by SJ Griffin
Chapter Seventeen
‘There’s no point locking her in because there are about five hundred ways she can get out,’ Tourniquet said to Rowling. ‘They’ll have to watch her.’
‘You’re a great help,’ I sat up, rubbing my head. I was waiting for the pain to set in but it still didn’t hurt.
‘Shouldn’t they be armed?’ he waved at the Galearii foot soldiers.
‘They don’t need to be armed,’ Rowling smiled. ‘Wait until you see them in action.’
I had been lying, a study of unconcern, on a wide plank that hung from the wall on chains making a very uncomfortable bed. I was in a cell with bars instead of walls. The cells next to mine were empty but opposite Roach, Lola and Casino were lined up in identical cells. There was a monitor close to the ceiling in the corner of the room running a news channel. It was showing live coverage of the ceremony with various dignitaries doing rehearsed pieces to camera on the steps outside. Reporters were talking to excited people who’d been let out of the Work and Labour offices for the day like rent-a-crowd. The three Galearii had gone.
‘We thought we’d better separate you,’ Tourniquet said. ‘Although she can probably get to you from over there.’
He glanced at Lola and then looked a little puzzled by events, as though he expected a different outcome.
‘We have to go,’ Rowling said, she was standing in the narrow path between the cells. ‘I don’t think we need waste any more time on these people. I need to give that statement and you need to run through your speech.’ She said something else in Galearian to our captors and they all moved to stand guard as though choreographed.
‘See you later,’ I said.
Tourniquet gave me a look I didn’t care to understand before he followed her, on his way he put the volume up on the television. I could just hear their footstep on the stone steps over the commentary as I watched my friends turn their backs on me. Lola lay on the cot in her cell and Casino sat on his, but Roach paced back and forth like a caged tiger at the back of his cell. The room was full of people but I was alone. I tried to empty my head of everything, not because of Lola but because I needed to keep a cool head, if I panicked myself into doing something stupid it was all over. The television pictures broke away from the jollity outside to a very sombre Rowling. She was about to give her speech.
‘It is with great sadness and regret that I announce the death of Audi Terminus. He was killed earlier today by a known terrorist organisation. Terminus had been a great servant to this country, only recently stepping into the void left by the assassination of Chichester Rhone, not for personal gain but to support the country that he loved. He was a valued friend and colleague and he would have wanted today’s ceremony to continue in his honour. I would like to reassure the public, who I know will be greatly concerned by these events. As Minister of Securities I promise each and every one of you that this is the last day that chaos will reign in this fine country. Today we turn the page and begin a new chapter in our history, the greatest chapter and one that we will write together.’
The decrease volume button pressed itself into the television so hard that the cheap plastic cracked. High heels clicked down the stone steps in a familiar rhythm. That was all I needed.
‘What is it with you and head injuries?’ Vermina pushed open the unlocked door of my cell. Even she had a robe on.
‘What is it with me and people punching me in the head?’ I said.
‘Who punched you?’
‘Lola, except she does it on the inside,’ I said. ‘It hurts even more than when you do it.’
‘I’ve already apologised for that, I really can’t feel any worse about it. Have you had a tiff?’
‘Entirely my fault.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ she sat on the cot next to me. ‘I’ve been sent to guard you. Rowling’s idea of a joke I think.’
‘How’s that working out for you?’
‘I’ve been promoted. Black coded and special operations lead. I’m no longer the lowly bodyguard.’
‘You don’t sound very happy about it,’ I said.
‘No, I don’t, do I? Even though it is a great improvement.’
Lola turned over so she was lying on her stomach, her fists under her chin as she looked at me. I figured there wouldn’t be anything in Vermina’s mind that mattered at this point. Not in the great scheme of things.
‘She’s paying for my silence about the storage place,’ Vermina said.
Lola lay on her back again, whatever she’d been interested in she’d found.
‘Why is she going to keep me?’ I said.
Vermina went pale and pressed her lips together.
‘Tell me, or she will,’ I pointed to Lola. ‘She just found out. I think I’d rather hear it from you at the moment.’
‘She’s going to make you the Guardian,’ Vermina said. ‘It was going to be Latch.’
‘They brainwashed him, didn’t they?’ I remembered him lying in the hospital bed on the ship. The bruise.
‘In a way, yes. Tourniquet will be given responsibility for guiding your thoughts so that you can protect him. It’s horrible,’ she spoke one word at a time pausing in between as though she had to force them out. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s not your fault. Anyway, it won’t be me,’ I said. ‘Not really.’
‘Sorcha, I saw Latch. He was in there, inside the shell they made. He was still there.’
I’d seen the look in his eyes too. She was right, he was in there and he was trying to get out. There was no way that was happening to me, no way at all. I would take death over that every time and if it turned out to be a battle where they had to try and keep me alive, well, I could only see that ending one way. I could feel Lola’s interest at the edge of my mind but I shut myself away from her.
