CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

TEMPELHOF

 

 

THE WALK AROUND had been long, hard and slow.

By the time all the bolts were retrieved and everyone was fed and rested, dusk had fallen.

The Aux were more comfortable in the grey light, but they were also cold and tired. They still had a long walk ahead of them to reach their destination.

The Zoo Pack had abandoned its fiefdom to head east and then south, to visit the Tempelhof Pack.

There was no way to hide their approach. The Pack was too big, too cumbersome and too noisy. There was no opportunity for stealth and they were too tired to attempt it.

The loud bang made at least half of them hit the ice. It was like a thunderclap, and some of the Aux thought the sky was coming down on them.

The Zoo packers knew what rifles were, but few had seen them, and most had only heard shots at a great distance.

The shot was followed by the appearance of two Tempelhof Packers stepping out from cover twenty metres ahead of them in the lee of the station building, rifles at their shoulders aimed at the Zoo Pack. One of the rifles was smoking from the shot fired.

Ezra Pound was the only Aux standing, and even he had ducked, his instincts taking over when the shot was fired.

Slowly he straightened, his eyes never leaving the trail of smoke curling from the barrel of the rifle.

He unslung his crossbow and held it up at shoulder height, away from his body, to demonstrate that he was no threat. He placed it on the ice and kicked it away. Then he nodded to Oscar so Wild to do the same. Wild was half-standing, braced ready to drop or lunge. His teeth were bared, his brow creased, and he was staring at the rifles.

Edward Leer also stepped up. He was shaking, but he felt the need to instil some confidence in the Pack.

“Me, I am Ezra Pound,” said the Alpha dog, his voice too loud and too hard as adrenalin pumped through his body. “Us, we are Zoo Pack. Us, we come to talk. We come to talk of Them.”

The Tempelhof Aux on the left swung his rifle, indicating that the Zoo Pack leader should approach.

Ezra Pound turned to his pack.

“You, wait,” he told them. “Me, I’ll get us underground, skittle-scuttle fast.” Then he strode forward, nodding to Oscar so Wild and Edward Leer to join him. They made it no further than the sentries.

The rest of Zoo Pack got back on its feet, gathering in a tight group. They gestured towards the sentries, and their rifles, and murmured among themselves. They knew the weapons were fearsome and deadly. The noise they made only proved it.

“Zoo Pack, we have left our fiefdom. We come to make alliances. There is strength in numbers,” he told the sentries. “Zoo Pack, we need to get underground. Us, we have been outside too long.”

One of the sentries nodded to the other, who backed away, never lowering his rifle, and disappeared into the station. He returned with a war band of a dozen more Tempelhof Aux, each with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

The Zoo Pack’s crossbows were stacked in the Tempelhof station before the Pack was allowed underground. Their blades were also confiscated.

They felt like captives among the Tempelhof, with their strange, horrifying weapons.

Ben Gun and Evelyn War did not hand over their slingshots. The Tempelhof Aux didn’t know they were carrying them, and didn’t ask for them.

Most of the Zoo Pack felt relieved to be underground again, but it was tinged with fear. The Tempelhof were alien to them. So were their weapons. Even their fiefdom was alien.

The platform they went down onto had flat walls with square corners, and a double set of tracks. It smelled strange, too, hot and dusty, and the light was unnatural. There was no soft yellow glow of firelight, not like the spots of warmth in the service tunnels of the Zoo territory. The lights here were too hard and bright and too white. It was not like home, but it was better than being outside.

The Zoo Pack were crammed onto the platform, guarded by the Aux who had escorted them underground. They took off their outer clothing, talked among themselves, remade their family groups and even settled down to sleep among the bedding they had been wearing for the long trek.

Most of the pups and infants were asleep within minutes of arriving underground, and some of the ancients too. They were exhausted by the long Walk Around and by the rush of their encounter with the Tempelhof sentries.

Some of the Zoo Pack scrappers chose not to sleep. They kept a vigil over the Pack, watching their guards, keeping a constant eye on the rifles they carried with their long barrels and their curved magazines full of bullets instead of bolts.

