The Vanguard

by SJ Griffin

Chapter Thirteen

  I couldn’t run far. I stopped at the end of the pier and watched her reverse the car back the way it had come without looking behind as she moved backwards, we looked at each other until the last possible moment then she drove off towards the south bank at the same terrifying pace. I stood underneath the tallest building in New Europa, seventy floors towering above me. The bottom floors of the building were flooded but the foundations stood firm beneath the water and the Project rose as defiant as a raised middle finger above the city. Its sloping sides had been designed to reflect the splendour of the mighty metropolis around them but all I saw reflected was the mule grey sky and the nervous shimmer of the holographic display. I couldn’t stay in the entrance, I needed to look like a native or I’d be neutralised within five minutes, and I’d already been loitering there for four. There was a dilapidated rowing boat roped to a post at the end of the jetty, so I rowed it over to the entrance under the low roof, passing the submerged doors. I made my way up the stairs. They were slippery with mud and river water.

  The Project had been colonised, like the underground towns and the roofs. But where the others adhered to some semblance of law, no matter how tiny, so they could have the few perks a citizen card afforded them, the Project had gone off the grid. Security crews roamed the building, taking out anyone who wasn’t authorised to be there, there were eyes everywhere. Only the very brave, the very stupid or the very desperate ventured into the Project. I wasn’t sure which one I was. I figured desperate. They’d even developed an economic system that used currency. They changed it every so often to prevent trading with outsiders, last time they were using bottle tops and paperclips. I’d found it odd until I’d realised that it was just as arbitrary as anything else. The rest of us were so attached to the idea of credit we couldn’t let go and so the plastic dolls kept spinning the numbers for their paper overlords, and it was all the same as it ever was. At least the Project was making a break for it, trying to escape. I had one contact in the Project and I had to climb all the way up the fifty-sixth floor to find her or my desperation and lack of authorisation might be the death of me.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Flo said through a crack in the door.

  ‘I fancied a cup of tea and I was in the neighbourhood,’ I said.

  ‘You’d better come in then,’ she took the chain off the door and let me in.

  The view was worth the climb. I could see all the way out east to the sea, the broad stretch of grey water widening until, at the far edge of my sight, it stretched across the horizon. It was breathtaking. If I wasn’t so fit from work it might have wiped me out after that climb. I’d never been inside Flo’s flat before, I’d only ever gotten as far as the doorstep.

  ‘What are you really doing here?’ Flo sat in an armchair. Her long fair hair hung down to her elbows and she was wearing a pair of blue spectacles without any glass in them.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ I said.

  ‘Then I will open the biscuits.’

  Flo was one of the only links that the Project kept with the outside world. In an emergency she could trade with people like us to get whatever the Project needed. We supplied her with information, so when they ran out of water we told her when a ship was coming in carrying water so they could trade with pirates and get what they needed. We didn’t get involved with the rough stuff, they got their weapons and drugs from the Black Market, but not through Flo. She was a peaceful soul. I told her everything I could right from the accident, leaving out the more outlandish details. I told her about Doodle and the Detention Centre.

  ‘I heard a rumour someone had escaped,’ Flo said, pouring the last of the tea into my cup. ‘Fancy it being you. If that gets out you’ll be a legend.’

  ‘I didn’t really do anything, we had inside help.’

  ‘Did you? Who?’

  ‘I can’t tell you that.’

  ‘Anything to do with the Enforce car that just went screaming off to the south bank?’

  ‘Yes.’

  I liked Flo, she was sharp and assumed you were too. You could have a conversation with her in half the time it would take with someone else.

  ‘That caused some consternation, security thought you were Enforce but I disabused them of that notion.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Of course, they would have been watching me the whole time.

  ‘How are you getting back?’

  ‘I don’t know. I need to speak to Minos.’

  ‘They’re on their way.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  Flo opened a cupboard in the kitchen and inside were eight small monitors showing either end of the bridge, the entrance to the building and various other points of interest. One of the screens showed an endless scrolling of green letters, it was various groups inside the project communicating with each other. I couldn’t follow the code, it was encrypted.

  ‘I told them you were here and to look out for other friendlies,’ Flo watched the code as it made its way up the screen, her eyes moving over the letters and numbers with an easy comprehension. ‘I don’t know how they knew you were here. They’re having a break on the twenty-first floor.’

  ‘That’ll be Minos, he’s taken up smoking again.’

  By the time they knocked on the door Flo and I had finished another pot of tea and half a tin of homemade biscuits.

  ‘You’re very tall, aren’t you?’ Flo said as Roach ducked to get in the door.

  ‘I guess so,’ he said. ‘I’m used to it.’

  ‘We heard about Prophet,’ Lola said. ‘They lifted the lockdown because of the shooting, Enforce were furious about being shot at.’

  ‘Now they know how we feel,’ I said. ‘How did you know I was here?’

  ‘Tracking device,’ Casino said.

  ‘Where?’ I felt about in my collar for the pin, in case I’d missed it, but there wasn’t one.

  ‘Vermina’s car,’ Minos said. ‘It’s still there from way back. We watched her pull in here and figured she must have dropped you.’

  ‘Where was she supposed to take you?’ Lola said.

  ‘The Tank.’

  ‘The where?’ Flo said.

  ‘It’s a secret, apparently.’

  ‘Does it sound frightening?’ Roach said.