‘There’s something they won’t show on the news,’ Vermina was watching the monitor. ‘There are thousands of boats on the river, hundreds of thousands of people down the road waiting to see what will happen, people from everywhere. There are soldiers too. I’m waiting to see what will happen. Then maybe I’ll pick a side,’ she smiled, despite everything. ‘I know that you’re keen I do.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ I said.
‘It’ll be your side,’ she said. ‘Just so you know.’
Roach stopped pacing for a moment and in the silence I realised that his footsteps had been a constant beat like a metronome. ‘She doesn’t have a side,’ he said. ‘Not anymore.’
I gave Vermina a breezy smile and a nonchalant shrug.
We didn’t have long to wait for the ceremony, the pictures on the television got more and more hysterical and the cameras began to move into the building. Three Galearii arrived with robes for us. Casino kept disappearing so they couldn’t get his on without kneeling on his head. Roach and Lola put theirs on without a fuss. We were taken to join the throng of robes moving toward the great hall. I recognised a few faces and could almost put names to a few others but most of the robes cloaked grey featureless paper dolls. Lola kicked me in the ankle, she was behind me.
‘Oh, I am sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t see you there.’
‘Can I ask you a question?’ I said.
‘No.’
‘Just one, on the inside.’
I opened my mind. For a moment there was no sign of her then, as I guessed it would, curiosity got the better of her.
‘How else did you think we were going to get into the ceremony?’ I thought.
I stumbled and my knee hit the ground before Vermina pulled me to my feet. The force of Lola’s surprise in my head had knocked me over.
‘Are you all right?’ Vermina said.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’m fine.’
‘You’re going to have to get a grip on that,’ I thought. ‘It hurts.’
‘I don’t understand,’ she said in my head.
‘I’m a little upset at how fast you all pegged me for a traitor.’
‘How did you do that without tellin
g a single lie?’ she thought. ‘That would have given you away, you’re so bad at it.’
‘We’re playing the long con. And I’m good at that.’
I couldn’t sense her anymore. Up ahead the broad queue of people was turning and then Roach, not paying attention to what was outside his head, almost fell on the dolls in front of him. Lola was talking to him, inside his head, and he turned and looked at me. Casino was next and he clapped his hands together twice in a gesture that earned him some strange looks. Then Lola was back, I could feel the echo of Casino too. He wanted to know about Tourniquet, it was like he was analogue lagging behind the digital signal.
‘Casino wants to know about,’
‘Tourniquet,’ I finished for Lola. ‘I don’t know. Forget about him. He’s on his own side.’
‘Not their side?’ Lola thought.
‘No. At least I don’t think so. We should assume he’s out of the picture though.’
‘How many sides are there? I’ve lost count,’ Roach thought.
The four of us stopped in surprise and looked at each other. We could all think to each other, just as though we were talking.
‘Please don’t do anything stupid,’ Vermina said to me. ‘Please.’
We turned into the hall. It was hundreds of years old, panelled with dark wood and hung with the same tapestries as the armoury, except these ones showed healthy debate and cheerful negotiation not bloodthirsty war mongering. There must have been a thousand people in there, all seated neat and tidy in their pews. At the front of the hall on a raised platform were six ornate chairs, like modest thrones, one higher and more decorative than the others. There was something that looked like the altar from the pictures in Tourniquet’s book. Behind everything a stained glass window took up most of the wall, an abstract composition appropriate for any occasion. The light that came through seemed murky as though it was diffracted through something. Water, I guessed.
‘Sit here,’ Vermina said, gesturing towards a space for four that made us as visible as Rowling had threatened.
I wondered what the thousands and thousands of people in their boats and beneath their banners would make of it. A good reason to riot, perhaps. I sat down and was joined by Lola, Casino and then Roach on the end. All around us the well to do and nothing to do were chattering and chuckling, well oiled with something expensive and intoxicating. I could still hear all the accents that we’d heard on Nexus. The ceremony, like Imagination Industries, was international.
‘You have a plan, I assume,’ Casino thought.
‘Not yet,’ I thought.
Vermina walked down the aisle towards the front of the hall. I watched her take her seat in the front row, she was talking on her communications unit as she sat down. The Galearii escort walked to the back. They’d left us, confident that we couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything. There were several cameras hovering around above our heads, beaming live feed out to the world. They rose and fell in sync, as though dancing to the hushed sounds they made as they flew.
‘I’m not sure I like them,’ the man in front of me said to his neighbour. He was watching a group of Galearii as they walked in perfect synchronisation to the back of the hall.
‘No,’ the neighbour said. ‘Me neither.’
Both men were fat, well fed. The first one had pale, thin scars from a tuck running down behind his ears. His friend’s nose was the aquiline model that was popular in the Ministry of Welfare. Both of them, like everyone but us, had an earpiece in. I guessed they would translate the parts of the ceremony they wouldn’t be able to understand.
‘Mind you, they are clearing the ghettos,’ the one with the facelift said.
‘Yes, I hear even the OP or whatever it’s called lives in fear of them,’ Nose Job said.
They both laughed.
‘They’re not all bad then,’ Facelift said.
