Matty swallowed. "I have a theory. You two aren't going to like it."
Arkady huffed at that. "There has been little to like so far."
Nisha laughed, a brittle, humorless sound. "He's right. Let's hear it."
"I think Paul's a traitor." For a moment, Matty thought he might laugh himself, the kind of hysterical laughter that came bubbling out without intention. Arkady and Nisha were staring at him wide-eyed and open-mouthed. The tableau was shattered as Arkady closed his mouth and narrowed his dark eyes and growled low in his throat.
"Explain."
"Think about everything he told us when we woke up. Everything we know about what he does down in the new city. How reluctant he was to leave it. Now, think about how persistent he was that his plan to set the planet on the right path was the only one to follow. That we all had to commit treason in order to save not just humanity but all life here. It was his idea, remember, to have mass assassinations, through various means—"
"No lone gunmen in the library—"
"Exactly, Nisha. He wanted us to check out the weirdest places, considering. Why were we sent to Tasmania, Arkady?"
Arkady was still glowering. "We were supposed to meet a man who could get us in the security detail of your Prime Minister."
"Right. Only there was no such man, we had to run for it, because we were intercepted on the way to the airport. A huge manhunt was on for us, our faces were plastered everywhere. That part, I reckon, is thanks to damn Kieran. The actual mission, that was all Paul's idea."
"He said we had to eliminate those who were too closed towards progress," Nisha said slowly. "We were to support those who were open to it. My targets were not political, if you remember."
"Neither were Lucy's, which is a bit weird. He had Gina and Louis go to England for that." Matty was frowning. "He kept us all moving so fast that we didn't have time to ask any questions."
"You think that Kieran may not be the villain of our lives?" Arkady asked.
Matty snorted loudly. "Oh hell no, I totally think Kieran's the villain of the piece. He's such an Orwellian, Shakespearian villain too."
"Who we're still going to kill," Nisha said.
"With a butter knife."
"Because it'll hurt more. I get it." Nisha ran her hands through her hair. "Let's assume for the moment you're right. Frankly, it makes too much sense to me. What do we do now? We've seen New York City and it's not a nuke blasted wasteland of death. It looks like an abandoned city, derelict and damaged, being reclaimed by nature."
"Like Pripyat in Ukraine," Arkady said.
"Right. Oh. Oh, oh. What if the soil's been poisoned like it was in Pripyat? I mean, that wasn't a bomb, that was a reactor leak. What if that's what really happened?"
Matty frowned, then shrugged. "Test it. Go downstairs, get a handful of dirt and test it with the Geiger and the other meter."
"All right. Cover me." Nisha got up, set down the medical satchel and the duffle bag she'd been carrying. She opened the duffle and pulled out a pair of surgical gloves and a plastic bag. She tugged on the gloves, then took out her gun. "I'll be back in a minute."
"I'm covering you." Arkady had pulled out an AK-47 and pushed open the window, setting the barrel of the weapon on the window sill. Matty went to join him, sitting beside him, his own weapon in his hand.
They watched as Nisha emerged from the building and moved towards a tree that was growing through the pavement. The slabs of concrete had cracked and broken to reveal weeds and grass around the base of the tree. Matty was sure that Nisha would be able to get some dirt without any problem. She moved confidently, taking long strides and was soon bending over to examine the space around the tree.
"There is a man out there," Arkady said, his voice shattering the quiet.
"What?" Matty was instantly tense and alert. "Where?"
"A long way from here. He can't see us. He's watching around himself, I think."
Matty growled low in his throat, as he moved closer, his gaze locked on Nisha as Arkady watched the man.
"He's carrying a rifle. He's sitting in a chair in what looks to be a burnt-out room of an office building of some kind. Several floors above the ground. He's bored, I think. He just yawned."
Matty rolled his eyes. "So a sentinel is watching and yawning and can't see us?"
"He doesn't have a scope on his weapon as good as mine." Arkady chuckled. "Matter of fact, he doesn't have a scope at all."
