‘Maybe we cut this fucking charade now, yes?’ she bit out, her light Russian accent filtering through her words. The person on the other end of the line knew who she was: that was the main reason he had recruited her.
She shook her head as she saw Nick was going to take a shortcut. What a moron. The alleyway had no street lighting and was almost completely deserted. She rolled her eyes and turned down into it, reaching into the back of her trousers and letting her hand close around the cold steel.
* * *
‘What the –?’Nick’s shoulder was yanked backwards and he crashed against the wall at the side of the alleyway. Before he could even register who or what was in front of him a fist slammed into his face and his head cracked back onto the brick. Reacting on instinct, he swung out and felt his fist connect with a sickening crunch of facial bones. He blinked to see the large man he’d landed a punch on stagger back, and heard a muffled scream from his other side. When he turned he saw that another man was holding Lila up against the wall. Both men were dressed in dark colours with balaclavas covering their faces; and to Nick’s dismay both were holding knives.
‘Do not move or I will slit her throat,’ the man holding Lila against the wall said, bringing his knife up to her neck and causing her to whimper in distress. Nick froze.
‘Don’t hurt her,’ he said, keeping his voice level and holding both hands up in surrender. ‘I have cash on me, my watch, you can take whatever –’
‘We’re not interested in your money,’ the man Nick had punched told him, reaching for his own knife and stalking forward towards Nick. Nick frowned and started running through scenarios in his mind of how this was going to go, trying to come up with a strategy, but before he could make a move the man coming at him let out a bloodcurdling scream and dropped his knife.
‘What are you doing, you useless prick?’ the man holding Lila shouted, obviously reluctant to take his eyes off his victim.
‘Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus,’ the other man swore, clutching the shoulder of the arm that had been holding the knife, with good reason: the knife he had held in his hand was nothing compared to the one now sticking out of his upper arm.
‘Drop the knife.’
Nick and the wounded man turned to see a woman in a baseball cap attached to the back of Lila’s assailant like a small, vicious-looking monkey. She was, Nick realized, holding her own knife to the man’s throat. ‘Do not make me repeat myself,’ the woman said as Nick watched a small trickle of blood make its way from underneath her knife down the man’s neck. With no choice, the man dropped his weapon and held his hands up and away from Lila, who wasted no time scooting down the wall and falling into Nick.
‘Aargh!’ the man with the knife in his shoulder screamed as he pulled it out. Blood was now running freely down his arm, soaking his sleeve. He dropped onto the concrete and pressed his free hand to the wound. After taking in the scene around him with terrified eyes, he turned and ran.
‘Tell your boss to back off,’ the woman said into the other man’s ear. ‘Mr Chambers has protection, and after this little display he will have even tighter security, you understand? Next time any of you try this again it won’t be shoulders I’m aiming for.’ She then leapt silently from his back. The man turned to glance at her for a moment, then started reaching for something behind him. A large shape moved out of the shadows with a low growl, and the man screamed as a dog’s jaws clamped down on his hand. He tried unsuccessfully to shake off the animal but was only released when the woman gave a low whistle. The hulking brown and black dog let go of the man but stayed next to him with its teeth bared and a warning growl. Taking this in, the man gave Nick one frustrated glance, then turned to run after his partner. The huge dog, a sort of Alsatian but obviously not pure bred, padded over to the woman, who bent to scratch his ears and mutter something in a foreign language.
Nick was not about to hang about with a female psychopath in a dark alley, even if she had saved his life, and began backing away with Lila in tow; but as he watched the woman straighten he registered a flicker of recognition, and when her blue eyes locked onto his own brown eyes, he froze.
Chapter3
Non-linear junction evaluator
‘Lucinda?’Nick said, his mouth falling open in shock. ‘What the fu –’
‘Nick, let’sgo,’ Lila’s shaky voice begged as she pulled frantically on his sleeve. Lucinda simply looked past the couple in front of her and jerked her chin at someone behind them. Nick spun round just in time to see a large figure at the end of the alleyway make some sort of signal to Lucinda and jog away. ‘Nick, comeon,’ Lila pleaded. Nick made a step towards Lucinda, and the dog now sitting at her side growled, its lip curling to reveal the lower half of its sharp teeth.
‘Salem, enough,’ murmured Lucinda, resting her hand on top of the dog’s broad head. He immediately stopped growling and allowed his lip to drop over his teeth, but Nick got the impression that he wasn’t happy about it. Now that he was really looking, he realized that this was the dog that had been hanging out at the ground floor reception for the last four weeks; Nick had just assumed it was a new part of the office security.
Lucinda glanced behind her, then stared straight at Nick. ‘We should go,’ she told him, and started walking towards them. Lila gasped and flung herself back against the wall of the alley as Lucinda went by, but this didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. She swept past them both, the dog padding silently in her wake, and it was only when she was a few feet away that Nick managed to shake off his shocked stupor and start after her, pulling Lila along behind him.
‘Do you mind very much telling me what the fuck is going on?’ he clipped, tucking a shaking Lila under his arm.
‘We need to get back to your car,’ Lucinda told him, turning onto the busy street and starting to wind her way through the crowds, back in the direction of Nick’s office. ‘Once we are at your apartment complex, then you’ll be secure and we can debrief.’
‘I am not going anywhere with you and neither is Lila,’ Nick shouted after her, drawing to a halt. Lucinda and the dog stopped in their tracks and turned to him. It was almost imperceptible, but he could have sworn she rolled her goddamn eyes.
‘Sir, I’m sorry but we do need to move,’ a man’s voice said from behind Nick, and he turned to see the man Lucinda had been signalling to standing there, his arm out to indicate that they must move forward. He was tall, even taller than Nick, who was at least six foot two, and his frame was heavy-set. He had dark hair, just a shade lighter than Nick’s, and dark eyes, but the most striking thing about his appearance was the scar that ran from the corner of his eye, down his cheek and into his neck. Nick’s mind flashed to the small crescent-shaped scar at the corner of Lucinda’s eye, and he frowned.
‘Listen, mate, unless someone starts explaining to me what the fuck is –’
‘No,’ Nick heard Lucinda’s voice clip from his other side. ‘We will explain at the flat. We need to be off the street now.’
‘I –’
‘Listen for once in your life, you arrogant son of a bitch,’ Lucinda spat out at him. ‘Maybe you don’t give a shit about your life, or hers for that matter,’ she said, indicating towards Lila, ‘but it would be helpful if you let me do my fucking job, get you to a secure location, and be able to make enquires about Mr Southern’s well-being, okay?’
‘Ed? You think something might happen to Ed?’
Lucinda just stood her ground, glaring up at him.
