Lore and Order by Steve K Peacock

Author:Steve K Peacock [Peacock, Steve K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Ania and Kaitlyn fell immediately into a combat stance, K disappeared under his chair again, and I did my best to look threatening considering there was very little I could do at this point if it came to a magical throw down. The key is to try and look taller than you are. Like a cat.

The mystery man was standing at the door and looking a little worse for wear. He had his shoulder against the frame and blood-matted hair was hanging down over his face, his head hanging limp. He was wearing a ripped suit covered in grey dust and generally looked like he'd been given a bit of a kicking.

'I would have knocked,' he said, lifting his head. 'But my knuckles hurt.'

I knew that face.

Apparently so did Ania. 'Greg!' she squealed and ran over to him. She gave him a shoulder to lean on, but he politely pushed her away.

Greg, or the kid as I had been calling him when he had just been a nameless fast-tracker to me, pushed himself upright and off the door frame and snapped his fingers. Most of the blood vanished into a wisp of red smoke, a few of the more obvious bruises too, and suddenly he didn't look nearly as beaten up as before.

'Sorry, needed the guys back at the office to think you'd given me a proper beating when you'd escaped,' he said. His suit was still dusty and torn, his eyes sullen and dark, but without the blood he was much more recognisable.

'Nice illusion,' I said. 'I didn't think you types would have the finesse to pull that off.'

'Because we're all RARGH FAST-TRACKER SMASH?' he said, pulling a pantomime monster face. 'Some of us do our homework, warlock.'

He found himself a seat and lowered himself into it, Ania fluttering about behind him wanting to help. 'What happened to you?'

He winced. 'Got slammed into a ceiling during this guy's escape attempt.'

Ania gave me one hell of an evil look.

'Hey now! First of all,' I said quickly. 'It wasn't me that punted him into the wall. Secondly, don't go calling it an attempt, that implies I failed. Thirdly, what the hell is going on?'

'Kind of wondering that myself,' Kaitlyn said.

'Greg is my lover. He's on our side.'

'Lover? Who says lover any more?' K said, but no-one was listening.

For my part, I was feeling all self-righteous again. 'It's not our side, it's your side. I'm not with you, remember?'

'Not yet,' Greg said with a pained smile as he rubbed his temples. 'But I listened to your speech at the office, you're well on the way. You're no fan of Whitehall, you just need a little push over the edge. Oh, and before I forget, here.' He reached inside his stained jacket and pulled out a pistol. My pistol. 'Swung by your house on the way here, figured you'd need it.'

I took it off him and gave it the once over. Fully loaded. I hadn't used the thing for a while and, in all honesty, I wasn't even sure where I had put it.

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