“Fae do that, they do,” Rufaizu said. “There a second, gone another.”
“With humans in tow?” Pax gave him the eye.
“Got their ways,” Rufaizu shrugged.
“He’s right, for once,” Casaria said. “There have been cases of Fae kidnapping humans. Reported if not proven. They’re devious little shits.”
Pax raised an eyebrow. She knew well enough about Fae kidnappings, having resolved one mere days ago when they took Grace. “Letty clearly put up a fight; if it was a kidnapping I’m not sure it was successful.”
“Either way,” Casaria said, impatiently, “we should be going, too. There’s nothing for us here.”
“You pretend to care for this city and you’re not even interested in what happens to an innocent family?”
“Innocent? Barton is a trespasser, a thug, a drunkard, and a Fae sympathiser.”
“He’s got more beef with them than you!” Pax started, then stopped. It wasn’t worth it. “Letty’s alive, she’s got to be. I need to call her.”
“Passed a shop,” Rufaizu said. “I can get you something.”
He’d stolen her money before, deftly enough. But committing more crime hardly sounded like the best idea, especially not with Casaria scowling. Pax said, “There were pay phones, down by the toilets.”
She led the way as they fell in step behind her, and a few minutes later she’d scraped enough change together between them to try the number Letty had given her. It rang through a dozen rings with no answer. She placed the receiver down and turned to Casaria. “Your people can tap phones, track mobiles?”
“We can. Doesn’t mean we do.”
“Just when you feel like it, huh.”
“Anyway, I assume Fae phones are a problem, else we’d have them on a tighter leash.”
“They work on our networks, why not?” Pax paused for confirmation, but Casaria’s vacant expression suggested he’d be no use. “You got any friends at the Ministry that could do it?”
“You think the office is functioning right now?”
“If it is,” Pax said, “have you got any friends there?”
Again, Casaria’s blank face said no. Definitely not. He deflected the question. “They’ll trace any call you make to them, for sure. And they’ll be watching for you especially, because Sam Ward will definitely have reported you were there.”
“What about Sam Ward herself? We saved her life.”
“Pax, give it up,” Casaria said. “We have your Blue Angel to hunt, why waste time here?”
“Because people matter!” Pax snapped. “Jesus Christ, why does that need explaining? Letty’s put herself on the line for me – she’s –”
“A bug,” Casaria snarled.
“My fucking friend!” Pax jumped at him, a pointing finger shoved into his face. “She’s shown more humanity than you!” Her emotion carried her towards Casaria, pushing him back until he hit the graffiti-stained wall. Rufaizu stood up straight, halfway between enthusiastic and frightened. Pax rose onto her toes. “You prick, all the talk I’ve had to – what? Stop fucking smiling! Why are you fucking smiling? Listen to me – one more time, you call her a bug, an insect, a piece of shit, whatever, I will fucking hurt you.”
He hadn’t stopped smiling. Couldn’t stop. Scared, ashamed, maybe, but a little excited too. Damn, that’s how he coped, wasn’t it? Pax moved away, glaring at him. As he peeled himself from the wall and opened his mouth to speak, she said, “The only word I want to hear from you is sorry.”
He considered it. Then chose to say nothing.
“Whatever. Do you have Sam Ward’s number?”
Casaria said, in an admonished tone, “Your thugs took my phone. Yesterday.”
“Shit. You must have a switchboard –”
“It’s okay. I know it.”
Pax paused. “Know what?”
Casaria said nothing, letting her catch up. Ward’s number? Pax drew out her response, “Okay.”
Rufaizu sniggered, and Casaria shot him a look. The young man held up defensive hands. “Not judging, not judging! Sweet, is all –”
“Keep fucking talking,” Casaria growled.
“No! Enough!” Pax’s eyes locked on his. It was like reprimanding a damned dog. Casaria didn’t move, already in his place. Bloody hell, this man. “Give me her number, then.”
