Scavenger Alliance

by Janet Edwards

  Cage laughed. “I didn’t need anyone to come and let me out of my prison. Not when I’d got one of my supporters to hide a spare key inside the room before I was locked in there.”

  Wall made a spluttering noise of exasperation. “Given your obsession with Donnell’s daughter, it was obvious you’d be getting weapons and heading here to murder her. I sent one of my nephews to run ahead and warn Donnell’s guards you were coming, because they wouldn’t mistake an eight-year-old boy for a threat. I expected Donnell to have left two or three men outside the hospital room door to guard his daughter, or even be guarding her himself, but my nephew came back and told me there was no one there.”

  I realized I’d got things entirely wrong. The first intruder hadn’t been Cage’s accomplice, but Wall’s nephew bringing a warning message. Cage was working alone as I’d expected, and Wall was on my side.

  From the sound of Wall’s voice, a fight was going to break out at any moment. I wasn’t going to step out into the corridor into the middle of that, but I risked opening the door a fraction further to see what was happening. The two heavily muscled men were facing each other, each holding a sword. I was stupidly shocked to see the glistening blades openly brandished in the sacrosanct hospital area of Sanctuary.

  “So you came to stop me yourself,” said Cage. “How long have you been Donnell’s devoted slave?”

  “Eighteen years ago, a Manhattan man murdered a Queens Island man when he was unconscious in his hospital bed,” said Wall. “The murderer was executed, and Manhattan division narrowly escaped being expelled from the alliance. Queens Island has taken every opportunity to make sure no one ever forgot what happened.”

  Wall groaned. “Manhattan has spent eighteen years trying to put one murder in hospital behind us, and you’ve come here to commit another, with Donnell’s own daughter as your chosen victim. No, not just one murder, but five, since I suppose you’re planning to wipe out Nadira and her off-worlder patients as well. Don’t you realize how the whole alliance would react to that, especially so soon after the winter fever, when the memory of lying utterly helpless on a sick bed is fresh in all their minds?”

  He shook his head. “Your execution wouldn’t be enough to appease them, Cage. The whole of Manhattan division would be sent out into the snow to starve to death.”

  “I’m not stupid,” said Cage. “I’ll make sure the deaths look like an accident, and be back locked in prison before the bodies are discovered.”

  “Yet another accidental death?” Wall gave a totally humourless laugh. “You’ve played that game too often already. If Donnell’s daughter so much as stubs her toe in the next few months, then people will be blaming you.”

  “So you’re going to kill me now?”

  “No,” said Wall. “I’d much rather we both quietly walk back to the Manhattan wing. There’ll be less trouble for Manhattan if we deal with your behaviour in private.”

  “I’m not going to play the leading role in a discreet hanging.” Cage smiled. “I have a much better idea. You’re right about people being suspicious of an accident, so I’ll make it an obvious murder. The girl and all the witnesses will be dead, but I’ll pose your body in there as well. You’ll be the murderer killed by the desperate, dying attack of Donnell’s daughter.”

  “You’ve never beaten me in a fight before, Cage, and you won’t beat me now.”

  “I’d never beat you in a fair fight, but …”

  Cage threw his sword at Wall, and there was the clanging sound of metal on metal as Wall used his own sword to sweep the incoming missile aside. That distracted me, so I didn’t see whether Cage reached into his pocket or he’d already had the tiny grenade concealed in his left hand. All I saw was it hitting the corridor floor.

  I instinctively threw myself behind the storage room door. I was expecting an explosion, but instead there was a hiss of gas. I’d been well trained by falling star attacks over the years, so I held my breath the instant the musty, metallic smell hit my nose.

  When I rolled across to look out through the door again, I saw the corridor was filling with a misty white gas. Wall had thrown himself to the floor like me, and Cage had got past him and was running for the double doors.

