AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By comparison to what I’d smelled in Afghanistan after a battle, this was practically pleasant, but I still withdrew a jar of Vaporub from my gear and swiped it under my nose.
“Jesus Christ,” Conor rumbled from behind me, immediately spinning on his heel and heading outside.
Though I knew she pricked her ears for the sounds of him vomiting because I saw the disappointment flash over her expression, D still teased, “I’ll tell Troy, Conor. She’ll go back to calling you Glitter—”
When Conor stepped inside, he had Temper over his shoulder. “Fuck off, Lucinda.”
After he dumped Temper, I tossed the jar of Vaporub at him. “Heads-up, love.”
He grabbed it, swiped it under his nose, but still gagged while D, totally unoffended with his banter, chuckled and waved a hand at the wall. “Reinier was an artist with a grudge.”
I hummed at the mural of dried shit then stared at the corpse which was, no nicer way to describe it, seeping. “He can’t have survived long after I dealt with him.”
“So this was his last message,” Conor mused around a retch as he bowed over, hands on his knees as the virulent stench seemed to grow stronger now that fresh air was streaming and not trickling into the container.
D and I shared a look but didn’t comment.
If anything, I wished I were like him and wasn’t accustomed to these kinds of horrors.
“Maybe apply some more?” I suggested.
He waved a hand over his head. “Don’t worry about me. Nothing to see here.”
D snorted but mused, “Reinier’s penmanship could do with some work but it’s definitely an address.”
“He claimed he had an estate in Florida.” I studied the address. “Can you look it up for me, Conor?”
“Yeah,” he choked.
“Go stand by the door,” D ordered.
He didn’t argue.
Once he was over there, he said, “Tell me the address then I’ll disengage the signal blocker. Don’t speak until I have the location pinpointed. I’ll tell you when the blocker is re-engaged.” D nodded her understanding as I called out the address. After a short pause, he stated, “Okay. We’re free to talk. The address is in the Keys.”
“That’s our next port of call then,” I rasped.
“Nuh-uh,” D argued, grabbing my arm as I made to move toward the door. “I think it’s time you told us what this Bear guy said in his letter.”
With a shrug, because I had nothing to hide, I shoved my hand in my coat pocket and retrieved the note so I could pass it to her.
Star,
We’ve never had the opportunity to meet but I know you’ve been fighting the Sparrows for longer than I have, and seeing as I know my time is near, I figure I should pass the baton onto you.
We’re both fighters in this hidden war and I salute you for your sacrifices. That’s how the Sparrows get you—by those sacrifices—and I can’t imagine what you’ve had to endure because what they did to me was hell. Living hell.
I truly wish you well in your fight and I hope you won’t stop until they’re no more. Until we’re free from their taint. Because wherever they establish a nest, they poison paradise.
To help, Rex, my boy, should have shown you the motel room I’ve been working out of. Everything I know about the Sparrows is in there, and I hope it can be of some use to you.
But there’s info that isn’t safe to be left in that room.
I first came across a second secret society called the ‘United Brotherhood’ via a woman who went by the name Temperance Black. She approached me and offered me intel.
My case against the Sparrows had stalled. I’d bought this docket of information from a dark website nine or so months before, managed to get hacked in the process, and lost the docket as well as everything I’d uncovered about the NWS over the years.
(After that, I took printouts of everything. That’s what you’ll find in my motel room.)
