‘Caleb,’ she corrected him automatically.
‘Where’s he now?’ Harry asked again.
She could feel the hard bite of Caleb’s throat against her thumbs. She saw the girl, Steph, crying and bleeding, her fingers torn to shreds.
‘And what about that other fella?’ pressed Harry. ‘The one you ran to when you did for David? Where’s he now?’
Ill. She remembered the note she’d received from Jamison, the way that some of the letters had been filled in by another hand where his pen hadn’t been able to press hard enough against the paper. She’d never called the number she’d been given, never given him permission to phone her.
‘That’s the good thing about Amanda Coleman, lads,’ said Harry, smiling. ‘She’s poison for everyone she meets. Warden’s going to figure that out soon enough.’
The men all laughed again, trading looks. Zoe frowned from her spot on the sofa.
Harry took to his feet, heading for the small fridge that stood against one wall. Keeping his eyes on Amanda, he had a smug look on his face, a man who knew he’d won this round. There were scuffs of mud on his knees, smeared where he’d wiped his hands on his thighs. There was dirt under his fingernails too. Beneath his tinted glasses, the man looked dark around the eyes, pale everywhere else. What the fuck had he been doing all day?
‘Look at her,’ crowed Mallory. ‘Doesn’t know what to say to that. Harry has her bang to rights. Because I—’
‘Shut your fucking mouth,’ the words were out of her before she’d even known they were coming. ‘I just have to look at you to know the hardest thing about you is that fucking bat you carry around instead of a spine. You’re a walking impotence metaphor.’
She wanted a fight and she didn’t care if she lost. She was back on the train, back in that alley with the police closing in, back in the canteen with Anderson bearing down.
Mallory’s eyes bulged in his head, his fingers twitching, a nerve ticking in his temple, his breath hitching like his anger was clogging his throat. For a man who perceived slights in everything people did, someone openly defying him seemed unbelievable.
The rest of the room held its breath. The crease between Harry’s eyebrows could have hid Karina all by itself.
‘When I bring you new recruits, Harry, I have bigger expectations over your level of control.’
Fitzackley had appeared. His sharp suit was so incongruous with the prison uniforms around him, it looked like he’d stepped out of another world.
Drummond stood by his side, his face set in a scowl, baton in hand.
The whole room shifted towards them, everyone just as surprised to see them as Amanda was.
‘I came looking for an update on the search for Karina and instead I find two of your people on the verge of brawling.’
‘If you don’t want to see how the sausage is made,’ said Harry, walking over. ‘Thought we’d agreed you’d stop coming down here unannounced. Only ends up upsetting you.’
‘When all I hear is bad news, how can I stay away? I’ve been getting nothing but reports of fights and interrogations from the cell blocks, I have four people crammed in isolation and still no sign of the woman you let escape.’
‘Like I keep saying,’ said Mallory, ‘she had help.’
‘We’re still working on it,’ said Harry. ‘We’ll find her. Not like there’s many places to run. Likelihood is she’ll come back on her own. Probably starving to death out there.’
Fitzackley didn’t move his hands. The only way that any of them knew that he’d performed magic was Harry being plucked from his feet and slammed into the wall beside Amanda. She flinched, ducking away with an expletive.
Cantrips were necessary parts of spellcasting, but the expert Abras could make the movements so small that people didn’t see them coming. Amanda hadn’t even seen the man twitch.
‘What do I pay you for?’ Fitzackley burst, approaching as Harry squirmed against the wall. ‘You promised me stability. You promised me results. Now I have an overflowing infirmary and nothing to show for it. Where is she? How has she evaded us for so long?’
Amanda watched, impressed, as Harry stopped struggling. Visibly relaxing, he forced his trembling arms down to his sides. The rest of the crew were on their feet, but Harry stilled them with a shake of his head.
For once, even Mallory seemed cowed, his hands grasping at his trouser legs, itching to intervene. Amanda wondered if he’d tried to take on Fitz before and failed.
