by David Gunn
I’m tempted to tell Leona to drop back and kill him. Just so I can simplify my thoughts and get back to saving Colonel Vijay and getting Anton out of here.
‘How much longer?’ Anton demands.
Sergeant Toro tells him ten minutes.
We’re walking the boulevard feeding into Zabo Square.
The roof of the cathedral gleams in the distance. Gold domes reflecting the last of the evening light. Leona’s counting off the chimes from the tower clock. ‘Seven, eight, nine . . .’ Not sure why, since she’s wearing a standard-issue watch and knows the time already.
Smartly dressed women fill the colonnades.
Expensive hovers skim the road beyond the square.
People like me don’t belong. I’m thinking this, when I spot a naked woman, scrawled in red chalk on a nearby wall. A trampled rose lies underneath it. Seems people like me use this area after all.
Flicking the sign of Legba Uploaded, Leona blushes because I notice. So I pull Legba’s medallion from my shirt. Soldiers have their own saint.
Not everyone approves.
A truck goes by filled with Death’s Head troopers. Cropped hair, hard faces, thousand-yard stares . . . A small boy points and is slapped for his pains. The child’s father bustles him away. No one else stares or catches the troopers’ eyes. Not that they could; the Death’s Head troopers glare straight ahead.
‘Almost there, sir,’ Sergeant Toro tells Anton.
‘You’ve been saying that for the last ten minutes.’
The sergeant scowls. ‘Never approached the colonel’s house from this direction before . . .’ He’s still using the same excuse twenty minutes later, when the clock tower rings the half hour, and I decide it’s time to catch up.
‘You’re lost?’
The sergeant scowls some more.
Cutting under an arch, we find ourselves in a wide street, high walls on either side inset with double doors. The houses rise five storeys above us. Most have lenz over their entrances and weapons systems that track us as we move.
The weapons systems are obvious.
Makes me think they’re bluff. And the real systems are hidden. I waste time trying to identify them as Sergeant Toro tries to remember which door.
‘You’re certain, this time?’ Anton demands.
‘Yes, sir.’
There’s a tightness to the sergeant’s voice. Anton has that effect on me sometimes too. Stepping up to a door, Toro knocks three times in quick succession. A double knock answers from inside. I’d do one knock in reply, but the sergeant does three and a small door swings open.
Bombproof, I notice. For all that it’s painted faded green. The double doors it lets us enter have electronic locks and deadbolts fat as my wrist.
The soldier who lets us in is out of uniform.
‘You’re expected.’
We’re what?
Colonel Vijay’s courtyard is lit by hidden lights. A run of steps leads to its black and shiny front door. Exactly the place I’d expect him to live.
‘Fuck,’ says Sergeant Toro. ‘Look at that.’
A sleek hover sits near the steps. It’s got obsidian black windows, a knitted carbon skirt and a grille like a shark’s open jaw, with chrome teeth and recessed eyes. A tiny flagstaff juts from its long hood.
The flag itself is rolled and tied.
‘How the other half live,’ he mutters.
Leona nods.
‘Announce yourself,’ the soldier says. Seeing my glare, he adds, ‘If you would, sir.’
Wise man.
‘Lieutenant Sven Tveskoeg for Colonel Jaxx.’
‘And the others?’ The voice from the speaker grille isn’t Vijay. Wouldn’t expect it to be.
‘Anton Tezuka. Sergeants Toro and—’
The door clicks open before I finish my list. Either the AI is stupid, or we’re being covered by so much artillery that chopped meat is today’s option if we make a bad move.
At my hip, Vijay’s sabre shivers.
Unclipping it, I catch Anton’s gaze.
‘Sven,’ he whispers. ‘You’re not . . .’
He’s right. I’m not.
I’m assuming a software glitch between Vijay’s AI and the sabre he gave me. Since the AI outguns the sabre, it makes sense not to make the house nervous.
Putting the sabre to sleep, I reclip it and straighten my coat. We’re not in uniform, any of us. But Vijay Jaxx is still a Death’s Head colonel.
