Reality Hack (12 page)

‘I’d like to see it sometime. Not tonight, but sometime. If you’ll let me.’

‘Perhaps. As long as you promise not to look at me funny afterward.’

‘I can probably manage that. You’re a little bony for a pillow.’

‘My apologies.’

Nisa managed a grin, not that her friend could see it. ‘Sexy, but a little bony.’

‘You seem recovered enough to use the real pillow.’

There was a giggle and Nisa moved, settling herself down on the bed and then pulling Faline against her, spooning tightly against her back.

After a few seconds Faline said, ‘Th-that is not going to get you to sleep.’

‘Yes it will,’ Nisa replied. ‘Eventually.’

The City.

The place where the shadow had been now had a section of wall which seemed to have been cleaned with a sandblaster. The slight feeling of menace which Nisa had not really noticed the day before was conspicuous by its absence today. Whatever it was that Norbery had scraped off the wall had been giving something off, she decided. Something… not right.

But whatever that was, it was gone and staring at a blank wall was just going to result in passers-by looking at her like she had lost it. Nisa turned and started up the lane toward the Strand. The Rabbit Hole was not even a mile away and she could walk it easier than taking the Tube.

Apparently, staring at the wall had already garnered her one person who might be questioning her sanity. There was a blonde walking toward her and, fairly obviously, looking at her. She was an attractive woman, maybe five-eight, but she was wearing black, high-heeled pumps which she knew how to walk in. There was a real strut in her step which tended to show off her slim, well-developed legs. She was in designer clothes: a short skirt split up the left thigh and a long-sleeved, flared jacket which was closed with a cord around two ornate buttons at her waist. That left her navel visible along with a set of firm abs, and a lot of cleavage. Nisa would have put money on implants, just from the way they shifted under the twill. She had a slightly narrowed, very attractive face with a small, pointed nose, hollowed cheeks and beautiful, blue-green eyes.

As they got within a couple of yards, the woman dipped her eyes a little, smiled, and ran her tongue quickly over her lips. Nisa smiled back and, for a brief second, thought very seriously about calling in sick. But she had work and, for all she knew, Hanson had some way of monitoring her health. No, the obvious come-on would have to be ignored in favour of another day at the office, which just sucked. Nisa risked a glance back; the soft, pale-blonde hair was pulled into a short ponytail high on her head, but the tail of the woman’s jacket obscured a good view of what had to be a really good behind…

‘Get a grip, girl,’ Nisa muttered and kept on walking toward the Strand.

Westminster.

Kellog dropped three files onto Nisa’s desk. She actually had a desk now, in an office across the hall from Kellog’s. She got the feeling that XC was supposed to have more staff than it did.

‘These are the cases I’m working on,’ Kellog said and then frowned at her. ‘Rough night?’

‘Nightmare. Took me a while to get back to sleep. Faline helped.’

‘The purring is very soporific.’

‘The purring. Yes. So you want me to go over the files and acquaint myself with them?’

‘That sounded… efficient.’

Nisa grinned. ‘Well, I’ve been reading PACE and everything.’

‘Good. You’ll understand the file format.’

‘Isn’t this stuff all kept on computer?’

‘We don’t, generally, keep the main files on computer. They stay in the file room when not in use. It’s rigged with incendiary explosives.’

‘Oh… That sounds efficient too.’

‘A precaution. Read the files. Make sure you get through the top one by lunchtime. We’re going out to check a few places on that one tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow? Then why do I need to finish it before lunch?’

‘Because this afternoon we have proper use of firearms.’

‘Firearms?!’