‘Tell me,’ said the warden through gritted teeth, ‘that you’ve at least searched the woman’s cell?’
Amanda blinked when she realised the question was being directed at her.
‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘But—’ The next word bulged in her throat, unable to get past a sudden blockage. Black stars burst in her vision as she began to choke.
‘I have had enough of your excuses,’ said Fitzackley. ‘The mainland are beginning to ask questions and should they even think of investigating us, I will personally make sure they find nothing but scorched earth. They’re practically begging for me to give them an excuse to declare this experiment a failure.’
Amanda looked to the others to help, her mouth gawping like a fish, unable to take a breath. She fell to her knees. She could barely hear the warden through the ringing in her ears.
‘Get back out there and find her. Search her cell. If she is not in custody when I return, we will be discussing the future of this arrangement.’
Fitzackley gave them all a look in turn. ‘And keep this one under control. We don’t shit where we live.’ This last comment he threw over his shoulder as he left, brushing past Amanda with barely a glance.
She heard the door slam and all at once the pressure in her throat disappeared. Harry swore loudly as he slumped to the floor.
Taking a breath so big that it hurt her aching throat anew, Amanda fell forward.
‘What should we do?’ she heard Andre ask.
‘We fuck him up, that’s what,’ said Mallory. ‘Who does he think he is? Fuck waiting. We hit him now and—’
‘Sit back down,’ ordered Harry. ‘None of that. Sit back down. We do what he says. Mallory, you and the women, I want you in that cell, divining. Get your things. You two,’ he waved a finger between Andre and Bohdan, ‘are with me, I want another word with her friends. Fitzackley wants us working, then we’re going to give him a show. Whatever makes him happy. Mallory, a word first. Zoe, show Coleman here where to fetch the equipment. This has been out of hand long enough.’
* * *
Their footsteps echoed down the long empty corridors.
Curfew was in effect – the prisoners locked away in their cells, waiting for the morning and roll call.
The lights buzzed and, behind the numbered steel doors, Amanda could hear the whispers and shuffles of the men and women on the other side.
‘How’s your throat?’ asked Zoe.
‘Fine,’ she replied, and meant it. For all the pain of the choking, there seemed to be no lingering physical damage. That struck Amanda as right for the warden – all the pain with none of the mess.
He had done it to hide the fact that they’d been talking, she realised. Treating her badly, like she was one of them, had been meant to push her deeper into the group, establish her amongst them.
She wondered if all it had achieved was the opposite.
But it had got her what she wanted – access to Karina’s cell. Now all she needed were the papers in the mattress and hope that they really could lead her to Karina somehow.
Reaching into her pocket, she felt the cold steel of the small kitchen knife there, the one she had used to complete the scryball. She had to stop checking it, she chided herself, Zoe would surely notice.
‘Never seen him that agitated before,’ said Zoe.
‘You think he’s going to do it?’ said Amanda. ‘Shut down the island? Send us all for hanging and walk away?’
‘If he’s desperate enough,’ Zoe didn’t sound too
concerned. ‘He’s never hidden how he feels about us. This is all business to him. What he gives us isn’t much really.’
‘But it’s better than the alternative.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Where is it Harry keeps going? All that’s going on and he just isn’t around.’
‘If you think he tells us, you’re mistaken. He just goes on walks. I don’t think he likes being inside much. And who can blame him?’
They turned a corner onto another cold stretch of corridor.
They’d been sent on ahead, Mallory still talking, arguing in fact, with Harry. The small man had needed to collect equipment before he could get to work. Zoe had only nodded, knowing what equipment he’d meant and Amanda hadn’t wanted to ask. So long as it gave her time to search the cell with one less person to worry about.
‘He had mud on his knees,’ said Amanda. ‘And dirt under his fingernails. You see that?’
‘Of course I did. But if you haven’t figured it out yet, there are plenty of things that it’s just best to never see. Or hear. Or say. Or think. No point making anything harder than it already is. Here.’
