Scavenger Alliance

by Janet Edwards

  He dug a hand into his pocket, and put some boxes of tablets on the table. “I’ve discussed the winter fever symptoms with the doctor. She thinks it’s a mutated version of a fever that hit the settlements a few years ago. There was a theory it was spread by birds, and your people hunt ducks and geese for food, so …”

  “Never mind how we caught it,” I interrupted. “What tablets do you need to take?”

  “One of these large white ones, and two of the small blue ones. Four times a day, with at least four hours between each dose, until the fever breaks. I’ll take my first dose now.”

  I watched him struggling to open the boxes, and took them out of his hands. “Let me help you. You’ve been taking care of me, and now it’s my turn to take care of you.”

  I handed Tad his tablets, and watched him gulp them down with a drink from a water bottle. “Have you packed plenty of these medicines?”

  “A whole stasis box full,” he said. “We have to load the boat and head back downriver now.”

  “We can’t,” I said. “I know how fast this illness hits people. You may not even make it as far as the boat before passing out.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Tad stood up, wavered, and started falling. I managed to catch him on the way down and steer him across to land on his mattress.

  “My legs wouldn’t hold me,” he said, in a disbelieving voice.

  “I told you it comes on fast. I can’t take you downriver like this.”

  “But we must go,” said Tad. “If I’m sick, then Braden and Phoenix must be sick too. We have to get the medicine to them.”

  “Don’t worry. I can send up a distress flare and Donnell will send help. There’ll be a boat here by …”

  I broke off my sentence because there was the distant wailing sound of a familiar siren.

  “What the chaos is that?” asked Tad. “Some sort of alarm?”

  I stood up and looked out of the window. There she was, white and graceful, powering her way through the water. We didn’t have to call for help, because it had already arrived.

  “That’s a ship’s siren,” I said. “The Spirit of New York is here.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  I ran to the riverside door, opened it, and waited impatiently for the Spirit of New York to make her way to the bank. What looked like Aaron and Julien jumped down to tie mooring ropes and put the gangplank in place, then the unmistakable figure of Donnell came down it.

  I hurried to meet him. “Why did you risk bringing the Spirit of New York upriver in the dark?”

  “Phoenix and Braden started showing winter fever symptoms yesterday evening. I knew that if they were sick, then Tad was probably ill too. I was going to bring the Spirit of New York upriver at dawn to fetch you home, but then all the lights in New York came on. I wasn’t sure what was happening, and the steadily strengthening wind made it obvious a storm was on its way, so I decided to head upriver right away to get you home before the storm hit. With all the lights blazing in Manhattan and Yonkers, it was nearly as bright as day on the river anyway.”

  Donnell glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “What the chaos was Tad thinking of, turning on the New York power supply without warning me?”

  “We had a bit of a crisis,” I said.

  “I don’t see why turning on the power would help Tad with the winter fever.”

  “Tad turned on the power because the building next door was on fire. We needed the fire defences working.”

  “Ah.” Donnell turned to look at the burned out apartment blocks. “I noticed there’d been a recent fire. That happened last night, and Tad was already too sick to head downriver?”

  It was far too complicated to explain that it had been me who couldn’t run away, not Tad. It would be a bad idea to explain anyway. If Donnell found out about everything that had happened, then he’d try to protect me from Cage, and that could lead to disaster. We’d have a much better chance of winning the coming battle if I fought it alone.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I suppose that’s a reasonable excuse.”

  “We’ve found a lot of medicine,” I added hastily.

  “That’s very good news. The arrival of more medicine will boost the mood of the alliance, and strengthen our position against Cage. I wish I had equally good news to report, but sadly I don’t. I’ve had a couple of chats with Major, but I’m making no progress with him at all. My impression is that Major has inside knowledge of Cage’s plans, and he seems worryingly confident those plans will succeed. I just hope we get back to the Parliament House before Cage does anything drastic.”