  ‘Yes, it does.’

  ‘Who’s Vermina?’ Flo said.

  ‘Enforce, third tier,’ Casino said.

  ‘Second,’ Minos said. ‘Promoted a short while ago.’

  ‘Your woman on the inside I take it,’ Flo said. ‘Nice and high up. Can I borrow her?’

  ‘No,’ we said in unison. I mumbled something about it being complicated and we made a dash for it soon after that.

  Halfway home we pulled up at some lights in the van and Patois, a fence we used for old electronics, pulled up alongside in his day job tro-tro. He tapped on our window and I wound it down.

  ‘How is the day?’ he said in his sun-drenched accent.

  ‘Fine, fine,’ I said. ‘You?’

  ‘Very fine,’ said Patois. ‘You hear the news?’

  ‘What news?’

  ‘Tulan Haq is dead.’

  There must have been a dozen people crammed into the back of his tro-tro and every single one of them starting cheering and stamping when Patois said that. We sat at the green light and watched them bouncing as he drove off. Minos whistled and we all gave a sage nod or two.

  Back home we sat around watching the news about Tulan Haq. He had been shot in the chest during his attempt to kill Audi Terminus. He was a power crazed maniac according to an aide to Terminus. There was no comment from anyone on Haq’s side. Hatred for him was universal so he didn’t have a side.

  ‘Well, that’s a tangled web,’ Minos said.

  ‘Quite,’ I said.

  ‘But why would he kill Terminus?’ Lola said.

  ‘Maybe he didn’t want Eastern Europa,’ Roach said. ‘It’s more likely Terminus just had him killed. He was on Nexus and Terminus wasn’t. Mayb
e that was the problem.’

  ‘Perhaps Terminus killed him for the Galearii,’ Casino said.

  ‘I bet you that Haq killed Rhone and that’s why the Galearii were giving him Eastern Europa,’ I said. ‘And Terminus got the nod instead of him and Haq tried to kill him. And it really was self-defence.’

  ‘You think this might be the truth?’ Casino said. ‘Amazing.’

  ‘Either way there’s no Head of the Security Ministry,’ I said. ‘That’s an interesting problem to have right now.’

  One of the computers signalled that we’d received a message. It was Marshall, he wanted to come round, he had information. We indicated that we would be delighted to receive him. By the time he arrived the incident room was bang up to date with all the developments. Every single detail was up there. If there were any more developments we would have to expand into another room, even the ceiling was covered in bits of paper and string. We were thorough but not very discerning.

  ‘I have got some great news for you,’ Marshall said. ‘But first I am pleased to say we’ve got new distribution in the counties. We are selling Vanguard merchandise all over the city and outside it too. As well as on the web, the DarkNet and even the television.’

  ‘How’s Haggia?’ I said.

  ‘Fine. Why?’ he said.

  ‘Given that Prophet was killed in her shop this morning I thought I’d ask,’ I said.

  ‘That’s what I’m here about,’ Marshall said. ‘Very, very sad news that. He was a funny little chap, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Hilarious,’ I said.

  ‘The thing is, news of his unfortunate and brutal death has spread like wildfire and your fans are devastated,’ Marshall said.

  ‘Are they?’ Lola said.

  ‘Yes, he was a very popular ally,’ Marshall said. ‘We were going to make a figure for him, as you know Sorcha, but we’ll speed that up now.’

  ‘Doodle’s getting one too,’ I said. It seemed only fair that I got a model for everyone I got killed.

  ‘Good idea,’ Minos said. ‘Prophet’s in some of the comics already.’

  ‘Yes, his finest hour is in The Vanguard and the Vertiginous Villain where he saves Lola with a key piece of information about the villain’s weakness in the nick of time. Lola is very popular with a certain demographic.’

  ‘Which demographic?’ Lola said, eyebrow raised.

  ‘Oh, our older male readers, they really love...’ Marshall shut his mouth seeing the look on Lola’s face.

  Minos must have been feeling lucky given that he sniggered.

  ‘Can we do anything useful with this fan base?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, they’ll spread messages, protest, all kinds of things.’

  ‘Even though they think it’s not real,’ Roach said.

  ‘Who said they think it’s not real?’ Marshall said. ‘There’s more than one type of real you know.’

  We all looked at each other, confused.

  ‘This whole thing depends on them thinking it’s real. It is real,’ Marshall said. ‘Look, leave it to me. I’ve done lots of research, it’ll be fine.’

  ‘You said it wasn’t real,’ Lola said.

  ‘I think it will be fine too,’ Casino said because he was biased. At least Lola and I managed to keep our romantic interests separate from professional business. Most of the time. At least Lola managed it.

  ‘Excellent,’ Marshall said.

  ‘The minute someone stops me and asks for my autograph I will break all of your ribs without even touching you,’ I said.

  ‘Can she do that?’ Marshall said to Casino.

  ‘She strangled a guy with his collar the other day,’ Casino said. ‘I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.’

  ‘You strangled someone?’ Marshall looked amazed.

  ‘Only a little bit,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t dead or anything.’

  ‘That is so cool,’ Marshall said. ‘I must tell the guy that writes the comic strips.’

  ‘Tex,’ I said.

  ‘Oh dear,’ Marshall said. ‘He wanted that to be a secret.’

  ‘Why?’ Lola said. ‘Because we would complain bitterly about it?’

