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“C’mon, Z, he’s moving. Let’s go.” Mack picked his fallen bike up and jumped on, already pedalling in the man’s direction before I’d even moved. I grabbed my bike and went after him, my brakes squeaking against the bent back wheel.
A loud roaring sound came from down the street, close to where the blue-coat man was walking. The noise immediately caught my attention, and I turned and watched, spellbound, as a shiny black motorbike came flying down the road, weaving around the parked cars with no effort.
The second I saw it, Iknew. One day, I was going to have a motorbike of my own.
When the motorbike had disappeared from view, the rumbling purr still sounding in the distance, we followed the blue-coat man to a kebab shop, where he disappeared inside. Mack set up a makeshift ramp made from some rubbish in the alleyway next to the shop. We passed the time jumping our bikes on the ramp until the man came out again around half an hour later, now holding a Tesco bag. He walked fast, but we still had to pedal slowly so we didn’t catch up with him, our bikes wobbling all over the pavement, thanks to our slow pace.
He finally stopped at a terraced house with a blue front door and used a key to let himself in. We waited around for a while, but when it looked like he wasn’t coming out again, I saved the house number and road name on my phone before we cycled back to our estate. Creed seemed happy with the information even though nothing much had happened, and he gave us another fiver each.
After that day, Creed had started relying on me and Mack more often, seeking us out for tasks that involved surveillance and information retrieval, leaving the drug selling to other kids on the estate. Now…I’d stepped back from that life, out of deference to the Four and my fucking obligations that came with being a Lowry, but even the board of Alstone Holdings knew just how important it was to maintain connections with Creed. His reach was far, and he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
“He’ll see you now. He’s in the basement.” Natalie slipped into professional mode, and I was glad for it. Then her words caught up with me.
“Basement?”
A small, secretive smile played over her lips. “Mmm. Looks like you’ve made it all the way into Mr. Pope’s inner circle. You know about the underground car park, right? Well…there’s more to the underground than meets the eye. Parts that don’t technically exist. They’re not on the blueprints.” She placed a black-tipped finger to her lips. “Shhh.”
I rolled my eyes. She knew that I knew how important secrets were. How they were worth more than gold in our world.
“Understood,” I clipped out. “How do I get there?”
“The lift. Use your card. You’ll need the code. It’s 24590.” With a nod, I turned on my heel, striding towards the lift.
“Zayde?”
Her voice stopped me, but I didn’t turn around. There was a pause, and then she spoke again, her tone softer than before.
“For what it’s worth, I hope things work out for you.”
My shoulders stiffened. I didn’t need her misplaced sympathy.
“Zayde. I mean it.”
I sighed, Winter coming to mind for some reason. If she was here, she’d probably have something to say about me being rude or some shit. “Thanks,” I muttered grudgingly. I guessed it wasn’t Natalie’s fault that she wasn’t the girl I really wanted, so I probably shouldn’t take my shit out on her.
Still, I was glad to reach the lift and get away from the reception area. Pulling my black card from my pocket, I inserted it into the slot and then punched in the code that would allow me into the basement. As the lift descended, I wondered if Mack knew about the basement. There was no way of knowing, though, unless we both ended up down there at the same time. That was the thing about secrets—you couldn’t discuss them. And Creed always played his cards close to his chest.
The lift spat me out into a cavernous space. High, arched ceilings soared above me, and mirrored walls stretched away into the distance. The floor underfoot was hard rubber, and over to my left, against the wall… I took a step into the room, and then another. Fucking hell. Overflowing racks of weapons stood proudly gleaming in the artificial lighting, both legal and illegal.
“Zayde.”
I turned to see Creed striding towards me, a wide grin on his face. When he reached me, he shook my hand.
“I know you have questions for me.”
“Yeah. How about you explain this?”
His grin widened, if that was possible, his golden eyes glinting with humour. “This is my training facility. We practise sparring, weapons training, whatever needs working on. There are changing rooms and showers through those doors over there,” he said, pointing to the far side of the room.
“We?” I raised a brow.
“That’s a question with an answer for another day. For now, I have something more interesting to show you.” He spun on his heel, stalking across the huge space to a door at the far side. It was thick metal, almost like an underground bunker door. After he’d scanned his fingerprint and punched a code into the keypad, there was a click, and the door swung open.
“Welcome to the catacombs.”
“Fuck me.” I whistled, stepping onto flagstones worn smooth with years of use. “What is this place? Church ruins?”
He nodded. “Yep. Church crypts and the remains of a prison, from what I can tell. Maybe tunnels that were used by pit ponies back in the day.”
