“MOVE IT, WOULD YOU SKINNER?”
Muspar started the day already pissed, and now here he was getting hauled over to the Neighbourhood Surveillance wing of Talos operations to meet Bob Scott. He glanced at the back of Skinner’s neck, the kid driving like he was somebody’s granny. “Skinner, if you don’t get me there in five minutes, I’m going to have you doing duty at the kennel.”
“Wouldn’t mind that sir, I like dogs.”
“Skinner, you being a wise ass?”
“No sir, I really do like dogs, my Uncle Delbert raises dogs, had a real nice Springer spaniel, and man, every fall that dog would just go crazy,” Ricky grinning, remembering the damp sludge of leaves underfoot, and the dog racing and yapping around the yard as they got ready to head out. “One time sir, there was this partridge, and the dog, his name was Bo, well he…”
Ricky looked through the rearview mirror at the man, but he was already back to reading his pile of papers.
He dropped the Captain off at the bottom of the range of office towers that formed the home of Talos Enterprises Inc. It had taken him a few turns around the block to find the proper entranceway to the Civilian Security building that was the linchpin of Talos’s domestic operations. Muspar wasn’t paying attention at first, then looked up and saw them drive past the bright yellow symbol of the little house with the big eye in the centre and the stick family holding hands beneath it. Over top, like a rainbow, was written keeping an eye on us. “What the hell Skinner!” bellowed Muspar, startling Ricky who slammed on the brakes, “Let me out here, I’m already late and I don’t want to ride around the goddam city sightseeing with you. Park the car, find Suite 500, and be waiting there for me.”
With that the door slammed and Ricky could see the Captain rushing up the sidewalk towards the Rainbow archway, half walking and half running. Ricky didn’t think there’d be much to go sightseeing for in the city, he’d been there for just over two years now and hadn’t seen anything interesting. Just grey streets wet with snow and slush, and rows and rows of people always waiting for the buses or for groceries or for fuel. His family had told him not to go the City, but at the time everyone else had been going. His two cousins had already left and they had said there was lots of work and he should come down before the big evacuation when there’d be no jobs left.
Two more times around and he found a parking spot, got his yellow ticket and headed up the elevator to the fifth floor of the building. Every so often along the grey walls were the posters saying different things, like watching over you with a big yellow sun peering down on the stick family, mom and dad and a little boy. Ricky could see the cameras in all the corners of the hallway and wondered if those were the same cameras that you saw on the street, and then wondered about the men who sat and watched the images from the cameras everyday. Thought of them sitting in their booths, just watching.
That’s what the guy Miller had told him. He asked Miller about the cameras when the guy had come down to get his requisition filled for the mission up into the territories. Miller had said that there were cameras everywhere, not just in some public spaces, but even inside people’s homes, and there were guys who sat all day watching to make sure nothing bad happened. Ricky didn’t really believe that, saying you could see if someone put a camera in your home. And then Miller had said no, it wasn’t like they were sneaking them in there, people wanted it, you know, to be part of I-TIME, to film themselves doing things. Like what? Ricky asked. I don’t know, said Miller, everything, eating, fighting, screwing, whatever they wanted. Miller explained that people liked that shit, though he found it boring, except when there was crime and stuff, or a couple got into the fighting. Or to see some titties, that was okay too.
The way Miller explained it, I-TIME had started off just as entertainment, but then one night some guy had busted into a home with I-TIME and everyone saw this punk pound on this old guy to get his prescription drugs until finally one of the neighbours had realized it was just next door and called the cops. Ricky asked what happened to the old man and Miller said “Well, by the time the cops got there the guy was flatlining, the perp had used a rolling pin on his head.” Then Miller added, grinning, “It went totally viral, watched it a few times myself.” Miller told Ricky that I-TIME was now tied into the security network in order to protect people. Protect them from what, asked Ricky. Bad guys you moron, I just told you. Miller had grabbed a gun off the rack and pointing it at Ricky, said, guys like home invaders, they’re everywhere, tie you up, rape the women, torture the husband right in front of the whole family, it was happening all over the place. Miller said there’d been big problems with roving gangs, especially along the edges of the City. Ricky didn’t know what else to say so he had dropped it, feeling suddenly uncomfortable, thinking about the man and the woman tied up in their living room, the men in the booths watching and the gun Miller was pointing at him.
“Can I help you?”
Ricky looked at the young woman sitting behind the grey desk. She had soft brown hair. Ricky said. “I’m looking for Room 500.”
The young woman frowned a little, looking very official, asked, “And what business do you have here?”
