Chapter Text
Ruby stares at the piece of paper and then back up at the building. It’s massive, a looming derelict old manor house in Trashford, different from the office tower he’s sent her to before but no less shabby. She’s glad she chose to take her bike instead of getting a taxi from school - the drivers in Twinford may keep it zipped for the average kid bunking, but even they would have qualms about dropping her off in front of a building that looks like H. Holmes’ Murder House.
After chaining her bike to a lamppost, she crosses the desolate parking lot, watching as the building grows larger and larger. She wonders what on earth it could have been used for in the first place - the outside looks like a mansion but creepily, there’s almost a complete lack of windows, excluding two in an arched gothic-style that wouldn’t look out of place in a church. The porch stairs creak as she ascends, letting out low, ominous whines. Ruby wouldn’t ever call herself superstitious like Mrs Digby, but she knows that sometimes the environment you’re in can give clues as to whether you’re making a good choice or not - and from all the signs she can see, the house seems to be telling her that she’s making a bad one.
The feeling of unease intensifies as she gets to the door. She looks for the keypad, the code to unlock the house written on the note she carries but a whistling noise catches her attention. In-between the frame and the door, there seems to be a small gap where the wind is whistling through. Ruby pauses in confusion for a second, before a horrible thought dawns on her: she puts her hand against the solid red oak and with a gentle push, it swings backwards. It’s unlocked.
Fear rushes through her as she stumbles backwards. Quickly, she checks the note, but nowhere on it does it say that the door would be left unlocked. All it says is that she should let herself in, work on the code left on the desk and then at some point, Blacker will be around to pick her up.
For a moment, Ruby feels like running - getting on her bike and cycling as fast as she can from the building - but then she considers how pathetic that could seem. What if it’s just an accident that the door is unlocked? How can she even consider being a proper field agent if one unlocked door unnerves her? The thought of being dismissed horrifies her and worse, there’s the thought of LB or Blacker thinking poorly of her. Blacker may be slightly fond of her but LB has been nothing but cold to Ruby since she arrived; if Ruby didn’t know better, she’d think that the head of Spectrum 8 didn’t even want to hire her. There’s no way that Ruby can abandon Spectrum, not after she’s gotten a taste of what coding work is like, and so she forces the unease deep down inside her. She steps through the doorway and into the house.
Instantly, she feels worse. The hallway she’s in is cramped and dark, the ceiling so low it looks like it’s about to crawl down and swallow her up. The wallpaper is pitch black and the only decoration on the wall is a silver mirror which shows her a distorted version of her reflection as she passes by. There are doors all the way along but each one seems to be tightly shut. However, the worst part is the chilling feeling sinking into her: the second that the door swings behind her with a loud slam, Ruby is entirely sure that someone else is in the house. Invisible eyes bore into her back and although she rationalises it away as a draft, it feels like someone is standing right behind her. Refusing to bow to her own paranoia, Ruby continues, walking down the hall with her pace slightly quicker than usual, till she reaches the bottom of a grand iron staircase. It seems to rise all the way up to heaven and with one look down, also seems to descend straight into hell. Swallowing roughly, she clutches onto the bannister, her clammy hands making it difficult to keep a proper grip, beginning her ascent to god knows where. Blacker’s messy handwriting tells her that there ought to be an office at the end of the second floor, so she follows an equally unnerving corridor past multiple doorways until she reaches a small room.
Within, she finds a desk, rickety and at least a decade old, illuminated only by a dim, humming lamp. She can tell from the flaking paint chips that remain that the desk used to be a bright yellow, large drawers on either side. When she tugs them open, she finds that while the left drawer is perfectly ordinary, the drawer on the right hand has chips of plastic at the back. She pulls the largest out and examines it: from what she can make out, it’s a black background with red cursive spelling a letter - under further inspection, most definitely the letter ‘D’. Putting it back, she suddenly notices that the drawer is stained with dark brown spots. Something about them causes bile to rise in her throat and it takes a few seconds for her to realise why - it’s blood.
