Page 56 of Monsters within Men
“Oh Luo,” said Meredith. She went to pat his arm, but stopped herself, throwing Splat a quick glance.
“Ah, don’t be worrying about something that might never happen.” Aoife jumped to her feet. “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll walk Savannah to her dance class? We can stop by HQ and see if anyone there has any word.”
The three of them meandered off, disappearing into the darkness of the forest path. Vitt started a game of Avalanche Blitz and Noah attempted to half-heartedly play, but his attention was elsewhere. His mind ping-ponged between Zeke, Luo’s family in Canada, and his uncle.
Eventually, it grew cold and drizzly around the fire pit, and only Noah, Vitt and Habib remained. Wolf’s fur became damp by the time the last of the dying embers sizzled out, sending the final three back through the forest path. When they emerged from the other side, they found Tobias Newman with a gaggle of loyal cronies vaping outside of a nearby doorway.
“Oi, Forrest!” he shouted over.
“Do not engage. Do not engage,” hissed Vitt into his ear.
Noah nodded to Tobias once and made to walk past him.
“Heard your pet is up to no good this evening.”
His eyes shot down to Wolf, who panted up at him.
“Nah, not that one, the other one. The new kid.”
“We’re not in the mood this evening, Tobias,” said Habib. He put his hand on Noah’s back and pushed him towards their building.
But Noah refused to move. “What do you mean?”
Tobias took a long, long drag on his vape before blasting them with an aggressive breath of minty vapour. “Heard he bought a fair few baggies from Old Billy. Planning a party, are you?”
Tobias smirked, for the briefest of seconds, before Noah sent him flying towards the brick wall. The pen he’d been using clattered to the floor as Tobias’s face twisted in confused rage, nostrils flaring.
“Where is he?” snarled Noah. Behind Newman, Reeves and Moss shuffled uncomfortably. Noah felt Habib’s presence as he moved towards them, stepping into the flickering spotlight. Noah’s pulse raced as he pressed his forearm against Tobias’s neck. This was more than enough to warrant a disciplinary, but he didn’t care.
“Get the fuck off me,” said Tobias, writhing against his grip. “I don’t know where he is now. Seb just said he saw him.”
Noah jerked his head around to Sebastian Moss, raising his eyebrows expectantly. “How does he even know who Old Billy is?” One of the many drivers that ferried supplies to and from the army bases, Billy was notorious for his clandestine side business of supplying drugs to anyone who asked the right questions. Noah ground his teeth almost to the point of pain.
“Chill out, man,” Moss replied. “I only saw them make the exchange. That’s all. I don’t know if he even took them.”
“When?”
“About an hour or so. I don’t know where he went after that.”
Noah released his grip on Tobias and fell back in line with Habib and Vitt.
“Jesus Christ, Forrest,” spat Tobias. “Do that again and—”
“—and what?” Noah shouted. “You’ll do what, Newman?” Habib and Vitt stared at him, shock plastered on their faces. Vitt hooked her arm through his and guided him away from Tobias and his squad. He felt their eyes on them as they marched away into the inner compound.
“We need to find him.”
“You don’t think he’s planning to…” Vitt trailed off, biting her lip. “Surely not, right?”
“I don’t know, Vitt,” he said, unable to hold back the bite in his voice. “He’s not exactly in the greatest of headspaces right now.”
“He’s not stupid enough to do that,” said Habib.
Noah shook his head. The drizzle permeated most of his layers now, and he shook with cold. Teeth chattering, he jogged towards Beech block. “I can’t request Command track his chip without specifying a reason. Let’s use that as a last resort. Habib, go check your room. Vitt, go get Frankie. Get her to ring him again. I’m going to see if I can get Wolf to track him.”
“In this weather?” said Vitt, wrinkling her nose.
Noah shrugged. Alice worked tirelessly with the canines to enhance their personnel location capabilities. Time to put them to the test.
