‘Leona’s precog.’
‘Like Iona?’
‘Different skill set.’
Neen doesn’t like that idea.
That is fine, because I don’t like it either. In fact, if Leona turns out to be a problem I’ll kill her. She’s only a temporary manifestation of our glorious leader, after all. An avatar. The word finds its way into my mind.
It’s not like she’s the real thing.
‘Actually,’ she says, ‘it’s exactly like.’
‘In your dreams.’
I’ve talked with OctoV, felt the power of his mind as it turned from a million problems on a thousand different battle fronts, to concentrate on the tiny irritation I represented the first time we met.
‘Sven,’ says Leona. ‘Think bigger.’
‘You call him sir,’ Neen snaps, stepping forward.
Leona looks at him, then nods. This time she means it. After a long scowl to make sure she knows he’s the senior sergeant round here, he steps back.
‘We’ll talk later,’ I tell Leona.
That sounds enough of a threat to satisfy Neen.
Chapter 39
A copter hangs directly over the houses we’re approaching. Most of the crowd are busy pointing at the roof of the one in the middle, where a single figure edges along a balustrade, before dropping from sight.
A second later, he reappears.
There’s no balustrade on this house to protect him from falling. Just a drop to the road and his audience below. Half of Farlight has turned out for Colonel Vijay’s last performance. Including the Wolf, who stands scowling in his scout car, surrounded by his men who keep the crowd back.
‘Shit,’ Rachel says.
A low moan, somewhere between upset and excitement, sweeps the crowd as Colonel Vijay begins climbing the tiles towards a roof light and slips slightly. His fingers grab at the tiles, but he can’t get a grip.
‘Oh fuck,’ Neen says.
Doubt he knows he’s said it.
Tiles come loose as Vijay’s slide gets faster.
My plan’s fucked. The thought comes as one of his feet clips guttering, which breaks away and begins to fall. He’s going over the edge, when his other foot hits the bracket that held the guttering in place and his slide stops.
The crowd sighs.
Very slowly, Colonel Vijay reaches for a handhold and restarts his climb.
‘Well,’ says the SIG, ‘that was exciting . . .’ Telling me to watch the Wolf, it blips a laser dot on his helmet and removes it just as quickly. ‘Ninety-nine yards, one foot, eight inches,’ it says. ‘Barely worth aiming.’
General Luc is now smiling. So I imagine his earlier scowl was at the thought of not being able to slaughter Vijay Jaxx himself.
‘One shot,’ the SIG says. ‘How hard can it be?’
‘That’s not why we’re here.’
‘Kill Luc. Save Vijay.’
‘Enough . . .’
‘Just saying.’
‘Well don’t, all right?’
‘You know,’ it snarls, ‘I think I preferred Aptitude.’
As we watch, Colonel Vijay claws his way to the roof light, and punches out the glass. Even at this distance we hear it shatter, before we see him roll over the window’s lip and disappear into an attic below.
The colonel must know he is trapped. I’m not sure what he found downloading those data cores of Morgan’s . . . May the bastard sleep badly and have a hideous life next time. But it’s got the plotters riled. Unless this really is just about killing Indigo Jaxx’s son.
One of the copters watches the front.
Another watches the river behind, while a third locks off the far end of the embankment and a fourth locks off the nearer end. A fifth wasp hangs right overhead. That one flies the pennant of Sebastian Thomassi from its tail.
Now is when we need the anti-tank rifle I wanted earlier.
The crowd knows Vijay Jaxx is cornered. Pushing and shoving, they jostle for a better position, hoping to get close to the steps leading to the house where he’s taken refuge. It’s like watching water come to the boil. Everyone is waiting for a sign. It comes when a man climbs the steps and turns to bless us.
The Archbishop of Farlight.
As one, the crowd bow their heads.
Every single word that man says is a lie.
I refuse to believe this dawn is glorious, that the collection of whores, looters, pickpockets and rapists around me is anyone’s army for freedom, or that those who follow Sebastian Thomassi are doing God’s will.
Bullshit, the lot of it.
The person behind Augustus, Archbishop of Farlight, convinces me of that. And if he wasn’t proof enough, the U/Free next to him is.
The last time I saw her, Emerald Schott was wearing a dress made from slashed red silk. More slashes than silk. Certainly enough to show her breasts, all four of them . . . It was at a party in Letogratz. Tonight she’s wearing something simpler.
Black, low-cut, but almost decent.
Next to Paper Osamu’s mother-in-law stands Federico fucking Van fucking Zill, wearing a suit, dark glasses and a smirk.
‘Sir,’ Neen says.
He’s waiting for orders.
‘Nothing we can do,’ Anton says. ‘Vijay knows that. He wouldn’t want you to sacrifice the Aux. We’ve still got time to get away.’
Anton is right. If we walk now, we can make it out of the crowd while the Wolf’s attention is still on Colonel Vijay. But then, if I mug him, the rest of us can change our faces and names and live out our lives in luxury.
I’d no more do that than desert.
Besides, I gave Aptitude my word.
‘We’re probably going to die here.’ Don’t imagine I’m telling them anything they haven’t worked out for themselves. ‘Anyone who wants out, step back now.’
No one moves.
Not even Iona, who’s sobbing.
If at first you don’t succeed, destroy the evidence that you tried.
When the crowd get bored trying to pry-bar their way into the house where Colonel Vijay is trapped, someone drops the bar down a drain and sends for explosives. That’s what a woman in front of us says. She’s heard it from a man in front of her.
‘Must be true then.’
There’s a sourness to Neen’s voice that makes her look away.
‘Explosives coming through.’
My gun begins its chant and those nearest us suddenly decide we must be the ones bringing the means to blow down that door. They part willingly.
‘SIG . . .’
‘Just trying to do my bit.’
As the four-breasted U/Free mutters anxiously to Van Zill, the Archbishop of Farlight stares at the disturbance we’re causing, obviously wondering what’s going on. Pretty soon, General Luc is going to stop looking hungrily at that door and start wondering what’s going on as well.
Happens sooner than I’d like.
A shout goes up that the explosives are coming. And it’s enough to attract the Wolf’s attention.
‘Fuck,’ Anton says.
The SIG shivers in my grip.
Yeah, I know. We’ve been seen.
On the far side of the crowd, General Luc snaps out an order and his men start to move. They head for the steps. Same as we do. The Wolf follows, seemingly oblivious of those who scatter to avoid being crushed by his wheels.
Fifty paces from the steps, Luc realizes we’re going to get there first.
He mutters an order to the man jogging beside his vehicle, and Sergeant Toro snaps out an order of his own. A second later, the sergeant and a splinter group cut free from the Wolf Brigade and start pushing towards us.
‘Two o’clock.’
‘Seen them,’ I tell the SIG. ‘Keep scanning.’
And then something happens that changes it all.
The crowd don’t realize at first. Because half are watching us, and the rest are watching General Luc or his splinter group. But inside the house someone slams back heavy bolts and the door begins to open.
‘Fuck,’ says the SIG.
Hard to disagree.
Stamping onto the top step, Colonel Vijay clips down his boots as if he’s on parade. Only then does he lift the hand hanging at his side. His opening shot drills Emerald Schott through the head.