‘Let’s see, I got the passports. I got the cash. I got the papers, tickets, schedule, meds. We’re good.’

Poison ran a hand through her newly-dyed, electric blue hair and put a supporting arm under Michael’s. ‘Okay, let’s get going. Easy now.’

They rose from the bed. Michael wobbled a bit before regaining his balance. Ever since they had picked him up out of the destruction, his wide-eyed gaze had been fixed on the ground in front of him and he hadn’t spoken a single word.

He did what was asked of him, if slowly. Poison wondered how long it would take for him to recover. If he would recover. Whatever had been done to him, it had left either psychological trauma or brain damage in its wake. They would have to wait and see whether the effects were permanent.

Poison guided Michael towards the door. Eliah and Orion were waiting for them in the living room, personal items packed. Poison was eager to go, but careful not to push Michael too hard. Urgency was not something he seemed to understand right now. Instead, she tried to be patient as he shuffled across the empty bedroom.

There was a plan. It had been changed ten times, but it was a plan.

Originally, Lilly had been supposed to go with Eliah, Orion on his own, and Poison with Michael. They would have met up when they had all gotten away clean. Obviously, they’d had to adapt. Multiple combinations of people had been discussed until they had settled for one.

The current stage was Eliah and Orion going off one way, and Poison and Michael another. Michael was her pretend cousin, and their pretend aunt had been buried beneath one of the destroyed buildings. Their pretend grandmother had demanded they get out of the city immediately.

She didn’t know what Eliah and Orion would pretend to be. Lovers, friends, relatives… Hounds had used all kinds of excuses to avoid suspicion in the past years. With every move, they laid down their game and picked up a new one. Another name, another identity. Not too much trouble. Poison just hoped there wouldn’t be any last-minute-changes. Again.

In the hallway-slash-kitchenette-slash-living-room, Eliah sat in her same spot on the couch, staring at nothing. She had her jacket on, at least.

‘You good to go?’

A nod.

Poison took a breath. ‘Good, then let’s go. Where’s Orion?’

No answer. Poison grumbled and deposited Michael in a chair to look for Orion. He wasn’t in the kitchen. Or the second bedroom. Or the bathroom. Poison was just about to curse him for going out at a time like this when she realised he would never be that careless. He wouldn’t suddenly leave, not if he intended to come back.

Shit. Talk about last minute changes.

‘Eliah?’

Eliah held up a folded piece of paper, but didn’t move or acknowledge the question otherwise. She wasn’t as shell-shocked as Michael, but she’d been even quieter than was usual for her. Poison picked the note out of Eliah’s fingers, dread filling her stomach. She read it. Read it again. Cursed. Read it again.

‘Shit!’

Michael lifted his head but not his eyes. Eliah didn’t move.

‘He’s gone. Orion’s gone. Away, and I don’t know where or why.’

Michael tilted his head to the side, then lowered it again.

Poison crumpled the note. ‘He says he’s got “things to do”, and that we should leave without him. We won’t find him anyway, he says, so we might as well go. He made up a new cover story that doesn’t include him.’

‘I’ll go meet Nathan,’ Eliah said quietly. ‘Your part stays the same.’

‘You knew about this,’ Poison accused.

‘I talked to him before he left.’

Poison threw up her hands. She was standing in an apartment with two apathetic, probably traumatised people, and Orion had run off. ‘Why did you let him leave then?’

Eliah finally turned to face her, emotionless eyes meeting Poison’s.

‘It was his choice. And he’s right, we won’t find him. Not in time, anyway.’

Poison growled. ‘And this Nathan?’

‘Old associate. I’ll take care of it.’

Screw this. ‘I’m going out to look for him.’

Poison turned, and to her surprise, Eliah stood to block her way.

‘Don’t.’

Like hell. This was about her friend, her team mate, not Eliah’s.

‘Why in the hells not?’

‘Because he doesn’t want to be found.’

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Damn her and her logic. Why had Orion even talked to her at all, why had he left and chosen Eliah to confide in? Why wouldn’t he let her have his back?

‘I can’t run away,’ she whispered, suddenly deflating. ‘I can’t leave him on his own.’

‘His decision,’ Eliah repeated. ‘He wants us to go.’

It was too much. The confusion of the last few days, Ten, the Gods business. Lilly. And now Orion had left, too, leaving her alone. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t want to be responsible for carrying on Lilly’s cause. She also didn’t want to be the reason it failed. Why had Orion left her like this?

He didn’t tell you because you wouldn’t have let him go, a part of her whispered. He knows you would walk through the hells for him, and he can’t let you go down with him. You would have done the same.

And she knew that, she knew it was true. Didn’t make it easier, and neither did Eliah being so infuriatingly right about Orion.

Who said she had to be reasonable about this?

‘I lost Lilly today,’ Poison growled. She took satisfaction in the way Eliah flinched, and that only scared her a little bit. ‘I’m probably losing Anna, and I’m not going to lose Orion, too.’

Eliah held up another note. ‘He thought you might say that.’

Poison snatched the paper and read it. She started to cry.

Eliah frowned. ‘What does it say?’

Poison wiped at her eyes. ‘That damned ass-hole. Too smart for his own good.’ She jammed the two pieces of paper into her pocket and pulled Michael up from his seat. ‘Come on. We’re running late.’

