THE RED MIST TRILOGY: The Box Set

by R T Green

  ‘Maybe.’

  That was it. Silence again. I almost said something I shouldn’t, but bit my lip just in time.

  The last thing I wanted to do was alienate her still further.

  The streets of Pimlico were quiet. Darkness had fallen, and Tiri’s very public flying display had rekindled the fear of the night for London’s population. Of the few people we saw, at least half were police or army personnel.

  I parked the car in the underground car park, checked that no one was around. Zana had the hood pulled tight around her head, but her face was visible if anyone got too close. We were the only ones there. I bundled her into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.

  The once-disused warehouse had been converted into apartments six years ago. Just back from Afghanistan, I’d leased the rooftop apartment as soon as it was completed. For me, it was perfect. The only accommodation on the top floor, it was also the only one with a rooftop terrace.

  Safe and secure, I could hide myself away from the rest of humanity, and still get some fresh air when I needed it.

  But right now it was an isolated and secure place to hide an alien woman, who was not only in danger of getting lynched by humanity, but by her own people too.

  I pressed the card into the lock, and eased the door open for Zana. ‘Not quite the standard you’re used to, but it’s comfortable enough.’ I tried to smile.

  She walked slowly into the open-plan space, her eyes flicking everywhere. ‘It is nice. Thank you, Madeline.’

  ‘Better than your shuttle anyway.’

  Shit, that just slipped out.

  She gave no indication she’d noticed the sarcastic inference, walked over to the huge original metal-framed windows that made up the whole of the far wall, and stood looking out. ‘The view is impressive.’

  I joined her. ‘The old me often used to stand here for ages, watching all the people milling around below me, thinking how grateful I was that they were down there and I was up here alone.’

  She turned sad eyes to look at me. ‘And now?’

  ‘Now… now I’m grateful that you’re here.’

  I think I saw the faintest of nods as she turned away, dropped wearily onto the leather sofa. ‘I am so tired, Madeline. So very tired.’

  I guess she wasn’t the only one. ‘There’s food in the freezer. I’ll fix us something, and then we can sleep.’

  It was hardly the house special at Luigi’s, but the simple food tasted like heaven compared to the shuttle’s auto-generated rations. I found a bottle of Pinot, which wasn’t exactly hell to drink either. There was a little conversation as we ate, about anything but the hear-and-now.

  I guess it wasn’t the right time, but I still had to fight hard to resist the urge to ask her the questions I really needed answers to.

  Like why she was so cold towards me.

  We finished eating, and I showed her the bedroom. There was only one, but I didn’t use it. The main living space was huge; at one end sat a U-shaped kitchen, the other end was divided off with a large Japanese paper screen, with my oriental bed behind it. I liked the openness, unwilling to be shut away in a small enclosed room.

  There were clothes in the wardrobes and drawers, most of which I never wore. I told her to wear whatever she liked… she’d not come back from Tobago with very much.

  Zana seemed grateful for that, and the privacy of a room where I wouldn’t be. ‘Thank you, Madeline. I wish to treat my wounds now, and then I must sleep.’

  ‘Do you want me to… can I help?’

  For a moment her eyes lowered, and then she said, ‘Perhaps you could do my back? It is difficult for me to reach. Let me do the rest of me, then I will call you.’

  I refilled my wineglass, slumped onto the sofa. I could feel my eyes misting over, shook away the thoughts trying to take me down.

  Six weeks ago, the woman I love would have insisted I treat her wounds.

  All of them.

  Chapter 147

  ‘Madeline, would you help me now please?’

  Zana’s voice dragged me away from the thoughts and the wine. She stood in the bedroom doorway, naked apart from a tiny pair of my sleep shorts. Just seeing her wearing something of mine brought a smile to my face, even if she did look better in them than I ever did.

  I followed her into the room, unable to tear my eyes away from her beautiful body, so graceful and elegant still, despite the torture she’d been through. The bruises and abrasions seemed to be fading, her Calanduran physiology mending her battered body quicker than any human’s could.

