Blood Song

Either way, the barriers of concrete and earth and thick wooden trapdoor of my basement under the barn made no difference to our ability to communicate. Oliver dispensed some helpful and some less than helpful advice on burying bodies from the basement while I planted James' body in the icy earth.

We drove back to the estate in relative silence. I was thinking of Rebecca, who slept in my bed a few miles away, innocent of this night's work. I had decided a few hours back that I would keep details like these away from her unless she asked specifically for them. I had a good idea of what we would have to do to get Mark away from his captors, and it would not be pretty. It would probably involve violence and risk on a massive scale, and I wanted to protect her from these. She had been exposed to both in the past few weeks, but here and now I knew I could shield her from the worst of it all. She would be safe with Marcus and Julia in Russia. I would miss her though, and I dreaded saying goodbye to her later that day. She had become almost everything to me.

Fergus had been busy in the intervening couple of hours. He had set up a vast array of surveillance equipment while we had been gone, and had plugged in the codes for Mark's GPS trackers. He had three separate ones. Phone, watch and shoes. So far they all appeared to be in the same place, just outside a small town called Letham. Fergus hacked into a satellite and got us an aerial view of where he was being held.

Acres of green surrounding a huge stone fortress. Four wings arranged in an H shape, with the bar formed by a two stone walls hugging a gravel pathway. Mark appeared to be in the east wing.

It was still a couple of hours to dawn, and the trackers remained stationary, so we decided to do a bit of reconnaissance. Fergus stayed behind to keep an eye on Mark's position, and to watch over Rebecca as she slept. The fortress was at least ninety minutes away. I glanced at the time, calculating the chances of our being back in time to say goodbye to her before she flew out to join the others in Russia. We should be able to make it. I suggested to Fergus that he might want to delay the plane until we were back and he chuckled.

We travelled light. I had the PSG1 tucked away in the boot and a Glock with two spare magazines. Oliver carried his double bladed sword. I drove.