She/They, over the millennia of Her/Their struggle, had watched the behaviour of the disrupters, and the pattern that seemed to lie behind their attacks. She/They had, at times, entertained the proposition that an intelligence was directing the disruptors. For a few long periods, the movements of the disruptors had seemed regular as though they moved according to a directing logic. During other periods, their actions had become completely random, and the idea of an overall intelligence had been rejected by Her/Them as a product of chaos-induced paranoia.
She/They returned Her/Their mind to the present. The mist had taken on a more even quality, and was starting to glow a deep electric blue. Her/Their upward motion ceased. Her/Their two heads turned slowly. Deep in the blue mist something solid seemed to be moving.
***
‘Dur Shanzag is the city of the Presence. Nobody seems to know any more exactly where the Presence came from. Seems as though he or it has been around for thousands of years.’
‘He or it?’
Billy walked along with the Minstrel Boy, a confused look on his face.
‘They say he was a man once, but, by all accounts, he’s not any more. He’s … well, he’s the Presence. They say he’s burned up with the idea of being the master. The lord of everything. They say he’s had four or five empires, way back over hundreds of thousands of years.’
Billy shook his head.
‘How does one man get to live a hundred thousand years? It just isn’t possible.’
The Minstrel Boy shrugged.
‘I’m just telling the story. I don’t have to account for inconsistencies. The story goes that he ain’t a man any more. It could be that he ain’t the original one who built those empires, maybe he’s just another crazy living out some fantasy that he got from some old book. I don’t know, there’s a whole lot of things that it doesn’t pay to look too closely at. When it comes down to it, all I know is that there’s a thing called the Presence, and this is his city.’
‘What about those things that threw us in jail? This Presence was like one of those once?’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head.
‘The Presence wasn’t ever an apeman. Those things are his slaves. He created them. He bred them down through the centuries to serve him. The Shirik, they’re the workers, soldiers and watchdogs of his citadel. The smarter ones are Uruks. They boss the Shirik, and pass on his orders.’
‘What about the Ghâshnákh? What are they?’
‘The Ghâshnákh? They’re the next level of power after the Uruks. They’re men, but slaves just the same. They’re his officers, civil servants and secret police. They hate and fear him but are all loyal to him. I suppose each, in his own way, shares the same desire for power and conquest. His whole massive bureaucracy runs on a balance of greed and fear. It’s not efficient, but I don’t think he cares. It seems like he gets a kind of twisted pleasure out of watching it fuck up.’
‘But surely that’s not going to help him conquer the world?’
‘I don’t think he cares. The rumours say that all his concentration is fixed on the disrupters, He thinks that the way to power lies in the control of the disrupters. That was why I had so much trouble getting you out. You told the Uruk that you’d been hit by a disrupter, and disrupter cases are always interrogated by the Ghâshnákh. That’s why I had to sign you into the Free Corps, in order to get your release papers. You’ll still get questioned by the Ghâshnákh, but it’ll only be a stage three. The Uruk would have handed you over for a stage one. There ain’t too many who live through a stage one.’
‘What’s the Free Corps, then? What have you gotten us into?’
‘Don’t be like that about it. I did the best I could.’
Billy nodded.
‘Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Tell me about this Free Corps.’
‘The Presence is at war. He’s always at war. This time it’s with the Regency of Harod. It’s been going on for years. The Harodin will lose in the end, the neighbouring cities have all lost in the end.’
‘I thought the Shirik did all the Presence’s fighting. I don’t see what he needs us for.’
‘The Shirik make killer infantry, but they’re too dumb to operate anything complicated. He needs mercenaries to man his fighting machines, and operate the big guns. That’s the Free Corps. They’re the crew of mercenaries who do the Presence’s dirty work for him.’
‘How does he treat them?’
‘It ain’t too bad. The Ghâshnákh make sure they have enough women and enough booze. They’re the elite troops and they get treated that way. They’re a rough mean bunch, though.’
‘How long have you signed us on for?’
‘Two years.’
‘Jesus.’
‘That’s the minimum period, nothing else I could do.’
‘What happens then?’
‘You get paid off, and a free passage to the limits of the zone. Of course, they put the arm on you to re-enlist, but in the end, they let you go.’
‘What about escaping?’
‘Should be quite easy once you get to the front. It’s up to you. I’ve done all I can.’
The Minstrel Boy halted, and pointed at a huge granite block, larger, but otherwise identical to the Shirik House.
‘That’s the barracks. Go in and tell the guard that you’re the new recruits. I’ll see you later, okay?’
The Minstrel Boy started to walk away, but Billy called him back.
‘Just one question, Minstrel Boy. How did you get here? And the way you’re dressed up?’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head sadly.
‘Don’t ask, Billy. Just don’t ask.’
‘But …’
‘We all got to survive, Billy. Remember that.’
The Minstrel Boy turned on his heel and walked away. His boots echoed hollowly on the paving stones of the deserted street. Billy watched him go, and then followed the others inside the cold, forbidding building.
A huge man with a full black curly beard lounged behind a desk similar to the Uruk’s. He wore an olive green combat suit and a peaked fatigue cap. A cigar was clenched between his teeth, and a huge pair of combat boots were propped on the desk. The peak of his cap hung down over his eyes, and when Billy, Reave and the Rainman walked in, he raised it lazily with his forefinger. He stared at them for a while, and then lazily shifted the cigar to the side of his mouth.
‘Whatcha want?’
‘Recruits.’
‘Recruits? Where the hell did you come from?’
‘Our friend got us out of jail on the promise that we’d enlist.’
Billy thought it was best to keep quiet about the disrupter.
‘Get lost in the nothings and wind up here?’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘That’s how most of them get here. No one comes here from choice.’
‘It’s bad?’
‘You’ll see.’
He swung his legs off the desk, and his boots hit the floor with a crash. He stood up, and yelled towards a door behind him.
‘Hey Skipper, there’s three recruits out here. Wanna take a look at them?’
A man emerged from the doorway. He was a little wiry man with a clipped moustache. He wore a sheepskin jacket and dark blue trousers tucked into scuffed riding boots. On his head, he had a light blue cap with the same eye and flames badge that the Shirik wore. He looked the three of them up and down.
‘Recruits?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Just got out of jail?’
‘That’s right.’