Drink Me

77. EVERY INCH OF TRUTH

EVERY INCH OF TRUTH

The whole processing had been a farce.

Riley had requested multiple times to speak to the detective in charge, to the chief, and had even mentioned MI6 but no one had listened.

He had met one impassible face after the other, willing to share no words more than necessary until a security guard had walked him to his final destination, where he had been waiting for the past hours.

Or maybe minutes. He couldn't tell.

Now he was sitting on the hard bed of a cold, dingy room, trying to pinpoint what could have gone wrong and how exactly something like this could have happened.

He leaned back and rested his head against the wall, stretching his legs in front of him, but whatever he did, he couldn't get comfortable.

And how could he? When rage and frustration were taking over every cell of his body.

He needed to tell MI6 about the mole. He had to get Alice out of there before it was too late. He wondered what avalanche his arrest could have created; if it had alerted Noraid and this way, jeopardised the outcome of the whole mission.

But mostly, he wondered how such a huge screw up could have happened.

He was working with the secret services; they were supposed to protect their agents.

"Fuck!" he yelled at the wall but the sound of the metal door opening interrupted his river of upcoming imprecations.

"Come with me," the guard said, stepping to the side of the door.

Riley stood and followed the man along the dim corridor into an equally sterile and poorly lit room where he found Aidan leaning against a metal desk, his arms crossed on his chest.

Like Riley, he was still in the same clothes he was wearing at the party.

"Can we be alone?" Aidan said, urging the guard to leave.

Riley focused on the door closing behind him, then quickly closed the distance to Aidan. "What the fuck is going on?" he asked, disappointed that his cousin wasn't, in fact, freezing in another cold cell somewhere.

"You're in big trouble, cous," Aidan replied with a sigh.

Riley felt the back of his head prickle as the blood froze in his body.

"Sit," Aidan prompted, hinting at the chair next to him as he walked around the table, sitting opposite his cousin. "As you may know, I've taken up this case as your lawyer," the man explained, a grave look on his face. "Apparently someone in your office found out about your illegal activities."

Riley sighed in worry and exasperation, and his head fell into his hands, his fingers passing through his hair as he tried to understand why exactly MI6 hadn't intervened.

But obviously, he couldn't tell Aidan that.

"Are the police onto you?" Riley asked, trying to draw a mental picture of what could have been going on outside.

Aidan shook his head. "No, they're not. We took care of that." He studied Riley's expression for a little too long. "Goes without saying we've cancelled the collection of the cargo for today and we've gotten rid of all burning evidence," he volunteered after a brief silence. "But we need to be extra careful now."

Fucking great.

Riley nodded, barely taking in any of his cousin's words; he wondered how long before the news of his arrest would have gotten to Stevens.