“Hassan, push onto Hill Gate. Unit Two, are you there?”
The walkie-talkie crackled, and Su-wei confirmed she was waiting with her crew at Hill Gate.
“Any sign of anyone in the woods?”
“All clear, Base.”
“OK, get ready for handover. Once we get the cast through the gate, we should be good to go.”
Indira’s hand dived into her cigarette packet. She produced a dart and lit it with such fluidity it resembled tai chi. She sucked in the tobacco and held it in her lungs until I thought she might actually have died, then blew it out in a heavy stream that fogged the air around us.
“Any idea how they knew about this?”
My heart was in my throat. “No idea.”
The laser eyes were on me. I froze, in case her vision relied on movement.
“Whatexactlywas it Lord Fuckstud wanted earlier?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
Indira wasn’t buying it. The lasers were heating up.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“And what, specifically, did you handle?”
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was suddenly too dry, so I let my sandpapery tongue rasp down my throat to my stomach and then crawl its way back up again.
“He… had some concerns.”
“About anything in particular?”
“I couldn’t say…”
Indira sucked on her cigarette, eyes never leaving me. “Was it about fox-hunting, by any chance?”
The jig was up. “Hemighthave mentioned that the whole estate is a wildlife sanctuary and very specifically that his parents led the anti-fox-hunting rallies before the ban.”
“Shit.”
“For the whole Midlands.”
“Shit.”
Indira blew the smoke out the side of her mouth and closed her eyes, holding them shut. “How much time have they had to prepare?”
I checked my watch. It was midday. “Ninety minutes? He only found out about it when he heard the hunting horn go.”
Indira opened her eyes and nodded, slowly. “OK, how much damage could they possibly organise in ninety minutes, right?”
The walkie-talkie crackled. “Base, this is Unit Two.”
“Go ahead, Su-wei.”
“Base, we’ve lost the dogs.”
Indira and I stared at each other.
