‘I shall refresh your memory then,’ the woman stated; an ominous sentence that was belied by her smile. ‘It was ten years ago or so that we met, right here, but it was Pyre’s ward back then – the nasty son of a bitch. Took us for everything we had; protection money he called it,’ she scoffed at the memory, ‘but he was the one we needed protection from.’ She paused, lost briefly in thought, before she visibly shook herself out of those thoughts and smiled at Duncan. ‘That was where you came in, quite literally, in fact. Me and the girls hadn’t paid our protection money that week; clients were scarce, and no tumbles meant no money. Pyre didn’t give a damn that we had nothing to give him though and sent his boys round with a reminder; he favoured the kind of reminders that you can’t walk away from.’ She paused again, but this time when she looked at Duncan, she saw signs of recollection. ‘So, you didn’t forget completely then?’
Duncan shook his head, saying, ‘No, I remember.’ He stared at her trying to see how that teenage alley-cat whore had turned into the woman in front of him. She was beautiful even back then, if you liked your women on the young side, but there was so much fierceness in her features that it had marred them. Now she was calm, poised and confident. But the grin, he realised, was just the same.
‘Let me fill you in, my dear,’ she turned her attention to Melanie while Duncan was lost remembering. In truth, she felt quite flattered that he hadn’t seen what she had been then in what she was now. Not that she was ashamed of her profession or what she did to survive, but, still, she was no longer the scrawny, defiant teenager, who was always just scraping by, that she had been.
‘On that particular day, Pyre’s men sought me out, thinking they’d use me as a warning to the others, and I, being the naïve child I was, thought I could protect myself easily enough and so didn’t take as much care as I should have. I did, in fact, make it pathetically easy for them. The five of them surrounded me in a dead-end alley, two pinned me against the wall and the other three had their knives at the ready to start carving when this man here tapped Burns, the ring leader, on the shoulder and promptly clocked him across the jaw when he turned around, saying “that ain’t no way to treat a lady!”’ She laughed at the memory. ‘I’ve never been a lady in my life and back then, well, not even a blind man would have mistaken me for one,’ she confided in Melanie with a smile before continuing with the story. ‘Then it was pretty much a clean-up operation. I took down one with my own knife and he took out the rest as easy as anything.’
‘So he saved you,’ Melanie stated flatly, not at all impressed.
‘My dear, he did much more than that. He cleaned up my wounds and gave me a meal, but, more importantly, he taught me the essence of strategy. In those couple of weeks that followed, he changed my entire life.’ She was looking at Duncan now, barely paying any attention to Melanie. ‘He gave me a life.’
‘Now, Estelle, you’re giving me too much credit,’ Duncan corrected.
Estelle laughed, ‘I could never give you enough credit, let alone too much. What you taught me in those few weeks when you let me tag along with you gave me enough to get us out from under Pyre and start building. You didn’t fight my battles for me, you taught me how to fight them. Let people underestimate you, you told me, it’s the greatest advantage you have. And you were right. “What can a bunch of whores do?” they jeered at us, then “What can a bunch of whores and pickpockets do?” And so they kept thinking until it was too late. The underdogs always outnumber those on top; you just have to unite them.’
‘And now you have an empire.’
Estelle shook her head. ‘I’m no empire builder. We are the neutral ground here. We keep a low profile and that way we can work throughout the wards on no one’s side but our own. After all, every man has needs.’ Estelle grinned at that.
‘You run Bliss?’ Melanie asked suddenly.
‘A wonderful business, don’t you think?’
‘Bliss?’ Duncan queried.
‘Almost all the whores work for Bliss,’ Melanie explained to him. ‘Nearly every district has at least one Bliss House and most cross-ward negotiations happen there. They have strict rules about fighting, and if a man’s caught beating a whore, he’s never admitted to any Bliss House again.’
‘I won’t have my girls mistreated,’ Estelle stated flatly.
‘Congratulations are in order then, I think, Estelle,’ Duncan quickly cut in to what he saw was going to be a very sore subject.
Estelle accepted his praise graciously before turning to more pressing matters, ‘But enough of the past, word has it you’re here to make trouble for the Republic.’ She gestured for them to sit at the table with her.
‘Word?’
‘Pillow talk is a dangerous thing, my dear,’ Estelle told Melanie smugly before turning back to Duncan expectantly.
‘Who doesn’t want to make trouble for the Republic?’ he replied. ‘The problem is, we seem to be in more trouble ourselves at the moment than we’re making for anybody else.’
‘Yes, I did wonder about your mixed company.’
‘And just what is your interest here? You name him as your saviour, yet you treat us like prisoners,’ Melanie demanded, throwing significant looks at the three guards who were still in the room.
Estelle looked amused at Melanie’s outburst, but didn’t make any move to answer her or dismiss the guards.
‘She does have a point you know,’ Duncan chipped in.
‘I should have thought it obvious – I want to help you.’
‘Then you’ll remember my second most important lesson: always find out how much someone’s help is going to cost you before you take it,’ Duncan countered.
‘And my help to you will always be completely free,’ Estelle told him seriously, ‘I meant what I said earlier. It wasn’t all just grand words; you gave me everything.’