“I’m picking up Captain Muspar. He’s in an important meeting.”
Ricky looked around. There was a pair of blue chairs right along the wall, a nice little table between them. The woman had a coffee maker behind her desk and there was a cup of coffee on the little table.
“500 is straight down the hall, see?” She pointed. “You can go wait there.”
Ricky looked down the hall and could see the row of spare grey chairs near the end of the hall.
“Could I wait here,” asked Ricky, gesturing to the empty chair “maybe get one of those coffees?” Smiling, all friendly, thinking the woman was pretty even though she wore those small black glasses that made her look like a librarian.
“No, you can’t. Down the hall, please.”
Ricky smiled again, not sure why he was smiling because he suddenly wasn’t feeling very happy, but it was just a nervous reaction he guessed, and he was sort of embarrassed. Ricky turned and shuffled off down the hall, wondering how she decided who got to sit in the blue chairs.
It was impossible to get comfortable on the grey chairs so Ricky kept getting up and walking the short length of the hall to the window, would look down below at the adjoining roof and stare for awhile, and then walk back, sit for another few minutes until his legs got too cramped, and then he’d walk back to the window. The meeting was taking a long time.
Sometimes he could hear the men talking loud, like maybe they were arguing. That didn’t surprise him much, seemed to him that the Captain liked to argue.
Ricky wasn’t really sure what they were talking about, but he started to listen harder when he heard “Raven Uplands” because he knew that was the new name for where he had grown up. They had renamed it just before he’d left, a huge area that Talos had said they were going to turn into a park. They came in with big green signs that had said “Welcome to The Raven Uplands: Talos’s Vision of our Future” but that was before things got real bad and everyone had to leave, even the park officials. Ricky liked the signs though because there were lots of ravens in the area, and sometimes they even sat, hunched over and squawking, along the top edge of the signs.
Once, one of his neighbours had sat up all through the early morning and shot every raven he saw, then walked along the road to the next bush and did the same thing, shooting them and tossing them into his wheelbarrow. He killed a huge pile of them then pushed them back to his place while Ricky and his mother had stood at the end of their road to watch him go by. Ricky followed along beside him, saying nothing, watching the black tangle of feathers, the flat eyes looking back at him.
The old guy put them in a big mound in his backyard and covered them with dried up grass and then poured gasoline all over them and set the whole pile on fire. It stunk up the whole road. The old man was mad because the ravens had pecked the eyes out of one of his newborn lambs. Ricky’s mom had said to him that it was a good thing it hadn’t been one of the neighbourhood dogs that’d gotten his sheep or he would’ve started World War Three on the road. Ricky supposed that was true.
The Captain’s voice came through the door but it was too muffled to hear, then the voice was clear because the door opened. From where Ricky was standing he could see the Captain’s hand on the doorknob and that Mr. Scott guy was telling the Captain it wasn’t smart to be walking out at this point.
“Smart is the last thing I’m worried about.”
Scott said, “Well, a smart man would be thinking of his career right now, would be thinking about what is good for himself and for the City.”
Captain was saying, “You threatening me?”
“Hardly, you are the one threatening things here, and the biggest thing you’re threatening is the success of this mission.”
“No. I wasn’t aware of the exact nature of this mission when I released my men to you. It’s risky and it’s wrong. That’s not how we do things. I want to be on record as opposing this…”
“You’re missing the point Captain, there is no record.”
“Well I keep records Scott, and I’ll go up the chain of command if I have to.”
“Listen to me and listen closely, because this comes from up the chain of command. You know who is at the top of the heap here? Our shareholders. And right now, all of Talos’s services are overstretched. We’re maxed out, my correctional facilities are beyond capacity, and there are hundreds of assholes lining up every night for a bed in one of our work shelters. And we aren’t making any money off them, we’ve got as many as we can working, but right now some of them are costing more than we can make off them. So what I don’t need are any more yokels down here, especially not troublesome ones, and I also don’t need any negative publicity on this. You understand what I’m saying? No more warm bodies down here and no one knowing there are warm bodies up there. That simple.”
“I don’t know what your corporate culture is, but at Police Services, we do not execute people. Understand? This isn’t a dictatorship where you can just eliminate people. My god Scott, we’re public servants.”
“That’s where you are wrong, very wrong. At Talos we don’t work for the public, we work for our shareholders. Our corporate mission is, however, to ensure the best interests of the public are identified and accommodated. You may not have noticed, but we are operating under extreme conditions, we need to maintain order or this whole place could explode into chaos. That is not in the best interests of the public, now is it? And get your head out of the goddam sand Muspar and get real. How do you think Talos has been getting things done?”