Slamming the drawer shut, Ruby takes a few deep, gulping breaths. She’s not usually so faint-hearted but something about this house unnerves her deeply. However, her mind wins over her body and so she hesitantly sits at the desk, taking a look at the newspaper sheets that are on it. Her tensed shoulders relax as she flicks through them, recognising Lopez’s neat and tidy annotations, the sentences clearly containing some kind of code. Settling into a steady rhythm, Ruby begins to work through them, attempting to see what Lopez had, her focus moving away from the house and instead to her task.
Without a clock above her head, Ruby isn’t too sure of how long she’s been working for: it has to have been a couple hours, seeing how this code provides her with a proper challenge for once, but suddenly, a noise startles her from the assignment. In any rational situation, Ruby would dismiss it as her paranoid brain playing tricks on her, but this sound is unmistakable - the click-clack of high heels coming from the floor below. The young girl freezes in her seat. Having spent many an evening binging horror films with Mrs Digby, she knows better than to call out and let whomever is in the house know she’s there, so instead, she carefully takes off her sneakers. Without them, her footsteps are barely audible and as she passes back down the corridor, her sharp memory helps her recall which of the floorboards creak, meaning that the intruder has no idea anyone else is inside. Ruby fears coming face to face with whomever it is that has broken into the house, only to see nobody there when she reaches the bottom of the steps. For a second, she relaxes, considering the possibility that her mind has somehow conjured incredibly realistic auditory hallucinations, when the sound repeats itself. Ruby knows it’s not coming from the floor above and there’s nobody standing in the hallway, so that can only mean one thing. Uneasily, her eyes stare down the staircase into the inky depths of the basement. The noise echoes right back up at her.
All of her common sense tells her to run, that the door is only a few seconds away and there’s no way that someone all the way down in the basement will be able to catch her if she sprints. However, someone deep inside Ruby is determined to be a hero. Unrealistic fantasies of apprehending some crazed villain fill her head and before she realises, she’s slowly descending the staircase, the patterned iron pressing against her socks. For a moment, Ruby thinks that the abyss below is utterly unilluminated, claustrophobia tightening her throat. However, just before she gives up, a small pinprick of light shines out. She hurries towards it, disregarding any sound she could be making for the hope of getting out the terrifying dark. Moving into the bright light from the pitch black blinds her and it takes a few moments of intense blinking before she can see what exactly she’s walked into.
To her astonishment, it looks like a ballroom; mirrors with metallic lace trim are embedded at regular intervals in the wall. The walls are marble, white with gold detailing across the coving, the polished wooden floor cool to the touch. It’s what’s above that catches Ruby’s attention most though - chandeliers of fine cut glass sparkle like small suns suspended in the air and a stunning renaissance sky is painted across the ceiling. Fluffy white clouds float over a backdrop of navy sky, shimmering stars blinking back down at Ruby, staring at her with amiability. The sight completely wipes Ruby’s mind of her troubles - all she can focus on is the beauty of the room she’s found herself in. She becomes so engrossed that she swears the sky is moving slowly across the ceiling, her jaw agape in shock. Perhaps, she considers, her mother had a point about appreciating fine art, her hand absentmindedly extending upwards as if she could brush her fingertips against the cumuli.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
The words freeze her in place. The voice is unfamiliar, not one of any Spectrum agent she’s ever heard before. Her fear must be apparent to whomever is standing behind her as they laugh, a jarringly sweet sound, like church bells on a winter’s morning.
“Oh, honey, don’t be so nervous! C’mon now, turn around and let me see your face.” A slightly faded Texan drawl tinges the sentence and Ruby barely summons the strength to turn around and face the intruder.
