"What the hell?" Tony demanded.
"We know him," Arkady said. His voice was rough.
"We'll take care of it," Matty said at the same time. He shot Tony what he hoped was a reassuring smile before running to Nisha, Arkady at his side.
Nisha had turned the man's face to a pulp of blood and flesh and her hands were red. Matty grabbed her and pulled her away, even as Arkady pulled the battered man to his feet. Nisha's breath hissed between her teeth, and she was shaking in Matty's grip.
"What the devil have you done, Kieran?" Arkady said, his voice low and ominous.
The man—Kieran, agent of the United Kingdom, known by the codename of Wales—turned aside and spat out a mouthful of blood. He turned back and grinned, wiping his face. "I didn't expect a warm welcome, that's for sure. Quite a punch you've got there, Nisha."
"You sick son-of-a-bitch," she spat.
"You know I'm armed," Arkady said. "You know too that any one of us three here can kill you in a heartbeat. Do not play with us, Wales. You don't have the luxury."
"It always strikes me as ironic and hilarious that Russia's agent is the one that's so reluctant to get the job done and has to warn his targets first." Kieran's grin wasn't going anywhere. "At least Paul had the guts to do the job."
Arkady straightened his shoulders. "You want to die. I will not kill you."
Kieran's smile faltered for a brief moment and then returned. "You know me too well."
"I bare America no ill-will. I bear the people of the United States no ill-will. You may suggest that I am reluctant, or perhaps, as others in the past have done, weak or soft. I will not and have not killed for the sake of it or the pleasure of it. My handler knew this. He was the only one, just as our own handlers were the only ones who knew of our existences and gave us our operations to carry out. Yes, I am Russian. I do not and never have hated the people of the United States or of the United Kingdom or anywhere else on this planet. You, however, as an individual, I hate very much."
Kieran flinched. "I don't want you to hate me, Arkady."
"You shouldn't have orchestrated the war that led to us being where we are today."
"Paul would've done worse." Kieran glared at them. "He was going to put in a puppet government, one far worse than there had been."
"How long would that've lasted?" Matty asked. "People don't like having governments forced on them. They tend to rebel."
Kieran sneered at him. "That's a big thing for you to say, Australia. You were quite prepared to kill your own Prime Minister in cold blood."
Matty marched over to him and stood close. In a voice barely above a whisper, the voice he reserved for interrogations, a tone that he hadn't used in so long that he was slightly surprised that he still remembered how, he said, "Yes, I was. The man was destroying the country. I would have taken out his whole cabinet too, if I'd had to."
"Treason. Tut-tut."
"Oh, fuck off." Matty rolled his eyes. "You're a bloody fine one to be calling treason. You betrayed the whole fucking world, for what, a pissing contest with Paul?"
Kieran sneered at him again. "You all listened to him. Even my fellow United Kingdom companions did. You treated him like he had all the answers, and what did he have? Revolution."
"Revolutions are healthy," Arkady said.
"What did you have instead of revolution?" Nisha had come to join them. "You had a scorched earth policy. Are you proud, Kieran? Are you warmed at night knowing the deaths of billions are on your conscience?"
"I can live with it. I knew you'd all be pissed off, yet it was for the greater good. The world's a better place now. The nuclear winter passed in Europe, people survived. Civilization continues, now it's not guided by selfishness, ego and greed. Now it's guided by compassion and helping each other."
"Genocide is a-okay?" Matty balled his hands in to fists. "You're a fucking lunatic."
"Believe what you want. You believe I did the wrong thing, I believe I did the right thing. It doesn't matter now, anyway."
"What of Europe? The rest of the world?" Arkady asked.
"Geography has changed," Kieran said. "Of course it would do that, with everything that happened. Don't worry, your families didn't die in pain or anything. I think you've even got great-great-grand-nieces and nephews, Arkady. You, too, Nisha and Matty."
"Yet no means of getting anywhere," Matty said. "No ships, no planes, nothing."
"Not here, no." Kieran shook himself, like a dog coming out of water. "You'll have to go north for that. There's an old airfield outside of Boston, you know the one, we used to recon there sometimes. That's got the last two surviving planes I used, along with fuel."
"They're probably wired to explode as soon as we start them," Nisha said.
Kieran snorted. "Don't be stupid. Do you think I'd do that to my own escape route? No one else alive knows how to pilot one. Go and take one. I don't care."
"We will," Matty said. "You'll come with us."
Kieran shook his head. "No, I won't. I've retired. I've got a wife and a kid now. I'm not leaving them. Think what you want, say what you want, I'm done. Unlike Paul, who still fucks around and manipulates people, I'm done with that. I live here, I'm a fisherman who also dabbles in repairing the surviving electronics. I monitor what's left of the Internet. Most of the traffic is from Canada, Europe, and Australasia. Go there." He spat out another mouthful of blood. "I only left that message for you because I was curious to see who was still alive. I'm glad it's you."
Matty shook his head, disgusted. "Let him go," he said to his friends. "He's no use to us."
"How can we be sure he's telling the truth?" Nisha asked.
"We could torture him," Matty said, "but I don't think that would change what he's saying at all, though."
