But my shirt wasn’t as long as hers and when I ripped it I was left with a bare midriff.
‘Very sexy,’ she said. I fastened my jacket tight.
We hugged the wall and sidestepped along the walkway that was indeed a nano wide.
‘Jupes, this place is rank,’ I said.
‘Uh want this to end soon.’
‘And not with us falling in.’
‘At least we’ll get to the outlet quicker if we fall in.’ She was right, the river was flowing faster than our shuffling.
Because my hands were on the wall, the comms’ light was intermittent, but at least that meant we didn’t have to look at the putrid river at our toes.
‘So who is ‘e then?’ Reinya asked after we had been teetering for too long.
‘I’ve no idea, but he knows me.’ I told her about the incident before the last Steadie raid.
‘An enemy then – do you ‘ave many enemies?’
‘What, you mean apart from the whole Privileged tribe?’
‘You know what uh mean.’
‘I don’t think I have an enemy, apart from Merj.’
‘The guy with the eye?’ She’d seen him at the souterrain where they fixed up Scud and also when he visited Pa at Steadie. He had only stayed around for a couple of days then disappeared again. But Merj was in Pa’s pay so it couldn’t be him.
‘It might have been one of the men from the submarine.’ I told her about the escape from Black Rock when I’d been holed up in a submarine with a bunch of restless natives. They’d been threatening towards Ridgeway the guard, so, being the only Privileged present, I’d taken charge and tried to get the men in order. It had all gone horribly wrong and I’d ended up being threatened by a thug with a smiley scar. The situation, and I, had been saved by the intervention of Vanora’s commander, Arkle.
‘You are such a dolt, Sorlie,’ Reinya laughed. ‘So this smiler guy might be your enemy.’
I shook my head. ‘No, not him. Vanora blew his brains out for being cheeky to her.’
‘Charmin.’
We fell silent for a while.
‘’ow did ‘e know you were ‘ere?’ Reinya asked. ‘Your enemy?’
‘I don’t know. Sometimes I think I have a secret tracker on me.’
‘What’s that smell? It’s changed.’ Reinya moved a little faster, bumping into me.
‘The sea. I think it’s the sea.’ We rounded a corner and a pinhole of daylight showed ahead.
As we crept closer, the smell of the sea began to dilute the stench. At least we were heading for the coast, although I couldn’t believe sewage went straight into the sea. That couldn’t be right.
We stopped just before the opening.
‘You wait here, I’ll check it’s OK.’
‘Get real Sorlie, we go thegether.’
I stuck my head out the opening at the end of the walkway and grabbed a gulp of wind blowing off the sea.
‘We’re about five metres from the water but I don’t know how shallow it is down there. We could break our necks.’ I looked out at the sheer cliff face and almost swooned at the exposure. ‘We don’t have much choice, we can’t climb down.’ The channel carrying the sludge protruded from the cliff for another couple of metres. ‘If we use that to get a run at it we’ll have a better chance at reaching deep water.’
‘Yur jokin, right?’
But I wasn’t sitting around listening, I closed my eyes, my mouth, my nose and jumped in. It wasn’t too deep, just above my ankles but the stench made my eyes water and the feel of the lumps bumping into my legs made me boak. When I tried to run, the thick sludge splashed up, threatening to hit me in the mouth so I was forced to walk. I felt the channel wobble as it left the security of the cliff face. I peered over the edge and froze, my fear of heights overpowering my fear of failure. Then I felt a boot on my back and I was kicked forward into the air. My ears whistled, I crashed on the sea’s surface. Sludge engulfed me, I sank, my eyes still tight shut, no way of knowing what way was up. I touched something solid with my feet. I kicked and started to rise, then bobbed out on the surface just as a splash happened beside me.
Reinya surfaced a metre or so away.
‘You kicked me!’ I spat with words and sludge.
‘You were faffin, Sorlie,’ she said and struck out south, swimming strong and fast. I followed although I had no idea if it was the right direction. But at least it took us away from the stench. We swam well out from the shore until we were clear of the stinking debris then headed inland toward a small bay. Our clothes and body washed in the relatively clean water as we swam.
