“You should have time to read most of it through the journey,” Girard said.
Hallie didn’t answer, too caught up in studying the text in front of her. The founding of the island community was a bit of a mystery to her, and everyone else in low city. There’d been some rumours about a human-only enclave for a while, and then suddenly the name Paradise began to be spoken. It didn’t surprise Hallie that thehochlenperspective was somewhat different. A handful of militants and rebels had settled on a long-abandoned outpost on an island that had plenty of natural resources such as fresh water, timber and stone, and couldsustain farming. Thehochlenhad not found it rich enough in the kinds of things they were interested in, such as minerals that could be used in modern technology, to continue to support a population there. It had been deserted for at least a hundred years before the humans took it over.
The outrage felt byhochlenat having the common folk simply take what had been theirs came over clearly in the somewhat dry account that Hallie was reading. The question of whether to evict the humans or not had gone to a vote on the Conclave only a few years before and the humans had won their right to stay by the narrowest of margins. There was a snippy comment in the text that not one of the humans had seemed appropriately grateful, which made Hallie smile.
The way the text was written suggested that some among the Conclave did not consider the matter closed, and Hallie couldn’t help but wonder if the human inhabitants of Paradise knew how precarious their hold over the island was.
As she reached the end of the document, she became aware that the car was climbing up a slope. Looking up, she realised that they were almost at the security check point that was the only way into and out of the elite home of high city.
Girard exchanged a few words with the armed guards on duty, who waved him through with barely a glance at Hallie. She knew that was because of his presence. Any resident of low city who turned up here out of curiosity, wanting access to high city, would be turned away. Some of the elite households did employ common folk and the employees could only move in or out of high city with appropriate passes from their household. The restriction on getting into high city had never bothered Hallie all that much. She’d never had much interest in staring at the grand houses and whatever else was here, in sharp contrast to a lot of the children she’d grown up with who had looked longingly at the lights they could see on the high hill and wanted so badlyto visit, to find out what was there and whether any of the truly fanciful stories about streets paved with gold were true. Hallie hadn’t wanted to visit the elite on her doorstep. She’d wanted to go much further afield. And now she was getting that chance.
The road noise reduced to near-silence as the car moved through high city thanks to the magic that had been worked into the road surface. They were going a direction Hallie didn’t think she’d been before, but she couldn’t be sure. And she didn’t have a great deal of insight into high city as it was.
Eventually Girard turned the car off the main road, through a gap in a dense hedge of what looked like tree-height shrubs with glossy dark green leaves. Once they passed the hedge, Hallie could see a large open space with close-cropped green grass and a low building created with languid curves and tall, tinted glass windows, the walls finished with dull white paint. Not far from the building, settled on a large rectangular stretch of concrete, was a familiar vehicle. A giant, matte black helicopter. Hallie remembered it from the first time she and Girard had worked together, when the helicopter had been called in to transport gravely injuredhochlenback to high city.
“We’re going in the helicopter?” she asked Girard, nerves and excitement twisting her guts together.
“We are,” he confirmed. From the tone, Hallie could tell that he had all of her excitement and none of her nerves. “It’s the fastest way. There’s no airstrip on Paradise, and we don’t have a seaplane handy, but the helicopter is rigged for long-distance travel, so it can easily get us there.”
Hallie wasn’t sure what to say to that. Things like airstrips and seaplanes were as alien to her as the helicopter ahead of them. Girard drove around the building to what was clearly a car park, full of more shining, sleek city cars and a couple of the large black vans that Hallie recognised from previous dealings with the investigators. “What is this place?”
“This is our office building. It’s also got the forensic lab and a mortuary. Unfortunately, we don’t have time for a tour just now, but perhaps when we get back?” Girard parked the car and turned off the engine, glancing across at her. Whatever he saw on her face made him frown. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve never been on a helicopter before,” Hallie answered. It wasn’t the complete truth, but it was a good part of it. “Or out of the country, for that matter.”
“I know. But we have great pilots, and the journey won’t be that long. A couple of hours at most, I think,” he said. Hallie nodded to show that she’d heard him, and got out of the car. She appreciated the fact that he was telling her the truth, and hadn’t tried to give her false comfort. He moved around to the back of the car and sent her a grin, his own excitement showing through. “I’ve not been in the helicopter before, either. I’m told it’s not very comfortable, but I’m looking forward to it.”
