Marlow laughed and shook her head. “I’m doing exactly what I would do for anyone in your position, Mr. Solomon. Contrary to public opinion, the Bridge Guard do not want to catch everyone in the act and prosecute them to the full extent available to us.”
“When you put people like Willard Bordon through such pain, you really have to wonder why people have forgotten that your job is to maintain peace?” he asked.
Her eyes widened. “I didn’t…that wasn’t me….” She stopped and caught the corner of her lip between her teeth. Her uncertainty and anxiousness twisted Jonah’s guilt. He already knew Bordon was a weak spot for her and he had used it to ram through her mental defenses. He didn’t like the way it was making him feel.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That wasn’t fair.”
This time he had no trouble reading her surprise.
“I have to go back to the box,” he added, keeping his voice low and his tone reasonable. “I can’t just disappear. I’ve heard your warnings and I won’t dismiss them.”
She shook her head. “You shouldn’t go back, not even for the second half. If you leave now, they’ll see you’ve gone and think you were duped into attending just like Beullens.”
“I was duped,” he said.
Marlow hesitated.
From the two gates nearest them, sudden chanting sounded. It was loud, the product of many voices.
“Food! … Food! … Food!”
Accompanying the chant was the sound of many pairs of feet stomping and hands clapping. There was even the low-grade thunder of people pummeling the tank wall, making the plastic steel vibrate.
Marlow sighed. “What now?” she breathed and wheeled and hurried toward the nearest gate.
Jonah followed. His heart was thudding even harder than her physical closeness justified, because he already suspected what was happening.
Marlow stood just inside the arena seating area, at the top of the steep steps down to the lower levels, looking around sharply. She brought her hand to her ear as Jonah stepped up beside her. “Find the leader,” she said quietly. “Over on the far side from me, I think.”
Then she listened. “Yes, Coin,” she confirmed. She spoke softly enough that Jonah had to strain to hear what she was saying beneath the chanting.
The chanting wasn’t letting up. There was a strident quality to it that made it sound angry. There were hundreds of people on their feet, clapping and stamping in time to the chant.
Jonah looked up at the high center box where the Captain sat. He was sitting and staring straight ahead. He wasn’t smiling. His hand was a fist next to his thigh. The woman who had whispered to him earlier was standing behind him and her hand was on his shoulder. Was she holding the Captain in his chair? If so, she was smarter than Sekar.
Marlow looked up at the box. “They should get him out of there,” she murmured. Jonah wasn’t sure if she was talking to her own guards or to herself…or to him. Guarding the captain wasn’t her division’s responsibility and she probably couldn’t direct the Red Guard to act, either.
Jonah shook his head. “He has to stay,” he said, trying to resist the need to shout over the chanting. “If he leaves now, it will be the ultimate sign of weakness. He has to out-bluff them.”
Her full lips pressed together. Doubt.
“Trust me,” Jonah said. “He won’t live this down if he leaves.”
“Wouldn’t that suit your purpose?” Her voice was dry.
Jonah looked at her, genuinely startled. “That’s what you think I want?”
Marlow pressed her lips together. She looked vexed, as if she had spoken out of turn.
“No, that’s what you think the Spanners faction want…” he said slowly. “Holy hell. You think they’re anarchists.”
Marlow sighed. “I don’t just think that,” she said firmly. “And it isn’t just me that believes it.”
“The Red Guard,” he said. “But they’re only supposed to protect the Captain and those closest to him. Personal bodyguards.”
The chanting was finally starting to die down. With no one in the top box reacting to it, those in the audience who had been caught up in the chant and were not part of the group that started it lost their enthusiasm.
Across the arena, Marlow’s black guards were scuffling with the people in the three rows that had been with Brenden Coin.
Marlow nodded. “Thanks.” She looked at Jonah. “They have Coin. I have to go.”
She turned to leave and Jonah caught her arm, to delay her.
Marlow yanked her arm out of his grip before his fingers could close around her arm. “Don’t do that, Mr. Solomon. It tends to make me react and you wouldn’t like my reaction.”
“Just wait for a moment,” he said urgently. “Why are the Red Guard interested in potential anarchists?”
Marlow looked around for eavesdroppers. Now that the chanting had died away, people sitting in the chairs closest to them would be able to hear everything they said. She jerked her head in a very clear “follow me” command and went back out to the concourse. She stopped with one shoulder up against the wall, well out of the way of people streaming back to their seats for the next period of the game.
Jonah walked around her and faced her.
“The Red Division look after Bridge personnel,” she said, her voice very low. “But there’s a reason they’re called the Red division and not the bodyguard division, or the personnel division.”
“They have other portfolios,” Jonah guessed.
She nodded. “Anything discreet. Investigations that can’t be made public knowledge, covert actions and…more.”
“Illegal reactions,” Jonah breathed. He straightened up with a jerk. “Hayim is with the Palatine teams. I saw him. I saw him. Right out there in the open.”
“If you were to ask him, Hayim will say he’s just a keen tankball fan,” Marlow added.
