Blue Angel

by Phil Williams

  “You thought we didn’t know about Casaria? Tell me he’s dead, please, I’m starting to think we gave you too much credit.”

  Pax shook her head, slowly, unable to blink. She’d last seen Cano Casaria watching her in angry confusion, face painted with blood, as they made a getaway in his colleague’s stolen car. Sam Ward had said he was missing; Pax had barely had a chance to consider his fate since then. She shifted forward, sliding a knee under her. “You know what happened to him?”

  Lightgate looked to Arnold on the counter, who stayed quiet. When she turned back, she shared Pax’s confusion. “You got rid of him?”

  “I haven’t done shit! Bloody hell, what else has your Fae media been saying?”

  “Not the media,” Arnold said. “We saw it ourselves.”

  Lightgate explained. “Arnold’s men checked his place, thinking to pick him up when he got clear of the security. Another angle we were testing. He was gone, the place had been turned over.”

  “The Ministry –” Pax started.

  “Not their style. They like things neat and tidy.”

  “Other Fae?”

  “I would know about it,” Lightgate said. “It had to be you.”

  “Do I look like some sort of vengeful thug?” Pax said. Lightgate gave the question a little too much thought. With her loose clothing and arguably masculine occupation, Pax was used to certain assumptions, but this was an extreme. “How would I even do something like that?”

  “I did my homework,” Lightgate said. “Some FTC drones paid a visit to your place yesterday, when they were looking to recover the tech Letty lost. They found security footage of what happened. The sort of friends you keep.”

  Pax’s eyes widened. They were talking about Bees. The thinly-veiled criminal she enjoyed cards and conversation with, who she’d tasked with recovering the Dispenser from her apartment. But Casaria got it first; he’d turned up with it in the Sunken City. Had their paths crossed? Bees had been heavily suspicious of the MEE, without much concrete knowledge about them. If he had discovered the identity of one of their agents, would he have followed it up?

  “Ah,” Lightgate said. “You didn’t even know you’d done it?”

  “Wait.” Pax held up a hand, wanting this to slow down. Stop, if possible. Bees and his cronies might have followed Casaria, but they wouldn’t touch him, would they? They kept a low profile, and crossing the government was as far from discretion as you could get. But Bees put a premium on information, and his employer, Mr Monroe, was eager to learn about the tunnels. She hadn’t established exactly why, but they most likely wanted to smuggle or store contraband under the city. Had they cut her out and gone to a Ministry source? If so... Pax concluded out loud, “If it’s them, those men wouldn’t have killed him. They’d want to learn as much from him as they could.”

  “And kill him after?”

  “I don’t know. You didn’t track them down?”

  “It wasn’t a priority. But it’s not rocket science.” Lightgate touched a hand mournfully to her hip flask. “This is a massive bust, isn’t it? You’re not who I thought at all.”

  “Hey,” Pax said, firmly. “I might not be a murderer or a thug, but I can disrupt this. If Casaria’s with those men, I can get him back. I can get him onside, he can help.”

  “Come on. Casaria is known to the Fae. He’s everything that’s wrong with the MEE.”

  “Listen.” Pax shifted closer to the fairy. Lightgate took flight, a metre back by the time Pax realised she’d startled her. Pax froze, aware that Rolarn’s gun was aimed at her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to –”

  “Watch yourself, human,” Arnold rumbled from the counter. Lightgate had one hand on a pistol but hadn’t drawn it.

  “Sorry,” Pax repeated. “I wasn’t thinking.” But she saw a chance to respond to Lightgate’s doubts. “Sitting up doesn’t normally threaten anyone.”

  Lightgate’s slight smirk returned. “Careful. You’re a big target.”

  Pax held her gaze, and decided it best to move past the playful threat. “Casaria. He came into the Sunken City and set off your Dispenser – him, of all people. He did it for me.” And I fucked him over. Never mind. “If my friends have him, then I can get him back. We can use him to get into the Ministry. Get Rufaizu and your Dispenser out of there, without any explosives or turnbolds. That’d be enough to cast doubt on Val, wouldn’t it? You could get the FTC listening without sparking a war.”

  Lightgate was unmoved. “What about crippling the Ministry?”

