Zero Days by Ian Williams

Author:Ian Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RedDoor Press
Published: 2019-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Bret (Fisheye)

Near Bangkok, Thailand

‘Good to see you Fisheye,’ said Vika, smashing her shin into his gloves again. ‘We could do with somewhere to hang for a few days.’ She reached for a pair of boxing gloves, quickly and effortlessly slipping her hands inside.

‘This is Drayton,’ she said. ‘He’s working with me. Drayton, this is Bret. An old friend.’

Bret nodded towards Drayton, raising a glove, eyeing Drayton warily.

Drayton raised a hand and attempted a smile. So this was Fisheye, an old friend, and another one of the hacker handles on Milo’s list.

Drayton reckoned Bret was around his age, or pretty close to it, and in good shape. There were streaks of grey in his short beard. Long fair hair held up in a bun and bleached by the sun. Tattoos on bronzed muscular arms. A tiger’s head and a dragon. He was wearing a pair of dark red shorts and a white T-shirt with the words ‘Fuck Google. Ask Me’ below the search engine’s logo.

‘There are spare rooms out the back,’ he said. ‘Help yourself. You know where they are.’

‘Bret runs the school with his Thai partner,’ Vika told Drayton. ‘They have kids coming from all over the world to train here.’

‘So this is where you learned to box?’

‘On and off,’ Vika replied, sounding vague. Non-committal, as always.

There was an intimacy between Bret and Vika, which wasn’t hard to see. But not one of lovers. Watching them together, it struck Drayton as being deeper than that. An intimacy of old friends and confidants. It quickly became clear to him that Vika had told Bret everything that had happened in Bangkok, and on their second morning at the boxing school, he found them together in Bret’s bright, air-conditioned office on the ground floor of a newer two-storey block to one side of the yard. They were reviewing Vika’s recordings from the hack of the surveillance cameras at the house where Dobberman was being held. The camera was cut off around half an hour before Dobberman was killed.

‘That’s why they cut the power. To take the cameras out,’ Bret said. ‘Probably from a junction box in the road.’

They didn’t immediately see Drayton. Too pre-occupied with each other. He was about to knock, get their attention. Walk over and join them. But then he stopped and backed up slightly because they started to talk about Vika’s brother.

‘Have you heard from Thomas?’ Bret said.

Vika didn’t immediately answer, looking down.

Then she said, ‘Nothing. He’s dead. I feel it.’

‘Hey,’ said Bret. ‘Look at me. You can’t give up hope, you hear me? You can’t give up hope. It’s Thomas. He’ll find a way …’

Bret stopped mid-sentence, and both of them looked towards the door. Towards Drayton. Because a toddler had come crashing past his feet, riding a toy car, pursued by a young Thai woman.

Vika left the room.

Bret picked up the toddler, a boy, maybe two years old. He held him high, making cooing noises that made the toddler giggle. He kissed the child, then kissed the woman before handing her the child.

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