The cell door was the only one open, waiting for them.
It was a room just like so many others here. There were a pair of beds, mattresses hanging from them, limp like corpses. A small wardrobe had been tipped so that it leaned drunkenly against the wall, its door open to reveal a pair of prison uniforms.
Someone had already torn through the place. From the dents in the side of the wardrobe, Amanda could guess who it was. After being attacked, she could picture Mallory coming back to take his anger out on Karina’s possessions when he couldn’t find the woman herself.
‘See why they weren’t too mad about searching this place?’ said Zoe. ‘There’s nothing here and any contraband doesn’t stay hidden for long. Makes you glad, doesn’t it? I mean, I don’t get to own that many things. But even a few things is more than these people have. Some of them get so weird, they collect stones when they’re outside on work detail. Stones as contraband. Look…’ She pointed. There, in the corner of the room by the door, was a round stone, worn smooth by water. ‘It’s tragic. Sometimes it’s scraps from magazines the guards give them, there’s the occasional book. It’s like owning stuff is hard-wired into people.’
Amanda’s heart sped up at the mention of contraband. She eyed the mattress, wondering how she could search it without Zoe noticing. She wanted to run her hands along the seams, check for tears, but with Zoe watching, how would she keep anything she found hidden? If Zoe spotted the papers in her hand, she’d want to know what they were, and once she had them, they’d no doubt go straight to Harry.
‘Might as well have a look,’ she said, stepping inside.
‘Be my guest.’
Zoe watched from the doorway as Amanda went through Karina’s meagre possessions, pulling out the clothing a scrap at a time, running her hands through the pockets.
‘Goes to show how much people around here like her,’ the woman pointed out. ‘Anyone else and that would all be gone.’
‘Why do they like her so much?’
‘Because she’s a celeb, I guess. Half of the people here have been into pro-magic protests one way or another. She’s like their queen.’
The thin mattress crinkled as Amanda ran her fingers underneath, hoping that if she found the papers, she wouldn’t reveal it to Zoe. But she found nothing.
‘Satisfied?’ Zoe smiled.
‘Not really.’
It wasn’t until she turned that she saw the crack in the concrete by the door. It was a good three feet long and about head height. Where the crack was deepest, she could see blood, a few strands of hair.
‘Yeesh,’ said Zoe, joining her. ‘Must be where it happened. I always suspected Mallory’s head was denser than a cinderblock. This proves it.’
‘That’s pretty deep,’ Amanda noted.
‘Must have used magic somehow,’ Zoe shrugged. ‘That’ll be why she ran. Hanging offence. And it being her, Fitzackley would have made a publicity stunt out of it. Prove that all magic users are animals and can’t be trusted. Come on. Mallory’s going to want us to make space. All of this needs to be out.’
Amanda frowned at the crack, giving it one last look. It was hard to reconcile the woman smiling confidently out of all the newspaper pages and television articles with whoever had made this dent. Mallory was used to fights, he expected them. For her to have defended herself against him and won…
Before Amanda could ask what they were making room for, she was cut off by a shout from down the corridor.
The women stuck their head out of the door in time to see a guard striding down the corridor perpendicular to theirs.
‘Just fuck off, all right?’ Mallory pointed in the same direction the guard was going, kicking the ground after them for good measure, chasing them on their way.
They watched as he wavered, making sure the guard had left. Satisfied, he swaggered down towards them with exaggerated steps. A large gym bag swung in his right hand.
Zoe ducked to catch it as he threw it to her.
‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s get this done.’
He looked Amanda over with contempt as he stepped into the cell, turning to look at the crack in the door frame.
‘Fucking bitch.’ He spat, his body shaking as he rubbed at the bloodstain with a bare wrist. ‘What’s all this stuff in here?’
‘Amanda was just moving it out.’ Working her way through the bag, pulling things out, Zoe shot Amanda a look.