Casaria watched Pax over the shoulder-height plastic partition as she made the call. The pay phones were lined up along a side corridor, opposite the toilets, with the minimum of privacy, but no one was around. Only fugitives and criminals used pay phones and public toilets, after all.
That’s what he had become, wasn’t it?
Associating with the likes of this street urchin scum. Taking shit from a poker player who’d lose her breath in a ten-metre race. Casaria avoided looking at Rufaizu, to suppress the urge to punch his face off, and fixed his gaze on Pax. She couldn’t complain, seeing as she was the leader now, seeing as he needed to follow her. He had to watch her, didn’t he?
He studied her as she talked. Her soft features were hardened by crusted blood and black smears of dirt. He was tempted to wipe them off himself, seeing as she wasn’t bothered to. But it suited her aggressive personality. She was tough. She had come for him, saved him from torture. Insisted he join her. Insisted they talk to Sam Ward, despite that she-devil’s flaws. Fought against the turnbold, and fought in the Sunken City for those hapless civilians. Even fought against him, risking serious harm for an insect’s honour.
If nothing else, he respected her courage. As she had said, she was trying to fight a good fight. The gypsy boy was right. Behind her lack of fitness and lack of style, there was something special in her.
It made sense to partner with her.
He watched her lips, talking into the receiver. They’d almost brushed against him when she’d lost her cool. Casaria didn’t suppress a smirk. Why not be positive?
“Is it something you can do?” Pax was saying. “Something you’re prepared to do?”
Casaria could hear Sam Ward’s voice well enough. The phone made it metallic, cold and distant. An accurate interpretation, which he hoped Pax would soon understand. Sam had answered brusquely, barely responding to the first few comments, no more agreeable than she’d been in the office, or outside when they’d saved her life. “I don’t have anyone spare, Ms Kuranes. If you come in –”
“I’ve got places to be,” Pax said. “We can help, better than your lot, I’m sure – all I’m asking is that you check my friends aren’t dead.”
Ward hesitated. “You realise there’s people who think you’re responsible for this?”
“Are you one of them?”
Another pause. “No. But –”
“Well, I am,” Pax said. “I didn’t want it or organise it, but I am responsible, aren’t I? Because I know what to do about it, and no one else does. Trust me, you trace Letty’s phone and I’ll take care of your minotaur for you.”
“You’re wrong,” Ward said. Here we go. Casaria gave Pax a knowing smile, but she twisted away. “You’re not the only one trying to resolve this.”
“I imagine we’ve got different ideas of what that means.”
“My people are looking for the grugulochs right now. They’re working – after what we’ve been through, they’re following my command.”
“Congratulations,” Pax replied, flatly. “I guess that makes you head rat?”
“You should’ve stayed here,” Ward said. “Tell me what you’ve seen, what you know –”
“Yeah, that sounds kind of one-sided,” Pax said. “Especially considering part of what I know is that you’ve got fucking cutthroats working for you. To say nothing of the rather worrying level of ignorance in your organisation. The sort that suggests an institutional problem.”
Ward hesitated again and Casaria’s smile spread. Pax was sharp, fierce. She understood the MEE, even from the little she’d seen of it. The whole organisation was an institutional problem, wasn’
t it? Particularly the likes of Sam Ward.
Ward said, “I don’t disagree that we have areas for improvement, but you called me for help. Considering I have the means to trace the source of all this, if you’re not willing to talk, I’m not sure what exactly you are offering?”
Pax paused. “You know I can tell you things you don’t know. Can you trace this phone for me or not? Find my friend?”
She went quiet and waited, an uncomfortable look on her face. She couldn’t want her secret about those electric veins shared with the Ministry. She was ashamed of taking on part of the myriad horde, having touched their world.
Ward took a long time to answer. For her, it didn’t get much worse than diverting resources without authorisation. “If you agree to discuss all you’ve been through with me – at the very least with me personally, even if you don’t come in – then I’ll run the trace.”
Pax immediately set new demands. “Run the trace and guarantee the Bartons and myself will be free from your investigations, then we’ve got a deal. And I want my bloody money back – and someone to stop my landlord from kicking me out.”
