Davie called when Jimmy and I were going through the first shipment. Inside school desks from a woodworking company in East Kilbride were ten blocks of plastic explosive and another package of cocaine.
‘Quint, the pillocks at the gate won’t let us in. Do I throw the book or my fist at them?’
‘The latter. We’re in Stack 12b. Stun anyone who has a go at you.’
The connection was cut.
A couple of minutes later, Davie and a band of about twenty guardsmen and women arrived, Hyper-Stuns raised.
‘Any trouble?’ I asked.
‘A few idiots who’ll wake up with their heads buzzing. I told them we had Council authorization.’
‘Interesting. Do you think anyone else saw you?’
At that moment a siren began to wind up to full blare.
‘Yes,’ Davie mouthed.
‘Where’s the nearest shipment on the list?’ I said in Taggart’s hairy ear.
He checked. ‘Next stack.’
We all moved round the corner, Davie putting down a Guard commander who came at him. I bowed my head as wires began to whip around me. The Guard personnel on site definitely weren’t friendly, but they stood little chance against more hardened comrades. The Supply Directorate was notorious for inducing laziness and a lack of sharpness in Public Order Directorate personnel, despite the importance of the posting.
There were at least fifteen prone guardsmen and women in the passage way, while none of the Hume group had been hit.
‘That crate there,’ Jimmy Taggart shouted, pointing.
We levered open the top and hit serious pay dirt.
‘Is that gold?’ Davie said.
‘Ingots,’ I confirmed. ‘The shipment’s supposed to be tins of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots from Malaysia.’
The noise around us increased, shouted orders and the tramp of Guard-issue boots getting closer.
‘Time to make a call,’ I said, kneeling down behind the gold. I passed on my message. It seemed to be taken seriously.
Guard vehicles came closer, 4×4s and armoured personnel carriers that the Public Order Directorate had recently bought from Glasgow. They had our range and they also had machine-pistols. We took some hits, none of them fatal.
‘Pull over the crates and barrels on both sides,’ I yelled. ‘We need a fortress.’
A few minutes later we had one.
‘This isn’t going to last long,’ Davie yelled, stunning a guardsman who had climbed up the neighbouring stack. ‘Shouldn’t you call—’ He broke off to take down another intruder. At least there was no need to make any more calls.
Suddenly the enemy fire stopped. APCs blocked both ends of the stack.
I gave Davie instructions, my hand on his arm. ‘Watch my back,’ I said, handing him the Hyper-Stun.
‘Are you out of your—’
I was over our makeshift wall before he finished the sentence. I probably was taking too big a chance but I didn’t want unnecessary casualties.
I walked towards the vehicle on the right because I could see the person I wanted in the front seat. I raised my hand.
Guardian Doris opened the front door and stood behind it for a few moments before moving into the open. Her two gorillas flanked her. Numerous muzzles, including all three of theirs, were aimed at me and I felt sweat run down my arms.
‘What on earth are you doing, citizen?’ she shouted, playing the injured party.
I laughed, though not too disrespectfully. I wanted my body to come out of the encounter unstunned and without entry, never mind exit, wounds.
‘What on earth have you been doing, guardian?’ I found it hard to use her first name now.
‘I’ve no idea what you mean,’ she replied, her jaw jutting.
‘Tell your people to lower their weapons.’ I pointed to the heap of crates behind me. ‘It’s not as if we’re going to fight our way out.’
I heard a growl from Davie, but he must have understood that I was right.
She gave the order, but the semi-automatic pistol remained in her hand, pointing at my feet.
‘Why did you do it?’ I asked, hoping Davie had one of his team relaying the conversation to Radio Free City and elsewhere, as I’d asked.
The guardian frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Put on a blonde wig, pad out your chest and place the first heart on the centre circle at Tynecastle.’
‘What?’ She looked as if I’d kicked her in the belly.
‘I saw strands from the wig the last time I was in your office.’
‘Rubbish,’ she said. ‘You’re imagining things.’
‘Uh-huh. You invented the call to your mobile advising discretion, didn’t you?’
‘You’re rambling, man.’
‘Guardian numbers are classified. How did the supposed caller obtain it? In any case you realized it was risky, so you didn’t pretend there was one after the murder of Hume 481.’
She took a step back, presumably shocked by the accuracy of what I was saying.
‘I …’
‘You arranged for those boot prints to be found at Tynecastle after we took out the blonde shooter over the line.’
‘I …’ The guardian was struggling to concoct a story. My problem was that she didn’t have to. If I wasn’t able to keep surprising her, she could simply shoot me.