Getting the message, Amanda began to take the clothes and the cupboard out of the room, setting them down in the corridor.
Zoe was unravelling a long red rope, which she set in a corner before lining up a series of mountain-climbing clips.
To say they worked in silence didn’t describe it. She and Zoe worked in silence while Mallory talked – a strange stream of consciousness that neither wanted a reply nor expected one. As he talked, he casually destroyed things. Kicking at Karina’s clothes, his foot caught in the leg loop of some of her underwear. He then occupied himself by slipping his other boot into the other hole and trying to rip the garment in half by pulling his feet apart, standing on one leg. The seam gave way all at once, prompting the man into amused little snorts.
From there, he went to picking at the cheap laminate of the cupboard, pulling away long strips.
‘This isn’t going to work,’ he griped, as Amanda lifted the mattress to pull it from the room. ‘Complete waste of time. Fucking Harry, he thinks just because he got all this rolling makes him the one in charge. But he knew, he knew right from the beginning, that he wasn’t shit without me. Should have seen him then, coming to me, he was practically fucking crying, he wanted me on his team so bad. And I thought about it. Should have seen my cell, smaller than this place; put my hands flat on both walls in any direction, it was so small. They wanted me to suffer, like I hadn’t been suffering already, way that fucking warden strutted around, always a condescending look at me, like his shit didn’t stink. It fucking stank all right. You ever smelled a pierced intestine? Isn’t nothing like it, you wouldn’t believe how bad that shit smells. Ha! Fuck me, that’s funny. That guy was nothing but shit, cut him so bad and you could see it in his eyes, he knew it, he knew it, all that shit leaking out of him and me there laughing and telling him how it was. And you’re the same.’ Now he was addressing Amanda directly. ‘Just turn up, thinking you’re all that just because of who your daddy was. Well, you don’t fool me. Thought you were going to shit yourself, the look you had when you saw my bat. And I knew…’
Amanda let the words wash over her. She kept her face neutral as she pulled the mattress out into the corridor, out of sight of the other two.
Leaning it as best she could against the wall, her heart skipped when she spotted a small tear. She wouldn’t have seen it otherwise, but bending the mattress had opened up the slit by the thick seam like a mouth. It was just long enough to fit
three fingers in. Or a roll of papers.
Checking the doorway, she bit her tongue as she reached inside. Her fingertips brushed something.
Mallory was still talking, his ramblings accompanied by the shuffle, bump and rattle of Zoe’s preparations.
The papers whispered out of the hole. It was cheap notebook paper, riffled at one edge, torn from a ring binder. There were a few of them, the roll thin and delicate and covered in scribbled notes, written in what looked like charcoal.
No time to read them, Amanda stuffed them up her coat and returned to the room, feeling flushed with success.
Zoe was setting up, the gym bag hanging off her shoulder for easy access. Her fist was full of strange metal pitons, their surfaces carved with runes. Touching their spikes to the walls and ceiling, she made minute adjustments with her fingertips before stepping back. The pitons remained as she set them, delicately balanced perpendicular to the floor.
‘Here,’ spotting that Amanda had finished with her part, she held out some pitons for her to place. ‘I’ve marked where they go.’
Trying to hide her trembling hands, Amanda took them, her mind turning to how she could get away. She didn’t like the touch of the runes against her fingers as they sought to tap her power.
Soon enough, while Mallory was talking about some slight from Fitzackley, the whole room was studded with the strange metal pitons – all four walls and the ceiling.
‘Now this,’ said Zoe, reaching into the bag and pulling out a thin glass tube. It was filled with strange, long filaments.
‘Is this…?’ Amanda curled her nose.
‘Some of her hair. Wouldn’t be surprised if the warden has a sample of everyone’s stashed away somewhere.’
They carefully teased out strands of Karina’s hair, one at a time, and tied them to each piton head. There wasn’t enough to go around and so it took time to carefully cut strands in two to make sure that there was an even distribution.
Strange Ways Page 16