  ‘No, because his father will stop his allowance,’ Marshall said. ‘You’re not going to complain are you?’

  We ordered some pizza and kicked back in the pool room. Marshall was terrible. I wasn’t allowed to play due to my extraordinary advantage so after I while I got bored and went to mess about on the DarkNet. The main hub of our technological operation had been a little bit neglected since the incident room appeared on the scene. It was like a new kitten had arrived and no one was interested in the mangy mutt anymore. One of the older monitors was scrolling around a map, a little red dot flashing in the middle. It was Vermina. Minos had left the tracking system running. She was driving along the main city road out of the Cathedral Quarter, towards the Trafalgar Wharf with its spooky submerged statues. The dot stopped flashing and held steady by the Hippodrome. She had parked the car.

  ‘I’m going out,’ I said, leaning on the doorway of the pool room, watching Roach sink the black to beat Minos again. I was trying to appear casual.

  ‘Alone?’ Roach said.

  ‘Yes, why not?’

  ‘Wait,’ Minos said. ‘You aren’t going anywhere without a new wristset and a tracker and that’s only for starters.’

  I pedalled up the road with enough hardware on me to occupy five different monitors and two digital receivers. According to my tablet Vermina’s car hadn’t moved. The bike lifted off the pavement and rose into the failing light of the evening sky. Enforce were still watching with a little more focus than usual so I kept close to the buildings, speeding past open windows as people tried to get some air circulating. A pack of dogs ran down the street below me, they were a strange mixture of pampered house breeds and street fighting mongrels. They were evolving and adapting to their changing circumstances since the flood faster and better than people were. They barked up at me as I left them behind. I touched down around the corner from the car. It was all locked up. I could have broken in but there didn’t seem to be much point. I considered waiting for her by the car but it was kind of hard to decide to wait when I didn’t really know what I was waiting for. I was looking for her, so that was what I would do. My wristset bleeped. It made a different sound from my old one so for a split second I wasn’t sure what it was.

  ‘Sorcha,’ Minos said, sounding much clearer than he did on my old set. ‘Why are you looking for Vermina?’

  ‘I’m not.’

  A collective sigh came over the tiny speaker.

  ‘Now is not the time for a liaison.’ It was Casino, who was a fine one to talk.

  ‘I am not looking for Vermina,’ I turned my back on her car.

  ‘Why not, have you found her already?’ Minos said.

  ‘I’m just getting some fresh air,’ I said.

  ‘Well,’ Casino said. ‘Your little tracking signals look very sweet on the monitor together. All blinking in time and everything.’

  ‘I’m going now,’ I said.

  ‘Stay in touch,’ Minos said. ‘You’ve escaped twice now. I would hate for you to run out of luck. Really, really hate it.’

  I promised not to do anything stupid. Anything stupider. I secured my bike, climbed up a drainpipe and scaled the ornate plasterwork that clung to the building like icing, thinking that up on the roof I’d be able to see better. Plus, if I had left my car there that’s where I would go, upwards, there wasn’t any other direction of interest.

  I walked through the rooftop settlements towards the Old Coliseum, the city appearing in the cracks between tents like a game of peek-a-boo. The river was at low tide, I could see the heads of statues peering across the dark water, waiting to be submerged again. The low and high tides were another thing the Ministry of Environment and Conurbations couldn’t explain. They tried to say that the tides were random because the moon had also broken but when everyone was sceptical about that, they invented
some new theories about why they didn’t understand it just to make themselves feel better. The tents thinned out towards the square as the roofs sloped up and down marking the old gallery buildings. I walked along the top of a low stone balustrade, the city streets far, far below.

  ‘You’ll fall,’ a voice said.

  ‘I’m looking for you,’ I said.

  ‘You shouldn’t be looking for anyone,’ Vermina stepped out from the shadows. ‘You should be safely hidden away somewhere.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me,’ I jumped down onto the roof. ‘I’ll be fine.’

  She had a black eye and the bridge of her nose was cut and bruised.

  ‘What happened to you?’

  ‘I told them you overcame me and escaped,’ Vermina said. ‘You managed to slam the brakes on at high speed and I hit my head on the steering wheel.’

  ‘Don’t you have an airbag?’ I said.

  ‘This was the airbag.’

  The moon was low in the sky, a bright scythe that hung just above the rooftops behind her. She sat down on some steps leading up to a fire escape long since boarded over.

  ‘Why are you looking for me?’ she said.

  ‘To say thank you,’ I said. ‘I didn’t expect to see nightfall.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ she gave a wry smile.

  ‘Why did you let me go?’

  ‘That’s easy,’ she said. ‘The same reason I let you go the first time.’

  So, we were playing that game. I sat on the step next to her.

  ‘I can’t tell you anything more,’ she said.

  ‘Anything more about what?’

  ‘About Rowling, about Tulan Haq, you know he’s been killed I take it?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, holding up my hands. ‘It wasn’t us.’

  She laughed, making me smile.

  ‘Don’t tell me anything then,’ I said. ‘It’s OK. I don’t expect you to.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘I have got one question though,’ I said.

  She looked serious.

  ‘Why did you let me go the first time?’

  ‘The same reason I let you go the second time,’ she said, lacing her fingers together over her knees and leaning back.

  ‘Ah, I see,’ I pondered for a moment.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘So, why did you let me go the second time? I can keep this up all night.’

