Helix Nexus, Chris Lofts [best android ereader .txt] 📗

39

24 Hours Later

The shadow of Chepstow Castle crept north over the muddy brown waters of the River Wye. The heavy blanket of snow surrounding the main gate had begun to fray at the edges. A pair of vehicular tracks stopped yards from the gate, a pair of muddy footprints completing the journey from the vehicle inside. More prints linked the gate with the stables and a pit from which billowing black smoke and orange flames rose. Cawing crows complained from the ramparts, unimpressed with the invasion of their domain.

Helix trudged up the stone stairs, a mug of coffee in his hand. Pulling back the chair from the desk, he slumped down and waited for the satellite comms to connect. A crude pixilated outline of a face appeared on one of the screens, eventually rendering into sharp focus.

‘You took your time,’ Ethan said, a spliff held between his lips.

‘The road trip was always going to be slower than the hyperlink, plus I—’

Ethan held his hand up. ‘I know. You needed time to think,’ he said, flicking ash from the spliff.

‘Actually, smart arse, I was going to say, I had shit to clear up once I got here.’

‘Oh, that shit.’

‘Exactly. Anyway, it’s done now. Thank Christ it’s not summer or they would have really stunk.’ He took a sip of coffee. ‘Moving on, this setup seems to work reasonably well.’

Ethan glanced away. ‘Yep. Are you sure you don’t want a mobile rig to take to the village?’

It was one amongst many things he’d been thinking about on the journey down. Life in the village had its own rhythm. They made things work. Nobody was cold or hungry. People were fit and healthy. The kids only learned what they needed to know, not about what they hadn’t got. Sure, technology could have made their lives better, but better by whose standards? If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

‘No. It’ll be fine. We have comms. I have spare power cells for the PCM. I’ll keep this as a backup site.’

‘You’re the boss,’ Ethan said, laughing his mouth empty of smoke. ‘Oh, by the way. Wheeler’s stuff has turned up.’

Helix sat up. ‘Really? Anything interesting?’

‘Dunno yet. It’s paper, Nate. I’ve got better things to do than leaf through that lot. One of the hamsters in the office is going to digitise it and send me the files.’

‘How close was I?’ he said, taking a sip of coffee.

‘How close to what?’

‘The location of the stash.’

‘Close but no cigar, I’m afraid.’ Ethan pulled on his spliff. ‘We always knew Wheeler was a cock, but to hide it underneath his daughter’s gravestone was callous even by his standards.’

‘Cock is right,’ Helix said, blowing out a deep breath. ‘Jesus. Whatever you do, don’t mention that to Gabrielle, it’ll break her heart. That was where she used to camp out with Eve, by the oak just below the Observatory.’

Ethan nodded. ‘So, how long are you staying?’

Helix stared out of the window at the trees, the rolling hills, the sun dipping towards the horizon. Before they’d delivered the detailed brief to the PM, he would have said forever. The PM hadn’t been joking about a Knighthood but had settled with promoting him to Colonel and Ethan to Captain instead. He and Ethan shared the same opinion about rank. It wasn’t important. It was the work that counted. Filling Yawlander’s shoes would have meant spending more time sharing a chair with his arse. Plus, smiling and being polite to politicians wasn’t his thing either. The service had changed, everything had changed but not as much as it would have if Lytkin had got her way.

Helix had been happy to stand aside and let Ethan shine. He could handle the deskwork. If they’d stayed much longer, the PM would have buried them in special projects. She’d also wanted a thorough drains-up review – as she’d put it – of the structure and organisation of the security services across the country. Helix had kept quiet, relieved to have dodged that particular bullet when the PM said she would get Moore-Hyland to do it.

‘Nate?’

Helix snapped his eyes back to the monitor. ‘Sorry, Bruv.’

‘How long?’

‘Dunno. You won’t have time to miss me with all the shit you’ve got on.’ He shrugged. ‘For as long as I can.’

‘You don’t seem convinced. What are you afraid of?’

It was a good question. He glanced at his brother, his spliff held between his lips, smoke curling around his nose and face. It had been close. So much could have gone tits up and he wouldn’t have been there.

Ethan cleared his throat. ‘Let’s get one thing straight.’ He took a deep drag. ‘I don’t need a babysitter, I’ve—’

‘I know, it’s not—’

‘Let me finish,’ Ethan said, holding his hand up. ‘I’ve got Sofi, or at least I will have once I’ve rebuilt her. You never were any good at looking after other people’s things.’

‘It was her idea to self-destruct, not mine.’ He took a deep sip of coffee. ‘Anyway, she’s still there, maybe not in the flesh, but…’

‘As I was saying. I have Sofi. There’s a couple of new locations I need to check out. The middle of London’s not for me. We tried that and we all know how that ended.’

Ethan was right. He didn’t need looking after and the PM said he could work from wherever he pleased. There might be new threats, but none of the old ones. Helix wasn’t proud of how things unfolded but it was the right thing. No loose ends. ‘OK. Keep me posted,’ he said, swirling the last of the coffee in his cup. ‘Say hi to Sofi for me.’

‘Aww, that’s cute. I think you’re warming to her.’ Ethan nodded. ‘Same to Gabrielle. I told you, Nate, she’s a keeper. And don’t you forget it.’

Helix sat on his bergen, just back from the brow of the hill above the schoolhouse. He scanned around watching knots of villagers, Bo amongst them,