Ward paused. “I think that can be arranged.”
“You think? That doesn’t do it for me. Can you make it happen or not? Because –”
“I can make it happen,” Sam said, more firmly. “That man you saw ripped apart in our office? He was in charge. Now I am.” Her voice got even firmer, making Casaria frown. “I’m in charge.”
14
In the brief window that Sam had taken to field the phone call and organise Pax’s trace, she found the unsupervised field agents had started itching for blood. Every one of these young men (and they were all men) yearned for trouble. It was written on their squared faces, creased with lines of tension and distaste. They gathered around the table in Meeting Room 2, waiting for Dr Galler, their tech specialist, to explain the Fae’s Dispenser at the circle’s centre, before they could get out and bust heads.
Galler said, “Obviously we haven’t had much time, so I wouldn’t like to propose exactly how it works – or what might make it more effective than our own tools – but essentially this appears to produce a particularly potent electromagnetic pulse. There’s an aspect I can’t account for in the conversion of –”
“Perhaps we could stick to how it can be used?” Sam heard herself say. With authority, she’d decided, came coldness.
“Right.” Galler regarded her with the same expression everyone had worn the first time she issued them an order. Tackling two questions at once: do I need to put up with this woman? and do I want to risk my job? “There’s essentially two moving parts. After you unscrew the end and put in the fuel, you pull back this lever, and the device goes through a – let’s say a charging process. This button discharges it.”
“Potentially bringing the tunnel system down on top of you,” Hail said.
“Potentially.”
“With respect” – Hail looked to Sam – “we’ve been working on the assumption that the praelucente has become unstable because that moron Casaria shot this weapon at it. Right?”
“No.” Sam was ready for this one. “That’s perfectly possible, but it’s equally possible the praelucente behaved this way because we threatened it, and what we’ve seen is a series of revenge attacks. It’s possible the turnbold was part of that. The point is, we have no idea what you’re going up against, and you need every weapon at your disposal.”
This met a murmur of disagreement. They wanted Fae blood, not some new mystery threat. But for once Sam could point them in the right direction: their searches had led to something concrete. During the first Monday surge, when that building had quaked in New Thornton, novisan had spiked, in a massive amount, in one very particular spot.
The energy was moving, as Pax said. It had to be the grugulochs. If that was the force behind this mess they’d stumbled into. It was dangerous, it was using them and it needed confronting.
“Shame we don’t have the homeless guy’s drawing to help,” Agent Farnham commented, sarcastically. It got a few dutiful sniggers.
Sam gave the burly, bearded brute a stern look. “Gentlemen. You know how to do your jobs. If you want to stick with your usual weapons, that’s up to you. But this is here, available.”
The agents shuffled their feet. Even Landon wasn’t volunteering on this.
“Very well,” Sam decided for them. “Agent Hail, I want you to take it. Use it or don’t, that’s your choice. Dr Galler, you’ve got some fuel for it?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s discuss how we’re going to do this, then.” Sam bent over the table and paused with her hand poised to push the Fae device out of the way. She hardly dared touch it, and looked to Hail. He took it gingerly himself. Under the device was a map of the Net, Ordshaw’s northernmost borough. The ink was faded from age, but the paper was spotless, testament to how rarely the Ministry ran operations there. When Roper had announced they’d located a focal point for an energy spike, it seemed logical that it would be somewhere so remote, barely populated and scarcely patrolled by the Ministry.
A big cross intersected the corner of two roads in the upper west quadrant.
“What’s there?” an agent with a crew cut asked.
“Your ears need cleaning out?” Farnham replied. “We don’t know, that’s the point.”
“I meant the building, dumbass. The location.”
“Gentlemen, when you’re ready.” Sam kept her voice calm. “It’s an old church.”
“An actual church this time,” Landon added. “Not like Apothel’s chapel.”
“Thank you. Methodist building, closed down in the ’70s, when the minister was charged with indecent activity.”