‘Also, they seem pretty scared of this Father person, so I guess he’ll keep them under control.’
‘Well, this Tourniquet won’t, that’s for sure. He’s more of a puffball than Terminus.’
‘You can have them pliable or powerful,’ Nose Job said. ‘I’d rather have pliable.’
‘I’d rather have Rhone back.’
‘Well, hopefully those terrorists will get the ghetto treatment from our new friends.’
They laughed again. They were as brainwashed as Latch had been, as I was going to be.
‘Keep an eye on them,’ I thought. ‘They might be useful.’
‘Will do,’ Lola thought.
Agent Tourniquet strode into the room, he was wearing a different robe of rich red and the medal of his new office hung around his neck. Rowling was behind him wearing a blue robe and she too had a medal, hers indicted that she was indeed the Minister of Securities. Her face was starting to fit now she had the power she wanted.
‘Our friend here finds Rowling alluring,’ Lola thought and nodded towards Nose Job. ‘She has an authenticity lacking in many women. Apparently.’
‘Well, they do say there is someone for everyone,’ Casino thought.
‘I’ll never understand these people,’ Roach thought.
Tourniquet and Rowling sat on the raised platform by the altar and were joined by the three Galearii minds. The sixth chair, the one for the Father, was still empty. The organ music started and everyone stood. The room was ringed with Galearii standing two deep and very close together, I estimated that there must have been about a five hundred of them.
‘These two are really, really nervous about the Galearii, more nervous than they’ve admitted,’ thought Lola. ‘They’ve been reassured about them but they’re not sure, not sure at all.’
So, the old man was anxious, the papers dolls were nervous, we were afraid. Only Rowling and Tourniquet seemed calm, they were smiling across the assembly. I watched the Galearii, they didn’t seem to do emotion of any kind, never mind fear. That was fine by me, if they didn’t feel it they wouldn’t understand it.
‘Where’s Latch?’ I thought. ‘Can you tell?’
Lola disappeared from my head and my connection with Casino and Roach went with her. There was something sinister about the organ music, I shivered despite the intense heat of the room and the robe. There was an air of nervous anticipation in the hall, people fidgeted as they stood.
‘I’ve found him,’ Lola thought. ‘It’s amazing.’
‘The closer we get the more powerful we get,’ Roach thought. ‘Remember.’
Casino leant forward catching my eye. He put his hand on Lola’s and I watched as both of their hands disappeared. The music changed and two Galearii flanked the old man as he shuffled onto the platform, a third led the way. Everyone sat down. Lola rested her hands in her lap as though she was meditating and opened her mind out. We settled down like it was a summer meadow. Roach translated the ceremony as they were speaking, it was like watching a very well dubbed film as the events unfolded before us. After a while Lola pushed him into the background, like she was turning a radio down, confident that this was as dull as all the other ceremonies we’d heard about and if anything relevant came up he would push himself back in.
‘Can you get Latch?’ I thought.
There was a long pause then, ‘He’s coming.’
A camera buzzed up into the roof to get an aerial shot as another one moved towards us. It moved from Roach at a reasonable pace until it got to me where it pulled out and moved back to get all of us. I could imagine us on the big screen, a blue and red ticker beneath our faces identifying us as the terrorists Rowling had spoken of. I looked straight into the lens, my chin angled down, smiled a crooked kind of a smile and winked. The camera flew backwards turning to the platform, Casino allowed himself a chuckle. I wondered how that would play outside. I hoped they would realise we were up to something.
‘How far?’ I thought.
‘Close,’ Lola thought. ‘He’s in the corridor, I’m not sure which door it is.’
‘It’s the one with the wreat
hed cross on it,’ Casino thought.
‘Wait,’ Roach thought.
Galen’s translation surfaced, he was introducing Tourniquet with warm words. Tourniquet rose with all that presence and charm of his. He was perfect, made for it. Tourniquet and the old man looked like the best of the past and the promise of the future, all working together for the country, the world. Tourniquet started to talk, his theme was beginnings.
‘He’s here,’ Lola thought.
‘And now that time has arrived. Our time,’ Tourniquet said. ‘And with its arrival we...’
‘Now,’ I thought.
The great doors slammed opened and Latch lumbered in. It was unspeakable. His clothes had gone and his skin hung from him in red, wet tatters. That smell. It was like nothing I’d ever smelt before. No one knew what to do. Everything stopped. I could hear a woman retching and a man along the row from us vomited into his cupped hands.
‘Let’s go,’ I thought.
I watched as Casino, Lola and Roach disappeared and then a hand I couldn’t see touched mine. I held my hand up, I could see through it and then it was gone. Our vanishing upset the people in the pew behind us, they started up quite a kerfuffle, but their confusion was nothing compared to chaos at the front of the hall. Lola had dropped her connection with Latch and he was lurching around in front of the platform. They had seated all the high rollers up there and they scattered to get out of the way, Vermina slipped out of her row and looked back to find us. She pulled her gun when she didn’t see us and the people around her ran for cover. She produced her Enforce card and held it up. It didn’t seem to reassure anyone. Tourniquet was watching with interest, looking over Latch at the disturbance near us. Rowling was looking to the three Galearii minds for assistance but they were just standing there as though their thoughts were miles away. The Galearii around the room put their left hands inside the right sides of their jackets as one. I couldn’t see the rest of the Vanguard but I knew where they were somehow.
