A sallow pockmarked face with bloodshot eyes, greasy hair and rotting teeth appeared in his line of vision. Du Bois was aware rather than felt the man searching inside the remains of his jacket.
‘Nice phone, mate. That’s mine now. Ooo, some money. What’s this then? You’ve got more than one warrant card here, mate.’
‘Really? You haven’t noticed the body of the sea creature lying next to the Range Rover?’ He heard splashing. It seemed like the water had risen higher while he’d been lying there.
‘Yeah, he’s all kinds of messed up.’
‘And that’s English, is it?’
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Did you shoot him?’
‘No. The person who did is a very angry lady from Bradford with an exceptionally large gun. Why don’t you put my wallet and phone back and run away, and she probably won’t kill you.’
‘Why don’t I take them and run away?’ he asked. Du Bois had to admit that he had a point. Some other operatives had powerful electrical charges in their phones and other items which could be set off by transmitting a command from their internal nano-systems. Du Bois had always eschewed that upgrade, assuming he’d never get into a situation like this.
‘The harder you make it for us to recover those items, the more you’ll suffer,’ du Bois assured the man.
‘You’re pretty scary for a paraplegic,’ the thief told him.
‘Now you get a vocabulary?’
The case! du Bois suddenly thought. Did the man have the case? He tried to make contact with the smart systems on the vials inside the cases containing the blood and genetic samples from Talia. They were out of range.
‘Shit!’ du Bois shouted.
‘You all right, mate?’ The thief’s apparent concern wrong-footed du Bois for a moment.
‘Brilliant! Not only is my spine no longer broken, but thankfully I’m no longer being robbed.’
‘No, you are, really.’
‘Sarcasm not your thing then?’
‘Oh, I get it. Good one. You won’t mind if I look in the car then?’
‘No. Go ahead. Take your time.’
‘That’s all fucked up as well, by the way.’
‘Oh is it? Well thank you for letting me know, and please do keep me up to date.’
The Range Rover shifted underneath him as the thief climbed in, sending pain shooting through du Bois’s spine. He was trying to remember the last time he’d truly been aware of the case while entertaining complex revenge fantasies involving the man in his Range Rover.
‘Fuck me! Is this a shooter?’ Du Bois thought that the world must hold constant surprises for this individual, every moment a new experience.
‘If by that you mean is it a gun, then no, it’s a teapot.’
‘Sarcastic cunt.’
‘Well quite. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you not to say and do things worthy of sarcasm?’
‘What?’
‘Never mind.’
‘So what are you, a copper or something?’
‘Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m trying to concentrate here. If you absolutely must rob me then could we have a little more robbery and a little less chat?’
‘You’re the boss.’
The gunfight in Old Portsmouth was the last time he knew for sure that he had had the case. It was the only time he’d lost consciousness. He didn’t think that he’d just lost it, which meant that the DAYP must have it. He closed his eyes. This was unimaginably bad, particularly if, as du Bois imagined, Beth was about to get herself killed and not retrieve Talia.
When du Bois opened his eyes he saw that the thief was holding his FAL carbine.
‘All right if I take this, yeah?’
‘Oh please do. After all, I understand there’s a world shortage of sub-literate morons with automatic weapons.’
‘You know, you’re really not very nice.’ The thief actually sounded hurt.
‘Having my back broken and being robbed has brought out the worst in me. I’m normally a sweetheart.’
‘You don’t have to be so nasty about it,’ the thief said, and then pointed du Bois’s own carbine at him. Du Bois had a moment to ponder how he’d basically talked the man into shooting him with his own gun. Perhaps he should be nicer to people, he reflected. He heard the man start to squeeze the trigger.
Beth let the UMP drop on its sling. She swung the shotgun round, bringing it to bear. The muzzle flash was that much brighter as a nearby face disintegrated. The loud report of the weapon compared to the suppressed whispers of the H & K seemed like a violation of the place.
They were so close that Beth barely needed to aim now. Just shift the shotgun slightly and fire, and another one flew off the outcrop and into the now bloody fluid. Beth knew that she had not killed them, though several were floating face down in the liquid.
In the periphery of her vision she saw two of the six-limbed, bone-crested creatures that du Bois had killed on the motorway climb up onto nearby outcrops. She knew she had nothing that could even harm them.
The shotgun was empty. She drew the accurised .45 smoothly from the holster at her hip, pulling the hammer back on an already chambered round as she did so.
‘Stop!’
Beth heard the cry in the momentary lapse in the gunfire. Thinking back, she had heard the cry during the fight, but she’d been busy. It was a male voice. The hybrids around her stopped their advance but swayed, many of them baring their teeth in silent growls and drooling horribly. Beth levelled the pistol at the closest one but did not fire.
‘Please stop!’ the man’s voice said. It was a strong voice but sounded odd, like the man had something stuck in his throat. There was movement and a figure, more human-like than the rest, moved to the top of an outcrop to stand next to one of the servitors.
In the greys of her vision she could make out eyes that were dark pools. His skin was pale and scaled. His neck seemed to palpate slightly and his head was utterly hairless. Webbed fingers with sharp-looking black nails were wrapped around a staff which appeared to be made of the same bone material as the outcrops. He was clad in soaking rags which hung off him and revealed much of his pale skin.
‘You can lower your weapon. We will not attack you if you do not attack us,’ he told her. ‘I am Ezard.’
Beth nodded to him and holstered the .45. She quickly reloaded the UMP and then started pushing shells into the M4’s tubular magazine.
‘Look, I don’t give a fuck about any of this. You can have your secret war. I just want my sister.’
‘I am afraid that won’t be possible.’ He sounded apologetic.
‘Then a lot more of you are going to get shot.’ Though Beth was reasonably sure that all the ones she’d shot earlier were already starting to heal. She was also sure that she recognised a few more from the motorway. She’d last seen them lying on the ground after du Bois had shot them, a lot.
‘She has to leave here with us,’ Ezard said.
Beth just nodded, finished reloading the M4 and let it drop on its strap. She swung the UMP up and aimed it at Ezard. The hybrids stopped swaying and hunched ready to attack. The servitor next to Ezard looked about to pounce. Beth was pretty sure it could make it to her in one leap.
‘I will fucking shoot you,’ she told him.
‘Then I will heal, and you will die for a meaningless gesture. She has to come with us.’
‘Why? Why is she so important to every fucking freak in this city?’
‘This is not the Divine Mother; this is her seed,’ Ezard said. ‘All the shit in the city, the violence, the abuse, the pain, hatred, fear – all of this is pollution. The Divine Mother feels it all, and over the years it has slowly driven her insane as she sleeps. She must wake, give birth to the seed and leave this place for somewhere where there is no hatred.’