The woman standing opposite her is beautiful - but in the most terrifying way possible. Red locks are cropped short, resting just below her ears where a pair of open teardrop earrings hang. Soft make-up frames her face, with a long jagged scar across her dilated left eye. Her dress has a wrap neck bodice that tails off into a godet tulle skirt detailed with flecks of copper, a thin belt with an equally burnished copper clasp sitting around her waist. Manicured nails are the colour of rich, expensive red wine and Ruby’s fear peaks as she notes the sparkling diamond revolver she’s holding.
The woman makes no move to step towards Ruby as she turns. Instead, her eyes widen, her gaze wandering up and down Ruby’s figure in shock. Her mouth parts slightly as she lets out a noise somewhere between a snarl and a groan. And then she speaks. “He is not going to like this.”
“Who exactly are you? And who isn’t going to like what?” Ruby suppresses her fear and manages to spit out the question without any stuttering.
The woman cocks a brow, before spinning on her heel and calling out. “Darlin’!” As soon as she speaks, Ruby hears another pair of footsteps descending the staircase. She scarcely has a second to comprehend where this person could have been hiding before he suddenly enters the room.
The woman’s companion is tall and unquestionably handsome, brown wavy hair falling slightly over his eyes before he brushes it back. “What’ve you caught then?” he grins flirtatiously, his dark purple suit jacket shifting under the chandelier light. His brow furrows when she doesn’t respond, cocking his head at her questioningly. “What's got you so serious?”
Soundlessly, the woman points her revolver. The man follows the gaze of the barrel, until his eyes rest on Ruby, standing there, barely suppressing her trembling. Instantaneously, the set of his face changes. His smile snaps into a thin line, eyes burning with rage as he takes the sight of the young girl and without warning, he takes a sharp step forward. “You’re a child,” he spits. “You’re tiny.”
Despite her panic, Ruby finds it in her to make a quip. “Actually, I’m 5’5”,” she corrects, “which is pretty tall for my age.”
The man continues to glare at her, his voice trembling with anger. “And how old exactly,” he snarls, “is that?”
“...thirteen,” Ruby gulps.
The second she says it, something the man snaps. With a deft sweep of his arm, he snatches the revolver from his companion’s hand and, lifting it towards the ceiling, rapidly fires a series of consecutive shots. Flecks of navy blue paint fall onto his suit jacket and the ceiling lets out a horrible groaning noise, the action and the sound stunning Ruby. However, the man doesn’t seem to be phased at all, turning his piercing gaze back on her. He turns as if to advance towards her, when suddenly-
Slap!
His companion’s hand ricochets off the side of his face, her gaze filled with righteous anger. “What the fuck,” she snarls, “do you think you’re doing?” One hand wrenches the sparkling revolver from him while the other grabs his collar, forcing him to face her.
“What?!”
The woman hisses at him, her voice low and warning. “You’re scaring the stupid kid, Hitch.”
Both of them glance at Ruby, who is still standing there, looking like an animal about to bolt. Her body has curled inwards, her arms tucked over her chest in a defensive position, her legs upright and tense. She isn’t shaking or crying, but there’s alarm in her eyes, as if she’s planning out her best route to escape. Hitch’s eyes widen in shock horror. “I- I didn’t mean- I’m-” he stutters, visibly sickened to have brought a child to such a frightened state. “Val, I didn’t-”
Valerie’s face softens slightly. “I know.” She looks back at Ruby. “But she doesn’t,” she reminds him, “so fix it.”
Hitch nods. Slowly, he approaches Ruby with his hands raised, his footfalls soft. “Hey kiddo,” he says softly, “hi.”
Ruby’s gaze is fixed on him and she allows her expression to shift into one of distrust rather than sincere worry. Hitch takes it as a good sign, taking one more step closer. “I’m sorry,” he tells her, genuine remorse in his tone, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just-” He pauses, trying to find the right words, before deciding that an explanation can come later. “I swear I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Neither of us are, sweetheart,” Valerie chips in, her tone equally as soothing as Hitch’s, the drawl intensifying with her emotion. “We were just surprised.”
