Scavenger Blood

by Janet Edwards

  Raeni frowned. “Why didn’t Machico come to make these alterations himself?”

  “We need to get Cage to use the public broadcast system when Machico is in the Parliament House Security Control Room for this to work,” said Donnell glibly. “Now, can anyone see a camera?”

  “I think there’s one up there,” Tad pointed at a cube-shaped object and a solar panel that were half-hidden among the stone hair. “I’ll need to stand on something to reach it.”

  Ghost grinned. “You could stand on Wall’s shoulders.”

  Wall glowered his disapproval of that suggestion. “I’m not having an off-worlder standing on me.”

  “I saw some crates in one of the top rooms of the monument,” I said hastily.

  I headed back into the monument and found the crates. The largest of them looked solid enough to stand on, so I took it back to the balcony. Tad climbed on it, took a tool from his pocket, and started working on the camera.

  “While we’re waiting for Tad to alter the camera, we can hold a division leaders meeting,” said Donnell.

  Ghost made a choking noise. “Is this really a good time to hold a division leaders meeting?”

  “This is the best possible time,” said Donnell. “We’ve got the opportunity to have a meeting where we can speak absolutely freely, secure in the knowledge that nobody even knows we’re having a discussion. Let’s just move out of earshot of the off-worlder.”

  We all moved further along the balcony.

  “In the past, my deputy, Kasim, was included in these meetings,” said Donnell. “I’m assuming that none of you will object to Blaze being included in the same way.”

  “It’s accepted that the deputy alliance leader has to be included in division leader meetings,” said Ghost. “They need to be fully informed in case you’re unexpectedly ... indisposed.”

  Wall didn’t bother with polite euphemisms. “Yes, if you go off and drink yourself senseless, then Blaze needs to know everything that’s happening so she can take over until you sober up again.”

  Donnell sighed. “Let’s move rapidly on to the subject of this meeting. We all know that most of the alliance were delighted to be rid of Cage, but his supporters are still mourning his departure. Cage’s influence extended into every division. Even the Resistance wasn’t immune from it, so he’s left us a sizeable legacy of troublemakers.”

  Donnell paused. “One of our biggest problems has been trying to work out who we can trust and who we can’t. Some Cage supporters are obvious, like Major, Shark, and Nero, but others are pretending to rejoice at Cage being gone while secretly wishing he was back.”

  Wall nodded. “Yes, it’s impossible to be sure who supports Cage and who doesn’t.”

  “We’re about to discover exactly who supports Cage and who doesn’t,” said Donnell grimly, “and we’re going to learn that lesson in the worst conceivable way. The core supporters of Cage have been secretly meeting in the Banqueting Hall. Their original plan was to get Major to take over the leadership of Queens Island from Raeni.”

  “That plan failed,” said Ghost swiftly. “What are they planning next?”

  “Now that the food rationing has ended, we’ll be holding the regular evenings of entertainment and dancing again,” said Donnell. “The next one is due to happen on the first of March, which is only ten days away. The minute the Resistance tables and chairs are cleared away, Major and Shark will march onto the dance floor and announce that they’re leaving their divisions.”

  “If they do that, then they’re dead men.” Wall gave a disturbingly savage smile. “The second that Shark announces he’s breaking his allegiance to Manhattan, I’ll have the right to order his execution, and I’ll do it. Raeni can order Major’s execution as well, and their deaths will be a firm lesson to the other troublemakers that they have to behave themselves.”

  “It’s not going to be that easy,” said Donnell. “When Shark and Major make their announcement, that’s the signal for all the other Cage supporters to join them on the dance floor and announce that they’re leaving their divisions too.”

  “All of them?” demanded Ghost sharply. “Executing Shark and Major could be viewed as a firm lesson. Twenty or thirty executions would be a reign of terror.”

  “Yes, and I’m afraid that our troublemakers won’t just announce they’re leaving their current divisions,” said Donnell. “They’re going to declare a new division of their own.”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  “Are you sure about this information, Donnell?” asked Raeni.

