Residual Belligerence (Thieves' Guild: Book One)

  Part of him wanted to shrug her off. He shook his head. "I don't know where he is."

  "But you know where he might go."

  "Sean," he started but didn't know what to say. Going with her to a couple of places was one thing, giving away their favourite haunts and having no say in what she might do there was another.

  "There are bounty hunters like McKenzie getting close to people you both know," she said, "and with that much money on offer, guys like Polly's friend might not be so loyal as you'd hope they'd be."

  That hit a spot deep inside. He'd seen the look on Tavner's face and he knew she was right.

  "Palmio," he said reluctantly. "There's a club there called Joanna's. And the station at Sten's World. I've never been there but LC mentioned it a couple of times. He knows a girl there."

  She smiled and squeezed his arm gently. "You guys hang out in the most pleasant of places. What's her name?"

  It felt like he was betraying LC as he said, "Olivia. She runs an escort agency."

  Sean nodded. "Don't worry, I'll find him and I'll bring him back safely."

  Hil walked off Edinburgh into a chilly dockside that was bustling with too many people to be routine. Two of the Man's guards were waiting and they picked him up straight away, without a word, one falling in to either side of him as he walked across the dock. He frowned at them.

  "Hil," Skye greeted him immediately, the connection sparking to life with a welcome warmth that relaxed a tension in him that he hadn't realised was there.

  "Skye, what's going on? Have they started repairs yet? Are they letting us go out?"

  "No, honey, we're not going out." She sounded sad. "NG wants to see you in Ops."

  Ops was where they were given the details of their tabs. It was the domain of the handlers. NG didn't interfere with Ops unless something was wrong.

  "What's happened, Skye?" he said, panic starting to clutch at his stomach. "Have they found LC?"

  "No," she said again, lighter that time and he forced his heart rate to calm. "I don't know what's happening, honey, but NG is in Ops with Mr Quinn and they're waiting for you."

  Quinn. Crap. Hil hoisted his bag over his shoulder and edged past the crews of dockworkers throwing boxes of supplies onto loaders headed for the ships. Some of the extraction teams were there supervising and as he caught sight of Martha, he stopped, wanting to talk to her but not here, not surrounded by her freaky extraction buddies, not in the cold public space of the docks with two of the Man's personal guards at his heels. He watched for a moment as she ticked off items on a clipboard and argued with the dockie who threw up his hands and shook his head. She laughed and turned and stopped as she caught Hil's eye. The laugh faded and instead her face broke into a wide grin. And it wasn't a happy to see you kind of grin. She said something to the dockie and left him to it, walking over with long strides and a look in her eyes that he couldn't fathom.

  "You are in a world of shit, sunshine," she said.

  He bit back the irritation at her tone and the fact that she knew more than he did.

  She waved the clipboard at him. "You and LC both."

  "Martha, we need to talk," he said quietly, knowing they had a growing audience as more people stopped what they were doing to look over at them.

  She shook her head and rested the clipboard against his chest. "Whatever it was you went after out there, Hil, you'd better hope your ass that LC has it and he comes in." She walked away, and said without looking back, "Quinn wants you in Ops."

  She'd cut her hair since the last time he'd seen her and it bobbed as she walked, soft red curls bouncing on her shoulders. Hil bit his lip. Skye was right, she was still pissed at him.

  He stood there amid the stares.

  "Now, honey," Skye interrupted, "you really need to get your cute ass to Ops. Mr Quinn is getting impatient."

  That was the sarcastic Skye he knew and loved. Quinn could wait all he wanted. The man was a toad sucking, lackey of a scum dweller. But keeping NG waiting was never a good idea.

  He burst through the door into Ops with a temper building at the thought of having to deal with Quinn. Mendhel had always been a superstar who knew exactly how to wind them up, calm them down and get the best out of all his operatives. It wasn't a coincidence that the top six field-ops had all been Mendhel's. Quinn was an upstart who'd never done anything to impress anyone so why the hell was he being handed Mendhel's people? The Chief should have had better judgement than that.

  He was pointed in the direction of a briefing room and he went in, leaving his two newly acquired bodyguards waiting outside.

  Quinn was sitting at the head of the table, alert and pretentiously formal. NG was perched nonchalantly on the bench along the side wall, flicking through data boards. Hil pulled out a chair and sat down, looking to NG for a lead in.

  Quinn cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak but NG threw a board down onto the table before he could get a word out.

  "Mr Quinn here is your new handler," NG said. "You have a tab."