With that confession, Hallie managed a smile and some of her nerves settled. She took her bag, ignoring Girard’s reach for it, and walked with him across the concrete to where the massive black machine was sitting. Now that she was out of the car, she could hear the whine of its engines and saw a group of five people standing near the front, where the pilots would sit. One of the sliding doors to the back compartment was open and she caught a glimpse of a row of what looked like padded seats with high headrests, the sort that would have looked at home in a luxury car or van.
As they drew closer, Hallie recognised two members of the group: Peredur Roth and Frollo, one of the tactical team who she’d met before. Frollo and another man she didn’t recognise were dressed for combat in black tactical gear, handguns at their hips and rifles across their backs. The other two men were dressed in black overalls, holding helmets in one hand, and she guessed they were the pilots.
“Frollo’s not driving, is he?” Hallie asked in a low voice. Her first encounter with the young man had been a terrifying drive in an open-sided vehicle through the city’s port, with no seatbelt available.
Girard chuckled. “No, he’s just riding shotgun.” At her confused expression he added, “It’s a precaution. We don’t expect to need them, but he and Duncan are along just in case. They’ll head home with the pilots.”
Not sure what she was supposed to make of that, Hallie held her questions back as they’d now come in earshot of the director’s group.
“Miss Talbot. Thank you for making the time,” the director said. In contrast to the others, he was dressed in the tough, hard-wearing beige trousers and leather jacket that she had come to think of as the investigators’ uniform. Peredur Roth might be the director of the organisation, but from what Hallie had observed, he liked to take an active part in the various enquiries and kept himself fit enough to field duty. His mostly silver hair was slightly ruffled from the fresh breeze, eyes sharp and alert as he looked at her.
“Of course. I’m happy to help,” Hallie said.
“I’m not sure how much Girard told you. We’d normally do a detailed briefing in the office before sending you out, even with the little information we have. Unfortunately, there’s a storm front moving in. The overnight readout is that it picked up pace, so we don’t have time to delay.”
“Is there a particular reason for the urgency?” Hallie asked, apprehension growing again. The storms in low city generally lasted a day at most, and waiting another day or so didn’t seem like an unreasonable delay.
“Not as such. The Conclave took a while to make up its mind but now wants answers as soon as possible. That’s normal,” Peredur added in a dry tone which made Hallie bite her lip tohide a smile. There was a hint of weariness and experience in his voice that suggested this was far from the first time the Conclave had spent a long time in discussions before demanding fast or immediate action. He still had that dry tone as he went on, “The forecasters are telling us that this particular storm is due to last for at least a couple of days, and the Conclave didn’t want to wait until it cleared.”
Hallie nodded to show she’d understood. The Conclave’s impatience, now that they’d made up their mind that action was to be taken, made perfect sense.
“This is a fact-finding mission. We want to understand why Waller Howther has broken off communication and why the Conclave’s messages have not been answered,” Peredur said, addressing his words to both her and Girard, although Hallie thought he was speaking more for her benefit. “There’s no mobile network available there, but Girard has a radio phone. We expect you to check in at least once a day, or sooner with any significant updates. You’ll need to make decisions on the ground as to how to proceed, but if you run into any trouble at all I want you to stay safe and call for back-up. We’ve scheduled a pick-up four days from now, which should be plenty of time to complete the Conclave’s request.”
“Got it,” Hallie said, apprehension returning. “So, we’re on our own for four days?”
“More or less. If you miss a check-in, we’ll come find you,” the director said. “Honestly, this should be fairly routine. The community there comes across as peaceful in the limited contact we’ve had. We know they have some hand weapons, primarily to deal with a few native predators.” He glanced at Girard then back to Hallie. “If we had any concerns, we’d be sending a tactical team in first.” He nodded to Frollo and the other armed man. “Your escort is standard practice. A precaution, just in case our information is wrong.”
Hallie absorbed the extra information and let her nerves settle. The night before she’d been thrilled with the idea of travelling somewhere new. Bathed in cold morning light and with the enormous bulk of the helicopter looming over her, she could still feel that excitement along with a heavy dose of nerves. Still, she had to trust that the director and his people knew their jobs.
“We’ve got supplies that should last a week, and that’s without anything we might find on the island,” Girard added, and that was definitely for her benefit, Hallie thought. She nodded again, and tried to school her expression into something less nervous.