  “I’m totally sure. Our rebels are planning to call their new division after the Bronx borough of New York.”

  I gnawed my bottom lip. My ghastly theory had been right then. Ice’s face was as enigmatic as ever, but the expressions of the other division leaders showed they were thinking through just how disastrous this could be for the alliance.

  Ghost let out his breath with an odd whistling sound. “You say we’ve only got until the first of March to prepare for this?”

  “That’s right,” said Donnell.

  “We could try delaying the March evening of entertainment and dancing for a week to give us more time to prepare,” said Ice. “We could use the excuse that we’ve just had a special celebration of the end of rationing.”

  “However much time we have, there’s no way we can prepare for this,” said Wall. “It’s over six years since the alliance had to cope with a new division. I give Ice full credit for the fact that he and the London division members behaved as perfectly as possible. They agreed to all the existing alliance rules, and accepted the accommodation they were offered without a word of complaint, but their arrival still caused a thousand problems.”

  He made a sound of exasperation. “Bronx won’t be as cooperative as London, and where can we put a new division anyway? We had a disused wing of the building to offer London, which just needed a lot of cleaning and minor repair work to make it habitable. We’ve got nowhere to put Bronx.”

  “They intend to take over the Sanctuary wing,” said Donnell.

  “And we’re supposed to hand Sanctuary over to them without an argument?” asked Wall bitterly. “What would happen to the general stores and the hospital?”

  “Bronx’s plan is that those would be moved into the Resistance wing of the building,” said Donnell. “Their logic is that the Resistance store all the rare and valuable supplies, so we might as well be in charge of the rest as well.”

  “You’re remarkably calm about this, Donnell,” said Raeni.

  “Blaze warned me this might be happening a week ago, so I’ve had time to get over the first shock.”

  Ice gave me one of his most unreadable stares. “If you found out about this a week ago, Blaze, then why are we only hearing about it now?”

  I shrugged. “It was just a theory back then, based on a single overheard word. Donnell told me he’d try to get more information.”

  “And now Donnell seems to have some very detailed information indeed,” said Ghost. “I’d love to know how he managed that.”

  “I can guess exactly how he managed that.” Wall gave one of his sudden booming laughs. “Cage used Hannah to spy on the Resistance for him. Now Donnell is using Hannah to spy on Cage’s supporters.”

  Donnell pulled a face. “Like everything else we discuss in this meeting, Hannah’s involvement has to be kept strictly secret. If Bronx division finds out she’s spying on them, she’ll be murdered.”

  “I’ve been tempted to kill the girl myself,” said Wall, “but we’d better keep her alive while she’s proving useful. We can deal with her properly later.”

  “Can we trust information that comes from Hannah?” asked Ice. “She’s been telling lies since she was seven years old. Her father challenged me for the leadership of London, and forced me into a knife fight which he lost. One of his wounds got infected, and both Hannah and her mother started spreading lies that I’d poisoned my knife blade. When the man died a week later, their
whisper campaign increased to accusing me of deliberate murder. I gave them one final warning before expelling the pair of them.”

  I frowned. I’d never understood why Ice had expelled Hannah and her mother from the London gang back then. It had seemed totally out of character for him to punish them so harshly for the failed leadership bid. Now it made far more sense.

  “Hannah’s mother died two years later,” Ice continued, “and I took the girl back in on condition she improved her behaviour, but she still kept twisting the truth to suit her own purposes. When my people and the London Resistance members arrived in New York, I was glad to hand Hannah over to Donnell along with Blaze and Seamus, but now I regret doing that. I warned Donnell about Hannah’s lies, but he seemed to think I was exaggerating.”

  “I admit that I didn’t take your warning as seriously as I should have done,” said Donnell. “Now I know both you and Hannah far better, and I don’t trust Hannah’s word on anything, but I have other evidence that backs up her story.”

