Nesbitt leads me to the cut, which is a short walk into the trees, two minutes from where Annalise is in bed. Annalise and I said a quick good-bye. She looked worried about me, which was sort of nice and sort of not. I told her I’d be OK but really I haven’t got a clue what’ll happen. All I know is that Marcus is on our side and that has to be better than not.
I’ve thought about using my Gift and being in animal form for the fighting but I know that isn’t right. That’s for a different sort of combat. This is more tactical, human stuff, all the stuff that Celia has trained me in. I asked Marcus about it and he said the same thing. After the week with him I know I can control that part of myself, my Gift, and I can transform as quickly as Marcus can, but it’s not a Gift for war.
At the cut Nesbitt says, “Seems your dad’s checking up on you.” And he nods over to the far trees. Marcus stands, half hidden, and he holds his hand up in a gesture of “good luck” or “see you soon” or something. I hold my hand up too.
I grab Nesbitt’s wrist and he slides his hand through the cut and we’re on our way. I manage to stay standing at the other side; bent over, but standing. Nesbitt is on his feet in a second and sets off at a swift jog. Well, it’s swift for him.
I follow a few steps behind. It’s dark and still, and even though I can’t see as well as him I can sense the path, and following Nesbitt is easy. I’ve only just started to warm up when we get to the airfield. It’s in darkness and I can make out little more than the pale shape of three hangars side by side, a hundred meters away. We follow the fence along until the hangars are aligned to our right. Nesbitt stops and produces some cutters from his jacket and sets to on the fence. My job is to hold the fence so it doesn’t rattle or shake. When he’s got a gap big enough to get through he indicates to me to wait while he has a scout around. I nod.
He runs to the hangars, keeping crouched low, and disappears behind them. The lookout guards are on the fence further round the other side. If they patrol the circuit it’ll take them twenty minutes, I reckon, but, as Nesbitt said, they don’t look like they’re going to be doing that even once.
After ten or more minutes Nesbitt appears round the back of the furthest hangar and he runs to the middle hangar and then the near one and then toward me. I keep my eyes on the guards but they’re so still they might well be asleep.
Nesbitt stays on his side of the fence, flattened to the ground as I am now.
“Well?” I whisper.
“Can’t see in. They’ve covered over all the cracks in the walls. There are no lights on in there. I could hear voices in one hangar but that was empty last night.”
“So there could be a load of Hunters here that weren’t there before?”
“Or new recruits, or they’ve moved them from the other hangar. I don’t know.”
“Shit!”
“What do you think?”
“I think you should go back and have a proper look.”
Nesbitt swears at me. “I have had a proper look.”
I shake my head. “Well, you’re telling Celia.”
We have to wait about half an hour before Nesbitt has the pleasure of doing that. Celia runs to us, swift and silent despite her size; she always has been surprisingly agile. Behind her follow Claudia, Gabriel, Sameen, Greatorex, and Olivia. Marcus brings up the rear.
Gabriel drops to the ground by my left side and Celia to my right.
“Well?” she asks me.
“Things have changed. Nesbitt wants to tell you.”
She talks through the fence to Nesbitt. They talk so quietly that I can’t make out what they’re saying.
I can see Celia raise her head and look around and Nesbitt runs off again to the hangars.
I whisper to Gabriel, “Something’s changed. Not sure if it’s for better or worse.”
“You worried?”
I shake my head. But inside there’s a part of me that’s anxious. Even with Marcus around there’s always the chance of a stray bullet or a lucky shot or a Hunter with a special Gift or something.
Nesbitt has disappeared round the farthest hangar. A light comes on inside the nearest one, a faint glow under the door at this end. It’s getting light on the horizon too. The Hunters are beginning to wake. We should be attacking any minute but we’re far from ready and at this rate Nesbitt is going to get caught. So much for an easy first mission.
I keep my eyes on the hangar where I expect Nesbitt to reappear but still he doesn’t. Celia turns to me and says, “You and Gabriel to the first hangar. Marcus is to take the guards and follow to the furthest hangar where I will be. Greatorex takes the middle.”