‘How do we know it’s not mined?’ Warnings from my Academy days clanged my memory cells.
‘D’you know ‘ow long the coastline is these day wi aw the erosion? They gave up minin beaches decades ago.’
‘How do you know all this stuff, Reinya?’
‘Get real Sorlie.’ I wished she would stop saying that but held my tongue.
We found a ring of rocks lower than the land but higher than the tideline and pulled ourselves free of the water.
‘Uh can still smell it,’ she said. ‘It’s imprinted in mu nose.’
‘I know what you mean.’ I tapped my comms. ‘Is your comms working?’
‘Yep, why?’
‘Mine’s still blocked, what does yours say? We were supposed to leave Beckham City by the east port.
‘At least we’re southeast,’ she said.
‘Only by chance.’
‘No matter, chance works for me.’
‘What do we do now?’
‘It says we’ve to rendezvous at these coordinates.’ She showed me the dial.
‘How long?’
She tapped it again. ‘Two ‘ours walkin.’
‘Are you tired?’ I could see her panda eyes darkening, but they narrowed at me.
‘Why d’you ask? Are you?’
‘No,’ even though I was. I wasn’t going to let on.
‘Let’s go then.’
Ishbel
Huxton was where she’d left him but in a state of shock. His skin look like porridge and when Ishbel touched his neck to check for a pulse, he felt ice cold and his pulse was little more than a flutter.
As the boy picked him up, Ishbel tried to help but he brushed her aside.
‘I can do it.’
‘Then why ask me to come?’
‘You’re my catch,’ was all he said.
To her astonishment the little fellow heaved Huxton onto his shoulder without so much as a grunt. Ishbel retrieved her bag and followed. They moved silently through the woods to the camp. Twilight glimmered on the snow and the sky lit up with a kaleidoscopic green light, streaking through the clouds like the tresses of some mythological goddess. The hair stood up on the back of Ishbel’s neck. Such celestial occurrences were common in her homeland in the Northern Territory but only seen on clear nights when the rain clouds occasionally disappeared. It was always a thrill to stand with her mother and watch the sky. She wondered when Vanora lost that love of nature and became obsessed with war. The boy seemed oblivious to the spectacle and disappeared into the woods. She knew she should follow but couldn’t help but watch the sky. Of course, this far north in Esperaneo would have the same phenomenon, she should have realised that.
Fires had been lit around the camp perimeter. Wooded huts of many shapes and sizes were erected under the tree canopy with a larger plastic panel block in the centre. She now suspected these woods were of designated status, the lungs of Esperaneo, protected for the sake of the planet and yet this community was burning them without conscience. It was to a plastic hut that the boy carried Huxton. Ishbel followed.
Inside, five beds fanned out in a circle and the woman waited by an operating table to receive the injured. Once Huxton was laid out on a slab
he looked like a corpse. The boy took Ishbel’s arm and tugged her away. She shook him off.
‘You leave him here,’ the woman said.
‘No, I’ll stay.’
The earlier benevolence in the woman’s face slipped.
‘No miss, you leave him here.’
The boy took her arm again, this time exerting some pressure. She remembered the ease with which he had lifted Huxton. She knew she was a warrior but guessed this boys’ phenomenal strength was a match for her so she moved to the door.
‘You’ll let me know how he is?’ The woman nodded, already cutting the trouser leg around his wound.
Outside the fires sputtered and raged with the occasional gust of wind fanning golden flames, igniting sparks and obscuring the spectacle in the sky.
‘Why so many fires?’
‘Wild beasts,’ the boy told her. ‘They are few but deadly. We have hunted most but there is one who steals our food. We cannot catch it.’ He splayed out his arms to shoulder width. ‘Its feet are this big.’
‘Sounds like a legend.’
‘No, it is real. I have seen the footprints myself.’
She let it drop, he was just a boy after all. Only a few years younger than Sorlie.