“I thought it was by the book.”
“It is, Muspar, but by Talos’s book.”
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down.”
“I am going to tell you how it is going to go down,” Scott said, and Muspar’s hand came away from the door but the door stayed ajar and Ricky could still hear. The Scott guy talked for awhile longer, talking about Laskin and the mission and that the only ones coming south would be the Wintermen in body bags, and then some other things Ricky didn’t understand.
Then the door came wide open, Muspar turning to face Scott, said, “If this thing goes south, Police Services will not wear it, not this time.”
Ricky straightened himself out, but the Captain walked right past him, not even really noticing, making some sort of gesture that Ricky figured meant for him to follow along. It was a long ride back to headquarters. Ricky was thinking back to the files, wondering if there was a mistake, but then thinking back too about what that Mr. Scott had said about killing people. Something inside Ricky’s stomach was starting to feel bad and he was pretty sure his Uncle Delbert was dead.
He needed to know for sure though, so he’d been thinking more about his trip up north, heading up to see if his Uncle really was dead, then maybe going to see his mom. He just felt too bad to stay in the City anymore, but he was hoping the Captain couldn’t tell what he was planning because he would probably try to stop him. He knew it wasn’t really possible for the Captain to read his mind, but one time the Captain had yelled at him, saying, “Skinner, I catch you looking at Miss Saxon again, you’re out of here. I know exactly what you are thinking, once more and you’re gone. I won’t have that in my office.”
He’d been thinking about the black lace he could see through Miss Saxon’s white blouse and he turned red and the Captain had sworn at him and Ricky could feel his face going even redder, and he tried to explain that he hadn’t meant to stare but the Captain said, “I told Community Services, no retards and no perverts. Christ almighty, you’re both.”
Since then, Ricky tried not to think about much when the Captain was around. That was why he liked to be down in the storage room, because he could work without anyone noticing him. He could think all he wanted about the black lace that covered Miss Saxon’s breasts. And how he was going to get out of the City.
Laskin figured she’d probably been up all night. A slice of dark blue sky through the window, almost dawn, and there she was, sitting on the edge of her cot. Laskin stretched and then patted the space beside him.
“Come on Mitch, you gotta sleep. Come to poppa.”
She crossed over quietly and sat down on his cot with her back towards him. The rest of the team was asleep, Turner snoring loudly. They were back in their cramped room, Jeff and Larose having locked them in there, saying they’d see them in the morning.
Mitch said, “My head hurts.”
“Too bad baby, you shouldn’t stayed up all night fretting, come on, lie down.”
She rubbed her temples. “What went wrong Grier? We’ve never had problems like this before?” and then she asked, “Do you know how many ops we’ve done together?
Laskin said no but he figured it’d be quite a few.
“Twenty-eight, not counting the recreational shit.”
“Yeah?” He was surprised there were that many. Surprised too that she was keeping count. He’d always had the feeling that it wouldn’t take Mitch much to cut him loose, a job promotion, a bigger alpha male—though that would be unlikely. He figured he was about as alpha as any guy was going to get. And he was going to prove it too, once he got it all worked out.
“And out of that twenty-eight not one has gone wrong till now.”
Laskin sighed. “We’ve run into some rough spots before, come on Mitch.”
“Well maybe this is just another rough spot. It’s not over yet.”
“What? The hillbillies toss us out, shaking their fists at us, send us packing back back to the City with our tails between our legs? It was supposed to be a simple gig, we bag ’em and tag ’em. And now this shitshow? We might never work again.”
Slipping his arm around her waist, he said there might be better ways to spend their time in the room besides whining.
“I’m not whining, I just want a plan.”
“Time for some hardball Mitch. That’s the plan. I mean look at it, they only have maybe ten able-bodied men. I think we could take them out pretty easily. We need to teach them a lesson for punching above their weight class.”
“No, this thing is all fucked up. We got an entire population that’s compromised. We can’t go in with guns blazing, not with the kids and seniors, not with the orders we’re operating under now. Talos would be pissed and we definitely would not work again. Especially not with Police Services involved like they are.”
“Since when do you do things by the book?”
“Since always Grier. We’re going to have to go back.”
“Okay, then we go back. But we can’t go back without our shit. We’d look like dickheads. Gotta salvage something from this crapass mission.”
“Grier, do you like my hair like this, maybe I should’ve kept it long?”
