Rifter (The Survival Project Duology Book 1) (15 page)

There was no point in visiting either one in the middle of the afternoon, but he didn’t want to waste his time.

And he had no desire to stake out a library.

No. He would check out the hostels a little later. He would get south of the river now, to save time, and he would plan several methods of attack for when the time came. It couldn’t be that difficult to find a way to get the brac off her. She was one woman, alone, in a strange city. He would also find a proper coffee shop and get some decent caffeine to keep himself awake. The stuff they’d given him in this place was hardly drinkable.

Eighteen

Mara sipped at her coffee and taste exploded on her tongue. If she’d thought the coffee she had at the hostel was good, this one was off the scale. Now, she knew why Kerry had given her that disbelieving look when she’d sat there savouring every mouthful of her drink that morning. It had been weak and insipid compared to this.

She took a closer look at what Kerry had ordered. It was still coffee, or so the menu said — a menu for coffee? It was piled with cream and sprinkles of something that looked like chocolate. There was so much else in the cup that she didn’t suppose you could even taste the coffee anymore, if you could find it. He’d offered her a sip, but she’d refused. She had a feeling her stomach might reject a mixture that rich. Actually, she was certain it would and it wouldn’t be the done thing to throw up in a respectable place where other people were eating and drinking. That was one sure-fire way to draw unwanted attention.

She nibbled at the plain shortbread biscuit she’d chosen, plain because, again, she didn’t want anything too rich. It melted upon her tongue, the sweet sugary taste overwhelming her senses. She took another sip of her coffee and the mingling of the two flavours was almost too much.

For a moment, she wished she could stay. This was what it was like to live a normal life. She immediately berated herself for being so shallow. Coffee and biscuits weren’t life. Life was relationships and work and … but just for a moment, this
was
life. The coffee, the biscuits, the people laughing and chatting all around her as if they had no cares, the sun, the breathable air, Kerry. It was a life she could never have. A life she would only ever be able to taste, but not to savour.

“Are you going to interview me, then?” asked Kerry.

“Huh?” She watched as he took a sip of his coffee, wondering how he would negotiate the pile of cream on top and soon discovered that it was, as she had imagined, an impossible task. A small blob of cream remained on the end of his nose, and, as if it were an inevitable consequence of choosing that particular drink, he picked up his napkin and wiped it away. Disposable napkins.

“My opinions about climate change,” he said, “You wanted to know.”

“Oh, yes.” She wasn’t sure she was ready to tackle the subject quite yet. The research at the library had put her in a bad frame of mind on that score. The thought that this world was going to end up the same way hers had, was not a pleasant one, and one that she would’ve liked to forget, even if just for a few moments.

But research was what she was there for. She had to do the research.

“You don’t mind?”

“It’ll keep my mind active. Stop me from falling asleep again. Or, you could tell me about yourself.”

Mara avoided Kerry’s eyes. She might not have been overly enthusiastic about the research at that moment, but talk about herself? The last thing in the world she wanted to do was to talk about herself, because that would make things more complicated than she wanted them to be. She did have a back story. Everyone did. They started learning it the moment their training began. It had to become second nature to them. But she’d never found it easy. The basic facts were fine, but basic was never enough. You needed to know the details of lives to make them believable and when one of the other students asked her about her family, all she could think of was her real family. Her mother and father whom she hadn’t seen for nearly three years. Her little brother, she always used to hate for the way he butted in where he wasn’t wanted, but who now, she would give almost anything to see. Thinking about her back story always tied her into gut-wrenching knots.

Leo had loved it, she remembered. He frequently tried to catch her out. He invented this game called Back Story Hell, where he imagined the most impossible situations and she had to talk her way out of them as if she were being interrogated and had to prove her innocence. She always failed. Her mind couldn’t cope.

He had never come up with the scenario she was in now. At least, that would have been useful.

“I’d rather talk about you,” she said. “You could tell me about your travels. You must have seen so many fascinating things.” He lowered his head. There was a strange look in his eyes that Mara couldn’t fathom. He had gone from cheerful and playful with the cream dabbed on his nose, to serious and concerned. Yes, that was it, he looked worried. She shook the fleeting idea that he was hiding something as well out of her ridiculously suspicious head.

“I’m sure you’re much more interesting than me,” he said, then he leaned in close and whispered in the kind of conspiratorial way you might do if you had a secret to tell. “That guy thinks so, too.” He nodded his head, almost imperceptibly, toward the serving counter. “He saw you and stopped, and he hasn’t moved for at least twenty seconds. Doesn’t seem too worried about me staring at him, either.”

Mara didn’t look round. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was because her body had become frozen. Her muscles declined to move. What was it she and her brother used to say as kids? I can’t see you, so you can’t see me. That was it. The logic was flawed, of course, although there were people who said if there was no one to hear a sound, that there was no sound, so maybe it had some credence. But whatever was right, at that moment, her body had taken over and was refusing to budge.

Why? Because she didn’t believe in coincidences? No. That belief had already been crushed into oblivion.

She knew exactly who was standing there without looking.

She didn’t know if distress showed on her face, but she imagined it did. How could it not? Her insides were churning as if she had drunk Kerry’s coffee after all. She slowly lifted her eyes and realised she could see his reflection in the window.

Coincidence confirmed. What was she, a Leo magnet? Or had she let down her guard since Kerry had come into her life, all of eight hours ago, and not been taking enough notice of what was going on around her? It was entirely possible. She’d felt safer with him by her side.

“Do you know him?”

She reached out for Kerry’s hand. This was no time to tell lies. Not complete ones, anyway.