  ‘Technically, you escaped,’ she said. ‘And I don’t have all night. I’m waiting for a call.’

  ‘Anything nice?’

  ‘No. Work. I am in not trouble exactly, but something very similar.’

  ‘You’re in good company.’

  ‘If I were in as much trouble as you were I’d run away.’

  ‘Tried that.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I ran right into trouble,’ I said. ‘What are you doing up here?’

  ‘I don’t know. Thinking. Hiding.’ Her communications unit signalled a call and she stood up and walked a little way off. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’m on my way.’ She closed the call and looked at me. ‘Well, this has been lovely but it seems I must go.’

  ‘Goodbye then,’ I said.

  ‘I assume there’s a tracking device on my car,’ she said.

  ‘Yes. I’m not sure where it is though, we haven’t used it in a while. I can’t even remember why it’s there.’

  She looked at the ground for a while then said, ‘I sometimes think that somewhere in another world we’re very happy,’ she said. ‘Do you ever think that?’

  I pretend I need to think about that for a moment before I answered. ‘Of course.’

  She turned and walked away. ‘I think you’re going to be the death of me,’ she said over her shoulder.

  I watched her go ignoring the insistent demands of my wristset as long as I dared. It was Minos again.

  ‘Sorcha, did you find Vermina?’

  ‘Yes, why?’

  ‘That call she just took, it was an order from Rowling’s office, something’s not right.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We don’t know but I think,’ he hesitated. ‘Either she’s up to her ears in it and we’re as good as dead or it’s a trap and she’s as good as dead. And it wasn’t on an encrypted line. You stop her. We’re on our way, we’ll find you.’

  The connection dropped out. I felt like I only had half the information I needed but I ran after her anyway. She hadn’t got far. She was making her way through some shop tents that had shut up for business, the day’s rubbish piled up outside them.

  ‘Hey, wait,’ I shouted. ‘You forgot something.’

  She turned, feeling her pockets. ‘What?’

  ‘Hang on.’ I knew her well enough to know that I’d have to play it as though she was up to her ears in it, if I told her she was walking into a trap she would run into it just to prove she wasn’t scared. And she could have been in on it, no matter how much I would have loved her not to be, I had no idea. She turned to leave, knowing she hadn’t forgotten anything, but a pile of boxes fell into the path, blocking her way. A small hurricane of debris whipped up and in the confusion of plastic bags, cartons and cans I was next to her before she could get any further. The tarpaulin on the tents around us snapped with menace in an invisible wind. We looked at each other for a moment. Then she went for her gun. I don’t know why, training maybe. The gun wasn’t in its holster where she’d left it. It was in the air two metres above her head.

  ‘I guess I’m the one that moves the earth,’ I said, with one of my most infuriating grins, the one that used to drive her mad.

  I stepped back and her fist flew passed my nose. ‘Missed me.’

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t know what I think.’

  I was on the ground then, she’d tripped me somehow with that annoying martial arts training they all have. She had me pinned down, I could only move my right foot and my left hand. Under different circumstances it would have been an entertaining way of spending some time.

  ‘Didn’t miss you,’ she said.

  ‘Why are you meeting Rowling?’

  ‘Because she’s my boss,’ Vermina said. ‘I have to do what she says, that’s how it works. You probably wouldn’t understand that though.’

  ‘Probably not,’ I thought-pressed her gun to her temple.

  Neither of us moved until Vermina let go of me and raised her hands above her head.

  ‘All right,’ she said as though her mouth had gone dry. ‘Now what?’

  I marched her down to street level pointing the gun into her back from my pocket like I’d seen a guy do during a very exciting robbery I’d watched unfold near Elijah’s. We got in the car and I made her drive at a sedate pace still pointing the gun at her. I found I was too angry to talk to her without really understanding why. Somewhere in another world, she said. She was Enforce through and through and she could have been so much better than that. She knew Stark, she could have been an Academic, that would have been better. Deep down underneath everything was my disappointment, not in her but in myself. I needed to move on and get over it. She’d turned my heart to sand and I kept letting her kick it in my face. I was better off on my own. The problem with love is that it’s impossible to work out what it is, only what it isn’t. And what good is knowing that?

  ‘Where are we going?’ she said.

  ‘We going to a storage facility I sometimes use.’

  ‘What do you store there?’ she said.

  ‘Things I don’t want anymore.’ Who was I kidding?

  We drove in silence until I told her to turn off the main road right on the south edge of the NW Sector. In its heyday the area would have been called a light industrial estate but times had changed and it had become an abandoned waste ground with some crumbling buildings scattered around not doing much. There were a few cars parked up, some in use and some abandoned. We walked up to the top of the tallest building. We’d taken it over a coupl
e of years ago to store stuff but now we had such a fast turnover that there was enough room at the hotel. The top floor, only four floors up and affording no view at all, was a large open space but one end had been closed off into cubicles. Most of the windows had no glass in them, or their panes were cracked. Various relics from the office days lay around. The main staircase was on one side through some double doors hanging off their hinges. The top of a fire escape outside was just visible over the cubicle partitions. Most of the lights had working bulbs in them and they blinked as I woke them.

  ‘Now what?’ she said again, like she expected me to have some sort of plan.

