As if we’re on parade, and he’s inspecting us. Colonel Jaxx is two paces behind. Still in his uniform and wearing his side arm. His loaded side arm, because General Luc lets him keep his rounds. The colonel looks younger than he is. And, God knows, he’s young enough.
The Wolf stops twice.
Once in front of me. Staring me up and down, he asks if I’m glad to have my arm back.
‘Yes . . .’
‘You call him sir,’ Colonel Jaxx snaps.
‘Yes, sir.’
General Luc nods. ‘That’s better.’
‘I was talking to my colonel.’
The Wolf’s eyes tighten. Leaning close, he takes a long look at my skull. I know it’s wide. I’m just not used to people making their interest so obvious.
‘So,’ he says. ‘The last human.’
I salute so fast it’s like a spring uncoiling. General Luc isn’t sure how he feels about that. ‘Checked your record,’ he says. ‘Did you really destroy an Enlightened mother ship?’
‘Not by myself, sir.’
He smiles. ‘Now we get to the truth. What help did you have?’
‘That lot.’ I jerk my head towards the Aux.
The Wolf’s wondering if I’m mocking him. Takes a moment for him to decide I’m not and he likes that even less. ‘Near original,’ he says. ‘Isn’t that what the Uplifted said?’
‘Yes, sir.’
How the fuck does he know about that?
I’d always assumed I’m human, plus. Not that it matters since our glorious- our late, no longer glorious leader declared all forms of human equal. But it seems I’m not. Everyone else is human, minus.
They probably believe they have the bad bits cut out.
The second time he stops is at the end of the line where Anton should be. Anton, who is with us right up to the point General Luc announces he’s abandoning Farlight for the Wolf Brigade’s mountain HQ; and then vanishes, along with five million credits on an open chip, although that’s not something the rest know.
‘Ah yes,’ he says. ‘Our missing hero.’
‘Sir,’ I say.
Grey eyes flick towards me.
‘Anton wasn’t Aux.’
The Wolf smiles. ‘No,’ he says. ‘You’re right. He wasn’t. Was he?’ There’s something dangerously silky in his voice. ‘You’re saying your colonel’s parole didn’t apply to him?’
I shrug. The Wolf is not amused. I’m not sure I care.
‘Well?’ he growls.
‘How the fuck would I know? My childhood was spent stealing food on a planet you’ve never heard of, sir. It took the man who shot my sister to teach me not to eat with my fingers, shit in public and kill animals for fun.’
‘Is there a point to this?’
‘Yeah . . . If it wasn’t for Colonel Vijay I’d have killed you by now, set fire to your corpse and pissed on the ashes.’
He stares at me. ‘Are you really a Death’s Head lieutenant?’
‘General Jaxx’s choice.’
‘That true?’ the Wolf asks Colonel Vijay.
‘My father was an astute judge of men.’
‘Anton Tezuka and I have history,’ General Luc tells him. ‘Did Anton mention that? Such an ambitious young man.’ The general bares his teeth. ‘You know,’ he says, ‘I always wondered what Anton saw in my well-connected, beautiful, absurdly rich fiancee.’
‘Senator Wildeside?’ The colonel looks shocked.
‘Yep,’ I say. ‘Debro.’
The general’s eyebrows rise at my use of her first name. ‘Of course,’ he says. ‘I forget. The dashing young lieutenant saves the disgraced senator from the insane and ravening inmates of an ice planet. Demands her freedom as his reward for destroying an Uplifted mother ship. Are you in love with her?’
My expression makes him bark with laughter.
‘I’ll take that as a no.’
It wasn’t the five million in credits that made Anton desert us. At least, not entirely; although no doubt that helped his decision. As General Luc walks up and down our line, I replay his words in my head. You’re right. He wasn’t. Was he?
Anton didn’t trust the Wolf not to take his revenge.
Right now, General Luc is pretending to talk to himself and we’re listening carefully, because our lives depend on it.
‘I could keep some of you and kill the rest,’ he says. ‘Or simply kill all of you. Only I can’t kill your colonel, can I? Because he’s given parole and, anyway, his heart needs to be fresh.’
Vijay Jaxx says nothing.
So I guess they’ve had that conversation already.
‘And tempting as it is I can hardly kill you, can I?’ he says, looking at me. ‘Last human and all. What with you having freed Debro. Given I intend to marry her daughter . . .’
Colonel Vijay’s head does twitch at that.
‘But,’ he says. ‘Someone has to pay for Anton’s desertion.’
Stopping by Rachel, he raises her head. ‘Hard enough to find snipers as it is.’
Neen he passes without comment. Good sergeants are as valuable as snipers. Noting the corporal’s stripes on Shil’s uniform, and the sour way she scowls at him, the Wolf grunts his approval. Ajac stares straight ahead. Iona is in tears . . .
‘You,’ General Luc tells her. ‘Step out of line.’
‘Take me instead,’ Ajac says, stepping forward.
‘You’re lovers?’ The Wolf sounds amused.
‘Cousins,’ Ajac says. ‘And she’s precog. That has to be worth something.’
The Wolf looks between them, eyes hard as flint, noting their family likenesses. ‘Your accent,’ he demands. ‘What is it?’
‘Hekati,’ says Iona. She manages to hiccup in the middle.
‘You’re from Hekati?’
Iona nods, not realizing she’s saved. No way will the Wolf kill the last two survivors from the oldest of habitats. The first one to become sentient and aware. Keep Iona as his mistress, and make Ajac his servant, quite possibly.
But not kill them.
‘That leaves you,’ he tells Leona.
She smiles. ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘It does.’
‘You think that’s amusing?’
Leona runs her gaze up his uniform, stopping at his face. Grey eyes, swept-back hair, a scar that whitens his cheek. ‘General Luc, commander of the Wolf Brigade, bound to protect the emperor by blood and oath.’ Her smile grows wider. ‘You have no idea how funny it is.’
Chapter 42
In a corner of the wolf’s parade ground in Farlight, under an oak tree that looks as if it’s been there as long as the barracks, which must have been there since the beginning, Leona says goodbye to me. She wraps both arms around my neck and holds tight, resting her head on my chest. I shouldn’t let my hand slip, but I do.
Her bottom is as perfect in the flesh as it is in bronze.
I can feel her grin.
‘Sven,’ she says. ‘They’re about to shoot me.’
‘For real?’
She prises herself away. Lets me see her face. She’s still smiling, but looks slightly puzzled.’ How do you mean for real?’
‘You’ll die like everyone else?’
Snuggling close, she rests her head again, and I feel her nod. ‘We’ve been through this. When the bullets hit, flesh will tear and muscles will rip. My lungs will fail, my vision cloud. I’ll be fighting for life long after any chance of it has gone.’
Leona grips me tighter when I try to pull away.
‘Sit for a second,’ she says. ‘Luc’s given me time to say goodbye.’
Dropping to a crouch, she points to a patch of dirt next to her. So I sit cross-legged beside her.
‘Sven,’ she says. ‘Can I look at the gun?’
She field-strips the SIG so fast my eyes barely follow her fingers. And she lays it out in front of her according to the official manual for a Colt-37, which is what it used to be before it was upgraded to full SIG AI and cinder maker capacity.
Having done that, she slides free its chip.
Breaks the chip into five smaller pieces and reassembles it just as swiftly. Less than thirty seconds later the SIG-37 is swearing blue murder and Leona’s nodding to herself with a pleased smile on her face.
‘You’ve done that before.’
‘At my age, it’s hard to find something I haven’t.’
I’m not sure who’s talking. But I don’t think it’s the girl in front of me.