  I couldn’t get a clear shot at Cage from here. I scrambled on my hands and knees through the doorway, but was too late. Cage was already opening the double doors, and Wall was on his feet chasing after him, his bulky figure blocking my line of fire. The doors closed behind Cage, and when Wall reached them, he hammered on them but they didn’t open.

  Wall was kicking the doors now, but they still weren’t moving. Cage must have rigged something so he could quickly jam them. That meant Wall and I were stuck in here with what I guessed was anaesthetic gas.

  This must be how Cage had arranged his previous accidents, by using gas to knock out his victims. Once Wall and I were unconscious, Cage would come back to set up his murder scene. He probably wouldn’t bother to use another gas grenade on the off-worlders and Nadira, just stab them while they were asleep or unconscious.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen. Wall was making no impression on the double doors, because they were fire doors made of solid metal. The glass panes in the centre of each door were reinforced glass, virtually unbreakable, but …

  I grabbed Wall’s arm and tugged at it, using the last air in my lungs to yell at him. “Out of my way!”

  He gave me a look of sheer disbelief, his eyes widening even further as he saw the lights of the gun flashing on my arm, then he moved rapidly back down the corridor. I took a few steps backwards myself, targeted the left-hand window, and fired.

  I was expecting to make a hole in the glass, but instead the whole pane blew apart into thousands of tiny pieces. I shot out the window in the other door as well, before running up to gulp in the good air coming from outside. A moment later, Wall was beside me, reaching through the gap in one of the doors where the window had been, and wrenching at something on the other side.

  “Primary target has cleared perimeter,” said the voice of the gun in my head.

  The doors opened. Wall and I tumbled through them, and Wall glanced down each of the three other corridors in turn.

  “No sign of Cage,” he said. “He would have started running the instant he heard your first gunshot, so he’s probably already back in the main Sanctuary area.”

  “I think you’re right.” In fact, I knew Wall was right. Since I’d designated Cage as my primary target, the area covered by my gun’s tracking display had expanded to follow him.

  “That area is a maze of corridors and store rooms,” said Wall, “and Cage could be in any of them.”

  Right now, the flashing red dot of Cage was in one of the main storage rooms. I couldn’t go after him myself, because I had to stay and guard the off-worlders. I couldn’t send Wall after him without giving away the secret of my gun’s tracking system.

  “We’ll call for help to search for him,” I said.

  There was a fire alarm box on the wall next to us. The cover glass had been broken long ago, so I just had to hit the red alarm button, let it ring for a couple of seconds, then hit the green button to stop it. All over the Parliament House, people would be cursing a false alarm and trying to get back to sleep, but Donnell would know what that prearranged signal meant.

  I frowned at where the white gas from the grenade was still coming through the holes in the fire doors. “We’d better get clear of that gas.”

  We moved a little further down the corridor, and Wall turned to face me. “Once I saw your gun, I realized you and Donnell had carefully planned this situation. I’d like to know how that gun suddenly appeared, but far more importantly I need to know how this will affect Manhattan division.”

  His voice took on a grim edge. “Cage has attempted murder in the hospital area of Sanctuary. Queens Island will grab their chance to take revenge on us. They’ll demand Cage’s head, and they’re welcome to have it. I was caught here in Cage’s company, and carry
ing a sword myself, so they’ll want my head too. They could have it if that would satisfy them, but it won’t. They’ll demand retribution against all of my people, even the children.”

  “Manhattan division won’t try to shelter Cage in future?”

  “Manhattan division declares Cage renegade from this moment. We’ll kill him on sight and hand over his body for inspection.”

  “Then I’ll speak in defence of both you and Manhattan division,” I said. “I was the intended murder victim, so people will surely listen when I say you only came here to protect me.”

  Wall gave an oddly formal nod of his head, and said words that bewildered me. “In that case, you have Manhattan’s allegiance, Blaze.”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  When Donnell arrived to join us at the hospital entrance, he had all of his other officers with him except Julien. Machico laughed at the sight of me with the gun on my arm, while the other four looked totally stunned.