With the reassurance that the two of them mean no harm, Ruby begins to relax - and of course as she does so, her wit resurfaces. “Why are you surprised?”
“You’re a child,” Hitch states. The frown returns to his lips, but the anger that previous matched it has dissipated. “You’re far too young to be working for Spectrum.”
At the name of the secret agency she works for, Ruby starts with surprise. “How do you know about Spectrum, buster?” The moniker slips out her mouth without her even thinking about it and for a split second she worries that Hitch will react poorly to it.
However, instead of getting mad, he lets out a small laugh. “Well, kiddo,” he retorts, “I used to work for them.”
“You did?”
The smile falters slightly and his gaze falls to the floor. “A long time ago,” he admits, “but, yes, I did.”
“You don’t seem too happy about it.” Ruby notes.
His hands fiddle with his shirt sleeves, small diamonds cufflinks that match those on Valerie’s revolver glinting. “I’m not.” He looks at her in the eyes. “Who hired you?” The question isn’t so harsh as to be a demand but Ruby knows she ought to answer it.
“I don’t know if you can exactly call me hired,” she says tentatively, “but the person who made me crawl down a manhole into a freaky white room was called LB.”
The name causes Hitch to flinch violently and his jaw drops in shock. Confusion and worry are apparent in his gaze. “LB?” he whispers the name disbelievingly, his previously assuring and friendly expression switching to one that can only really be described as pathetically wounded. Taking a few steps backwards from Ruby, the movement becoming unsteady the more he moves as his legs grow weak beneath him. For a moment, it looks like he’s about to collapse, when suddenly Valerie’s hands grasp onto his shoulders, propping him up.
He turns to look at her and his eyes are filled with tears, confusion and upset visible in his gaze. “Why would she- what was she thinking?”
“C’mon, Art, honey-” Valerie begins, clearly attempting to prevent him from crumbling, but the former agent won’t have it.
“She knows,” he says vehemently, “she knows what it did to me and him. I left her a letter, I wrote her it for her before I left, she knows-”
“I’m sure she does, darlin’,” Valerie interjects. “She knows.”
“But then why-” The words die on Hitch’s lips, this betrayal far too much to fathom. He stares at Valerie for an explanation - and Ruby does the exact same thing.
“What’s he talking about?” The teenage girl is completely thrown - she’s watched this man go from charming to enraged to friendly to utterly broken in a matter of minutes. She doesn’t understand. And if there’s one thing that Ruby Redfort cannot deal with is a puzzle she cannot solve. Even when Valerie throws her a look that clearly tells her to stay out of trouble, Ruby persists.
“You can trust me,” she finds herself saying, “I can keep it zipped.”
Valerie quirks an eyebrow. “Is that a promise, honey?”
“Yes,” Ruby promises and to prove that she means it, she mimes sealing her lips. Valerie relaxes slightly, although her hands keep a strong grip on Hitch.
“Good,” she says, “Because you’re lying, I won’t take it well. Got it?” She isn’t frowning but nor is she smiling, her tone carrying a hint of warning. Something about the look in her eyes sends chills rippling over Ruby’s skin; for a split second she can imagine, in another life, finding herself staring down the barrel of a gun held by a much less benevolent Valerie.
“I understand you completely.”
While she still supports Hitch’s weight, the man standing in a state of delirious shock, Valerie worries the skin of her lower lip between her teeth. “When he was younger he started training with other recruits to work for Spectrum,” she explains, “and... from what I can gather, he doesn’t exactly remember it - but the short version is that another trainee threw him and a friend of his into the river. And while his friend got out mainly unscathed, the crocodiles got to Hitch.” She winces like the memory is her own. Ruby stares open mouthed.
“And then-” she chokes on the words, the enormity of his trauma too much to explain so simply. “Many things,” she decides. “So much happened to him.” Another pause. “I was there for one of them. It was- hideous.”