‘You don’t think we’re going to give you a gun until you’ve learned to use one, do you?’

~~~

‘This,’ Kellog said, his tone more serious than usual, ‘is a Glock 26 Gen 4 automatic pistol chambered for a 9 by 19 parabellum round. Typically you’ll be practising with a one hundred and fifteen grain fully jacketed round, but you’ll be using hollow points in the field. Those are one-sixteen grain with a twelve hundred and forty feet per second muzzle velocity. This design features a “Safe Action” system which basically means it won’t go off unless you
fully
pull the trigger. You should find it’ll put a large hole in something at any range you can hit it at, but beware of body armour; the hollow points have low penetration.’

Nisa looked at the little gun he was holding up. It looked like a toy, maybe six inches in length with a very short grip. Kind of square and solid-looking, and the polymer grip gave an even more toy-like impression.

‘It’s… small. I mean, there isn’t even room for my little finger on there.’

‘It’s a subcompact, designed for concealed carry. I suggest you start carrying a bag. It won’t go off in one, even if you drop it on the floor.’ He peered at her. ‘
Don’t
drop it on the floor to test that.’

‘Look, I’m English, not American. I didn’t grow up with a .44 Magnum under my pillow and go out shooting moose at the weekend. These things scare the shit out of me.’

‘That,’ Kellog stated, ‘is a good starting point. However, there is no case in the world where a gun deliberately set out to kill someone. There’s always a human, or a sentient being anyway, pulling the trigger.’

‘What about blowing up in my face?’

‘Glocks are exceptionally reliable. I’ll teach you how to treat this, you’ll treat it well because you’re scared of it, and it’ll return the favour. Now, it’s not loaded; we’re just practising the stances, getting the feel of the weapon, and then we’ll try hitting some targets.’

He held out the pistol and Nisa took it as though it might break, or explode.

‘Step up to the line,’ Kellog instructed. ‘Feet roughly shoulder-width apart. You’re right handed? Then it’s left foot forward, pistol in the right hand. Cup your right hand with your left. Right arm almost straight and pushing forward, left arm pulling back. The right leg should be straight and the left one a little bent–’

‘Do you play golf?’ Nisa asked as she tried to obey the string of orders.

‘No.’

‘You should. This sounds like comedy golf instructions.’

Kellog gave a grunt and stepped in behind her. His arms wrapped around her as he shifted the position of her hands, pushed her shoulders forward a little, and shifted her arms. He felt warm against her back and there was a scent, warm, musky, strongly masculine.

‘How does that feel?’ he asked.

She had never even contemplated Kellog as anything other than a taciturn colleague. But his muscular body did feel pretty good resting against her…

‘I could get used to this,’ Nisa said.

He stepped back. ‘Good. Now we’ll try it with bullets.’

Tower Hamlets.

‘Seriously, I think he’s been neutered or something.’

Faline gave Nisa a look of pain. ‘Please. One does not use the N-word around a cat.’

‘Oh, sorry. But it’s like his libido is on zero. I mean… He had to feel
something
, right?’

‘Perhaps he simply prefers sexual partners of a different persuasion.’

‘No…’ Though he did seem to pay more attention to his skin than many men. And there was the firm physique. And he obviously wore some sort of cologne… ‘No… I don’t think he’s… Well, maybe.’

‘I wasn’t aware that you felt that way about your wizard,’ Faline said, an eyebrow rising.

‘Well… I don’t. I mean, there are probably rules about it anyway.’

‘I would imagine so, but it does bring up a point. If you
did
wish to bring a human home, I would be happy to sleep on the sofa.’

Nisa grinned. ‘Fat chance. Anyway, if I did, you could join us. Nice threesome with my flatmate…’

Faline sniffed. ‘I am not
that
kind of cat.’

Hammersmith, August 6
^th
.

The houses on Hammersmith Grove were not especially large, unless you compared them to where Nisa was living, and then they were vast. They did have gardens, with a lot of trees, and that always gave her the impression of people who did not talk to their neighbours. Well, unless this counted as the suburbs, in which case it was probably all Friday night swinger parties and terribly upper-class spanking.

Mrs Wooler did not look like she indulged in either. She looked more like the kind of middle-aged woman who spent a lot of her time looking out of her windows to see what the neighbours were up to. Certainly she had seen something, but not her neighbours.

‘Prowlers,’ Mrs Wooler said. ‘Checking things out for burglaries, that’s what I think.’

Kellog nodded as though this was a perfectly reasonable explanation. ‘What
exactly
did you see, Mrs Wooler?’