Jonah’s heart squeezed. “The other teams…they’ll know all this, too.” He rolled his eyes. “No wonder Veda scrambled to get Buellen on her side. They’re upping the stakes….” Fear touched him. He looked at Marlow. “You knew all this, all along.”
She grimaced. “Knowing something doesn’t always mean acting on it.” She straightened up. “They’re waiting for me,” she said.
Jonah lifted his hand and just stopped himself from touching her. “You’re going to speak to Brenden Coin. Let me come with you.”
She shook her head. “No, absolutely not.”
“I need an excuse to not go back to the box,” he said. “This would be a good one. I know Brenden.”
She rolled her eyes. “You think I don’t know that? If you stand next to me while I talk to him, it will be the same as sitting in that box up there. You’ll be picking a side.” Her tone was withering.
Jonah tried to puzzle out what she wasn’t saying. “You think I don’t want to pick a side at all.”
“You’ve gone your whole life standing on the outside, observing and commenting.” She shrugged.
It stung. Jonah knew she had intended it to. She was trying to disengage, to leave him behind because she needed to go and interview Brenden and she was absolutely not going to take him with her.
He shook his head. “Making me angry won’t get rid of me.”
Marlow smiled and it was a confident expression. “Do not doubt that I could get rid of you if I wanted to. I’m being nice, Mr. Solomon. Don’t follow me. Don’t be seen with me. You’ll live a happier life if you do.”
She stepped around him and headed down the concourse.
Jonah watched her until she was nearly out of view, then found his feet were moving him forward, to keep her in sight. He was following her after all. With every step he took he railed at himself.
She was right. He should go home, find an excuse that Veda would accept and stay the hell away from anything to do with tankball. This could only get ugly.
Chapter Five
Cantrell was standing next to the man who she had spotted f
rom the other side of the arena during the game. This was Brendan Coin. The man was crouched down, his back against the service corridor wall, his head hanging and both hands resting on his knees. There was blood on the side of his neck.
“He’s damaged?” Marlow asked as she approached.
“Just a scratch. He’ll live,” Cantrell said. He looked down at Coin. “He likes a fight.”
Coin didn’t lift his head. Marlow could see him smile, anyway.
“Thanks, I’ll take it from here,” she told Cantrell.
He nodded and left her with Coin.
Coin raised his head to watch Cantrell leave. “No hesitation. I guess that means you could take me down without breaking sweat even though I’m bigger and heavier.”
“That’s exactly what it means,” she assured him. It had taken nearly ten years to stop the men in the squads from worrying about leaving her to look after herself. Ten years and a lot of demonstrations that she could look after herself. Although, she wasn’t going to tell Coin that.
“Are you going to arrest me?” Coin asked curiously.
“You’d already be in the processing room if that was going to happen. I don’t arrest people for speaking their minds, Mr. Coin.”
His smile broadened. “Then I’ll just be going…” He pushed himself up, his jacket scraping against the rough corridor wall.
Marlow slammed her boot against the wall just above his shoulder and close to his ear. “Don’t make me make you sit down again.”
His smile didn’t waver. He hunkered down. “Is this where I get delivered home a bloody and beaten mess?”
She returned her foot to the ground. “So you can scream tomorrow about guard brutality and the heavy hand of the Bridge?” She smiled. “We’re just going to talk.”
“Ah. Talk.” He nodded, then tilted his head to look at her. “You mean, you talk. I listen.”
“Exactly. So shut up and listen, Coin. You’re a smart man. Too smart for what you’re doing. Don’t tell me that tonight was innocent, just you and a group of your friends protesting over the rations, because you and I both know that is how things start. We both know where this is likely to end, too. You want this to escalate.”
Coin’s smile faded. “You’re starving people,” he said flatly. “What else can we do?”
She shook her head. “I’m not here to talk politics with you, Coin. That’s not my job. My job is to maintain peace on the ship and you’re jeopardizing that peace. You know where it ends. How it will end if you insist on following this path. If maintaining peace means taking out a few key people like you, I will do that.”
“Would Jonah Solomon be one of those people?” Coin asked. He didn’t seem at all afraid of her threat.
Marlow just barely disguised her jerk of surprise. “Is Solomon one of your people?”
Coin’s smile was back. “I saw him standing with you, just before your bruisers took me down, way across the arena there.”
That wasn’t good. She shook her head. “I gave him the same warning I’m giving you, Coin. Use your brain. See where this is going and give it up. There are other ways of getting what you want without violence.”
“It was a peaceful protest,” he pointed out.
“It won’t end peacefully,” she shot back. “You know it won’t. Find another way.”
“There isn’t one,” he growled. “The man is appointed for life. He’s going to sit in that chair, while we all die around him from malnutrition and starvation, only that’s fine and dandy. He gets all the food he needs, so why should he care?”
Marlow swallowed. “While David Sekar is the captain, you will refer to him with the respect the position deserves. Call him by his title, Coin, or you will get delivered home a bloody mess.”
“Better than caving into the likes of you,” he said sullenly.