  I ignored Machico, concentrating on the revealing expressions of Donnell’s other officers as they adjusted to the situation. Vijay and Weston exchanged startled glances before joining Machico in laughing, while Luther’s face slowly changed from shocked to deeply resentful. He opened his mouth, looking like a toddler about to throw a tantrum, but closed it again without saying a word. I noticed Aaron’s face changing too, but he just looked deeply thoughtful rather than aggrieved.

  Donnell gave a single bemused look at Wall, who was standing at my side with his sword still openly in his hand, and then turned to me. “Anyone hurt?”

  I shook my head. “Wall came here to try to stop Cage murdering me. We had Cage cornered, but he threw an anaesthetic gas grenade at us, and then jammed the fire doors at the end of the corridor to trap us inside with the gas. He planned to come back and murder us when we were unconscious.”

  “I see you shot your way through the fire doors,” said Donnell. “What happened to Cage?”

  “He ran off towards the main area of Sanctuary. He’s armed with gas grenades, and probably other weapons too.”

  With an audience listening to every word I said, I couldn’t tell Donnell that I’d watched the red flashing dot that was Cage move through Sanctuary into Reception, and then out of the range of my gun tracking system. That didn’t matter though. Donnell would have his own gun tracking Cage, so he’d already know he’d left the Sanctuary wing.

  Wall joined in the conversation. “Manhattan division has declared Cage renegade. I’d like to help you search for him.”

  Donnell nodded. “My guess is that Cage has already left the Sanctuary wing, and most likely left Parliament House too. Hunting him down won’t be easy when he has the whole of New York to hide in.”

  “Cage can’t survive long on his own in the middle of winter,” said Weston. “It’s snowing outside right now.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on Cage conveniently dying,” said Donnell. “He had weapons with him, and it would have only taken him a couple of minutes to collect outdoor clothing, a sleeping bag, and some fishing lines from the store rooms on his way out.”

  “The power is back on everywhere,” said Machico, “so Cage just has to find somewhere with working heating and he won’t freeze. His biggest problem will be the falling stars. He won’t be able to hunt for food in daylight unless the temperature is below freezing, but it should be possible to do a lot at night now all the New York lights are on.”

  “I expect Cage has already gone,” said Donnell, “but we need to search the building to make sure. I want to stay here and get a full report on the situation from Blaze. I left guards on the entrances to the Resistance wing, so Cage can’t have got in there.”

  “I left guards in the Manhattan wing too,” said Wall, in a grim voice. “I gave them orders to kill Cage on sight if he returned alone, and they’ll obey them. I carefully chose men who lost family members to the winter fever while Cage was smugly taking his hoarded medicine.”

  “Vijay and Weston, go and wake up the Resistance messenger boys,” said Donnell. “Send them to alert the other three divisions to search their territories for Cage.”

  Vijay and Weston hurried off.

  “The rest of you can start searching Sanctuary in pairs. Aaron and Luther together.” Donnell gave a pointed look at the sword in Wall’s hand. “Wall, you can go and search Sanctuary with Machico, but you’d better leave that sword with me. I appreciate you brought it here for good reasons, but only my officers should be carrying weapons here from now on. We don’t want any unfortunate misunderstandings.”

  “Of course.” Wall gave him the sword.

  Now I’d handed the responsibility for dealing with Cage back to Donnell, I was worrying about the off-worlders. They should have been safe from the gas with their room door closed, but the winter fever would still be killing Tad and Phoenix.

  I’d hoped the medicine we’d brought would save Phoenix, I’d been certain it would save Tad, but only Braden seemed to have really improved after being given the tablets. I was scared of what I’d find when I went back to their hospital room.

  Tad’s treatment had fixed my arm, so why wasn’t the medicine helping him and Phoenix? I’d been carefully following Tad’s instructions, and I had my gun to tell me the precise time, so I was definitely giving the off-worlders their tablets on schedule.

