Eugene Lambert - Into the No-Zone

‘You’ll see,’ she says, and returns to her seat.

I glance around the room. Apart from Scallon and Ballard and some watchful guards, there are two other people here, both seated at the table. Like Ballard, they wear the long grey cloaks of Gemini Council members. The tall black woman is Mendela, Defence Commander of this Deeps outpost. The irritable-looking plump man with the savagely pockmarked face I‘ve never seen before.

‘So there they are,’ fat guy says.

He inspects Colm and me, a look on his face like we’re pieces of fruit to choose between and both of us seem rotten.

‘Hard to believe,’ Mendela says, ‘it all hangs on these two boys.’

I swap glances with Colm. He looks worried too.

Ballard stands up, waving away a guard who leaps forward to try and help him. He takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes. He looks tired, like he didn’t get much sleep last night either.

‘Kyle, Colm,’ he says, blinking at us. ‘You must be wondering –’

Fat guy slams his hand on the table and interrupts angrily, chins wobbling. ‘For Wrath’s sake, Ballard, you’re wasting time we haven’t got. We have important things to discuss.’

Ballard stiffens. ‘We do, Councillor Schroeder. But first I think we owe these boys an explanation.’

Schroeder glares at us and snorts, sending spit flying.

Well, I can do angry too. I jump up. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

I expect to be shouted at, but Commander Mendela smiles. Not Ballard though. He looks like he’s in pain.

‘Sit down, son,’ Mendela says. ‘We like defiant, but we’ve got something to tell you and you would do well to listen.’

I swallow and sit down again, feeling more than a bit stupid.

Ballard clears his throat. ‘As Councillor Schroeder says, the Council has much to discuss, so I’ll be brief.’ He puts his glasses back on and his gaze settles on me. My head pounds and blood hisses in my ears like static. ‘You boys will, I’m sure, have heard the rumours of a peace treaty between us and the Slayers.’

I nod, not trusting my voice. So does Colm.

‘Well, the rumours are true,’ Ballard continues. ‘If Gemini ceases fighting and we withdraw our forces to the Barrenlands, in return the Saviour will grant us a sanctuary out there.’

‘So tempting.’ Mendela’s voice is thick with sarcasm.

Ballard sighs. ‘As you might expect, the peace offer comes with many strings attached. Ident children must still be handed over and held in camps. Instead of Peace Fairs, as soon as nubloods are identified they will be returned to us in our Barrenlands paradise.’ He sighs deeply. ‘However, the strongest of them will first be required to do two years’ service down darkblende mines. After completing this, they too will be returned.’

‘ If they survive the two years,’ Scallon says.

‘Be quiet!’ Schroeder snaps.

I shake my head, dazed, struggling to take this in. Two years down a darkblende mine is crap, but sanctuary sounds good.

‘There is one other condition,’ Ballard says.

Mendela pulls a grim face, as if she’s chewing a mouthful of something sour. As for Scallon, she won’t look me in the eye.

Colm and I say it as one. ‘What other condition?’

Ballard winces, his watery eyes like grey pools in cracked rock. ‘The final condition is that we hand you both over.’ He pauses, maybe to let this sink in. ‘Unless we agree to all these conditions before the next doom moon, the peace offer will be withdrawn. The Saviour will order the mobilisation of a conscript army to fight alongside his Slayers. He says they won’t rest until every nublood on Wrath is hunted down. Extermination, pure and simple.’

‘The sting in the tail,’ Mendela says, and sighs.

My head pounds like someone’s taken a club to it. So this is how it all ends, I think dismally. I should have fraggin’ known.

‘And you’d do that? You’d hand us over?’ I croak.

Ballard just looks at me, stony-faced.

‘So that’s why those fighters tried to kill us,’ Colm says.

‘Huh?’ I glance at him. He’s staring at Ballard.

Ballard nods. ‘Details of the peace offer must somehow have reached here before we did. The Saviour wants you alive. The attempt on your lives was an act of sabotage by Gemini hardliners who wish to fight on regardless. With you dead, the peace deal is dead too. They will have known that my first act upon my return would be to place you in protective custody.’

I’m not sure I get all this, not fully, but one thing I do get: Colm and me, we’re screwed. I lick my lips. ‘What happens now?’

He pulls at his beard. ‘That, Kyle, is for the Council to decide.’

‘I’m glad to hear it.’ Schroeder wobbles to his feet. ‘Let’s get this farce over with. Bring in the damn Slayer.’ He clicks his fingers at the guards by another door at the far side of the chamber.

They scramble to unbolt it and swing it open.

In walks a woman dressed head to foot in Slayer matt-black.

I gasp. Beside me, Colm lets out a strangled-sounding moan. Because it’s not every day you see a ghost. The last time I saw this woman was during the Facility raid, when Murdo Dern emptied his pulse rifle into her at point-blank range, almost cutting her in half. Yet here the High Slayer stands in her fancy black-leather uniform trimmed with fur, with her raven-dark hair and the cruel lines in her face no amount of powder can hide. A smile twists her full lips, and I see her obvious delight at our shock and confusion. Morana, High Slayer of the Barrenlands.

‘No fraggin’ way!’ I howl, gulping air, sending my chair flying as I lurch to my feet again. ‘You’re dead. I saw you killed!’

‘Only, as you see, I’m very much alive,’ she says, sneering.

Ballard grits his teeth. ‘You’re here for a reason, Slayer, so get on with it. Take your look. Tell us if you’re satisfied.’

She darts him a mocking glance. ‘Who are you again?’

‘You’ve one minute, and no longer.’

They swap glares, until she shrugs and turns from him to Colm and me. She steps around the table, coming closer.

‘Don’t be shy,’ she says. ‘Show me your handsome faces.’

I back up, but hit rock wall.

She glances at my brother and spots his heavily bandaged arm.

‘This merchandise has been damaged.’

‘A scratch,’ Schroeder says quickly. ‘Nothing more.’

Morana nods and her gaze slides across to me. ‘So alike, yet I have the feeling you’re the twist, Kyle. Am I right?’

I give myself a bit of a shake, conscious Ballard’s watching me.

‘I’m nublood,’ I tell her. ‘We call ourselves nublood.’

She shows me a mouthful of too-perfect teeth and laughs. ‘Oh, do you now? How dull. I think “twist” has far more of a ring to it. Now come closer, Kyle, and let me see you.’

‘Drop dead.’ I stay where I am.

Mistake. She looks at Schroeder. He curses and signals. Two guards grab me and shove me forward. I struggle. Nothing doing. They’re both nubloods and loads bigger than me.

‘That’s better.’ Morana peels off a glove. Her body armour creaks as she reaches out and turns my face this way and that, studying me closely. Then she strokes my cheek, her fingers cold and lingering, exactly as she did that day back in the Barrenlands when she’d captured Sky and me.

‘So tell me, Kyle, how does it feel to play such an important role in the future of your pitiful species?’

Her breath warms my face. I gauge the distance to her head to see if it’s worth trying for a headbutt. But she’s too far away and the guys holding on to me are too strong.

‘That’s enough,’ Ballard calls out. ‘Leave the boy alone.’