by C. G. Hatton
“What is it?” he said.
“Queen of hearts.”
He narrowed his eyes and said again, “What is it?”
I should have given him another wrong answer, then they might have left me alone, but I was an idiot and I couldn’t help saying, “Four of diamonds.”
“Son of a bitch.” He threw the card down face up. “You’re counting the cards.”
I had no idea what he was talking about and I know now that he was the idiot. I wasn’t counting the cards, that was way more complicated, I learned that much later. What I was doing in that little cell was just keeping track of them. I knew exactly which ones had been dealt so I knew what was left. I could see the deck and how it was playing out.
I didn’t say anything. I shrugged. “I finished all your puzzles. Do I get to eat now?”
I was close to nodding off when the door opened and Maisie came in, pulled up a chair and sat close. She pushed a packet of biscuits into my hand.
“Have you moved?” she asked, hesitant. She knew what the answer would be but she still asked.
She looked different. Even in just one day, she looked different. She was wearing body armour, hair pulled back into a rough pile on top of her head and a scrim scarf loose around her neck.
I nodded. “Are you okay?”
She gave a half smile. “Don’t worry about me.”
“What does Dayton want now?”
She shrugged. She hugged me and whispered into my ear. “They’re trying to figure out what to do next. They want to make a move but they don’t want to screw it up like last time. They think if the Earth forces are spread thin enough, they could take back the mines. They’re going to hit the outposts.”
She said ‘they’.
I grinned. “They let you in on all that?”
She smiled, chin up indignantly. “No, of course not. What did you get?”
“They still don’t know who it is out there.” My ‘they’ were the Earth forces. We were stuck between the two and didn’t belong to either. “But they’ve taken it as an act of aggression and they’re assuming it’s Wintran. They’ve sent for reinforcements so if Dayton wants to make a move, he’s on a deadline.”
It was more complicated than that but I didn’t elaborate. I didn’t want to give them too much. And as much as this was Maisie, she was with them now.
She squeezed my hand and whispered, “Be careful.”
I whispered back, “Always am,” and she slipped away and disappeared as Dayton and his cronies walked in.
He sat down opposite and pushed a board across the table. It had a weird pattern on it, swirling characters that shifted as you looked at them. I wasn’t sure for a second if it was my eyes. But Dayton looked at me and said, “Solve it.”
I almost said, solve what? But as I looked, they started to settle out into lines. I swiped a finger across the surface and nudged a couple. It was too easy. One more nudge and it clicked into place.
I looked up. I half expected him to laugh, say that was just for starters and then get out the next one. I had no idea why he was testing me.
He almost nodded at me but then he just picked up the board, held it out to one of his people and said, dry and cold, “Get this to Yardman. Tell him, he’s just been beaten by a ten year old.”
He knew fine well I was thirteen.
He gave me another board. “Draw me a map of the garrison.”
They had a map. I knew they did. I’d seen it.
“Include all the security positions and AI black spots,” he added, and stood, patting me on the back.
I sat there with the pen poised over the board, biting my lip, stomach cold. It felt like I was betraying Charlie but to refuse would be betraying Maisie, and Latia, and everyone else.
“We don’t have all day,” someone said.
I couldn’t figure out which was worse so I did it. I sketched it all out in immaculate detail, in plan and cross section. I made it the official map, not the classified version I’d seen one time when I’d been snooping deeper than usual. That had secret tunnels, emergency breakouts, a hidden vault most of the personnel in there didn’t even know existed. I wasn’t about to give Dayton all that. I finished it, drew some tiny little skull and cross bones around the edges, added some arcane-looking symbols, and looked up. The little cell was empty except for one bored-looking woman leaning against the far wall with her arms folded.
“About time,” she said. “Now scram. We’ll let you know when Dayton wants you again.”
It was late afternoon by the time I made it back to the block. They’d all gone. No trace we’d ever been there. I sat on the front steps and was tempted to lie down right there and sleep but I needed to find something to drink. I could feel that I was starting to get flaky.
I rubbed my eyes and looked around. We had a system. You needed to know it to look in the right place and we always changed it whenever one of the olders left. I spotted the chalk mark, adjusted for the current regime and followed the marks, half expecting Calum to have pulled a fast one and left me high and dry, but if he’d tried, someone must have ignored him because they led to a door and Freddie was waiting there, on watch.
There was a rifle propped against the doorframe.
“We thought you’d gone as well,” she said, almost breathless.
I gave her a hug, and whispered in her ear, “Never.”
She laughed. “Go on through. We’re in the basement. You need to take the left tunnel.”
We never used the basements. It was too easy to get caught and trapped underground. Calum was a fool.
She rolled her eyes like she knew what I was thinking. “I know,” she said. “I know. He wouldn’t listen. Go on. Get inside. Get some sleep. You look terrible.” She took a packet out of her coat and pushed it into my hand. “I saved this for you. I knew you’d come back.”
I muttered a thanks and hesitated. I didn’t want to go inside. “What’s with the rifle?”
