“Yes,” Peredur said. He and Girard had managed to get a set of flexi-cuffs onto Brock. They pulled the young man up to his feet, moving with him. “This is Brock. He just shot and killed Jonah. Take him into the kitchen there,” the director pointed, “and keep an eye on him.”
“Sir.” Frollo directed two of the men with him to take Brock with them, but stayed where he was along with the remaining tac team member. Frollo tilted his head to the dead man. With his helmet covering most of his face, Hallie couldn’t be sure of his expression. “This is Jonah? He looks familiar.”
“You probably remember him as Joshua Simmons,” Peredur said, a wry tone in his voice.
“Oh, yes. I remember Simmons. Nasty piece of work,” Frollo said, in the sort of voice that told Hallie there was a whole bundle of stories and history there.
“You’ve got history with him?” Hallie asked, curious.
“Oh, yes,” Frollo said again. “Had him in my scope more than once. Abbeyydan, wasn’t it, sir?” He looked at the director.
“That’s right. He’d set up a place a bit like this one outside Abbeyydan’s main city. An oldhochlenfortress, on the coast, with a good harbour. He had a lot of very foolish young men working for him, doing all the dangerous work and getting themselves killed.” The director’s voice was calm and matter-of-fact, but Hallie could tell he had been disturbed by whatever Jonah had gotten up to in his previous life. Peredur glanced at Girard and Hallie. “We didn’t have enough evidence to start with, and then when we did get the evidence, he disappeared before we could collar him.”
“I wonder how he got involved with Findo Trask,” Hallie said, eyes on the dead man’s face.
“Hopefully there will be something in the papers that tell us,” Girard said. He looked at Frollo. “Have you cleared out all of Jonah’s men?”
“We’ve got nineteen in cuffs,” Frollo said, sounding cheerful about a good job. “We think there are still a few stragglers. Rojas is doing another sweep, but it’s going to be difficult in the dark and forest. We’re going to set up monitors and patrols and do another sweep at first light.”
“And your missing team members?” Peredur asked.
“Got them. A bit shaken up, and a couple of broken bones, but they’ll do,” Frollo replied. The matter-of-fact tone let Hallie know he was hiding some emotion there, but also telling the truth. She remembered the wild swing of the helicopter as it had come under fire. If the extent of the injuries were broken bones, then she thought that had been some good luck.
“Good,” Peredur said. He drew a breath, looking down at the body on the ground, then across at Hallie. “If you don’t mind, I’m curious about this harbour.”
“Of course,” Hallie said, hesitating as she looked at Rhodda. “If you’ll give me a minute or two?”
“Take all the time you need,” the director said. He crouched beside Jonah’s body and began going through the dead man’s pockets as Hallie moved across to Rhodda.
“I’m very sorry for what’s happened,” Hallie said softly, kneeling in front of Rhodda. “You know it wasn’t your fault.”
“How can that possibly be true?” Rhodda lifted her head a fraction, eyes swollen, face wet. “He’s my son.”
“The world is a tough and unfair place,” Hallie said. “You’re not responsible for the choices he made or what he did.”
“I brought him here, didn’t I?” Rhodda asked bitterly, but Hallie thought she was mostly trying to maintain her anger.
“And if you’d lived in low city, he’d most likely have joined one of the gangs. Which would have been no better,” Hallie said, then shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to argue. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened.”
“You’ve got a good heart,” Rhodda said, surprising Hallie. She brushed the tears from her face. “And Jonah’s not going to be a problem now, at least. I want to help. What can I do?”
“Have you been down to the harbour before today?” Hallie asked.
“Several times, yes,” Rhodda said.
“Could you come with us, tell us what you know?”
“That, I can do,” Rhodda said, and got to her feet. Hallie followed. Rhodda looked around the group, now supplemented with the two tac team members. “It’s going to be a tight fit in the lift.”
Chapter twenty-seven
Tightwasanunderstatement.Although they did all fit in the metal cage, and Rhodda assured them it was more than capable of bearing their weight, everyone was squeezed in uncomfortably close. Hallie had the butt of someone’s rifle digging into her ribs for most of the ride down and had her toes curled up, hoping no one stood on her feet, still only protected by thick socks. She found her thoughts scattering into mostly irrelevant matters. She hadn’t had a shower for at least two days and now she’d thought of that she badly wanted to wash her hair. She also really wanted her clothes and belongings back - the ones that Jonah and his people had stripped from her. Apart from anything else, the clothes and boots had been gifts from Cotovatre. Which made her think about the last time she’d spoken to her ancestor, and whether Cotovatre and her lawyers had managed to convince Wilona to abandon her efforts to get Hallie back into the Talbot family vine. Hallie’s stomach twisted itself into a painful knot. Wilona didn’t give up. And althoughHallie believed that Cotovatre would prevail in the end, she also felt sure that Wilona would demand more from her ancestor. That left a mix of guilt and relief twisting Hallie’s insides. She absolutely did not want to return to the family vine. But how was she ever going to repay Cotovatre?
The air felt too thin and there wasn’t enough of it. She was too crowded. She tried swallowing the lump in her throat with limited success, then closed her eyes and tried drawing slow breaths, telling herself there was plenty of air. She didn’t like tight spaces, and although she knew there was vast open space at the bottom of the lift shaft, they were travelling down through solid rock and it was easy to imagine the walls closing in.
“This is like those tunnels under Haagsfall,” Frollo said into the silence, his voice light. “Remember, Bray?”
The other tac team member, who must be Bray, gave a low snort. “I remember you insisting that it was wide enough for three of us to go in together, and then we had to get pulled out,” he answered, a laugh in his voice.
