‘Why not? What do uh ‘ave to live for? As Dawdle reminded me, uh don’t even ‘ave a baby.’
‘Ah said sorry.’
‘Just get goin, Dawdle, let’s get this done.’
Dawdle sighed and changed course. He looked over his shoulder at Reinya and I could tell he was thinking of a way out of this. It wasn’t like him just to give in.
‘And don’t try any of that rockin. Or the ‘Oh, we’re under attack,’ shite you pulled off before. Uh can read your coordinates and one slip out o course – boom!’
I stared at her. Her tears had been replaced by a sort of madness.
‘We’ll be there in under two hours. But ah might need tae let Peedle cool,’ Dawdle said.
‘No, the dials show un even temp. Keep goin.’
All three of us remained silent, counting those minutes. Silent that was, apart from Reinya’s heavy breathing. Every time I so much as twitched she held her hand up, steady now, and glared at me.
‘Dinnae antagonise her, Sorlie. She means what she says.’ I could see the throb in Dawdle’s temple.
‘Right, we’re here. We cannae get any closer or the guards’ll open fire. OK, so Reinya, ah’m gonnae cut the engines, so dinnae freak, it’s no a trick.’ Dawdle turned round and faced her. ‘But tell me. How dae ye intend tae blow it up?’
She reached behind her, while still threatening us with the grenade pin held to her teeth. From her back she pull out a bandolier of grenades.
‘You hid them here, back after we left the souterrain community. Ah wondered where they’d disappeared tae.’
‘Never know when you’ll need somethin like this.’ She glanced out the front screen.
‘We’re too far, Reinya. They’ll pick us off afore we get close enough.’
‘They won’t be lookin fur a solo swimmer. It’s what? Fifty metres? Uh can swim that easy. She howked the bandolier over her head and shoulders. ‘Aw my days on that ‘ell ‘ole wur no wasted. Uh know where to get on board without detection, Uh know the sweet spot. It won’t take much. The whole lot’ll gan up in seconds.’
‘Aye and you with it,’ I said. ‘Please Reinya, don’t do this.’
She narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Uh’ve nothin to live for.’
‘What about the revolution? I thought you wanted to fight.’
She pointed towards the ship. ‘The sufferin’s ‘appenin now. They can’t wait fur your revolution.’
‘Let her go Sorlie, we cannae hang around here aw day, they’ll huv a’ready seen us and will huv radioed their command.’ Dawdle opened the hatch and let Reinya pass without even trying to stop her. We followed her up. The prison ship was indeed only fifty metres away. It wasn’t as big as I’d expected, not much bigger than a sub and yet it was rumoured to house over a thousand addicts. They must be packed in like rats. Its grey, rusting hull lay lurched in the water, the bow dipped low as if waiting to nosedive.
Reinya turned, held up her hand in salute. ‘Good luck with the revolution,’ she said before launching herself into the water.
Ishbel
Ishbel felt someone in the room. The boy maybe, she could smell him. He stood over her. She could hear his breathing. She tried to control her own, fool him into thinking she still slept. She felt a touch on her arm, very light, then something like a feather landing on her leg, her thigh. She tried not to tense and yet still made ready to stop that hand if it crept higher up her leg. Instead it moved to her calf. She was being measured for something. A coffin?
She opened her eyes. It wasn’t Saul but a small boy she had seen by the fires.
‘What..?’ But as soon as she spoke he whipped out the room leaving the door wide open, letting in pink tinges of daybreak. She checked her wrist, her communicator was still there but the unease she had felt the previous night returned. She dug into her sack she’d used as a pillow. Her map of the area showed her she still had many kiloms to cross to reach her rendezvous before Bieberville. But what about her men? She would need to come back for them. If she missed her rendezvous there was a three day hike ahead of her. And even if she did make Bieberville in time, she would be left with the problem of finding transport to get her prize out of there. There was no time to waste. She reassessed her original plan to leave Huxton. This place was wrong. She couldn’t leave him. It was only a flesh wound, nothing to stop him recovering if he took it easy, but he would slow her down. If need be she could fashion a crutch and carry him part of the way.