“But why did he leave?”
“Because… his best friend died.”
Ruby doesn’t know where the boundaries are with this story, isn't sure what could set either of them off. So she chooses in typical Redfort fashion to plunge right into the deep end and see if the water swallows her up and spits her out alive or not. “What was his name?”
Valerie’s mouth parts slowly as she moves to answer, but Hitch gets there first. “Bradley.” The name shocks Ruby with its familiarity.
“You mean, like Bradley Baker?”
Hitch stares at her. “You know about him?”
“I heard agents chatting about him in the hallway. Something about living up to expectations.”
“Ah.” On the surface, his voice is empty, stripped of emotion but around the edges, Ruby can hear the fondness. “He was the best man I ever knew.” His mouth tightens in a thin line, his expression clearly one of deep hurt. “So I don’t understand why LB would do it.” He looks at Ruby. “Why would she make the same mistake they did?”
“It’s not just her running Spectrum,” Hitch turns to Valerie, who’s grimacing. “She has her own bosses to bow to. You know that, honey.”
“You don’t think…”
“I wouldn’t put it past them to try it all over again,” Valerie states coolly.
“Why would they, though? It’s a terrible way to treat your agents.” Despite his years of separation from the agency, it’s almost second nature for Hitch to try to defend them, part of him still hoping futilely that their promises of a reason will come to fruition.
She holds Hitch’s gaze. “They don’t care. They’ve never cared about their agents. You know what they did after you ‘died’.” Her laugh is bitter and aching. “The funeral didn’t even last more than twenty minutes, darlin'.”
“She could leave,” Hitch tries, but Valerie shakes her head.
“From what you’ve told me of her - and the little that we crossed paths - she’d never give in. She probably thinks it’s her responsibility to protect new agents.”
“You sure? Because from everything I’ve gathered about her, she hates me.”
Both adults quickly look at Ruby, both their expressions morphing into ones of astonishment.
“What?”
“She hates me,” Ruby repeats bitterly. “I know it.” Her teeth clench slightly as she talks, “Ever since I walked in, she’s wanted me gone.”
“Are you sure?” Hitch asks.
“Yes.”
“No - are you entirely sure?” Hitch stares with Ruby with such intensity that she feels compelled to answer with the truth, as much as it stings.
“Yes. She hates me.” Ruby expects Hitch to frown or even perhaps collapse again - but what she does not expect him to do is to laugh.
The sound is loud and free, echoing against the mirrors and the domed ceiling, his voice filled with mirth and above all else, delight. “She hates you,” he repeats gleefully, “oh, she hates you!”
Ruby scowls. “Forgive me for not being a mind reader, but I don’t see how that’s a good thing.”
Hitch stops his laughter. He draws closer and kneels down so he can properly look her in the eyes: usually Ruby would find such an action demeaning but there is something honest about it, so much so that she holds her tongue. “Kid,” Hitch focuses on her, his eyes bright with unadulterated happiness, “she hates you because she thinks hiring you is a terrible idea.”
“How-” Ruby stumbles over her words, utterly confused by how happy Hitch can look while telling her something so horrible. “How does that make it any better?!”
“Because it means,” Hitch smiles, “she wouldn’t ever put a kid in harm's way on purpose. She wants you gone, kid, ‘cause she thinks that working for Spectrum is a dangerous thing.” He cocks his head at her. “She wants to protect you.”
Ruby considers the idea for a moment. Loath as she is to admit that she’s read LB’s character entirely wrong, there’s something soothing about the idea that her boss doesn’t actually want her dangling over a volcano but instead is doing everything to keep Ruby from falling into the wrong hands. She looks at Hitch hesitant. “So what now? Are you suggesting that I quit?”
Hitch rolls in shoulders in a noncommittal gesture but Valerie grins wickedly. “No.”