Duncan nodded thoughtfully at this and looked over to Melanie to see her reaction; her dislike of Estelle was plain to see, but he did get the impression she might be warming to him. Estelle, had, perhaps unwittingly, done a great deal to prove him to be something of a good man.
‘Please, let me introduce you to my right-hand man: Joseph.’ Estelle seemed to decide that introductions may smooth the way a little more and gestured for Voice to come forward. He nodded at each of them before he stretched out his hand to Duncan. Duncan decided for his part that he needed allies and so accepted the handshake with the barest hint of a pause.
‘No hard feelings about the bump?’ Joseph asked, grinning as he gestured to the back of Duncan’s head.
‘Nah, I’ve often been told I’ve got a thick skull anyway,’ Duncan returned the grin.
‘This is Riggs and West.’ He gestured first to Knife and then to the third guard; brief nods of greeting were exchanged before everyone settled back down.
‘West, get Sara to send up some food and drink, I’ve got a feeling this could take some time,’ Estelle ordered, before they could get back to the matter at hand.
‘I’m afraid time is something we don’t have right now, Estelle,’ Duncan told her.
‘You always speak in riddles,’ Estelle sighed. ‘I can only help if I know what’s going on.’
Duncan glanced at Melanie to see if she had an opinion on this before he started the tale; she gave the smallest of nods, which Duncan took to be acquiescence to his plan, whatever it may be. While Duncan knew he didn’t need her approval, he hoped that she would be a true ally and these sorts of gestures went a long way in these kinds of relationships.
As Duncan explained the situation, focusing on the salient points and not bothering with too much of the details of how they came across the disks in the first place, Estelle listened intently, not once interrupting. Duncan finished his tale at leaving Kristoff’s office to head back to the Coelacanth.
‘Which is when we abducted you,’ Estelle finished for him.
‘Yep.’
‘Well, I’m definitely glad that we played it like that,’ she stated leaning back in her chair. ‘At least for the moment, Kristoff won’t know we’re actually allies and that could be quite handy.’
‘By the way, Estelle, we were followed by a bunch of pickpockets for most of the way; they wouldn’t happen to be yours, would they?’
Estelle smiled, ‘I had to make sure it was you and take soundings. You see, I have learned caution and to know what I’m getting into before I’m in it,’ she told him before adding, ‘Most people wouldn’t have noticed them.’
Duncan shrugged, ‘You might say we were on the lookout at the time.’
‘So, you’ve got disks you need decrypted, and Kristoff has your captain and two members of your crew hostage, who presumably he’ll kill if you don’t come back with the disks; is that the situation we’ve got?’ Joseph cut in with a succinct summary.
‘Pretty much.’
‘And, of course, we now have to explain away our abduction,’ Melanie added, unwilling to give an inch to them.
‘One problem at a time.’
‘Do you need a specific computer to decode these disks?’ Estelle asked.
‘Not a specific computer, no, but a specific type and it’s got to be pretty powerful.’
Joseph and Estelle exchanged looks. ‘Theo.’
‘What?’
‘Theo is our best tech, so he might have what you need or at least know how to get it,’ Estelle explained.
‘Okay, that’s good,’ Duncan said slowly, wondering why they were being so grave about it.
‘Trouble is, he’s in Cannon’s ward.’
Duncan suddenly understood the problem, ‘Ah. The other side of Abantos. And with the Coelacanth back in the north we’re going to have to go in the opposite direction first and then retrace our steps across to Cannon.’
‘That’s going to take too much time,’ Melanie added. ‘We can’t leave it too long before getting back to Kristoff. We’re going to have a hard time explaining away this without making it longer.’
The silence acknowledged the truth in her words. Each pondered their options, trying to fully form a plan before speaking it aloud. It was Estelle who at last broke the silence.
‘How much do you trust her?’ she asked in all seriousness gesturing to Melanie.
Duncan did not respond right away. He wanted to trust her, she was Sophie’s sister and she didn’t seem to be willingly on Kristoff’s side, but equally she had given him no proof.
‘Well,’ he said staring directly at Melanie while addressing Estelle, ‘they say trust is a leap of faith. So, I’m going to take the leap.’
Melanie nodded at him in recognition of the faith he was putting in her, but did not cheapen it with declarations of not letting him down. Actions, they both knew from bitter experience, meant far more than words ever could.
‘Then you split up,’ Estelle announced. ‘Melanie goes to Cannon to decode the disks, while you go back to Kristoff to save your captain and crew.’
‘And just how, without me, is he getting back into Kristoff’s territory without causing suspicion?’ Melanie asked a little incredulously.
‘With him.’ Joseph pointed to Wilks, who was still out cold on the floor; it would seem that Joseph had hit him pretty hard in the scuffle.
‘I think I may have mentioned that he is definitely not on our side,’ Duncan pointed out.
‘Things can change,’ Estelle told him mysteriously, while Joseph got up silently and left the room.