  “Rufaizu knows things. Casaria, too. You can damage the minotaur and take back the Sunken City – that’s a blow to them, you said that yourself. Meanwhile, I can figure out the force behind the minotaur. Something Apothel called the Blue Angel, it’s pulling strings none of us knows about. You keep the Fae and the Ministry off my back and I can blow this puzzle wide open. It’s safe here, right?”

  Lightgate looked up to Rolarn and he answered plainly, “There’s tech in these walls that’ll keep the Ministry from finding us. But I’m not running a hotel, definitely not for humans.”

  “Be nice,” Lightgate said. “It’s one human, you’ve got space.”

  “No, not just me,” Pax said. “There’s others that need protection too.”

  This piqued Lightgate’s interest. “What others?”

  “Darren Barton, his –”

  “Citizen Barton.” Lightgate said the name with wonder. “His wife, that kid – they got mixed up in the fighting yesterday?”

  “You know them?”

  “Of course.” Lightgate smiled. “All the FTC know about Citizen Barton and the Apothel Five. Or at least they used to. The stories we had. The Slippery Stone, the – what was it?” She clicked a finger at Arnold. “That story about the sickle?”

  “The Apothel Five and the Sliding Stone,” Arnold corrected, his voice losing its hostile edge for the first time. He recited what sounded like poetry: “Two score beast clashed in the pen, Amongst them stood five humen. Be they fang or be they claw, Aren’t they all of...of...”

  “The same fucking thing,” Rolarn finished, impatiently.

  “There’s no way that was the rhyme,” Pax commented.

  “There were lots of these stories,” Lightgate said. “Bloody, gruesome adventures, with essentially the same moral.”

  “Peepy-tales?”

  Lightgate paused, looking a little impressed. “Similar. These stories said there were humans in the Sunken City as violent and dangerous as the monsters.”

  “Clearly you’ve never met Darren Barton,” Pax said, picturing that gentle giant of a man.

  “No,” Lightgate said. “I would like to. Bring everyone here, we can defend them.” Rolarn made an irritated noise, but Lightgate shot him a look and he kept quiet. “And Casaria. If you can charm him, I’d like to see that, too.” She actually sounded enthusiastic. “I knew it was a good idea to come back.”

  Pax felt herself smile. “And you can call off this turnbold plan?”

  “It’s going nowhere anyway.” Lightgate fluttered into the air. “This calls for a drink.” Flying over to the counter, she said, “Lighten up, Arnold, she’s only human.”

  “Pax!” A voice came from the floor above.

  Lightgate spun back, hands on her pistols.

  “Pax, you’d better fucking be here!” Letty’s voice got closer, descending the escalator gap. “Tell me you got her, Rolarn, you doughboy fuck!”

  “Perfect.” Lightgate’s hands relaxed off her guns.

  Pax’s heart lifted as her tiny friend flew into the middle of the room with the whir of her artificial wing going into overdrive. Letty glowered at Rolarn. “You can’t answer your fucking phone?”

  As Pax climbed to her feet, Lightgate drifted through the light of the lantern.

  Letty stopped dead in the air. “Lightgate?”

  Lightgate spread a hand to one side and gave a wonky curtsy.

  “Fuck.” Letty took a breath. She shot Pax a worr
ied look, then shot an accusing one at Rolarn. Pax offered a light wave and an awkward smile.

  “Good to see you, too, Letty,” Lightgate said. “It’s been a while.”

  19

  “I can not believe you,” Letty hissed, as they approached the scooter in the dark of the car park. “Talking to any old Fae now? Making deals with lunatics? Promising shit we all know would be best avoided.”

  Pax hadn’t been aware how tense meeting the new Fae had left her, but Letty’s admonishing tone made the stress nice and clear. It was a relief to close the conversation with Lightgate and her ominous minions onside, though Pax wasn’t sure she wanted the drunkard along on her search for Casaria. At least she had a moment alone with Letty while Lightgate instructed her minions, though.

  “We’ve got a way forward,” Pax said. “You didn’t hear their plan.”

  “Did it involve brutally killing everyone?”

  Pax paused. “Pretty much, yeah.”

