Jonah turned his head, glaring at her with his pale eyes. If he’d had the power, she would have been dead from that look alone. As it was, the sole of the foot she had planted on his backtwitched, as if her skin didn’t want to be that close to so much malice. “You really are troublesome, aren’t you?”
“I try my best,” Hallie answered, grim smile playing at her mouth.
Girard stumbled to a halt beside her. “Nice catch. He took off fast.”
She was oddly pleased that she’d beaten Girard to the take down, and that he was also slightly out of breath from the short, hard run.
“Not fast enough,” Jonah muttered, irritation clear.
Girard grinned at Hallie. “Do let me get that off the ground for you,” he said, in a falsely cheerful voice. She stepped back, letting Girard put a hand under Jonah’s arm and drag him upright. Once upright, Girard didn’t let go of the other man, turning him around and steering him back to where Peredur, Brock and Rhodda were still standing by the house.
“Did you know that Hallie has a one hundred per cent success rate as a skip tracer?” Girard asked, still in that happy tone.
Hallie put her gun away, glad of the dark as it hid the colour rising in her face and the no doubt foolish smile that was pulling her mouth. Girard had sounded very proud of her.
“It’s been mentioned,” Jonah said, the sour note in his voice making Hallie laugh as she kept pace with him back to the others.
Girard shot another grin at her behind Jonah’s back and she smiled back then sobered as they stopped a few paces away from the director.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Peredur Roth,” Jonah said, with an unpleasant smile that reminded Hallie of Findo Trask.
Brock was standing on the other side of his mother, gun pointed vaguely at her, although it seemed to Hallie that neither mother or son were really aware of that. Rhodda still looked like she was in shock. The director was holding his gun, muzzletowards the ground. Trying not to add to the tension, Hallie thought.
“Simmons,” the director said, voice flat and hard. “Found a new hole to hide in, and a new group of impressionable fools to follow you, I see.”
“You’re not welcome here, Roth,” Jonah said, still with that unpleasant surprise. “And your kind has no jurisdiction.”
“What do you mean a new group?” Rhodda asked, a little spark of interest chasing some of the blankness away from her face.
“Never mind, woman,” Jonah snapped at her. “Brock, control your mother.”
In response, Brock nudged Rhodda in the back with the muzzle of his weapon. “Best be quiet,” he told her. He was trying to sound tough, but to Hallie’s ears he was more like a surly teenager. Both Girard and Peredur raised their guns, aiming at Brock as he threatened his mother. Hallie kept an eye on Jonah, almost wishing he would try and run again.
“How could you?” Rhodda asked bitterly, an edge of tears in her voice as she looked at her son. “We had a chance here to build something, to have a free life.”
“Build? Free?” Brock sneered. “There’s no freedom here. It’s worse than everywhere else. There’s no decent food or even water, and no net. At least Jonah is trying to make things better.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” Peredur said, perhaps sensing that the family argument could go on for a while. He lowered his gun, Girard copying his example. Hallie guessed that the director was trying to take some of the tension out of the air, but there was still plenty to go around. More guns weren’t the answer here, in her view. And it seemed the director agreed. “I knew him as Joshua Simmons. He had a lot of foolish young men following him. All of them ended up dead when he abandoned them.”
“That’s a lie,” Brock said, voice heated. “Jonah would never abandon us.”
“Do you know that everyone else is out in the forest being hunted down by a tactical team?” Hallie asked, trying for a neutral tone. “But where was Jonah? Down in the harbour, trying to escape, at a guess. What happened? Couldn’t get the boat started? Or did Findo Trask sail off without you?”
“Shut up, woman,” Jonah told her, anger flooding his face.
She’d hit a nerve there, although she wasn’t sure what exactly had provoked the reaction.
“But I’m right, aren’t I? When you realised the Conclave team was on its way, you were going to take off, abandon this place and all your followers?” Hallie prompted.
“That’s not true,” Brock said, but there was a trace of uncertainty in his voice now, and his arm had dropped so that the gun he was carrying was pointed at the ground rather than his mother’s back.
“Isn’t it?” Hallie asked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a small gesture from the director. Encouraging her to keep talking. “Where were you going just now?”
Brock just stared at her, lips pressed together, and didn’t answer.
“He was down there with Brock when I got there,” Rhodda said, sounding worn out, still with that edge of tears in her voice. She raised her chin, clearly fighting for some control over her voice as she looked at Hallie. “He could have climbed up the stairs, but, no, he waited for someone to bring the lift down to him.” And now the tears were joined with bitterness and a touch of anger. “You’re right. The boat wouldn’t start. Looks like someone sabotaged the engine. Jonah wanted to get one of the ATVs and make a run for it. Leave everyone else here.”
“My money would be on Findo Trask for the sabotage,” Hallie said. She saw Jonah’s eyes flash with fury and his jaw tightened. “Oh, don’t be so annoyed with him. You’d have done exactly the same, given half a chance. If you’d been able to get your boatstarted while he was still docked, you’d have left him behind without a second thought, along with everyone else.” Hallie tilted her head, looking at the small, awkward group in front of her. “And at a guess, you only kept Rhodda with you because she was going to be useful. After all, you don’t do any work yourself, do you?” Not even climbing up the stairs to get out of the harbour. No. Jonah had waited down below for the lift to be returned to him. That kind of laziness didn’t make him less dangerous. It just curled disgust through Hallie’s stomach.