Where the Christ did that come from? He looked up the curve of her back, running his hand down along her spine and letting it rest against her rump. He hadn’t known her when she had long hair, imagining it all pale golden, way down her back. That’d be okay, but he liked her this way. “You know honey, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were more pissed off that your Snow Pirate kept his chastity belt buckled up than the fact that we’re being held prisoner along with a year’s worth of toilet paper.”
She looked over her shoulder, him figuring she could hear in his voice that he was annoyed. She said, “Look at it this way Grier, it might just work for us. After all, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
“Have something in mind?”
“I got a gun under my pillow and a hard-on for some payback, my mind’s got nothing to do with it.”
“So now what?”
A few of them had gathered in the kitchen. It was another cold one, Tiny’s thermometer saying it was minus 25.
“Good question, Harv. No way of keeping them here, we just don’t have the facilities. And who would want to? Imagine looking after that bunch day in and day out. I think we didn’t count on them being so loaded for bear—these guys are the real deal.”
“I say we kill them,” Tiny said.
Slaught looked over at Tiny to make sure he was joking but it was hard to tell. “Kill them? Then what?”
“Stack ’em outside. It’s cold enough.”
“So,” Slaught moving to change the direction of conversation, “Do you think they really came to move us out?”
“What? Park Rangers?” Chumboy skeptical, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, maybe not Park Rangers. But maybe one of those evacuation teams, everyone knows there was some serious shit going down in some places during the evacuations. Not that it really matters, I mean one of those Talos departments is the same as the other, but I guess I’d like to know why the hell they’re bothering with us. That was the whole point of this party charade, to find out just what the hell they wanted, and we’re still not really clear on anything.”
“Me, I go with the big trouble option. Stealth Barbie doesn’t look like any of the Park Rangers I’ve ever run into and trust me, I ran into a fair number back in the day. I say we let ’em stew for awhile, maybe a day or so, go through all their shit again to see if we can turn up anything, and just go about our business. We could send ’em packing without their gear, maybe just a gps so they don’t end up back here by mistake. We can’t really tangle with them too much longer, already lost a day of hunting. Christ almighty, we’ll be down to pigtail soup pretty soon.”
True enough, Slaught thought. “Guess we don’t have the luxury of sitting here worrying too much on it, we need food for sure. And the list of supplies is growing by the minute, it’s going to be a full time job keeping this place supplied. And now having to deal with these clowns.”
“Well, like I say, we let them sweat a bit, send them down the trail without their gear. Don’t see as we have much choice.”
“I don’t know, Chum.”
“That’s not like you big guy. That chick’s got you rattled.”
“What chick?” Susun asked as she pulled up a chair. Her hair was loose this morning, Slaught thinking he hadn’t realized how long it was, thinking ‘what chick’ was a good question.
“Just pondering our prisoners.”
Susun said. “I say kill ’em.”
“What’s that, the Latour solution to everything? Kill ’em?”
Susun looked over at Tiny and nodded. Tiny nodded back, said, “Fucking A,” then asked Susun if she wanted some pancakes. “They’re hot.”
“Load ’em up, I’m a hungry girl. Starting to feel myself again.”
“That’s a good thing,” Slaught said, “you’ll need the fuel, I was thinking of sending you out on a scavenge today. We’re sort of short handed with our guests, plus we got a ton of stuff we need. Thought maybe you and Jeff could go out.”
Susun asked, “Looking for some alone time with Mitch?”
Slaught looked at her, not sure what he saw in her face, was she just playing or maybe she was actually pissed. She sure did have a sarcastic disposition. But he liked her almost too long face, eyebrows raised now, looking straight at him waiting for an answer. He couldn’t think of anything to say so he just looked back, and she said, “I just think maybe you’re out of your league with that one.”
“You think so, eh?”
“Well, come on, she had you up against the wall like she was stealing your school lunch.”
“I think I can handle Ms. Black.”
Susun took the maple syrup from Tiny, him saying to her, “It’s the real thing, don’t waste it.” Susun said thanks, then turned to Slaught, suddenly serious, “I’m not so sure you can handle her, I have a bad feeling about this.”
Johnny had a bad feeling himself but he was doing his best to ignore it. Seeing the sled full of weapons? Man, it was some heavy-duty firepower. But they’d started this chain of events, and now they had to see it through. Didn’t need her stirring up doubts either. “That’s all you got, bad feelings. Christ, for someone named after the sun, you’re just goddam gloomy.”
Susun shrugged, “Okay, sorry, just thought I should say something. If you listened to what your gut was telling you, you’d agree, but you’re just too stubborn to admit it.”
“So now you know everything about me.”
“I know enough, yeah.”
Slaught suggested maybe she could figure out the rest when she was out on the trail, was she going to go or not?