  Nadira didn’t understand why the medicine wasn’t helping them either. She said that medicines had always worked in the past, except when they’d run out of the right one and had to use a substitute.

  It made sense that taking the wrong medicine wouldn’t help anyone, but Tad couldn’t have made a mistake about the tablets. He had access to all the information on the Earth data net, and he’d discussed the winter fever treatment with a doctor as well. They couldn’t both have made a mistake.

  No, I realized that both Tad and the doctor could have made a mistake after all. They might know everything about the medicines, but they had limited knowledge of the winter fever. Tad had said he’d told the doctor about the symptoms, but how had Tad found out about them? I was sure he hadn’t asked me any details of the winter fever.

  The searchers were already heading off down the corridor, but I called after them. “Wait! Did Tad ask any of you about the winter fever?”

  Luther turned to glare at me. “The leech asked me what it had been like having winter fever. Why?”

  Luther had been one of the lucky ones like me, having a mild version of the winter fever. He hadn’t been involved with nursing patients the way I had, so his only experience with a patient struggling to breathe would have been when his father died.

  “Did you say anything to Tad about the breathing problems?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so,” said Luther. “Since you’ve let Cage get away despite your fancy weapon, the rest of us have to go and hunt him down. Can we go and do that now, or do you have some more pointless questions to ask us?”

  I felt a surge of blind fury, and the lights of my gun started flashing rapidly as it responded to my anger by moving to alert status. I had an urge to point my right forefinger at Luther, see if he was brave enough to keep using that sarcastic tone of voice to me when I had the red targeting light of my gun focused on his chest, but I mustn’t do that. Everyone else had stopped to watch our exchange. Targeting Luther would make them think I was dangerously uncontrolled, likely to start shooting people on a whim.

  I clenched my right hand rapidly twice to take the gun off alert status, and its lights returned to normal operating levels. Machico obviously noticed that, because he gave me an approving look before speaking.

  “Luther, do you really believe you’d have done better against Cage? Having watched you conspicuously failing to do anything at all in a crisis, I strongly doubt it.”

  Luther opened his mouth to reply, but I interrupted before he could say anything. I didn’t have time to get involved in arguments. I understood what had gone wrong with the medicines now. The doctor and Tad hadn’t known about the
breathing problems, so naturally the medicines they’d chosen did nothing to treat them.

  “Luther’s right,” I said. “You’d better go and hunt for Cage now.”

  Donnell watched them go before turning to face me. “Why is Wall suddenly acting like you’re his favourite niece?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” I said. “I’m sorry I let Cage get away.”

  “You mustn’t let Luther upset you,” said Donnell. “The first time you shoot someone, you’re hit by the knowledge that you’re ending a human life. That’s a dreadful idea, breaking one of the basic tenets of civilized behaviour, so it’s perfectly understandable that you hesitated a little too long before firing at Cage.”

  “I’m afraid I’m not that civilized,” I said. “I didn’t hesitate to fire at Cage. When he threw a grenade, I thought it was a bomb, so I took cover behind a door. By the time I realized it was actually a gas grenade, Wall was chasing Cage, and blocking my line of fire.”

  I glanced at the last few wisps of white gas still coming from the double fire doors. Was it safe to try to get back to the off-worlders yet? Tad and I had brought a lot of new medicines back from the supply facility. Ideally, Tad should contact the doctor again, and ask her which of those medicines was best for the breathing problems of winter fever, but Tad had been unconscious for hours.

  If Tad couldn’t tell us the best medicine to use, then Nadira and I would have to pick one ourselves, but we’d only have one chance to get this right before Phoenix died.

  “If I’d realized Cage would be attacking you with anything more than a sword,” said Donnell, “I’d never have left you to deal with him alone, but I’d no idea Manhattan had gas grenades in their armoury.”