Darren Shan - Procession of the dead

She spent hours every night rummaging through the monstrous towers. They seemed to be arranged in no apparent order. Ancient newspapers were bunched together with birth certificates, census copies, industrial figures going back to the 1700s, gang lists, property records and more. She took photos of anything that looked important, figuring it would be useful to have proof of The Cardinal's secret dealings. If he ever discovered her and tried to take action, she could blackmail him, trade the photos for her life.

Although she'd unearthed enough after a week to send the king of the city down or make a fortune by selling him out, she hadn't found anything pertaining to her own situation. She found plenty about Cafran and his restaurant, but not a word about his daughter or an orphan he might have bought.

Finally, among a pile of yellowing magazines, she found a file with her name on it.

"It was just a few scraps of paper," she told me, "bound by a cheap cardboard folder. The name was handwritten in capitals on the cover-ayuamarca. Inside was a list of names. I almost passed over it without looking. The only reason I didn't was the strange header. Iopened it and skimmed through. There was nothing apart from the names. Leonora Shankar came first. Mine was one of the last. A hundred or so in all, each neatly typed. The first couple of sheets were old, brown, crinkled around the edges.

"Most names were crossed out, a neat line through the middle. Only nine were untouched. I didn't recognize any of the lined names, so I looked up a few-there was nothing on any of them. No files, no records, no mention anywhere. I think they're people who've been killed."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"The first time I looked, Adrian Arne was one of the unlined names. When I checked last night-after you mentioned him-it was crossed out."

"Was Y Tse Lapotaire on the list?" I asked.

"I don't recognize that one," she said.

"Inti Maimi?"

"Oh sure. His name crops up twice-early on, crossed out, and on a later, second sheet. That one's untouched."

"Not anymore, I bet." I looked down into the murky water of the river. I could see an old shopping cart in the mud at the bottom, tiny fish swimming in and out between the bars. I wondered if Adrian and Y Tse were down there somewhere. "What about the unlined names?" I asked. "You checked them?" She nodded. "Any connection?"

"None that I could find. Except, like us, they've got short histories and don't seem to have a past. Plenty of information about their recent lives but nothing about their childhoods or families. The older ones-like Shankar and some guy called Paucar Wami-have long histories, going back decades, but not a word on where they came from or how they-"

"Paucar Wami's on the list?" I asked sharply.

"You know him?"

"I'm beginning to feel like I do. Find out anything about him?"

"Not much. Most of his files are coded. The bits that weren't made me hesitant to learn more. He was The Cardinal's main assassin in the early days, the man for the big jobs. But he's not around anymore. He's off somewhere else, touring the world."

"No," I said. "He's back."

"You're sure?"

"Yes. Wami's back, and Adrian and Y Tse have vanished." I moved away from her and considered her story. "You know, I'm not sure I believe you."

She bristled but managed to check her temper. "What makes you think I'm lying?" she asked coldly.

"People don't break into Party Central. It's a fortress. Cameras on every floor and flight of stairs. Sensors everywhere. They know when a fly flaps its wings. A crack squad of army vets would have a tough time getting past first base. An amateur like you couldn't simply waltz in like you claim."

"I thought that too," she said. "But maybe The Cardinal's too sure of himself. Maybe he's too busy anticipating a full frontal assault to bother with a tiny gap in the back."

"I don't buy it."

"Well, maybe those other two-the one in the uniform and his friend upstairs-have access to the systems. Maybe they've turned them off. It could be I've stumbled onto some huge conspiracy, a plot to wipe out The Cardinal."

"A rogue Troop and a blind man?" I was skeptical. "If they have that much power, what do they need you for? If they wanted to destroy The Cardinal by releasing hidden files, they could do it themselves. This doesn't make sense."

"Nevertheless, I'm here. I did it." Her eyes were defiant.

"Have you got a copy of the Ayuamarca file?" I asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"There weren't many unlined names. I memorized them. Remember, I only went there to find out about myself. I never thought I'd be sharing this with anybody."

"I want to see it," I told her. "I have to come and check this out myself."

"You're sure? If you get caught up there, The Cardinal won't like it."

"I'll chance it."

"Very well. But you can't come the way I do-you won't fit through the gap in the gate. Can you meet me inside? Tomorrow night, about ten?"

"Why not tonight?" I asked.

"I have to go to a party with Cafran. It's for one of his brothers. I'm hoping I'll find out a bit about my past-maybe one of his brothers knows something and will let it slip. I doubt it, but I have to check. Besides, I want to give you time to think this through and do some research of your own. Search the files. Check that I'm telling the truth. I don't want you going into this with divided loyalties. Did you bring a weapon today?"

I nodded slowly and flashed my knife. She laughed and produced a gun. "Just as well for you this ended amicably," she joked. "You had to come armed-you didn't know me or the sky above me. But there's no room for suspicion from here on. If you come to Party Central with me, you're in for keeps. If you're serious about seeing this through, you'll have to cross The Cardinal. You can't play both sides off against each other. It's your future or your past, your career or the truth."

"I know." I kicked the loose pebbles around us. "I didn't before. Ithought I'd listen, kill you and it'd be over. But I can't do that. The need to know is too strong, even stronger than the need to succeed. Idon't want to betray The Cardinal-I'm still hoping I won't have to-but if I've got to choose between loyalty and peace of mind…

"I'm with you," I said.

And that was that. On the word of a woman I barely knew, I'd pitted myself against the most powerful creature in the city. It was crazy, illogical, suicidal. But I had no choice. The need to know who I was outweighed all my dreams, ambitions and plans. If I lost everything in my hunt for the truth, so be it.

We hung around the docks a while and tried discussing other stuff, but we kept coming back to The Cardinal and our missing pasts. I told Ama about the woman and the glimpses I sometimes caught of a world I couldn't remember. It was more than she could do. For her the past was a complete blank.

I thought I'd grow to love Ama Situwa. I didn't know why, or what attracted me to her so passionately, but I felt we were meant for each other.

"We might be old sweethearts," I said as we wandered through one of the empty warehouses. "We might have known each other in the past. Maybe that's why we… on the stairs…"

"Perhaps." She kicked a hole in a rotten plank and smiled.

"I wonder if the other Ayuamarcans have memory gaps?"

"I think they probably have," she said.

"Where could we have come from?" I frowned. "Employees, brainwashed to do The Cardinal's bidding?"

"Brainwashing's not real," she scoffed. "You can maybe alter people's minds a bit, but not to this extent."

"Science can do anything these days," I disagreed. "For all we know, we might have volunteered. Maybe the others-the ones with the lines through their names-aren't dead. Maybe they just regained their old memories and were withdrawn from the program."