Arkady hummed. "I think Matty is right. Much as I would like to beat Kieran myself, there's no point to it."
Before anyone could say anything else, a shot rang out, the sound of the bullet ricocheting off the bridge loud in the morning. Everyone dropped to the ground, and Matty thought that no matter what, they were still trained to react before they thought. He noticed that he wasn't the only one with a weapon in his hand—Nisha and Arkady did, too. Kieran, though, remained unarmed.
"What the hell?" Nisha asked.
Matty shifted a little and began to swear. Holding a sniper's rifle and walking slowly towards them were Paul and Gina. "They followed us," he said.
Arkady also began to swear. He got to his feet and faced Paul, holding his own weapon pointed unerringly at the two approaching them.
"Is this how it's going to end?" Paul asked as he got closer. "A Mexican standoff, we'll all shoot each other?"
"Very Quentin Tarantino," Matty said. He also stood up, holding his weapon pointed at Paul and Gina. "Hey, Gina. Long time no see."
"Hi Matty. Nisha, Arkady."
"You side with Paul on all of this?" Nisha asked. Matty could see out the corner of his eye that she was standing as well and had hauled Kieran to his feet. She held onto him tightly.
"Yes. He made the right call in a bad situation. I think where we're at with the city underground is much better than any other option we have. Sure, these above ground dwellers have their little bits of trade and their carrier pigeon communication, but we're totally self-sufficient. It's great down there."
"Too bad if you're an individual or a free thinker or, hell, I don't know, gay or a minority," Nisha said.
Gina shrugged. "No society's ever perfect."
"Give us Kieran," Paul said. "And we'll let you go, we can part as friends."
"We haven't finished with him," Nisha said.
"I don't like the possibilities of what could happen if we gave him to you," Arkady said.
"We'll just shoot you and take him." Paul hefted his rifle.
Matty and Arkady did the same. It hung there for a moment, a frozen heartbeat of time. Who would shoot first, Matty would never know, for he saw Tony and six other men and women creeping up behind Paul
and Gina with their own weapons.
Gina raised her rifle. "I'm sorry it's come to this. You were good friends once."
"I'm sorry you can't let this go," Matty said. "You know he organized for Pei Ling to die, right? Paul, that is."
Gina hesitated. "What?"
"He had his own plan. We were his tools. He wanted to set up puppet governments and run things behind the scenes, like he's doing in your Utopia down underground. Pei Ling was a casualty of his scheming."
"You should be glad not all of you were casualties," Paul said.
"This is true?"
"We'll talk about it later, Gina."
"The hell we will. I want to talk about it—"
"Goddammit." Paul spun, and fired his weapon at point blank range into Gina's head. Matty was frozen in horror as he watched her crumple like a paper doll, dead as soon as the bullet impacted.
"You asshole!" Nisha shouted.
"I don't have time for this," Paul said. "Give me Kieran. Now."
"I don't think so." It was Tony and he'd come up behind Paul. He held a pistol and the muzzle of it was pressed against the back of Paul's head. "I think you'd better leave, friend. Go back to your home and don't come up here again."
Paul slowly lowered his weapon. "You don't know what you're doing. You don't know who that man is."
"Yeah, we do. He told us not long after he came here. He wanted to be honest and, yeah, we were horrified at first. See, the thing we believe here is that everyone can make good after bad. You folk, people like you, don't seem to think there's anything like a second chance, though you got one yourself. Go and don't come back."
"If I refuse?"
"I'd hate to shoot you in the back of the head, but I'd do it."
Paul slowly turned to face him. "I don't think you could do it, son. I don't think you could shoot me at all."
Tony hesitated and Matty heard Paul's laughter. "Oh, hell no," he said, and he focused on Paul with his gun and fired.
He hadn't intended it to be a kill shot, he had aimed as he'd first been taught—for the main body mass, the chest. Or in this case, as Paul's chest was turned from him, Paul's back. He hit him solidly in the lower right shoulder, and Paul let out a loud cry, half of pain and half surprise and dropped to his knees, the sniper's rifle tumbling from his hands. Tony grabbed it and stepped back into the little group of people who accompanied him.
Matty moved to Paul. He stopped and looked down at him. "You okay to walk?"
Paul chuckled, a wet sound. "Stumble, but sure."
"Great. Get out of here."
Paul looked up at him. "This is how it ends, huh?"
"I think it does, yeah. Get lost. Don't come back. These people have protection. You want your empire, fine, you got it downstairs. Though if I hear that you've treated anyone else down there the way your puppets treated that poor boy and his father in that show trial farce about homosexuality, I will personally come back and execute you in the bed you sleep. Am I clear?"
Paul regarded him with narrowed eyes. "I actually think you'd do it, Matty."
"You always wondered if Australia had balls. Now you know."
"Fine. That your only condition?"
"Stay away from the above ground. Leave Kieran be. Just get the fuck on out of here. It's not far back to your area."
Paul nodded, a hand pressed against his side. Blood seeped through his fingers. "Okay."
"You can make it?"
"Yeah. I've had worse." He grinned. "It was fun."
"Not all of it."
