Page 126 of Drift

Drift froze, and as West quickly took the pad and leaned in, whispering his way, Gray…

Oh. Flaws. For all that smart head of his, had being on the street come at the cost of learning some of the basics most kids learned at school?

Drift snapped a whisper into West’s ear, and she wrote it down for him.

Yeah, that called it.

“Thank you.” Gray took it off her, and offered a sad smile Drift’s way. “You two, go take Jan up on his offer to get some food.” He really understood why Drift always chased food and, from what he’d heard in the hall, his hide away in drugs. He’d been running from nightmares that left such a… dark taste in his throat he needed to drown out. “You let me handle this from here.” He knew Jack wouldn’t like this next bit, Drift certainly wouldn’t, but Drift had survived the virus. He needed to stay here, and he’d stand by this decision each and every goddamn time now. “You both need to stay here, do you understand that?It’s too dangerous back at Jackson’s, at street level, and we need to run tests to see why this virus didn’t kill you.”

“And what about Jackson?” Drift looked up at him. “He’s still there. So is the rest of our crew with whoever is playing spy bollocks in there. They could retaliate at home to get us… home.”

Gray went and crouched down by him. “The warning came our way, not yours. Whoever is imbedded at Jackson’s isn’t going to damage a working vantage point. Focus will stay on us when they realise you’re not home. They’ll come here. Also, they know your MO with walking different crews, and they know those crews have banded together and hurt them for taking their own in the past. They won’t want that high profile turf war with this virus in the planning. People are around the perimeter at Jackson’s to make sure the house stays safe. And they are people I trust when trust is never offered lightly.”

Drift went to say something, and when he stopped, Gray nodded and eased to his feet before turning away.

“In Wales, the lead woman who killed the bloke and his missus.”

Gray turned back to Drift.

“She goes by the name of Freak.” Drift looked up at him. “To West, she’s Ava.”

West looked away as Gray cocked a brow. “To West, but not to you?” he said evenly.

“No. West met her at Avalon Road, not far from Eel Brook Common, hence the name… Ava.” He frowned and looked really uncomfortable. “But to me, she’s Grace. She’s my sister.” He looked down at his hands. “By adoption laws, anyway, and,yeah… fuck.” That was said far too bitterly and West rubbed at his hands when he refused to look up.

But Grace had stayed back with the Farlands…. She went on to university…. Or so the records had said…. Gray snorted. Or been fabricatedtosay? But by whom? “So after Jackson was raped, did they take her and force her to turn, or did she turn willingly a second time after she learned the lesson on the strongest being taken down if they turned informer?”

“I don’t know.” That came from West because it looked like Drifthadshut himself down now. “With all the bone-marrow she injects, and the blood and bone she drinks like vodka, I don’t think she does any more either.”

Gray had so many questions, but Drift’s look at the door said he’d had enough. His ease to his feet proved it and Gray moved out of his way. There was something else about Ava that he was hiding.

Drift stopped before he passed Gray. “Out of all of their crews, she’s lead…” he said quietly. “Watch out for her. She can fight, and I mean really fucking fight.” A frown. “Farland liked adopting Asian kids…. And Grace, she’s Japanese, pissed off at losing her heritage in an English name, and gutted many a kid with a blade to get at bone marrow and inject it in order to drown it out. Watch for the daggers she carries. But it’s mostly the various poisons she likes to carry in a claw you need to watch out for.”

“Okay. Thank you for the intel,” Gray said softly. “Now go on, take some timeout. Use the home cinema if you’re not hungry. I’m going to need blood and swab samples, though.”

Drift nodded, looking too sick and tired to protest.

“Go. Get a head start,” said Martin, flatly. “I’ll join you in a moment.”

They headed out, and Martin came over just as Gray held up a finger a moment, needing quiet. “Raif,” said Gray.

“Here.” He didn’t sound happy. “I got every last fucking word of that.”

“Who’s Grant?” He kept it frank. “He’s too skilled for the streets, and now really isn’t the time to piss me about over street codes and silence.”

“I only knew him in passing as an old-guard nightwalker,” Raif said quietly. “Checks I’ve done over the past few days called the rest, but the signs were there back then. He was a spotter, training those he found, and taking them to the streets to do it.”

“A talent scouter. Who for? MI6?”

“Undercover Interpol. He spotted internationally, but also trained their international talent here, on UK soil, with a green card from the top brass at both MI5 and MI6, so long as MI6 ops got the same access abroad.”

Gray gave a rough sigh. “And he gave Interpol or ours nothing on the Night-walkers?”

Raif fell quiet for a moment. “He stopped talking altogether, and I know him well enough to know that was him saying he didn’t trust the systemwithhis intel.”

And that backed up what Drift had been saying about hierarchy. “When did Interpol lose track of him?”

“He went off the radar after we last met, so just before he met Drift by the sound of it.”

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