Amber & Ice

Chapter 21: Nothing illegal about that

“What just happened?” Athena asked Dyo, pulling him to a stop in a street some distance from the theatre, gasping to catch her breath. She really needed to exercise more regularly; especially if she was getting involved with a guy who seemed to spend so much time running away from things.

“The police were storming the theatre,” Dyo replied, matter-of-factly.

“Why? We weren’t doing anything wrong, were we?”

“Well, technically, we’re not really supposed to be in there. The theatre has been disused for years and, strictly speaking, it’s private property.”

“Who does it belong to?” Dyo shrugged, but there was something forced about the movement and Athena got the feeling once again that he knew more than he was willing to share.

“So it’s private property, I get that. But why not just walk in and kick us out? Why all the subterfuge?”

“They must think that we are using the theatre for something we shouldn’t be and were hoping to catch us in the act. Although,” Dyo said suddenly, his voice thoughtful. “I don’t know if Don really got a close enough look to know that they were the police. They might have been a private security service…”

“Sent by whoever owns the place?” Dyo nodded. “Which would make sense if whoever owned the theatre had a vested interest in that sort of group not existing… and were keen to intimidate them into laying low,” Athena continued, following a hunch. “Which would make a lot of sense if the theatre was owned by someone like Jason Leighton.”

“It would make a lot of sense, indeed,” Dyo replied, his voice grave.

“So what do we do now?”

Dyo looked at her, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “Now, we pay the Freedom Institute a visit.”

Athena may have been concerned that Dyo had hit his head back in the escape from the theatre, but she followed him through the streets of London none the less.

The Freedom Institute was based in a huge glass skyscraper to the East of the city. Despite her earlier protests, Athena allowed Dyo to lead her down into the closest Underground station; it was too cold to walk all the way to the Institute and Athena wasn’t really rushing to reach it anyway. The wait on the Underground platform might give Dyo enough time to change his mind about the whole idea. They could go for a hot chocolate instead, maybe look out across the city from one of those top floor cafes. They could kiss again. Kissing was definitely preferable to breaking and entering. Then again, most things were preferable to breaking and entering, and very few things were better than kissing. All in all, Athena felt like it was the obvious choice. But Dyo wasn’t deterred.

He squeezed her hands in his and pressed his forehead to hers. “You don’t have to come if you’re not ready. I understand.”

But he was going, either way and she would rather not let him go alone; she would just spend the entire evening panicking about him. Being involved seemed the lesser of the two evils, so she found herself shaking her head at his words. “I’m in.”

“You are amazing, do you know that? Amazing.”

“You’ve definitely changed your tune since my first trip to the theatre.”

He sighed. “I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you. It was unfair; we can’t all be graced with my amazing worldly awareness now, can we?”

“Nor your arrogance, luckily,” Athena replied, grinning.

He didn’t get the chance to reply because the tube arrived; on time, for the first and only time in Athena’s life. She couldn’t help but sigh as she got on.