Page 77 of Drift

Simon eased the door shut and came over. “Keep it bloody down,” he hissed harshly, his look back by the door, no doubt on the CCTV outside the bedroom. Then he came in close, his breath brushing Light’s ear. “Raif took my car Friday. That meant all this consultancy on security surrounded him and what he’d been doing over the past month.”

Light frowned. How did he know Raif had been doing anything over the past month? “And?”

Simon took out his phone and offered it over. “I set up the security on staff comm in and away from here, including his. His phone is more ethically viable to app-jack than Jan’s.”

Ethically viable than… Jan’s.Light took the phone off him. Where Simon wouldn’t break ethics to look into Jan’s business and risk Gray’s head turning his way, Raif had obviously become fair game when it came to knowing the full details over why security needed to be so… orchestrated over the past weekend. Simon could andwouldargue he needed all the details with Gray.That’show he’d found out what was going on with Gray. Fuck. This was where Simon was deadly: hidden intelligence that looked to get the job from all angles, but also keep them both safe without him even leaving his room, especially when he was bored.

But why the mention of Jan?

Light opened the file that Simon had brought up, one that Raif had deleted a while ago but Simon had still managed to pull back. But then nothing was ever really deleted permanently, Simon had taught him that and…

Jude.

It took only five minutes to read the rest.

Jesus.

Light slumped back against the wall.

With all the calls to check what Light wanted for dinner over the years, Light recognised Jan’s number. He’d sent Raif the file.

And all of this… this was why Simon had warned him off talking to Jack, why Gray had been so distant, why Jan….

Jude….

Jesus Christ.Martinhad a kid.

But then Light frowned and looked at the image of the redhead shadowed by a building, more how it tied into the lack of intel on Jude’s whereabouts if he was out there. “He wants the kid who followed Raif on the mention of Jude’s name. He wants Red.” She’d been here as well, outside.

Simon nodded, and he shuffled in closer. “Not just that. It’s taken me since Friday to get all the details.” He shook his head, and the look in his eyes had Light running a hand down his side, concerned. Simon was… unnerved and hadn’t been sleeping too much either from how dark his eyes looked. Had he been getting up of a night and haunting his laptop once Light had taken the walk to the manor? Christ… that was Light… too lost in his own head to notice Simon struggling and need to get his laptop out of lockdown for covert work. And he was struggling by the look of things.

“Shit.” Simon ran a hand through his hair. “I haven’t caught a damn whisper about them on the net.”

“These kids?” Okay, from Raif’s file they knew their way around CCTV and tech in general, but that wasn’t too uncommon at their level.

Simon shook his head, looking lost to his own thoughts. “The dark web,” he said quietly. “I fucking own it, but I’ve heard nothing on these Night-walkers. Absolutely fuck all. And that’s…?” His eyes were haunted. “Raif mentioned them in his side notes when it comes to this girl. The last was noted down Friday, when he came to see Gray, and I think… Light, thesecurity level to the UK has been upped, and I think it’s to do with these Night-walkers. I’ve known your father long enough to know the shift from MI5 mindset to culler, and even that side of him seems… unsettled. He was working something beyond this girl and mention of Jude, I just couldn’t find what, not without hacking Gray’s phone, and there’s no way I’m risking that.” Simon rested his head against Light’s, all to look like lovers taking five minutes out for the cameras, but there were no cameras here in Jack’s room. This wasn’t any play. Simon needed to take five minutes out. Yeah… he was scared. But thishadshifted into culler business now. On home shores.

“No one, and I meanno onebut me can erase footprints like this when it comes to the Night-walkers and the Internet, Light. And itisbeing erased each time anyone keystrokes that name into a search engine, even those on the deep web. I tried it.” Simon ran a hand through his hair and it shook slightly. “This isn’t just kids out playing vicious games in the dark, and I don’t think Gray himself realises how smart they’re playing all this and just how wide their touch reaches.”

Light frowned at him.

“Do the subtle math,” said Simon quietly. “By using kids with fingertips acid-burned away, they know how to stay under the radar of the cullers without triggering them. Light—they’re working underGray’sprofile in particular with using kids, and they’ve been doing it a long time. But something changed with the Soames case and going public, enough to risk getting a culler on the streets and Gray pulling in MI5 staff over the past month to shadow other foreign politicians and up the threat to UK streets with biological warfare.”

Light frowned. Biological warfare? And now three of those kids were here. “I didn’t pick up that Red is a threat. Gray didn’t either.”

“That’stheir MO,” Simon said quietly. “If these Night-walkers know about cullers and suspect the lead one has turned their way, which they will do with a public killing like the Soames, then after potentially seeing Raif on the street, they’re also smart enough to send in kids that Gray’s profile says he doesn’t perceive as a threat. If these three kids are involved with them, the Night-walkers not only have a profile of what your father is, but where he lives now Raif’s led them here. They just need a name to fit the profile.”

“No,” said Light. “They’re kids here tonight, they don’t taste… off. Not Night-walker off. You don’t see them like we do.”

Simon shook his head. “You lose track of seeing the good because of the bad. And the good also have a habit of finding a place to hide among the bad in order to find the safest place to hide.”

Light eased back, his look holding Simon’s not only because of what he’d just said about Gray, but because that was exactly what Simon had done amongst the cullers as well: hid his talents amongst Gray’s… badness in order to not earn Culler attention.

Light cupped his neck. If Gray suspected as such, he was caught in Catch 22. Gray wanted informationonfamily. Martin’s family. Jude. But to do just that, he’d also had to put family on the TNT plate over getting that name on the street now he was back protecting the Monarchy.

Light narrowed his eyes. No. Gray wouldn’t have let Jan and Jack stay here during it all, not for this level of play if hesuspected the Night-walkers knewwhathe was and somehow wanted to play with him as well.

“Right.” He eased Simon aside and headed back for the door. “We find this third kid. We get to Red, see if she knows Jude. My offer of a friend to Martin. One I owe him. As for Gray—”

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