They were wrong. The rifles were full of wrong.

Ezra Pound, Oscar so Wild and the original six, including the Warschauer war band, Edward Leer and Walter Sickert, were led into Atticus Flinch’s command chamber. He was the leader of the Tempelhof Pack, but not a typical Alpha dog. He was tall and lean, but significantly smaller in stature than many of the warriors who sat or stood around the chamber.

When Zoo Pack had been discussing making alliances, it had been argued that the Tempelhof were one of the most advanced of the packs, one of the most sophisticated. They had a complex social structure, and they were Believers. Ezra Pound, with his pragmatic approach, disliked them for it, but it was exactly why they were approaching them now.

Atticus Flinch, the Tempelhof Alpha dog, was a shaman and a Hearer. He was considered superior because of that, not because of any prowess on the battlefield. It was this that made him Alpha dog in a long line of shaman Alpha dogs.

“Him,” said Atticus Flinch, pointing at Walter Sickert, who was being held up by Robert Browning. “Him is not one of you.”

No introductions or explanations had been made, other than to the sentries outside. The Alpha dog simply seemed to know who and what was important.

“Him is Walter Sickert, Hearer of the Warschauer Pack,” said Edward Leer. “Them deader and dead.”

“Walter Sickert, you, what did you Hear?” asked Atticus Flinch.

“Me, I Heard the Voice,” said Walter Sickert in his musical voice. He looked baffled at Atticus Flinch. He tilted his head at him, a frown cutting his half-formed brow ridge.

“You, what don’t you understand?” asked Atticus Flinch, seeing the pup’s confusion. “You, tell me what the Voice said.”

“It told me Them were coming, skittle-scuttle fast. Them would scrap, tougher and tough. Them would kill the Warschauer, deader and dead,” said Walter Sickert, his words becoming increasingly urgent. “It told me the Warschauer, we should run.”

“The Warschauer Pack, them didn’t run?” asked Atticus Flinch.

“No, them didn’t run.”

“Walter Sickert, Hearer, you told them to run?”

“Me, I told them to run,” said the pup.

“Warschauer Pack, them still didn’t run?” asked Atticus Flinch.

“Them died,” said Walter Sickert. “Deader and dead.”

“Walter Sickert, did you see Them?”

Walter Sickert still looked confused. His frown had not left his brow and his head was cocked on one side. He looked to Edward Leer for reassurance. Ben Gun saw his discomfort and took his hand.

“Stop asking questions,” said Ben, concerned that his friend was becoming agitated.

Atticus Flinch and Ezra Pound both glared at Ben Gun. Walter Sickert went on.

“Me, I ran,” he said. “Me, I heard the Voice, and I heard Them whistle. Me, I ran.”

“Hearer, you ran to Zoo Pack? How?” asked Atticus Flinch, incredulous.

“Me, I’m Evelyn War,” said Evelyn stepping forward. “Oberon War, Hearer of Zoo Pack, him was my father. Me, I found Walter Sickert, me and my war band, we found Walter Sickert. Us, we found the Warschauer Pack, deader and dead. We brought Walter Sickert to Zoo Pack.”

While Evelyn was speaking, Walter Sickert got Edward Leer’s attention and whispered, “Why is him talking like that?” The tale-teller didn’t understand, but there was no time to ask what the pup meant.

“Zoo Pack, our sentries were dying,” said Ezra Pound. “Oberon War, him tried to warn us that Them were returning, tougher and tough. Him dead. Now, this pup, him survived Warschauer. Him survived Them. There is strength in numbers. Tempelhof, will you make an alliance with Zoo Pack? Will you get whet with Zoo Pack, tougher and tough?”

“The ice is dying,” said Evelyn War. “The Dammed, them were outside. Them were blind, and now them are dead, too. Us, we scrapped with them. Us, we killed them, deader and dead. The Aux, we are dying. Us, we must stand together.”

“The Voice, it told me so,” said Walter Sickert, looking Atticus Flinch in the eye.

