Chapter 212
Tanith's POV
Very early morning came and found Tanith breastfeeding Laila in their bedroom with Dexter, Nadia and Erskine. Nadia sat next to her sleepily, getting ready to take Laila and likely sleep in with her in Tanith's bed until morning.
"It's been almost forty hours," Erskine said slowly. "We might just have to leave without them."
"What if they need help?" Asked Dexter quietly.
"It's Skul and Val," he shrugged. "I expect they'll be fine. And we need to do this, you know how dangerous True Name's are. As long as Lament and his friends are reasonable people, we'll only be there briefly anyway, so we might we well do it quick and come back with four more people to help us."
Dexter yawned and shrugged. "Sounds alright to me. Tanith?"
"I'm happy to come with you," she nodded. "If I'm allowed."
"Aww, the Sanctuary doesn't have to know," he smirked. "They can't control the Dead Men anyway. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped their contract with us to keep the peace longer."
Tanith nodded. "I was wondering that."
"Have you made plans with Ghastly for Laila?" Erskine asked softly.
She looked at the baby and Laila looked up at her sleepily. Her blonde hair was growing in properly now and no longer falling out like many young babies did after birth. It was perfectly straight on her head rather than curled like her own had been. Ghastly said his father had had straight hair, and his mother fairly straight with some kinks in it. Their baby had obviously taken from her paternal grandparents, unless it all altered as she aged. Her eyes were still infant blue and hair perfect blonde, she had lots of changes to go through.
How many of those changes, the important milestones, did she want to miss?
How many were worth missing to ensure her child would have a world worth living in?
"I'm not sure," she said quietly. "I haven't made a decision."
The men didn't argue with her, thankfully, and instead made excuses to get themselves ready for the job. Tanith sighed and stroked Laila's head soothingly as she drank and sat in the dim light of the room after she'd finished and nodded off. Despite the challenges, Tanith had been looking forward to being a mother. She had taken a blow when Ghastly's behaviour had changes but since birthing and seeing how well he had, eventually, stepped up to being a father, she was happy with her choices. But as the war got closer and more serious decisions came up, the more she doubted if she'd done the right thing. Her child wasn't planned, and she came at a bad time, in a relationship that she hadn't even realised yet was going to end in disaster. Laila did at least have Dual Citizenship, but Tanith wasn't certain what countries were safe to move to if she did leave with her – both Ireland and England, alongside Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, were all too close to be considered safe, as well as being countries about to be at war with Ireland. Perhaps she could move them to Africa in hopes of a union between the countries to stand with Ireland as a fellow Cradle country, but she wasn't sure she wanted to risk her baby's life over a possibility.
But if not Africa, where?
"What do you think?" Tanith whispered quietly. "What would you do?"
Nadia moaned sleepily. "About what? Leaving? If Laila was mine?"
"Yeah."
"I would leave," Nadia said instantly before yawning. "I'm happy to take her with me if you want to stay to fight, but if she were my baby, I'd want to stay with her. I don't know how you'd function knowing she wasn't with someone capable of fighting. You know I'd do my best, but I'm not all that capable of fighting. I don't want something to happen to her. I think me and Laila would be better off with you."
"Where would you go?"
"My parents, if I had to," she said slowly. "India will probably follow the rest of Asia in going to war. They were not that involved in the war against Mevolent but that's mostly because technology wasn't good enough to put in the same about of resources. But even then, cargo ship's full of soldiers came here over and over to fight. Mostly against Ireland, and a bit against Australia though they were never as involved as Ireland obviously… I don't think my family would want you there. They would accept me and Laila, but you're too recognisable and they wouldn't want that risk. We could go to my cousins in America, they'd help us, one of them has a baby not that much older than Laila so they'd understand. But no country is safe at the moment."
"That's my worry."
Nadia put a hand on her arm sympathetically. "We'll work something out. We'll make sure nothing happens to Laila especially. I'm glad I'm not you in that way. This has to be a really hard decision to make."
Tanith couldn't help but agree with that assessment.
.*****.
The train, Dexter claimed after talking to his underground contacts, would be going through a field in Ireland within a minute. Tanith stood next to Erskine, Dexter on his other side, and wondered aloud: "How far do you know to take us into the invisibility bubble? Before we get hit by the train when it comes through?"
Erskine hesitated and then looked her in the eye. "I don't know."
She stared out into the field. "Wonderful."
