Page 79 of Skinwalker's Bane
“Sauber.”
“They really are following him around?” Adam said, surprised.
“They really are. Except we keep handing the Bridge crises to deal with and there are only so many guards.” Haydn shrugged.
“One less, now, with Bernice gone,” Adam added, for that day still sat uneasily in his memory.
Haydn didn’t answer. He wove through the angular corridors between the neatly arranged Aventine apartments, taking a torturous route that swiftly had Adam completely disoriented. “You know your way around,” he complained.
“We’re coming up behind Debney,” Haydn explained. “Don’t want Sauber to know we’re there,” he added. He pointed up at the roof. “Keep an eye on the Port Corner. That tells you where you are.”
Adam glanced up at the multi-story complex tucked into the port side of the Aventine. It helped to orient himself and he realized they were close to the wall of the ship.
Haydn slowed down to what could be labelled a casual walk, forcing Adam to stroll next to him. They turned the corner and moved along a short stretch of windowless apartment wall. A man with brown hair and his back turned to them stood just ahead, his shoulder against the wall. He looked as though he had been standing there a long while. He was wearing simple pants and a top.
“Debney,” Haydn said quietly.
Debney turned. “He has to come out of his apartment sooner or later. The guylivesin the markets, talking to anyone who will listen to him.” His mouth turned down and his dark eyes rolled. “I haven’t drunk so much damn coffee in my life as I have over the last few days. I’m glad you’re taking over. I need a kidney rest.” He glanced at the terminal in his hand. “Clocking off, handing over, heading back,” he said quickly. “Good luck,” he added as he slid past the two of them and turned the same corner they had.
Haydn sidled up alongside the wall and bent to look around the corner. Then he leaned against the wall.
“Sauber’s apartment is up that corridor, then?” Adam asked, leaning against the wall next to him.
“He’ll have to come through this intersection to go anywhere, which is when we flatten ourselves against the wall and pretend we’re color pixels.” Haydn nodded at the other side of the intersection. “He’ll most likely go straight through, if he’s heading to the markets as he normally does. If he turns into this corridor, then that’s a different problem.”
“He knows both of us,” Adam pointed out.
“That’s why it’s a different problem. I figure you can get obstreperous, then I can haul you off him, as your concerned boss.” He shrugged.
“It works,” Adam said. “Although couldn’t we just watch him from a distance?”
“When there are three ways he could go from this point? Which one do you want to watch? Or are you going to split yourself up? There’s only two of us.”
“Should have brought a third,” Adam murmured. “We’re too close. It’s too obvious.”
Haydn shook his head. “Trust me. People just don’t notice what is close and familiar to them. If we hung around the markets or the other two exits, hewouldnotice that.”
They waited, time stretching out, growing thin. Adam shifted on his feet.
“Did you and Devin fight about Bishan?” Haydn asked.
Adam jumped a little. “Not exactly.”
Haydn just raised a brow, his black eyes steady.
Adam sighed. “The fight was over the most stupid thing ever,” he admitted. “I still don’t know what it was really about.”
“Your mouth worked independently of your brain, perhaps?” Haydn asked.
“Yes.”
“You stood there wondering what the fuck you were saying and why?”
Adam stared at him.
Haydn grimaced. “Yeah, I’ve been there,” he admitted. “Noa ties me up in knots. Still,” he added with another grimace. “My lizard brain reacts against my better interests. It’s only later I figure out I was trying to protect some little piece of ancient ego in my brain that I hadn’t yet got around to cleaning out. Turns out Noa was right. She always is.”
He glanced around the corner once more, while Adam tried to sort through the cascade of jumbled feelings Haydn’s confession had provoked. Had he been trying to preserve his ego over some issue he hadn’t even been aware was there in the first place?
