Truthseer

by Jay Aspen

  Somewhere in the tangle of it all Fin and Bel must have been picking off the opposition from their hidden positions because the last two attackers were suddenly without backup. A moment later they both fell to Bel’s blue-fletched arrows and Fin moved out from behind the wet undergrowth to disarm the man Jac had brought down.

  Kit was on his knees gasping in pain. Jac ran over to him.

  ‘Oh Kit, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fully focused. Let me see what happened.’ She knelt beside him, fearing the telltale rattle of a punctured lung. The reality of her failure hit her as she looked up to see Fin standing over her, a clutch of retrieved arrows in her hand.

  ‘Fin, I––’

  ‘We haven’t much time. The other patrols will be here soon. Finish checking on Kit when we’re back in the jeep.’ Fin turned away, briskly collecting the last of the captured weapons before heading back towards the road.

  Jac helped Kit back to the jeep. Bel disabled the transporter and its radio with a borrowed automatic, then drove the jeep north as storm clouds slowly cleared under a watery afternoon sun.

  24

  Karim peered out at the wet forest. He and Luc had been sheltering from the storm in a disused barn only five miles beyond the abandoned house they’d used to overnight. Luc had been moving slowly all morning. At this rate it was going to take them days to make it as far as the Tarn.

  Karim gently nudged the hunched grey blanket in the corner. ‘Come on Luc, time for a bit more of the kind of hike you always enjoy and I don’t.’

  Luc groaned as he tried to sit up. ‘Could be a role reversal here. I don’t feel like moving at all.’

  Karim looked at him anxiously. Luc’s skin felt hot to his touch and flushed under the tan, his dark eyes bloodshot and half-closed. Red streaks ran out along his arm from under the bandage. Even Karim knew this was a danger sign.

  He needs to rest and get that arm treated. Two things that can’t happen till we reach the Tarn.

  ‘We have to move.’ He pulled Luc to his feet, steadying him as he swayed and almost fell.

  Luc leaned against the wall, making an attempt at his usual black humour but the bravado was paper-thin now. ‘I guess I should be grateful Raine moved the tracker out of my neck before Burton decided to get rid of me, or I’d be dead. Trouble is, I suspect being dead is a damn sight more comfortable than this.’

  ‘Come on, just take it slowly. At least what’s happening to you is reversible. Being dead isn’t.’

  It was slow going. The maze of narrow weed-choked roads didn’t offer a direct route. It was shorter to cut through the forest if the undergrowth had died out in the shade but all too often a mass of brambles forced them back to the road.

  Luc walked without complaining, but he was struggling to keep moving. Karim took his pack and strapped it on top of his own.

  Another role reversal. But I don’t have the training or stamina to take it much further.

  By the time they reached the farm Luc was exhausted. It was unnaturally quiet. Karim could hear an unlatched window banging against its frame, over-loud in the empty space that should have held people. He pushed Luc out of sight behind the barn.

  ‘Stay here, I’ll go and check.’ He walked cautiously across the weed-covered yard towards the closed door, knife drawn, hoping desperately he’d not have occasion to use it, uncomfortably aware of his lack of fight training.

  The door was unlocked. Inside the untidy farmhouse kitchen a scattering of food lay abandoned on the table, round bread cakes and a piece of cheese next to a small plate of cold sausage. A thin tabby cat followed him in through the open door and jumped onto the table, grabbing one of the sausages. Karim grabbed the cat and put it back outside. It ran for cover to finish eating its prize.

  They can’t have been gone long, or something would have found its way in to eat all the food by now.

  He looked around the other rooms but found no one. Whatever had happened here, he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. Priority had to be getting Luc out. He scooped the food into a bag.

  Thank you Agnes, wherever you are.

  He went over to the coms hotspot, plugged in his unregistered, tried to get a connection. No signal from the Tarn. Or the Warren. He shrugged resignedly and went back outside, closing the door. Luc hadn’t moved from where he’d collapsed on the ground behind the barn.

  ‘Any sign of Agnes?’