"Give Arkady a hug for me. Nisha, too."
"No, I won't do that. I think they'd be disgusted."
"Whatever." Paul lurched to his feet. "Good thing the terrain's all pretty flat, mostly. Later, Australia."
Matty watched as Paul began to shuffle away. He moved slowly with dogged determination, and Matty kept his eyes on him until Paul rounded a corner and was out of sight. It was only then that he allowed himself to relax and he looked down at the ground, at the patch of blood and the body of Gina and sighed.
He rubbed his eyes with his free hand and raised his face to look up at the gray-blue sky. It never seemed to get brighter than this. Maybe it never would.
Arkady was there. "You okay?"
"I'll live to fight another day."
Arkady's fingers twined with his. "We can go."
"I think that's a good idea." Matty looked over at Tony. "I think we'll leave. We brought a lot of drama to you and your people today. I think it's better that we go."
Tony nodded. "As you wish. The offer I made you guys this morning is still open. Perhaps you'll come back one day and tell us your stories."
Matty smiled at him. "You've been bloody brilliant to us, Tony. Thank you. To your people, too. Can you take care of Kieran? He shouldn't go running after Paul and trying to ignite a whole new feud between the two of them. Also Gina…"
"We'll see to it." Tony gestured to the group beside him. "We took the liberty of preparing supplies for you, food, bedding, things for heading north where it's colder. I'm guessing that's the direction you're heading." Three large packs were placed in front of Matty and Arkady. "Good luck."
"Thank you. All of you." Matty took a deep breath. "I think we'll need it."
"You've been very kind," Arkady said.
"It won't be forgotten," Nisha said. She'd come to stand beside Arkady, dragging Kieran with her. "Here's Kieran."
Tony took Kieran's arm and gently pulled him away. "Safe travels."
Matty let go of Arkady's hand, holstered his weapon and picked up his pack. He shrugged it onto his shoulders, picked up his other bag, the one that contained the things he'd left the underground with. "Let's go."
With the supplies and belongings, the three of them set off, walking along the line of the river wall as best they could. None of them looked behind them, none of them spoke. Nisha walked in front, Matty could sense that she wanted to be alone. He respected that. He didn't really want to talk much. The presence of Arkady by his side was comfortable and reassuring.
They walked without rest for hours until the sun began to set. As the sky turned orange and red, Arkady took Matty's hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "A new beginning, yes?"
Matty looked at him, squeezing Arkady's hand in return. "I hope it's a good one."
"We have each other. We have our dear friend Nisha. It will be."
Matty suddenly felt lighter. "Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right."
None of them knew what the future held—or even the next day. They didn't know if Kieran's assertion that he had a pair of planes with fuel hidden away was truthful. In fact, they didn't know much except what they could learn by their own wits. Yet Matty felt himself beginning to relax in this new world, coming to peace with his existence. He didn't have all the answers, and, he thought, it could be that he never would. Yet, he found that he was more comfortable with that than he had been before. He had Nisha, his dear friend, and he had Arkady, the man who he loved.
"I know," Arkady said, as Matty opened his mouth to voice his feelings. "It doesn't need to be spoken. You say it in everything you do."
Matty leaned into him a little, his shoulder against Arkady's. "You're too good to me, you know."
"We are good to each other. That's all that matters."
"Truth."
"Now we look towards the future."
Matty let go of Arkady's hand and slipped his arm around Arkady's waist. Arkady chuckled as he slid his own arm around Matty's shoulders. They walked like that, close together, holding onto each other, supporting each other.
Nisha had stopped quite a distance away. "Come on, you two," she called. "Someone's going to have to hunt for meat, that's one thing I'm no good at."
Arkady laughed. "I'll do it," he called back.
She turned back to what she was doing, soon Matty and Arkady joined her. "Onto the next step of the mission," Matty said.
"A good, fact-finding mission," Nisha said.
; "It's been a long time coming since we had one of those."
"We three are in good company with each other," Arkady said. "Now I will hunt."
"We'll get a fire going," Nisha said.
"I could get used to this," Matty said. "I could also get used to this weird feeling I have."
"What feeling is that?" Arkady asked.
Matty looked up at him, taking in the perpetually mussed dark blond hair, the sharp brown eyes, the pale skin, the line of stubble on Arkady's jawline.
"Happiness and hope," he said.
Arkady's smile was as bright as the setting sun. "To happiness and hope."
FIN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
L.J. is a French-Australian, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she has gone on to dabble in many things! She wrote a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school year book, her university newspaper and in her early teens, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English with a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places and researching.
L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica.
L.J. lives in the city of Adelaide, and is owned by her cat.
Publications include an essay written for the now-defunct Veinglory publication produced by Emily Veinglory, in the 2003 issue and a short story for the 2004 issue. A research paper on medieval women that L.J. wrote has been used extensively as a reference guide for other writers at ‘All About Romance Novels‘ in their ‘Ask An Historian‘ section. L.J. has had fiction published by Dreamspinner Press, Noble Romance Press, Freaky Fountain Press and Less Than Three Press. Her blog is at http://misslj-author.dreamwidth.org/.
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