  A chair made its way over to her and invited her to sit down by hitting her in the back of the knees. She crumpled into it. I looked around for chair for me and thought-moved it over. I sat opposite her and wondered about my next move. And then she laughed.

  ‘What?’ I said.

  ‘Nothing, nothing,’ she said, still laughing.

  ‘I don’t think you ought to be finding anything amusing,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t. It’s just you. You’re so...’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Where’s the gun?’ she said.

  I felt about my pockets.

  ‘It’s in the car,’ she said. ‘You left it behind.’

  I smiled. It was pretty ridiculous. ‘I’m not very good at this,’ I said.

  She stood up. ‘What if I run?’

  The door closed itself and the chair insisted she sat down again. Our knees were touching.

  ‘What if I...’

  ‘What if you what? What are you going to do?’ I said.

  ‘I could distract you,’ she said.

  ‘Is that what you’re trying to do?’ The sudden tension could have raised the mercury in any thermometer.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It is what I’m trying to do.’

  ‘Is it not traditional to tie people up in this situation?’ Casino peered around the door.

  ‘She was, I guess she...’

  ‘Escaped?’ Lola said.

  ‘Exactly that,’ I said. ‘Escaped.’

  ‘We’ll tie her up again then, shall we?’ Casino said. ‘What did you tie her up with?’

  ‘Things I found.’

  ‘Sorry about this,’ Minos said to Vermina. ‘We don’t usually go in for kidnapping.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re more larceny, espionage and piracy. Right?’

  ‘Hey, you missed some of our greatest hits out there,’ Minos said.

  Roach had attached Vermina to the chair with some cable ties in a double rush.

  ‘I do apologise,’ she tested their tension.

  Minos scanned her with a device detector. It gave a baleful moan to draw attention to her communication unit but other than that she was clean.

  ‘You’re travelling light,’ Minos said, gesturing to me to get the unit out of her inside pocket.

  ‘I was off duty,’ she said. ‘As much as I am ever off duty.’

  ‘No one’s tracking you?’

  ‘Only you.’

  ‘Would you excuse us a minute?’ Roach said, pulling me after him.

  We stood in a huddle near the cubicles at the other end of the space. Vermina sat very still, looking down, her chin almost on her chest.

  ‘Right,’ Roach said. ‘In ten minutes she should be where she was supposed to be before you brought her here. How did you do that by the way?’

  ‘Magic carpet,’ I said.

  ‘Nice one,’ Minos said.

  ‘Her car’s round the back,’ I sighed.

  ‘Is there anything you need to tell us?’ Roach said.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I felt an outright denial would be a lie.

  ‘Because if this is at all complicated,’ he said. ‘You can tell us.’

  ‘It’s not.’

  ‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ Minos said. ‘We’ll work round it, it’s only fair.’

  ‘Last chance,’ Lola said. ‘It’s now or never.’

  ‘I honestly don’t think so,’ I said. I didn’t know what to say, the situation was the same as it ever was.

  ‘OK,’ Roach said. ‘We figured we don’t know if she was heading into a trap so we’ll just assume she wasn’t because that’s less complicated and it’s safer for us to assume the worst. This is the plan we came up with in the car. We use her as bait. Get them to come and get her and then follow them to wherever they go next because we’re bound to find something new out. And while we’re waiting we can have a little chat.’

  ‘What do you think?’ Casino said.

  ‘I like it,’ I said. They thought it would be safer to assume she was against us. I didn’t like that bit. It was fine for me to do that, but not them.

  ‘Excellent,’ Minos said, took the unit from me and pulled the back off it. ‘Ready?’

  ‘Do it,’ Casino said.

  Minos slid the micro card out of the back of the unit. Somewhere an alarm would go off and the temporary replacement for Tixylix would know that Vermina was in trouble and also know where that trouble was, accurate to within two metres. We made our way back to our hostage, along with four extra chairs that followed behind us like eager puppies. We all sat round like some therapy group. Vermina would be running the interrogation handbook in her head, they were all trained to interrogate and to evade questioning. At Vermina’s level she would be well versed in holding out under serious torture, and would have mastered of some techniques of her own. I remembered that she could be very handy with a length of rope.

  We sat there looking at each other for a bit. Vermina looked from me to the floor and back again but never once looked at anyone else.

  ‘Right,’ Roach said. ‘Who wants to go first?’

  Everyone looked at the floor then.

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ Lola said. ‘Why don’t I just read her mind?’

  Vermina looked at her then. She didn’t say a word but anyone could see what she was thinking. She had just realised that she was sitting down with the fabled five. The very people they had been looking for. She had just realised how obvious it was. And I realised how wrong everything could go.

  ‘That’s a good idea,’ Minos said. ‘Then we don’t have to pull out her fingernails or anything.’

  ‘Her fingernails?’ Casino said.

  ‘That’s what they do isn’t it?’

  ‘Probably,’ Casino said.

  Lola pulled her red rubber band away from her wrist.

  ‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘Please.’

  ‘What?’ she winced as the band snapped back against her skin.

  I gestured for her to follow me out of earshot.

  ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘It’ll be easy.’

  ‘I really don’t want you to,’ I said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because.’

  She put her hands behind her back and gave me a very stern look. ‘You don’t have to tell me, I can just look.’

  ‘You wouldn’t,’ I said. It was going to sound ridiculous.

  ‘Try me.’