  She handed me the device in her hands. ‘This is an electronic medicator; just run the beam slowly over my back… five minutes should suffice.’

  I was about to tell her I knew exactly what it was, but stopped myself just in time. My mistress Tiri had used a similar one to help relieve my pain, when she’d gone into kind, compassionate mode after whacking me for my disobedience.

  Zana stretched out face-down on the bed, and my heart missed a beat. It wasn’t just that looking at her almost naked I so desperately wanted to touch her in ways no medicator ever could… seeing her back up close, the wounds there were so much worse than anywhere else on her body.

  I switched on the device, desperate not to waste another second until the orange beam would pulse soothing light into her dappled skin.

  ‘Oh Zana, just what suffering did she put you through?’

  I saw her hands clench together. ‘I think my sister knew it was me who instigated your escape, even though she blamed Peroni for omitting to lock your door. So when she’d punished her, she vented her anger on me. But the damage she inflicted was not just physical.’

  I could feel my hand start to shake, told it to behave itself. I’d worked my way down Zana’s left side, switched over to the right. ‘What do you mean, not just physical?’

  She wouldn’t answer for a minute. I noticed her back rise a little as she sucked in a deep breath, unwilling to ask the question she couldn’t not ask.

  ‘Did you enjoy her… attention?’

  My anger flared, but this time the woman it was aimed at wasn’t in the room. I should have seen it coming, Tiri making the most of the opportunity to drive a wedge between us.

  ‘What the fuck did she tell you?’

  I saw her eyes close, felt her pain stabbing into me. Her voice faltered a little as she spoke. ‘It doesn’t matter what she said. I need to hear it from you.’

  I couldn’t lie to her. Tiri had already done the damage, and all I could do was limit its effects. ‘Ok, I’ll tell you the truth. I got a couple of sessions on the pleasure-couch. The first time, she let it do its stuff but didn’t touch me. And yes, it was incredible, like nothing I’d ever experienced. But I guess you already know how amazing it is?’

  She gave a single nod. ‘Yes, I do. As a member of the royal household I possessed one too. So what… what happened the second time?’

  I saw her visibly tense up, dreading my answer. It’s not what you’re thinking Zana… or what the bitch has told you. At least now I can tell you something you might want to hear.

  I’d worked the medicator up the right side to her neck, began to drift it slowly down the centre of her back. ‘The second time she showed her true colours, shackled me to the couch like a starfish, got naked and tried to fuck me. I didn’t let her.’

  ‘But how, if you were restrained?’

  ‘My ankles and wrists were, my head wasn’t. I head-butted her.’

  She opened her eyes wide, looked round at me incredulously. ‘You head-butted the queen?’

  ‘Sure as hell did. You must have seen the lump on her forehead?’

  Still she looked like she couldn’t believe my brave stupidity. It’s ok Zana, at the time I couldn’t believe it either. Suddenly she looked concerned for my welfare. ‘What did she do to you?’

  ‘Nothing. She fell onto the floor in shock, picked herself up and walked out of the room. So has that made you feel any better?’r />
  Her head dropped back onto the pillow, her face seemed to cloud again. ‘Perhaps, a little. She told me there was a lot more between you.’

  ‘Yeah, of course she did. You’re far from stupid Zana, you must be able to see what she’s doing.’

  ‘Yes I can, Madeline. But I have seen other things that are hurting deeply. I’m trying, I really am, but…’

  The medicator interrupted her, just at the wrong moment. Halfway down the centre of her back, right where there was a particularly nasty-looking abrasion, the orange light faltered and the device beeped.

  ‘What the hell?’

  ‘Madeline, what is it?’

  Her smoky-pink skin was raised around the abrasion, in itself not exactly unexpected. But the device had found something it didn’t like, and when I gently touched the lump I could feel something hard below the surface.

  And my gut was telling me it wasn’t anything biological.

