Morningside Fall(61)

“C-c-connor, and Aron, I bbb-bet,” Painter said.

“Not if they’re dead,” Finn said.

“So, could’ve been as many as four, then,” Gamble said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Finn.

“Kill it.”

“You got it.”

Gamble approached Painter, and knelt in front of him. “How you feeling, Painter?”

“Still brrr, still breathing.”

“We need to get back to Cass and Wren, and we need to do it quickly. If you don’t think you can make it, I can leave a couple of the boys with you.”

“I c-c-can do it.”

“This isn’t a time to tell me what you think I want to hear.”

Painter answered by getting to his feet.

“Alright, then,” Gamble said, standing. “Pack it up, gentlemen, we’re moving out. Finn, are we scrubbed?”

“Yeah, channel’s clean.”

“Then I’ve got point. Swoop, Mouse, you’ve got the cargo.”

The team snapped into go-mode, wordlessly forming up. Swoop and Mouse took positions on Painter’s left and right. And a few seconds later, they were pushing out into the open, headed from a known danger into one unknown.





TWELVE


Cass sat at a table right in the middle of the Mister Sun’s main room, alone, eyes intent on the door. The lights near the entrance were turned low, all the others were off completely, casting the area in a dusky gloom. Painter and Wren were both upstairs in Painter’s small room, hopefully getting some much needed sleep. Though she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were both lying wide awake, listening for whatever might come. Mister Sun had retired to his side room. She was pretty sure he was waiting just on the other side of the door, just in case.



It’d been a gamble, sending a message through Able, but it was one she’d felt she had to take. If North was in on the plot, they would know soon enough. And they’d already done everything they could to stack the odds in their favor.

“One incoming,” Cass heard Wick say over internal comms. “It’s him.”

A minute later, the front doors slid smoothly open, and a hulking figure stood in the entrance, silhouetted by the street lights behind him. He stepped cautiously over the threshold, out of the shadows and into the softer lights at the entrance. It was North. He looked off to his right as he entered, lowered his head and squinted, trying to force his eyes to adjust as he peered into the darkness. But as he scanned back to his left, his eyes quickly locked on Cass’s, drawn no doubt by their soft electric glow.

“Lady Cass,” he said, with a slight bow. North seemed surprised to see her. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” He stepped forward.

“That’s close enough,” Cass said as North reached the edge of the light, near the first row of tables. The doors slid closed and the locking mechanism clicked audibly.

“Front’s clear,” Wick said.

“Street’s clear,” Sky said.

“Rear’s good,” Finn answered.

Cass didn’t answer. Just kept her eyes on North. He remained at the entrance, hands folded in front of him. Usually quietly confident, he seemed instead tense and uncertain. Maybe just a man awakened in the middle of the night. Or maybe a man fearing the unraveling of a plan. Cass let him wait in silence, knowing the less she led him, the more likely he was to reveal his own thoughts.

“A bit late for tea,” North said. Cass held herself still, her eyes locked on his. An odd benefit of her altered eyes; he knew without a doubt that she was watching him, but couldn’t read her expression.

“Are the others joining us?” he asked.

“We’ll see,” she answered.

“May I sit?”

“If you must.”

Cass waited while North moved to the closest table and pulled a chair out for himself. He sat with his hands in his lap, under the table.

“Hands on the table,” Cass said.

“What’s going on, Cass?”

“Hands on the table,” she repeated. His shoulders sagged and he sighed. Then he raised his hands slowly in an exaggerated motion and held them up and open, and then placed them flat on the table in front of him.

“You’re usually more hospitable,” North said.

“You never really know people, do you?”

“It’s been a long few days, Lady. I have neither the energy nor the patience for games.”

“No games,” Cass said. “But I do have some questions.”

“They couldn’t wait for morning?”

“No.”

“Enough, Cass. I assume from the time and location of this meeting that you’ve learned something significant. And I assume from the fact that we’re the only two here that it’s something you don’t want the others to know.”