What Abigail Did Tha Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

Author:Ben Aaronovitch [Aaronovitch, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473224360
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2021-02-11T08:47:53+00:00

21

The House

I’m standing outside a house on a lane off East Heath Road, a four-storey semi-detached place a bit like Simon’s house, only older. The house next door has a shallow roof and a half basement but this one, the house Ziggy has brought us to, is surrounded by a two-metre green wooden site hoarding and shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting. There’s a builder’s placard halfway up, next to a blue and white sign with a drawing of a bodybuilder and WARNING ALARMED in red letters. There is an ordinary-sized door with a Yale lock and a double-sized gate with two heavy-duty padlocks next to that.

Ziggy pads over to the hoarding, puts his paw on the door and turns his head to give me a look.

‘Yes, I’m impressed,’ I say. ‘That’s some proper tracking there.’

The look turns long-suffering, like my history teacher when he thinks I’m going to ask him a question.

‘Thanks,’ I say. ‘Give mad love to Thistle for me.’

Ziggy nods, turns and walks away.

Once the collie is out of sight, Indigo pops out of a hedge like a ninja and I spot Sugar Niner, Zebra and a couple of foxes I don’t recognise skulking in the gardens on either side of the house. Indigo jumps from a wall onto Simon’s shoulder. He doesn’t seem to notice, let alone mind, the weight.

‘Sugar,’ says Indigo, ‘take a team and check the back for access, put surveillance in place and report back.’

‘Roger,’ says Sugar Niner, and vanishes into the next-door garden followed by a couple of foxes.

‘Zebra,’ says Indigo. ‘Head back to Lucifer and report.’

‘Hold on,’ I say.

‘Wait one,’ Indigo tells Zebra, and then asks if I’ve got any instructions.

‘Ask Lucifer to take the teams off the perimeter and put them around the Tumulus,’ I say in my best Nightingale voice. ‘Track any Sugars coming out, but intercept any trying to get in.’

‘Intercept?’ says Zebra in shock.

‘We’re Charlie Fox,’ says Indigo. ‘Covert only. Dogs, cats, yes. But we don’t do human sanctions.’

‘Ow,’ says Simon as Indigo inadvertently digs her claws in, and I remember what ‘sanction’ means in spy talk.

‘Don’t be tapped,’ I say. ‘Warn them off. We just need to keep it clear until the Feds arrive.’

‘What makes you think they’re going to find it?’ asks Lucifer.

‘Because I’m going to call them and tell them where it is,’ I say.

Now, I should have called Nightingale. But, you know what? It never even occurred to me. Instead I pulled my precious emergency burner phone out of my backpack, because the Feds can track your SIM card and the IMEI number that identifies your phone. That’s why swapping out your SIM when you want to stay anonymous is a waste of time. The Feds can also identify your voiceprint if you’re stupid enough to leave a message, which was why I coached Indigo in what I wanted her to say. She memorised it first time – they’re good at remembering stuff, these foxes are. On account of them not being able to write shit down.

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