Page 159 of Everything That Kills Me
“Good,” Martin said.
“I thought you’d be pleased,” Zeph said. “Jack and I are going travelling for a year.”
No one saidgoodthis time. Jack almost did and then changed his mind.
“And are you going to leave Zeph in some foreign country and expect him to make his way home?” Martin asked. “Because—”
“No, he’s not,” Zeph interrupted. “Things are different for Jack now. He—”
“I’ll never leave him again,” Jack said. “Ever.”
There was silence for a moment or two, then Martin nodded. “If Zeph trusts you, then we do too.”
Zeph squeezed Jack’s fingers.
Later, Martin cornered Jack in the garden, and he thought he could guess what was coming.
“Don’t betray our trust in you,” Martin said quietly. “You hurt our boy. Not just once or twice. You kept hurting him. He shouldn’t have given you another chance but now he has, I need you to look after him, to keep him safe.”
Jack nodded. “You seemed relieved when he told you he’d quit his job.”
“I thought he was going to tell me you were getting married. Before we can be happy with that, we need to see that you deserve him. But we were worried about his safety working for GCHQ. He’s so smart but people take advantage of him. We didn’t want him to end up as a body in a bag. It’s a dangerous world and we don’t want him hurt. By anyone.”
“Nor do I.”
Jack would kill anyone who tried to hurt Zeph, but he wisely kept that to himself.
Forty-Three
Jack and Zeph were due to set off on their adventure in three days. Jack hadn’t thought he’d see Thomas again before they left, but he’d had a text asking him to come to Aversham.
“How do you know it’s from Thomas?” Zeph asked. He was driving.
“We have a code we use on the few occasions we sent text messages. Mogu li ya pokazat’ vam dorogu. Means can I show you the way. It was what I said to Thomas when he rescued me and he led me into the woods.”
“How often have you exchanged that message?”
“Three times.”
“In Russian?”
“Yes, why?”
“Because I’m thinking of what you said to me, that if anyone told you Thomas had sent them, whatever message they tried to give you, it wasn’t true. That they were there to kill you.”
Jack gave a short laugh. “But that’s not what’s happening. No one’stoldme to go to Thomas.”
“Hmm. But I don’t get why he didn’t speak to you. Call him. Ask.”
“We’re not supposed…” Jack frowned, took out his phone, but didn’t put it on speaker. Zeph could be right.
“Hello,” Thomas said.
“7850.”
“0219.”
“Mogu li ya pokazat’ vam dorogu. Did you send me that?”