They walked exactly twelve steps once they found a large oak tree, as Dexter had been instructed by his friend, and then they waited. It hit oh-six-one-seven and the train didn't come. Erskine put an arm around Tanith and Dexter's waists, and she put her arm around his waist back while Dexter's went over his shoulders. Tanith almost opened her mouth to ask if their timings were correct, but then she heard faint whistling sound in the distances that reminded her strongly of when she was a younger woman taking trains around the world visiting people and places, saving all her money for travel, weapons and concerts.
Erskine lifted them high up until they suddenly couldn't hear the incoming train and floated slightly lower and waited. Without any true build up, tracks appeared on the ground several feet ahead of them and the black steam train came into being some few hundred yards away.
"I'll drop us off op top!" Erskine shouted. "We'll break in and find Dagan or Kray!"
Tanith nodded as Dexter shouted his agreement. She couldn't help but feel fearful as the train blasted past them at high speeds and Erskine began manipulating the air to keep them almost in line with it, angling them down towards the top of the train to land. Teeth gritted her teeth, preparing herself for the power of the train.
It wasn't enough, even with Erskine's help at keeping the wind at bay. As soon as Erskine let her go on the train top, her strength was no match for the sheer speed of the vessel and she flew back, rolling wildly with no control.
She gasped as she went, too panicked to waste time screaming. She flew over a gap between two compartments and tried to grab on but only jarred her shoulder before flying back off and sliding, this time without so much chaotic rolling, down the next carriage. She glanced behind herself and prepared, and when the next gap between carriages came, she forced her legs down and drove in the gap.
Using her magic, she kneeled on the door on the forward most cart. She waited only to catch her breath and then sidestepped, opened the unlocked door, and jumped into the carriage.
Air pressure changed and she almost fell. It was full of crates and Tanith decided she might as well have a look inside – using her sword, she thrust the blade between a side and the top of a crate and forced the lid up until she could see inside with the camera on her phone. Inside, hundreds, if not a full thousand, of grenades were thrown together in the box like stuffed toys for children.
Feeling quite uncomfortable with her find, Tanith removed her sword and pressed down on the top to force the screws back in. Some stuck on at angles but she didn't concern herself with it. She went through the carriage and moved through to the next one against the current of the wind. Once she'd forced the door closed, the air settled and she narrowed her eyes. She prepared herself and turned her light on.
Rows of Hollow Men, staring straight at her, packed in so tightly their paper skins were melding into one another and only kept back by a thin rope cordoning them off. A string they could easily break through now they'd seen her.
She turned off her light and heard the rustle of them jumping for her as she flipped to the ceiling. Hollow Men never had good eyesight but it was fairly obvious they were the more expensive, hardier type when they started reaching upwards for her. She threw herself and slid across the roof quickly, dropped behind the string on the other side and broke the lock of the door.
She was out and into the next room as quickly as she could manage.
"Oh," a man's voice said. Tanith turned and found herself looking at Hansard Kray, Arthur Dagan's young son. She flicked her hair out of her eyes. "I was watching you on the cameras. Thank you for not damaging the merchandise."
"No problem," she said simply, sheathing her sword. "Did two men come through here? They're meant to be with me."
"Dexter Vex and Erskine Ravel? Yes, I saw them too. They're on the roof. I assume they'll join us eventually," he shrugged. "What are you here for?"
"We need information," she said immediately.
"No can do," he shook his head, darting around the long desk on one side of the room and sitting in the high-backed chair. He had a laptop plugged in and he closed the screen. "My father's business is built on customer trust. If I told someone working with the Dead Men, who work with the Sanctuary, with all that political problems going on, and it got out? We'd be in trouble. And someone would find out I told you."
Tanith took a breath, glanced at the floor, and looked up at him through her eyelashes, giving him a head tilt for good measure. He didn't seem immediately interested so she licked her bottom lip. "You're Hansard Kray, right? Mr Kray, I appreciate your dedication," she started, sauntering to his desk and sitting in one of the wide chairs opposite him. She sat with her legs open, "and I understand your concerns. But you have to understand my side. I'm not trying to participate in a war, or any politics at all for that matter. In fact, I think the information you have might well help stop a war."
To his credit, he did consider her words. Dexter had told her on the way he was supposedly more neutral than his father, but Tanith was betting on him wanting to rebel against his father's likely harsh and overpowering beliefs. Young people loved doing that, just as Nadia did in leaving her parents at such a young age. "I suppose I'd be willing to talk about it. It depends on what information you want. I've been working on digitalising some of the company records, but it's slow going and we don't have all of them computerised yet."