‘Well… Men. I’m sure they were men, and more than one because I’ve seen two together. All dressed in dark clothes. Black suits, I think. They sneak around… Well, not sneak exactly. I see them standing beside fences or walls. Just standing and looking.’

‘Do you think you could describe any of them?’

Mrs Wooler frowned. Nisa frowned as well, but she was frowning at the cup of tea she was holding, which was red. Tea was not supposed to be red. The idea that you could drink the stuff was beyond her and she noticed that Kellog had not even picked his cup up.

‘I’ve never seen their faces,’ Mrs Wooler said. ‘Always in shadow.’

‘I see. Do they seem to be watching anywhere in particular?’

‘Now you mention it… The May house, across the road and two down. Young couple. He works. I’m not sure how they can afford a mortgage on one salary, but I’ve seen them off out on the town at the weekends, her in some designer outfit that wouldn’t cover a doll…’ Mrs Wooler’s eyes drifted to Nisa, who was in a fairly tight T-shirt and her best jeans, the ones without the holes in. ‘But it takes all sorts.’

Nisa gave a smile which she hoped looked genuine, even if it felt like her face was cracking, and took a sip of her tea. It felt as though all the water had just been sucked out of her tongue.

‘Thank you, Mrs Wooler,’ Kellog said, standing as he did so. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll be keeping an eye out for your prowlers.’

They were outside and walking across the road before he said, ‘It’s never a good idea to drink anything they give you. Occasionally it has something dangerous in it, but it always seems to taste like tar.’

‘Now you tell me,’ Nisa replied sourly.

‘I thought it was obvious from the colour.’

‘Yes, well… She didn’t approve of my outfit.’

‘I don’t get the feeling that you are someone who cares about the approval of middle-aged women.’

‘I’m not, but… I’m supposed to be a cop.’

He glanced at her. ‘You could, perhaps, be a little smarter.’

For some reason that stung more than it should have, but they were at the door of the May house by then and she got no chance to reply as Kellog pressed the bell.

A few seconds later the door opened and Mrs May was there, smiling, but looking a little perplexed. She was in her twenties, Nisa guessed, slim, attractive, with a cap of red hair, green eyes, and a narrow, pretty face.

‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Can I help you?’

Kellog held up his warrant card. ‘Metropolitan Police, ma’am. I’m Detective Inspector Kellog, and this is Sergeant Harper. We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions. You’re not in any trouble. We’re just investigating some suspicious behaviour along the grove and you may have seen something.’

Mrs May’s gaze flicked across the road toward Mrs Wooler’s house. ‘You’d better come in,’ she said. ‘Can I get you some coffee? It’s fresh.’

‘That would be most kind,’ Kellog replied.

Nisa wondered whether he was doing it to see whether she would fall for it again.

‘Shadowy figures watching the house?’ Mrs May, who had turned out to be Lisa and insisted on them calling her that, said. ‘Mrs Wooler’s imagination is kind of… wild. She thought I was a prostitute until she realised I don’t go out much and I don’t have visitors. Then, apparently, she started telling people I was probably in the drug trade.’

‘What is it you do?’ Nisa asked. The coffee smelled really good and just the scent was making her feel more relaxed.

‘I’m a writer. Mostly freelance stuff for magazines, but I’ve done short stories and I’m trying to get a novel published.’

‘Anything I might have read?’

‘Oh, I doubt it. Most of my stuff goes in business mags or women’s ones and you look a bit young for the kind of thing they ask for. Do you read articles on HRT?’

‘Uh, no.’

Lisa smiled.

‘So, you’ve seen nothing unusual around your house recently?’ Kellog asked, apparently deciding that they should return to the subject at hand.

‘No. Nothing…’ She frowned. ‘Well, Ben said he saw… He said it was probably just a fox or something. The shadows in the back garden looked wrong. I couldn’t see anything. I did get a bit of a weird feeling though, like someone was watching. Had nightmares about it. Dark, shadowy figures looming over me in bed.’ She grinned. ‘Stupid really.’

Nisa took a gulp of her coffee. As was always the way, it did not taste as good as it smelled, but it was good coffee. It almost chased the feeling of dread away.

~~~

‘What was that?’ Kellog asked as they drove back toward the Rabbit Hole. ‘In the house when May mentioned the dream, you went white. Whiter than usual.’

‘That nightmare I had a couple of nights ago?’ Nisa replied. ‘Same dream. More or less anyway. My shadowy figures had glowing eyes. And I could hear them speaking.’

‘What did they say?’

Nisa frowned, but the words had faded faster than the imagery and that was dimly remembered now. ‘I don’t remember. I mean, that’s if it meant anything anyway. I just remember that I heard them.’