The camp seemed deserted but Ishbel could sense people behind doors, waiting perhaps for the mysterious beast.
‘Where is everyone?’
‘In bed.’
‘How many in this camp?’
He looked around each hut in turn, as if counting. ‘Thirty maybe.’
There were at least fifty dwellings. ‘So many houses for so few people.’
The boy shrugged. ‘People die, leave, are carried away by the beast.’
‘Men go to war,’ she added. He shrugged.
He showed her into a cabin of two rooms and four bunks. It was covered in dust and cobwebs as if it hadn’t been used for a while.
‘I’ll bring you food later.’
Ishbel sat on one of the bunks and suddenly felt weary. How long had it been since they’d been wrecked? How could it have been just this morning? For the first time since then she wondered about the other men taken prisoner. Would they have given any intel over to the Military? She doubted it. She’d made sure they knew very little of her plan. She should leave now and try to find them. She had a mission to complete and if she didn’t complete her part when Sorlie reached the goal then all would unravel. Huxton wouldn’t be going anywhere soon and although this tribe were strange they were trying to help him.
She tried the door. It was locked as she expected it to be. She looked out the window. All was quiet. No, there was a movement over by the infirmary. It was the boy. He left the main door carrying a thick long parcel the length of a rifle. She watched him move to the outer rim of the camp. The fires still burned bright enough to show his shadow moving towards a stone building. It was quite different from the other shacks but she hadn’t noticed it before. He propped the parcel against the wall and opened the door. He disappeared inside with the parcel then returned carrying something small in his hand. He placed this in a bucket by the door and pulled the door closed. He stood still for a minute. A small woman came out of the shadows carrying a tray. She gave him the tray in exchange for the bucket, then turned and disappeared into the dark. No words seemed to have been spoken. The boy watched her go. When Ishbel saw him turn in her direction she juked back into the room and crouched on a lower bunk. Her heart was thumping but she had no idea why.
The boy came in and placed the tray on the table. On it was a mug of brew and a bowl of steaming broth. The delicious aroma made Ishbel’s belly rumble.
‘Why am I locked in?’
‘For your own protection.’
‘From whom? The beast?’
A sly smile passed his face. ‘From everyone.’
‘So I’m not safe here.’
‘You will not be harmed.’
‘Then why lock me in?’
He pushed the tray towards her. ‘Eat.’
‘I need to speak to your elders. I need to move on and leave my friend in your care.’
Again that smile. ‘That should not be a problem. You can see them in the morning. Now eat.’
He left her to her food. The bowl contained a broth of root stew but she knew by the film on top of the cooling liquid that this also contained the banned substance, meat. It seemed that sometimes the community hunted successfully because she doubted if the Noiri reached so far north with its famous contraband meat.
The food was minimal as she expected in such a remote community but delicious and enough to fill her belly. And yet when she sat to drink her brew she felt a clawing at her gullet and a nausea bubbled in her. The brew was cold. The type that frothed with fermentation. It was strong and helped wash the nausea away. She tried the door again – locked. Something was wrong with this place. She would sleep with one eye to the door and in the morning she would leave Huxton behind and forget about this strange community.
Sorlie
When we arrived at the rendezvous point we found Dawdle sitting cross-legged on the nose of his mini sub, Peedle. His face was tripping him.
‘What’s wrong with you, not pleased to see us?’
He screwed up his nose. ‘You stink.’
On the way the rain had stopped and we managed to dry off some, but the resulting damp, shite-splattered clothes were less than palatable.
‘Nice to see you too.’
‘Did ye make the drop?’
‘Course,’ said Reinya. ‘Then we got chased into u sewer by u nuttur.’
We waited for his reaction but got nowhere.
‘What is wrong with you?’ I persisted.
‘Look brat, ah prefer tae travel alone. Tae work alone. Now ah’m lumbered wi a couple o kids. There’s nuthin wrong wi me. Ah should be askin what’s wrong wi you.’ This was directed at Reinya. She had been slow and struggling for the past hour but I hadn’t really taken any notice. Now I could see by the way she held her arms across her chest she was in real discomfort.
