When his eyes had adjusted to the light, he was able to see a figure sitting on the bench at the far end of the platform. He was slumped at an angle, his head resting on his chest, eyes closed.
“Brynne?” his voice clanged around the empty space and the figure stirred. Two lifeless eyes stared out from a slack face. “What’s happened?” Ryan said, rushing forwards.
“Ryan?” the old man croaked. He tried to straighten up, but the pain it caused him was written large on his face. “I’ve been so worried about you. Since the town square.”
“I was looking for you after the explosion, but then they closed the square and I ran.” Ryan dropped to one knee in front of his mentor, checking his clothes for blood stains.
“You did well to get out,” Brynne hunched forwards and a bout of coughing rocked him. “How did you stay clear of the gunnermen?”
“I kept moving for a while and then I went to Alia’s.”
Brynne nodded slowly, dragging in a deep breath. “I thought you might. I couldn’t find her house to check for you though. You never did say where she lived.” Ryan could find no obvious injury, but the old man seemed to drift from consciousness. He had to keep him talking until he could figure out what to do.
“You gave Arris the bomb, didn’t you?” Ryan said. Brynne opened his eyes and he watched them swim into focus. “They were in the bags we carried across town, weren’t they?”
“Standard operating procedure,” the old man nodded. “The primary device brings shock and awe while the secondary one takes out any first responders.” He let out another hacking cough, clutching his ribs tightly. “That damn fool Arris botched the timings though. The first device was never primed and the second one detonated too soon.” His face shone with a sudden intensity. “We’re going to rebuild though. You and I together.”
Ryan had waited years for those words and yet now they had been spoken, it brought only sadness. “Brynne, I…”
“I know I shut you out before,” he spoke quickly. “But this time it’ll be different. There’s something special about you Ryan. I see that now. You’re a survivor, like me. And if we’re ever going to defeat this Government, we need survivors.”
“Brynne, wait please. I need to tell you something.”
“There’ll be time for all that soon. I promise. I’m ready to listen to your ideas now. With my experience, we can guide a new generation of fighters. Only this time they’ll have all the fire and passion that drives you. I see it now. Together we can truly be the spark.”
Ryan was dumbstruck. He had sworn to Alia that he was leaving all this. He’d promised the same to John and his father. Yet hadn’t this been the dream he’s chased for years? To fight the Government with Brynne, but do it how he wanted? Ryan allowed himself to dream what it could be like. The good they could do together. And when he looked at Brynne he saw his own starry-eyed expression reflected back.
“You see it, don’t you? You’ve always had vision Ryan. I should have trusted your instincts much sooner.” The old man smiled weakly. “Better late than never, ay?”
“Brynne, we need to get you patched up.”
“Later, later.” He stood up, still unsteady on his feet. “What I need first from you is a list of names.”
“Names?”
“Recruits. We need a strong team around us. A fresh team full of young men like you. And I can think of no one better than you to put in charge of recruitment.”
“Recruitment? I wouldn’t know where to start. But it isn’t just that. It’s the whole thing. I’m…” Ryan took a deep breath. He was standing on the edge of a precipice. “I’m out. I can’t be involved in this anymore.”
Brynne went silent. His eyes narrowed, face on a tilt. “What did you say?”
The cracks split through Ryan’s confidence. All his well-rehearsed explanations were stripped away beneath the old man’s gaze. He wanted to live, something that should have been easy to articulate. But Brynne wasn’t letting it run like that.
“I just…I’m not going to be a part of this anymore”
The old man’s grip never left his shoulder or the threat from his eyes. All trace of injury seemed to have left him. “I’m sorry Ryan, but it’s not that simple anymore. This isn’t a youth club where you can come and go as you please. I’ve put too much work into this. Into you.”
Then he shook his head and with a quick laugh all the charm and smiles returned to his face. “It’s fine,” he said. “Just nerves. I’d be surprised if you didn’t have them. All you have to do is give me a list of names. Just a few at first. The ones that could rise to the challenge. Then take a few days for yourself. Spend some time with your girl. You’ll soon appreciate what it is we’re fighting for.”
He tapped the side of his head with one finger. “You’ve let them get to you, that’s all. It’s the little voices of doubt that we’ve all got.” Ryan noticed that the grip on his shoulder had not loosened any.
“Just give me some names and I’ll make contact and get things started. Then when you’re ready, we’ll hit the ground running. The two of us together.”
Before Ryan could answer though, there was a sound at the end of the platform and two gunnermen appeared.
Chapter 55
By the time they emerged from the sevener tunnel at Municipal station, Robb was ready to drop. He had been forced to jog the entire way just to trail behind Kellie’s massive strides.
“I’ve got to stop,” he gasped.
“No you don’t,” the sevener replied, placing one giant hand across Robb’s back, urging him forwards. The station was heaving with thousands of people all rushing to their destinations or taking a few moments to stamp the snow from their boots. Kellie was searching the crowds as they passed by.
“Where is he?”
“I’m tall, not bloody clairvoyant.”