“Zoo Pack, them travel far,” said one of the Tempelhof lieutenants. She was a huge Aux called Becky Sharp, a middle-aged dam, who was clearly an experienced scrapper and a senior advisor. Atticus Flinch turned to her.

“Zoo Pack, them give up their fiefdom,” said the lieutenant. “Zoo Pack, them serious. Tempelhof, we should be serious.”

Another lieutenant took his turn to speak.

“Tempelhof, we trust Hearers, we trust the Voice. We must trust Walter Sickert,” he said. “Tempelhof, we must make a pact of alliance. Us, we must stand beside our brother Aux. We must stand against Them.”

Atticus Flinch raised a hand to still the hubbub growing around him as the Tempelhof lieutenants began to agree with each other.

“Me, I am the Hearer,” said Atticus Flinch. “Me, I Hear the Master’s Voice. Me, I am Alpha dog.”

Walter Sickert clasped Ben Gun’s hand a little harder and Ben Gun looked into his friend’s worried face. There was no opportunity to speak in the silence. Atticus Flinch’s voice was the only one that would be heard.

“The Masters, them speak through me,” said Atticus Flinch. “The Masters, them will decide. Me, I will decide.”

Atticus Flinch rose and grasped his staff of office. His lieutenants stood to attention. He walked deliberately, using his staff as a prop, to a metal door set into a corner of the room. He entered with a key that hung from his wrist and locked himself into a tiny booth. The lieutenants did not resume their seats. One of them followed the Alpha dog and stood guard at the door to his booth. The others bowed their heads and began to mumble words that the Zoo Packers could not understand. It was a kind of a chant, one of the many Tempelhof rituals that they had heard of.

Inside the booth, Atticus Flinch leaned his staff against the wall and placed an ancient pair of headphones over his ears. Then he threw a switch on the board in front of him that set a generator roaring. An orange light slowly flickered into life on the display. Suddenly his head was filled with words.

On Tempelhof station platform, there was a sudden high pitched whistle. Lights flashed red at the end of the platform and there was a strange hot smell as the rail tracks went live.

It was as if all the Zoo Pack’s worst fears were coming true. Those who were asleep woke up and clambered to their feet, searching for their weapons before they were aware that they weren’t still dreaming.

Some panicked when they couldn’t find their blades and crossbows. They called out to each other in alarm. The Tempelhof guards raised their weapons, fearful that they had fallen foul of some sort of ambush. Then one of the most seasoned of the Aux fired his rifle down the tunnel to bring them all back to their senses.

The Zoo packers dropped onto their bellies on the platform. All except Thomas Hardy. He was close to the guard who had fired the shot, and as he dropped, he kicked his legs out from under him. The guard landed hard on his back. Thomas Hardy wrenched the rifle out of the guard’s hands and began to throttle him with it.

“The whistle,” he said. “What is it? Them? Is it Them?”

Suddenly the cold barrel of a rifle was nudging the side of Thomas Hardy’s head, and a voice close to his ear was saying, “You, let him up!”

“You, let him go, Thomas Hardy,” said Patrick Bateman. “Ezra Pound, him will make this right.”

Thomas Hardy lifted the rifle off the guard’s neck and threw it off the platform onto the tracks.

There was a loud crack as the metal barrel bounced off the live rail. Hot white sparks flew, making the Zoo Packers duck again. They shielded their eyes from the glare, and the infants began to squeal or whimper.

The Tempelhof guard on his back on the platform sat up.

“Atticus Flinch, Alpha dog, him is Hearing the Master’s Voice,” he said. “How does the Zoo Pack Hearer, him Hear the Voice?”