“Huh?” Ruby looks from Valerie to Hitch, raising her eyebrow. “Can you guys make up your minds?” she complains. “One second you’re saying working for Spectrum is a terrible idea, next you’re saying I shouldn’t leave?”
“It’s complicated…” Hitch trails off, clearly unsure of how to explain to her. However, it’s clear that Valerie seems to think the kid can handle it.
“Spy work is far too dangerous for a kid your age.”
“Have you met me?” Ruby shrugs the comment off the same way she’d ignore her mother’s pleas for her to ‘wear something pretty for once Ruby?’. “I can handle it.”
“Oh, she’s gutsy!” Valerie grins, before pausing, moving over to Hitch to sling her arm around his waist. As she lays her head affectionately upon his shoulder, she smiles at Ruby. “But sorry to burst your bubble, honey, you absolutely can’t.”
“What, am I not smart enough or something for you? ‘Cause I took the 66 second test, I know the kind of super geeks I’ll be working with.”
“But you won’t want to be a desk agent forever,” Hitch informs her.
“I bet she’s already feeling the itch to go out and do some proper agent work,” Valerie comments, before looking back at Ruby. “She’s trouble, I can tell.”
“Hey!” Ruby complains, “it’s usually considered rude to talk about people in front them, you know.”
Hitch laughs. “She’s just messing with you, kid.” He pauses. “Although perhaps she isn’t wrong in calling you trouble.”
“You don’t even know me!” Ruby argues, “It’s pretty full of yourself to deem me as trouble when I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“For one, you entered an unlocked house-”
“-came downstairs unarmed after hearing a weird noise-”
“-didn’t call for help at any point...”
“Okay,” Ruby grumbles, “point made.”
“Why didn’t you just call them, kid?” Hitch’s tone suddenly takes on an exasperated quality, like a father talking to his daughter right after she’s done something reckless. “You didn’t need to come down here by yourself.”
Ruby tilts her head in admission that Hitch is making a point but ultimately argues back, “I just like doing stuff by myself, you know what I mean?”
“Fair,” Valerie replies.
“Not fair!” Hitch says aghast. “Children shouldn’t be going into creepy basements and chasing criminals!”
“I was doing that at her age,” Valerie argues, stepping away to face him.
“Yeah, buster, she was doing that at my age,” Ruby repeats.
Throwing his hands up in the air in disbelief, Hitch states the obvious, “she was the criminal! She was a jewel thief! That’s not normal behaviour for children!”
“For you,” Valerie shrugs.
“Weren’t you eaten by a crocodile by my age?”
“That’s still different!”
“Is it?”
“Yes! Yes it is! And that’s not normal for children either!”
“I’m not a normal kid, bozo.” Ruby states it as if it makes all her trauma perfectly normal, underscored by Valerie once again nodding her head in agreement.
Hitch stares at Ruby in shock. “Who hurt you?”
“Math camp mainly.” Ruby pauses before adding, “also, Conseula’s cooking.”
“I don’t know who that is-”
“Be glad you don’t,” Ruby tells him, “her spinach smoothies could kill a man.”
“They really do just hire absolute gems at Spectrum, don’t they?” Valerie claps her hands together in joy, visibility entertained by their back and forth. She throws Hitch a pleading look. “Can we keep her?”
“You’re both terrible.”
“Isn’t everyone technically terrible in their own special way?”
“Okay, you know what? This conversation is officially over.” Hitch throws his hands up in a shushing motion to prevent either of them talking.
Ruby rolls her eyes but obliges - or at least for a moment, until something dawns on her. She shifts her weight onto her heel, crossing her arm as she stares at the two villains, eyebrows raised. “You haven’t explained one thing though, buster.”
“Huh?”
“If I’m trouble and spywork isn’t for a kid my age… then why shouldn’t I quit?”
