‘Yeah. We’re all kinda wondering where our treasure’s gone. Squeezy wants to search the sea caves.’
‘Tell him to look closer to home.’ When he turned his head at the lack of response, he saw that Ben had fallen asleep again. He’d been doing this since his operation, as if his immensely powerful body just switched him off when it needed to concentrate on healing. Aleksey didn’t mind. If it restored Ben to him, whole and perfect, Ben could sleep for a year for all he cared. He got up quietly and dressed, going over the swim lane and into the kitchen. He pondered all the machines, opened the fridge, considered his options but ended up putting a loaf of bread, some jam and a box of cereal out on the table. While he was leaning on the counter, watching the kettle boil, the door opened, and he turned to find the moron coming in with a huge bunch of flowers in his arms.
‘Do not tell me those are for Benjamin.’
‘Fucking wassock. They’re for Enid.’
‘She’s dead.’
Squeezy sat at the table and began to help himself to some breakfast. ‘Yeah, funny thing that—decorating graves. Guess they’re for our little genius then. He’s down there every day.’
‘Yes. I know. Feeding the birds.’
‘So, how do you reckon he’s doing?’
Aleksey brought over two mugs of tea, which he felt was a first in their long history together.
‘Ben or Miles?’
‘Both, I guess.’
‘They are fine. Surprisingly, I think they are both fine.’
‘An’ you?’
Aleksey jerked his head back a little and glanced at Radulf who was lying in his basket, pretending to be asleep. And good. He smirked. ‘Me? I am…perfect.’
The moron began to chuckle, and after a while, when he couldn’t stop, Aleksey joined in. He wasn’t even sure what they were laughing about, but if you didn’t laugh at life, you cried, and as this idiot surely knew, crying gets you fuck all when the chips are down.
Later, he helped Ben dress, changing into a suit himself. Ben, still oddly cheerful for a man who had been briefly separated from his own body parts, asked, ‘What’ya doing?’
‘Did I not mention it? I have a meeting.’
‘Have you got a job at last?’
Aleksey smiled inwardly. ‘Don’t be cheeky. I demoted you but don’t risk going into negative rankings.’
‘What would they be then?’
‘What do you thinksub-lieutenant means?’
Ben gave him a familiar look. ‘I thought it meant they went…down…’ Aleksey pulled him back to his feet—another first.
They went across the moors and came to the big hospital from the north. He dropped Ben off outside the private patients’ entrance and watched him walk across to reception. Ben would be two hours, apparently, and so he didn’t rush to get to the Hoe, where he’d agreed to meet with Spanner—or Jory Couch, as Aleksey now knew him to be.
He walked into the café beneath Smeaton’s Tower, which had a spectacular view of the harbour, and saw him sitting at a table in the window. Morwenna was with him. They’d already ordered, and so he took his time at the counter, pretending to decide what he wanted, all the while studying this little thorn in his side. Couch seemed older than he recalled from seeing him briefly once or twice in the shop. He was not a teenager at all but a man in his twenties. He appeared calm and untroubled by this meeting, which Aleksey gave him credit for. Morwenna knew nothing about him, but he suspected she knew enough—hence her insistence on being present. Obviously, he wasn’t going to rip Jory Couch’s throat out in public. It wasn’t his style.
Anymore.
He took his tea to the table and sat next to Morwenna, across from the younger man.
‘I am here. Speak.’
Morwenna asked, ‘How’s Ben? Word travels fast when we see the air ambulance up.’
Aleksey nodded. ‘A minor scratch. He caught his hand on a propeller.’
‘Ouch.’
