The Siege of Reginald Hill

by Corinna Turner

  “So who did it?” said Bane, much more interested in the old story than I’d ever seen him. “Who attacked him?”

  I shrugged. “Could’ve been pretty much any thugs of any description. Practically everyone hates EGD Security, even racists.”

  “But why protect them? Just let them get away with it!”

  I shrugged again. “I imagine he felt so guilty about his job, he considered that he deserved it. I can just see it.”

  Bane still looked doubtful. “You’d think he’d have wanted a gang that vicious taken off the street.”

  “I doubt his sense of civic responsibility was functioning at its best just then, Bane,” I said dryly.

  Bane’s turn to shrug. “Well, perhaps.”

  Watkins’ snores tailed off with a bit of a grunt. He raised his head and looked around, blinking and rubbing his eyes, then checked his watch. “Ah, sorry, lassie, how rude of me. Cluttering up your sofa all afternoon like some drunken sailor!”

  I hid a smile. “It’s no problem; I had rather a long nap myself. We’d hardly want to throw you out before you’d digested your dinner.”

  “You’re very kind,” said Watkins dryly. “But I know I drank too much, and I apologise. I’d better be on my way.”

  The worst effects of the wine did seem to have worn off, so after taking a group photo of the four of us for him to show his children and grandchildren, I took him back to St Peter’s. There, Snail inspected his photos, deferring the granting of permission to me for any that showed Luc, Bane or myself, and then returned Watkins’ EuroID card in exchange for the Vatican pass.

  “Interesting company you’re keeping,” Snail remarked, once Watkins had headed off to finish his interrupted tour of the basilica.

  “Watkins is a good guy,” I said. “It was kind of nice to see him, actually.”

  “Kind of?” muttered Snail sceptically, settling himself in front of his screen again.

  “Okay, so it’s hard not to have mixed feelings,” I admitted, then added firmly, “but I’m glad he came.”

  Snail spread his hands in surrender, so I headed home.

  21st May (20)

  Haven’t written in this since last Sunday! Never mind. Had U and Jane to Sunday lunch again. No unexpected guests this time. They arrived looking decidedly pleased with each other. [B: Besotted, you mean!]

  “We’ve told Eduardo,” U announced, quietly radiant.

  Clearly this had some special significance if you spoke VSS-ese, but I had to ask, “Er, told him what?”

  “That we’re...” he shot Jane a wondering look. “That we’re... in a relationship.”

  “Oh. That’s his business, is it?”

  “Eduardo thinks everything is his business,” snorted Bane.

  U laughed at that. “This really is, actually. He doesn’t like people to be on duty together. To prevent the distraction, you know?”

  “Oh, right.”

  Jane caught my eye and beamed. Clearly things were going very well. Thank you, Lord, for that.

  [B: Amen!]

  18th August (20)

  Oh dear, I’m not doing very well with this diary. Three months since I’ve written anything. I’m just so busy with Luc and the blog and everything. I simply must do the hoovering this week. Bane keeps doing it, and he says he doesn’t mind but I know he does really—and it’s not like he hasn’t got plenty to do himself!

  [B: You know if I get really fed up I’ll just stop doing it all, right?]

  Jane’s just been here. Fretting whether U really likes her because they’ve been going out for three months and he’s only just held her hand for the first time. I explained to her that for U, holding hands is pretty much the equivalent of French kissing for a less uber-chaste guy, and she cheered up.

  I didn’t actually say this to her, of course, but if U’s holding her hand, I reckon he’s made his mind up. Though he probably feels it’s too soon to... well, to actually propose! When she’d gone I did a happy dance all around the living room.

  [B: I’m sorry I missed that!

  M: I can do it again, but only if you join in.

  B: I’ll think about it!]

  I can’t believe how much Jane is changing, though. She’s so much less snappy and defensive nowadays. I kind of accidentally let slip something about that to U, and he just looked surprised. ‘Well, isn’t it obvious how starved she’s been of love?’ he said. I’ve been thinking about that quite a lot. And it’s true, isn’t it?

