Page 36 of Quiver of Cobras
I desperately wanted to argue. We needed a route into the inner workings of Rubus’s mind so that we could stop him from doing evil. Real evil, not just Madrona evil. If I walked away now, we’d be handing him the opportunity to do whatever the hell he wanted. I was still no closer to learning more about what Plan B was. What if it was even more dastardly and evil than Plan A? And there were twenty-four more letters in the alphabet to go. There was a lot of thwarting to do if we were to win the day.
‘Much as I hate to admit it,’ Finn said, ‘Morganus is right. We don’t know exactly what’s on those videos but we do know that you took the sphere from Charrie. Once Rubus has proof of that, all bets are off.’
I flattened my mouth into a grim line. I wasn’t prepared to give up, not yet. ‘What about the CCTV from tonight?’ I asked. ‘Whoever waltzed in here and messed with those files must have been captured on camera three hours ago.’
‘Does it matter?’ Finn questioned. ‘It’ll be one of Rubus’s dust slaves, no doubt. He’s probably already handed them over. There’s no way Rubus is still at Chen’s place.’
I held my ground. ‘It’s still worth checking.’
He shrugged, returning to the first screen and rewinding the video. We watched it anxiously. ‘There!’ I jabbed my finger at the screen.
‘It’s just a shadow.’
‘A shadow of a person.’
‘But not the actual person. He or she knew where the cameras were and avoided them. Clever.’ Finn fast-forwarded. ‘See? There’s no sign of anyone until we come into view.’ Footage of us arriving out the front appeared, Finn looking morose, me looking nervous – and Morgan looking at me.
Morgan sighed. ‘Can you delete us?’
The Redcap nodded. ‘Piece of cake. It’ll only take a moment. You two should—’
He was interrupted by a loud thud followed by a pained yelp from outside our little room. All three of us froze. We weren’t alone after all.
Chapter Nine
I sprang for the door. I didn’t have any particular goal in mind, other than getting hold of whoever was out there. It had to be the same arsebadger who’d already messed with the CCTV footage. I’d wrest the footage from them and stop them handing it over to Rubus. Somehow.
Morgan pulled me back. ‘You can’t just leap out there, all guns blazing,’ he whispered. ‘It could be anyone.’
I scowled and shook him off. All the same, I slowed down and opened the door carefully, pulling it ajar just enough to see who had made that godawful noise. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust but, when they did, I realised with some satisfaction that the night prowler must have skidded on the sweet I’d spat out. That was why he’d fallen. There was something to be said for aniseed foulness after all then.
I watched as the lump on the floor straightened up. A glimmer of moonlight landed on his face as he turned and illuminated his features. I immediately recognised him. Well, well, well. It was the old bugger who’d been tracking me across the rooftops earlier. He wasn’t going to escape my villainous clutches a second time.
I motioned to Morgan to remain where he was. If the elderly arsebadger thought I was alone, I might be able to gain the upper hand. I’d lull him into a false sense of security. Even if he were a faery, which seemed unlikely because his superior hearing would have alerted him to our presence, we had Finn with us. Finn was not bound by the truce and he’d be more than capable of hurting the sneaky, white-haired bastard. I squared my shoulders and stepped out as quietly as I could.
I managed three paces before he noticed me. Baleful, shadowed eyes lifted in my direction then widened in horror. Without missing a beat, he spun round toward the door, skidding on the marble floor in his haste to get away. Not this time, buddy.
I darted after him.
He had his hands on the door handle and was scrabbling to open it when I reached him. Feeling my breath on the back of his neck, he dropped his arms and slowly turned.
Now we were face to face, I was rather unimpressed. He didn’t look like much at all. He might have the ability to sprint away at unnatural speeds, as well as rooftop-crawling skills to match Spiderman’s, but he was as weedy as me.
I checked his irises. Coal-black. This was no faery.
‘Hand over the video,’ I ordered.
‘I … I … don’t know what you’re talking about.’ His voice was high-pitched and squeaky, as if he’d never quite made it past puberty.
All it took was one threatening step towards him before he deflated, right in front of my eyes. ‘I don’t have it with me.’
‘Bullshit.’
‘I’m telling the truth!’
The sound of footsteps alerted me to Finn and Morgan’s approach. ‘You know this guy, Maddy?’ Morgan asked.
‘He’s the old bloke who was following me earlier today. Watch it,’ I advised. ‘He’s a lot more spry than he looks.’