She looked serious then. “Calum’s insisting. We’ve all got them. He said everything’s changed. He said the Earth forces are freaking out with that thing in the desert and he wouldn’t put it past them to try to clear us out again. He said we need to be able to defend ourselves.”
I almost said it was Dayton we needed to defend ourselves against because he was about to launch an offensive and we were going to be stuck in the middle again, but I bit my tongue and said instead, “Where did the guns come from?”
“Calum got them from Dayton.”
It made me feel cold. “Where’s Latia?”
“Gone home.”
I stood there, rooted to the spot, biting my lip.
“Go inside,” she said again. “Come on, Luka. Don’t make things worse. We need you.”
Going to crash out at Latia’s seemed more tempting but I let her nudge me inside. It was a mistake. Everything had changed. And it would never be the same again.
Chapter 11
The basement was musty. I stopped halfway down the steps, nose wrinkling, the damp air catching in my throat. You know I said I’m not claustrophobic? I’m also not stupid. I trust my instincts and I know when a place is bad news.
I started to move back up but someone appeared behind me. One of Calum’s cronies.
He laughed and prodded me in the back. “We were wondering when you would show up, squirt.”
I turned and squinted up the stairs. It was Bram, not just a crony, it was Calum’s brother, younger but bigger. He had a rifle slung on his back and a gun in his hand. He waved it at me as he saw me looking at it.
“Go down the stairs, Luka, before I push you down.”
I didn’t give him the satisfaction.
“Where’s Peanut?” I said. “Is he here?”
“He’s busy.”
He pushed me again as we reached the bottom. They’d strung lamps up, faltering, flickering points of orange glow. He pushed me ahead of him into the tunnels and grabbed me as we passed a door. “You’re in here.�
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There were a couple of middlings in there.
I almost laughed. “I’m not…”
He pushed the door open. “You are now. Rules have changed. You’re a middling.”
I stood my ground. “That’s bullshit. Where’s Calum?”
“Busy.”
“I’m not staying down here.”
“Get in there, you little Imperial bastard, or you’ll be going in with the babies.”
I could feel them all looking at me, the middlings, the olders that were coming out to see what was going on.
“Where’s Calum?” I said again.
Bram reached to grab my shirt. I ducked aside, fists clenched. He was on me before I could get clear, one arm around my neck, slamming the grip of the gun into my face. I got in a few punches of my own, stamped on his foot and wriggled free. Even when you’re smaller than them, there’s always a way to win. Benjie had taught me that. He’d taught me how to fight dirty, one of the first in a long line of tricks he’d shown me. Always assume they’re trying to kill you, he’d said, never give them an inch and if you can run, run. The main thing is to stay alive. Problem was, down there, there was nowhere to run.
I backed off and got a punch in the back as someone else joined in, shoving me forward. I’d had fights with Calum and his cronies before but there was something different that night. Bram grabbed me and pushed my head down, battering me with the gun.
Everyone was yelling. I could feel blood streaming down my face. I twisted and jabbed my elbow backwards, hard as I could, making him roar.
I tried to get free but another blow to the head from behind made my knees go. Someone kicked me in the back and I went down, spitting blood. I raked up a handful of dust as I hit the floor. I wasn’t about to roll over and let them win.
A kick to the head made my vision swim. I got one foot under me, blinked, figured out how many there were and where each one was then turned and threw the dust into Bram’s face, dodging aside as another kid stepped in to kick me again. He missed. I scrambled to my feet and shoved him off balance, turning fast to avoid a blow from Bram who was screaming curses at me. I might have laughed. That always made them more mad. If someone’s pissing you off, don’t get angry, laugh. They hate it.
Bram came at me again but someone grabbed him, pulling him off me.
I thought for a second that was it but someone else caught hold of me, spinning me around and landing a barrage of punches I couldn’t duck against the back of my head.
I went down.
There isn’t much you can do against that.
They were laughing as they hauled me up and dragged me aside. I was kicking and screaming. Trust me, I was kicking like hell, but they were too strong and there were too many of them.
They threw me in somewhere. I hit the floor and heard the door slam, a heavy bolt sliding home as I went sprawling, not far because it was some kind of damn cupboard. Pitch black and damp. I hit my head against something hard and scrambled to my feet, yelling, “Hey,” and hammering on the door.
“New rules,” someone yelled back. “Fighting gets you one hour in the sin bin.”
They all laughed.
I punched the door again and spun round, feeling my way about, coming up against nothing but empty shelves and bare brick walls. I even climbed up to check the ceiling. There was no way out. I tried the door again then clambered up onto a shelf, wiped the blood out of my eye and tucked my knees up tight. It sucked but there was nothing I could do. I’d learned a long time before that how long I could wait in the dark.
After two or three hours, it felt like longer, there were voices outside, a faint orange glow appearing along the floorline below the door. I was stiffening up in the damp cold. I stretched, muscles complaining, my eye throbbing and the blood on my face and neck dried to a caked-on mess. They were arguing, someone that sounded like one of the middlings saying they should let me out, Calum saying, “No, let the sucker sweat in there. Little bastard broke Bram’s nose.”
