‘Madame,’ he says. ‘If you could stop swinging your legs.’
Paper pouts again.
Sliding her gaze round the room, she looks for weapons. There are none visible, obviously enough. House defence systems use needle guns. Steel darts blown from hidden tubes in the walls and ceiling and floor. A good AI can kill one man in a group of fifty and leave the rest untouched.
‘I heal fast. And she’ll be dead whatever happens.’
‘And your friends?’ he asks. ‘Do they heal fast too?’
Chapter 19
We’re delivered to a prison four floors up, looking down on an empty street. It’s at the back of General Luc’s house. Because it was to his house that Sergeant Toro led us. Those were the Wolf’s poisonous ancestors smirking from the paintings on the stairs we just climbed.
Paper comes along for the fun.
‘I’m sure you’ll be comfortable,’ she says.
The room is stripped bare and has one window. A single light panel glows sullenly overhead. The floor is tiled. There is no piece of furniture in sight.
‘Fuck off,’ I tell her.
‘Sven,’ she says, ‘I’m only trying to be friendly.’
Across the empty street is a smaller house. It has less grand carving around its windows. The other difference is those windows don’t have bars.
‘I know we have history,’ the Wolf tells Anton. ‘But use tonight wisely. Think about where your loyalties really lie.’
‘And me, sir?’ Leona says.
General Luc looks amused. ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘I’m sure my men can find a use for you somewhere.’
Sergeant Leona reddens.
‘As for you,’ he says, staring at me. ‘Your choice is simple . . .’
‘Not interested.’
‘You haven’t heard what it is.’
‘Don’t care. Not going to happen.’ Betray Colonel Vijay or be killed. I don’t need the Wolf putting my options into words to know what tomorrow will bring.
The door that slams on us is good-quality steel. I know this, because, having tried to put my fist through it, I try to kick it off its hinges and that doesn’t work either.
I’m missing my combat arm, obviously.
Also my gun, my boot knife, and the sabre handle.
Although Sergeant Toro misses the blade I’m wearing between my shoulders, in memory of Franc, who used to carry her own knife there.
When the time comes I’m going to kill the sergeant. Also General Luc, Ms Osamu and the smirking guards. But I’ll kill Toro fast because he’s a professional and he’d pay me the same respect.
‘Sven,’ says Anton, ‘we need to talk.’
‘When we’re out of here.’
Anton scowls.
I ignore him.
The cathedral clock strikes for ten in the evening. It strikes again for the half-hour. We’re still no closer to getting out.
I run through the list in my head.
Twelve paces by twelve paces. One door, locked. One window, barred. One lighting panel, sunk into the ceiling. One tiled floor, now chipped. There’s mesh beneath. A grille leads to an air vent, for a cooling system that no longer works. My hand is large enough to cover the grille, and the duct behind is narrower than my wrist.
Sergeant Leona jumps when I toss the grille down.
‘Sven,’ says Anton.
He shuts up when I glare at him.
My head hurts. General Luc and Paper Osamu. Paper Osamu and General Luc. As U/Free ambassador, Paper obviously attends local dinners and functions. So they could have met anywhere.
But something stinks.
A tension, that’s what lay between them.
The Wolf’s scowl. Paper kicking her heels like a spoilt brat, using his desk as her chair because she can. She’s the U/Free ambassador, who’s going to stop her? And that map on the table.
Why a paper map, and not a screen? The answer hits me the moment I stop thinking about it. The Wolf uses a paper map for the same reason Colonel Vijay uses a machine that punches letters into paper when writing to Aptitude.
He’s hiding something.
Who from? I wonder.
‘Sir,’ says Leona.
She steps back when I glare at her.
‘You’re grinding your teeth again, sir.’
If Leona had my headache she’d be grinding her teeth too.
When the lights in the panel die I think someone’s turned them out. I’m wrong, because stars begin to appear in the Farlight sky. That’s strange enough to take us all to the window. As we watch, the sodium glare fades a little at a time. Blackouts are common in the barrios.
But not here in the centre.
The high clans would never stand for it. And yet it’s happening. One after another the lights lining the street below go out.
‘Try the door.’
It’s locked. The bolt’s electronic, but we’re not that lucky. We’re still locked in. Although there’s obviously a lever that will open it. Equally obviously, it’s on the other side.
‘Face it,’ Anton says. ‘We’re trapped.’
I make another circuit of our prison in silence. I’m not interested in being trapped. I’m interested in getting out of here.
‘Yell “Fire”,’ I tell Leona.
She looks at me.
‘Do it.’
When she hesitates, I take three steps towards her and raise my fist. Her yell has real emotion in it.
‘See? That wasn’t difficult . . .’
Her voice echoes off the walls until she’s deafened us.
‘Well,’ Anton says, ‘that doesn’t work.’
He’s wrong. It works perfectly. If no one comes, that’s because 1) there’s nothing in this room to burn. And 2) they obviously don’t have time to shut us up. Which means 3) we’re being left alone.
Not because they want to soften us up. They’d have to be stupid to think that’s possible. The answer is they’re busy with something more important than us. The next question is, What?
It has to do with that map.
And what is Paper doing here? That thought won’t go away either.
It nags like a hangover. She’s the UFree ambassador and General Luc commands the Wolf Brigade. His job is to protect Octov. Her job is to make our glorious leader do what the UFree want. She’d put it differently. But that’s what it comes down to . . .
If General Luc and Ms Osamu are not allies, and they’re not enemies, what the fuck does it make them?
That was Paper’s hover.
Not sure why I didn’t grasp it earlier.
She always did like her toys. I was one of them. Sven, the barbarian. So crude in bed. So exciting to bring to parties.
*
Anton chooses exactly the wrong moment to demand we talk about Colonel Vijay and Aptitude. He thinks we should accept that the colonel’s probably beyond saving. What the Wolf wants the Wolf gets . . .
I’m so used to hearing that said about General Jaxx that it’s a shock to hear it said about someone else. And I don’t agree about Colonel Vijay. Giving up now would be like handing his heart to the Wolf on a plate ourselves.
Not going to happen.
Anton scowls when I say this. So I decide to explain a few home truths. Being me, I try to keep them simple. Three sentences into explaining how Apt’s husband died, and Anton is accusing me of cold-blooded murder. So I start again, from the top . . .
‘On Paradise, Debro said look after Apt, right?’
Anton looks at me.
‘Isn’t that what she said? Look after her . . .’
He nods abruptly.
‘That’s what I did.’
Holding up my hand silences him.
‘You know what my orders were . . .? Begin with Senator Thomassi, finish with Aptitude, kill the lot, burn down their house too. You know who issued that order?’
Anton shakes his head.
Of course he fucking doesn’t.
‘Vijay’s father. That’s why he wants to kill me. Not because I brought you back from Paradise. Because he discovered I disobeyed his order to kill Apt. You know why I killed Senator Thomassi and saved your daughter?’
‘Sir,’ Leona says.