‘Ah, so that’s what that was,’ said Paul. ‘But I think you’ll find that was at 12.30. What happened at 12.45? And please don’t lie.’
Julius considered prevaricating, but what was the point. Somehow this man had been tracking his heartbeat. God knows, maybe he could even read his mind? Charlie was dead, and Rebecca was in danger through no fault of her own. Whatever else he could do, he could try to get her out of this.
‘I received a postcard from Charlie.’
Rebecca looked up from her soup, her eyes wide. ‘Oh, Julius!’
Frowning, Paul looked at Rebecca. ‘Did I say you could talk?’
Looking back at Julius, he smiled with pleasure. ‘Let’s have it then.’
Julius considered lying, but the fear on Rebecca’s face was unbearable. He might not love the girl, but he didn’t want to play any part in her prolonged misery. He pulled out the postcard from his pocket and handed it over to Paul, who promptly turned it over.
‘What the hell does that mean?’
‘No idea. I think he meant it to be difficult to understand.’
‘“Look up?” Where?’
‘I think he was in a hurry. I think he wanted me to look up Benjamin Franklin, maybe. I don’t know. I only just got the bloody card. Maybe there’s something under the stamp?’
‘If you think...’ Paul was distracted by his watch and he studied it, swearing quietly. ‘Well, this has been lovely, but the cavalry are on their way. Got to run. Sit still and don’t try to follow me.’
#30 Neith – Beta Earth
I was running across the bridge now and almost at Julius’ last known location. It was the same place where Paul’s wrist brace had switched off its geo-tag. I carried on talking to Ramin.
‘This is madness, but I’m going to play along. You can explain later, but I’m alerting Clio. She needs to know that Paul has gone off grid.’
Opening up a direct channel to Clio, I told her what Ramin had just said, leaving off the bit that he wasn’t currently trusting her either.
‘I think Ramin’s right. Why else would Paul have switched his comms off? And it would explain who’s been running interference.’
It explained nothing as far as I was concerned. I liked Paul. A lot. He was my friend, and sometimes a very enthusiastic bedfellow. What he wasn’t, was an enemy. Surely? And why? None of it made any sense. We were curators. Thus, we stuck together. We Preserved. I opened up the bandwidth to include Ramin so we could talk three ways.
‘Alright, Clio, you and I will walk the streets for a bit and see if we can’t spot anything. Ramin, track us, and keep an eye out on the police frequencies for any unusual activity.’
Was Julius already dead? I felt like I was wasting my time running up and down the streets, but what else could I do? If there was a chance that Julius was nearby, I couldn’t walk away. I had told him he would be safe.
I scoured the streets gradually, becoming more and more anxious. I couldn’t see him or Paul and was having to fight through throngs of wretched tourists with their phones out on sticks. No sooner had I broken free of them, than I would have to jump out of the way of a pod of cyclists all glaring at me. This was ridiculous. I was about to either throw a bike at the tourists, or grab a selfie stick and hurl it between the spokes of a bike, when I heard banging on a pane of glass. Snapping my head round, I saw Julius waving at me from the bay window of a café whilst sitting next to his sodding girlfriend. Was she the cause of his elevated heart rate? Had I been panicking for no good cause?
Relieved, I jogged across the road, leaving the cyclists and tourists to their relative safety, and headed into the café where it was immediately apparent that all was not well.
#31 Julius – Beta Earth
‘Was that some sort of joke?’ asked Rebecca, her voice shaky from suppressed tears.
‘I don’t know. Hang on in there.’ Julius had been staring out of the window at the passers-by and saw Neith running along the other side of the road, looking left and right. He banged on the glass and was relieved to see her head whip in his direction. As she saw him she ran across, talking into her watch as she did so.
Leaning across the table, he gently held Rebecca’s hand. ‘It’s okay, I think help is coming.’
‘Julius, what’s going on? Who was that man? Did he really have a gun?’ Her voice was beginning to rise, but she stopped suddenly as Neith sat down at the table. Gathering her wits, she glared at Neith and then turned to Julius again. ‘And who the hell is this?’
Ignoring Rebecca, Neith kept her eyes on Julius. ‘Are you okay?’ She was out of breath and her voice was laced with worry.
Julius paused. Could he trust her? What choice did he have?
‘Your colleague just came in here and threatened to kill Rebecca if I didn’t help him.’
‘She knows him? This woman knows that thug?’ Rebecca’s voice was rising again. ‘Julius, if you don’t call the police I will.’
‘They are the police Rebecca, they’re Special Branch.’ Julius had no idea what they were, but it seemed to calm Rebecca’s rising panic. Turning back to Neith, he too was scared and angry.
‘So much for you having me under protection. He was going to shoot Rebecca and it looked like me as well.’
‘Miss Greene, is your passport up to date?’
Rebecca nodded.
‘I’m afraid Mr Strathclyde here has been helping us with our enquiries into the drive-by shooting of Charles Bradshaw. We hadn’t anticipated a direct attempt on you, and for that you have Her Majesty’s Government’s deepest apologies.’
The formal words began to sooth and reassure Rebecca.
‘For operational reasons we would like you out of the country so that you can’t