She peered out into the camp, not knowing what to expect. Daylight was only just creeping in through the sparse gaps in the trees and the fires were embers. She saw small boys, dipped over in sleep, obviously set by each fire to keep them stoked. Ribbons of mists whispered into the trees. Across the yard lay the infirmary, its door open as if they were expecting her. She grabbed her bag and ran on tiptoe across the gap. As she slipped through the door, her hopes of seeing Huxton up and ready to go vanished.
He lay on his back, his face pale in the dawn light, his whole body soaked in sweat.
‘Huxton.’ She shook his shoulder. ‘Come on, we need to go.’
‘Eugh?’
He rolled his head and his face screwed up in pain.
‘Come on, it was just a flesh wound, get up.’
She pulled the cover off his bed and fell back in horror. Huxton seemed unaware his leg was gone. The stump just below the hip was wrapped in blood-soaked cloth. His other leg lay bare, with a line tattooed around it at almost the exact spot of his amputation.
‘What are you doing here?’ Ishbel jumped at the voice. She hadn’t heard the woman step into the tent, Saul lurked behind her, grinning, as if he was expecting some reward.
‘What have you done to him?’
‘His leg was infected, it had to come off.’ Ishbel remembered the bundle the boy carried from this tent. No way, they couldn’t have.
‘It wasn’t infected. It had only just happened, a flesh wound.’ Ishbel couldn’t hold back the panic in her voice.
‘Are you a healer?’
‘No but…’
‘It was infected.’
Ishbel pointed to the other leg. ‘Then what is that mark?’
The woman didn’t flinch. ‘It is for study purposes.’
She had to get out of here but she couldn’t leave Huxton at their mercy.
‘I need to move on.’
‘Saul tells me you wish to leave him here.’ She motioned towards Huxton. ‘Under the circumstances I think that’s wise. You can leave once you have eaten.’ The woman nodded to the boy Saul. ‘Breakfast is being prepared.’
Ishbel looked at Huxton. This fine soldier who had so much promise for the future of the revolution. She leaned down to speak to him. His laboured breath was rank on her face.
‘I’ll come back to say goodbye,’ she whispered, but the man was past caring. Her back straightened and she turned to face them.
‘I’ll just go and perform my body management then leave.’
The woman pointed to the north of the camp. ‘The latrine area is out there.’
Ishbel left them, but instead of heading for the latrines hurried back to her cabin. She watched from the door until the woman and boy left the infirmary then she slipped out the back.
In the shadows she slid past the catering tent, her back pressed to the wall. The smell of meat cooking made her puke so fast she almost soiled her boots. She gagged and spat in the snow.
The store had double doors made of plastic with two bolts threaded across. She carefully slid each bolt open. They worked smoothly as if well-oiled with fat. She gagged again. The snow outside was piled up around and packed hard against the stone walls, telling her it was an ice house. The door squeaked open and she slipped in, leaving it open a crack.
The room was perishing, her breath froze on her face. She pulled her snood up over her
nose. It was dark with only a sliver of light stretching through the opening. She torched her communicator and saw a dark lump hanging in the corner, just as she had expected but not quite believed. She moved further in to the room just to make sure. The shelves were empty apart from Huxton’s leg, the pepper shot removed, hanging in the corner to cure, all ready to be carved and served with two veg. Her heart sank. Is this what civilisation had become? A flutter of panic rose in her breast. She had to get out of here she told herself for the umpteenth time, but first there was something she must do. She turned and reached for the door but before she could get there it banged closed. She heard the bolts slam in place, one then the other.
Sorlie
I tried to catch her cuff as she leapt but my hand snatched at the air.
‘Reinya,’ I roared.
Dawdle grabbed my arm to stop me diving in after her. ‘Don’t – it’s no like when ye rescued Ishbel. Reinya wants tae dae this.’
I couldn’t believe she’d gone. What would I tell Scud? I remembered her words to me not that long ago. ‘Tell him I love him.’ She’d been planning this all along. And all I could do was watch.