After knocking at a door, the housekeeper steps back and nods for us to enter. So we do, and that is when our day begins to unravel.
‘Good job,’ says a voice.
It’s talking to Sergeant Toro, who nods his head, accepting the praise.
‘And you two . . . What took you so long?’
Clearly, Sergeant Leona isn’t important enough to be in this conversation. General Luc sits at a desk. Behind him stand two Wolf Brigade troopers. At the Wolf’s signal, our travelling companion peels away to join them.
‘You bastard . . .’
‘Shut it,’ I tell Leona.
‘Sorry, sir.’
Toro’s a sergeant, all right. In the Wolf Brigade.
‘Like puppets,’ General Luc says. ‘Pull the strings and watch them walk. Knew you wouldn’t be able to resist it.’ He’s talking to me. Grinning at Anton, his gaze slides to a halt when it reaches Sergeant Leona.
‘Where did you find her?’
‘Picked her up on the way,’ Anton says. ‘Shortly before we met—’ He jerks his chin towards the wall. ‘Whatever he’s called.’
‘Toro,’ says the Wolf. ‘My staff sergeant.’
‘If I might, sir,’ Toro says.
‘Feel free.’
Pulling down his eyelids in turn, our travelling companion pops first one and then another coloured lens from his grey eyes.
‘Bastard things, sir . . .’
‘All in a good cause, Toro.’
Leaning forward, the Wolf takes a closer look at his map of the city. It’s a paper map, so old that it curls at the corners. However it’s not Sergeant Toro’s deceit, General Luc’s smugness, or the map that raises my blood pressure. It’s the girl sitting on the edge of his desk, swinging her legs like a teenage hooker.
‘Hi Sven,’ she says, trumping my scowl with a grin. ‘Wondered when you’d get round to me. Long time no see.’
‘Not long enough.’
Ms Osamu pouts. ‘That’s not kind.’
Paper Osamu is the daughter of the U/Free president, and a one-time lover of mine. She’s also their ambassador. Today her eyes are blue and her skin pale. Her dress is thin enough to leave nothing to the imagination.
‘Yes,’ she says, ‘I’m still wearing the same body as last time.’
Bitch.
‘Tveskoeg,’ General Luc says.
My hand is on my gun.
‘How many darts,’ he says, ‘do you think are trained on you?’
Now is when I need the SIG-37. My real gun could shut down the AI, or fool it into thinking we’re friends. At the very least it could tell me how much of the general’s confidence is bluff.
‘Madame,’ he says. ‘If you could stop swinging your legs.’
Paper pouts again.
Sliding her gaze round the room, she looks for weapons. There are none visible, obviously enough. House defence systems use needle guns. Steel darts blown from hidden tubes in the walls and ceiling and floor. A good AI can kill one man in a group of fifty and leave the rest untouched.
‘I heal fast. And she’ll be dead whatever happens.’
‘And your friends?’ he asks. ‘Do they heal fast too?’
Chapter 19
WE’RE DELIVERED TO A PRISON FOUR FLOORS UP, LOOKING down on an empty street. It’s at the back of General Luc’s house. Because it was to his house that Sergeant Toro led us. Those were the Wolf’s poisonous ancestors smirking from the paintings on the stairs we just climbed.
Paper comes along for the fun.
; ‘I’m sure you’ll be comfortable,’ she says.
The room is stripped bare and has one window. A single light panel glows sullenly overhead. The floor is tiled. There is no piece of furniture in sight.
‘Fuck off,’ I tell her.
‘Sven,’ she says, ‘I’m only trying to be friendly.’
Across the empty street is a smaller house. It has less grand carving around its windows. The other difference is those windows don’t have bars.
‘I know we have history,’ the Wolf tells Anton. ‘But use tonight wisely. Think about where your loyalties really lie.’
‘And me, sir?’ Leona says.
General Luc looks amused. ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘I’m sure my men can find a use for you somewhere.’
Sergeant Leona reddens.
‘As for you,’ he says, staring at me. ‘Your choice is simple . . .’
‘Not interested.’