  “You don’t have any idea who they are, do you?”

  “Sure I do,” Pax said. “That was the magnificent Lightgate. So called because she walks softly?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Letty spat.

  “Light” – Pax enunciated more clearly – “gait. The way she walks?”

  Letty looked ready to bite her eyes out, not in the mood. “She’s a nasty piece of work.”

  “Uh-huh,” Pax said. “Scourge of the Gritty Plain, I heard.”

  “The Grit Plateau, you arsehole. And Arnold, from the shit-sack Trawlers, he’s the head rat in a pack of them. Him and Rolarn are dangerous on their own, but put Lightgate in charge...by the manes of lizards, you’re lucky they know me – I can’t believe they talked to you.”

  “You see how well she’s dressed? How bad can she be?”

  “Very bad, alright?” Letty snapped. She landed on the bike between Pax’s hands, making Pax shift out of the way. “And you’re talking about Casaria like you’re old pals. Your instincts were right when you left him in the lurch. You want to know what happens when you bust him free? If he’s even alive? He hauls your arse in, that’s what.”

  Whether he helped them or not wasn’t even the issue, was it? Pax couldn’t leave him in whatever hellish situation she’d put him in. And that aside, getting him back was a way forward, which was better than brooding. “If I rescue him from gangsters, he’ll jump back on Team Pax.”

  “And you know what they say about ifs and buts and ducks and sluts.”

  Pax frowned. “No. What do they say?”

  Letty gave her an unappreciative look. “It amounts to don’t be a fucking idiot.”

  “Okay. One” – Pax held up a finger – “that sounds like a saying I need to know in full. Two” – another finger – “he’s already screwed the Ministry once, so there’s hope.” As long as this didn’t get her killed. “Bad things have been stacking up today, Letty. If I can do something good by the day’s out, I have to do it. And whoever these Fae are, they’re with us, aren’t they? That feels like a win to me. I need a damn win.”

  “Whoever they are?” Letty gave a humourless laugh. “Lightgate should’ve been executed decades ago. Would’ve been, if anyone had the balls to go after her.”

  Pax was familiar with other well-spoken, deadly people, but it was particularly hard to take the threat of that tiny, finely-dressed woman seriously. And it was clear they weren’t running from these apparently dangerous Fae. “But you’re still mates, right?”

  “She doesn’t have mates.” That sounded familiar.

  “Associates?”

  Letty finally slowed down. “Look, she’ll do what she says – and she’s definitely someone you want on your side – but she’s wired funny. Last I saw her must’ve been six years ago. She made fleeting visits into Ordshaw after she was cast out. We helped her clear out a human shed, in Hanton. A good little shack for a hideout. Me and my boys, and her, we scared off some human kids, got them convinced it was haunted, so they’d sooner kiss a clown than go back in there. She paid us off with a heap of dust. Then she set fire to the fucking shed.”

  “O-kay…” Pax drew out the word. “I’ll admit that’s troubling.”

  “That’s nothing. That’s the shit she gets up to during peacetime. The things she did during the coup – the things she was responsible for. Landed on both sides of the conflict, day to day. Lot of Fae dead, Pax. And you’ve promised to fuck up the Ministry for her? You’d better deliver.”

  “Well,” Pax said, “we’re not going to fuck them up. We’re going to get Rufaizu back, and she can have the Dispenser, and they can raise questions about your leader without anyone getting hurt. We have to do it this way – our way.”

  Letty groaned and rubbed her face, clearly still stressed at having found Pax with them.

  “I’m sorry,” Pax said. “I would’ve run a mile if I’d known they were trouble. And, you know, if I was capable of running a mile. But I thought it went well...and we need them onside, not just for our own sake. To stop them doing something else. She set fire to this shed after paying you, didn’t she? And this war of yours...you must’ve forgiven her that, working with her since?”

  Letty offered a vacant look, delving back into that memory. “No one stayed innocent, back then. But she was so good at it.” She took a deep breath, trying to let it go. “It was a long time ago. They can help us, now. But you didn’t know that. I don’t like going to any of them. They’re all fucking rogues.”

  “Like you.”

  Letty gave that a second. “Worse than me.”

