Page 228 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘You wouldn’t last a week without me.’

‘We’d finally get some peace.’

‘Fuck you, QG.’

‘Rest up, First Captain.’

Kade leaves him to his counting.

There’s one more place he needs to go before the Watch.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Cold Room is in the basement.

Iron Star keeps their dead behind a reinforced door. The refrigeration machinery produces a constant low hum through the walls, felt more in the teeth than heard. Kade enters alone.

The lights rise, clean white falling across steel and tile.

Names and identification numbers mark the occupied doors.

But not everyone inside belongs to Iron Star.

Some are held as favours, others for contingencies Kade has never needed to question. The unclaimed dead occasionally have a final use in Varrow City. With the right paperwork, a quiet death can be given to someone who needs to disappear.

When Kade finds Seth, he rests his fingers against the metal handle before he pulls. Cold air spills around his hands. Seth lies beneath a white covering, face exposed. Death has drained the anger from him. He looks younger without it. Nothing like the man who screamed at Riley in the holding room or promised Kade that he was Iron Star’s until he died.

Kade stares at him.

Faithful till the bitter end.

His own words.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says, and means it. ‘You should have been able to choose for yourself. I’m sorry I made the choice for you.’

It’s a hollow apology, offered far too late, but it’s all Kade has. People could have died during the fake Reset attack.

Kade closes the drawer.

The door seals with a quiet click.

By the time Kade reaches the Watch, his chest actually aches a little.

His shoulder pulls beneath the healing wound, and a weird kind of fatigue has settled into his legs, but none of it is bad enough to stop him.

The doors open.

The Watch welcomes him back in low light and screenshine.

Cole and Finn occupy their usual stations.

Riley stands behind them with one hand braced against a console, reading something on the central display. Lachlan isn’t there, but Kade senses he’s nearby.

Cole looks around first. ‘There he is! Ah, you look much better.’

‘Hey, boys. Boss,’ he adds respectfully.

Riley says, ‘So, you went and saw it?’