‘You haven’t heard what it is.’
‘Don’t care. Not going to happen.’ Betray Colonel Vijay or be killed. I don’t need the Wolf putting my options into words to know what tomorrow will bring.
The door that slams on us is good-quality steel. I know this, because, having tried to put my fist through it, I try to kick it off its hinges and that doesn’t work either.
I’m missing my combat arm, obviously.
Also my gun, my boot knife, and the sabre handle.
Although Sergeant Toro misses the blade I’m wearing between my shoulders, in memory of Franc, who used to carry her own knife there.
When the time comes I’m going to kill the sergeant. Also General Luc, Ms Osamu and the smirking guards. But I’ll kill Toro fast because he’s a professional and he’d pay me the same respect.
‘Sven,’ says Anton, ‘we need to talk.’
‘When we’re out of here.’
Anton scowls.
I ignore him.
The cathedral clock strikes for ten in the evening. It strikes again for the half-hour. We’re still no closer to getting out.
I run through the list in my head.
Twelve paces by twelve paces. One door, locked. One window, barred. One lighting panel, sunk into the ceiling. One tiled floor, now chipped. There’s mesh beneath. A grille leads to an air vent, for a cooling system that no longer works. My hand is large enough to cover the grille, and the duct behind is narrower than my wrist.
Sergeant Leona jumps when I toss the grille down.
‘Sven,’ says Anton.
He shuts up when I glare at him.
My head hurts. General Luc and Paper Osamu. Paper Osamu and General Luc. As U/Free ambassador, Paper obviously attends local dinners and functions. So they could have met anywhere.
But something stinks.
A tension, that’s what lay between them.
The Wolf’s scowl. Paper kicking her heels like a spoilt brat, using his desk as her chair because she can. She’s the U/Free ambassador, who’s going to stop her? And that map on the table.
Why a paper map, and not a screen? The answer hits me the moment I stop thinking about it. The Wolf uses a paper map for the same reason Colonel Vijay uses a machine that punches letters into paper when writing to Aptitude.
He’s hiding something.
Who from? I wonder.
‘Sir,’ says Leona.
She steps back when I glare at her.
‘You’re grinding your teeth again, sir.’
If Leona had my headache she’d be grinding her teeth too.
When the lights in the panel die I think someone’s turned them out. I’m wrong, because stars begin to appear in the Farlight sky. That’s strange enough to take us all to the window. As we watch, the sodium glare fades a little at a time. Blackouts are common in the barrios.
But not here in the centre.
The high clans would never stand for it. And yet it’s happening. One after another the lights lining the street below go out.
‘Try the door.’
It’s locked. The bolt’s electronic, but we’re not that lucky. We’re still locked in. Although there’s obviously a lever that will open it. Equally obviously, it’s on the other side.
‘Face it,’ Anton says. ‘We’re trapped.’
I make another circuit of our prison in silence. I’m not interested in being trapped. I’m interested in getting out of here.
‘Yell “Fire”,’ I tell Leona.
She looks at me.
‘Do it.’
When she hesitates, I take three steps towards her and raise my fist. Her yell has real emotion in it.
‘See? That wasn’t difficult . . .’
Her voice echoes off the walls until she’s deafened us.
‘Well,’ Anton says, ‘that doesn’t work.’
He’s wrong. It works perfectly. If no one comes, that’s because 1) there’s nothing in this room to burn. And 2) they obviously don’t have time to shut us up. Which means 3) we’re being left alone.
Not because they want to soften us up. They’d have to be stupid to think that’s possible. The answer is they’re busy with something more important than us. The next question is, What?
It has to do with that map.
And what is Paper doing here? That thought won’t go away either.
It nags like a hangover. She’s the UFree ambassador and General Luc commands the Wolf Brigade. His job is to protect OctoV. Her job is to make our glorious leader do what the UFree want. She’d put it differently. But that’s what it comes down to . . .
If General Luc and Ms Osamu are not allies, and they’re not enemies, what the fuck does it make them?
That was Paper’s hover.
Not sure why I didn’t grasp it earlier.