  ‘Nothing. I’ve got some more food but there’s no one in the house. Either they were arrested or were warned and ran. Hope they’re okay.’ He noticed Luc’s eyes closing. ‘Hey. We’ve got to move. You can sleep later.’

  ‘I’m not. The light hurts. Maybe we could just stay here if staz have been and gone already.’

  Karim searched frantically for something, anything to motivate his friend into one last push of action. ‘Luc, you’ll die here with only me to fix that infection. You know how useless I am. We have to get back to someone who knows what they’re doing, someone who’s an experienced surgeon. We have to find Raine.’

  It wasn’t working. Maybe Luc was starting to believe his own fantasy. Being dead probably was a deal more comfortable than the torture he was going through right now.

  Karim tried again. ‘I know you want to get back and see Evie. And think how she’d feel if you went and died before she could welcome you back to the Tarn?’

  Luc opened one eye, squinting against the sunlight. ‘Save her the trouble of finishing the job she started before I left.’

  ‘Come off it. You said she missed deliberately with the heaviest things she was throwing at you. She can’t stay mad at you forever.’ Karim searched in vain for any sign of positive response. Maybe the thought of facing a furious Evie again wasn’t Luc’s best motivation after all.

  ‘Well, even if she is still mad at you, don’t you think you’re honour bound to ask forgiveness one last time?’

  Luc groaned, struggling to lift his fevered body away from the wall. ‘All right. One more apology. On condition you talk to me about something else. Thinking about what she’s likely to say just makes me want to turn around and head back to the city.’

  ‘I’ll get the horses and the bag with our stuff.’ Karim glanced around cautiously and slipped quietly into the dark interior of the dilapidated barn. He found the bundle where they’d stashed it, the usual place at the bottom of the metal grain bin at the back of the hayloft. He took out his own and Luc’s spare arrows, stroking the coloured signature feathers with his forefinger. They reminded him of reassuringly familiar routines, even though he’d made a point of skipping most of them.

  If I can just get Luc through this, I will get to basic training every morning and make him teach me everything he knows...

  He picked up two sets of reins and remembered to take a scoop of grain with him. The horses were grazing the meadow behind the barn and came gladly at the sound of the shaken tin. He clipped in the reins and led the animals back to where Luc was still slumped against the barn wall. He stroked the bay mare’s neck.

  ‘Hey, come on now Dyffi, you’ve got to take care of Luc. He’s not in good shape here.’ Karim pulled Luc’s hand up to her flaring nostrils and she snuffled at his fingers. ‘There you are Luc. She knows now. All you have to do is get on.’

  Luc scrambled onto the low wall beside the barn and slid onto Dyffi’s back. They moved off, retracing the route upriver towards the Warren. Karim knew that at this pace it would take the rest of the day––and the Tarn was another full days’ ride beyond that.

  And we won’t even be in max handset range for another day at least. If Lizzie managed to get through from the hive, maybe the Tarn will be expecting us. If we’re really lucky––

  Luc swayed sideways and fell before Karim could grab him. He lay still in the long grass under the trees and Karim suddenly had the feeling they might not get any further that day.

  Or ever? Don’t think about it. Focus on getting through this.

  Karim dismounted and knelt beside Luc, trying to
persuade him to drink water and eat something. He knew the dressing on his arm needed changing but Luc always seemed to lose too much blood when he did it. He decided to leave it alone. Staying here would mean a night sleeping under the stars with no medical help. The way things were going, that would finish Luc for sure.

  ‘Do you think you can ride on a bit further?’

  ‘Yeah, maybe.’

  ‘Can you give me some warning if you’re going to fall off next time?’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  But Luc could barely stand and although his wiry frame had lost more weight over the last few days, Karim couldn’t lift him onto a sixteen-hand mare. And the ground was flat with nothing to climb on.

  If only I had Luc’s skill with animals. Maybe he can still do it.

  ‘Luc, talk to her. See if you can get her to lie down.’ He drew Dyffi closer.