She was a strong swimmer and a good way towards the ship when the roar came from a distance. A Military Transport appeared over the horizon. Dawdle dived below and whipped the sub forward and ninety degrees starboard at the same time, throwing me off my feet. I clung to the outboard ladder hanging over the side and saw the missile pass, missing us by a whisker. It carried on right under Reinya’s thrashing legs. Fifty metres ahead the world exploded into a million pieces with only the bow of the prison ship showing seconds before it disappeared into the ocean’s deep, leaving splinters as a trace of those poor helpless souls.
‘Sorlie, get in here. We’re goin down.’ Dawdle roared.
‘But Reinya.’ I could see her treading water, staring into the space where her target had been.
‘Reinya, quick.’ She didn’t have to be told twice and started back towards us.
‘Sorlie.’ There was more urgency in his roar and I knew why.
The Transport banked and headed back towards us. It flew low over the ship’s debris, almost skimming the surface of the water. I could see the other missile hold, still loaded and pointing at us with deathly intent. I hooked my arm round the ladder and grabbed Reinya’s collar with the other just as a rain of bullets puttered in the water beside us. A searing pain tore through my hooked arm. As the Transport passed and slowed it seemed to hover above us and I just had a glimpse of the armoured pilot. He was alone, with no crew waiting to pick us off. Time seemed to stand still as I looked into those blinkered eyes. It was him again. He was tracking me, no doubt about it. Reinya yanked me from my dwam, shoved me down the hatch, followed and slammed the lid tight.
The pressure to my ears was immense as we dived at speed. The sub rocked as something hit us. The engine screamed then settled to a disturbing clunk.
‘Any damage?’ I shouted above the clunking, trying not to think of the stounding pain in my arm.
‘Hard tae tell, but it disnae sound good, eh?’ He tapped a gauge. ‘We’re losing fuel. We’ll need tae take it easy.’ His face was grim. He beckoned me over. ‘Take the controls a minute would ye.’
I could only hold on with one hand, leaving my other held high as I tried to halt the blood I could feel trickling from a wound.
Dawdle leaped over his chair and grabbed Reinya’s bandolier, almost taking her ears off as he yanked it over her head.
‘Oi!’ she shouted.
‘Ah’ll oi ye.’ He stowed the bandolier in a trunk, locked it and placed the key in his pocket.
Reinya slumped in the corner and stuck her thumb in her mouth.
‘Aye. That’s right hen, you sit still, content somebudy’s done yer dirty work for ye.’
She ignored him. His fists were clenched and I could see by the way he stood he was itching to kill her.
‘Peedle’s damaged. We could aw huv been killed back there.’ He looked at the dials, chewing his anger in his cheeks. ‘We’ll be lucky if we can limp tae port.’ He took a breath and stepped closer to her but she seemed to be asleep. ‘Aye that’s right, you huv a wee greet about that.’
‘Dawdle.’
‘Not now Sorlie, Ah’m no hearin yer pleas fur mercy. As soon as we git tae port, ah’m handin her tae The Military. She’s no fit tae be let loose.’ He bent down and took a handful of her hair and pulled her head up to face him. Her eyes blazed with defiance. ‘You can rot in prison. We should’ve left ye there tae begin wi.’
‘Dawdle.’ I said
‘No the now, Sorlie.’
‘Dawdle, do you have any bandages?’ I held up my arm. My sleeve was drenched in blood and when I looked at it my head heaved. I slumped into the captain’s seat. I never could stand the sight of my own blood.
The sub stuttered and coughed its way across the channel. Every hour required a sneaky emerge in the hostile waters and the risk of detection while Dawdle hammered and banged. We eventually lurched into an estuary ten hours after our unplanned diversion to the prison ship. Dawdle called ahead.
‘We’re sorted.’ He patted the control panel of the sub. ‘Sorry Peedle, old girl, but ah think this time we need tae part company fur good.’ He turned to us. ‘We’ll transfer tae another vessel.’
‘Not a van?’
He shook his head. ‘No, we travel by boat. It’s easier in this terrain. Monsieur Jacques’ men here in Esperaneo Major have some quality gear.’ He patted the control panel again. ‘Ah’ve put up wi this piece o junk fur far too long. Time fur a shiny new Peedle.’
Tempers had cooled in those ten hours. Dawdle recognised that Reinya was cracked after her baby’s death.
‘Aye but she’s said all along she wis going tae blow that ship up.’