“Good, ’cause we’re running low on everything. You could check the maps and see if there are any places we haven’t already hit six times. Jeff’s just getting things together now.”
“Okay, but maybe you should start thinking about what happens when you’ve picked your cupboard bare out there. Time to start thinking about the long term, putting down some roots here, figuring out how to grow some food maybe. You’ll be looking down starvation alley if you don’t get your shit together.”
“Look, our unwanted guests are already giving me more than enough grief, so no more of your doom and gloom routine, it’s hard on my nerves.”
Susun shrugged and got up to leave, then put her hand on his shoulder and leaned around to look into his face. She was smiling, said, “Well, Winterman, your secret’s safe with me, that barracuda doesn’t need to know that you’re just a bundle of raw nerves.”
She told him to watch his back while she was gone. He said he’d do his best.
The first thing Mitch shouted through the door when they knocked was that she wasn’t dressed yet but they could come on in anyways.
“Now what?” Chumboy whispered.
“She’s bluffing,” Slaught said, turning the key and then pushing open the door.
Solanski and Turner were still tucked in, Turner snoring loudly. Laskin was stretched out in the bed across the room, his head propped up on his elbow, smiling. Miller was playing cards with the other two guys in the far corner. Mitch stood in the centre of the room facing the door, back to Laskin and the boys, dressed only in a small pair of black briefs.
“And I took you for upstanding Christian gentlemen. You surprise me, walking in on a lady like that,” she said, just standing there.
All Slaught could see was Laskin’s smug self-satisfied jerk-off grin. Had to admit, though, she had a near perfect rack. He grabbed a shirt off the end of Miller’s bed and tossed it at her.
“You’re no lady. Now put this on and keep it on or you’ll be wearing your skivvies out in the snow. And you, Laskin, wipe that piece of shit smirk off your face. You may not realize it, but you people are not in a very good situation here.”
Mitch looked a little thrown off but pulled on the shirt, slowly buttoning it up. Chumboy said later he didn’t know how a girl doing up her shirt could still look like she was stripping. Slaught waited till she was finished then told her to go sit down on the bed with Laskin.
“Okay Laskin, you got one minute to explain what you people are doing with two sleds worth of shit that would’ve made Al-Qaeda horny, or else we’re dumping all of you out in the bush and your girlfriend here can perform her floor show for the wolves. Understand?”
“Like I already told you Mr. Slaught, we are an advance team from Parks, basically recon, you know, here to find out what’s in the way of the new boundaries, and if there are going to be any problems. That’s what we do.”
“You’re outta time Laskin.”
Laskin sighed, “You know guys, I’d be willing to overlook all of this, I could even leave the hostage-taking and threats out of my official report. But you aren’t coming across right now as very reasonable. The government needs to know you are up here so that they can facilitate your evacuation. Simple as that.”
Chumboy said, “Facilitate our evacuation? Whoa up there, General Custer, you white guys already tried that with us once, and as you can see, my Algonquin brothers and sisters are still here and planning on staying.” He looked at Slaught. “Me? I say these guys are full of the same old shit.”
Laskin said maybe they shouldn’t be so quick. “We got a few carrots to throw your way boys, might want to have a listen. Safe transportation for your entire community out of here and government sponsored food and accommodation for the first six months of residency in the City. Also job placement support and any necessary counseling will be provided.”
Slaught said to him, “That’s all you got?”
Laskin was looking a little too self satisfied as he said, “Well, I also have the authority to offer full pardons if that is of any interest to you.”
“Pardons? For what?”
Mitch spoke up, crossing her legs, elbow on knee and leaning forward to rest her chin on her hand. “You know it’s against the law to live within the Territories right now.”
“Hey man,” Chumboy said, “enough of your bullshit, this happens to be Algonquin territory, always has been, and right now, you’re the ones trespassing.’
Mitch barely glanced at Chumboy, saying to Slaught, “And it is also against the law to threaten and forcibly confine Talos employees. Not to mention those murder charges from a few years back. You’re not a very nice boy Johnny.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes, it is, and pretty soon you and all your friends will be hauled off to correctional facilities. We’re talking serious prison time. Is that what you want for your little community? For your friends? I don’t think so.”
“Well, that’s a good point, maybe I’ll go ask them.”
Mitch said, looking straight at him, “Why don’t you do that Johnny, and at the same time, ask yourself if you really have the stomach to see this thing through?”
Slaught saw her eyes, the colour of hard toffee, like the candy bars he had as a kid, needing to smash them to get smaller pieces, and thought she was asking a damn good question.