Chapter 32
"Earth and its military are becoming increasingly bold," the Man said, pausing as he poured more wine. "Their action against Zang was a catalyst for more incursions into Wintran controlled territories. I am disturbed that they appear to be growing in impudence. You've spoken to Jameson, what fuels their aggression?"
"Jameson is furious." Deservedly so, NG thought. "He initiated the attack on Zang after our operative presented him with an opportunity, a meeting that Hilyer was lucky to survive by all accounts, and Jameson isn't convinced that we don't have the package here."
The Man placed the jug on the table. "I take it you calmed the waters."
"Jameson isn't easily pacified," NG said. "The old Earth Empire was looking for a fight and as much as it was Hilyer who went to them and incited further aggression, Jameson is the first to admit that they were looking for a reason to give Winter a bloody nose. Hostilities between the two have been escalating. The chase for this package simply ignited tempers and passions that were already smouldering. And what is absurd is that no one even knows what is in the package. Hilyer still has no intact reliable memory of it."
"Hilyer knows what was in that package."
"If he does, he's hiding it well."
-
Medical kept him for a week. Total lockdown and no access to anyone except NG who'd demanded a complete debrief. Legal were trying to get their hands on him but NG posted guards at his door and no one got through, not even the Chief. Not even Skye.
It sucked.
Hil lay down at the top of the Wall in the Maze, legs dangling over the edge, muscles complaining from the exertion. The first half had been easy enough, the overhang had almost killed him.
When they'd let him loose from Medical, NG had ordered him to go straight there. "Work out the knots," he'd said and cleared the rota so no one else could get in.
He'd been in there for five hours, easing back in then pushing it as hard as he could manage. The Wall had finished him off and he lay there, emptied his head of any thoughts of anything and slowed his heart rate.
He heard Fliss before she even entered the tube that led to the top of the Wall, almost silent footsteps that meant she wasn't being careful to be quiet. He didn't sit up, just tipped his head back over and opened one eye. She emerged from the shadows and knelt by his head, ruffling his hair.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey you," he answered back, welcoming the human company for a change.
She sat on the edge and he pushed himself up, awkward still, side aching in a reminder that he'd been through the wringer and his body wasn't going to let him deny it yet.
"How did you get in here?" he said. "I'm supposed to be quarantined."
Felicity smiled and put her arm around his waist. "NG sent me."
"To spy? To find out what else I know?" He tried not to sound too bitter and twisted. Fliss had nothing to do with any of this. "I don't know where LC is, Fliss, I swear."
She shoved him away gently. "He asked me to check that you're still sane," she said. "As sane as you ever were. But yes, everyone wants to know where LC is. I'm sure the Chief will grill you once NG lets you free."
She pulled him back close and ruffled his hair again, stroking the back of his neck like he was a child. "You're back on the standings board."
He laughed. "Where have they put me?" he asked, fully expecting to be down at zero.
"Top," she said, smiling. "They reinstated your full record. No one else is near, even though you've been out of action for months."
Top of the standings. It didn't feel the way he'd expected and it hadn't happened the way he would have wanted.
"Lulu and Sorensen have been vying for the top," Fliss said.
"They're welcome to it."
"No, they're happy enough for you to be back. Tabs are tough at the minute. Security's really tight pretty much everywhere. People are saying you've started a war."
"Yeah, so I've been told. Believe me, it wasn't intentional."
She grinned and prodded his side hard. "So where'd you get shot?"
He flinched away. "Right there, thank you."
"Everyone's shocked about Kase," she said. "Legal screened all the extraction teams and field-ops. The Chief went nuts when he heard."
"When he heard about Kase, or when he heard they were screening everyone?"
"Both, I suppose. He's been fuming since you left. There are rumours he had a stand up fight with NG over the screening - that wasn't a good time to be in Acquisitions."
"When I was out there, someone told me the guild was falling apart."
"Oh, we're not falling apart, Hil, we're realigning. Apparently Media thinks this whole war thing could be a real opportunity."
He turned to look at her, incredulous.
She shrugged. "Who knows?"
Hil lay back down and closed his eyes. She put a hand gently on his chest.
"How's it been working with Quinn?" he said.
"Didn't you hear?" She pulled up his shirt and played with the edge of the bandage wrapped around his waist. "We were all taken off Quinn and given to Addison. Quinn's been handling you, Hil, and only you. I heard it's going to stay that way."
He didn't know what to think about Quinn and the man hadn't been to see him since he got back. It didn't matter.
"I don't know if I can do it any more, Fliss." He knew he sounded tired and he felt tired. It was seriously tempting to take Pen up on his offer.
"Nonsense," she said, stretching out next to him to look at him face to face. "You're guild, Hil. It never leaves you, you know that."
Yeah, he did know and being back there was turning out to be a mixed bag of emotions that was a hell of a lot more confusing than he'd felt when he was with Pen. As soon as he was cleared, he had to go back to Aston to get his stuff back. Staying there was looking a serious proposition.