The adults exchange a look. Hitch frowns slightly while a smile slowly works its way across Valerie’s features. The silent battle they seem to be having with each other goes on for a few more seconds, when suddenly Hitch glances away to the floor, his mouth still in a tight line. Valerie, clearly pleased with having won, turns back to Ruby. “Because honey, it would be a waste of paperwork.”
This piques Ruby’s interest. “What does that mean?”
“Kid, don’t-”
“It means,” Valerie cuts across, clearly relishing the words, “Spectrum isn’t going to be around for much longer.”
The mood in the room slowly shifts, the familiarity between them dissipating as Ruby looks between Hitch and Valerie in alarm. “And why isn’t it going to be around for much longer?” she presses.
“I wouldn’t ask too many questions if I was you.” Hitch’s voice isn’t cutting but it is slightly stern - warning Ruby that she’s close to falling into turbulent waters.
Part of Ruby knows she ought to heed his warning but there is an irrepressible part that hungers for danger. After all, they’re right - she’s trouble. So she stares at him intently, her gaze unwavering as she lets a dangerous question slip out of her mouth. “And what will you do if I decide to tell Spectrum about this?”
She sees Valerie tense slightly in the corner of her eye, hands slowly tightening around the handle of her revolver; she’s clearly not intending to fire but weighing up the threat that Ruby poses to them. However, Hitch holds her gaze.
“You won’t.” His tone is almost tinged with amusement and it riles Ruby up.
“Why not?” she spits the words out with disdain, refusing to be the one to back down. Hitch cocks his head at her, slight surprise shining in his eyes. The sides of his mouth turn up into a smile.
“Because - who on earth would you tell? LB? Blacker? Froghorn?”
Ruby doesn’t even have time to process the chilling fact that he knows the names of agents he’s never met because suddenly, Hitch laughs. The sound is clear, mirthless, and somewhere deep at its centre, wounded. Ruby swears she feels a cold breeze brushing over her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Her eyes betray the question that sits at the tip of tongue, fear of the answer preventing her from letting it slip. But Hitch knows what she wants to say. The navy ceiling above seems to darken as he leans closer, the stars losing their sparkle. The words that fall from Hitch’s lips are hushed and quiet, his pitch falling an octave. “You want to know who you can trust at Spectrum, kid?”He pauses and Ruby’s eyes snap shut in terrified anticipation of the answer. She knows that she’s already figured it out. But even then, when he finally speaks, the singular word still chills her to her core.
“Nobody.”
It takes a few seconds before Ruby can bring herself to open her eyes. She doesn’t know what she expects to see - Hitch’s dark eyes studying her, both of them standing in front of her, perhaps even the barrel of a glinting gun - but then the air is struck out of her lungs. Nobody else is in the room with her.
The chandeliers above her sparkle brightly and when the mirrors cast back the image of her standing there all alone, only her eyes fixed on her isolated figure, Ruby almost believes that she imagined it all. It’s only when she feels the warm air wash over her chilled skin and unfurls her tightly clenched hands, seeing the half-moon indentations on her palms, that the gravity of the situation falls over her. Swallowing roughly, she looks back up at the starlight sky, committing the swathes of clouds and constellations of stars to her memory. And then, she runs.
Her feet carry her up the staircase at a frantic speed, the darkness swirling around her for only a moment before she breaks back up into the light of the dimly lit hallway. Heart pounding like a bass drum, she looks down the long stretch of the hall, almost hoping to catch a glance of Valerie or Hitch. Instead, she sees the door firmly locked, no slip of light shining in from the outside world.
Ruby doesn’t know what to do with herself; her legs are too tired for her to cycle home and there’s no way she can call for someone to come pick her up. So, with heavy resignation, she treads up the stairs back to the musty room with the peeling yellow desk. She sits down in the chair, wincing as it groans under her weight and attempts to get back to her work. Questions whirl in her head as she absentmindedly studies Lopez’s notes - who exactly were they? Why were they here? And why does something in Ruby feel such an odd familiarity with Hitch, as if she’s known him for a long time? She becomes so absorbed with it all that when a loud knock sounds against the downstairs door, she almost jumps out her skin. Putting her pen down, one she’s been rolling up and down her desk almost methodically for the past half hour, she stands on precarious legs. Taking the papers off her desk, she puts them under one arm before wandering back downstairs. She crosses to the door, opening it with force. On the opposite side stands Blacker, looking slightly astounded as he peers into the house.