Atticus Flinch Heard the Master’s Voice: Alt-Tegel, change for S Track 25 – Borsigwerke – Holzhauser Straße – Otisstraße – Scharnweberstraße – Kurt-Schumacher-Platz – Afrikanische Straße – Rehberge – Seestraße – Leopoldplatz, change for U Track 9 – Wedding, change for S Tracks 41 and 42 – Reinickendorfer Straße – Schwatzkopffstraße – Naturkundmuseum – Oranienburger Tor – Friedrichstraße, change for S Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7, 25 and 75 – Französische Straße – Stadtmitte, change for U Track 2 – Kochstraße – Hallesches Tor, change for U Track 1 – Mehringdamm, change for U Track 7 – Platz der Luftbrücke – Paradestraße – Tempelhof, change for S Tracks 41, 42, 45 and 46 – Alt-Tempelhof – Kaiserin-Augusta-Straße – Ullsteinstraße – Westphalweg – Alt-Mariendorf.

The Master’s Voice always said the same words. Atticus Flinch knew the words were important because his own pack, Tempelhof, was mentioned. He knew that his own pack was the most important of all the packs, because Tempelhof was mentioned twice by the Master’s Voice. He understood why Mehringdamm was mentioned. The Dammed were outcast by all the other Aux packs. They were the devil. Tempelhof were the chosen.

Atticus Flinch could recite the words the Master’s Voice spoke, but still he Heard. He was the Hearer. He threw the switch on the board and the orange light went out. Then he threw it back to the ‘on’ position and Heard again.

The Zoo Packers on the Tempelhof platform were startled again as the whistle sounded from Atticus Flinch’s ancient tannoy machinery. The rest was clicks and pops and white noise. There were no words. The Tempelhof guards also looked surprised.

“Atticus Flinch, top dog, him Heard twice,” said the Aux lieutenant who had explained Hearing to the Zoo packers. There was a tone in his voice that none of the Aux on the platform liked the sound of.

Atticus threw the switch on the board in front of him to the ‘off’ position, removed the headphones from his ears, placed them carefully on their hook and turned to unlock the door to his sacred place.

He did not speak until he had locked the door behind him and he and the Aux guarding the booth had both retaken their seats. There was silence in the chamber.

“Zoo Pack, you can sleep at Tempelhof. You are our brothers. You can rest and eat. You can get warm and dry. Then, Zoo Pack, you must leave,” said Atticus Flinch. “There will be no alliance. Us, we must part as friends, but there will be no strength in numbers.”

“What about Them?” asked Evelyn War. “What about Walter Sickert? Him heard the Master’s Voice.”

Atticus Flinch cast his gaze on Evelyn War and stared her down. He was not used to insubordination. He did not need to speak to his lieutenants or even gesture his intentions. Two Aux strode over to Evelyn War and took her by the wrists while the Alpha dog was still looking deep into her eyes. She dared to stare back.

“What did the Voice, him say?” she asked.

Robert Browning, Oscar so Wild and Dorothy Barker were on their feet to defend Evelyn. Ezra Pound also rose, stepping between her and Atticus Flinch, breaking their eye contact.

Atticus Flinch stood, and the Alpha dogs faced each other.

Nobody noticed Ben Gun loading his slingshot. He had whipped his arm and was about to loose a stone straight at the head of one of the lieutenants manhandling Evelyn when Walter Sickert spoke, his melodic tones filling the room.

“Zoo Pack, we must leave this place. Us, we must leave Tempelhof. We must leave Tempelhof Pack. There is no Hearer here. Atticus Flinch, him does not have the ear or the voice of a Hearer.”

The stone in Ben’s slingshot fell useless to the floor, and the strong hands around Evelyn’s wrists loosened their grips.

Walter Sickert was gaining in strength, and with that strength his voice was growing. The Aux were compelled by it, all of them.

The Aux of Zoo Pack had had barely enough time to eat and dry off, and despite being underground they had taken no comfort in their surroundings. They found themselves back outside in the darkest hours before dawn.

They felt mostly relief. Relief and exhaustion.

Their hopes had been set on the Tempelhof Pack, and those hopes were dashed. With every drop of water that fell from every tree and every rooftop and skidded and slid down every wall, the threat of Them grew closer.

Every time the sun rose, hotter and stronger than it had risen before in generations of memories, the threat grew closer.

Deprived of hope, they had to find a new plan, a new Aux Pack to pin new hopes on. Then they had to walk, and walking meant getting whet.