Jane Higgins - The Bridge

A stage had been set up at one end of the square and a squad stood to attention around it. Old soldiers were organizing themselves in front of it, putting the disabled ones first, in chairs and on crutches. On one side a band was tuning up.

Lanya appeared at my elbow. She sauntered along, watching the crowd, not looking at Jeitan or me. ‘Levkova sent me. When you’ve worked out where he’s going, I’ll take word back to her and the Commander. Is that him in the long coat?’

The band started practicing; a few trumpet blasts punched the air. Some people lifted fists, then voices, and an anthem rolled like a wave across the square. But from somewhere near us a voice yelled, ‘Terten’s a traitor!’ Others picked it up in a ragged chant that swept back against the anthem and suddenly there was nothing musical about any of it. Levkova didn’t need us to start her riot: primed by the rumor of Vega’s imminent assassination, supporters of CFM squared off against the Remnant faithful, and the whole place erupted.

And DeFaux was gone. Jeitan dived through a doorway and Lanya and I raced after him. The doors closed behind us, muffling the noise outside. We were in a gloomy, high-ceilinged foyer. A wide set of stairs headed up into shadows. Jeitan put a finger to his lips, listening, waiting for our eyes to adjust. He nodded to me to follow him up the stairs and signaled to Lanya to stay put.

We crept towards the first floor and I wondered if Jeitan had any idea what we were supposed to do when we confronted an ISIS-trained assassin, with no hope of back up. I looked over my shoulder and stopped dead. ‘Jeitan!’

He swore at me and kept going.

I turned around slowly and tried to sound calm. ‘Jeitan! Look.’

‘Will you shut up!’ But then he turned around.

DeFaux stood at the foot of the stairs.

With Lanya.

He held an arm across her shoulders, and a gun to her temple. He opened his eyes wide at us, grinning. ‘Bang!’ he said, and laughed.

‘Let her go!’ I said, stupidly. Uselessly. Finding it hard to breathe. ‘A squad’s on its way.’

‘I don’t think so. Squads will be busy out there, won’t they. Take the ammo out of your guns, boys. And put them down.’

I watched Jeitan unload his gun, and followed what he did.

‘That’s it,’ said DeFaux. ‘Now come down. Slowly. Good. Stand right there, and don’t move. That’s it. This girl and me, we’re going upstairs, aren’t we, sweetheart.’

He started moving backwards up the stairs, his arm still round her, the gun still on her temple, watching us all the way. Lanya fixed her eyes on me. Her mouth was set in a line, her face was still, but her hands clenched and opened. DeFaux moved her away from us, backwards, whispering in her ear. All I could think was, If you hurt her, I will kill you . DeFaux said, ‘That so?’ and I realized I’d said it aloud.

‘I WILL!’ I shouted.

They were halfway up, past where we’d laid down the guns. I edged forward to keep them in sight through the shadows. Jeitan put a hand on my arm. ‘Better not.’

‘Staaay!’ demanded DeFaux. ‘Stay, or your girl will be a mess. A real mess. I promise. Would you like to know how much of a mess I can make of her? No? First, I almost kill her, but not quite. More? No?’

My heart thumped. I’d never wanted anything as much as to charge up those stairs and throw him down them. But he would shoot her if I moved. I had no doubt about that.

Lanya stumbled. Jeitan gripped my arm and said, ‘Wait.’

DeFaux took two steps sideways to steady himself. Lanya stood up straight and flung her arms out so that his hold around her shoulders loosened. Then she twisted away and turned an astonishing cartwheel up the stairs and out of his grip. He fired the gun, shattering the air in that huge, hard space.

I charged up the stairs. He’d shot her. I was sure he’d shot her.

But her foot came back at his head. He overbalanced and pitched down the stairs, yelling, arms and legs flailing.

Lanya had folded up. Her whole body was shaking. One side of her face was a mask of blood and her breath came fast. I knelt in front of her, held her shoulders, and tried to see the damage. ‘Lanya?’

She opened her unbloodied eye and, miraculously, gave me half a smile. ‘Good?’ she whispered.

‘Amazing. You are amazing.’

Jeitan shouted, ‘She all right?’

‘She’s hit,’ I called back. ‘But not bad. Have you got him?’

‘You’d think he was dying from all the moaning. Broken leg, maybe worse, if we’re lucky. Can you come down? And find his gun!’

‘In a sec.’ The bullet had burned a graze above Lanya’s temple. I undid the bandana from her neck; my fingers were shaking so bad it seemed to take forever. I pressed the bandana against the bleeding and she flinched. ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry. You hold it. Hold here. Press.’

She pressed, flinched again, half-smiled again. ‘You keep patching me up.’

‘You keep fighting people. Or dancing at people. One or the other.’

‘I’m dizzy.’

‘I’ll get you home.’

I half-walked, half-carried her down the stairs. Jeitan was sitting on DeFaux. He’d tied his belt around the man’s hands and, yes, there was a lot of moaning going on. I sat Lanya on the bottom stair and wrapped her in my coat. I recovered our guns and DeFaux’s small pistol, then crouched beside Jeitan and looked at our man. ‘He wasn’t going to shoot anyone at long range with this,’ I said. ‘Where’s his real gun?’

‘It’ll be hidden upstairs,’ said Jeitan. ‘You’re going to have to get help.’

‘Will you be all right?’

‘Give me his gun.’ He took it and aimed it experimentally at DeFaux’s head. ‘With any luck, he’ll try to escape.’ He looked at me and grinned. ‘Good work, City boy.’

Vega stood in the light of a huge bonfire in the middle of the square and conducted his squads as though they were an orchestra. They’d tamed the riot and now they were mopping up, helped by the dark and the cold – it was starting to snow. I remembered what Vega had said to Terten at the hearing: the army was his. He was right. If the rioters had been hoping for assassination and mutiny, they were twice out of luck.

He beckoned me over.

‘We found him,’ I said. ‘Jeitan’s got him.’

He was speechless for a moment, but he recovered soon enough. ‘Damage?’

‘Lanya’s hurt, but not bad. DeFaux too, thanks to her, but not bad either.’

He motioned to one of his deputies to take charge. ‘Custody for anyone who wants to be trouble. And get me a medic.’ He called up two others to go with us. ‘Now. Show me.’

I led him back through the swirling snow. Lanya, Jeitan, and DeFaux were all as I’d left them. The flash of enmity between DeFaux and Vega was impressive – history there, for sure. Lanya was a mess of blood, but she held out a hand to me and let the medic take a look. ‘Not too bad,’ was the verdict, ‘but get her home.’

Pretty soon, Vega had us all heading in different directions: Jeitan to round up Benits I and II for questioning, DeFaux to custody, a squad to search the building, Lanya and the medic back to Levkova’s lodging, where I was heading too.

‘Stais!’ No one had called me that since school. I turned back to Vega. He gave me that look – the calculating one that bounced off my bones – and said, ‘I see it now. It’s time you met your father.’

My father was at Levkova’s. He’d arrived early in the morning and gone straight into a meeting with others in the CFM leadership, the ones Levkova had called together from Ohlerton, Gilgate, and Ferry Junction. Max told me this when I came down to the kitchen. He put a big mug of tea in front of me and said, ‘Stick around, youngster. There’s someone here you want to meet.’