“Paedo,” someone muttered, helpfully.
“There’s a set of keys coming from the City Council. I want you to secure the perimeter before going in. There shouldn’t be any creatures –”
“Never had reports north of Juliacre Boulevard,” Hail said. “The tunnels finish a block above the A564.” Some of the agents muttered agreement, to demonstrate they knew this already.
“Stay vigilant,” Sam said, hoping to sound inspiring. “We don’t know what you’ll find, but it is responsible for all the assaults we’ve had on this city. This office included.”
More grumbles in the audience, and a lot of wary looks, picking her apart. Hail spoke for them: “You think it’s another creature, or what?”
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted. “It might be our perpetrator’s apparatus. Whatever they’re using to manipulate the praelucente.” They didn’t look convinced. “It’s big. The novisan levels are huge, compared to the rest of the city, and they’ve spiked in line with the praelucente’s surges. Be very –”
“Excuse me, ma’am, sorry!” Tori blustered clumsily in, wearing a nervous smile, flapping a piece of paper in one hand. Sam scowled at her, ready to deliver a public scolding. The secretary didn’t give her a chance. “It’s urgent – correspondence from –” She made a secretive click of her tongue. “You know –” She cleared her throat. “Orders.”
“The Raleigh Commission?” Hail said. Sam turned to him, to say it was none of his business, that he should back off, and she would –
He had the paper in his hands, and swore under his breath. He slapped it down on the table, so everyone could read it at the same time as Sam. He even kept a finger on it so she couldn’t take it back. As commander, it was her role to read the Raleigh Commission’s correspondence and –
Her thoughts of command disappeared as she read the first lines.
URGENT: NOTIFIED ORDER OF ENGAGEMENT
FAO: Acting Deputy Director S. Ward.
Action has been decided and is hereby notarised by the Raleigh Commission, to be effective immediately –
She was going to be fucking fired. Minutes away from dispatching her team to take action. One of the agents pulled back from the table with a grunt, not especially happy about the news either. At least th
ere was some solidarity here.
– the Ordshaw Branch of the MEE is to be directed towards the locating and engaging of the entity entitled Fae Transitional City, enacting Protocol 21. In respects of –
Holy what?
Sam’s face was slack. Tarrington’s instructions for everyone to take a break suddenly seemed reasonable in the face of what she was seeing. The Commission had gone away to agree on this? Was this a message, because she’d shown initiative? Lord Asquith’s doing, some sort of punishment for them attempting to contact him directly?
“How’s this possible?” Landon said, equally stunned.
“Fucking right is what it is,” Farnham said. “It was a direct attack, it was an act of war – this is what we should be doing! Not chasing unknowns with two men dead!”
“Three men,” someone reminded him. “We lost one Sunday.”
“This should’ve happened Friday,” Hail said. “The second they fired on Casaria.”
“There’s due process to be had,” Landon attempted. “Especially if there’s rogue elements at work. Escalation’s never a good –”
“No.” Hail leant towards him, right into his space, and stabbed a finger into the Commission’s order. “We’re being ordered to attack the FTC. Escalation is exactly right. Isn’t that correct, Madam Acting Deputy Director?” He turned forcefully to Sam.
As she looked into the eyes of half a dozen edgy men, her words came out messily. “I – we – there must be a mistake –”
“It’s signed, Ms Ward,” Tori said, lingering in the doorway. “Notarised.”
“We’re good and ready, aren’t we?” Hail addressed his fellow agents. “Different target, same strategy. Seal off the perimeter, advance on the enemy.”
“You’re talking about a whole city of people,” Sam said with alarm.
“Fae.” Hail shot her a nasty look. It spread through the room, the majority feeling. “They’re not people. They’re terrorists, and they did this to us. You can’t defend them, the order’s right there.”
“I’m the Acting Deputy Director, and I say where our priorities lie. This anomaly in the Net could explain exactly what put our building in danger.”
The Sunken City Trilogy Page 62