----------------------------------------

Ryan wandered the corridors, trying to calm his nerves. Hospitals always forced him to inaction, and it itched him. He could go check on his lieutenants downstairs again. He could get coffee; probably not a good idea.

Sighing, Ryan turned and walked back to the room he was avoiding. Every time he entered, he somehow hoped the situation would have changed. It never had.

Pushing aside his reluctance, Ryan opened the door and stopped short.

The room was mostly the same as it had been an hour ago. Standard hospital room, if a single one. Everything crisp and clean.

But the window was open, and the chair next to the bed was occupied. Ryan stared. The hair, the hoodie, the posture, everything.

‘Orion?’

The young man looked up, and Ryan recognised the green eyes, dull and tired, but still somehow familiar. Ryan reached out a hand in what he hoped was a careful, calming gesture.

‘Orion, put down the gun.’

The thief blinked, slowly. There was something like confusion in his eyes as they shifted down belatedly, to the pistol gripped in his right hand. Ryan noted absently that he was left-handed, and it was strange for him to hold a weapon like that.

For a few seconds, Orion simply stared at the weapon, then he looked up again. A sad, cruel resemblance of a smile tugged at his lips. Only now did Ryan see the streaks where tears had washed trails through the blood and dirt on his face.

‘Will you shoot me if I don’t?’

For a second, there was something in his tone, in his expression; almost desperate, almost a plea. Ryan was thoroughly confused that he couldn’t say what kind of plea it was; for him to shoot, or for him not to.

And then the expression was gone and Orion sighed and slowly pulled the gun apart. He placed the disassembled parts on the floor and kicked them towards Ryan. His attention shifted back towards the bed and he leant forward in his seat.

‘I thought he was dead,’ he said softly. ‘I was on my way to Nicholas Wright when I caught a whisper. I guess the kid should be grateful that critical information isn’t as secure as it should be around your station.’

Ryan didn’t relax yet, didn’t let his guard down. ‘You would have killed Nicholas?’

Orion’s smile twisted and he gestured at the bed. ‘For him? Yeah. I thought I’d seen him die and it tore me apart.’

Ryan looked to where Alexander Nathaniel Rivers, a.k.a. “Lilly”, was lying in the hospital bed. A tube running out of his mouth, and another, thinner one into his arm.

‘He’s alive,’ Ryan confirmed.

‘But he’s not waking up, is he.’

It was no question. They both knew the answer.

For a moment, the room was silent save for the sound of machinery pumping air into Lilly’s lungs with a coarse hiss.

‘How did you find him?’, Ryan asked, picking up the magazine of Orion’s gun and examining it. Empty. As expected. Orion had a reputation for not liking bullets. Ryan wondered how he would have tried to kill Nicholas. Would he have broken his rules for that?

‘Come on, Silas. I’m a renowned hacker, burglar, and thief. I have my methods.’

Ryan raised an eyebrow and Orion chuckled.

‘I checked a few ERs, said my friend was caught up in police business. I found him surprisingly quickly.’

‘I doubt they let you see him, and my people have the perimeter. How did you get inside?’

Orion smiled. ‘I gotta keep some of my secrets, or else the mystery will go away, and then it’s not fun any more.’

Ryan shook his head. ‘So why are you here? You know I’m going to arrest you, right?’

He expected a response like “you can try”, but the young man’s face stayed calm and serious.

‘Yeah, I know.’ Orion took a deep breath. ‘Hey, did you know Max Rivers’ hit-men have explosive implants in their bodies?’

Ryan frowned. That was a sudden and unusual change of topics, to say the least. ‘Is that a… threat?’

Orion snorted. ‘I don’t do threats. You’re far too paranoid. It’s just that I lost two friends today, and one because of those implants.’ He looked straight at Ryan now, fury dancing in those clear green eyes. ‘I’ll help you bring Max Rivers down.’

Ryan raised an eyebrow. That was one hell of a claim, but he was willing to go with it for now. ‘And I suppose you want to trade for immunity?’

Orion chuckled and shook his head. ‘I don’t think I’ll get that, and I don’t want it. But I’d like to make a full confession for all and every crime attributed to Hounds over the past five years. No other parties involved. “Lilly” and “Poison” are aliases I used to confuse you. I hired new people for each job, disguising them as checks for security systems, so there are no accomplices. Just me.’

‘Nobody is going to believe that.’

‘They’ll have to if they want Rivers.’

‘You know that that’s one hell of a sentence for you?’

‘Yep.’

‘Just checking.’

Orion clasped his hands. ‘So. We got a deal?’

‘You mean, immunity for your friends, you take the fall, and you help us bring down Rivers? Without demands of any other privileges or a reduced sentence?’

‘I won’t get it. I won’t ever leave prison. But maybe I won’t spend all of my time there in solitary. We can discuss that later.’

Ryan regarded the young man in front of him and wondered what had driven him this far. He guessed he would spend lots of time with Orion in the future, and have quite a few chances to get his answers. In the end, he shrugged and drew a pair of handcuffs from a compartment of his uniform.

‘Consider yourself under arrest for a long list of charges, then.’

Orion grinned.