‘Wait,’ said Galen in Roach’s translation. ‘Wait.’
‘Make Latch go for the old man,’ I thought. ‘Like in one of those black and white films you hate.’
Latch turned, and lifted his arms out in front of him like Prophet sleepwalking. He groaned, and Lola took a sharp intake of breath.
‘He’s fighting me,’ she said out loud, forgetting. She forced him onto the platform, towards the Father. The old man pushed himself into the back of his chair, bare feet and legs sticking out of the bottom of his gown.
‘Get him away. Devil,’ he was screaming. ‘Devil.’
His chair rose onto its back legs and started to tip back, I let him down with great care, wary of his old bones. He crawled backwards away from Latch.
‘Let him go,’ I thought.
Latch fell to his knees, howling.
‘They’re really afraid now,’ Lola thought. ‘It’s the old man, he’s useless, and without him they think the Galearii are out of control.’
‘Tell one of them that the Galearii did that to Latch,’ I thought. ‘Put the thought in his head.’
Facelift stood up. ‘It was them,’ his voice came in a gasp.
Everyone around wanted to know what he was talking about, they leant in to listen to him.
‘It was them,’ Facelift pointed at the three minds on stage. ‘They did that to that poor man.’
‘That’s a man?’ someone said.
Tourniquet was draped in his chair watching with great interest like he wasn’t there, like he was outside watching it on the big screen. The four of us stood in the aisle with Vermina not far away, she was scanning the seats looking for us, for me. Then for a moment she was with us.
‘You won’t see us,’ Lola thought. ‘But we’re here.’
Vermina fell to her knees, her hand to her head, to the hurt. ‘Where?’ she managed.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ a woman pointed at Vermina as she managed to get to her feet.
‘I’m getting out of here,’ Nose Job pushed his way to the end of the row and walked towards me. I stuck out my foot tripped him over. Then they all started panicking, it was like watching a herd of sheep trying to escape a wolf. They were nothing more than cattle. I held the doors closed in my mind. No one was leaving. Not yet.
‘See how people don’t bump into us,’ Casino thought. ‘It’s like they can sense we are here. Clever, isn’t it?’ He sounded like he was sharing his favourite toy.
‘Everyone, please,’ Rowling’s voice rose above the heavy fretting. ‘Wait a moment.’
There was such authority in her voice everyone stopped and turned towards her, even Lola almost dropped our connection. The only sound was the old man’s high pitched whimpering and a deep, primal moaning from Latch that rumbled around the hall. The Galearii all moved their hands back to their sides. They’d been stood down for the moment.
‘Help this man,’ Rowling pointed at Latch and three Galearii came forward to do as she asked.
‘Let him go,’ I thought.
They stood Latch up, he staggered out with them. I let them open the door then slammed it as a few paper dolls tried to make a break for it.
‘They’re not here,’ Gama said, through Roach.
‘They can’t sense us anymore,’ Casino thought. ‘We are stronger now, they’re right.’
‘Take the Father,’ Rowling said. ‘He’s had a terrible shock.’
Three Galearii took him away, always three.
‘We can let him go,’ I thought. ‘He’s finished.’
Rowling looked unsure of what to do next, she looked at Galipolan.
A hush fell on the room. In one swift movement all the curled, golden knives I could find in my mind flew from the scabbards inside Galearii jackets. They rose into the air before the surprised angels could move. The crowd gazed up at them, managing to murmur their discontent despite the shock. Then they were tearing at the door handles, trying to get out.
‘Please, let me explain,’ Rowling said, raising her hands, watching hundreds of knives as they hovered. She turned to Tourniquet. ‘Do something.’
‘Me?’ he said. ‘Why me?
‘What is happening?’ Gama said.
‘It’s them,’ Galen said.
‘Nothing's happening, it’s fine, a misunderstanding,’ Rowling said in Galearian.
‘It does not look that way,’ Galen said.
‘Perhaps they are not ready,’ Galipolan said.
The stained glass window thought-shattered, a rainbow of glass flew into the hall and showered the assembly. The knives hovering in the air turned over, blades downwards. I thought-opened all the doors. The cattle watched and then there was a stampede.
‘Walk, do not run, to the nearest exit,’ Roach said out loud, causing everyone around him to wheel around searching for the voice, they fell over each other like skittles.
‘Stop them,’ Rowling shouted.
‘Leave them,’ Galen said. ‘It’s not time. You were wrong.’
‘This was supposed to be the easy part,’ Gama said.
‘It stops now,’ Galipolan said.
‘No, it can’t,’ Rowling said. ‘It’s written.’
