“Yes,” Peredur answered, without hesitation. And Hallie’s truth sense, that little bit of magic that was all hers, let her know he was being completely honest. “In fact, your connection with the lady made me hesitate. Like I said, I know you have many more options. But you’ve proved a good addition to the team.” Again, he was speaking nothing but the truth.
With that reassurance, Hallie relaxed a fraction. She’d been raised to believe that the elite looked down on everyone else and believed themselves to be superior. There was definitely a hard core of truth in that. But she was also learning that the elite werepeople, too, with the same mix of complexity that she was used to from the common folk she’d grown up amongst. “What would the job involve?”
“We’d give you some basic training, mostly procedures and weapons. I know you’re not used to that. But, honestly, I don’t want you to go through the same training as we’d normally provide. I don’t want you to work like we do. I’ve got a half dozen or more investigators who’ve all been trained and operate in a very similar way. And I can train more if need be. What I do want is for you to use your own knowledge and experience to bring a different perspective. You are a good investigator with excellent observational skills. We can use that.” The compliments were given in a matter-of-fact tone that would have let Hallie know he was perfectly serious even without her truth sense. She wasn’t used to compliments, but before she could feel awkward, he was continuing. “You’ll work with Girard to start with. Yes, I know the two of you have a more personal relationship, but you also complement each other well in the field.”
“Does he know?” Hallie asked, feeling heat in her face as the director referenced her relationship with Girard. She didn’t know how to define it, but it was definitely more than colleagues, or simple friendship. She didn’t get a light fluttering feeling in her stomach when she thought about anyone else.
“Yes, of course. I asked him not to say anything to you, but I consulted with him. And Isoud. She agrees you’d be an asset to the team.” That was Isoud Sabard, head of the forensic team and someone Hallie had grown to both respect and like.
Hallie wasn’t sure what to say to that. To any of it. Part of her wanted to leap at the chance. No more chasing fugitives into filthy garages. The chance to do some true investigative work. To catch criminals before the system had got hold of them, perhaps preventing harm before it could happen. And another part of her wanted to duck away. She had plans. The stack of paperworkfor travel permits currently sitting in her home was just the first start. What the director was offering her was going to up-end everything she’d been thinking about.
“Whereabouts would I be based?” she asked, picking up the coffee and taking a sip. It was good. Dark and rich. The jolt of caffeine helped keep her focused. She also took one of the cakes, which was a dainty, bite-sized piece, and was distracted for a moment by the burst of sweet and tart berry flavour in her mouth. She wondered if they would let her take some home for Rosalia. Her roommate was an extraordinary cook, and always interested in new foods and flavours.
“You can be based here, in Daydawn. We’ve got offices and labs in Voldain,” the director added, referencing the high city where the elite lived and, it seemed, also worked. He took a cake as well. “However, we’re expected to travel if needed. I was in Nephran when Bohort Jacobs was killed.” The name Nephran brought to mind images of soaring white towers with golden domes and feathered palm trees. It had looked beautiful on the few images Hallie had seen. “And we’ve got an office in Haagsfall, of course.” The original home and main base for the Conclave. It made sense that the investigators, formed by the Conclave, would have a spot there. Haagsfall had never been high on her wish-list of places to go, as it seemed to be ahochlen-only city. But, still, it was somewhere different. Somewhere far from where she was now.
Travel.
That one word snagged into Hallie’s consciousness and she almost couldn’t see or hear anything beyond that. It was one of her deepest wishes. To see more of the world than the city she’d been born in and spent her entire life in to date. She’d begun making plans of her own to see more, to explore, and here was the director offering her paid employment which might also include some travelling.
She hadn’t been aware she was smiling until she saw an answering gleam on the director’s face. “We could always do this on a trial basis. Say, six months? You’d be paid the standard investigators’ salary, of course.”
“Sounds good,” Hallie said. She had no idea what the standard pay was, but discovered she wasn’t all that interested in the monetary amount. She was far more interested in the work being offered. “When do I start?”
“As soon as possible,” the director said. The amusement faded from his face and he put his coffee down. Hallie copied him, a trace of unease creeping through her. She’d rarely seen him more serious. “And I think we may be calling on your old skills earlier than expected. We’ve had an escape from custody. The first one in our history.”