‘Uh’m sore is all.’ She took her hands away from her front and looked at them. ‘Uh’m leakin milk.’
‘Aye? Ah could sell that fur ye.’ Dawdle was only joking but I still punched him on the arm. He passed a hand over his face but his silence proved he knew his gaffe.
‘Mu bairnie’s dead.’
‘Aye, sorry, oot ma mooth before ah thought.’ He reached into the cab and threw her a towel.
‘We dried off on the walk,’ I said.
‘It’s no fur that. Tie it roond ye. It’ll help the pain and the leakin.’
Reinya gawped at him. ‘‘ow do you know that’ll work?’
‘It will. But you suit yersel. If ye dinnae like ma advice ye should huv stayed back at Steadie and got that Harkin tae look efter ye.’
Reinya squared to him. ‘Uh ‘ave to fight.’
‘Aye, well it’ll be a while afore we see ony action. Yir no here tae fight. There’s mair ways tae skin a cat ye ken.’
‘What?’ both Reinya and I said in unison.
‘Look, just dae as ah say coz ah’m yer nursemaid.’
‘We don’t need any nursemaid,’ I said, but Dawdle just sighed.
‘Mebbes ye dae, mebbes ye don’t, aw ah ken is ah’ve been ordered tae take ye tae Esperaneo Major.’ He stood up. ‘Hop aboard. It’ll no take long.’
As soon as we were aboard and changed into dry, sweet-smelling clothes, Reinya crawled into the corner. Both Dawdle and I turned our backs on her thinking she would strip and tie the towel round her leaking breasts. Dawdle started the engine. It coughed and wheezed but after a final belch it kicked and he manoeuvred us out into the bay.
‘We can stay on the surface fur a bit,’ he said. ‘We’ll hug the coast south then cross tae mainland Esperaneo Major at the sh
ortest stretch.’
‘No we won’t, we ‘ead for sector W.’
Both Dawdle and I whipped round at Reinya’s rough voice. She stood facing us holding something up in front of her face. And then I saw what it was.
‘Fuck, it’s a grenade.’
‘Come on wee hen, put that down,’ Dawdle sounded calm but I could smell the fear coming off him.
‘Uh’m no your ‘wee hen’ and uh’m no puttin this grenade down.’ And there she was, that fierce animal I first saw on the quayside in Ulapul, waiting to smuggle herself aboard Dead Man’s Ferry with her addict mother. I had thought she was a boy then, not this young girl.
‘Take us to Sector W. It’s not far out o our way.’
‘It’s in the west.’
‘Aye, but it’s flooded from ‘ere to there so we can go.’
‘Got it aw worked out, huvn’t ye?’ Dawdle looked almost proud. ‘Why dae ye want tae go there?’ he asked, but I knew and so did he. Reinya’s mother died weeks after landing on the prison ship at Sector W and Reinya had been forced to suffer unspeakable horrors. Ever since she’d been rescued she’d threatened to go back and blow the ship up.
‘You know why.’
‘Look hen, there’s addicts on that ship. They’re put there as a lesson tae society. They dinnae last long, you know that. Why blow them up?’
‘Uh wasn’t an addict. Uh was innocent.’
‘Aye, but you chose tae go.’
‘There was no choice. There’s many innocent children on that ship who won’t be rescued like me. Uh’m going to put thum out their mysery.’ She still held the grenade at arm’s length but I could see her hand was shaking. A trail of snot started to roll from one nostril down to her lip. She dashed it away with the heel of her free hand. I edged away from Dawdle.
‘Aye, ah realise that, but why kill them? They dinnae deserve tae die,’ Dawdle was trying to distract her, I could tell. I pressed my back against the hull. ‘It’s murder, Reinya,’ he said.
‘Don’t move anuther inch, Sorlie.’ She held the grenade higher, her other hand now on the pin.
I held my hands up. ‘OK, OK. But you’re not really going to blow us up?’
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