it?”
“There’s been another.”
“Another what?”
“Another death,” Hugo said, passing the panel over.
Dana cast aside the soiled bandages and took it. Webb peered over her shoulder. There was a picture of another concrete apartment block with two stony-faced Enforcers stood in the door. The article was only a couple of sentences long with no names.
“I don’t care what you say,” Webb said in a low voice. “That woman’s deranged.”
“Is it any wonder after what happened to her?” Hugo said.
“You don’t end up that self-destructive without a hefty cargo of nutbars in the hold to begin with,” Webb said.
“You did,” Hugo said. His voice and face were calm.
Webb frowned. “That was different.”
“How?”
“Shut up, Hugo,” Webb growled. “Marlowe was part of a mission.”
“I wasn’t talking about Marlowe,” Hugo replied.
“Makes you wonder what they get out of all this,” Dana said quietly before Webb could think of a suitable retort.
“Who?” Webb asked instead.
She started, like she was just realising she’d spoken out loud. “The Ghosts. It says here that no one is saying they know this victim, either. They don’t even protect their own or come forward when they’re being hunted down, and for what?”
“Credit,” Webb answered, pulling on the new shirt.
Dana snorted. “Ridiculous.”
“You’re speaking as someone who’s always had it.” Dana turned a burning look on him and he held up his hands. “Hey, I ain’t judging. Just saying.”
“Well don’t.”
Webb shrugged. “Ok then.”
Hugo took the panel back and started scrolling through the article again. Dana went back to the supplies. Webb tried not to wince as he scraped his hair back from his face and tied it in a fresh tail. It snagged and pulled on his fingers and he dreaded to think how filthy it must be.
He got gingerly to his feet and was just about managing to climb into a cleaner, if not newer, set of coveralls, with Dana pointedly not offering to help, when there
came a tap on the hatch.
They all froze. Dana was closest. She looked to Hugo who gestured for silence as the tap came again, louder this time. Hugo signed for them all to be still and got to his feet, pulling his knife. Webb fumbled for his own amongst his old clothes just as Hugo reached the hatch and pressed his ear to it.
“Commodore Hugo?” a small voice came from the outside. “Are you in there, sir?”
Hugo pulled the hatch open, fury and confusion contorting his face. “Tag?”
The boy stood blinking in the light from their lighting pole, face smudged and grubby. He clutched a holdall in his hands. “I found you!” he cried, a grin spreading over his face. “I knew I’d find you.”
“How did you find us?” Webb said but Hugo held up a hand.
“Not how,” he growled. “Why?”
Tag blinked between them, smile faltering. “I brought you your stuff.”
He held up the holdall. Hugo snatched it off him, face like thunder. “What are you doing here, Tag?”
“Hey, easy, easy,” Webb said, limping forward as the boy’s face fell.
“Get him in here and out of the corridor,” Dana said and Webb waved him in.
“Come in, kid. Don’t be scared.”
Tag took in Hugo’s stormy look again and stepped over the threshold. Hugo slammed the hatch shut making them all jump.
“Explain yourself,” he said.
“I, I,” Tag fumbled, looking to Webb. “I heard you’d gone into the betweenways. Stuff’s been going missing from a yard near here. I figured - ”
“Again,” Hugo said. “Not how. Why?”
“Hugo,” Webb said, “Calm down, will you?”
Tag sniffed back angry tears. “I wanted to help you. I know you’re not what they’re saying. They say all Servicemen are scum, but I know you’re not like that, sir. I’ve read all about you. I know you’re a good captain and I wanted to help.”
Hugo’s eyes blazed.
“You did good, Tag,” Webb said, patting the lad on the shoulder. “Well done. And thanks, we need this stuff,” he added, indicating the holdall. “It’s just…”
“It’s dangerous here,” Hugo said. Tag looked at him. The fire in Hugo’s eyes died. He rubbed his mouth and got down on one knee to be on a level with him. “Thank you, Tag. It means a lot that you believe in us. More than you know. But tracking us down is a very dangerous and foolish thing to have done.”
Tag folded his arms and glared. “You grown-ups are all the same. You think I can’t do anything. Well, none of them have found you, but I did. None of them understand what you’re doing but I do.”
“We’re grateful, kid,” Webb said before Hugo could respond. “And impressed, quite frankly.” Tag sniffed, scowling at the wall. “Seriously. All the Enforcers on the colony are out for us and you’re the only one that’s found us.”
“So far,” Dana muttered from her corner, eyeing the boy suspiciously.
“No one followed me,” he said. “I swear!”
“It’s ok,” Hugo said. Webb could hear the effort to stay patient in the commodore’s voice. “We believe you, Tag. And you are right. You might be the only one on Haven that understands what’s going on here.”
“That’s what I said,” he said, gap-toothed smile widening. “I am, aren’t I? I’m right, aren’t I? You’re the good guys?”
Webb felt his throat tighten at the hopeful look on the child's face. “Sure, Tag. We’re the good guys.”
“And you’re going to save the day, aren’t you? You’re going to stop the killings and bring the Service to Haven?”
Webb raised his eyebrows. Hugo and Dana exchanged an unhappy look.
“You want the Service here?” Webb asked carefully.
“Sure. They make sure everyone has food and safe work and school, don’t they? They make sure trade is done right and everyone has credit.”
“In Sunside maybe,” Dana muttered but Webb shushed her.
“The Service can do good,” Webb said. Hugo’s jaw was clenched. “But it’s not that simple most of the time, kid.”