‘Split up,’ I thought. ‘They’ll see people parting around us.’ I stood next to Rowling, as close as I could, to see what she could see, to see what plans laid with the utmost care looked like when they fell apart. She was shaking. She couldn’t make things up as she went along. She was lost. Behind the altar, water was beginning to pour into the hall. It had stood in an obedient wall behind the shards of broken glass around the edge of the stone frame but it too was beginning to misbehave, little by little. The Galearii all looked to the three minds, waiting. I couldn’t see Vermina anymore. The fleeing rich were shouting and fighting as they scrambled over each other to escape. It was everyone for themselves.
‘What’s happening?’ Casino thought.
‘I don’t know,’ Roach thought. ‘They’re communicating like we are.’
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‘How long can we stay like this, Casino?’ Lola thought.
‘As long as you want,’ he thought. ‘You can make yourselves visible whenever you like. Just focus on being seen.’
Rowling turned and looked straight through me to look at Agent Tourniquet. He was still sitting in his chair observing things.
‘Say something,’ Rowling said, I could feel her spittle on my cheek. I was surprised it was warm, somehow, surprised it was human.
‘I hope they’ve turned the feed off,’ Tourniquet pointed to the cameras hovering in the ceiling.
I brought one down and panned to Rowling’s face. She reached into her robe and pulled out a gun and fired at the camera. It fell to the ground.
‘No,’ Gama said. ‘The path has been changed.’
As one the Galearii turned and began to march towards the door at the back of the room. The paper dolls at the front had scattered at the gun shot and were running for different exits at the back, vaulting the pews. I thought-slammed the door at the back and the Galearii stopped. Tourniquet stood up and looked around with great focus. He made eye contact with me and smiled, only for the briefest moment, I couldn’t be sure if he’d seen me or sensed me but he knew I was there, I was sure of that. I couldn’t help but smile. Who was he?
Tourniquet said something in Galearian.
Roach’s translation slipped for a moment. I could sense his surprise.
‘What did he say?’ thought Casino.
‘He said “Galen, she has misled you, it is not time.” His accent is really, really good,’ Roach thought.
Galen thought for a moment and then replied.
‘There’s no translation for that,’ Roach thought. ‘It was idiom. Something about the Vanguard, I think.’
Casino thought a long whistle and I thought of Minos.
‘No,’ Rowling said under her breath. ‘Not like this again.’
I smashed two cameras into each other, debris rained down on the people still trying to get out of the doors. A few bodies lay on the ground, knocked out as the herd surged. The Galearii turned to another open door and marched. They moved at speed and with great efficiency. Dolls scrambled out of their way. They were headed the opposite direction to the people but without Minos’s map I couldn’t tell where everyone would end up. I took hold of Rowling’s chain of office with my mind and pulled on the links a little, testing. She stumbled forward. And then I let go.
Tourniquet looked around, a question on his face.
‘That’s not me,’ I whispered in his ear.
He smiled. ‘I know. It wasn’t your fault. None of it.’ He stepped off the stage and with three strides was lost in the paper dolls crowded around a door.
‘I don’t get him,’ Casino thought. ‘What just happened?’
‘I don’t think he’s who anyone thinks he is,’ I thought.
‘Look out,’ Lola thought.
The three minds were moving towards me, but it was Rowling they were after.
‘Make sure the people get out,’ I thought. The hall was almost empty. ‘Help them.’
‘You’re sure?’ thought Casino.
‘What if they say something important?’ Roach thought.
‘We’ve changed enough,’ I thought. ‘The path, I think we’re done.’
‘Let’s go,’ Lola thought. ‘We’ll see you in the bell tower. We’re not leaving anyone behind.’
For the first time, I think, we believed we’d get out of there.
Rowling was talking in Galearian and I didn’t need Roach to tell me that she was negotiating. When she started begging in earnest she slipped into English. Without the aura of power that surrounded her she looked like all she was, an old woman. Frail, vulnerable. I almost felt sorry for her.
‘Please. I can put this right. It’s a setback but that’s all. The data says that the majority of them support you and will even vote for you when the time comes. I know people. Other people. People you don’t know. I could introduce you.’
Galen said something to Gama.
‘I’ll set up a meeting,’ she said. ‘Wait and see.’
Gama stepped forward. I realised the room was empty but for the five of us. Rowling held her hands in front of her mouth and nose, as though that would save her. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Please.’
Her voice broke as she said please again. She coughed, clearing her throat only to find her mouth full of water, then some more water and then it started to pour out of her. The gun fell out of her hand on to the chair next to her. I jumped off the platform onto the floor. The water was rising, soon it would reach my ankles. Rowling fought her losing battle with the tide that rose inside her. I watched until she lay still on the wet floor, yet more water pouring around her, nudging at her corpse as if making sure she was dead. The three minds started to walk away, after their troops. The knives were still hanging in the air where I’d left them. I thought-dropped them onto the floor, handle first and harmless. The three minds turned to see what had happened and I thought how fortunate it was that I was invisible because if I could be seen I would be in trouble. I looked at my hands as they faded into view.
