Nina’s eyes bored into him, not caring to hear his reason. “You gonna kill me, too?”
Reece saw fear, more than anything, gripping her. He said, “I guess we’ve –” A noise tore through the farm like the low war cry of some nightmarish animal. The windows shuddered as Reece froze. Nina’s terrified eyes went to the window.
Reece asked, “What the fuck was that?”
As if in answer, Zip shrieked from below, “They’re here!”
6
Tasker sat on the hotel bed as the woman ran her free hand over his gun holster on the desk. His was government issue, modern, sleek; her gun was faded around the edges like something salvaged from a grandparent’s loft. It fit her vagrant look: medium height with a brown leather jacket worn bald, loose jeans ripped not by design and once-white trainers breaking at the seams. Bloodspray patterned her shaved head and face like warpaint. The door was closed, but the lock-chain lay on the floor amid shards of snapped wood. The fact that he hadn’t heard her kicking her way in warned him she was likely more capable than she looked.
Why hadn’t he taken the gun into the shower room?
Her eyes probed the armchair, heavy green curtains, bed and mirror. When she spotted her reflection, her cracked lips stretched to a grin. “This place is too fancy for me.” The accent was a breezy Eastern European. “You do not say much. What’s your name? I’m Katryzna.”
Matching her conversational tone, Tasker said, “You broke in and don’t know who I am?”
“I know what you are. Government spook. Yes?”
“Sure. If that’s me, then what are you – a corporate contractor?”
“Can you imagine? I could have business cards. What was your interest in Parry?”
“Parris?” Tasker corrected.
“Potato potato.” She pronounced both words the same. “You are some kind of specialist, isn’t it? They paused everything to pick you up from the airport, I was watching. What’s your name?”
When he didn’t answer straight away, she frowned at her left shoulder.
“I didn’t kill him. The opposite.” Her eyes rolled up. “No, I didn’t give birth. Or keep him alive. Yes, some of this is his blood. What’s your name? Are the UK government investigating Duvcorp?”
Tasker stared, a little stunned at her random chatter.
“Please.” Katryzna sniffed hard. “I can practically smell government on you. What’s your name?” She glared and waited this time.
“Agent Sean Tasker.”
“Working for?”
“The Ministry of Environmental Energy.” Tasker nodded to his wallet, near the gun. “ID’s in there.”
Katryzna rummaged through the cards – not just his warrant card but the bank issues and Frequent Flyer memberships. She cooed at the Platinum. “This is to use those fancy lounges?”
“Some.”
“Your Ministry treats you well. Putting you up in a place like this. And you travel with your gun? I like that. You were already on the way when Parry died? I guess they wanted him dead because of you? Why did he call you? What does your Ministry do?”
Tasker gave the flurry of questions a moment, before answering the final one, by rote: “The Ministry are concerned with environmental concerns. Those outside typically human factors. Parris suspected Duvcorp were involved in something that might interest us. We didn’t get to ask him what. Now maybe you can explain your part in this?”
Katryzna stepped closer to him. Her clothing smelt of decay. “Sean. I’m likely to do bad things –” She twitched and hissed something foreign. Polish? Was it some kind of tick? She put on a friendly face again. “You obviously know something, otherwise why fly you in? We can be friends, but if you are sneaky around me, you might get hurt.”
Tasker gave her a flat smile. “Friends don’t point guns at each other.”
“I am not pointing it at you. It’s just ready in case I need to shoot you.” Katryzna looked sharply aside again. She had to be hearing voices. “That’s not the point. But okay.” She placed the gun on the desk, within reach. Her jacket fell open to reveal the hilt of a large Bowie knife sheathed at her hip. “Now. You may continue.”
Tasker quickly made assessments. She was part of their system – one of the corporate hired guns, even if she didn’t look the part. But not Duvcorp’s hire; she was suggesting she was the one who interrupted the murder. If she was lying about that, he was dead anyway, so he might as well make the most of this. He said, “You’re not familiar with the Ministry?” She shook her head. “We monitor unusual energy patterns, amongst other things. Parris was ex-Ministry himself, and went on to do similar work for Duvcorp. He tipped us off to something their research picked up in Norway, four days ago. A lot of people dead. For some reason, Duvcorp didn’t want anything to do with it themselves.”
“Four days ago,” Katryzna echoed, a little disappointed. “I got a call yesterday.”
“Sorry,” Tasker said. “Parris called you himself?”
“Oh no.” Katryzna took an old Nokia handset out of a pocket. The sort only good for calls and texts. “He tried to message a friend of mine. What kind of unusual energy readings do you chase? Are you ghost hunters? Is your UK government that advanced?” Her expression became eager like a child’s.
Tasker said, “You think that’s likely?”
“What did I say about being sneaky? I want –” A knock on the door interrupted her. She narrowed her eyes. “Who’s that?”
“Room service,” a young man called.
In a flash, Katryzna had both her pistol and Tasker’s in hand. “If you used some kind of alarm –”
“You said you ordered food,” he reminded her.
The knock came again, and Katryzna said, with a testiness that didn’t seem directed at him, “I know – I appreciate that now.” She gestured. “Open the door.”
Tasker tightened his towel and did as she said. He blocked the busboy from seeing into the room while he accepted the covered plastic tray, and the moment the door clicked shut Katryzna tore it from Tasker’s hands. She piled an entire limp burger into her mouth. Both pistols were back on the desk. Tasker made no move, aware of how fast she had snatched them up before. She paused, cheeks bulging, and spoke messily around the mouthful, “Wampth thome?”
“No,” Tasker said.
“Fine. Talk. Whaph waph Parrith doing?”
“Didn’t say. There must have been an unnatural force involved in these deaths in Norway. Duvcorp either recorded it and didn’t want anyone to know they could – or they caused it themselves. You weren’t sent to silence him?”
She shook her head as she struggled to work her jaw around the burger.
“But you met the killer?”
Katryzna nodded as she swallowed with a series of impossible gulps that could’ve been retches.
“My word, woman,” Tasker said, “were you raised by pelicans?”
She raised a finger for silence, finished swallowing, then said, “I was not. But you will want to have my babies. I have your unnatural. This message from Parry was my first clue in forever for what happened to Eyes. He was swimming in unnatural.”