Unknown 9 by Layton Green

Author:Layton Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reflector Entertainment Ltd

After taking the Piccadilly line to Green Park, Andie changed to the Victoria line, rode five stops to Highbury & Islington, then switched to the London Overground. It was a relief to leave the claustrophobic subway for a cleaner, less crowded train. Two stops to the east, after passing a sea of bleak council housing punctuated by the odd granite steeple, she exited at Dalston Kingsland.

The city felt different here. Working-class and incredibly diverse. It was edgier than Central London, more alive with energy after dark. Bags of trash were piled on the curb for pickup. There were no tourist shops or world-class monuments in sight. Hip restaurants and cafés swarmed the streets around the station, but as she walked east on Ridley Road, the smell of shish kebabs and frying grease wrinkling her nose, she saw a good number of secondhand shops, sandwich wrappers and fruit rinds on the sidewalks, imitation goods piled on blankets, music from a dozen cultures blaring from the shops.

Soon she cut right, into an indoor shopping center. All the shops had closed except for the Sainsbury’s grocery at the far end. Just across the hall, she spied a shuttered hair-and-nail salon. One of the cashiers at Sainsbury’s seemed to have an eye on her, but no one else was around. With a shrug, Andie pressed the buzzer beside the door.

Long seconds passed. She buzzed again. Finally a tall, athletic, and very attractive black man walked through the darkened salon to let her in. He was wearing white designer jeans, leather sandals, and a Tottenham Hotspur track jacket with no shirt underneath. The top of the jacket was unzipped, exposing a slender silver chain resting atop a muscular torso.

“Yeah?” he said.

“I was told to come here.”

“By who?”

“Cal Miller.”

“What’s your name, dove?”

She hesitated. “Mercury.”

A broad smile revealed a set of perfect white teeth that gleamed in the darkness. “Yeah, you are. I’m Puck. Let’s go to the back.”

He locked up behind her, then led her through a door in the rear of the salon. Inside was a drab office that reeked of marijuana, with smocks and razors hanging on the wall, an aging computer atop a desk, brooms in a corner, and a pair of beige filing cabinets.

When they entered, a blond woman with a wide-boned Slavic face was buttoning her jeans. She had a flushed look, her lipstick was smeared, and a lacy bra exposed the nipples of her flat chest. A matrix of faint scars covered her forearms.

Puck grabbed a shirt off the desk and threw it at the woman. “Hurry up,” he said. The woman caught the shirt and scurried into the corner. Puck leaned against the desk, crossed his ankles, and smirked at Andie. “Came for a trip bip, huh?”

Andie was stunned, and seething, at his treatment of the woman. “What?”

“A passport.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Where you going?”

“That’s my business.”

He spread his hands and gave the hijab a long look. “If you’re running from something, why not stay with me awhile? I can protect you. Put you to work.

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