Tag blinked, mouth turning down.
“What we are doing,” Hugo said. “Is making sure someone who is hurting people doesn’t get away with it any more. That’s what we’re here for.”
Tag looked up. He pursed his lips, considering, then nodded. “That’s good,” he mused. “Yes, that still works. You’re good guys and I was right. That’s all there is to it.”
“You got it,” Webb said, managing a smile.
“In that case,” he said, paused, took a breath and apparently came to a decision. “There’s a guy looking for you.”
“Someone in particular?” Hugo asked carefully.
Tag nodded. “He’s looking for you, really,” Tag said, pointing at Webb. “He’s another good guy. I think.”
Webb felt himself pale. “This guy…he approached you?”
“Uh-huh,” Tag said, smiling now. “He came to the boarding house. He said he could tell I knew more than all the grown-ups in the building put together.”
“What did he say?”
Tag shrugged. “Just that he was looking for you. And if I find you, I should bring him to you. Do you want me to?”
“What’s his name?” Webb said, not looking at the expression that had stolen over Hugo’s face.
“I don’t know. He said he couldn’t tell me.”
“What did he look like?” Hugo said, voice careful.
Tag rubbed his chin. “Ur, tall, like you,” he said nodding at Webb. “Old. Really old. Beard and hair all grey, though he wore a hat and visor. I couldn’t see much of his face.”
Webb frowned, scratching his head.
“Who’s that?” Hugo asked.
“I haven’t the faintest fucking idea. Sorry,” he said when Tag giggled. “The faintest idea.”
“Don’t bring him to us, Tag. And don’t tell him where we are,” Hugo said.
“Hey, hang on,” Webb said. “We don’t know who it is. He might be someone who could help.”
“He said he wanted to help,” Tag said. “He seemed like a nice guy. He said to say to you…urm…” Tag’s face crumpled in concentration. “He said to say ‘tell Webb I know where to find the man he’s looking for’.”
The cables buzzed overhead in the stunned silence that met Tag’s words. Hugo was staring at him and he could feel Dana’s eyes on him too.
“What shall I tell him?” Tag said.
“Where is he?” Webb asked.
Tag shrugged. “I dunno. He said he’d come back to the boarding house to find me after I’d found you.”
“Hugo,” Webb said, nodding to the hatch. “A word.”
Hugo nodded, opened the hatch and stepped out into the corridor.
“Stay with Dana, ok?” Webb said to Tag and followed Hugo.
Hugo helped him pull the hatch shut then he leant on it, looking him up and down and taking in the way he bent to favour his side.
“Are you in pain?”
“I’ll live,” Webb said. “I think. Hugo, we need to meet whoever this guy is.”
Hugo stood silent, face unreadable.
“You want to as well,” Webb said. “I can tell.”
Hugo frowned at the floor, thinking hard.
“Come on,” Webb insisted. “We can’t risk not speaking to him if it’s the truth.”
Hugo’s jaw worked. He looked back up but Webb got the feeling he wasn’t seeing him. “It could be a trap.”
“Tag’s not lying.”
“I’m not saying he is,” Hugo said. “But this man might be.”
“We can’t ignore this. He’s either genuine, or he’s dangerous and we need to meet him like he wants. To get Tag out of the equation.”
Hugo blanched at that.
“You know I’m right.”
Hugo let out a gust of breath and rubbed his temples. “What I wouldn’t give for an Eclipse team on our side right now.”
“You’ve got
better than that,” Webb said, attempting a smile. “You’ve got us.”
Hugo dropped his hands and gave him a baleful glance.
“Look, we’ll plan it. We’ll get Tag to give us a signal when the guy turns up. He needs Tag to lead him, so you tail them from the boarding house and me and Dana will be here, ready. If he tries anything funny, the three of us will be more than a match for him.”
Hugo nodded grimly.
“We’ll find out what he wants,” Webb said. “Then we ditch this place so he can’t bring anyone down on our heads.”
“Are you able to move elsewhere?”
Webb straightened, suppressing a grimace at the bloom of pain. “I’ll manage.”
Hugo stared at the wall for a painful minute. Webb held his tongue with an effort. The curiosity was almost enough to overpower the tendrils of uncertainty that were still threaded through him, making his skin itch. He pushed aside both sensations and waited for Hugo to admit to himself this was the only chance they were likely to ever get.
“Fine. We’ll bring him here, whoever he is. But if he hurts any of you, including Tag…” Hugo’s face was dark.
“If he does, we’ll set Nam on him,” Webb said.
The shadows of Hugo’s face shifted and Webb dared to think he might have been smiling, but then he pushed the hatch open and went back in. Tag was sat slumped against the wall, idly turning the locked computer panel over in his hands. Dana stood on the other side of the room, arms folded and watching him uncertainly. They both looked up as they came back in.
“Ok, Tag. We’re going to meet this man,” Hugo said. “You can bring him to us.”
“He wants to see Webb.”
“He can see Webb,” Hugo said and, when Dana started to protest. “Providing he’s safe. Now, Tag,” Hugo went forward and sat on the floor with the boy. He took the computer panel out of his hands and made sure he was paying attention. “You’ve been a great help but this is it now, ok? No more helping.”
“But -”
“No buts,” Hugo said firmly. “This is not a negotiation. You’re brave. But this is too dangerous a situation.”
“Hugo’s scared, Tag,” Webb said, leaning down to look Tag in the face. “If anything happened to you, your mother would slaughter us.”
Haven (The Orbit Series Book 2) Page 24