  I couldn’t see her hands to tell if she had her band on. She might already be in my mind, I couldn’t feel anything, but at least then I wouldn’t have to tell her.

  ‘Do it then,’ I said.

  ‘Really?’ she looked unsure.

  ‘Do it.’

  I thought about the three times she’d let me go. I thought about dark curls and blue eyes. I thought about not knowing and not wanting to know and about the impossibility of everything.

  Lola’s eyes were wide with surprise. ‘You don’t want to know how she feels?’

  ‘What good will it do me?’

  ‘I won’t tell you,’ she said. ‘I’ll just get the information we want and ignore everything else’

  I looked sceptical. Lola was too nosey for such restraint.

  ‘Yes, all right. I just won’t tell you,’ she said. ‘How about that?’

  ‘But you’ll know, and if you know I’ll
have to.’

  ‘I won’t tell you even if you beg,’ she said.

  ‘Then I’ll hate you,’ I said.

  She put the band back on her wrist. ‘OK, no mind reading.’

  Minos was making a small flame walk over his knuckles and Casino had disappeared.

  ‘They’re showing off,’ Roach said. ‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry,’ Vermina said. ‘I’m not going to live past daybreak.’

  ‘Why not?’ I said.

  It was an unpleasant look but I deserved it. ‘As you are clearly completely inept at this, which is quite touching by the way, I’m going to do you a favour,’ Vermina said. ‘I’m just going to tell you what I know.’

  ‘What a relief,’ Minos said. ‘I’ve never pulled anyone’s fingernails out before. I wasn’t keen.’

  Vermina’s information was, for a change, very straightforward. Rowling worked with the Galearii, which was the same as working for them, because they had all the power and all the ideas. But as far as everyone was concerned she was working with Enforce to protect the huge Imagination Industries investment in their business. Vermina and Tixylix had been assigned to work as her bodyguards because she was very valuable to both parties. Vermina didn’t know what the Galearii had to do with Imagination Industries but I suspected that that was where Imagination Industries got their money from. They had sold their soul to someone worse than the devil.

  ‘I don’t think she trusts me,’ Vermina said.

  ‘Why not?’ Minos said.

  Vermina looked at me. ‘Her.’

  ‘What happened to Tulan Haq?’ I said.

  ‘Exactly what the news says. Haq was trying to kill Terminus. Haq always had his own agenda but once he worked out that he was behind Terminus in the queue he went rogue. Particularly because he’d killed Rhone for them in the first place.’

  ‘We guessed that,’ Roach said.

  ‘He did it wrong though. Rhone was supposed to oversee the dismantling of the Academies before he went. That way anyone who didn’t like it, and some well connected people certainly wouldn’t, they’d think it was Rhone’s fault and Terminus would have a clear run. People think its suspicious now.’

  ‘Haq was a liability?’ Roach said.

  ‘Yes, he’s always been a loose cannon but he was getting in the way of the plan,’ Vermina said. ‘Like you are.’

  ‘What plan?’ Casino said.

  ‘They’re going to start again.’

  ‘Start what again?’ Lola said.

  ‘Everything,’ Vermina said. ‘Wipe the slate clean. We’ve been trying for years to put everything back together and it hasn’t worked. They want to throw it all out and start again.’

  ‘And what do you think of that?’ I leant forward in my chair like everyone else. We were all talking in hushed tones.

  ‘I think they’re right to a certain extent,’ she said and my heart sank a little. ‘But the way they’re going about it. It’s going to be...’

  ‘What?’ I said.

  ‘They think of the country as a business.’

  ‘It’s always been like a business,’ Lola said.

  ‘Yes, but not a very effective one,’ Vermina said.

  ‘So, what’s changing?’ Casino said.

  ‘The whole system. They’re going to take over this country and merge it with all the others around the world.’

  ‘You can’t run a country like it’s a load of shops and venues,’ Casino said.

  ‘They don’t just have shops and venues,’ I said. ‘Not anymore.’

  ‘Softly, softly catchee monkey,’ Roach said.

  ‘Who’s the new Minister of Securities?’ Minos said.

  ‘Rowling.’

  There was an outpouring of amazement and, of course, a whistle.

  ‘You see?’ Vermina said.

  ‘But that gives Imagination Industries control of Enforce,’ I said. ‘She’ll break the concord.’

  There was an agreement in place between the government and Enforce that the Minister of Securities would leave the shareholders of Enforce to run the company. In return Enforce followed government policy and ceded the power to set that policy and to legislate to the Ministry. Rowling with the might of Imagination industries at her elbow and Galearian voices in her ear would change all that. She’d given Imagination Industries a seat on the board. Enforce would have control of the most powerful ministry in government. All the pieces were in position and it would be the Galearii who got to call checkmate.

  ‘But she’s not elected,’ Lola said. ‘Where’s the pretence of democracy for those decent Work and Labour folk.’

  ‘They won’t care, as long as they can carry on doing what they’re doing. Still they’re going to keep quiet about Rowling until Imagination Industries have a better grip on how to spin it. They’re going to say she’s a consultant brought in to advise in the interim but she’s there for good now. Terminus is just a puppet. They’re all just puppets even her. She’s just got fewer strings.’

  ‘Surely there’s someone else in line who could do it, who wants to do it,’ Minos said.

  ‘There’s no one,’ Vermina said. ‘Not anymore.’

  ‘Not anymore?’ Lola said.