  I didn’t say anything. I knew that Cage wouldn’t do anything drastic before we got back. His attack would start when I arrived.

  “Where’s Tad?” asked Donnell.

  “In here.” I led the way into the building, and through to the office where Tad was lying on his mattress. I thought for a moment that he was unconscious, but his eyes flickered open as Donnell went to stand over him.

  “Oh, it’s you,” he said.

  “Yes, it’s me,” said Donnell. “I appreciate you had a fire heading towards you, but did you have to turn on all the power in New York?”

  “I only meant to turn on the power to this building,” said Tad.

  “Well, most of the lights in the city seem to be on now,” said Donnell, “which makes no sense to me. The street lighting should be on, and possibly the lights in offices, but why are there so many lights in private apartments? Surely most people heading off to other worlds would turn off their power and water before they left?”

  “That’s true. Control system made no sense either.” Tad rubbed his hand across his forehead. “Maybe because power reservoir nearing critical point. Safety systems breaking down. Can’t seem to think.”

  Donnell sighed. “Well, turning everything on may be a good thing. All those lights, and chaos knows what other things as well, are all using power. That surely must be helping the problem with the power reservoir and delaying the firestorm.”

  He shrugged. “Forget that now and listen carefully to me. Everyone got very excited when the lights came on. Machico and I did some fast thinking, and claimed that Machico had turned the New York power supply on.”

  He paused. “Are you hearing this, Tad?”

  Tad’s eyes had closed, but they opened again. “Yes.”

  “When people asked, as they naturally did, why Machico hadn’t managed to do that for the past eighteen years, we said that Braden had given him some extra information that helped.”

  “Braden,” repeated Tad, in a dazed voice.

  “We wanted to divert attention away from you, and thought that Braden was a pilot so he’d know a bit about electronics and engines,” said Donnell. “Most people seem to have accepted that explanation, but my officers know who you are, so I’m sure they suspect you’re more deeply involved than we’re admitting.”

  “I saw Julien outside,” I said anxiously. “Is he still an officer?”

  “Julien’s situation is a bit debatable at the moment,” said Donnell. “I didn’t know what I’d find when I got here, so I daren’t include anyone in my party who didn’t know who Tad was. I chose to bring Aaron and Luther along as reasonably trustworthy, and Julien because it seemed safer than leaving him behind.”

  Donnell looked down at Tad. “Please try not to do anything else dramatic for a while, because there’s a limit to how much we can explain away. If people guess you’re webbed, then your life expectancy is going to be measured in hours, if not minutes.”

  “Understood.” Tad’s eyes closed again.

  “Chaos,” said Donnell. “I could never shut the boy up before, but now I can barely drag a word out of him. He must be desperately ill. Is all the medicine we need in the piles of active stasis boxes by the door?”

  “Yes. Instructions too.” I waved the packs of tablets. “I’ve got some of the medicine for Tad’s fever right here.”

  “Then we’
ll get Tad on board the ship first, and load up the boxes afterwards.” Donnell stuck his head out of the door and shouted. “Aaron!”

  Aaron appeared in response. “Yes?”

  “Give me a hand carrying Tad,” said Donnell. “You take his legs, while I carry the mouth end.”

  The two of them lifted Tad. I gathered up his mattress and sleeping bag, and followed them out to the riverbank. As I went outside, a gust of wind snatched at the hood of my coat and blew it down. Donnell was right. There was definitely a storm on the way.

  I sprinted ahead and up the gangplank to where Luther was holding the door to the huge main cabin open. I went inside, and managed to get the mattress spread out in time for Donnell and Aaron to dump Tad down on it.

  Donnell turned to Luther and Aaron. “We’ll load up the stasis boxes and other supplies now. We can tow the small boat downriver behind us.”

  They hurried off. I wrapped Tad up in his sleeping bag, and stared down at him anxiously. He was already unconscious, which was an ominous sign. I wondered if Phoenix and Braden had got the winter fever this badly as well. I hoped the medicine would start helping Tad soon. We needed to get back to the Parliament House as soon as possible, so I could give the medicine to Phoenix and Braden too.