‘Well, that doesn’t take much focus,’ I said.
Rowling’s gun flew into my hand. The three minds came towards me, the way they moved was mesmerising.
‘It is you,’ Galen said.
‘You speak English,’ I checked to see if Rowling’s gun was loaded. It was.
‘We do not like violence,’ Galen raised its hand. ‘It is pointless.’
‘Is that an apology?’ I said.
‘Enough,’ it said.
‘She said you were with us,’ Gama said.
‘She said a lot of things,’ I said. ‘All she did was talk, did you ever notice that?’
‘Tell me something,’ Gama said. ‘You have no interest in power. Why not?’
‘We don’t understand,’ Galipolan said. ‘We don’t understand you.’
‘We usually understand everything.’ Galen said. ‘This is interesting to us.’
‘We live in interesting times,’ I said.
‘You will not live in them for much longer,’ Galen said. ‘We still want you. You will be with us.’
‘No, she won’t,’ Vermina said. She had a gun in each hand, one trained on Galen, one on Gama. I pointed mine at Galipolan. ‘She’s with me.’
There was a long pause. I guessed that the minds were communing.
‘She is the True Guardian,’ Galipolan said. ‘She is not yours.’
‘Yes,’ Vermina said. ‘She is.’
I heard myself scream, it was a high, thin sound and for a moment I thought of Nexus, of the candles and the choir. I saw myself fall to the ground, then felt the cold water against my forehead. I was inside myself and outside myself at the same time. It was worse than Lola, much worse. The pain was heavy and dark. It had sharp edges and gave off a piercing heat. I waited to black out but it never came. I realised it would be endless. A gun went off, three, four times, the sound distorted and ragged. My vision had gone, spinning into a kaleidoscope of grey and blue.
‘No,’ I said and for a moment everything stopped, no noise, no movement, nothing. Even the pain stopped. I felt the gun in my hand. I was holding it up out of the water. I remembered what Prophet had said, he said there is this time and then there is another time.
Vermina shouted something. I couldn’t make sense of it.
I raised my head, lifted the gun to my temple, and pulled the trigger.
I was lying, my head in Vermina’s lap. She looked pale beyond white. The three minds backed away. One of them was shot, I thought it odd that its wound wept blood. I felt Vermina’s fingers on my wrist, feeling for a pulse.
‘Hold on,’ she said, knowing that it was too late. ‘Please hold on.’
The water submerged my body as I lay on the floor and carried on rising, I felt myself beginning to float. I listened to Vermina’s grief until I couldn’t bear it any longer. I stood up
, walked away and thought-rang every drop of water from my clothes and my hair instead of looking back.
Minos was sitting on the bench in the bell tower, staring at his hands as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Everywhere else was deserted, there was no one anywhere. There was just me and Minos.
‘Fuck,’ he said. It could have meant anything.
‘We died,’ I said.
‘I know. I worked that much out. Latch got me. I remember it all. I thought he was going to kill all of us. He was so strong. Like there was more than just him, but that makes no sense. Funny I always thought he’d be the one. He hated me. Hated me. Remember that time at Zombie Palace, he broke three of my ribs, for not much of a reason. I’m babbling, aren’t I? Wait. Wait. You’re dead?’
‘Yes.’
‘How?’
I put my fingers to my temple, there was no wound. ‘I shot myself.’
‘You shot yourself?’
‘Otherwise we would have lost,’ I said. ‘And it would have been for nothing. You would have been for nothing.’
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,’ his eyes filled with tears.
‘But you were. You made Latch into a monster everyone could recognise. The other ones were too well disguised.’
I’d only ever seen him cry once before. He thought he’d lost his mother in the flood but she came to find him. He was twenty. They met up a few times and it seemed to be going well. They warned us that it could be difficult being reunited, that we shouldn’t expect our parents to live up to our fantasies, but she was everything he’d wished for. Then he told her what he did to make ends meet and she turned him in. I sold everything we had to pay his bail and he sat on the steps of the Enforce station and cried like a small boy for ten minutes. Then he wiped his eyes, blew his nose and we never mentioned it again.
‘What’s it like being dead?’ I said after a while.
‘Boring,’ he said.
‘Good job I came to get you then,’ I said.
‘I’m very pleased to see you.’
‘I couldn’t leave you here,’ I said. ‘You’re like the big brother I never wanted.’
I took him back to the great hall through the silence and the loneliness. Somehow Vermina was still sitting with my body, the water up to her waist, trying to keep my head above the water even though I couldn’t drown. Minos hung back at a respectful distance and looked for his feet as they shuffled around underwater. I knelt down in front of Vermina and pushed all the water away from us in an ever-increasing circle. Everything went with it, there was only us. No hall, no water, no Minos. She caught a sob in her throat and looked at me, at the real me. She said my name and noticed my body had slipped out of her grasp. I needed a kick, an impetus to get everything to move for me. There was nothing there but Vermina. She was the only thing living in the whole world.