‘Did you know about Brian Cowan’s activities?’
‘I … I knew he was planning something.’ She shook her head. ‘But he’s a madman. I preferred my own approach.’
‘After all, the castle is the heart of the city.’
Her nostrils flared and she raised her weapon. ‘Don’t try to belittle me, Dalrymple. I love Edinburgh and I know it’ll be irreparably damaged if there’s a vote to rejoin Scotland.’
‘You know that how?’ I said, playing for time.
‘I know that an independent Edinburgh has been and will continue to be a success. It’ll be a disaster if Glasgow and the other states take over. We’ll become a backwater.’
‘You knew about the football gambling scheme, didn’t you?’
She looked at me as if I was the class clown. ‘Of course.’
‘Your friend – and, I guess, lover – Alice Scobie told you.’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t approve of it, but I was able to use it for my own ends.’
‘What were you going to do with the plastic explosive and gold we found?’
She laughed, almost light-headedly. ‘What do you think? Bring pro-Scotland supporters to their knees by the threat of serious violence and buy votes.’
‘But despite your huge workload, you didn’t appoint a deputy. Couldn’t you find one you could trust?’
The guardian pursed her lips. ‘There are protocols and procedures, as you well know. Next in line for deputy is Hume 253 and I was hardly going to use him.’
I smiled. ‘Davie would have been a liability.’
‘Bloody right,’ came a shout from the fort.
‘Whose idea was it that you put hearts on the pitches in Glasgow, Inverness and the Lord of the Isles’ region?’
‘You ask a lot of questions, Dalrymple – not that I care. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. I was in contact with anti-Scotland campaigners in those places. It was decided that I was best qualified to leave the hearts.’
‘Did you cut them out yourself?’
Her eyes opened wide. ‘Of course not. I have a butcher on my staff.’
‘Lovely. And he used a serrated knife to conceal his expertise.’
The guardian’s pistol was now aimed at my heart and I’d run out of stalling questions.
‘Where’s your father, Dalrymple?’ she said. ‘I’ll find out and it’ll go badly for him.’
‘I knew you’d go after an old and defenceless man.’
‘Hector Dalrymple could be a dangerous opposition figurehead. I’ll terminate anyone who endangers my mission.’
I was obviously a dead man in her eyes. ‘Your mission is to protect this city and its citizens, according to the regulations and the decisions of the Council.’
She looked round.
I took the opportunity to leap back over the crates. No one fired.
Another APC appeared behind the guardian’s, blocking it. Fergus Calder’s voice came from a megaphone mounted on its roof, demanding that all weapons be dropped.
‘Quite the little hero, aren’t we?’ said Davie.
Jimmy Taggart grinned. ‘Like back in the day.’
I raised my hand and peered out between two crates.
‘Citizen Dalrymple did us the courtesy of relaying your conversation,’ the senior guardian continued. ‘Public order guardian, you’ll receive a fair trial.’
Inasmuch as Edinburgh had trials. A quick hearing in Council and a cell in her former fiefdom was the best she could hope for. Execution was more likely.
I heard the sound of more approaching APCs.
‘You’re outnumbered,’ the senior guardian said. ‘Anyone who complies will only undergo rehabilitative auxiliary training.’
‘Like hell,’ Davie whispered. He was probably right. There would be a purge of the Public Order Directorate, indeed of all the directorates. The city’s mines and farms would have plenty of new recruits.
I looked around the stacks. Weapons had indeed moved in the direction of the holders’ feet. The only people resisting were Guardian Doris and her bodyguards.
‘Screw the traitors!’ Davie said, standing up and stunning the big men.
The guardian seemed to be in a world of her own, maybe a vision of what Edinburgh could have been with her as leader. Then she snapped out of it.
‘For the last time, Doris, drop your weapon!’ Calder shouted.
His fellow Council member shook her head, raised the pistol to her chest and shot herself in the heart. The bullet passed through her and ricocheted off the APC. It made Fergus Calder duck.
It turned out that the vast majority of the Guard were loyal, though some of them were no doubt putting on an act. Whoever succeeded Doris Barclay would have to do a thorough check. Or maybe just forget about the whole thing and keep a close eye on future developments.
I was called over to the senior guardian, who was wearing a suit of body armour that made him look like a robot – and he hadn’t even poked the end of a finger out of the APC.
‘Meet me at Moray Place in half an hour, Quint,’ he said.
So first names were back in favour. That didn’t fill me with joy.
Davie was dealing with his wounded – there had been no deaths.