Suddenly, a girl blocked their path staring straight at Robb. She was maybe fifteen years old, pale and thin, wearing a Straybeck Central jumper that was wet through. Robb assumed that she wanted money and tried to move around her.
“Are you Ryan’s dad?”
That got even the sevener’s attention.
“Who are you?” he growled.
Far from being intimidated though, the girl stared at him with big solemn eyes, like a school teacher staring at an unruly child. She didn’t answer his question and turned back to Robb.
“Are you? Ryan’s dad?”
“You must be Alia,” he said, instinctively pleased with the choice that both his sons had made. He held out one hand and saw the worry on her face relent for just one moment.
“John told me to wait for you,” she said.
“John? Is he here?”
“No, but he gave me a message.” Alia closed her eyes for a moment as though she were making certain of the wording. “He said that you got the code wrong. That the meet up isn’t here, it’s at the Manufacturing station.”
“Manufacturing?” Robb glared at Kellie. “But that closed decades ago. Are you sure?” He searched Alia’s eyes.
“That’s what John said. He said they were going to kill him.” Just repeating the words seemed to break whatever composure she had left. She covered her face with one hand, but Robb knew there was no time to comfort her.
“Come on,” he said to Kellie and set off for the station doors. Kellie grabbed his arm and held him in place.
“There’s a quicker way,” he nodded back to the shadows.
“Take me with you,” Alia cut in.
“Not a chance.” The sevener marched away.
“Go west on Market Street and into the old Manufacturing District,” Robb said quickly. “When you reach a crossroads, go right and then follow that road for another half mile. You can’t miss it.”
Then, despite the burning protests from his legs, he lurched after Kellie and soon found himself back inside the sevener tunnels. The ground was rough and Robb was taken on a dizzying series of turns and twisting steps. Only when he had
lost all sense of direction did they seem to settle on a long, straight tunnel that cut deep into the shadows.
The pace was quick and Robb soon fell back, only able to navigate by following the distant glow from Kellie’s lantern. The sevener however moved with a sureness of step that was incredible to see, somehow reading the tunnels in spite of the perpetual gloom.
After a few minutes, the light grew brighter and Robb guessed that Kellie was waiting for him. With a grunt of effort, he pushed forwards and found the sevener halted at a sliding door made from old, rusted metal.
“We’re almost there. This door brings us out a few hundred yards from the platform. “
Robb’s lungs were on fire as he dragged in deep breaths. His back and face were drenched with sweat and he nodded quickly, knowing that he couldn’t speak.
“I don’t know for certain what we’ll find there, but you’d better take this.” Kellie handed him a heavy black pistol. “You remember how to use it?”
He turned it over and studied its shape in the lamp light, feeling the weight in his hand. Then with one deft movement he snapped back the chamber to check it was loaded and released the magazine of bullets before sliding it back into place.
“Let’s go then.”
The sevener jammed his boot against the bricks and heaved back on the metal door. It grated against the runners but eventually gave way beneath the policeman’s greater strength. It revealed a tunnel barely ten feet across and Robb was surprised to see a set of rails running above the base layer of stone and gravel. The uneven ground made it hard to walk so Robb moved onto the wooden sleepers using them like stepping stones.
After another minute of walking, Robb reached out to get Kellie’s attention, but the big man had already stopped. They bundled into each other and the sevener clicked his teeth irritably.
“Are we there?” Robb whispered, but Kellie made no answer. He slowly knelt and placed one hand on the metal rail that ran beside them.
As Robb waited too, he became aware of a hissing sound just on the edge of hearing. It was barely a whisper at first, like a quiet threat from the darkness. Within seconds though it had grown to an insistent chattering and Kellie turned back, wide-eyed.
“Move,” he boomed, grabbing Robb by the scruff of his jacket and dragging him to his feet.
“You said this line was abandoned.”
“To passengers,” Kellie shouted over the growing noise. “But that’s not people. It’s a thousand tonnes of fucking quarry train.”
Dead ahead and closing fast, Robb saw the twin beams from a diesel locomotive bearing down upon them. On his left, the tunnel wall gave way to a dimly lit platform, but in his heart Robb knew that he couldn’t make it. He was too old and too late.
Chapter 56
Ryan watched with growing alarm as the gunnermen strode confidently towards him. Their uniforms were covered in snow and Ryan guessed they had been waiting on the surface for some time.
“What do we do?” he hissed.
When Brynne answered there was no panic in his voice, just mild irritation. All trace of his earlier injuries had vanished and he stood straight and tall before the gunnermen.
“I left instructions to stay on the street. I said to wait until I brought him up.”
“Well as you can see, it’s not really the weather for waiting around Besides, I don’t take orders from you.” That was the lead gunnerman. He had a solid square stitched into his epaulette marking him as a second lieutenant. Like all gunnermen officers, his surname was written below the insignia. This one was called Lannon.
“I must confess, no one really believed you’d show today,” he continued. “Not after that mess at the town hall.”
“I always produce,” Brynne said. “They should know that by now.”
“Is that what you did?” Lannon smiled.