  Luc stroked the mare’s long black nose. ‘Come on old girl. Just give me a bit of help here.’ He took a handful of mane and made as if to pull himself up... and then Dyffi nuzzled his face, dropped her forelegs to her knees and lay down on the grass. With Karim’s help, Luc slid onto her back and somehow managed to stay on while she stood up again.

  They walked on slowly under the trees.

  *

  Raine was working with Evie in the Warren cellar, the smell of mould and damp decay a pungent reminder that this place didn’t get frequent visits. He brushed a bustling heap of woodlice out of the way and carefully removed the cover plate over the hollow in the stone wall containing the coms hub.

  Evie always got the next part of this job because she was small and agile and could wriggle into awkward spaces where his shoulders wouldn’t fit. She lay awkwardly on the cellar floor, wedging her head and upper body into the narrow alcove to reconnect the analogue cables.

  ‘Raine? Has it connected?’ Her voice was muffled as she backed out of the cramped space.

  Raine checked his handset. ‘Yes, it’s good.’ He knelt on the damp concrete, replaced the cover plate, smeared sealant around it, then lifted the heavy stone back into its place at the base of the wall. When he’d filled the cracks with mud and cleared away scraps of debris the disguise looked as good as it had before. Good enough that the enforcers hadn’t found their precious analogue connection when they’d raided the place.

  Evie walked back to the great hall with him, scrubbing dust and earwigs out of her cropped black hair. Most of the rangers were out on forest patrol and the long room was deserted. She looked around at the repaired windows.

  ‘That’s all of it. General damage, electric, water, and now coms back on. Long hours and skinned knuckles––but even the vandalism in the outbuildings is mostly fixed.’

  Raine smiled. ‘I think you’ve earned a rest day.’

  Evie sighed. ‘I think I’d rather keep busy. I keep wishing it could all be the same as before. As if we’d never had to run from here. Everything’s changed so much. I know it’ll never be like before but...’

  She watched Raine as he keyed in to the hive. He was overdue to make contact for the first time since relocating back here. Within seconds of reading Razz’s text message, he hung up and started hurriedly pushing his surgical kit and the last of their stock of phage cultures into his pack.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Evie hastily set down her tool bag.

  ‘Luc’s badly injured. He and Karim are heading back to the Tarn and they don’t know we’re here. I’m going to find them.’

  ‘I’m coming with you.’

  ‘Evie, are you sure?’ He’d been keeping an eye on her, and not just because he was worried about how unhappy she was. If the breakup with Luc had hurt her to the point of being unable to focus properly, she’d put herself and everyone else in danger.

  She held his gaze. ‘Yes. Sure.’

  ‘Good. Fetch the horses. I’ll try to contact Karim.’

  *

  Karim was kneeling on a grassy bank at the side of the river track, helping Luc sit up and drink some water. He’d lasted for thirty minutes’ riding before passing out again.

  He’s burning with fever. At this rate it’ll take us a week to the Tarn and he doesn’t have that long...

  His handset buzzed and he rummaged for it with his free hand.

  Raine’s voice, faint but unmistakable. ‘Where are you? We’re on our way to find you.’

  Karim checked their surroundings, making his best estimate. ‘Riverside track, about half an hour downriver from the south bridge... You’re at the Warren?’ Waves of relief swept over him. All the doubts and fears he’d tried to bury and ignore...

  ‘Luc, just hang in there a bit longer. Raine’s coming for us.’

  They waited until Karim felt the familiar vibration in the earth that told of horses hard ridden and approaching fast. Then Raine was there, kneeling beside Luc, peeling back sodden bandages, checking the damage.

  ‘The burn’s infected. That’s why he’s getting sick.’ He started pulling out meds and surgical kit. Luc laid a fevered hand on his arm.

  ‘Raine. Did I do okay?’

  ‘You did fine. More than anyone could have asked.’

  ‘If I don’t make it back, will you tell Evie I––’

  ‘Tell her yourself. She’s here.’

  Evie moved into place at his side, ready to assist Raine, dark eyes looking down coolly at Luc.

  ‘If you don’t make it back I swear I’ll kill you.’