  It seemed like a long time before I heard the engines cough their way into life, and the Spirit of New York started moving. There was a slight lurch as we left the riverbank, some swaying as the ship turned round, and then things steadied again. I glanced out of the window to the east, and saw the rising sun was competing with the lights of New York, and adding a flush of red to the sky.

  The door opened. I turned to look at it, expecting Donnell to walk in, but it was Julien. I hastily moved to stand between him and the unconscious, helpless Tad, and my hand hovered over the knife on my belt.

  “What do you want?” I demanded.

  “I want to apologize,” said Julien. “The way I reacted on the roof was wrong, but understandable. We’ve all got good reason to hate the name Thaddeus Wallam-Crane. There was no excuse for my behaviour later on though. I’ve had silly moments before when I was drunk, but I went much too far that time.”

  I’d no idea whether he was genuinely sorry, or was just saying this because he thought it might help him keep his position as an officer. I knew Hannah’s betrayal had made me suspicious of everyone’s motives, so I tried to keep my tone of voice perfectly neutral as I replied.

  “Thank you for the apology. If drinking alcohol affects you so badly that you …”

  “I know!” Julien interrupted me, lifting his hands in surrender. “You don’t need to tell me because I’ve spent the last few days telling myself. Marsha changed the personal tag on my knife belt to be a bottle nearly a year ago.”

  He pulled a face. “I knew that tag meant people thought I wasn’t in control of my drinking, my drinking was controlling me. I made excuses to myself and pretended the tag was unfair. I can’t make those excuses any longer. I’m going to have to …”

  The door opened again, and this time it was Luther. He glared at Julien. “What are you doing in here? Donnell told you to stay away from Blaze and the off-worlders.”

  Julien muttered something rude and headed off, closing the door behind him. Luther gave an irritated look after him, before taking a step closer to me. “I’ve been worried sick about you, Blaze. Chaos knows what Donnell was thinking of, sending you upriver alone with that leech.”

  I’d used the leech word myself often enough, but I hated Luther using it now. We called the off-worlders leeches because they took things without giving anything in return. We might have helped Tad with food and shelter, but he’d done plenty of things to help us too.

  “Anyway, I’m here now,” said Luther. “I sorted out the hunting group leadership problem while you were away. My group has been very successful, so now everyone knows I’m a great leader.”

  I’d forgotten all about the issue of Luther leading hunting groups. It sounded as if Machico’s tactic of giving Luther’s group the best hunting area had worked, or maybe I was just being uncharitable and Luther really was a brilliant hunting group leader.

  “I’m pleased to hear that,” I said politely.

  “We can carry on and get married now. On the way upriver, I tried talking to Donnell about our wedding plans, but he said that anything about your marriage had to be discussed with you not him.”

  Wedding plans? Chaos, with everything else that had been happening, I’d totally forgotten about Luther’s high-handed decision to marry me.

  “I think the day after tomorrow would be best for the wedding,” Luther continued. “The sooner we get this settled, the better.”

  I was annoyed about Luther calling Tad a leech, and I resented his assumption that he just had to say the word and I’d eagerly marry him. “Haven’t you forgotten something important?”

  Luther looked puzzled. “I don’t know of anything else happening the day after tomorrow.”

  I sighed. “You’ve told me you’re going to marry me, but you haven’t asked my opinion about it. If you had, then I’d have told you that I don’t want to marry you.”

  He seemed totally bewildered. “What are you talking about? I know you love me, Blaze. When you were fifteen, you kept looking at me and …”

  I hurriedly interrupted him. “I know I used to have a silly crush on you, but I’ve fully recovered from it, and I don’t want to marry you.”

  Luther frowned. “You don’t mean that. You have to marry me. You need someone to take care of you, and I want to take my father’s place as deputy alliance leader.”

  “I didn’t notice you doing anything to take care of me on the roof,” I said.

