Ramin was gratified when Neith finally laughed. She jumped up and grabbed him, kissing him firmly on the lips.
‘Would someone care to fill me in?’
‘Sorry Julius,’ said Ramin, ‘it’s this,’ he added as he tapped his head. ‘Your brain is the best intuition engine there is. A Tiresias simply amplifies it, but we can still do this without one. We need to get you tuned in. You need to go and hang out in places that remind you of Charles, sorry, Charlie, and you need to be well fed and relaxed. Once you’re in an optimal state of mind, ideas will start jumping out at you.’
‘First things first,’ said Neith, looking at Julius, ‘if you and I are heading out I’d be much happier if we could place a tracker on you. Do I have your consent? We all have one so we can track each other. Of course, Paul has switched his off.’
Julius thought this was a good idea and handed over his phone.
‘No, this would be under your skin, so it can’t be lost or removed.’
‘Does it hurt?’
‘Not in the slightest. Is that a yes? You’ll be much safer if we know where you are at all times.’
Julius was cautious, but as Neith stuck her hand out, he couldn’t help but shake it. The minute he had, she declared that it was all done and nodded at Ramin, who was busy typing away on a keyboard.
‘Just like that?’ Julius turned his hand over and compared it with his other, but couldn’t see or feel any difference. Worried that he might begin to obsess over their subterfuge, she grabbed their coats and hurried him out the door.
‘When Clio gets out of the bath, let her know what we’re doing. Also tell her I’ve got her coat. And please, Level Four protocols.’
As they left, Ramin could hear Neith muttering about the weather and he saw with dismay that it had started to snow again. She’d kill him when she got back if this didn’t produce results. Clearing up the cups, he sat down at the keyboard and continued to search for any anomalies that might point to Paul.
‘Where are the others?’ Clio stood in a long dressing gown, her skin pink from having been scalded in a hot bath.
‘Nipped into Julius’ work. He said he wanted to show his face. Let everyone know that nothing odd was happening.’
‘What the fuck? Why didn’t Neith run it past me first? So much for Level Four protocols. At least tell me they switched on Julius’ tracker again?’
‘He refused. Said it was invasive.’
‘She asked him? What’s wrong with her? She should have just pinged him again without his permission.’
‘I know that, but you know how ethical she gets about Betas. Now that he’s living with us, he’s practically a guest.’
Clio balled her hair up in fists. Nothing about this assignment was going right, and she had a bad feeling it was about to get a whole lot worse.
#36 Neith – Beta Earth
I was finally beginning to get a good feeling about this mission. Admittedly, in the whole human endeavour of shit shows this was beginning to stack up, but so far only two people were dead, no plagues had erupted and no buildings had burnt down. Plus, the artefact wasn’t yet lost to eternity. So on the whole, things were looking up.
I was also enjoying Julius’ company; he had a sharp wit and shunned prattle. A fine fellow in every aspect.
‘When you shook my hand that was bullshit wasn’t it?’
I didn’t mind a fine mind, but it was annoying when they were quick. It was so much harder to pull the wool over their eyes. I tried to offer him some flannel, but he was having none of it.
‘Don’t lie. I’ve been thinking about it.’ He didn’t sound mad, just stubborn. ‘You’ve already placed a tracker on me haven’t you? You just re-activated it. There’s no way you could have broken my skin without hurting it and you had no time to apply an analgesic. Admit it.’
He was standing still, challenging me. I needed to understand the clue to the egg and I needed him to pull himself together. I ran through a few scenarios, and decided that the quickest and most effective would be the truth. Some of it.
‘Yes. We tagged you after the funeral. You have a tracker under your skin, near where Clio kicked you. Ramin installed it when he was helping tend your wound.’
‘Is that how you got to me so quickly when Paul grabbed me and Rebecca?’
‘Yes.’ I waited to see if the truth was going to work for me or against. ‘But, when he grabbed you, he ran a scanner over you that deactivated it. We’d have been with you much quicker if he hadn’t. We only had your last location to go from. The minute it switched off, we came running. We knew something had gone wrong, just not what.’
‘Like, if I was dead?’
‘Oh no, we’d know that. Just because you die, the tracker doesn’t stop transmitting. How would we know where to find the body, silly?’
Julius didn’t seem impressed with my light-hearted tone, so I tried to reassure him by telling him how accurate it was. This appeared to backfire.
‘So you can tell my emotional state by monitoring my blood chemistry?’
Now he sounded pissed off.
‘Focus, Julius. It saved your life. Later on, if we survive this, I’ll show you how it works.’
I couldn’t help but grin. He was instantly mollified. Ethics be damned, Julius just wanted to get to the bottom of things.
‘Okay, illegal spy technology aside, let’s go feed my intuition engine. I’d recommend the market for some street food, but I reckon you need somewhere warm, so let’s go to The Eagle. It’s one of our old haunts.’
The pub was warm and buzzing, and we stamped the snow off our boots and headed to the bar. I was pleased to see Julius order a pint of stout, and I made him laugh when