  Luc almost managed to laugh.

  25

  Parry sat behind the oversized desk in his new office, facing one of the operators from the coms tracking station.

  ‘That encrypted communication you reported earlier.’ He glanced at his tablet. ‘It was a bit thin on detail.’

  She shuffled uncomfortably. ‘We sent the ground search team in, soon as we had a close fix on it, but found nothing. It must have been dismantled and taken off site.’

  ‘You recorded the conversation?’

  ‘Still trying to break the encryption.’

  ‘I doubt you’ll get far with that.’

  ‘We traced the ID of the initial contact.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Fake. Still trying to trace if it was a real person originally. Some eighty year old supposedly living on savings in a derelict cellar. No previous calls, no links anywhere.’

  ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’ Parry hoped he could keep the sarcasm out of his voice for the rest of this interview.

  One day I’ll have a system that relies on efficiency instead of intimidation.

  ‘Sorry sir. That end of it isn’t our department though.’

  ‘Keep me posted on progress. If any. Did you get a fix on the other end?’

  Smith walked in, bandage on his hand and bad mood on his face. The coms operator glanced at him nervously.

  ‘We extended the range and picked up a tracker signal, same place as the call from the northern forest.’ She glanced again at Smith, then back to Parry. ‘It... turned out to be at the top of a pine tree. Sir.’

  ‘Get out.’ Smith’s face would have curdled milk at that moment. The coms operator headed for the door with a look of relief she made no effort to hide.

  Parry looked Smith up and down. ‘How’s the hand?’

  ‘Fine. I need more transport, ground troops, guns, air cover. I’ve only got five vehicles left up there.’ His voice was tight with barely-controlled frustration.

  ‘Put it in writing. I’ll deal with it.’

  ‘Fine.’ Smith turned abruptly and walked out, bumping into a stocky corporal in the doorway. Ted Rankin knocked awkwardly on the already open door.

  Now it was Parry getting irritable. ‘What now? Oh, it’s you. Come in.’ He scrolled his tablet. ‘Your report on Lucas Tyrel. Impressive bit of quick thinking when you ran into him a couple of weeks ago. And the follow-up work you’ve done, checking on leads since you were informed he was one of our undercover operatives.’

  ‘Thank you––’

  Parry
interrupted. ‘I need someone with initiative to help set up a new unit here. A team with more discipline and less corruption and stupidity.’

  ‘Oh. It’s a bit above my pay grade.’

  ‘It’s way above. But I’m interested in reliability and intelligence, not seniority.’

  Ted’s pale freckled face registered curiosity. ‘Tell me what you want.’

  ‘Go away and talk to everyone you know. Don’t let on why. Then bring me a list of names you think would qualify for training.’

  *

  Raine peeled off the surgical gloves and packed his instruments. ‘That’s the bleeding and I hope the infection fixed, but he can’t spend another night in the open. We take him back now.’

  Karim and Evie lifted Luc to ride in front of Raine and the big gelding carried them both as they headed north. Karim lead Luc’s horse and told Raine and Evie stories of the time they’d spent in the white-tiled underground station and in the company of the homeless man under the bridge with the smell of paint stripper oozing from his wine bottle. Then Raine listened to Evie telling Karim how Burton’s military crew had fired the forest with phosphorous and how Bel had kidnapped Parry. She seemed to be handling the reunion with Luc but he couldn’t be sure yet.

  ‘And we put too much dope on the arrowhead and the colonel passed out completely! So Bel had to hang onto him to get him across the river, even more than Raine’s having to hang on to Luc.’

  Karim glanced at the churning floodwater beside the trail. ‘Oh. I’d forgotten the south bridge was out. How bad is the crossing after all these storms?’

  ‘Deep and fast again. We didn’t come that way. We came along the ridge past the herder’s hut. That’s how we’ll go back, easier for Luc.’

  With barely a dozen rangers using the place there was space for Luc in one of the downstairs rooms at the back of the big farmhouse. He seemed to be responding well to the phage cultures and his fever was easing.