‘What do you think?’ She sighed.
The small talk wasn’t working. ‘It’ll be OK.’ He wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince, her or himself. ‘As long as we stick to the plan.’
‘When will you be back?’
He didn’t have an answer but had to give her something. ‘A few days, five at the most. I hope.’ He pulled her into his arms. ‘You can’t hold me to that, but I will come back.’
‘And stay?’
He rested his chin on top of her head, glancing around the school room. Compared to the sterile city it had a warmth about it, in spite of the temperature outside. ‘I’ll be happy all the time I’m with you.’
She tugged at a desk drawer. It stuck. The more she pulled the more it refused to budge.
Helix rested his hand on hers. ‘Let me,’ he said. It yielded with a pained squeak, the contents spilling into a pile at the front. ‘I think your drawers need lubricating.’ The joke fell flat.
‘Thank you,’ she said, reaching inside. A pink and yellow plastic toy swung on an old shoe lace as she lifted it out. ‘I want you to borrow this,’ she said, nodding to him to lower his head.
‘What is it?’
‘Evie made it for me when she—’
‘No, Gabrielle, I couldn’t.’
‘Please. I’m lending it to you. She used to call it her lucky charm.’
He smiled. ‘It’s a unicorn.’ He ran his fingertip over the spiralled horn protruding from its forehead and a mane of multi-coloured hair. ‘OK. It’s a deal.’
She kissed it and dropped it over his head. He kissed it back and tucked it inside his shirt.
They turned together as Sofi pushed through the door from the living area. She dragged his bergen in. It was heavier, given that he would be carrying her kit and his own. Nobody would expect to see Gabrielle struggling underneath a pack the size of a small person. He adjusted the leg holster containing Sofi’s weapon having exchanged it for the Glock that she now had concealed under her village garb.
‘Head up the path and wait for me on the ridge,’ he said.
With his jacket zipped over his shoulder holsters, he heaved the pack up onto one shoulder. Slipping his arm through the second strap, he turned to Gabrielle. ‘All set.’ He held his hand out.
She took his hand and tried her best to cuddle into him amidst the webbing straps securing the pack. ‘Be careful.’
He leaned down and kissed her. ‘I’ll do my best.’ He winked. ‘See you on the other side.’
Pausing at the top of the path, he turned and waved. Gabrielle propped herself against the door frame, fingers working over her cheeks. She waved back, turned and stumbled through the door. Helix’s heart wrenched in his chest. Temptation and gravity pulled at him. He swallowed the urge to go back, turned and fell in alongside Sofi as she trudged through the snow towards the fork in the path.
A few minutes further on, Helix stumbled to a halt at the fork. ‘Someone’s come up from the village since the snow stopped,’ he said, pointing to the tracks in the snow. ‘What have you got on the nano-cams?’
‘Nothing,’ Sofi said. ‘I pulled the cameras ready for the off as soon as we’d neutralised the threat.’
‘You did what?’ He ran his hand over his head. ‘You’re not fucking human. You’re meant to be infallible.’
‘Nothing is infallible. There were four horsemen plus Walt. We accounted for all five.’
The footprints were obvious, some simple imprints, others where whoever it was had slipped back as they scrambled up the slope. The brown staining either side of the tracks drew Helix’s attention. ‘How the hell?’ He moved off down the slope, parallel to the tracks, treading in the virgin snow.
Sofi stepped alongside him as he stared into the empty pit. Empty apart from the corpses and turds bobbing on the surface. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘A tree root. He must have pulled it out and used it to climb up.’
‘Bollocks,’ he muttered, unconvinced. Something about the snow didn’t look right. The way it had been disturbed. They were wasting time. ‘Come on. At least we’ve got tracks to follow. How long since you pulled the cams?’
‘Two hours, eight minutes.’
That was plenty of time for Wheeler to cover the distance from the village back to the castle, assuming that was where he’d gone. The overnight snow would make it slow but not impossible. The depth of the snow ranged from ankle to knee with occasional energy sapping plunges to the waist. They found the tree where Sofi had left the unknowns, but like them, the halo-cuffs were missing. ‘Wheeler knows all about halo-cuffs. He must have taken them off,’ Helix said, rubbing his hand over his lips, catching his breath.
Retracing the route was easy enough when following one. With multiple prints it was like tracking a herd of elephants. They followed their route from the previous night. ‘Did you get anything useful out of the other two? What’s the deal with the castle, Wheeler’s contacts?’ Helix said, pulling himself out of another snowdrift.
‘The castle’s not as impressive as it looks. They only use the gatehouse. Wheeler lives in the left of the two towers. The others sleep in the stables with the horses.’
‘Anyone else live with them? Cook, butler, chambermaids? Nothing would surprise me with that twat.’
‘Issy was the cook apparently, Walt supplemented their hunting and pillaging with fish.’
‘Oh dear. I guess they’ll be going hungry then.’
At the foot of the hill, sixty yards from the bridge, Helix gestured to Sofi to slow and keep low. He wasn’t taking any chances. If Wheeler had contacts in Bristol there was no telling what they might have supplied him with. Visibility was good, the light reflecting from the snow. Grey smoke rose from the chimney of the lean-to stables with a parallel plume rising from the jagged crenelations of the tower. Helix zoomed into the large window set about halfway up the