  I always tried to make allowance for Jane’s prickliness because I could tell how stressful her life must have been as an unRegistered child, always waiting for that knock on the door. But I hadn’t really thought about how she must have felt about her parents. That they’d failed her before she was even born—and that they’d never made any plans to save her. She definitely loved them, because she didn’t try to escape until after Sorting Day, when they could no longer be punished for it. But did she ever believe they really, truly loved her? Okay, most parents never made a run for it with their unRegistered child, but some did. And all... should’ve. Shouldn’t they?

  I suppose I just feel bad that I was in the Facility with Jane for almost four months and I never saw what U saw almost straight away: that Jane is a much warmer, nicer person than I ever gave her credit for, if you can just peel away all those defensive layers. Clearly, as a judge of character, I suck. :(

  [B: Jane’s an onion person—they’re always hard to read.

  M: What are you, a carrot? Totally straightforward?

  B: Well, you’re an open book! Again! :-D]

  25th October (20)

  Luc walked for the first time today! On his own. Just a few steps, then Bane had to catch him!

  [B: So proud!]

  Eduardo came to lunch. He suggested Bane might like to do VSS basic training at last—Bane’s been officially ‘attached’ to the VSS for ages—but Bane wasn’t too keen. It’s a one-year course and he can’t see how he’ll be able to keep the rescue missions going at the same pace if he’s doing training all day and night. Especially with a toddler as well! As I pointed out. Eduardo didn’t seem too bothered, just said true enough, we’ll wait for a better time then.

  [B: God’s the only one who knows when that will be!]

  Bane was a bit at a loose end after the vote, having his eyes back, and everything, but it didn’t take him long (precisely three weeks, actually!) to hit on the idea of helping star-crossed mixed race couples (like Juwan and Doms) to get out of the EuroBloc. Loads of them want to leave, so they can get married properly, and avoid the Stable Population Act forcing them to have kids with someone of their own race when they reach thirty unRegistered.

  Strictly speaking, people can leave, of course, once they’re Adults, but the EuroGov make it so complicated to actually get the necessary permits and visas and so on, that loads of people would rather just drop everything and do a runner, if they’re sure they’ll never want to go back. Bane calls it the ‘Matrimonial Express’ service, though of course no one is obliged to marry once they’re safe in Africa. But most of them do.

  [B: I get sent so much wedding cake!]

  Bane doesn’t usually go on the missions himself, thank goodness. Even he can see that it’s an unnecessary risk. Practically anyone else stands a good chance of getting away with it if caught, but Bane’s still wanted on a few capital charges that the Vote didn’t render void. He hates not going, of course.

  [B: Ain’t that the truth!]

  He does go out to the ship quite often, mind you.

  [B: It’s not the same.]

  He’s actually really good at playing the media angle. He documents the missions and releases photos and non-classified info to the press. The public love the whole thing! It’s really been fuelling support for the campaign against the Breeding Laws—and a lot of the campaign is grass roots, as well, not just me!

  The EuroGov can’t lock you up for using the religious term ‘marriage’ anymore, of course, but they still d
on’t legally recognise religious marriages. People have to have a civil registration too. It’s a minor point, but hopefully we might get to it one day.

  [B: Yeah, according to the EuroGov, we’re not really ‘married’! Idiots!]

  26th December (21)

  U and Jane are engaged! [B: About time!]

  U popped the question at this oh-so-romantic dinner on Christmas Eve. He took her along to the greenhouses, and he’d put candles and fairy lights everywhere in one of them, and a little table and two chairs, and they had a really private dinner, which is actually rather hard to achieve here! Jane was thrilled. She said yes, of course, so U is thrilled too.

  [B: Almost levitating, in fact!]

  The only drawback of this long-awaited event is that Jane clearly won’t be able to talk about anything other than wedding plans for the next year—or six months if she has her way. Don’t get me wrong, I am really interested, but Jane is way more interested!

  Oh, Bane and I are moving to a larger apartment soon, so Luc can have his own room. We’ll still be in the same block, though.

