Scavenger Blood

by Janet Edwards

  I gave him a startled look. If anyone else had suggested building a time machine, then I’d have known they were joking, but I couldn’t be sure with Tad.

  “Unfortunately, Thaddeus Ignatius Wallam-Crane’s research into time travel established that building a time machine was impossible,” added Tad. “I checked all his calculations while I was working in the vegetable garden today, and I can’t see any flaw in them.”

  I rubbed my forehead. Tad had been using the Earth data net to check calculations on time travel while he was digging wintereat in the vegetable garden. He wasn’t just a mass of contradictions but totally unbelievable.

  “I’m relieved that time travel is impossible,” said Donnell. “Thaddeus Ignatius Wallam-Crane caused enough trouble developing portal technology that could cover interstellar distances. I shudder at the thought of what would have happened if he’d invented a time machine as well.”

  “It’s certainly a horrific thought when you consider the problems of temporal paradoxes,” said Machico.

  “And the problems of temporal paradoxes are why it’s impossible to build a time machine,” said Tad. “Time travel itself is theoretically possible, at least to the limited extent of ...”

  Donnell lifted a hand to stop him. “I have enough to worry about without temporal paradoxes, so can we please forget about travelling back to past centuries and concentrate on the problems of February 2408? As well as the number of people committed to general guard duty, we’ve also got Blaze and Nadira having to keep a special watch on you, Braden, and Phoenix, in case any of Cage’s old supporters decide to attack you.”

  He sighed. “Although the idea of finally having some peace from your ever-talking mouth has its attractions, Tad, we can’t let you get murdered. When we leave New York, we’ll need to trade all three of you off-worlders in exchange for safe passage by the citizens’ defences to the south-west, and hopefully get a dozen chickens as well.”

  “I wish you’d stop talking about trading me for chickens,” said Tad plaintively.

  “But the chickens are the only reason I’m working so hard to keep you alive,” said Donnell.

  Tad frowned. “I sometimes think you don’t like me very much.”

  “I have some very contradictory emotions about you,” said Donnell. “Your ancestors invented portal technology, started the great exodus of people and resources to hundreds of colony worlds scattered across space, and then moved to live on the first and wealthiest of those colony worlds themselves. I formed the Earth Resistance to fight against that exodus, lost my war, and watched the Earth I loved reduced to a depopulated ruin.”

  Braden was looking anxious, so I gave him a reassuring smile. Donnell’s words might sound disquieting, but the famous voice that had once held vast audiences spellbound with his songs of loyalty to Earth had a warm, lilting tone to it. Exactly the same tone that Donnell used when he was affectionately teasing one of his junior officers.

  “I admit I’m holding a bit of a grudge about that,” Donnell continued, “and you definitely talk too much. There’s also the minor issue that the Earth Resistance never agreed to any peace treaty, so technically speaking we’re still at war.”

  “On behalf of the Wallam-Crane family, I surrender to the Earth Resistance,” said Tad promptly.

  Donnell laughed again and pointed a forefinger at him. “It’s moments like that, and your almost embarrassing eagerness to help us, which make the crucial difference. Despite all the past history screaming at me to hate you, and my concern that the relationship between Blaze and you will end in misery when you go back off world and forget her, I reluctantly have to admit that I like you.”

  “I’m not going to go off world and forget Blaze,” said Tad. “Now that I’ve retrieved the prototype component I needed from the Wallam-Crane Science Museum, I do have to go to join the Fidelis Project on Zeus in Beta sector. Humanity needs me to build simpler interstellar portals to replace the ancient ones that are breaking down from old age.”

  He paused. “I’d take Blaze with me if I could, but it’s impossible. No colony world would accept a girl of her background with an Armed Agent weapon on her arm, and Blaze would never walk away from her responsibilities to the alliance anyway. We’ll have to be apart for a while, but I won’t leave Earth until the alliance is safely in its new home, and I’ll be returning as soon as I can.”