  “So who will be the leader of Bronx division?” asked Ghost. “Please don’t tell me that we’ll be trying to negotiate with Shark. We’d have to explain everything to him in words of one syllable.”

  “We’re going to be negotiating with Major,” said Donnell. “Shark is going to be his trusted deputy.”

  Wall groaned. “And we know just how bad Major will be as a leader, because we’ve seen it before.”

  “No, you haven’t,” said Raeni sharply. “You’ve seen what Major was like as a leader when he was limited by the opinions of the members of Queens Island division. Bronx division will be full of people urging Major to cause as much trouble as possible.”

  “Major keeps saying the coming firestorm is just a myth,” said Ice. “He’ll do everything he can to stop us leaving New York.”

  I’d been working out some numbers in my head. “Bronx division is going to be much smaller than the other divisions, which will limit Major’s voting power.”

  Wall grimaced. “Major won’t have much voting power, but there are other ways for him to cause trouble. Remember how he stirred up the conflict between Queens Island and Manhattan to help his leadership challenge.”

  “That’s why I’m having this conversation with you here and now,” said Donnell. “Whatever other differences we have, I believe we’re agreed on two key issues. Firstly, that Cage is our enemy. Secondly, that the alliance has to leave New York before the summer.”

  The other division leaders all nodded.

  “We can’t let Bronx division divide the alliance,” said Ghost, with passionate urgency. “Thirty-two people died from fever this winter. The rest of us all came close to dying of starvation. Now the falling star population has increased to the point where there’s a danger of them overwhelming us with their numbers.”

  He pulled a pained face. “Whether there’s a firestorm this summer or not, I don’t believe the alliance can survive more than another year or two in New York. We must leave as soon as the weather is good enough to travel, and by the end of April at the very latest. Both because of the coming firestorm, and the fact we need to be well established in our new home before next winter.”

  “Yes,” said Donnell. “If Cage’s supporters prevent us leaving New York, or even delay us for a few weeks, then everyone in the alliance will die. That’s why I’m asking all of you to work with me to defeat Bronx division as soon as they declare themselves.”

  “What’s the plan?” asked Raeni briskly.

  “We let Major declare his new Bronx division,” said Donnell. “We encourage all of Cage’s supporters, both open and secret, to declare their allegiance to it. We tell them that they have a single opportunity to be released from their oaths of allegiance to their old divisions. That way we’ll finally know exactly who is on our side and who isn’t.”

  “I’d like to know who can be trusted to guard my back, and who’s likely to stab it,” said Ghost. “What do we do after that?”

  “We use the precedent of what happened when London division arrived in New York,” said Donnell. “Back then, the existing four divisions held a vote on whether to accept London into the alliance. We’ll hold a similar vote on whether we’re willing to accept Bronx into the alliance.”

  “And we’ll all vote against,” said Ice swiftly.

  “Exactly,” said Donnell. “Under the alliance rules, we’ll then be entitled to order Bronx division to leave the Parliament House. They’ll naturally refuse, and there’ll be a fight, but our united forces should quickly overwhelm them and take them prisoner.”

  “And what will we do with all those prisoners?” asked Raeni.

  Donnell smiled. “They call themselves Bronx division, though I doubt many of them have even spent a day in the Bronx. I think we should give them the chance to learn about their self-proclaimed home. We’ll take them upriver on the Spirit of New York, and dump them on the riverbank in the Bronx with fishing lines but no weapons. We’ll tell them that they’re banished from the Unity City area, and if they ever set foot there again, then we’ll shoot them on sight.”

  “No weapons at all?” asked Ghost. “Not even knives for fighting falling stars?”

  “They won’t need knives to fight falling stars, because the dangerously sized ones haven’t spread that far upriver,” said Donnell. “Bronx division can fish for food, and there’ll be plenty of buildings with working heating to keep them warm. It’s not an ideal solution. They’ll obviously scavenge knives and other weapons, and come back to attack us eventually, but we only need two months of peace to leave New York.”