That was something. I had to stop myself laughing.
There were sounds of shoving and scuffling, and more swearing then it was quiet again. The thin glowing line at the bottom of the door dimmed and vanished, leaving me in total darkness again. The thing about fear is if you let it, it consumes you, but face it, give it a neat sidestep and stare it down, then you take away its power. The guild psychs used to tie themselves in knots over me. They analysed us all to pieces. Full profiles on anything possible. According to everything they had me sussed as, they used to say that being locked down in isolation should have been my worst nightmare. I always laughed and said, “Yeah, been there, done that.” It wasn’t the only thing they called me on. They didn’t like me. I’ll tell you about that some time.
Back then, when I was thirteen and shut in a dark hole, I sucked it up. They couldn’t hurt me any more. Someone would come let me out or they wouldn’t. I closed my eyes and breathed slow and steady. I could give it as long as it took.
It didn’t take that long. There were muffled shouts outside, excitable, pounding footsteps and yells.
I could hear Calum shouting, the little ones squealing, then clearer someone shouted, “Come on, there’s something going on out in the desert.”
I sat up.
It went quiet again for a while. I listened to the silence then there was a scraping sound as the bolt was tugged back, with a struggle, and the door opened.
Freddie stood there, looking small, a weird mix of pissed off and dismayed flashing across her face.
I squinted at her. “I’m fine.”
She held the door open. “This isn’t right. They shouldn’t have done this. Not to you, of all people.”
I jumped down, trying to be more cocky than I was feeling.
“I’m fine,” I said again.
She pulled a face. “You don’t look fine.” She held out her hand. “Come with me.”
She led me to a common room. It was deserted. Messy. Rubbish everywhere. They’d hardly been there five minutes and it was a dump.
Freddie sat me down, shoving aside a pile of dirty clothes.
She disappeared for a second and came back with a wet cloth that she held out to me, muttering an apology. “We didn’t know where you were. They only just admitted it. Calum said I could let you out. I’m really sorry.”
I pressed it against my eye and gave her a half smile. “It’s not your fault. They’re idiots. Did I really break Bram’s nose?”
She laughed and beckoned for the cloth. “Come here. You’re a mess.”
I let her dab at my face.
She stared at me intently the whole time. “Is Maisie really gone?” she said finally.
I nodded. “She had no choice.”
Freddie sucked in a deep breath. “She’d hate what we are now.”
I didn’t know what to say. I hated it.
She took my hand and pulled me up. “Come on, you need to see this.”
I followed her up onto the roof. I heard it before we even got up there to see. I knew what deep spacers sounded like when they came in to land.
There was a constant low rumble like thunder. It wasn’t as good a view as our last place but we could see what was happening. Massive dark shapes were dropping down into the desert. They were bombing the crap out of the crashed ship, surrounding it.
Klaxons were going off all over the city. I could see the Earth troops pulling back, abandoning the loose cordon they’d been guarding.
Peanut was up there.
He looked over. “You okay?”
I shrugged. “What’s going on?”
He was holding field glasses. “Winter,” he said and handed them to me.
I took a look, heart sinking into my stomach. “It’s UM.” I recognised the silhouettes of the gunships and drop ships as United Metals even this far off.
Calum and his cronies were whooping and waving their stupid rifles in the air.
I felt sick. The last time the Wintrans were o
n Kheris in force had been eight years ago when they’d abandoned the KRM rather than risk a direct military confrontation with the Empire.
“This is what we need,” Calum yelled and laughed. He turned and stared at me. “The stinking Earth forces won’t know what’s going to hit them next.” He whooped again and ran off, Bram and their buddies following, fists pumping and hollering.
It wasn’t right. That wasn’t the way we were supposed to be.
We sat there, watching the sun drop and the full might of the Wintran militia descend on our desert.
“This is not what we need,” Peanut said quietly. “What does he think is going to happen? UM will run the Empire off the planet and hand the keys to Dayton? I don’t think so.”
Freddie climbed up onto the parapet. “UM wouldn’t do that to their own, would they?” she said. I already said, didn’t I, that she was old beyond her years? Way more switched on than Calum. She glanced back at me. “Didn’t you reckon it was Aries?”
I shrugged. Whatever it was, UM must have thought there was something in there worth fighting for.
“Do you think they’ll turn on the city?” Freddie had only been two when it had happened. She didn’t really remember it but she’d heard enough to be scared.
I couldn’t answer.
Peanut stood up. He was rubbing his arm. “Freddie, you’re supposed to be on watch,” he said, almost distractedly. “Get yourself back to the door and take the others inside with you.”
She scowled but she didn’t argue.
I drew my legs up and hugged my arms around my knees, resting my chin down and staring out at the onslaught, trying to shut it out and not fall back to that night.
“They won’t,” Peanut said when it was just us left there on the roof. He looked back down at me. “Luka, listen to me, they won’t.” He nodded back towards the desert. “They’re here for that.”
I sucked in a deep breath and stood up. “I’m going to stay with Latia. Calum’s an idiot. You want to come with me?”