Page 309 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘I will. I will stay. Everything will be OK.’ Danya shakes him, voice breaking. ‘I’ve got you, brother.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Danya scrubs his resignation.

It’s all that gets Lachlan through the next few days.

Early January is grim, wet and cold. What snow does fall turns to ice or becomes sludge so miserable that not even Mimi wants to go out in it.

Jules is so hurt he won’t even look at Lachlan, and he comes down with some kind of cold from the hangover or the snow or the emotional turmoil, Lachlan doesn’t know. In all the time Lachlan has known him, he’s never seen the boy sick with an illness, but Blaire says she’s worried about him. Vasily spends most of his time with Jules, the pair still reading the books Mikhail sent to Vasily from Rozhenska. The two times Lachlan went to see Jules, he was ignored so thoroughly he may as well have been a ghost.

It’s more than fair.

He deserves worse.

The containment bubble for Jules’ little getaway seems to hold up well enough. Rook and Zaitsev selectively deleted what they needed to from the Ivy Wall footage, and all tracking logs were erased from all three cars.

The only remaining issue is Holtz.

Danya kept him in holding, and the man hasn’t put up one iota of fuss in his time there. He’s asked politely to go to the restroom a few times and accepted food and water, but when Julian is mentioned, he seems stuck in that same loop as New Year’s.

It’s his mood that worries Lachlan.

He shows no signs of degradation or exhaustion.

He’s not concerned with what’s going on outside the holding room.

He hasn’t even asked to call his wife.

Blaire seems deeply concerned by this and even asks to speak with Holtz herself, which Lachlan grants, albeit curiously.

She speaks with him for less than a minute and leaves swiftly afterwards.

‘I shall look into it,’ she says, and nothing else.

Lachlan has tried every angle.

What did Julian give you?

Did you eat or drink anything he handed you?

Did he touch or inject you?

Did you strike your head?

What’s the last thing you remember before leaving your post?

Holtz knows the date, where he is and how long he’s been confined. He can name his wife, recite his service number and account for every vehicle that passed through the garage that night. But the moment Lachlan turns the questioning back to Julian, he smiles and says the same six words.

‘Eyes on Cascade, Kestrel. Eight bells.’

Lachlan has no fucking clue what to do with him.

On the fourth of January, Holtz finally collapses from exhaustion.

He goes down hard and sleeps for more than a day. When he wakes on the fifth, the certainty is gone. He’s confused, disoriented and remembers nothing after Julian approached him on New Year’s Eve.

‘What did he say?’ Lachlan asks again, handing him a cup of water, which Holtz takes with a trembling hand.