"That's something, I guess. Are there any distinguishing features on him?" Matty watched as Nisha stood up and retraced her steps, entering their own building once more.
"Not that I can tell. He looks normal. Dark pants, shirt. A woolen cap on his head. Gloves."
"And the gun."
"Yes."
Nisha came back into the room. "What's going on?"
"Arkady spotted someone behaving like a sentinel," Matty said.
"Fuck!" Nisha ran a hand through her hair. "Still, this proves for sure that we're not alone out here."
"While the state of the city proves that it isn't a wasteland or anything like that," Matty said.
"He's fallen asleep," Arkady reported. "His eyes are closed. I can see that he is breathing regularly."
"How close is he, Arkady?" Nisha asked.
"Several blocks away." Arkady lowered his weapon. "Interesting, no?"
"Worrying, yes," Nisha said. "I'm of two minds whether we should kill him."
Matty sucked in a breath. "I don't know. On the one hand, if this was a normal world, one of us could do recon and find out what's going on before doing that. On the other… this isn't a normal world anymore. Well, not normal for us, anyway."
Arkady shook his head. "I don't think we should. He and whoever he is working for don't know that we're here. Why draw attention to ourselves?"
Nisha shrugged. "I can see the point. Both sides of it actually. Yes, it's probably for the best to leave him where he is and not draw attention to anyone else being out here. So." She took a deep breath. "Now I'm going to test this dirt. We'll have to take turns doing a watch tonight, especially with Arkady's mystery man out there."
"I'll take the first watch," Matty said.
"I will take the second," Arkady said.
Nisha nodded and sat down beside one of the bedside tables and got to work on testing the dirt. The supplies they'd grabbed from the clinic on their way out to the world above ground were coming in very handy already, Matty thought, as he watched Nisha working.
"Huh," she said after a few moments.
"Well?" Arkady asked.
"There's a low amount of radioactivity—trace elements—nothing that would kill a person or an animal for that matter. It's not like the area around Pripyat, when Chernobyl's reactor went down, not even close. I remember scientists estimating that soil wouldn't be viable for growing non-radioactive food for decades at the very least. Sure, it's been decades since we were last awake, but if the propaganda from down below is to be believed, all of this should be poison, and it's not."
Matty moved to take a look at the Geiger counter readings and saw that they were exactly as she'd said. "I've got another theory," he said, resuming his seat.
"Let's hear it." Nisha looked at him.
"Well, it's just a theory, mind. I can't prove it. Do you remember when we had coffee with Pei Ling in Istanbul? You were both laughing about how old we were getting?"
Nisha nodded.
"Think about that. Paul and Kieran, they're the oldest of us. Paul didn't really want to go into forced retirement, I know that. Hell, I think we all know that. He was 48, they usually retire us out at 50, put us in a cushy desk job if we haven't died in service to our nation. I honestly can't imagine Paul sitting at a desk and being happy with that. Even though he seems happy with where he is now, I'll get to that in a second. He's 48, Kieran's 46. Pei Ling said that Paul had been ranting to her about having to train his replacement, called that operative a 'wet behind the ears greenhorn with no brain,' which she
thought was a hilarious description."
Nisha nodded again.
"Right, well a few weeks after that, Paul gets us together for that meeting and puts forth the grand plan. The plan in which we all take out the leaders of the various governments who are standing in the way of true progress and, more importantly, in the way of peace. He didn't want to take them out with the gun, either, he wanted to do it with blackmail or medical manipulation—anything to move them off the game board of international politics so that more peaceful heads could prevail."
"He was very angry, I remember." Arkady frowned. "I also remember that he did not like my joke that it was America who suggested this, not Russia."
"For someone who was determined to fix things, he really had issues with Russia and China," Nisha said.
"Yeah. Not because of Arkady or Pei Ling, no, because of the governments there. He also had issues with his own government, he hated what was happening and the things he was being asked to do by his handler, though he never told me exactly what those things were. I don't know if he ever told anybody. What if what we see now is because of two men who hated each other—Kieran and Paul—and hated their own personal situations so much that those lines blurred with what they were supposed to do, which was protect their nation?"
