Jealous Storm, Jack Stroke [best sci fi novels of all time .txt] 📗

brain of yours. I tell you a city or a place. How does that help at all?”

The cogs turned slowly in Ben’s brain. “Is this thing we’re doing, is it a job? Or is it more training?”

“That’s two questions.”

“Not really. Okay, what are we doing — no… What is this job?”

“See? That’s better, Benny.”

Shake removed a manilla folder from the seat pocket. He took out a photo, passing it to Ben. The black-and-white image was of the man taken surveillance style.

“Do you know this guy?”

Ben shook his head. The fit-looking guy was in his fifties, if Ben had to guess. He had a buzzcut and prominent jaw.

“Jakob Baumer. Bad guy.”

Ben studied the image. Baumer didn’t look anything special.

“Human trafficker. He’s the target. We have to take him out.”

“When you say take him out…”

“Ha, clever. They said you were smart.”

“What?”

“Nice try, but it still counts as a question even if you don’t phrase it as one. Yes, you take him out. Do you think you can do that?”

Ben stared at the photo, everything becoming a bit more real all of a sudden. He gulped. “Sure.”

Shake grinned at him in a way that wasn’t entirely pleasant. “See, all that has done is open a can of worms, hasn’t it? Now you have a whole lot more questions. I can see it in your eyes… Do you burn your last two questions now or do you wait and see how things play out? Up to you, Benny.”

Ben focused his attention out the window, neither wanting to play nor particularly enjoying Shake’s games.

22

A few hours after she’d left the Half in a huff, Amber heard them arrive home. Heard the taxi pull up and the loud voices of people who have had too much to drink, not trying to be noisy but making no effort to stay quiet either.

What if Ellis came to her door? Knocked on it, bold as brass. It’s the kind of thing he would do. She could shoot him. Surely that would be justifiable homicide. Although she would have to be certain he was alone first.

Amber deliberately moved away from her bed and the Sig hidden under her pillow to remove any such temptations. Footsteps approached, followed by a familiar wrapping of knuckles.

She opened the door to Vaughan. No one else about.

“Hey, kid.”

“Hello.”

He waited for her to go on. She didn’t.

“Everything okay?”

“Fine. Thank you.”

Vaughan stood awkwardly, waiting. “May I come in?”

“No, you may not.”

“Amber…”

She didn’t say anything, not interested in helping.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing is up.”

“Whatever. I don’t see why you were mad at me.”

“Did you know?”

“Did I know what?”

“Did you know that Ellis would be joining us this evening?”

“How could I know?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Yes, it is, even if it’s not the answer you want to hear. Even if I did know someone was coming, how was I supposed to predict you would react like that?”

“Good night, Vaughan.”

He put his arm in the door, preventing it from closing.

“Amber, just calm.”

“I’m perfectly calm. Don’t I seem calm to you?”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Nothing. You made your choice. You decided you wanted to stay put at the Half and play nice with them.”

“This isn’t fair.”

Amber cocked an eyebrow.

“We’d ordered food…”

“Oh, well, we couldn’t disappoint the food, could we?”

“We hadn’t paid for it. Besides, no matter what you think of Ellis, what you did was incredibly rude.”

Wrong thing to say. Amber’s eyes hardened. “Is this where you tell me he actually seems like a pretty good bloke and I should stop being such a stupid woman and get over myself?”

“Yes, Amber. That’s exactly what I was going to say. Because that’s about all I say, isn’t it? Insensitive macho crap.”

“You don’t have the slightest clue about Ellis or our history.”

“That’s true. Although maybe if you opened up and told me something about your past every now and then we wouldn’t be in this position.”

Amber had had enough. “Move your arm, please,” she said through gritted teeth.

“And if I don’t?”

“You’ll have a sore arm.”

Vaughan backed up. The door slammed in his face.

“Amber… Amber…”

She didn’t respond.

“Hey. What happened to Chill Amber?”

Hmm. Maybe Amber could kill Vaughan as well as Ellis.

Amber stared up at the roof. Every cobweb and crack intimately familiar. Other than her clothes, there were no personal touches to cabin six. Why would there be? She had no strong feelings towards the cabin. Mostly she didn’t notice it. It was simply a place for her to sleep. However, occasionally the bugs crawled under her skin and she was desperate to be anywhere else, doing something, anything. At those times she hated the cabin. Hated it with a passion.

She needed to sleep. She was tired. She longed to be able to simply flick a switch and be out cold. There were pills she could take. Other agents did. Although that was a slippery slope. Not a door she wished to open.

Often as an agent there is nothing more you want than to sleep. After a particularly messy or hard job. How had Amber handled those? In the past she had always managed to make it through, no matter how tough it had been, no matter how much she was climbing the walls. If she could get through then, why not now?

She hadn’t taken a life. She had only been at the Half for goodness sake.

23

The morning brought Amber little relief after her restless night.

The idea that things will look better in the morning was one she clung to in tough times, although when the morning seemed no better, it made things all the worse.

Desperate for something to do, she jumped back in the stupid, smelly car and returned it to the front of the bait shop. She should have given the keys back to Grubby in person and said thank you for the lend of the car. That would have been polite. She couldn’t face Grubby at the moment. So she shoved the keys under the door and left. Vaughan would not be impressed.

Thoughts of Vaughan simply made Amber angry. Irrational anger,