‘I’ll see you later,’ I said. ‘Can you check with the Raeburn personnel that everything’s all right with my old man and the Campbells?’
He nodded.
‘I’ll tell them about their son later.’
‘Right. Hey, Quint, what do we do with the gold and the rest of the smuggled goods?’
‘I’m sure Calder’s people will come for the precious metal. Make sure the plastic explosive and cocaine go to the castle.’
Jimmy Taggart stuck out his hand. ‘Pleasure working with you again, sir.’
‘Glad you got through it in one piece. Your team?’
‘Two wounded, one seriously.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Ach, it was in a good cause.’
I suppose he was right, though it was hard to tell what was good and what was bad in the ‘perfect’ city. No doubt Fergus Calder would put me straight.
I got a lift down to Moray Place in a Guard 4×4. The driver was effusive about my role in what had gone down at the depot, but I shut him up. For all the horror she’d been involved in, I’d liked Guardian Doris. She was a genuine servant of Edinburgh and its people but, as had happened in the past with guardians, she’d let power run away with her.
I was let into the senior guardian’s house and directed to the reception room on the ground floor. Calder, Jack MacLean, Billy and the outsiders – Andrew Duart, Hel Hyslop and Angus Macdonald – started clapping and even cheering. I lowered my head, not from modesty but because I didn’t like being fêted by barracudas.
‘Have a drink, man,’ MacLean said, forcing a glass of dark malt into my hand. ‘You saved us from not one but two armed uprisings.’
‘Very well done, Dalrymple,’ piped the Lord of the Isles.
‘Absolutely,’ said Glasgow’s first minister.
Even Hel Hyslop raised her glass at me, but it was Billy Geddes’s mocking smile that pushed me over the edge.
‘Shite!’ I said, my voice louder than all of theirs put together.
‘I beg your pardon,’ said the Lord of the Isles.
‘So you fucking should. How many of you knew about the gambling scheme in Edinburgh before I told you about it?’
That shut them up.
‘All of you, eh?’ I glared at Billy. ‘Even those who swore they didn’t.’
The senior guardian stepped forward. ‘We were evaluating its potential without officially approving it.’ He looked around for support.
‘We’ve got something similar in Glasgow,’ said Duart, ‘though it’s run privately.’
‘My office runs our scheme,’ said the Lord of the Isles.
‘You’re very quiet, Billy,’ I said, moving towards him. ‘It wasn’t by any chance your idea?’
He laughed. ‘You could say that.’
I looked at Calder and MacLean. ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me?’
‘We had full confidence in you,’ said the finance guardian. ‘And we were right. You’ve solved everything perfectly.’
‘What?’ I yelled. ‘I did your dirty work by uncovering the actions of two dissident guardians. Meanwhile, you allowed Peter Stewart, one of your colleagues and a decent man, to get so distraught that he killed himself. Fuck your full confidence.’
Calder came over and took my arm. I shook it free. ‘This is no way to behave in front of the city’s guests, Dalrymple.’
‘Licking their arses is pretty demeaning, don’t you think, Fergus?’ He might have dropped my first name, but I used his to show maximum disrespect. ‘You’re undoing all the work of earlier Councils to establish Edinburgh as a functioning independent state.’
He shook his head. ‘You of all people should know how close to collapse the Council’s been in the past because of human weakness.’
‘And that’s going to go away when you get into bed with Duart and Macdonald? The public order guardian was right. This place will become a backwater.’
‘Rubbish. If you can’t control yourself, leave.’
He wasn’t getting off so easily.
‘Have you asked yourself why Glasgow sanctioned arms shipments to Edinburgh?’
‘We didn’t,’ said Duart, putting his hand on an incandescent Hel Hyslop’s arm.
I ignored that. ‘Well, have you?’ I said to the senior guardian. ‘Could it be that your supposed allies want to take over Edinburgh?’ Then I had another thought. ‘Or perhaps you knew about it and were stockpiling arms in case the citizen body gets uppity before the referendum.’
Calder shook his head and looked at MacLean. They kept quiet, which suggested I’d got to them one way or another.
I kept going. ‘Who gave the order for the football managers to be released from the castle? I know it wasn’t Doris Barclay. She was opposed to the gambling.’
‘Does it really matter?’ Jack MacLean said wearily.
‘It does to me.’
‘Very well,’ said Fergus Calder. ‘I had them let go. They make money for us.’
‘They’re in league with the city’s gangs, you fucking idiot.’
I turned on my heel. If I’d been able to throw up on demand, I’d have done so. But the occupants of the opulent room were so used to muck that they wouldn’t have noticed.