"You think they did all this?" Arkady looked aghast, his eyebrows having shot up almost to his hairline.
"I think Kieran managed to manipulate a nervous government into setting off nukes, yes. He intimated as much in that note he left us. I don't know if those nukes reached all their intended targets, but there was definitely a war going on. We can see evidence of that everywhere around us here. Paul, look at him now. He's happy, he doesn't want to do what he was trained to do. Why? Because he made this decision for himself. He wasn't forced into it because of his age or an order."
"This is about being selfish?" Nisha asked.
"I think it might be. Fuck, most things we combat are about selfishness, if we boil it right down. One person wants something, whips up a hysteria about it, another person doesn't want them to have it, whips up opposing hysteria, things get heated, war breaks out."
"It's possible," Arkady said. He was tapping his right index finger against his chin. "The tools of our trade that he stashed before we went into cryo were sufficient for one man, and for a doomsday scenario. They were not enough for anything else. We have all of his weapons, bar his favorite pistol. That he wouldn't give me, he said it belonged to his grandfather and he wasn't going to part with it. I thought nothing of it."
"It might have belonged to his grandpa. I hope he doesn't use it on us," Nisha said.
"Who knows?" Matty sighed and leaned back. "I hate this. I want to go home, you know? I want to see my family. I can't, they're all dead. I want to visit my friends, but I can't, because oh yeah, they're dead, too."
Arkady reached out and gripped his knee. "I feel the same way," he said. His voice was thick with emotion.
Nisha turned away. "The last time I saw my gran, she was very ill. I promised her I'd be home before Diwali. Instead, I was in cryo before Diwali."
The little group fell silent, and night slowly fell.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It was full dark and Matty was alone with a candle, Arkady's gun, and his thoughts. It was so quiet outside, he thought, that it was almost eerie. He could hear the occasional hush of wind brushing through the trees in the city, and every so often the soft noise of a bird. Once, a wolf howled, shattering the silence like a bell and Matty had jumped out of his skin and swore to himself as his heart pounded in shock. As the howl faded, he'd managed to laugh at himself, even as he'd gone back to watching the night.
He'd set himself up between the window and the door. He had a good view of the world beyond the room through the window, and the door that led to the corridor beyond was open a foot, enough for him to hear anyone coming or see anyone—or anything—passing by. His friends slept in silence, not even a snore from Arkady, and Matty wondered how they were both feeling after the last few days.
For himself, Matty knew that anger battled with despair. He wanted to know exactly what had happened, because he disliked unanswered questions. He also missed his loved ones so keenly that it was a tangible pain that seemed to radiate from his heart and reach up to stifle him. At least he still had Arkady, though there had been little time for them to be alone together.
He missed Pei Ling. She had been his best friend, he supposed, more like a sister. Knowing that she'd died so that he and Arkady could survive was a bitter pill to swallow. Pei Ling wasn't supposed to die as she had, in that shoot-out off the coast of Tasmania. Pei Ling had been meant to live and enter cryo with them. She was supposed to be here with them now. She had given her life for him and Arkady. Matty took a slow, deep breath, feeling tears well up in his eyes.
He saw a flicker in the shadows by the door and he was instantly alert, weapon in hand. What he saw standing on the threshold however, made him start in surprise.
It was a dog and a cat.
The dog was a black and white collie, while the cat was ginger. The two animals sat and stared at him and he stared back. They didn't seem afraid at all, and Matty wondered at the incongruity of it all, hiding out in an abandoned hotel, with only a candle and the moon for light, being jerked out of his melancholy thoughts by a dog and a cat.
The dog barked as if agreeing.
"This… is not at all what I was expecting," Matty said. He leaned down and held out a hand. The two animals moved as one, trotting to him and rubbing against his fingers, the dog wagging his tail and the cat purring.
"We have pets now?"