What was it Étienne had done, when I was half a breath away from being awake?
Vermina touched my face and I could feel amazement in her fingertips. I kissed her. I kissed her like I’d wanted to every day since I closed that door on her and her licences that in the end meant nothing. The world span in two directions at once, like a ball on a roulette wheel, it span away from me and towards me. When it stopped I could hear the people outside, I could hear boat horns and drums and chanting.
‘We’re back,’ Minos said. Everything was back.
Vermina was feeling about under the water. She got to her feet. ‘I don’t understand, where have you gone?’
But she wasn’t talking to me. She couldn’t see me. She was looking for me under the water.
I hadn’t expected that.
‘Come on,’ Minos ran a few steps then tripped and fell into the water. He was right, he was back. Dirty water poured off his grinning face. Whatever had happened, he hadn’t been there to see it.
Vermina wasn’t the only Enforce officer that picked a side that day. The whole company resigned as one when it became clear how many hundreds of thousands of people they would have to somehow arrest. It could have been fear of the huge amount of paperwork they’d have to do that tipped the balance in our favour. We found the others in the bell tower, still waiting on the steps a couple of flights before the room where they’d laid out Minos. The body wasn’t there anymore and I wondered where our corpses had gone. Minos made Casino tell him what had happened in the hall about five times, the others chipping in when their excitement got too much for them. They kept staring at Minos as if making sure he was real, Roach squeezed Minos’s stringy biceps about a hundred times to confirm his solidity. I made him promise not to say anything about my own adventure. Not yet. We climbed up to the top of the bell tower to see if we could get a better view of events outside. We found a hole in the clock face and managed to get outside and sit on the hands of the ancient clock, high up with the brown gargoyles and fussy spires that covered the ancient building. Roach and I sat on the hour hand, the others on the minute hand.
‘You’re quiet,’ Roach said. ‘You all right?’
‘Yeah, I’m all right,’ I said. I had told them I banged my head and didn’t know what had happened. It was almost the truth.
‘No headaches, no unpleasant side effects?’
‘I don’t think so.’
My heart hurt.
‘You are a terrible, terrible liar,’ Roach said. ‘If you were any good you’d be dangerous. More dangerous.’
‘I don’t feel dangerous. I...’ I what?
‘It’s OK,’ he looked out over the crowds that had gathered. ‘Whenever you’re ready.’
We could see miles across the city to the north. The water was a mass of boats and rafts, all the gondolas had turned out laden with people. The streets beyond the water were full of people too, they were all chanting and waving homemade banners and whenever one of the giant screens that had been set up by officials but long since hijacked showed Rowling or one of the Galearii a huge booing and hissing started. It was a coup but it felt like a carnival. Marshall was on heavy rotation on the news reels, he was managing to get interviews with some key people.
‘Funny that,’ Casino grinned. ‘It’s almost like he’s got some inside information.’
‘Pillow talk,’ Minos snorted.
‘Shut up,’ Lola said. ‘Look.’
The screen was so big that even from high up it was crystal clear, it was showing the Detention Centre. Stark was standing on the steps flanked by two people.
‘That’s Rathbone and Sanchez Zah,’ Lola said. ‘They’re Stark’s best friends.’
We couldn’t hear the sound so Minos pulled out his tablet.
‘It’s not working,’ he said, water poured out of one corner.
I thought about the inside of the tablet and all the little chips inside and how dry they were and more water poured out of the sides. After a moment it lit up.
‘That’s awesome,’ Minos said. ‘You know that?’ He found Marshall’s news channel and a sentence scrolled across the screen announcing that Stark would be forming an interim government. Minos nudged Lola so hard she almost fell off our perch.
I wondered why Vermina couldn’t see me.
The sentence that scrolled after Stark’s caught my eye. ‘Hunt on for Vanguard,’ I read.
‘Hunt?’ Minos said. ‘We’re not hiding.’
‘Heroes disappear in chaos at parliament building,’ I read on.
‘Why are they putting Stark in charge?’ Lola said, still a step behind in her relief at his release.
‘Tourniquet,’ Minos said, absorbing the news as he checked his source feed. ‘He says the people from the Arts Academy have always been the voice of caution and reason and that Stark is the best choice.’
‘And because they’ve been in the Detention Centre people won’t link them with the old government or Imagination Industries, I bet,’ I said.
‘Well, Stark’s hatred for Imagination Industries knows no bounds,’ Lola said.
There was flash of light in the
gathering dusk, followed by a boom over to the north east. A half-hearted mushroom cloud rose into the sky. The crowd cheered.
‘That was the Entertainment Centre,’ Minos said. ‘I bet you.’
‘I wonder what will happen now,’ I said.
‘First things first. They’ll blow some more stuff up,’ Minos said.
There was a sudden commotion from the roof down to our left as a gang of a dozen or so people clambered through a skylight and one of them let some bottles slide out of his grip and down the slope. The bottles teetered on the guttering before falling to the ground below. The revellers struggled for a moment with the camber of the roof and their own slippery wetness before managing to unfurl a huge cloth banner. It had a huge letter ‘V’ in a circle on it. It was blue and red. The throng below began to respond and more blue and red signs appeared. The gang on the roof started hooting and howling.