  “That’s very nice and idealistic,” said Donnell, “but I suspect that finding a way to build simpler interstellar portals will take a long time. There’ll always be another problem that needs you to solve it, so you’ll keep delaying your return to Earth.”

  His face twisted. “I’ve bitter personal experience of the damage a long separation does to a relationship, so ...”

  His words were interrupted by a piercing scream.

  Chapter Four

  Donnell jumped to his feet. “Chaos weeping! What’s that?”

  I was on my feet too, looking around for danger. There was a second scream, this time an obviously childish wail of distress, that helped me find its source.

  I pointed at the door of Reception, where Rebecca was battling with a couple of the women on crèche duty. “Rebecca lost her mother to the winter fever. Now she’s panicking because her father isn’t back from hunting yet. She’s trying to go out into the snow to look for him.”

  Donnell gave an embarrassed laugh and sank down into his chair again. “Being on guard all day has left me jumping at the slightest sound.”

  I was still watching Rebecca. I knew exactly what it was like to lose your mother as a child, and was tempted to go over and comfort her, but I saw one of the women was already picking her up. I sat down and faced Donnell again.

  He gestured at the room. “The people who took their wet coats into their own wings of the building are all coming back into Reception now. We’d better leave any more discussion of secret issues until later, and focus on problems that everyone either knows about already, or will hear about within the next few hours. The first one of those problems is Cage.”

  Donnell paused. “When Natsumi and Himeko arrived at their fishing spot this morning, they found one of Cage’s distinctive blue-flighted arrows stuck in a tree trunk.”

  “What?” Machico got to his feet, and stared tensely across at where his wife and sister-in-law were examining a cart of wintereat.

  “There was a heavy burst of rain just before sunrise this morning,” added Donnell. “The tree was still soaking wet when Natsumi and Himeko arrived, but the arrow was perfectly dry. That means Cage couldn’t have fired it earlier than ten or fifteen minutes before dawn.”

  Machico was still staring at his wife, the lines on his face looking deeper than normal. “Natsumi didn’t mention this to me.”

  Donnell reached out to pat his arm. “Calm down, Mac. Natsumi and Himeko are safe and well, and we’re going to make sure they stay that way.”

  Machico finally sat down again.

  “My theory is that Cage has been keeping quiet in the hope that we’d decide he was dead and relax our vigilance,” said Donnell. “After two weeks of frustration, he’s given up on that plan, and shot one of his arrows at that tree as a threat.”

  “Cage didn’t fire that arrow at a random tree,” said Machico. “He’s specifically targeting my family. He knows where Natsumi and Himeko go fishing. He’ll know where my daughters go fishing as well.”

  “Yes,” said Donnell. “Your family, and probably the families of my other officers as well, are especially likely to be targeted by Cage. We’ll need to be extra vigilant on guard duty, and possibly keep some people inside Parliament House to ensure their safety.”

  Donnell groaned. “Cage isn’t our only problem though. There were twice the usual number of falling star attacks on women fishing today, and the situation was so bad in the vegetable garden that Blaze had to rearrange the guards to patrol in groups of four.”

  He gave a despairing wave of his hands. “I think the increasing falling star
population in Manhattan has reached the critical point where they’ve wiped out all the cats and rats they were hunting. Falling stars drown far too easily to risk hunting ducks or geese on the river, so there’s a whole mob of them waiting for a chance to attack us.”

  “In that case, we’ll have to change the safety rules, and only allow people to go out in groups of four or more,” said Machico. “That’s going to be incredibly inconvenient for the women going fishing.”

  “Yes, and as well as having to worry about Cage and the falling stars outside the Parliament House, we don’t know who we can trust inside the Parliament House.” Donnell grimaced. “I’ve spent a lot of time consulting with the division leaders, deciding who we felt had genuinely supported Cage’s leadership bid and who had just been pressured into helping him. One of the people we thought we could trust was Knave, but he’s just turned out to be a secret Cage supporter.”

  Machico made a clicking noise with his tongue. “That’s unfortunate.”

