Jane Higgins - The Bridge

I could see it: the bread burned cinder black on the bakery shelves in Kendon Street; the ashes of books swirling through the blown-out roofs of Brown’s and The Bard, the little bookshops along Sentian; the glass cracked behind the bars in the banks’ windows on St Clare Road; trees turned to torchwood across Pagnal Heath; and then the whole city falling in a cascade of glass and brick and concrete from the river to the hills.

‘…nothing to worry about.’

I turned round to see Levkova talking to me. She sighed. ‘I said, it’s upriver, Cityside. Them, not us. I think it’s the armory at Sentinel. We were aiming to take it to stop their rocket attacks. I’d say that’s the sound of it being destroyed.’ She studied me. ‘It’s not Gilgate, is what I’m trying to tell you.’ I turned back to the window and hoped she wouldn’t come near, because right then I couldn’t pretend.

‘Who’s in Gilgate that you’re afraid to lose?’ she asked.

‘No one. Everyone. Doesn’t matter.’ But it did, of course. It’s my city, I thought. I’m afraid to lose it.

And I’m afraid for it to lose me.

Fy backed off and didn’t say a wordabout the talisman at breakfast the next morning. She was all business – hair tied back, brows straight, eyes focused. All her movements burned with contained energy. She was going down to the main hospital in the township with the supplies officer. ‘A shipment of medicine has come in from somewhere,’ she said. ‘So I’m hoping it will draw some of their dealers and traffickers out into the daylight.’

I told her about the Jeitan–Levkova conversation the day before, and the rumor that Remnant had snatched something valuable Cityside.

‘Oh!’ she said. ‘You have to ask Jeitan. Would he help? It sounds like he would.’

‘Maybe. I don’t know. I want to connect the names on our list with Remnant and follow that trail. Plus, I’ll see their big names tomorrow at the hearing. Could be useful. Especially if someone challenges them about what they’re doing.’

We stopped to listen to the breakfast briefing, given by Jeitan this time: ‘…continue to hold the strategic posts we’ve taken, but we’re coming under heavy pressure, especially at Torrens Hill, Sentinel, and Clare where forces loyal to the city are regrouping under ISIS… major disruption continues across the city… food distribution a shambles, fuel scarce, power out… the roads north clogged with refugees.’ He finished with, ‘The place has been looted from Westwall to Port – but not by us. Commander Vega reminds all squad members that There Will Be No Looting. Looters will be punished. Clear? Thank you, that’s all.’

Fyffe watched him sit down and I could see she was desperate to go up to him and ask him point-blank about Sol. But she said, ‘No looting. I can’t get it straight in my head how they can be bombers and kidnappers and at the same time be saying that looting and trafficking are illegal.’ She stood up to go.

I said, ‘Be careful, okay?’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll be all right.’

‘Just don’t imagine anything short of a small army will keep you safe from these people if they find out who you are.’

That afternoon, Levkova went off to talk to the two independents on Council and left Jeitan to hold the fort at CommSec. I plonked a pile of documents on her desk in front of him and tried my luck. ‘You know your suspicions about Remnant?’

He looked at me as though I was being nosy about his love life. ‘What do you care?’

‘Are you going to do anything about them? Run a check on their finances? For example? No?’

‘I don’t have clearance.’

‘Why would that stop you?’

‘I don’t know how they keep order in Gilgate, but we have lines of command here. They stop us descending into anarchy.’

‘I don’t have clearance either. I’ll do it if you like.’

He chewed a thumbnail and frowned at me. ‘Why would you want to? Why would I let you?’

‘You’re looking for dirt on them, right? And you want to find it before the hearing, but you’re running out of time.’

He sat back and folded his arms, but his frown was more calculating now. ‘And, of course, breaking news about Remnant crimes would distract the Council from the actual purpose of the hearing. Is that what you’re hoping?’

I shrugged. ‘Okay, so I have an interest. Do you want to try or not?’

‘You won’t be able to get in.’

‘Want a bet?’

He looked around the room, which was empty, and back at me. ‘You know how much we trust you?’

‘Yeah, I do. You can watch me every step of the way.’

He stood up. ‘Go on, then. You’ve got,’ he glanced at his watch, ‘an hour, I’d say, before Levkova comes back.’

‘Want to help?’

He watched over my shoulder as I got into the system, which I did in as clumsy a way as I could, hoping he wouldn’t click that I’d been there before. ‘Hmm,’ he said when I got in. ‘Okay. Help how?’

‘Remnant finances – how do we find them?’

He had a few suggestions and we dived in.

‘Suppose we find something,’ I said. ‘You think Vega or Levkova would use it?’

‘I wish. Depends how solid it is. They’re so focused on what’s happening over the river, they’re not guarding their backs. They think the independents are as focused as they are, but they’re wrong. And they think that if they’re found to be investigating Remnant it will undermine solidarity in the uprising. It’d have to be very, very solid before they’d use it. Which is why Levkova will not be impressed if she finds us doing this. Hour’s nearly up.’ We’d found nothing that looked like a windfall. Which we wouldn’t if that windfall was sitting in a cellar or an attic somewhere, cold and hungry and terrified, and hadn’t been translated into cash yet.

‘But look,’ I said, ‘if they’ve stolen something from over the river, maybe they haven’t sold it yet.’

‘Maybe.’

‘So what if we cross check Remnant names with records of known dealers and traffickers?’

‘Later. Get off there before Levkova comes back.’

‘When later?’

‘After the hearing. Get off there now!’

When Fyffe came back from the township she was all fired up. At the evening meal, which that day wasn’t half bad – a chunk of grainy bread and a bowl of thick potato-and-bacon soup – she led me to an empty table in the corner of the dining hall. Jeitan eyed us from the food queue but left us alone.

Fy spoke fast and soft in Anglo. ‘The supplies officer here is a dealer. He spent the day organizing something, I’m sure. He thinks I’m slow – that’s why I’m the one to go with him – but I’m sure he’s creaming off medicines from the shipment and selling them.’ She paused and tore her bread into pieces, then went on in Breken. ‘It’s terrible. People here need those supplies. That boy, last night – they ran out of medicine for him. If he was over the river he’d still be alive. And if they weren’t dealing in their medicines here, he might still be alive too. His mother just cried and cried.’ Fy scowled and ate her soup.

‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘One of the people the supplies man talked to looked familiar. I’m sure he was one of the men who took Sol. Almost sure. So I followed him—’

‘You what? Are you crazy?’

‘—but I lost him. I’m going back tomorrow.’

‘Jeez, Fy. D’you think he saw you?’

She shook her head. ‘I was careful.’

‘Can you wait for me before you go following people? I think Jeitan might help us, but we have to wait till after the hearing. Don’t do anything drastic, okay?’