‘Hey,’ Casino couldn’t bear the lack of attention any longer. ‘Over here.’
They didn’t respond. They just carried on holding up their drinks to the crowd below in a vast, communal toast.
‘Hey,’ Casino said, then looked at his hands. ‘Am I visible? I feel visible.’
I had a bad feeling.
‘Yes,’ Roach said. ‘We all are, aren’t we?’
Minos pulled an apple out of his bag, it was so shiny it could only have come from Haggia. He tossed it down onto the roof hitting one of the revellers. She looked up, rubbing her shoulder, stared right at us and saw nothing. Lola was in and out of my mind before I could stop her.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ was all she said.
We didn’t need to go all back the way we had come, we could just make our way out the front door. The water was still rising, as we waded through the drowning grandeur it was up to my thighs. All kinds of waste floated by, rotten and stinking. Minos led us through the maze of rooms where we’d found the old man, back when Minos was dead, and as we climbed up the narrow staircases we left the water behind. I thought-dried us all and we walked on.
‘Catch us up,’ Lola said.
‘Straight on and when you can’t do that go left,’ Minos said.
I didn’t understand at first, I was lagging behind the others trying to think. They disappeared around a corner. I passed a deep alcove and sitting inside on a wooden bench with a long tapestry bolster was Vermina. She was shivering and wet, but wrapped in a thick, dry robe. As I sat next to her I could hear her teeth chattering. I thought of all the things I could have said, but she wouldn’t have heard any of them. Her communications unit gave a long beep signalling an external call coming through. She ignored it until it rang through a third time, then she felt for it in her pockets.
‘Hello.’
I could hear the voice on the other end of the line, it was Stark. He was making an offer.
‘I’m not sure,’ she said.
‘Well, your name has been put forward and I think you would be a valuable addition to the team. If you want to be,’ Stark said.
‘Who put it forward?’
‘Me,’ Stark said. ‘And Agent Tourniquet.’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘It will be new,’ Stark said. ‘Not like Securities and certainly not like Enforce, it will be a public body again.’
She said nothing.
‘Think about it,’ he said. ‘Please. Where are you?’
‘At the House, something’s happened.’
There was silence on the other end of the line then, ‘Is it true?’ Stark said. ‘It was them?’
‘Yes,’ her voice was softer than a whisper. ‘Something’s gone wrong.’
‘I’m sending someone, stay there.’
I waited until they arrived, it was only five minutes or so. Two women, armed but not visibly so ,with faces quick to show concern took her away. I joined the others outside and watched the boat speed back out with its green light flashing.
‘Does Stark still know Vermina?’ I said. ‘I mean, have they seen each other recently?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ Lola said. ‘I didn’t know they knew each other at all. Why?’
‘He just offered her a job.’
‘She take it?’ Minos said.
‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘She will.’
‘This is unbelievable,’ Casino said as a man protected by a cloud of homebrew fumes stumbled into him. ‘This isn’t how it usually goes. Maybe because I made you all invisible something’s gone wrong and we just need to wait for it to right itself.’
‘Don’t tell him,’ Lola thought to me. ‘Don’t tell any of them until you’re sure.’
It was slow going back to the hotel, we jumped from boat to boat in the flotilla until we made dry land and then tried to commandeer a selfdrive in the hope that people would think that it was still functioning on its own. There weren’t any around. We couldn’t take a car because we didn’t want people to see a car driving itself down the road. Not because we thought we’d scare them, but because we couldn’t work out how we’d cope when the inevitable happened and some joker thought they’d climb aboard and roll us over.
‘At least no one can see what I look like,’ Casino said, he pulled at his filthy top.
‘My trousers are chaffing,’ Minos said, still cheerful. ‘But hey, at least I’m not dead. Right? I am right?’
‘I smell,’ Casino said. ‘Of sewage.’
We couldn’t find a quiet way to walk home, everyone was in the streets partying. A handful of people were still blowing things up but Stark had pleaded for calm and managed to put everyone in the mood for a jovial celebration. He may have been a reluctant leader but he was a natural. The city felt more peaceful than I’d ever known it, the everyday malevolence suspended. A woman came running out of a doorway and smacked into Lola so hard she went flying into the road, knocking down part of a conga line.
‘Can you not do something about this?’ she said to me.
We found a table in a looted shop, old habits were perhaps hard to break after all. It turned itself upside down and we all squeezed onto it. I thought-lifted it into the air, as we rose over the crowd Casino snatched a Vanguard banner from the hands of a boy of about twelve.
‘Look, look,’ the boy pointed and the crowd around him watched the banner rise over the street, somehow caught on a floating table. The wind caught the flag like a sail and we drifted home, people below looking up in wonder for a moment and then getting back to drinking to today and dreaming about tomorrow. It was just another magical thing happening on a magical day to them.
