MasukWebb came on a Tuesday.Maya heard the car outside and then his knock at the door and Dominic let him in and he came and sat at the kitchen table the way he always did, plain clothes, nothing in his hands except a brown envelope.He put it on the table."That's everything," Webb said. "Both of yours and Nora's birth certificate."Nobody moved for a second.Then Dominic reached over and picked up the envelope and held it."Open it," Maya said.He opened it slow and pulled out the documents and laid them on the table one by one.His first. Full name, date of birth, everything correct. He looked at it for a long moment. His real name printed on something official and clean and legitimate for the first time in over a year.Then Maya's.She picked it up and looked at it and didn't say anything. Just sat there with it in her hands.Then Nora's birth certificate.Maya reached over and took it. Nora's full name at the top. Date of birth. Both their real names listed underneath as parents.Her
It was Dominic who said it first.Third day in the safe house. Nora asleep in the basket, Webb in the front room doing whatever he did all day on his phone and laptop, the two of them sitting at the small kitchen table with tea going cold in front of them."You should call her," Dominic said.Maya looked up. "Don't," she said."Maya," he said."I said don't," she said.He left it alone.But it sat there between them the rest of the day. She could feel it. Every time Nora made a sound and she picked her up and held her she thought about her mother and what her mother would say seeing this baby and she pushed it back down and kept pushing.That night she lay in the dark listening to Dominic breathe and Nora make small sleep sounds and the house settle around them and thought about her mother sitting somewhere not knowing.Not knowing Maya was okay. Not knowing there was a baby. Not knowing anything except that her daughter disappeared one day and never came back.She got up at two in th
The safe house was a small place on a quiet road outside of town.Nothing special about it from the outside. Just a house. Ordinary looking, neighbours on both sides, a tree out front losing its leaves. The kind of place nobody looks at twice.Webb pulled up and cut the engine and sat there a second."This is it," he said.They got out slow. Maya with Nora against her chest, Dominic with the bags, both of them standing on the pavement in the early morning light looking at this ordinary house that was supposed to be the beginning of something different.Webb unlocked the door and they went in.Clean inside. Warm. Someone had been in before them, heating on, basic food in the kitchen, towels in the bathroom. A proper bed in the main room, a smaller one set up with a moses basket next to it that Maya stood and looked at for a long moment."Someone set this up for the baby," she said."I told them," Webb said from the doorway.Maya looked at the basket. Small and clean with a white blanke
Webb came back inside at midnight and sat down and laid it out."Two men outside get picked up at six in the morning," he said. "Quietly. No sirens, nothing that draws attention on the street. My people come in plain cars and it looks like nothing.""And us," Dominic said."Six thirty," Webb said. "Car comes to the back. Through the yard gate. You take what you need and nothing more and you get in and we go.""Where," Maya said."Safe house," Webb said. "Hour from here. Clean, comfortable, nobody knows it exists except my team.""How long there," Maya said."Few weeks while we process everything Dominic gave me tonight and get your documents sorted," Webb said. "Then you choose where you want to land and we set you up there properly."Maya nodded."Get some sleep," Webb said. "Both of you. You need it and tomorrow morning needs you sharp."He went back outside and sat in the yard on the phone for another hour, they could see the light from his screen through the kitchen window.Ray sh
He wasn't what Dominic expected.Medium height, plain clothes, looked like someone who worked in an office somewhere unremarkable. Maybe forty, maybe older, hard to tell. Carried nothing except a small phone and sat down at Ray's kitchen table like he'd been there before.He looked at Dominic first then at Maya then at Ray."Marcus Webb," he said. Not offering a hand. Just saying it so they knew what to call him."You want tea," Marta said from the stove."Please," Webb said.Marta put a cup in front of him and he wrapped both hands around it and looked at Dominic."Ray told me the basics," Webb said. "I need to hear it from you. All of it. Take your time and don't leave anything out because the things that seem small are usually the ones that matter most."Dominic nodded. "Where do you want me to start.""Wherever it begins," Webb said.So Dominic started.He talked for a long time. Longer than he'd talked about any of it to anyone. Went back further than he'd even told Maya, back to
Ray came back twenty minutes later and closed the front door behind him and stood in the kitchen.Marta was there straight away. "Well," she said."Talked to them," Ray said. "Two men, not local, trying to act like they were just parked up but they weren't good at it."Dominic came out of the hallway. "What did you say to them.""Same story as before," Ray said. "Said I lived on this street and didn't like strange cars sitting outside and wanted to know what they were doing.""And they said," Dominic said."Said they were waiting for someone," Ray said. "A friend. Gave a name I didn't recognise. Kept it easy.""But they're still there," Dominic said."Still there," Ray said. "Moved up two houses but still on the street."Dominic put his hand on the wall. "They're not going anywhere.""No," Ray said. "They're watching. Waiting to see who comes and goes." He sat down at the table. "But here's the thing. My contact called back while I was outside. Said he can come tonight if we need him







