Jane Higgins - The Bridge

‘Speak plainly, Councillor. I can take it.’

‘You take this lightly.’

‘On the contrary.’

‘If that were so, Sub-commander, you would understand that as long as you and your like, as long as your beloved CFM, offend against God in this way, we will never be granted victory over the city.’

‘The city is in disarray, Councillor. If we could present a united front, we could force it to the negotiating table.’

‘There will be no negotiation when we take the city. There will be no peace but ours.’

‘Then we have nothing more to say to each other.’

A pause. ‘Until the hearing, then.’

‘Good night, Councillor.’

We stood listening to silence for some time, then the lock turned and light came flooding back. Levkova limped to the table and sat down. ‘Councillor Terten.’ She looked from Lanya to me. ‘The hearing is set for Thursday morning. You are both summoned. You will be asked to explain how you came to be together on Saturday night.’

‘We weren’t together ,’ I said.

‘No. We thought not. Commander Vega and I were of the opinion that what Coly saw was a stranger, possibly you, harassing a Pathmaker and detaining her from her duties during a Crossing.’

I opened my mouth to protest but she held up a hand and looked at Lanya. ‘But now you come visiting. Late at night and alone, breaking all the rules. One of you will please explain.’

We looked at each other. Lanya sat down in my chair; I sat on the floor and listened. She left out the knife fight, but said how they were arguing, her and Coly, about the food he had brought and wanted her to eat, and how she refused because it would break some kind of sacred fast she was on and that would stop her dancing at the Crossing, so she gave it to me instead.

Levkova was silent for quite a while after that. ‘Who hit you? That bruise, and the cut on your lip – these came how?’

‘Coly.’

‘Not just a simple disagreement then.’ Levkova looked at me like I was a puzzle and a pain. ‘So much easier if it had been you.’ She rubbed her forehead. ‘I see. I do. But will the Council?’

‘Why wouldn’t they?’ I said.

‘Because Coly will swear otherwise, and he claims to have evidence to prove what he saw. They’ve been hunting a Maker’s scalp for a long time now; they’ll not let this one go. You fall so neatly into their hands. A scavenger from Gilgate. A stranger with no family, no friends and no allies.’

‘What evidence?’ I said.

‘A digi-graph. I haven’t seen it. Remnant will argue involvement and consent on both your parts, the Makers will argue harassment, and probably assault—’

‘ What? ’

‘That’s why I am surprised you came here, child,’ she said to Lanya. ‘I’m sure you have instructions – and accusing Nik must be the first of them?’

Lanya looked at me. ‘You have a name.’

I put my head in my hands. ‘This is insane. Are those your instructions?’

She nodded.

Levkova sighed with something like real regret. ‘And you won’t accuse him. I see that. Otherwise, what are we but the liars and cowards our enemies believe us to be? This will go hard against us though.’ She struggled to her feet, sent Lanya on her way and summoned Jeitan. ‘Which are your quarters?’ she asked me.

‘Shed 12.’ A drafty bunkroom in one of the prefabs; it housed auxiliary staff – from kitchens, comms, printery and so on – in narrow bunks with thin mattresses, thinner blankets, and a concrete floor.

‘Not this week, I’m afraid. We need you under lock and key when you’re not here – for your own safety, until after the hearing. Jeitan will take you to a safe room. You can go by Shed 12 and collect your belongings on the way.’

‘No, but…’ I needed to find Sol, and I had a lead at last, and if I was locked up Fyffe was likely to go and do something terrible like turn herself in. Then Sol would be lost for good.

But Levkova was saying, ‘I’m sorry, Nik. That’s an order.’

So there was good news and bad news. The good news was that I had memorized a list of known and suspected traffickers and their associates, which I wrote down and pressed into Fy’s hand at breakfast next morning. The bad news was that I now had a shadow: Jeitan wasn’t going to let me out of his sight until the hearing, except when he locked me into a cell-like room in Shed 3 at night ‘for my own safety,’ whatever that meant.

I told all this to Fy as we sat at the end of a long table in the dining room, dipping chunks of bread into bowls of thin, chocolaty milk. We spoke low and put our heads together; the rest of the room was loud with talk and laughter and people ignored us, the strangers from Gilgate.

‘A hearing?’ said Fy. Her Breken was slow and stammering but getting better fast. ‘That’s not good.’

‘Yeah. I know. It’s going to be hard to get out of here until it’s over. But there’s more I can do on the computers. I want to plug in those names and look for addresses to go with them.’

‘What happens if they find you guilty? Nik, they flog people here. Can’t we just get out? Go down into the town and search there?’

I looked up the table at Jeitan. ‘Maybe. But what with? We’ve got nothing to go on except that list. How are you getting on in the infirmary?’

‘They think I’m slow – it’s my Breken, and I keep forgetting to answer to Sina. But they don’t seem to mind too much. They’ve made me a supplies assistant. That means I get to go down to the township with a supplies officer and collect things from the main hospital. We’re going tomorrow. I might be able to do something there: listen for the names on your list, I don’t know. I don’t know . We’re not getting anywhere!’

‘Give it one more day. If we’ve got nothing more by tomorrow night, we’ll get out of here. Or try to. Okay?’

She nodded. ‘I’m still wondering if we should just tell them who we are and ask for help. I mean, if trafficking is illegal, it’d be reporting a crime, wouldn’t it? But then, what chance would you have at that hearing, if they knew?’

Vega rapped on a table and stood up to give the breakfast briefing.

‘City forces are regrouping in Sentinel… their attempts to retake Watch Hill have been unsuccessful, but these are sustained attempts.… Overnight rocket attacks from city forces have been indescriminate. They’ve destroyed homes in Ohlerton, a church in Blackbyre and a clinic in Gilgate… civilian casualities are significant…’

‘The city fights back,’ murmured Fy. ‘I guess we should be cheering them on.’

‘You don’t look like you’re cheering,’ I said.

‘The people in the infirmary aren’t. It’s so overcrowded no one can move, and they’ve got almost nothing to treat people with. No wonder they hate us.’

That afternoon I sat at my desk wishing Levkova would find sudden, urgent business elsewhere. Jeitan was arguing with her about Remnant. He was impatient to go looking for some dirt on them to pre-empt their takeover of the Council after the hearing. He paced in front of her desk until she told him he made her dizzy and would he please sit down. I listened with half an ear to his complaints about how corrupt Remnant was, and then he said, ‘Look, if the rumors are true and they’ve got a big windfall coming, then chances are they’re planning something major against us.’

I stopped work and paid attention.

‘Rumors,’ said Levkova. ‘We need evidence. How big a windfall?’

‘Big. That’s all I heard.’

‘From what?’

‘No idea. Spoils of war. Their hangers-on have been over in the city. Who knows what they’ve grabbed.’