“Hey, Blacker.” Ruby uses her honed acting skills to keep her voice steady.
“Hey, Ruby,” the man returns affectionately. He continues to stare at the house in disbelief. “When LB said she was sending you somewhere slightly aged, I wasn’t thinking it would look so….” His voice trails off.
Of course, Ruby thinks, of course it was LB that assigned her such a creepy house.
However, she doesn’t say that, instead shrugging carelessly. “It wasn’t too bad.” She points at the car parked by the curb, a slightly beat up blue number with a faded license plate. “That for me?”
“Yep!” Blacker responds cheerfully, stepping back to let Ruby exit the house. He follows after her as she walks down the steps and across the carpark. The sun has since set, black twilight spread across the sky. The icy wind whips both their faces. “She doesn’t look like much, but she’s incredibly trustworthy. You want me to put your bike on the roof?”
“Sure,” Ruby replies, stepping over and quickly unclicking the lock. She slips into the passenger seat of the car, clicking on her seatbelt as Blacker hefts her bike onto the hood. It smells comfortingly of vanilla and cherry soda, no doubt from snacks Blacker has been eating on his way to pick her up, but it does nothing to calm the butterflies in her stomach. Leaning over to the window, Ruby breathes on the car window, before drawing a little fly in the condensation to try calm herself.
“You taking up art?” Blacker jokes, opening the door on the opposite side. Leaning over into the back, he swaps the papers she’s left on his seat for a familiar looking brown paper bag. “Thought you’d enjoy a jelly donut after all your hard work.” He hands it to her, smiling, but it slowly falters when she fails to smile back. “Is something wrong, Ruby? You usually don’t look so… uncomfortable.”
“It’s nothing,” she tries to reassure him, but Blacker isn’t having it.
“You can tell me,” he says earnestly and for a brief second Ruby hesitates. She finds it almost impossible to believe that Blacker could be on the opposite side and from what Hitch implied, it was only higher-ups who posed a threat to her. Blacker seems to be the perfect partner any secret agent could want: kind, thoughtful, reliable and he’s always been ready to back Ruby when she needs it, even though she hasn’t been working for Spectrum long. She wants to tell him, spill her metaphorical guts all over the car seat and watch his face as she tells him who she’s just met - but Hitch’s words rear up in her mind. You want to know who you can trust at Spectrum, kid? Nobody. Unease prevents her from telling the truth, paranoia convincing her she’s better off facing her problems alone. So instead, she grips the paper bag a little tighter, forcing a lopsided smile onto her face.
“I’m just tired,” she lies, “Lopez’s code proved to be a little bit difficult today.” She fishes the donut out the bag and makes a small show of taking a bite. The action seems to placate Blacker slightly, as he doesn’t seem entirely convinced, but he puts his seatbelt on without further questions. With a twist of the keys, the engine purrs to life and the car slowly begins to pull away from the curb, juddering slightly with the movement.
Ruby takes one last look at the house, eyes roving over the gothic architecture and dismal colour scheme. As her gaze trails over the second floor, she catches a glimpse of an image that shakes her to her core. In one of the arched windows, there they stand - a tall, handsome man and a scarred, beautiful woman, their stares sharp and intent. Before they disappear from view entirely, Ruby watches as Hitch mouths something to her. As skilled as she is, Ruby’s lip-reading proves a little rusty and it is only once the house and the surrounding building have faded from view that Ruby deciphers the words - and they are both soothing and utterly disquieting as she stares out into the moonlight night.
Good luck, kid.