  [B: I have this feeling we’re going to be in this block for a long, long time—unless you can remove the target tattooed next to the scar on your forehead, anyway...

  Bother, didn’t realise it was that visible!]

  17th June (21)

  I am such a useless diarist! [B: Yep.]

  I put bits and pieces from daily life into my blog, but never get around to opening this thing! However, I had to make an entry today. After a year’s hard campaigning—and lots of ‘Matrimonial Express’ missions!—the EuroGov have just announced that, ‘having become aware of serious concerns among the population’ and ‘as listening to such concerns is always our priority’ they are instigating a ‘temporary suspension of the Critical Genetic Diversity Act! So in future people like Watkins, or Juwan and Doms—or Unicorn, if he’d stayed in the EuroBloc—won’t be forced to pair off with random strangers when they hit thirty! The main Breeding Laws are still in force, though, so Bane isn’t out of a job yet.

  [B: Am I allowed to write ‘oh good’, next to this?]

  Oh, the other big thing I wanted to record! Bane and I are hoping to have another baby soon. Luc is 17 months and needs a little brother or sister, don’t you think?

  [B: Definitely!]

  14th September (21)

  U and Jane got married today! [B: Liar! ;-)]

  What a wonderful day. I’ve never seen U happier and Jane was practically floating. She found a sort of deep cream and gold ball gown and she looked stunning. U had Bane, Snail and Bee for groomsmen. Jon and Kyle served at the altar. I was a bridesmaid, along with Jane’s newest friends, Galena, Calla, and Kibuuka, a few of those rather rare things—female VSS agents! Plus Caroline and Harriet and Sarah. So loads of bridesmaids! And lots of the others from the Free Town of Kanju came as guests. It was brilliant seeing them all. I’m actually writing this the following day because the party went on rather a long time! [B: As I said.]

  It was nice to catch up with Bee a bit, as well. They let him stay in the apartment with U, Jon and Snail to begin with, for familiarity, but after he’d been in his new job a while, he preferred to move to the Vatican Police Barracks. Easier being with his new comrades. Snail was a bit downcast about that, but he understood it was better for Bee.

  They’ve remained best friends, mind you, despite Bee still not remembering more than a handful of things from before the nonLethal grenade. One memory he got back is of Snail, though, from their basic VSS training, and one is of his parents, which is really good since they’re dead. But basically, Snail and Bee just carried right on being friends regardless of Bee’s memories, or lack of, which just shows that some things go deeper than rational thought.

  Luc is walking so well now! No baby news yet.

  [B: Good excuse to try even harder?

  M: Why do we need an excuse?

  B: Good point!]

  21st January (22)

  Big news! The campaign has been growing, and Bane and I have certainly been doing all we can to help it. And now... the Race Breeding Laws are suspended! ‘Pending further examination of new scientific discoveries that have recently come to light’ is how the EuroGov are putting it. Trying to make out that some new research is suggesting Genetic Mixes may not be the disasters for the human race that they’ve been claiming for so long.

  Eduardo says if we keep this up the EuroGov may just wake up one day and find they’ve accidentally turned into a real democratic government! And that it’s really not so bad? I suggested, but Eduardo snorted and said maybe. Or they’ll panic, lose their heads entirely and start throwing their weight around, turn the place into a police state, people disappearing in the night, summary executions... like those dim-witted and therefore usually, in the scheme of things, fairly short-lived authoritarian states in the twenty-first century where they messed around with normal people’s lives rather than letting them live quietly and making sure they had no motive to rebel, EuroGov-style.

  Jon said surely not, that’s never been the EuroGov’s policy, they’ve always gone for clever and subtle with the main population, and they got their fingers singed badly enough when they resorted to force with the Vatican and with Malta that they’re hardly likely to repeat the experiment any time soon. To say nothing of executing Lucas. I mean, yes, Lucas had been tried and sentenced to death already, and everything, but to do it in public like that. It was such a PR disaster, Reginald Hill got demoted over it, though sadly he regained his old position as Minister for Internal Affairs earlier this year. [B: Boo! Hiss!]