  Ghost nodded. “Brooklyn votes in favour of exiling our troublemakers.”

  “Queens Island votes in favour of exiling Bronx division,” said Raeni, “but there must be no question of exile as a punishment for Cage. He’s a murderer and must die for his crimes.”

  “London agrees with Queens Island,” said Ice. “Bronx division can be exiled, but Cage must still be executed.”

  “I’m not suggesting exiling Cage,” said Donnell. “He’s far more lethal than the whole of Bronx division put together, and none of us will be safe while he’s alive.”

  Wall sighed. “I’d prefer a plan that includes executing Major and Shark, but I’ll settle for just seeing Cage’s head on a pole. Manhattan votes in favour.”

  “We’re agreed then,” said Donnell. “Let’s see how Tad is getting on with that camera.”

  Donnell led the way back around the balcony to where Tad was sitting on the crate. “Have you finished your alterations to the camera, Tad?”

  “Yes, but there’s no way to know if the connections work until Cage turns on the public broadcast system.”

  Donnell turned to look across at the Citadel. “Cage doesn’t seem to have noticed our arrival yet. Let’s try to get his attention.”

  He opened his bag and took out what looked like an unusually thick signal flare. “This is going to get noisy, so I suggest the rest of you stay here.”

  He walked several paces away, propped the signal flare against the parapet, pulled the tab to trigger it, and sprinted back to join us. After ten seconds of expectant silence, Wall coughed and spoke.

  “I hate to be the one to mention this, but your flare isn’t doing anything.”

  “It’s on a long fuse,” said Donnell. “You should all put your hands over your ears.”

  We all dutifully put our hands over our ears, there were more seconds of suspense, and then the flare shot upwards with a shrieking noise that sounded like the world was ending.

  “If I’m right that Cage is in the Citadel,” said Donnell cheerfully, “that should get his attention.”

  “I should think it got the attention of people on Adonis,” said Raeni.

  Donnell laughed, opened his bag again, and took out a strangely shaped, black object. “The windows of the rooftop mansion probably only give views of the gardens and lakes. Cage will go to the Security Control Room, and check the images from the cameras t
o find out what made all that noise.”

  “What is that ... thing you’re holding?” I asked.

  “A megaphone,” said Donnell. “I just have to press the black button to make it magnify my voice.”

  He held the object to his lips, spoke into it, and his voice bellowed out at a deafening volume. “Hello, Cage! I know that you’re in the Citadel. You have cameras watching this whole area, so you must be able to see me. Those cameras pick up sound as well as vision, so you should be able to hear me as well now that I’m shouting into a megaphone.”

  I looked down at the people on the bridge. They could obviously hear Donnell, because they were peering up at us.

  “Why aren’t you speaking to me, Cage?” asked Donnell. “Haven’t you worked out where I am yet? I’m on the opposite side of Wallam-Crane Square, standing on the balcony at the top of the Wallam-Crane Monument.”

  He gave a mocking wave. “Don’t you want to talk to your visitors, Cage?”

  “This isn’t going to work,” said Wall. “Even if you’re right that Cage is in the Citadel, he won’t be fool enough to give away his location by talking to us.”

  Donnell took the megaphone from his lips and spoke in an urgent whisper. “Cage may be listening to us now. Keep your voice down, or he’ll hear what you’re saying.”

  Wall gave a depressed grunt.

  Donnell put his megaphone to his lips again. “Hello, Cage! How is your wounded arm now? Is it just your arm that was hurt, or do you have other injuries as well? I still don’t understand how you were stupid enough to be hit by a subway train. Why didn’t you dodge faster?”

  Donnell waited a few seconds, and then started shouting into the megaphone so loudly that we all cowered with our hands over our ears. “Cage, Cage, talk to me, Cage! Why are you so quiet in there? I suppose you’re too embarrassed to say anything. I hope you haven’t been eaten by a falling star. You’d give the unfortunate thing dreadful indigestion.”