‘Well it’s done now so she’s no more to worry about.’
‘She’s unhinged, Sorlie.’
‘We’re all unhinged, Dawdle.’ Dawdle raised his eyebrow at that. ‘Aye, even you,’ I said.
‘Well what dae we dae wi her?’
I held out my injured arm. ‘We take her with us as planned. We need all the help we can get.’
Dawdle turned to Reinya who sat cross-legged on the floor, calmly waiting her fate.
‘What do you want, Reinya?’ I asked. ‘Was the only reason you came with us because you wanted to blow up the ship?’
She shook her head, then nodded. ‘U bit, if uh’m honest. But when The Prince got you to stand up in front o that crowd and uh joined you, uh could see the ‘ope in their eyes.’ She rubbed her hands over her face. ‘Look, uh’m sorry, Dawdle. Uh shouldn’t ‘uv. But you’ve no idea what it was like. No sleep coz yer scared the rats’ll nibble ye or someone’ll cut yer throat, or worse. And that’s just the guards. You wouldn’t put u wild animal through that.’
‘Aw right, nae need tae bump yer gums aw ower again. Ah get the script. But we nearly got killed.’
‘Uh never meant fur that tae ‘appen.’ She looked up at me. ‘It was ‘im again.’
‘Who?’ Dawdle asked.
‘There’s a warrior,’ I said. ‘Covered in armour. He was at Steadie, he chased us into the sewer in Beckham City. I think he was at the tower when the Transports blew up. I think he’s trying to kill me.’
‘Who is it?’
‘No idea, but he knows me. He called me by my name at Steadie.’ I looked at Reinya to back me. ‘I think he has a tracker on me ‘cause he always seems to know where I am.’
Dawdle ran his hand over his stubble chin. ‘We’ll get somebudy tae check that out when we disembark.’
‘And what about me?’ Reinya asked. Dawdle glared at her.
‘OK, you can come. But step out o’ line just once and ah’m gonnae kill ye.’ And I knew by the set of his jaw and the throbbing in his temple that he meant what he
said.
As soon as Dawdle opened the hatch a biting cold rushed in and nipped my nose.
We climbed out onto the rungs of a ladder leading to the quayside. It was broad daylight and yet a couple of white vans were parked at the end of the quay and a gaggle of Noiri ops huddled around a brazier, their hands cupped round mugs.
‘Brilliant,’ Dawdle said. ‘Just in time fur a brew.’
A woman swaddled in scarves of pink and orange ran towards us.
‘Shasta?’ Reinya said. ‘What’s she doing here?’
‘Who’s Shasta?’ I asked.
‘She’s from the souterrain community. She helped heal Scud.’ Then in a whisper Reinya added. ‘She’s also Dawdle’s bint.’
Dawdle daggered his eyes at Reinya. ‘She works fur the resistance.’
Shasta stopped just short of us. ‘Dawdle,’ she said, breathless.
‘Yeah, good,’ Dawdle said as if she had asked how he was. ‘Got the vessel?’
‘It’s just…’
‘What? A good one ah hope. Ah’m no payin over the odds, mind.’
She shrugged and beckoned him to the other side of the quay and pointed downwards. Dawdle slapped his hand to his forehead and said something to her we couldn’t hear, but by the look on her face it wasn’t a pleasantry. We joined them and looked down.
‘What the snaf?’ I said.
‘It’s a fourman.’ Shasta sounded so optimistic.
‘It’s a snaffin canoe,’ Reinya said and burst out laughing.
‘The canoe’s big enough to take four,’ Shasta repeated.
‘Before you get in the boat go tae the second van on the left,’ Dawdle told me.
‘Why?’
‘Tae get scanned, ya dolt. You’re the one convinced o being followed.’
‘You saw the Transport.’
‘Aye, aye, haud yer wheesht, we’ll get it fixed. So, second van, get it over with.’
I knocked on the van door and was admitted by a woman about the same age as Ishbel. She looked a bit like her too. Same red hair and amber eyes. I wondered how Ishbel was. Was she still in Freedom? Then quashed that thought. We’d a mission to do and Ishbel had another, so of course she wasn’t still in Freedom.
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