  ‘This has been going on for the last couple of years, Ministers dying, sex scandals, the field has been cleared. Do you not follow politics?’ Vermina said.

  ‘Of course we do,’ Casino said. ‘But it’s just rich kids playing with expensive bits of paper. Never once made a difference to anything I did, despite them trying to make everything worse.’

  ‘Well, from where I’m sitting it looks like it’s making a huge difference,’ she said.

  Casino considered this and failed to come up with a suitable retort. I agreed with Vermina, it was about to make all the difference in the world.

  ‘Anything else, or do we do the fingernails after all?’ Roach said.

  ‘There’s some kind of ceremony coming up but I don’t know anything about it other than I’m to provide personal protection for Rowling.’

  ‘Another ceremony,’ Roach said and Vermina looked confused.

  An urgent beeping tone came from somewhere on Minos’s person. ‘Time to move,’ he said.

  We went out into the stairwell.

  ‘What now?’ Casino said.

  ‘You and Lola take Vermina’s car and get Enforce to chase you around for a bit. Lola can drive, they’ll like that. Minos, you set up a surveillance centre in the back of the van,’ I said. ‘Me and Roach can handle this. We’ll just stay hidden and listen. Blindfold her and then we’ll make it seem like we’ve left as well.’

  ‘I can hide better,’ Casino said.

  ‘Sorcha better stay,’ Minos said. ‘If anything goes wrong she’s got the best chance of getting them both away.’ He pulled strange face then slapped me on the back, whether in comfort or encouragement I wasn’t sure.

  ‘I’ll go down and keep watch for a bit,’ Roach said. ‘But I’ll be back before they are.’

  They ran to their various posts. I went back in and scattered all the chairs and made the place look neglected again.

  ‘What happens now?’ Vermina said.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  I heard a door slam and then a vehicle leaving at high speed. Another reversed at pace with a high whine. I wondered why I hadn’t heard them arrive but then I hadn’t been paying attention.

  ‘It must be amazing to be able to...’

  ‘To what?’ I said.

  ‘What’s the word for it? Telekinesis?’

  ‘I guess so,’ I said.

  ‘It must be amazing,’ she said.

  ‘You’d think so,’ I said.

  ‘It’s not?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘What?’ she said. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘It would be great, if it was just something I could do, for no reason. But it isn’t.’

  I heard the scream of brakes as at least two cars cam
e to a sudden halt somewhere beneath the building. Engines revved and one drove off again.

  I blindfolded her with an old rag from the floor, it smelled of old paint.

  ‘I’m not going to let them kill you,’ I said. ‘I promise.’

  ‘You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, you know.’

  ‘They’re coming,’ Roach came through the door in a hurry.

  Roach and I decided to hide in a cubicle that afforded us a good view of everything, Roach crouched on one side of a narrow gap in the wall and me on the other, a partition between us and the room. Roach looked worried, it wasn’t an expression he wore often.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ I said.

  ‘Galearii,’ was all he needed to say.

  Not Enforce at all. Maybe she wasn’t going to live past daybreak. There were three of them, they strode into the room with Rowling following close behind.

  ‘How did you get here?’ Rowling said, untying Vermina’s blindfold.

  ‘Blades,’ Vermina said. ‘The others came later.’

  ‘And they’ve left you here?’ Rowling said.

  ‘They saw you coming and made a run for it. I think. That’s what it sounded like.’

  ‘And you’re still sitting here? You can get out of those ties, surely?

  ‘I don’t feel so good,’ Vermina said. ‘And they said someone was coming. I managed to disable my unit.’

  ‘Yes, good thinking,’ Rowling said.

  One of the Galearii spoke. It sounded like a mixture of languages I’d heard in the OP. A little Hebrew, a little Arabic. Urdu maybe. But with a very Europan inflexion. The Galearii sounded very calm, seductive almost. Rowling replied to whatever the angel had said. Rowling could speak Galearian. Roach looked stunned. Another Galearii spoke. Then they had a debate about something. I wished Roach could tell me what they were saying.

  ‘Our friends are disturbed by the frequency with which Sorcha Blades eludes you. They are concerned that you may be helping her escape,’ Rowling said.

  ‘Helping her?’ Vermina said. ‘Why would I do that?’

  ‘That’s what we are wondering,’ Rowling said.

  ‘I’m not helping her,’ Vermina said. ‘She almost killed me.’

  The Galearii spoke again. They hadn’t untied her yet.

  ‘Quite,’ Rowling said. ‘He says that she could kill you quite easily, so why didn’t she?’

  ‘I don’t think she’s like that,’ Vermina said.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘A killer,’ Vermina said. ‘She’s not like us. None of them are.’

  All three Galearii spoke at once, they said the same thing.

  ‘None of whom?’

  ‘The five,’ Vermina said. ‘The Vanguard.’

  Roach rumbled. It was a growl he tried to keep inside but it refused to be silenced. I shook my head at him. I didn’t believe she was going to betray us. She was playing her own game, she wasn’t playing theirs. I didn’t have any evidence for that other than my being sat there and not toe-tagged in an Enforce morgue, waiting for enough other corpses to make it worth them digging another municipal grave. And I wanted it to be true so much that it just had to be.