“I’m in a bit of trouble. I need you to trust me. I have to get out of here.” Out of the corner of his eye she saw Kerry glance at Leo. She couldn’t imagine what he must be thinking. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to come with me, but please, whatever you do, don’t tell him about the hostel.”

“You’re going to run?”

His eyes were so wide with incredulity, and a hint of excitement. Her mouth gaped for a second before she could form a response.

“I look like someone else. I can’t explain it. Not now.”

Kerry’s gaze was still alternating between her and Leo. She sensed Leo take a step forward. Kerry grabbed her hand and pulled.

“Christ, he’s taking a picture of us. This way.”

For a second she was confused and they pulled in different directions, but then she saw there was a second entrance to the cafe that she hadn’t even noticed, and they were through it before Leo had time to react. They nearly knocked a woman over in their haste and Mara shouted a “Sorry” without looking back.

They sped along the street, pulling concerned looks from most of the people they passed. Kerry shouted, “Do you know London?”

“Only by reputation.”

She knew he glanced at her. It was probably the oddest response he’d ever heard, but the general picture in her head of the main streets and their connections would be of no use to them, if they were even correct. They needed to use back streets and alleyways, and she had no idea which way to go.

“Left,” he shouted. As soon as they’d turned, he elaborated his own plan. “We need to keep dodging back and forth. That’s the only way to lose him. Too much time on one street means he can track us. We need to be untrackable, if that’s even a word.”

She glanced at him and their eyes met. There must have been a question in her expression, because he said, “Too many hours as a kid watching cop shows. The criminals always stayed in view for too long. That’s why they were caught. Right?”

She didn’t have enough energy to laugh, and she’d never watched that many of the old cop shows, but he seemed pretty certain of his facts, and who was she to argue with the logic? They crossed the road, narrowly dodging the front bumper of a red vehicle. Kerry looked back. It had screeched to a halt, and the driver was making unseemly gestures with his hands. “Never thought I’d do that,” he said. Neither did she.

“What else did you learn?” she asked in between large gulps of air.

“Never go down the dark alleys, they’re always dead ends. Never climb up a fire escape. And running through the kitchens of a restaurant might seem like a good idea, but it slows you down and there are too many knives.”

She was pretty sure that in between her gasps for breath, she snorted.

They dodged back and forth down multiple streets until she had no sense of which direction they’d travelled in, or where they were likely to come out. Neither of them had looked behind for quite some time, which at some point they were going to have to do, or they’d end up running till they dropped.

“Next left and stop,” said Kerry, as if he’d read her mind, again.

They threw themselves back against a wall and peered round the corner, to the obvious concern of several more passersby, but there was no sign of Leo. Mara creased in half to catch her breath, while Kerry’s knees bent as he slid to the ground and leaned his head back.

“Okay, we need to find our way back to the hostel, and you need to tell me what the hell’s going on.”

“You won’t believe me,” she said.

“No matter. I haven’t just run a couple of miles through the back streets of London for the fun of it. Even if you lie to me, I need some kind of explanation.”

It probably wasn’t a couple of miles, although it felt like it. She thought about her back story. It would never hold up after this and she was pretty sure she wasn’t capable of embellishing it in any sensible way. How bad would it be? He could only think her crazy. She nodded, and then she said, “Are you a fan of science fiction?”

She’d never seen someone raise their eyebrows so high, but he didn’t utter a word.

Nineteen

Leo didn’t bother to give chase. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. He did. But, if he was seen running after someone, hell for leather, it would raise suspicion, and that was the last thing he needed. He needed to stay under the radar. Having someone call 999 and report the chase would not be to his benefit, especially as cameras might be used, and if there was someone following him, it would be even worse. If only he hadn’t stood still so long that the man had realised they were being watched. How difficult would it have been to sit at a table, drink his latte and follow them back to wherever she was staying, at a distance? At some point, she would have lost the man, even if it was only when he took a bathroom break, and that would’ve been Leo’s chance.

He knew he was stronger than she was. He knew the techniques she would use. He knew how to release a brac.

Stupid.

But he’d been transfixed, disbelieving. If he’d known all he had to do was walk into a decent coffee shop to find her, he’d have done it earlier.

He laughed. It was as if they were meant to be together. Like there was a magnet between them. No, it wasn’t that. It was that his guess had been right. She was based south of the river. That was why she was in a coffee shop on the South Embankment. It made sense.

He had no idea who the man was. They’d seemed chatty and comfortable with each other, and that was what had caused his inaction. Seeing her behaving with another man like she used to do with him. Like he used to do with her. He didn’t think it was a pang of jealousy, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d been so certain he wasn’t still in love with her, because he’d been able to think about everything to do with his plan objectively and he didn’t feel bad about how his plan was going to affect her at all. Did he? No, he didn’t. It was just the shock of finding out that she’d so easily made a friend, and a male friend at that.

At least, all was not lost. It had been easy enough to take the picture, and he’d had the presence of mind to use Caroline’s phone.

He sipped at his drink as he searched for matching pictures of the mystery man on the web. It didn’t take long to find one. He loved face recognition software, unless it was aimed at him. Luckily, Kerry Wilson, a New Zealander who liked to talk about himself, a lot, was documenting his entire trip on more than one social media feed. According to his latest post, he’d arrived in London that morning and met ‘a cool babe’ at his new digs. He wondered if Mara knew she was being described that way. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t like it. The information backed up the theory that she was staying in a hostel, although Kerry had omitted to give details of where he was staying. Inconsiderate of him. And he didn’t seem to have selected the option to show his location. Still, Leo had a few alternatives. Wait until Kerry did mention the hostel, but that might be another day or longer, and that would leave things too tight. Wait to see if anything he posted had a location tag on it, also risky and time consuming. Or he could be proactive and contact the man himself.