‘Now who’s talking in riddles?’ Duncan said, realising just how irritating they can be when you’re the one receiving them instead of giving them.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Zhe hurried through the passageways of Abantos trying to remember all Blue’s last-minute advice on not being conspicuous. Well, she had spent her life being inconspicuous, but it seemed that what was inconspicuous in the Ministries, could not be more conspicuous in Abantos. With that thought in mind, she slowed her pace a little and tried to recreate some of the confidence she had managed to portray in the couple of hours she had pretended to be the captain’s wife, just a week ago. The trouble was that it felt like a lifetime ago to her, not to mention that she really was alone this time. And that seemed to be the most frightening thought of all.
Thankful that she had paid such close attention to the route that the crew had taken previously, she was able to navigate her way with little trouble. Finding her way didn’t bother her as much as perhaps it should have, but her thoughts were almost solely focused on what she would find when she got to her destination.
She tried to remember Duncan’s instructions clearly; the shock they had felt at hearing his voice come over a comm. line after watching him being abducted at gunpoint only an hour before was indescribable. After he had managed to convince them that he was, in fact, unharmed and speaking to them of his own volition, and with the shock still new, he proceeded to add to it with his ludicrous plan.
All of which had landed her here, right in the middle of Abantos. But, more specifically at this moment, it had landed her in the sights of some rather unsavoury-looking characters. Zhe saw them peel off from a bigger group loitering outside a tavern and start following her. This was what she was afraid would happen.
***
‘See! I told you this was a bad plan!’ Simon screeched from the control room onboard the Coelacanth. ‘I should have gone,’ he added darkly.
‘And been picked up by Kristoff’s goons the moment you cleared Ward Seven?’ Blue shot back, tired of the argument already; they’d been through it half a dozen times with Duncan and then again after he signed off.
‘I dare say they’d be kinder to me than they will be to her,’ he said darkly, gesturing wildly at the screen as three men followed Zhe, closing in on her.
‘I don’t like this any more than you do, lad, but Duncan was right: chances are, Kristoff knows each one of us and has an army scouring Abantos for us, both on foot and on monitors. It’s a bloody miracle he hasn’t found the Coelacanth yet!’
‘But still, Zhe?’
‘She may not be as defenceless as she seems.’ Blue patted him on the shoulder.
Simon just huffed in disbelief.
‘I mean it, there’s mettle to her, Simon, that we’ve barely touched on yet,’ Blue told him with certainty.
‘Well then, it’s been a damn good act she’s been giving us.’
‘I’m not trying to do her an injustice, lad; she’s not been acting all this while, but I think there’s something buried in her: a strength she hasn’t had to use before.’
‘I pray to God you’re right,’ was all Simon said in response as he focused in on the screens where the men had caught up to Zhe.
Blue’s breath caught in his throat as she turned around to face them and looked up straight into one of the cameras; it was as though she was looking to him for help. It was then that he joined Simon in his prayer.
***
Zhe heard them following her, and heard their catcalls getting closer and closer. Choices, she thought frantically to herself, what are my choices? Duncan was always breaking things down into two options, but what options did she have? She could run or stay here; she could fight or not fight. That’s all she had. She made her decision and turned around to face them. She was going to stand and she was going to fight. Too long had she run, too long had she remained passive, but now, with so much riding on this, she was going to fight. She kept Ben firmly in her mind as she turned, throwing a glance heavenward and hoping that something would protect her. For he who had shown her such kindness she would fight. She stood and waited.
‘Ooh, kitty’s got claws,’ one of them mocked as they made a loose semicircle around her.
Zhe just remained standing, not giving in to their taunts. Sh
e was evaluating her options: gun or knife.
‘What no pleas? No cries for help.’ Her would be attackers did not appreciate her silence; it was robbing them of their sport, but Zhe had learned silence in the face of much worse
‘Oh, you’ll cry out all right, sweetheart, don’t you worry about that.’ One of them leered.
‘You know, I think she’s dumb,’ laughed the one to her right.
‘Either that or she wants it.’
‘Then she’ll get it,’ said the middle one as he stepped forward.
Still Zhe didn’t move. She knew she had to get this right; one chance may be all she would get and she had to wait for the perfect one.
Emboldened by her lack of response, he decided that she was definitely an easy target. He strode forward the last few steps, reached up to grab a fist full of her hair and yank her head backward.
In this, Zhe saw her opportunity. She gently let her knife slip down from inside the sleeve of her shirt, where she had hidden it, into the palm of her hand. She braced herself angled it up just as he made his last stride. He walked himself straight on to it. Instinctively she pushed the knife in deep and upwards towards his heart.
She took his weight as he tipped forward. All that grunt work for all those years as a slave had made her stronger than she looked. She spared a brief thought for all those masters and wondered if they ever realised just how strong they’d made their slaves. She waited for the next one to get curious before making her next move, and sure enough, after a beat or two, the one on the right stepped forward.
‘Oy! What you doing?’
The extra couple of steps he took was all she needed. She put all her weight onto her back foot and then pushed off hard, sending the body straight into him. As he stumbled to the ground under the sudden unexpected weight she drew her gun and fired at the third man. A clean shot to the chest sent him down as well. All that was left was to turn and finish off the last man as he struggled to get out from under the body of his comrade quickly. She was faster.
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