"He's not late," Lucy said, her voice flat. "He's dead. I saw them take him earlier today. That's why I ran. I knew they'd be looking for whoever he was meeting."
Gabriel's blood ran cold. Sparrow, dead. The meeting compromised. He was a loose end. Lucy was a loose end, and the most important one.
"They saw you meet him?" he asked.
"No. I saw them take him. I wasn't involved. Not until I grabbed this after they... after they finished with him. I didn't know what else to do. I knew he was meeting someone... I thought maybe I could find whoever it was and... tell them."
"And you saw me at the cafe, looking like a man waiting for a contact who didn't show."
"Yes," she admitted. "It was a gamble. But then they came into the cafe..."
They reached the edge of the square, melting into the shadows of a narrow alley filled with overflowing bins. The adrenaline was starting to ebb, replaced by a bone-deep weariness.
Gabriel leaned against the rough stone wall, trying to catch his breath. Lucy stood close beside him, her slight frame trembling slightly.
"Okay," he said, his mind racing. "Sparrow is gone. They know you have the locket. They know you met me. We're linked now."
"What do we do?" she asked, looking up at him, her eyes wide and earnest in the dim light.