Nisha's voice made Matty almost jump out of his skin for the second time that night. "Holy shit, warn me when you wake up," he said.
"Sorry." She moved to him and sat down on the carpet. "Hi there," she said to the animals and was rewarded with a soft mew from the cat and a lick of her hand from the dog.
"We're Noah's Ark," Matty said.
Nisha laughed softly. "They obviously live here. They were just checking we were all right."
"We can't take them with us, though."
"Matty, really? Who's going to stop them if they decide to tag along? None of us is going to shoot a perfectly healthy dog or cat."
She had a point. Matty sighed. "Great."
"He's grumpy," Nisha said to the animals. "He's okay usually. He's just had a hard few days. So have I, actually, Arkady too. He's awake, he's pretending not to be."
"I just had not sat up yet," Arkady said.
"Now we're all awake," Matty said.
"Go to bed," Nisha said. "I'll take the watch now."
"Nisha—"
"Go. That's an order, Australia."
Matty flipped her a lazy salute, wanting to protest further, grateful that he didn't have to. He was tired and sore, and he handed her the gun. Getting to his feet, he grunted as muscles complained and ached. "How's the bed?" he asked Arkady.
"Very comfortable, actually," Arkady said. "Get in. It's warm."
"Have a good watch," Matty said to Nisha, as he went to the bed. He sat down on the edge of it and kicked off his boots, stripped off his outer layers of clothing then climbed in, pulling up the covers. Arkady was right, it was warm, and he stretched again, allowing himself to relax.
"Sleep, Matty," Arkady said. His voice was muffled by the pillow, and he sounded tired. He reached out one hand to pull Matty close and hold him.
"You, too," Matty said, cuddling close and holding Arkady in turn.
"Mm," was the reply.
*~*~*
When Matty woke, the light was subdued, as if clouds obscured the sun. Beside him lay Nisha, curled into a neat ball, her hands beneath her cheek and her long braid curled down her neck. She looked very peaceful and Matty envied her. He turned away and carefully sat up, not wanting to disturb her, then got out of bed and pulled on his clothes and boots.
Arkady was sitting by the window eating an apple. The dog and the cat w
ho had paid them a visit during the night were nowhere in sight. Matty grabbed up his pack and dug out an apple for himself then went to join Arkady.
"Anything?" he asked by way of greeting.
"No. It has been quiet all night." Arkady stretched. "The clouds, though, I have been observing them since it started to get light. They do not seem to move."
"What?" Matty peered through the window up at the clouds. "Sure they do."
"I tell you, they don't." Arkady leaned back in his chair. "Also, when I took up my watch, the man I saw yesterday was gone. No one had replaced him."
Matty frowned. "This is all really strange."
Arkady chuckled softly. "Since coming out of cryo things have been really strange. Oh, our four legged friends left just after dawn."
"I was wondering about them. They seemed in really good condition."
"Mm, yes. Well fed, their fur well groomed. Perhaps they live with someone and are free to roam as they wish. As we are roaming as well. I have a confession to make. I have no idea what part of New York City we are in."
Matty grinned at him. "You're not alone. Neither do I."
"I can't remember who said that men can't read maps," Nisha's voice came from the bed. "If you two can't read a map, we're all doomed. Maps are in my pack."
"Which is excellent, yes, however we were in such a rush when we escaped the library, we did not take note of which direction we were going or if there were any street signs. We covered quite a bit of ground and there is nothing on the maps to indicate where we are, not the names of hotels, certainly." Arkady shrugged. "I have already looked."
Nisha groaned. "Dammit."
"We should try and head for the business area, Wall Street," Matty said.
"Why there?" Nisha asked.
"I don't know. I just have a feeling that we should. I mean, we've been operating on a lot of gut feelings since we all reconnected with each other down in the underground city of doom, so why change what works for here and now?"
"It'll take a while. We'll have to find a sign or something and figure out where we are on the map and…" Nisha paused for a moment. "Well, we've nothing better to do. How are our supplies?"
The Outsiders Page 18