Broken Truce (Broken City, #2)

Broken Truce (Chapter Nine)

                                                                   Chapter Nine

                                                                  Hugh Richards

“What is it?” Heather Richards’s bright blue eyes are filled with worry. “Is it Deeta? Jan?”

Hugh Richards steps over the threshold, Professor Jepsjon close behind him.

“How are the children?”

“Worried, we all are, they know something’s wrong. Clare and Charlotte have taken them to the park, they’re going to go sailing.”

As she spoke she led them into the kitchen and put the kettle on. Both men sat wearily at the table and fell into grim silence. With shaking fingers Laura sets out cups and fills the tea pot, Hugh watches her in silence as she made the tea before speaking again.

“Hugh? What is it? What’s going on?”

He takes a large gulp of tea, his fingers gripping the mug so tightly his knuckles are white. He isn’t sure how to tell her the truth.

“Something went wrong; Tom, Ryder and the girls are missing.”

“Missing? What does that even mean? How can they have vanished?”

“We think that the Lewises have taken them, Laura,” interjects Professor Jepsjon softly.

Laura clasps a hand over her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes and overflowing down her cheeks.

“We also think that one of the boys may have been hurt.”

Laura reaches out a shaking hand and braced herself against the cold granite kitchen top.

“What are we going to do?” she whispers.

Professor Jepsjon sighs.

“There is nothing we can do yet, Laura. We must wait for the Lewises to make the next move.”

“The Lewises?” her raised voice is harsh. “Why can’t they just leave us alone?”

Hugh reaches out a hand, squeezing his wife’s shoulder comfortingly, but she only cries harder, bringing both hands up to hide her face.

“Why would they do this, what do they want?”

Hugh meets Professor Jepsjon’s eyes over his wife’s head, but neither man feels capable of answering her question. What were they supposed to say? So far information concerning the events that had taken place out in the City, was sketchy at best. They knew nothing for sure, not even who, if anyone, was hurt. All they had were guesses, and the fevered imaginings of worry.

The front door clatters open and muted voices fill the passageway that leads to the kitchen. Tarri is the first to burst into the room, dark pigtails bouncing wildly as she makes her way toward Professor Jepsjon. As she climbs on to his knee and settles against his waistcoat, Carris, Clare, Charlotte, and Mari make their way into the room behind her. Their expressions are solemn.

“Any news?” asks Clare fretfully.

With a muffled sob Laura buries her face into Hugh’s shoulder and begins to cry again. Mari steps forward settling a hand on her arm, her eyes flicker first to Professor Jepsjon and then to Hugh.

“When Cayden arrived at the coordinates from the distress beacon, there was no one there.” For a second Hugh hesitates as he recalls the children’s presence. Carris and Tarri both stare up at him, their faces showing fear and confusion. Charlotte sees his dilemma and gestures for both girls to follow her.

“Come on girls, let’s watch a cartoon.”

Carris hesitates obstinately, her lower lip trembling.

“Aunty Deet doesn’t let us watch telly during the day, except when we have a cold or a tummy ache.”

“This once I believe Deetina would understand, little one,” encourages Professor Jepsjon.

Still Carris hesitates.

“What’s wrong? Why does everyone keep whispering, what don’t you want us to know?”

Hugh Richards pats her hand gently.

“Uncle Tom, Aunty Deet, Uncle Ryder and Aunty Jan have been… detained. They won’t be able to come home tonight.”

“They’re still out in the City?”

“Yes.”

Tears fill Carris’s eyes and pour down her cheeks.

“They’re not coming back, are they?”

“Of course they are!” Hugh embraces the small child tightly.

“But sometimes people go out into the City and they don’t come back.” Tarri’s childish voice, stating the fear that grips them all, causes an uncomfortable silence. She cuddles up to Professor Jepsjon, eyes huge with fear.

“Don’t worry, girls, everything will be fine, just you wait and see.” Even to his own ears the words sound less than reassuring. Hugh searches his mind for something more to say, but falters.

 How did this happen?

How was it possible that two of his daughters were, a this very moment, out in the City, facing who knew what? Unconsciously he pulls Carris closer, trying to hold back his worry. Tom and Ryder would keep them safe, he knew that they would risk their lives to keep his girls from harm.

His flesh begins to crawl with apprehension, Cayden was not a man who spoke without first considering every word. He wouldn’t have mentioned the possibility that one of the boys had been hurt without being sure. Was it possible that one of his sons in law had already lost his life protecting one of his daughters?

What if the Lewises killed them?

What if he never saw his girls again?

What if the children lost the only family they’d ever known?

What if professor Jepsjon lost Tom, just as he had lost his wife and child in the crash?

For the first time Hugh knows what it was to be powerless, how it feels to have two of the most precious people in his life, at the mercy of someone else.

He had never been a violent man, in the years before the crash he’d watched the destructive side of human nature start wars and kill with careless impunity. He’d not understood that desire to hurt, to kill, the complete disregard for precious life.

When he had been selected as a guard for the Clark tribe as a young man, it had been with reluctance that he had carried a weapon, and when he had been given a choice, he had opted to be a hunter rather than a soldier. He had never used his knife against another human being, no matter how desperate things had been, and he was proud of that.

However at this moment, with his daughters in the hands of the Lewises, he felt for the first time the desire to do violence. That scared him. The fear and hate boiling within him was new and volatile, too strong and vicious to listen to the rational side of his brain that told him nothing could be solved with bloodshed, that any offensive action would only inflame an already sensitive situation.

At this moment all he wanted was his girls back, and he really didn’t care what method was used, just that it worked.

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

Hope you liked it!