  “Rolarn saved me. Even if he looks like he would drown puppies.”

  “I just don’t want you going the way of Apothel.”

  “You and me both,” Pax said, checking back across the garage. No sign of Lightgate yet.

  “And that was a great idea with the fucking chapel, by the way. Next time remind me to be more forceful in telling you no.”

  “I got something, though,” Pax said. “There was a blue screen in the basement.”

  “Frozen donkeys!” Letty spun back. “You went in?”

  “Not by choice. It was too high to jump.”

  “What happened?”

  “This Blue Angel gave me an address. Chaucer Crescent. Then it figured I was bad news and spewed out some ungodly slug monster that tried to acid me. If Rolarn hadn’t shown up, I would’ve been melted.”

  “Chaucer Crescent and a slug monster. Fantastic.”

  “We’re wading through the same shit that dragged Apothel down, aren’t we?”

  Letty considered it. “This is way worse than the shit he stirred. You heard what happened? Across town?”

  Pax nodded. More than heard it, she wanted to say. But her jaw stayed shut.

  “It’s fucked,” Letty said. “I went and saw it. The Ministry don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. I heard that Ministry bitch talking, though. Might be something in that. She had ideas about that word, grugulochs. Reckoned the berserker’s making noises while it goes apeshit. Reckoned that’s the name of the berserker itself.” Letty put her fists to her hips, proud at her reconnaissance. Pax smiled. Apparently it wasn’t convincing, as Letty snapped, “Well it’s better than Chaucer fucking Crescent.”

  “No, it’s good,” Pax said. “Apothel was onto something when he was killed, why else leave that word behind? Think he got close to understanding the minotaur? The Blue Angel?”

  “Grugulochs. Commander of the blue screens.”

  “Galactic warlord.”

  “Apothel through and through,” Letty said. “The names he came up with. The clutterbattem, you know how he figured that? Only ever saw them in areas cluttered by debris, battering things about. He’d be made up knowing people used his stupid terms, Ministry included. Tuckles, sickles, all him.”

  “But ‘grugulochs’ comes from the sound?”

  “He named the glogockle that way.”

  “The minotaur never made a sound when I saw it.” Pax recalled
the snaking, twirling limbs of the electric beast. It had floated down the tunnels after her. It had surged through her, pinning her in place, tearing chunks from the brickwork of the Sunken City. It had snapped against the walls with whip-cracks of lightning, but it had never growled. “I’m not sure it’s a creature at all. I didn’t see anything resembling a mouth.”

  “Maybe that shot from the Dispenser gave it a voice.”

  Pax paused. “Then when did Apothel hear it?”

  “There you go needling again,” Letty huffed. “Maybe it’s not the berserker – maybe it’s a fucking safe word that gets all this to stop when you say it twirling in a pink tutu. Point is we have something. You have to pick at the details till our ears bleed?”

  “Yeah. You’re right. It’s a start.”

  “You’re still here?” Lightgate interrupted, gliding towards them. She stopped in an action pose, one elbow and one knee cocked. Oozing style despite a slight drunken waver. “I’ve refuelled and given Arnold a dozen places to be. You should be halfway across town by now.”

  “We were waiting for you,” Pax said, and opened the scooter’s seat to start assembling her helmet and goggles disguise. Aware that the Fae were regarding her clothing with distaste, she tried to show some appreciation for fashion: “Who tailors your suits?”

  “This?” Lightgate held out her arms and turned them over, like the jacket was some old rag she’d forgotten she owned. “Guy in Japan, goes by K-Zero. Want me to put in a word?”

  “Fetid lizards,” Letty snorted, “get a room. We’ve got a Ministry psycho to save.”

  Pax murmured agreement, her focus shifting back to Casaria and the path ahead, which ended in Bees’ undesirable neck of the woods. Having Letty and Lightgate for backup was small comfort. For the moment, concentrating on having a finely tailored suit to call her own helped. She wondered whether K-Zero was human or Fae. As she considered it, her stomach rumbled. That was another distraction, to put off the danger they were wading into. She said, “I’ve gotta eat before we get there.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Lightgate chided. “You wouldn’t like how I taste.”