  Zana looked scared to death, so like all the best doctors I tried to reassure her. ‘Lie back… it’s nothing to worry about, but I think there’s a lump there we’d better remove quickly. I’ll be back in a minute.’

  I ran to the kitchen, wrenched open the drawer that held a few DIY tools. I groaned on Zana’s behalf as I pulled out a Stanley knife blade, the sharpest thing in the apartment.

  There was no choice. If the lump was what I suspected, it had to go.

  Before it could do any more harm.

  Grabbing a pair of tweezers from my bag, I ran back into the bedroom. Zana’s eyes fell onto my do-it-yourself surgeon’s kit, she let out a cry. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘On your stomach, quick. No time to explain. And grit your teeth… you might feel a little pain.’

  I straddled myself across her thighs, felt her wince as the blade sliced a quarter-inch gash into the one that was already healing. I pressed a thumb onto the other end of the lump, eased it as gently as I could into the opening I’d just made, and used the tweezers to pull the device, smaller even than a pain-killer caplet, away from her body.

  Holding it up in the prongs like an army surgeon removing a bullet, as Zana gasped in shock I could feel the dread building in my gut.

  ‘Well, at least we know how Tiri knew where you were this morning.’

  Chapter 148

  Zana crumpled. The tears came, she buried her face in her hands. I pulled her into me, held her shaking body tight as she sobbed on my shoulder.

  ‘Now she knows where you live,’ she cried through the tears.

  I thought quickly, glanced at my watch. Maybe she didn’t know, not for sure. I took Zana’s hand, led her to the big windows in the living space and pointed to the street below.

  ‘What do you see down there?’

  She frowned to me, and then looked at the bustling street below us. ‘Lots of people… cafes, restaurants… a pub. Why?’

  ‘We’ve only been here just over a couple of hours. You think she’s hovering above us right now?’

  She wiped away the tears. ‘I doubt it. The tracker will send back our movements, but they will be logged so she can track our location whenever she wants.’

  ‘Exactly. So for all she’ll know we were down there, getting a drink or a bite to eat. And as for this…’

  I dropped the tracker onto the floor, raised my foot. ‘This is getting the wrong end of my boot…’

  ‘No!’ She pulled me away, before I could crush the nasty little pill. ‘If you destroy it now, she’ll know we’ve found it. And its last-recorded position will be this building.’

  She had a point. Probably a life-saving one. Good job one of us was not as impulsive as the other. I picked it up, held it in front of my eyes. ‘Ok then, my devious little friend. You and me are going for a little ride, catch the sights of London.’

  ‘What are you going to do, Madeline?’

  ‘This little fucker is sending back our movements. So I’m going to give it some to report… just not the ones Tiri wants. I’ll drive a few miles away, and then leave it somewhere.’

  Zana looked terrified. ‘Please may I come too?’

  Hell, I so wish she could. The last thing I wanted was to let her out of my sight. But if her alien features were spotted, that would be the end. ‘Zana, the entire population of London is on the lookout for an alien to decapitate. I can’t risk you out there any more than you have to be. Especially now this piece of shit has got to be as far away as possible… right now.’

  ‘I suppose so…’

  I put my hands on her cheeks, she didn’t pull away. ‘You’re safe here. Especially if she is watching, and sees the tracker on the move. She’ll follow that.’

  ‘If she is, then you are the one in danger.’

  I could see the fear in her eyes. And maybe the remnants of damaged love. But the last bit could just have been my imagination. Either way, there was no choice. I grabbed my leather jacket and the car keys, tried to reassure her. ‘Even if she is watching, what’s she going to do? Land a spaceship in the middle of Pimlico High Street, with blood-hungry lynch mobs on every corner? And anyway, you know she won’t harm me.’

  She smiled, a little uncertainly.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have said the last bit.

  Reassuring words were one thing, but it helps to believe them too. As the BMW turned out of the car park onto the high street, I found myself watching the dark sky as much as the road.

