‘Oh, may great Bast preserve me. In the name of all that you hold dear, what the hell are you blithering on about?’
I may have lost my cool, but Julius just looked at me from beneath a raised eyebrow. He appeared utterly unphased by my reaction.
‘He wrote the clue on the back on a postcard. Paul may have the postcard, but I bet he doesn’t know what it means.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I don’t either.’
I stared at the ceiling and counted to ten. Then I counted to twenty. Then I took a deep breath and tried again.
‘Okay. What did it say?’
Julius looked at Ramin, then back at me, and shook his head.
‘No. I don’t trust him, and I don’t trust Clio. The only person so far that has behaved in any way trustworthy or honourably is you. I will tell you only. And not here. This house could be bugged.’
‘This is the safest spot for you right now.’
‘If you’ll forgive me, nowhere near you lot feels very safe right now.’
I pinched my nose. ‘Do you honestly think you could fight Paul off on his own? Or the thugs he has hired? Or whoever his boss is? At least here you know whose side we are on.’
Ramin coughed.
‘She’s right, you know. And we are a team. I would never let her down. Paul’s betrayal has rocked us to our core, but we’re still your best option for protection. If you want, I can move to another section of the house. But understand this, if Paul is out there trying to grab the egg then I will give my last breath to protect Neith. I won’t let your suspicions of me get in the way of that. Am I clear?’
#34 Sam – Alpha Earth
Sam and Soliman headed to the infirmary. An unreported angel event was unheard of. He had already put in wake-up calls to all the staff on that shift, but in the meantime he could try to establish where the angel had come from. Jo and Di were currently going through their scrub down as Sam went over to them. He had already ruled them out as it would have been the first thing they mentioned, but he needed to be certain.
Returning to Soliman, he confirmed that they hadn’t sent an angel. Soliman then shouted at an orderly to summon the Head of the Infirmary immediately. Alarmed by the raised voice in the hospital ward, a member of staff dashed out from behind a desk. She could hardly tell the chancellor to be quiet, but she did try to explain that Dr Giovanetti was currently supervising intern operations.
‘I don’t care if they’ve got their arm halfway up a cadaver’s arse. Get them here now,’ roared Soliman, as Sam winced on behalf of cadavers everywhere.
As they waited, Sam had to listen to Soliman tearing strips off him. He was losing his grip. The team were sloppy and making up stories, no doubt to cover their own ineptitudes. Orderlies and nurses crept around the two men, closing bedroom doors to try to lessen the noise. Sam stood silent as his boss raged, but inwardly he relaxed as he saw Haru striding down the corridor. Sam was delighted to see the fury on his old friend’s face. Here in the infirmary only one voice mattered, and it was not the one currently shouting and blustering.
‘Gentlemen. My office please. And keep your voices down. This is a hospital not a playground.’
‘Dr Giovanetti —’
‘Chancellor. This is my hospital. If you have an issue with how I run it take it up with your bosses.’ Turning on his heel, he walked off down the corridor toward his office. The chancellor may have technically outranked him, but when it came to chain of command both men were section heads and reported to the local Civil Agency headed up by Director Ranai al-Cavifi. If they wanted to play turf war it would be down to her to break it up.
Sam followed quickly, keeping his face as neutral as possible. If Soliman couldn’t reprimand Haru, he could totally bollocks Sam, and from the set of his jaw Sam knew his boss was furious. As the three men settled into Haru’s office, Soliman launched into an offensive line of attack.
‘When did you last have an angel incident?’
William looked at him with mild surprise. ‘Through the Q Field or one back for routine treatment?’
‘Q Field,’ barked Soliman, as though it were obvious which he had wanted.
‘About six months ago. I’ll have to check the logs for the exact date.’
‘Not yesterday then?’
Haru cocked his head. ‘No, of course not.’
Soliman turned to Sam. ‘Director Nymens, I want a full report on my desk in an hour about the ridiculous way your team has been proceeding. After that you can go home whilst I try to sort out this shambolic mess you’ve left your department in.’ And with that he stormed out, leaving Haru looking shocked and Sam looking thoughtful.
‘Sorry about that.’
‘Sam, what the hell is going on?’
‘Nothing good. Can you do me a favour? Can you privately ask Asha to come to my office immediately? Ask her to do it unofficially.’
Asha was Haru’s wife and Head of Security. The pair were a bit of a dream team and had been since college. Eschewing children, they had put all their energies into their relationship and their departments. Asha would laugh that it was a typical husband and wife team. She would go around after him, patching things up. In truth, he often followed where she led, and as a pair they had developed strategies for saving lives both on and off the field of conflict.
‘Of course I can, but what’s all this about an angel?’
Sam went on to explain about the strange reading from the Q Field, and a reported angel event, but left it at that. He didn’t want to compromise him.
‘I don’t know what’s happening Haru, I just know that something is very wrong and I still have six of my