The unease built in Hallie. She’d been involved in assisting a few people into Conclave custody and, of those, there was one obvious candidate for escaping.
“Findo Trask,” she said, voice flat.
Peredur nodded, expression grim. “He was being held in a facility here waiting for transport to the maximum security prison in Abbeyydan. We don’t know how he managed it, but he got out. Unless anything more urgent comes up, I want you and Girard to get to work on that.”
“Alright,” Hallie said, cradling the coffee mug in her hands. She remembered the clever, violent youngveondkenvery clearly. He’d masterminded an illegal fighting ring in low city, and had managed to escape from local police custody when Hallie had been transferring him into the station cells. He might have technically been in police custody when he’d made his escape, but Hallie had been right there and couldn’t shake the sense that it had been her responsibility to keep him confined. She’d managed to catch him again later, which had helped soothe her sense of guilt. And now he was free again.“We might need back-up to bring him in,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound either too reluctant or too worried. While he might still be counted as juvenile among his people, Findo Trask was extremely dangerous and powerful.
“Whatever you need. I don’t want him escaping again,” Peredur said.
“I had to chase down another of his kind recently. The local cops provided some tranquilliser syringes which were helpful,” Hallie said. She grimaced slightly. Catching that particular skip had been dangerous and she’d been badly injured. “Although it did mean getting up close to deliver the doses.”
“I’ll look into that. We might be able to modify a weapon into a dart gun, which would let you tag him at a longer distance,” Peredur said. He pulled his phone out from a pocket and tapped a message onto the screen before putting it away. “You didn’t seem all that surprised that he’d escaped.”
“I am surprised that anyone escaped custody,” Hallie said frankly, “but if anyone was going to manage it, of all the names I know, he was the only one that came to mind.” She frowned, thinking back to the circumstances of Findo’s arrest. He’d been organising an illegal fighting ring, and had left several dead bodies in his wake. The only body of serious concern to thehochlenhad been one of their own, but Hallie remembered the other dead. “The bodies that were found. The ones with no ID chips. Were their identities ever confirmed?”
“No. We had facial reconstructions done, but without any ID or other information, it was impossible to track them further. They were all young men, all human.Karlen, I think you’d say. We have detailed descriptions and files on each one of them.” The director’s eyebrow twitched. “Why?”
“Partly I was curious,” Hallie answered honestly. “And partly because I could never work out how or where Findo Trask hadmanaged to recruit fighters for his ring that didn’t have ID. As far as I know, even the criminals in low city have ID chips.”
“That’s true for Daydawn, yes,” Peredur said. “We had considered the possibility that he brought the fighters in from elsewhere. Ah. You don’t agree?”
“No, not that,” Hallie said, heat rising in her face at how closely the director had been watching for her reactions. “It’s more that I’ve never heard of that happening before. People want to get out of low city, not sneak into it. That’s the part I don’t get. I could actually understand it if Findo had managed to recruit fighters from within the city. There are a lot of disaffected young men who’d welcome a chance to beat someone else up and earn some money.”
Peredur’s serious expression lifted in a brief smile. “Young men seem the same the world over,” he commented. He paused for a moment and Hallie let him think while she finished her coffee. “I’ll make sure you get the files on the bodies we found as well as all the information we have on Findo Trask. Consider the identities a secondary priority, though. Findo has to be the primary target.”
“Understood,” Hallie said. Privately, she agreed with the director. As harsh as it was, the unfortunate men killed in Findo’s fighting ring were not going anywhere, whereas the longer Findo was on the loose, the more trouble he might be able to create. “Let me check with my employer, and I’ll come back to you with a start date. I’m assuming you want that to be as soon as possible?”
“Indeed. We’ve got our critics on the Conclave and an escaped fugitive is not doing our reputation with them any good,” Peredur said.
Having recently met a few Conclave members, Hallie could easily imagine the open and harsh criticism that the director was facing. She had the briefest moment of hesitation, wondering ifshe was being foolish for being so eager to jump into a role which would bring her to the Conclave’s notice. But then she thought about getting to travel to new places, to investigate and piece together puzzles, and, of course, work with Girard. She’d find a way to deal with the politics.
Chapter three