“We’re all living with the same restrictions,” she pointed out. “Even the Captain. I’m not going to argue the rights or wrongs of it, Coin. Just think about how this will end if you persist. I may not like it, but I will deal with you in any way necessary to maintain peace.”
Coin looked up at her. “Blind and deaf…” he said, sounding disgusted. “You’re not even hearing me.”
“It’s not my job to listen,” Marlow said flatly.
Coin lurched to his feet. “Then how are we to be heard, if the likes of you won’t listen?”
Marlow stepped back and curled her hand around the bo stick. She just managed to hold herself to that and not snap out her hand to deal with him. “Go home, Brenden,” she said flatly. “This is my last warning.” She nodded down the corridor. “If you go that way, you’ll find a door that leads out onto the Aventine.”
“The game isn’t finished,” he said.
She just looked at him.
Coin sighed. “Right,” he said and headed down the corridor.
Marlow turned and moved in the opposite direction. There was still the rest of the game to go and while they had suppressed this protest and got rid of the ringleaders, she knew that tempers were high. They would have to closely monitor the fans until they could disperse and go home.
It was going to be another long night.
She turned into the main service passage. Overhead and through the unadorned walls and ceiling she could hear the crowd screaming and clapping. The game had started once more.
Jonah was waiting just beyond the intersection. He had been leaning against the wall. He straightened as she stepped around the corner.
Marlow shook her head. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“No one saw me.”
“Don’t count on that.”
Jonah moved closer and she held up her hand, that still had the bo stick in it. “Don’t,” she warned.
He lifted his hands. He didn’t come any closer. He didn’t move away, either. It put him far too close to her for comfort.
“I’m tired, Mr. Solomon,” she told him. “People make mistakes when they’re tired and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” His voice was low. “I didn’t like what you said about picking sides.”
She almost laughed. “Coin and you are complete opposites, aren’t you? He won’t give up his cause and you refuse to have one. Why can’t everyone just mind their own business and get along?”
“You’d be out of a job if they did,” Jonah replied. His voice was low and deep. “And life would be utterly boring.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” she said flatly. “Emmaline Victore ran this ship like clockwork and so did Greyson Durant, who came before her. There was peace, there was plenty and everyone was happy.” Then she bit her lip. What had made her say that? Perhaps she was more tired than she had thought.
Jonah looked startled. “Why do you mention her? Emmaline Victore?”
Marlow shook her head. “Never mind,” she said shortly.
Unexpectedly, Jonah smiled. “So you do see what is happening on the ship, or you wouldn’t be wishing for better days.”
“I never said I didn’t!” she protested. “Stars above, Jonah! I’m not inhuman! Of course I can see what’s going on. I live it, too! You think it’s just the Capitol that is suffering? The whole ship is in shortage mode. Two bad harvests and it reaches a point of no return—“ She just managed to halt the hot flow of words, damming them back with sheer will power.
He stared at her. “There is a crisis,” he breathed. “One that the Bridge won’t tell anyone about.”
Marlow sighed. “Not yet,” she said. “Not if austerity measures can turn the curve around. But it’s close, Jonah. It’s so close….” She swallowed.
“Austerity measures…like reducing rations to below daily minimums?”
Marlow ground the heel of her spare hand into her eyes, one after another. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. Why am I telling you? You can’t repeat any of it, Jonah. The panic it would induce….” She shuddered.
Jonah threw out his hand. “But telling everyone would get instant coope
ration! People would understand why they must live like this. They could help, work together.”
“No, they wouldn’t. It would kick survival instincts into gear. They would fight each other for more than their share, of more than just food. You really want a whole ship of people fighting for oxygen?”
Jonah’s face was drawn. His eyes held horror and dismay. “I think I’d rather trust the people I live with to work with me, than consider them animals that will revert to primitive instinct if I gave them the truth.”
“It’s not up to me!” she cried.
“You’re just following orders, right?” His tone was withering.
“Someone has to maintain order on the ship. If we all did what we wanted it would be anarchy.”
Jonah nodded. “That’s your duty, Marlow,” he said, his voice still low and controlled. “But there’s also responsibility. You’re a thinking, rational adult. Sooner or later you have to ask yourself if the duty you hold yourself to is right and appropriate.”
Marlow closed her eyes. “I should have you arrested for that,” she whispered.
His hand touched hers. It was the softest of touches, almost hesitant. She opened her eyes. He was no closer to her than before. His fingers curled over hers, caressing them. His flesh was hot against hers and she shivered.
She considered pulling her hand away. The thought was in the far distant corner of her mind. Instead, she watched his fingers slide over the back of hers, then curve around her hand. His was bigger. Much bigger.
He lifted her hand up, so that it was between them. Marlow raised her gaze to his face.
His eyes were steady, locking her gaze. Then, still moving slowly, he leaned his head down, until his lips touched the palm of her hand. They were hot and the kiss he placed there seemed to brand her flesh.
She gasped at the contact. Her heart was thundering, her breath rapid. She could barely think. All she could feel was the touch of his hand against hers, the tingling of her flesh where he had kissed it and where her fingertips had brushed against his face as his lips had touched her hand. She could feel the heat of his body radiating against her.
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