The Darkest Day

THIRTY

It took Victor almost a minute to be sure because the shadow was a lot better than the one in the coffee shop. Five people boarded: two women and three men. One of the men and one of the women were together: a retirement-age couple. Victor ignored them. One of the men was so overweight he required two seats. Victor discounted him too. The remaining man and woman were in the right age bracket and wore the correct kind of clothes.

The man entered through the door right next to Victor and came as close to Victor as he allowed anyone to get without maiming that person, saying, ‘Excuse me,’ as he did. Then he sat in the closest available seat to Victor and began playing a game on a phone. Everything the man did was wrong for a shadow, choosing to board near the mark when other doors were available, then speaking to the mark, sitting closer than necessary and drawing avoidable attention to himself by playing the game.

Which left the woman.

She did everything right: she chose the furthest door from Victor, entering behind the old couple, and sitting a good distance from him.

Victor absorbed every detail of the shadow, searching for where weapons might be concealed or weaknesses that he could exploit. At this moment, he didn’t know her motives — whether only to follow, or to engage. The other guys he’d seen had been there to observe, but orders could change or this woman was the designated trigger-person.

But now she had lost the advantage of surprise. If she made a move, Victor would be ready.

It was at the next stop that he realised he had made a mistake.

The overweight guy alighted and a trio of young women boarded through the middle doors. They wore smart business attire, but were dishevelled from boozy lunch drinks. They stood near the doors, hanging and swaying from the support bars. They were as loud and they were attractive, laughing and joking with one another. Everyone in the car glanced their way at least once, whether amused by them or annoyed. Every man looked several times.

Every man except Victor and the man playing a game on his phone.

Victor noticed this in his peripheral vision and realised he had been wrong to dismiss the man in favour of the woman sitting further away.

The man playing the game was bold. He did everything against the book. He had boarded at the closest door, spoken to Victor, and had sat nearby, attracting attention with the game. That behaviour had been all wrong, and in acting that way he had removed himself from suspicion. Victor was impressed. The shadow was good. But he wasn’t exceptional because he had not looked at the three young women because it was all he could handle playing the game and keeping watch on Victor at the same time.

The three young women alighted at the next stop and the car became quiet again.

Victor looked at the man, now assessing the threat. The man had no height or bulk of note, but speed and technique were more dangerous. He wore hiking boots and loose cargo trousers. His cheap nylon jacket had the zip unfastened. The vest beneath was tight. Good attire for combat: boots, to provide support for the ankles and deliver extra force through kicks and stomps, hiking boots for grip; loose cargo trousers for manoeuvrability. The nylon jacket was light and unrestrictive, unzipped so it could be taken off with speed, whether before a fight or slipped out of it clutched by an opponent. Cheap, so it would rip without much effort if an enemy grabbed it and the wearer could not slip out of it. The tight vest would be difficult to grab hold of too, whilst not restricting movements as much as a tight T-shirt would.

So he wasn’t just a watcher.

He had no gun, else Victor would have noticed, but a small knife could be hidden on his person in any number of places.

Victor made no disguise of his evaluating look. The man detected it fast. He tried to ignore it, hoping he was mistaken, but then it became pointless. They both knew.

The man quit the game and slid the phone in a pocket of his cargo trousers. He ignored the pockets of his jacket because there was a good chance it would come off, one way or another.

‘What was my mistake?’ he asked, not looking at Victor — at least not making eye contact.

Victor saw no harm in answering. ‘You ignored the three women.’

The man paused, recycling through events. ‘I could be gay for all you knew.’

‘Then you wouldn’t have ignored me.’

His lips tightened and he nodded.

Victor said, ‘Take comfort in knowing you did everything else right. I would not have made you otherwise.’

The man thought about this, then shrugged. ‘A failure is still a failure, however close.’

Victor said nothing. He had no intention of placating the man any further.

‘What now?’ the man asked, meeting Victor’s eyes.

‘That depends.’

‘On?’

‘Whether you’re a better fighter than you are a shadow.’

They stared at one another.

‘I’m good,’ the man said.

Victor nodded. ‘I believe you. You’re a good shadow too.’

‘But you still made me.’

Victor nodded again.

‘Then,’ the man said after a long moment, ‘maybe I’ll stay sitting here when you get off.’

‘That sounds like the best idea you’ve ever had,’ Victor said. ‘Do you know what your second best idea will be?’

‘To tell you everything I know?’

Victor said, ‘Right first time. Who sent you?’

‘Halleck.’

‘I figured as much. Why?’

The man said, ‘To keep you under observation.’

‘Termination too?’

‘No.’

Victor was surprised to find he believed the man. ‘How many of you guys are there?’

‘Twenty.’

Victor raised an eyebrow. ‘Twenty?’

‘Well, twenty-one including me.’

‘Three seven-man teams on eight-hour rotations?’

The man shrugged. ‘I don’t know anything about the others.’

‘Then what are you doing exactly?’

‘Keeping an eye on you. Reporting back. That kind of thing.’

‘But not interfering.’

The man said, ‘Surveillance only.’

‘You’re ex-military, right? Not intelligence.’

‘Ranger,’ the man clarified.

The train slowed as it neared the next station.

‘This is me,’ Victor said as the doors opened.

The man said, ‘Thanks for the lesson.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘And thank you for not killing me.’

‘Don’t thank me for that just yet. I still might before I leave town.’

The man nodded to himself. ‘I’ll tell them you gave me the slip.’

Victor said, ‘Tell them whatever you want to. But know that if you’re put back in circulation and I see you again —’

‘You’ll never see me again,’ the man interrupted.

‘Ah,’ Victor said. ‘Now that is the best idea you’ve ever had.’

He disembarked and the train rolled away. Victor, alone on the platform, watched it disappear into the tunnel.