  Stupid girl. Ryland Cooper called me a moron way back, now I was behaving like one.

  Even Supergirl couldn’t see something that for sure would be invisible.

  But it didn’t help the dread in my gut, or the beating of my heart that felt louder than the faint sound of the engine. The damn car was just too quiet. I turned on the radio. Then I turned it off ten seconds later.

  If something was about to reach down and grab me, I wanted to be able to hear it coming.

  Think nice thoughts. That was hard too. There wasn’t much nice to think about. I had my freedom, thanks to beautiful, wonderful Grace, who for sure lived up to her name.

  Freedom? For how much longer, if Tiri got her every wish??

  Not doing too well with nice things. Zana was cold… no, not cold. Lukewarm. I’m really trying, she’d said desolately. What did that mean? I would have asked her, but for the piece of crap in my pocket revealing itself and stopping me from doing so.

  I guess I didn’t really need to ask. She was hurting, bad, maybe inside more than outside. And her dear sister was turning the screw, using every opportunity to make it a bigger one than it really was. My sexual shenanigans, both wanted and unwanted, were coming back to bite me, big style. And the woman I loved hadn’t even got onto the subject of Lisa yet…

  Fuck nice.

  There isn’t any nice.

  At least discovering how lousy my life was had one beneficial effect. I’d driven three miles, almost on autopilot, and without me realizing it the fear of being beamed up by magic had gone. Amazing how beating yourself up passes the time.

  Another mile or so, and there would be plenty enough distance between the pill in my pocket and home.

  Five minutes later I’d reached Wandsworth, and found myself cruising down one of its main streets into the less-desirable side of town.

  That’s putting it kindly.

  I threw a left, into a narrower side street. I knew this disgusting part of town a little, having enjoyed its delights a couple of years ago when I’d been asked to nullify one of its Mister Big’s. The street was lined with small shops, most of them empty and all-but derelict. Above those was a mess of dingy flats and maisonettes, and behind all of it an alley with communal waste bins. The piece of crap in my pocket could go into one of those, and keep Tiri guessing for a while as to which delightful flat it came from.

  But then, I spotted someone I knew.

  Talking about pieces of crap.

  Two years ago I’d been assigned to take out a particularly slimy mark. Masquerading as a minor drug dealer, he was in fact tr
ading arms to a few countries the British government saw as terrorist threats. But this particular Mister Big was hard to get to. I’d had to watch him for a while, do my research.

  One of his associates was the fat, slobbery Greek guy now walking down the opposite side of the street. He wasn’t involved in the arms trade, his purpose was a more insidious one. When Big fancied indulging his fetish, fatso was the one who seemed to be able to magic young boys out of nowhere.

  On the day I finally got to my mark, I was just leaving his apartment when the bundle of blubber turned up, another boy in tow. He looked me over curiously, and although I would have loved to do the same to him as I’d just done to his evil boss, I wasn’t going to let the innocent kid witness it.

  I walked away, and never went back. But I knew that minutes later the lowlife who caught a lucky break would have found his boss with his neck half-severed from his body… and the face of the woman obviously responsible would be imprinted in his memory forever.

  I drove up alongside him as quietly as I could, dropped the driver’s window. His path was hardly straight… not yet ten in the evening and he was pissed out of his skull.

  And about to get an instant cure for his hangover.

  ‘Hey, Jonno!’

  His bleary eyes met mine. For a second or two he stared blankly, and then his foggy brain kicked in.

  ‘You…’

  He staggered back in horror, would have gone down if not for the six-foot brick wall that stopped him. It didn’t do his headache a lot of good though. ‘Owww…’ He clutched a fat hand to the back of his skull.

  I climbed out of the car. ‘Not so pleased to see me, buddy?’

  He cowered flat against the wall, probably wishing it would open up and swallow him whole. He was right where I wanted him, pleading for his life. ‘You… I don’t want no trouble… I don’t do that shit anymore…’