  “It’s not just unfortunate but deeply troubling,” said Donnell. “If we made a mistake about Knave, then we’ll have made mistakes about other people too. There’s a danger that ...”

  There was another burst of screaming from Rebecca. Donnell stood up again and turned to frown in her direction.

  “Rebecca’s right to be upset. Vijay’s group were hunting near the Unity Bridge. They sheltered in the turrets of the bridge from the worst of the rain, and started heading home as soon as it changed to snow. I assumed that Aaron’s group had found somewhere to shelter from the rain as well. They were further away than the Unity Bridge, hunting near the old recreation area, but they should have been back by now.”

  He hesitated and glanced at Machico. “Am I overreacting here, Mac? Aaron’s hunting party is only a few minutes late, but ...”

  “They’re more than a few minutes late,” said Machico. “Everyone else has had time to go into their division’s wing of the building, get rid of their wet clothes, and come back into Reception to wait for dinner. Why would Aaron’s hunting party be even five minutes late anyway? Aaron wouldn’t keep his people at the recreation area once the rain changed to snow.”

  “And he wouldn’t let them dawdle on the way back in case the snow got worse,” I added.

  Donnell stood up, strode clear of the Resistance tables to stand on neutral ground, raised an arm, and shouted. “Division leaders to me, please.”

  The other four division leaders came from the corners of the room to join him.

  “Aaron’s hunting party are late returning,” said Donnell. “They probably just have a minor difficulty slowing them down, such as someone with a twisted ankle, but I want to send out a search party to check the situation.”

  He paused. “Blaze and I will be going, and I’d like to include three people from each of the other divisions. Everyone should dress in their warmest clothes, and we’ll be taking flashlights in case we’re delayed until after dark. The party will be armed with bows, knives, and swords.”

  I was startled by the mention of swords. Each division had a private armoury that held a variety of weapons, but I couldn’t remember an alliance group ever carrying anything other than knives and bows.

  “You wouldn’t be arming us with swords if you believed Aaron’s hunting party was delayed by an accident,” said Ghost. “You think Cage is involved in this.”

  “I want us to be prepared for all possibilities,” said Donnell evasively. “We need to stick to the rule that only I and my officers are allowed to carry weapons on common ground, so the Resistance will supply swords and flashlights for people to collect from the knife and bow tables on the way out. We’ll be moving in three minutes.”

  The division leaders went towards their corners of the room, and Donnell hurried back to our table. Machico and I stood up, and Donnell’s other officers came to cluster around him as he snapped out commands.

  “Vijay, get the flashlights. Julien and Luther, get a dozen of the smaller swords from the Resistance armoury. Blaze and I won’t need swords ourselves. If there’s any fighting to be done, then we’ll be using our guns.”

  Vijay, Julien, and Luther ran off.

  “You’re taking three people from each of the other divisions,” said Weston. “Can’t one of us go with you?”

  “No,” said Donnell. “With Aaron, Blaze, and me away, I’ll need all five of the rest of you keeping order here. Machico, you’re in charge of Reception, and should let the dinner routine continue as usual. Weston, you’ll be watching over the off-worlders. As soon as Tad and Braden have eaten, take them to join Phoenix in their hospital room, and then stay standing guard on them.”

  Weston groaned. “I’d rather join the search party than babysit off-worlders, but all right.”

  “Blaze, we’ll need to get dry coats and medical kits,” said Donnell.

  He led the way across the room to the curtain marked with the blue planet of the Resistance, but stopped when he realized Tad was chasing after us.

  “Can I do anything to help with the search?” he asked, in a low, anxious voice.

  “Not unless you can use the Earth data net to either tell me what’s happening west of the Unity Bridge, or to locate Cage,” said Donnell.

  Tad shook his head. “The old police surveillance cameras, like all the other electrical gadgets in New York, have been useless since this area lost its connection to the Earth technical net. I can see any changes in power demand on the New York power grid control system, and Cage is probably turning on lights or heating, but there’s no way of using that to find him.”