  ‘The five?’ Rowling said, she was looking around. I held my breath but she stopped by a chair I’d discarded earlier. She picked it up and walked back to Vermina, setting it down in front of her and sitting on it. She crossed one leg over the other and leant forward, elbows on her knee.

  ‘Blades and her known associates. She is telekinetic, as you suspected. Minos Fry, he’s the one with fire. Casino Flamingo has invisibility and Lola Capuzzo is telepathic,’ Vermina said.

  Capuzzo?’ Rowling said. ‘Not of the Capuzzos?’

  ‘Yes, youngest daughter. Why?’

  ‘He’s in line for a cabinet role, her father,’ Rowling said. ‘We’ll have to keep him at arm’s length. At least for now.’

  Roach and I frowned at each other. I didn’t realise Lola’s father was so connected. I wondered if she did.

  ‘And the big man, Roach, he must be the one with all the languages. He wasn’t as keen to show off as the others.’

  Roach looked like he wanted to say he’d told me so.

  ‘How did they find you in the first place?’ Rowling said.

  ‘They’ve put a tracking device in my car.’

  One of the Galearii spoke again.

  ‘How strong are they now?’ Rowling translated.

  ‘Very,’ Vermina said. ‘But I don’t think they have the stomach for it.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, I’m still alive aren’t I?’

  ‘You do seem to be,’ Rowling said. ‘Well, Galen thought you were important enough to come and hear what you had to say.’

  One of the Galearii was very talkative. He chattered on and on about something. Roach’s eyes, which had been very busy with a myriad of expressions, glazed over with the sheer volume of wonder at one point. Rowling just nodded two or three times.

  ‘What happens now?’ Vermina said.

  The first Galearii spoke again. He spoke at some length as well. They were very keen orators when they were in the mood. The others nodded along, they were all very agreeable. Rowling smiled at Vermina.

  ‘They’re going to kill her,’ Roach whispered.

  ‘I would translate, but as you’re not going to be with us much longer I don’t really see the point. Is that terribly bad of me?’ the smile faded.

  ‘Please,’ Vermina said. ‘It’s not what you think.’

  The Galearii spoke again.

  ‘Drowning,’ Roach said.

  ‘Go,’ I said. ‘Take the fire escape, at the back.’

  ‘You sure?’

  ‘Yes, go.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I can’t leave her.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, Sorcha,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens, it’s not your fault.’

  Roach crawled back through the cubicles to the fire escape. Rowling and the Galearii were having a debate about something, just prolonging the agony. Vermina was almost out of the cable ties but they were too tight and she was too close to panic. I tried to come up with a plan but had to brace myself to winging it. They had three knives in their pockets that I could use if I was fast enough. There were chairs, a lot of paper, a length of pipe and an old tin of dried paint. Then Roach started banging on the door, he was standing on the dark fire escape outside knocking as though he were trying to get in. I told him to go but, of course, he hadn’t left me. The three Galearii ran down the side of the cubicles towards him and Roach disappeared. I could hear him bounding down the metal staircase outside. The angels were fast, even though some old filing cabinets got in their way and slowed them down, Roach would only just get into the van. The door banged a few times as it closed behind the Galearii and I was left with just Rowling to deal with, she was looking at the door the Galearii had ran through after Roach, puzzled by events. Vermina’s cable ties seemed to untangle themselves and floated to the floor without making a sound. I watched as Vermina stood up behind Rowling. Some papers threw themselves in the air, Rowling took a step towards them then stopped. She wasn’t sure what was going on. She wasn’t happy when you made her improvise, she didn’t like being a step behind. I was still hidden in the cubicle searching through my mind for things to throw in the air, to distract her. But Vermina was thinking quicker, she caught Rowling just behind her left ear with that left hook of hers and Rowling was out cold.

  ‘That’s going to hurt in the morning,’ I said as we tried to get Rowling into a position where she wouldn’t die on us.

  ‘It’s very effective,’ Vermina said.

  ‘Tell me about it,’ I said.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It was necessary.’

  ‘The Galearii are fun, aren’t they?’

  ‘Laugh a minute.’ She went through Rowling’s pockets looking for something. She found the communications unit and pulled the back off like we’
d done with hers.

  ‘They’ll think you did it,’ Vermina said. ‘And she won’t want to say otherwise. I know her. She’ll want to save face.’

  ‘They didn’t see me. Only Roach.’

  She smiled but it was a sad smile. ‘You have no idea how many things Enforce have accused you of that they haven’t seen you do. You get the blame for so many things, you can’t possibly have done them all. Can you?’

  ‘You’d be surprised,’ I said. ‘Will you be all right?’

  ‘I’ll be fine, better than ten minutes ago. She’ll want to keep me on side but those Galearii will be punished for leaving her. They’re not very bright, they’re better at following orders.’

  ‘I guess I leave you here then,’ I said.

  ‘Yes. Did they take my car?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘OK. I’ll tell them you stole it. You go.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ I said.

  ‘Yes. I’ll bring her round and she’ll want to get our stories straight. I’ll play the loyal bodyguard. I’m good at that.’

  I wanted to say something but nothing seemed right. I stood there for a bit wondering if I had a mouthful of sand again and then took the stairs three at a time. Minos had parked up, hidden in a garage, he started the engine as I got in but kept the lights off.

  ‘Is Roach all right?’ I said.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said, emerging from the back of the van. ‘Once I can catch my breath. As well as everything else, those angels are damn fast.’