She always did like her toys. I was one of them. Sven, the barbarian. So crude in bed. So exciting to bring to parties.
*
Anton chooses exactly the wrong moment to demand we talk about Colonel Vijay and Aptitude. He thinks we should accept that the colonel’s probably beyond saving. What the Wolf wants the Wolf gets . . .
I’m so used to hearing that said about General Jaxx that it’s a shock to hear it said about someone else. And I don’t agree about Colonel Vijay. Giving up now would be like handing his heart to the Wolf on a plate ourselves.
Not going to happen.
Anton scowls when I say this. So I decide to explain a few home truths. Being me, I try to keep them simple. Three sentences into explaining how Apt’s husband died, and Anton is accusing me of cold-blooded murder. So I start again, from the top . . .
‘On Paradise, Debro said look after Apt, right?’
Anton looks at me.
‘Isn’t that what she said? Look after her . . .’
He nods abruptly.
‘That’s what I did.’
Holding up my hand silences him.
‘You know what my orders were . . .? Begin with Senator Thomassi, finish with Aptitude, kill the lot, burn down their house too. You know who issued that order?’
Anton shakes his head.
Of course he fucking doesn’t.
‘Vijay’s father. That’s why he wants to kill me. Not because I brought you back from Paradise. Because he discovered I disobeyed his order to kill Apt. You know why I killed Senator Thomassi and saved your daughter?’
‘Sir,’ Leona says.
Might be because I’ve got Anton against the wall.
‘Not your quarrel. Be grateful.’
Anton’s eyes are wide and his face purple. Guess it’s time to step back. Taking my elbow from his throat, I listen to him drag air into his bursting lungs. His eyes take a second or two to focus.
Something’s changed behind them.
There’s watchfulness. He knows less about me than he thinks. And there’s something else. A realization of how little he knows about what happened during those months he was in prison. But we’ve still got one question outstanding and I want it answered.
‘Tell me why I saved Aptitude.’
‘Because you promised.’
He’s got it. I promised Debro, who reminds me of my sister. This is the dumbest fucking reason I’ve ever heard for putting my life on the line. But the only one I’ve got and it’s the only one I can offer. Not that I bother to say that.
Sergeant Leona stands by the window.
She’s wondering how dangerous I am. It shows in her eyes. You’d think I was good at reading faces. Only, that’s not it. The expressions round here are pretty obvious.
‘Anton,’ I say, ‘what kind of hover has flags?’
He blinks at the change of subject.
‘Official ones, right?’
‘Yes . . . Empire ministers. Full generals. Senior senators. Ambassadors.’ Anton shrugs, tries to think of some more important people and lets his voice trail away into silence.
‘What does it mean when they’re tied up?’
‘They’re not on official business.’
Rubbing his throat, Anton looks at the street below and glances away. ‘We’re talking about that girl?’
‘Paper Osamu. U/Free ambassador to the Octovian Empire.’
It hasn’t occurred to me he doesn’t know who she is. But why should he? After being released from Paradise, Anton was flown straight to Wildeside. This is the first time he’s been in Farlight since his original arrest.
‘I met Paper at Ilseville,’ I tell him. ‘When she was the U/Free observer. She witnessed our surrender of the city. And confirmed our later victory. It was Paper who asked General Jaxx if she could borrow my team.’
‘You’ve met her socially since?’
That’s the high clans for you.
‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘Several times.’
‘What’s she like?’
‘A scorpion.’
Anton looks at me. ‘Sven, tell me you didn’t—’
Obviously enough, I did.
Every which way. Enjoyed it too.
Chapter 20
THE BARS ON OUR WINDOW ARE AS THICK AS A CHILD’S WRIST.
Beyond them, the jumble of roofs fades into darkness. A narrow street, more of a back alley really, lies empty below us. The air stinks, because the air in Farlight always stinks.
The house opposite is lower than this one. A light shows from one window. A lamp, presumably. We can’t see into the room because its shutters are closed for the night. That’s to be expected, since the cathedral clock just struck eleven.