  He sighed. “Virtually every building in New York has constantly changing power demands because of heating systems that automatically turn on and off depending on the temperature, or lights that work on timers. I’ll set up an algorithm to monitor for especially significant power fluctuations, but Cage would have to do something really dramatic to trigger it.”

  “Well, let us know if your algorithm finds anything interesting, Tad,” said Donnell.

  Tad nodded gloomily and went back to our table, while I followed Donnell through the curtain into the Resistance wing.

  “Do you know what an algorithm is?” I asked.

  “No, but I wasn’t going to ask Tad to explain because we haven’t time to listen to a half hour answer.” Donnell led the way down the corridor to the large room we used to store coats and bags.

  I took one of my spare winter coats from its hook, pulled it on, and patted the pockets to make sure they held a suitable hat and gloves. “You exaggerate the amount that Tad talks.”

  Donnell went over to the shelf of red medical kits and added one to his bag. “Possibly, but you have to admit that he never uses one word when a dozen will do.”

  I laughed.

  Donnell put a coat on and then frowned at me. “I’m not sure I should take you on this trip after all, Blaze. You’re looking dreadfully tired.”

  I was feeling dreadfully tired, but I couldn’t drop out of this trip. Ghost was right that Donnell wouldn’t be arming the search party with swords unless he believed Cage was involved in the non-return of Aaron’s hunting party. I had to make up for the way I’d let Cage escape in Sanctuary by helping to hunt him now.

  “I’m not tired at all,” I lied.

  Donnell gave me a disbelieving look. “If I’m feeling the strain of being on guard duty every day, then you must be exhausted. I get to sleep in peace at night, but you have to guard the off-worlders in their hospital room.”

  I glanced around to make sure we were alone. “I can still sleep at night. There’s no need for me to stay awake when I’ve set my gun to alert me if anyone comes near the room.”

  “So how often does your gun wake you up?” asked Donnell.

  I opened my bag to check my personal medical kit held the full ten rolls of bandages I preferred to carry rather than the standard six. “Perhaps three times a night, but being woken up isn’t really a problem.”

  That was technica
lly true. The problem wasn’t being woken up, but failing to get back to sleep again afterwards. I often lay awake for an hour or more in the darkness, worrying about the coming firestorm.

  I closed my bag again. “I won’t be having disturbed nights for much longer anyway. Once Phoenix is discharged from hospital, we can move the off-worlders up to the secure sixth floor of the Resistance wing, and I’ll be able to sleep properly again.”

  Donnell’s dubious expression showed I hadn’t convinced him. “Nadira says that Phoenix won’t be well enough to leave hospital for days yet,” he said. “I’ll take a turn at night guard duty myself tomorrow.”

  “If you insist,” I said reluctantly.

  Donnell tugged on his gloves. “Now we’d better get moving.”

  We went back into Reception, but Donnell paused on his way across the room to kneel down next to Rebecca and say something reassuring to her. As I stood waiting for him, a painfully familiar voice spoke from behind me.

  “Blaze, I need to talk to you. My move to Manhattan isn’t working out well for me.”

  I curbed the impulse to swear, and turned to face my one-time best friend, Hannah. “This isn’t a good time.”

  “But you have to help me right away because ...”

  “If you need help urgently, then you’ll have to speak to another alliance officer,” I said coldly. “People are missing, their lives may be in danger, and I’m needed for the search party.”

  Donnell had stood up again and was heading for the knife and bow tables. I turned my back on Hannah and hurried after him. The rest of the search party had already gathered by the tables, and Tindra was issuing them with flashlights and swords, but she looked stressed.

  I could understand what was bothering her. All four of the division leaders had chosen to join the search party themselves, including Raeni, who was barely twenty-four and by far the newest of the division leaders, having overthrown the previous Queens Island leader little more than a week ago. This raised the awkward issue of whether Tindra should be issuing Raeni with a bow or not.