The attempt to swallow caught in his throat as she turned and walked away. What did she mean when she said, ‘I don’t know what I want.’ Pushing away the self-doubt, he ground his teeth and turned back to Wheeler.
‘Cat got your tongue, Major?’
His hand was like a vice, gripping his gun so tightly that his whole arm shook. He wanted to smash the smug grin from Wheeler’s face. ‘I said, move it.’
Wheeler shuffled towards the pit and stood at its edge. ‘You’re not going to kill me, Helix.’ A cloud of breath drifted over the pit as he folded his arms and sighed, staring into the distance.
‘Really?’ Helix said, glancing down the path as Gabrielle picked her way through the slush, her arms crossed over her chest.
‘Yes, really. Because you want what I know. I’ll take the chance. This isn’t a social visit. Whatever Gabrielle was about to say just now, you stopped her. If I’m wrong and you don’t need my help, I’ll be dead in the next few moments.’ He turned his eyes to the pit. ‘Maybe you’d be doing me a favour.’
20
26 Hours
Wheeler’s thrashing around in the stinking soup and bodies in the pit was small compensation for the irritating fact that he was right. Helix wanted to know more. In the absence of a fully formed plan, if he had something Helix could use as leverage, it made sense to hear what it was. But it could wait.
‘I’ve got the other two,’ Sofi reported. ‘What do you want me to do with them?’
‘See what you can find out about Wheeler while I decide what to do with them.’ Holstering his gun, he turned from the pit, deaf to Wheeler’s complaints about freezing to death. ‘I want to know if he has contacts in Bristol and who they are. How does he reach them if he can’t go within five miles of the perimeter?’
‘OK. I’ve halo-cuffed them. They’re both doing their best tree-hugging impression. I’ll have a chat with them.’
Tree-hugging. He smiled to himself. Another Ethanism. The brief association evaporated like a warm breath on an icy morning. Traipsing back to the village, he checked the time. Twenty-seven hours to go. He needed to get a grip.
He zipped his jacket against the cold. His heart filled with the fire-light glow of the previous night, the gentle tempo of the candle-lit lovemaking, Gabrielle in his arms, not just in his dreams. And again that morning, rays of sunlight substituting for the candles and the warm embers of the fire. In the intervening hours, he’d lain listening to her breathe, a nascent plan taking shape in the darkness.
He wasn’t in the habit of smiling at strangers, but he hoped his nodded greetings and waves might quell suspicion amongst the villagers as he made his way back to the schoolhouse. A dog barked beyond a thicket, its yapping more excited than aggressive. Passing through a narrow gap between two holly trees, he came into a small clearing. A skinny three-legged dog hopped and skipped in the snow picking up and dropping a stick in front of a kid bundled up against the cold. Helix lifted a hand. ‘Is that your dog?’ he said.
The kid looked up and smiled through the gaps in her teeth. ‘Yeah, he’s called Trio, cos he’s only got three legs,’ she said pulling her woolly hat out of her eyes. ‘You’re Heeliss, Gabrielle’s boyfriend,’ she added.
Helix gave her a look of mock surprise. ‘You’re very well informed, who told you that?’
‘SJ. She’s my best friend in the world.’
‘Wow. You’re lucky to have a friend like SJ. She’s really cool.’ He held out his hand. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Milly,’ she said, slipping her mittened hand into his. ‘Gabrielle’s my teacher.’
He gave her hand a gentle shake. ‘Ah ha. Is she a nice teacher?’
‘Yep. Much nicer than the old one.’ Milly nodded. ‘Are you and Gabrielle going to have a baby, like Bo and SJ?’
He smiled at the question. ‘Err. I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about it.’ Something yawned in the pit of his stomach. Along with seeing Gabrielle again, the chance of being able to sit and simply chat about anything or nothing had been a constant theme of his dreams. During the short time they’d spent together, there had always been more pressing priorities. Some things never seemed to change.
The dog yapped and danced in circles next to them. ‘I think he wants you to throw his stick,’ he said, crouching down beside Milly. ‘And you’re going to get all cold and wet sat in the snow like that.’
‘I’m stuck,’ she said, slapping her hands in the snow.
‘You’re stuck?’ he said, tossing the dog’s stick across the clearing. ‘What happened?’
‘I got my welligog stuck in the mud,’ she said, pulling up her two-sizes-too-big coat. ‘Look.’
The dog came sliding back with the stick, showering them with snow. Helix feinted another throw. The dog took off. He tossed the stick in the other direction.
‘Do you want a hand?’
‘Yes, please.’ She nodded. ‘I tried to pull it up, but I fell over.’
‘Let’s get you on your feet first,’ he said, putting his hands under her arms. ‘Ready?’
She nodded. ‘Go away, Trio, I’ll play in a minute,’ she yelled, shooing the dog away.
With the child back on her feet, Helix knelt in the snow. ‘You hang on to me and I’ll give your foot a pull.’
She slung her arm around his neck as he scooped the snow away from her blue boot. ‘It’s really stuck,’ she said.
The boggy mud yielded with a generous slurp and Helix made a drama of falling backwards in the snow and rolling around, much to the dog’s excitement.
Milly giggled and threw the stick. ‘Did you hurt yourself.’
Helix laid still. ‘I’m OK. I might need you to give me a hand up though.’
She ran over to him and tugged at his hand. Helix felt the glove