“I gave them what they wanted. And I’ll continue to do that, unless I’m told otherwise.” Brynne finally turned his attention to Ryan. “Although I’m guessing you won’t be giving me those names now?”
Ryan closed his eyes, finally seeing what a fool he had been. “Arris never botched those explosives, did he?”
Brynne shook his head. “They needed a crime and they needed a face. Yours or his was fine by me.”
“And the raid on your chapel? That was faked too?”
He nodded. “You were beginning to doubt me and I still needed time. I’ve got to say, I was almost proud when they didn’t find anything at your house.”
The second gunnerman - a private - unhooked his handcuffs and advanced slowly like he was trapping a skittish animal. Ryan’s shoulders slumped, the inevitably of his situation sinking in.
As the gunnerman took hold of his wrist though, a strange sound reached them from deep within the tunnels. Ryan turned towards the darkness and a wave of displaced air breathed against his face. “Was any of it real?” he said weakly as the noise of an approaching train grew louder. “All our talks? All your advice?”
“Don’t make this difficult Ryan. You’re a good kid, but I work for people who want results. If it’s a choice between my life or Arris’s, or even yours…well I’m always going to be the one left standing.”
An enormous locomotive thundered into view and its yellow lights crashed against the shadows. The gunnerman was momentarily disorientated and took a step away from the track, releasing Ryan’s wrist as he did so. In that moment of confusion a figure sprinted into view, screaming above the sound of the freight train.
It was John.
Like waking from a dream, Ryan found he could move again. He knocked Brynne’s hand off his shoulder before hurling him against the wall. John hadn’t slowed for a moment and barged into the Lieutenant’s back at full speed, sending him sprawling to the floor. The second gunnerman dropped his handcuffs but before he could level his rifle, Ryan pushed against him with all his strength. He stumbled backwards, dashing his head against one of the wagons as it thundered past. His skull sliced open and his body was whipped into the air. His legs were caught by a second wagon and his body bounced and dragged down the platform.
Ryan grabbed his brother by the wrist and together they sprinted for the staircase and the world above. They were three steps up when the first of two gunshots ripped through the chaos. Together they tumbled forwards, smashing into the cold hard stone. Ryan cried out, but his mouth wouldn’t move properly. There were shouts behind him and people running closer. When he tried to stand, pain ripped through his body and he fell back to the steps.
Chapter 57
Every muscle in Robb’s body burned with effort as he ran toward the oncoming train. Death was moments away, he knew that, but he refused to give up. A few strides ahead of him, Kellie had already leapt clear of the track and was crouching on the platform. He hung one arm over the rails while staring at the bright lights that were almost upon them.
“Come on you slow bastard,” he yelled and with a final kick, Robb leapt forwards feeling strong fingers lock around his wrist.
The train shrieked past, clipping his rear foot and knocking his legs together. Kellie had dragged him clear of the wheels and they were both laying on tiled floor panting for breath. Suddenly, above the din of the train, Rob heard shouting and saw a group of people fighting at the far end of the platform. He tossed the gun to Kellie.
“Go. Save them.”
The sevener was up in an instant, his huge legs eating up the distance with each stride. Robb pushed off the floor, but found his right foot could no longer support his weight. He shuffled forwards just as gunshots split the air, their echoes bouncing round the tunnel. He watched two figures flop forwards and felt his heart break.
“Lower your guns,” Kellie boomed. He cut a terrifying figure as the train flashed by in the background. He hadn’t even levelled the pistol but such was his command that the lieutenant slowly placed his rifle on the ground.
There was another man crouching near the stairs with his hands raised, but Robb barely saw him.
He scrambled up the steps on his hands and knees to find both his sons lying motionless. A narrow line of blood was pooling by Ryan’s legs.
He rolled his eldest onto one side and saw that he’d smashed his lower teeth on the steps and probably broken his jaw.
“Dad?” Ryan mumbled. He reached for his mouth with one hand, but Robb stopped him from feeling the damage. Better he not know, than risk going into shock. Blood was seeping from a gunshot on his leg too, so Robb placed his hand firmly over it. Ryan gave a cry of pain, but that was a good sign.
“Keep pressure on it son. You’ve got to keep pressure on it.”
Frantically he yanked open his belt and looped it above the bullet hole in a makeshift tourniquet. Then he moved up a step where John was lying face down. As gently as possible, Robb helped him roll over and saw two fearful eyes blinking back.
They stared at each other. John’s breathing was quick and shallow and he had one hand held protectively over his chest.
“Let me look,” Robb whispered.
He eased John’s hand away and a sob caught in his throat. The second bullet had struck in his back leaving an exit wound in his chest the size of a copper coin. Blood welled up in the centre of his chest until Robb covered the hole with both hands. Ryan climbed up beside him and watched in horror as his brother’s face drained to a pale grey.
“Kellie,” Robb yelled, voice trembling.
The sevener recognised the urgency in his friend’s tone and rounded on the gunnerman. “Keys. Now.” The freight train had vanished and Robb was able to hear the lieutenant’s answer.
“My partner had them,” he said coolly. “The one they threw beneath the train.”
Straybeck Rising Page 32