  Well, you can’t win them all, as they say.

  Anyway, to this Eduardo said okay, so they probably wouldn’t go down that route, but we should avoid making them feel they’re right up against a wall, because frightened people do stupid things, and very frightened people do very stupid things. He was looking at me at the time, so apparently it’s my responsibility to pull the EuroGov’s teeth so gently they don’t freak out about it. [B: Yes, it is.]

  No pressure or anything. Thanks Eduardo. This latest victory can barely be attributed to me, you know! [B: Yes, it can!]

  Bane said when everyone had gone, Yes! Now he can focus on helping families expecting a third child—yep, the non-racial parts of the Breeding Laws are still in force. The EuroGov levy such a large fine for the birth of a third child—several times the annual combined income of the couple—that most families feel they have to accept the free abortion. Especially since, with a baby on the way, even people who’d rather leave instead don’t always have time to get the official travel papers through.

  Bane was wanting to turn his attention to this before, but he held off because the Race campaign was gathering so much force. One thing at a time, don’t split your energies, and all that.

  [B: Because no one with a small child ever has

  enough energy. Fact.]

  Anyway, the more we think about it, the more thrilled we are that Bane can help these families at last. Especially because—it’s big news all round!—I took a pregnancy test and—finally!—it’s positive! Luc’s little baby brother or sister is on the way!

  [B: So we’ve got about 8 months to pray for more energy!]

  2nd March (22)

  Kyle was ordained as deacon today! What a lovely Mass.

  [B: All very nice.]

  When Kyle started seminary, of course they were still doing the highly pressurised four-year course, because of the desperate need for priests, what with them constantly getting executed. As soon as we won the Religious Freedom vote, they went back to a six-year course, because the four-year course was just insanely hard on the young men. They had about zero free time whatsoever, for four years.

  Of course, six years is still pretty intense when most of them haven’t been to university to get a head start, like they often had before the religious suppression began, but it’s not quite so mad.

  Anyway, Jon is doing the six-year course, but since Kyle
and his year group had already done two years of hyper-pressurised study, they only had to do three more. So a lot of them were ordained deacon today. I felt so proud of him! Of all of them.

  [B: Felt like you were having a weeping competition with all those proud mothers, especially yours!]

  22nd March—Good Friday (22) [B: It really wasn’t good this year.]

  I can hardly write this, my hands keep shaking, and I just keep bursting into tears—I suppose that’s mostly the baby’s fault. But something terrible has happened. We were in St Peter’s for the Good Friday service, and when I came out of my pew to go up to receive Communion this old man in the front seat of the public area stood up and started screaming at me.

  “She’s dead,” he was screaming. “She died, and it would have been such a simple cure, all she needed was one organ but you put a stop to that, didn’t you, you selfish irrational bitch, and now my Hilda’s dead! She’s dead and it’s your fault, do you hear me!” And so on.

  I didn’t know what to do, whether I should try to speak to him, what on earth I could say... A couple of Swiss Guards were heading for the guy, they were keeping their voices down, of course, but I could just hear them trying to calm him, trying to get him to go somewhere quiet and talk to someone.

  Then... everything happened so fast. I think one of the guards yelled, then U, who was bodyguarding me, dived into me, there was a shot, everyone started screaming and U was on top of me but his breathing had gone all gurgly and wrong but a load of other people jumped on top of us, including Bane, and wouldn’t move until Eduardo gave the all clear and I kept yelling, “U’s hurt, get a doctor!” but it seemed forever before they’d get off and let Doctor Frederick through.

  Anyway, Doctor Frederick is still operating on U so we don’t know much yet, other than that the bullet went into his chest, and he’s still alive. I’ve never seen Jane cry before. I kept apologising, I just couldn’t stop, until finally she screamed that U was doing his job and she was proud of him and it was that stupid old man’s fault, so shut up Margo or I’m going to slap your face! And I burst into tears yet again.