  Luther’s frown deepened into a glower. “That’s completely unfair. If Julien had tried to harm you, then of course I’d have done something about it. I threw him out of here just now, didn’t I?”

  “I suppose so,” I grudgingly admitted, “but the point is I’m not marrying anyone just to get them to take care of me. I intend to take care of myself.”

  Luther gave me a look of offended dignity. “We’ll talk about this later, when you’re in a more reasonable mood.”

  “No, we won’t,” I said. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m saying this for the third and final time now, Luther. I don’t want to marry you. I’m not going to marry you. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man in New York. Are you going to accept that now, or do I have to paint it in large letters on the wall of Reception for everyone to read?”

  Luther abruptly turned and stalked out of the cabin, leaving the door flapping open in the wind. I hurried to close it, and then knelt down by Tad’s side. His forehead was hot to the touch, his eyes were closed, and he was moving restlessly. I held a bottle of water to his lips, and he sucked at it greedily.

  I looked out of the window at the lights of New York, and saw a few snowflakes were appearing, swirling wildly in the wind. We were racing the storm downriver. When we arrived at Parliament House, it would be time for me to face Cage.

  Chapter Thirty

  By the time the Spirit of New York arrived at her regular spot on the riverbank, it was snowing hard. Aaron and Luther found an old door to use as a stretcher to carry Tad, while Donnell, Julien and I carried some of the stasis boxes. Donnell and Julien led the way along the path, while I trailed behind the stretcher, fretting every step of the way about Tad being out in the snow and the bitter cold wind. He was running a high temperature and was still unconscious.

  I’d expected the tablets Tad had taken to have more effect than this. Before we ran out of medicine, I’d seen sick people given tablets, and there was usually an instant improvement. There was the worrying possibility that the tablets were actually helping a lot, but Tad had a particularly severe case of winter fever.

  As we finally neared the building, Donnell beckoned me to join him. I hurried past the stretcher, casting one last anxious glance at Tad.

  “I’m afraid I’ve g
ot some bad news for you,” said Donnell, in a wary voice. “Hannah’s decided to move to Manhattan division. I hope you understand why I didn’t try to stop her. The other divisions only allow people to leave in special circumstances, but I’ve never forced anyone to stay in the Earth Resistance against their will.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I already knew Hannah was moving to Manhattan division. She told me about it before Tad and I went upriver.”

  “I didn’t realize that,” said Donnell. “Hannah’s decision must have been terribly upsetting for you.”

  “I found it extremely disappointing,” I said, in what I hoped was a coolly neutral voice.

  I was relieved that Donnell didn’t ask any more questions, just hurried on to the Parliament House door and elbowed it open. I followed him inside, and was startled by warm air hitting my face. Donnell dumped his stasis boxes on the floor against the wall, and I automatically put mine next to them, before looking round in wonder.

  There might be snow outside, but it was summer in Reception. All the lights were on, blazing brighter than I’d seen them in years. The air wasn’t just warm, it was almost hot. It looked like the whole of the alliance was sitting at the tables, but instead of being huddled in thick coats they were wearing short-sleeved summer clothes. Weirdest of all, there was no scent of smoke in the air. The cooking fire, which burned day and night all year round, was out. The metal grating over it was bare of the usual cooking pots and kettles. Those were standing on some alien flexiplas and metal objects instead.

  Donnell gave a faint groan and leaned to mutter in my right ear. “Oh, wonderful. Heat. Lights. Electric cooking. Everyone’s getting really comfortable for the first time in decades, just as I have to persuade them to leave New York.”

  I had no chance to reply because the others had arrived at the door. I held it open for them, and watched Tad’s stretcher being carried inside and put on the floor. We’d covered him with a sleeping bag, which had a thin layer of snow on it. I hastily grabbed the sleeping bag, shook away the white flakes before they could melt, and then peeled off my own frozen gloves and coat so I could feel the warm air. Rapture!