Fliss sat up and touched his arm gently. "Number one in the guild - it's what you've always wanted."
"What I used to want," he said. The truth was that competing with LC for every point in the standings was what used to spur them both into getting better and taking tougher and more impossible tabs each time. Fliss was right, it was what he wanted but not this way. It felt like a hollow victory and he knew he hadn't earned it. He didn't want it this way. If they couldn't both be there at the top, then he didn't want it alone. He didn't know if he wanted it at all.
NG didn't stand up when Hil entered his office, shown in by one of NG's staff. The room was warmer than usual and quiet.
NG was sitting at his desk and he waved Hil towards a chair opposite. He sat down, trying not to slouch but still feeling sore and strung out, and not sure what this was going to be about. He wasn't sure where he stood with the guild and he wasn't entirely sure where he even wanted that to be.
There was a wooden box on the desk and two glasses filled with amber liquid. NG took one and gestured to the other. "To the guild."
Hil reached for it and raised it to his lips uneasily. The whisky was good quality, the best he'd ever tasted.
"It's from a small island on Earth," NG said softly, "where the soil is black, where humans haven't forgotten who they are."
"To Mendhel," Hil said and waited for NG to nod and drink before draining his glass in one.
"We want you to stay, Hil."
And there it was, as if NG somehow knew how close he was to running away, for good this time.
"You did the right thing, staying with Pen." NG sounded strained. "I want you to know that we believe that. And I'm sorry that you were left out there not knowing who to trust."
"LC's still out there." It sounded more belligerent than he felt, if he was honest, but he still wasn't sure that the Alsatia was where he wanted to be.
NG poured two more glasses. "Please Hil, you don't have to fight against us any more. I know what you did to protect LC and we'll find him."
Hil took the glass and held it, swirling it round so that the liquid splashed up the sides of the t
umbler.
"Badger is missing," NG said, "but he sent word that he was bugging out so I'm sure he's fine. And Sean is still working with us. We'll find LC."
Hil sat sullenly, not wanting to be persuaded. "I don't want to work with Quinn," he said abruptly. "And I want to know who Martha was working for."
NG stood up and wandered off away from the desk. For a moment, Hil thought he'd pushed it too far and he half expected NG to call in the Watch and have him thrown in the lock-up. Then NG turned back and perched up against the end of the desk, looking disturbed rather than angry.
He took a deep breath and said finally, "We don't know. We have our suspicions. We know it wasn't Zang and we know she was taking orders from elsewhere but?"
"Is she still alive?"
"We don't know," NG said again.
Hil downed his whisky. Any feeling that he could come back and feel safe here in the guild, the invincible Thieves' Guild, was fast evaporating.
NG walked back round to his chair and sat. "Hil, we've been badly shaken by all this, I won't deny it. And I won't pull any bullshit morale boosting propaganda on you. We screwed up. But we don't sack it and close shop because some arrogant corporation thought it would try to pull our strings for its own gain. Zang is licking its wounds and we have ground to patch up with Earth. We're still looking for Anya. And we still have to find LC. But in the meantime, we're not going to fall apart. The guild is far bigger than any of the crap this has thrown at us. And we want you back."
"I don't know," Hil said, biting off the rest of what he was going to say, that he didn't know if he could do it, or wanted to do it any more.
NG shook his head. "We want you back up to speed and we want you to work with Quinn. I'm not going to lose you, Hil."
Hil put his glass on the desk and eyed the bottle.
NG topped up his glass.
"I can't work with Quinn."
NG stood up. "There are some things you need to learn about Mr Quinn." He opened the wooden box. It had a brass clasp and hinges that creaked. He pulled a stack of papers from it, loose leaf real paper. "This is from Mendhel's house on Earth. I think he would have wanted you to see this."
NG held out a tatty piece of paper with a picture on one side. Hil took it, carefully, feeling the rough edges and grainy texture. He'd only seen real paper before in Legal's library and that was all bound into books. He'd never seen a photograph on paper before, never held one in his hands, and a lump formed in his throat as he looked at it, and saw Mendhel sitting on the ramp of an APC smiling with his arms thrown around Pen and Quinn, the three of them in battle fatigues, looking younger than he could have imagined.
Hil stared at the picture.
"They've been friends for a long time," NG said.
"I didn't know." He didn't understand why Mendhel had never said anything, why Pen hadn't said anything when he'd been bitching about the guy. Thinking about it, he'd never seen Quinn and Mendhel together, had never seen them actually argue. It was the field-ops that argued and fought. He'd judged Quinn and got it wrong. Same as he'd been wrong about Martha.
"Pen should have this," he said quietly.
"He's going to get it. You're going to take the whole box to him on Aston. Then I trust that you'll be coming back."
NG took the picture and put it back in the box.
"Talk to Quinn," he said. "You might be surprised. The handlers are far better at manipulating their field operatives than you guys could ever guess."
He smiled and picked up his whisky. "You're guild, Hil. And now you're at the top of the guild standings. The Man is planning some special projects and he wants the best. Welcome home."