She nodded sympathetically, wishing Dexter would hurry up to help her. She was only good at this stuff for so long and if Hansard didn't hurry, she was just going to dropkick him and take his laptop. "Of course. We just need to know about deliveries to a man called Tyren Lament. We don't need to know the supplies necessarily, just where he had them brought to. The deliveries might also have been under the name Vernon Plight, Lenka Bazaar or Kalvin Accord."
He sighed and opened his laptop, clicking away at the keyboard far faster than she could. Not a moment later, Dexter slammed the door at the other end of the carriage open and sent her a grin before moving to let Erskine in. They closed the door back up and silently came to sit with her.
Hansard continued to type away, scrolled, stared intently at the screen, clicked a bunch and started typing again. They waited patiently until he finally looked up, looked right at Dexter, flicked his eyes down to Dexter's splayed legs, and back to his face seriously. Tanith saw Dexter smirk out the corner of her eye and Hansard reddened.
He cleared his throat. "I've found Lament in our database. There aren't many files to him, but we do have a delivery location for him. I don't know if I can tell you much else. Is there anything in particular you want to know?"
Tanith looked to Dexter and he took over with a handsome grin. "I don't suppose you can tell me where those deliveries are being taken to, Mr Kray?"
Hansard looked down at his computer as soon as Dexter started talking. He'd spoken in a deeper, gruffer tone. Tanith held in a laugh. "It would massively break protocol to do that. I'd need a good reason to justify it."
Dexter shrugged and leaned back more into his seat, spreading his legs more and putting an arm over his head, revealing some of his toned abdomen and the hair there. Hansard didn't look, though it seemed to pain him. "We believe the people you're delivering too are illegally keeping a man captive there. We don't know the details but considering the leader of those people are Irish and the current state of the world, they could use this man's nationality to start a way. It only takes something small when countries already want it. We're trying to deal with it before it gets out. We also believe this is connected to the mortals gaining magical abilities, so you can imagine it's rather important to us. I'd be… indebted to you if you could help us."
Hansard swallowed and thought about it for a moment before scrolling on his computer. "He used the company three times in total over fifty years. Twice from New York to Dublin, and once from Africa to Switzerland. The Switzerland job was the last time he used us."
"We'll be interested in that address."
He grabbed his notebook, wrote it down, ripped out the page and stood to hand it to Dexter.
"Thank you so much Mr Kray," Dexter grinned. "We really appreciate it."
Hansard shrugged. "I don't want a war as much as the next person."
"Of course," Dexter smiled, and waved his hand at Tanith and Erskine to get moving. Tanith got to the door the fastest and waited for the men. When they were both there, Erskine held onto them and flew them up and out of the invisibility bubble. "Thank Christ."
Tanith laughed. "I really thought we were fucked when I was left with him."
"Ah, nah, you had it in the bag!" Dexter encouraged. "Unless you were flirting, because from what I've seen, you're an awful flirt."
"I flirt fine! Why would I try hard on someone who already wants me? There's no point!"
Erskine started laughing as Tanith and Dexter continued to bicker playfully and took them into the treeline by their car.
"I'm just saying," Dexter continued with a grin, "you could try harder. And you could do better than that Sanctuary girl. She'd be so, you know, boring over time."
Tanith shrugged. "I'm not really looking for commitment right now so it doesn't matter. Just a distraction on my off-time parenting."
Erskine shrugged. "That's a good reason."
"I know," Tanith said, bumping her shoulder with his. "I'm sure Ghastly has someone too."
Both men snorted and she held back a smile. "Yeah, sure," Erskine quipped. "Like he'll move on from you in the next six years."
She sent him a confused look. "You're not telling me he still has feelings for me, are you?"
"Obviously!" Erskine laughed, unlocking the car. "You have to be delusional to think he's moved on from you. You're one of the best people he's probably ever dated."
She grimaced and got into the back seat. "Are you being serious? Stop playing."
"We are," Dexter said, turning back in the driver's seat. He had an incredulous look on his face that made her think he thought she was being stupid. "He still loves you."
She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. "That's ridiculous."
"It isn't!"
"It is, because why would he treat me with contempt and as an object if he loves me?"
"You know why," Erskine said, entirely flummoxed by her less-than-happy reaction.
"I don't, actually, so please explain."
"Because he's an idiot."
She cracked a smile. "Okay, I might have known that."
