Jane Higgins - The Bridge

Levkova called one back. ‘Rémy! Who does Councillor Terten intend to move in here?’

‘Sub-commander Stell, ma’am.’

‘Naturally. His latest woman. On very active service.’

The guy went bright red, bowed, and escaped.

Levkova watched him go, and closed the door. She looked at Max and me. ‘Well, gentlemen. As an opening gambit, that’s impressive. They want us busy in the lead-up to Crossover Day. And they’re making all the running. We need something to hit back with. Any ideas?’

‘I have one,’ I said.

When Commander Vega arrived later that morning, Levkova had a stand-up row with him about being assassin-bait. ‘You are not standing on that platform in full view of an assassin!’

‘I am,’ said Vega. ‘DeFaux takes a pot-shot at me, we seize him, make the links to Remnant and they’re exposed. Simple. You’re being sentimental.’

‘Nonsense. I’m being entirely practical. If a pot-shot, as you so romantically call it, happens to kill you, CFM in Moldam is leaderless and Remnant have won for the foreseeable future.’

He sat down and rubbed a hand over his face. ‘You lead them.’

She sat opposite him. ‘Sim, you have a deathwish. If you give in to it, don’t imagine Kas would forgive you.’

A small, dangerous silence fell.

‘We need you,’ she said.

He shook his head. ‘What we need is vision, and belief, and someone the people will follow.’

‘Yes. We need Suzannah back. But until that day, we muddle through. And not by losing you as well. Listen.’

She told him my idea. ‘If Goran has moved into trafficking and we can prove it, that’s all we need. I know we can show his links to Terten. Please, Sim. It has to be better than giving DeFaux the satisfaction of killing you.’

Vega looked at me. ‘You’re supposed to be in hiding. Not prowling the district after dark.’ He stood up. ‘All right. We’ll raid Goran’s outfit. But if we don’t find anything there, Crossover Day goes ahead as planned.’

It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. I’d been hoping to find Sol, and now Fyffe, without drawing attention to any of us. Now here we were, going into a place where either or both of them might be, and doing it with all guns blazing, possibly, for real. What if Goran decided to fight his way out? What if it turned into a bloodbath?

The next day, around dusk, Lanya took a raiding party back to Goran’s. She and I went ahead and were followed in the shadows by Vega, Jeitan and, they assured us, a bunch of others that we hadn’t yet seen and wouldn’t until crunch time. I couldn’t tell if this set-up was the answer to my prayers, such as they were, or just plain fatal.

We got to the corner just before Goran’s place and stopped. The plan was that I would knock on the front door and offer to run a ransom to the city for them, for anyone they had in there who might be worth one. Once they showed an interest, Vega’s squad would step in.

Lanya looked at me. ‘You’re nervous,’ she said. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘I bet you would,’ I said. ‘But that’s not the plan. And what about the guy you crippled last night? You probably shouldn’t meet him any time soon. Wish me luck.’

‘They’ll have knives,’ she said. ‘You won’t see them. Watch their knifework.’

I walked up to the padlocked gate and shook the wire fence. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I waited for a lookout to show – possibly an angry one with a stuffed-up knee. Instead, Goran came out of the building behind the shacks. He peered at me through the gate. ‘Whaddya want? Where’ve I seen you before?’

I put on my best, roughest Gilgate accent. ‘Talk some business? About Citysiders and ransoms.’

‘Don’t know what you’re on about.’ He turned away.

‘I heard you had one here.’ That stopped him. ‘A Citysider. At least one,’ I said. ‘Thought you’d want someone to run the ransom. I got some Anglo. And I know the city, some. Been scavenging there.’

He considered me for a long, nerve-wracking moment.

‘Or,’ I said, ‘I could go and talk to someone up the hill about it.’

‘Ha! Kid, you wouldn’t get to the end of this road. And even if you did, they wouldn’t believe a word up there, filthy accent like that. But I could do with a bit of Anglo. Talk me some.’

So I repeated what I’d just said, in Anglo, with as much of a Gilgate accent as I could muster. He smirked. ‘Horrible. But not bad. Know the city, do you?’

I nodded.

‘Flat rate.’

‘Sure.’

‘All right, kid. Come in here. Let’s talk.’ He unlocked the gate, peered up and down the alley, and nodded me through. He locked the gate again.

There was a loud whistle, boots clanged on iron above us and suddenly there were figures with guns on the rooftops. Vega’s squad. Goran pushed me towards the shacks, yelling, ‘Sett! Sett!’ I stumbled, heard Goran shout, ‘Grab him!’ and saw Stumphand charging towards me. I stuck out an arm to fend him off but he swung a knife at me and ripped open the palm of my hand. A blast of pain shot up my arm and then he was at my back, his stump round my throat and the point of his knife pressed through my coat. I clenched my bleeding hand and tried not to yell.

‘Goran!’ Vega stood outside the gate, Jeitan beside him. ‘Open up.’

‘Commander Vega,’ said Goran. ‘What’s brought you here?’

‘News,’ said Vega. ‘And how unsurprising that it turns out to be news of you.’

‘What do you want?’

‘I want in. Open this gate.’

‘Well now, all in good time. This kid one of yours?’ He peered at me. ‘Too scruffy to be one of yours, isn’t he? And recruited from Gilgate – you’re scraping the barrel there. What line’s he fed you about me? Bet he hasn’t told you he’s dealing. Tried to sell me some stuff a few days back. I threatened to turn him in, so he’s turned on me instead.’

I watched Vega. He wouldn’t buy that. Come on, I thought. Hurry up. Get in here before they smuggle their city kids out a back way.

Vega’s gaze flicked to me and back to Goran. ‘What’ve you done to him?’

‘He tried to attack old Sett here. It’s a scratch, is all. Better than he deserves.’

‘Let me in. I want to talk to you.’

‘Got a warrant?’

‘I don’t need a warrant to talk.’

‘Come on in, then. Course, I’ll have to tell Council you’re doin’ illegal searches. That all right with you?’

Vega outstared him. ‘Open up.’

Goran looked at the guns above us and opened the gate. The knife dropped away from my back and Sett sped off into one of the shacks. I went after him in case he was planning to hide whatever, or whoever, was in there.

The room we went into was nearly dark, but the reek of it made me retch. When my eyes got used to the gloom I could see five kids sitting or lying on filthy blankets. They stared up at Sett, mouths open, eyes rolling. They looked drugged. None of them spoke. Sett walked round them, touched their heads, bent down, and whispered at them.

Fyffe wasn’t there. And none of them looked like Sol. I was almost relieved.

‘See?’ Goran came in with Vega and Jeitan. ‘Just my kids. They’ve been working all day, scraping a living, like all of us.’

‘Yours?’ said Vega. ‘In what sense, yours?’

‘I find ’em on the street. Give ’em a home – some shelter, some food. Without me they’d be street scum.’

‘Did you find any of them over the river?’

Goran screwed up his face, pained at the accusation. ‘Some of ’em might’ve drifted over the bridge from City. I don’t notice. I just see hands to work and mouths to feed. What’s wrong with that? It’s a public service, that’s what it is. We got a recycling business going here—’