| |
“Raine, are you sure this is a good idea?”
Cass was frowning over the lists of numbers on the tablet he had passed to her. The two of them were alone in the corner of one of the barns they had been using as a makeshift office.
Raine waved a hand at the cramped space between the crates and boxes as if this was answer enough, then acknowledged that he would need to present a few more solid reasons. His head of intelligence could be extremely demanding on proper explanations––and wasn’t shy about questioning his orders, based on the fact that she was twenty years older and a deal more experienced than he was.
“Cass, I don’t think there’s any choice. The Tarn is too far from the city while this manhunt is going on.”
“But going back to the Warren so soon after it’s been raided? How can you be certain the military won’t go back there, checking that it’s still abandoned?”
Raine leaned across to scroll his tablet.
“Go to the report from the scouting team I sent back there. It’s risky whatever we do. The recurring bad connection up here almost cost Luc his life, and four of our people are still under arrest. We have to reinstate the Warren’s analogue link before we lose anyone else. We can’t rely on Parry. He’s under too much pressure to prove himself to Moris, even if his conscience is telling him otherwise.”
Cass sighed, acknowledging it was true.
“Have you told anyone else he’s a potential ally?”
“No. I can’t even be sure he’s an ally. Not yet. It could be disastrous if I persuade someone to trust him––and then discover I’ve just handed the new security chief the chance to enhance his career by capturing another high-profile prisoner.”
“So. How many will you take if you go back to the Warren?”
“Eighty. I’ll send half to train with Pendrac in the western mountains, leave a handful on coms-link at the Warren, the rest on patrol in the forest. Sixty rangers, intel, equipment, archives, stay here with you. We can set up a better relay for you using the Warren hub to improve transmission. All right, your turn.”
Cass considered for a moment. “Actually, I think you’re right. It’s overcrowded here, the animals are having a hard time finding forage and communications go offline just when you don’t want them to.”
Raine took back his tablet and flipped through a series of images. “The scouts just got back from their second recce at the Warren. Those military thugs made quite a mess of the place but they didn’t find the coms hub or the hydro connection for the electric, so Burton probably didn’t think it was particularly useful or significant as a base. He didn’t order his troops to burn it. Didn’t even leave guards watching it. Most likely because keeping it would give him a future excuse for another fabricated ‘victory’ over the Resistance to please his boss.”
“You think Parry would also fake something like that?”
“He may be forced to if he wants to hang onto his job. But right now he seems more worried about F2.”
“Did Burton leave surveillance cameras at the Warren?”
“A few. The tech team located and looped them. They’ll tell a peaceful story till the batteries die.”
Cass conceded. “All right. It mostly makes sense. When do you plan to leave?”
“Now.”
*
Karim peered out at the wet forest as weak sunshine glistened on the dripping leaves. He and Luc had been sheltering from the rain in a disused barn only five miles beyond the abandoned house they had used to overnight. Luc had been moving too slowly to make much progress. At this rate it was going to take them days to make it as far as the Tarn.
Karim gently nudged the hunched grey blanket in the corner. “Come on Luc, time for a bit more of the kind of hike you always enjoy and I don’t.”
Luc groaned as he tried to sit up. “Could be a role reversal here. I don’t feel like moving at all.”
Karim looked at him anxiously. Luc’s skin felt hot to his touch and flushed under the tan, his dark eyes bloodshot and half-closed. Red streaks ran out along his arm from under the bandage. Even Karim knew this was a danger sign. Infection was setting in.
He needs to rest and get that arm treated. Two things that can’t happen till we reach the Tarn.
“We have to move.” He pulled Luc to his feet, steadying him as he swayed and almost fell.
Luc leaned against the wall, making an attempt at his usual dark irony but the bravado was paper-thin now.
“I guess I should be grateful that Raine moved the tracker out of my neck before Burton decided to get rid of me, or I’d be dead. Trouble is, I suspect that being dead is a damn sight more comfortable than this.”
“Come on, just take it slowly. At least what’s happening to you is reversible. Being dead isn’t.”
It was slow going. The maze of narrow weed-choked roads offered no direct route. It was shorter to cut through the forest if the undergrowth had died out in the shade but all too often a mass of brambles forced them back to the road.
Luc walked without complaining, but he was struggling to keep moving. Karim took his pack and strapped it on top of his own.
Another role reversal. But I don’t have the training or stamina to take it much further than this.
By the time they reached the farm Luc was exhausted.
It was unnaturally quiet. Karim could hear an unlatched window banging against its frame, over-loud in the empty space that should have held people. He pushed Luc out of sight behind the barn.
“Stay here, I’ll go and check.” He walked cautiously across the weed-covered yard toward the closed door, knife drawn, hoping desperately there would be no occasion to use it, uncomfortably aware of his lack of fight training.
The door was unlocked. Inside the untidy farmhouse kitchen a scattering of food lay abandoned on the table; round bread cakes and a piece of cheese next to a small plate of cold sausage. A thin tabby cat followed him in through the open door and jumped onto the table, grabbing one of the sausages. Karim grabbed the cat and put it back outside. It ran for cover to finish eating its prize.
They can’t have been gone long, or something would have found its way in to eat all the food by now.
He looked around the other rooms but found no one. Whatever had happened here, he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Priority had to be getting Luc out. He scooped the remains of the food into a bag.
Thank you Agnes, wherever you are.
He went over to the concealed coms hotspot, plugged in his unregistered, tried to get a connection. No signal from the Tarn. Or the Warren. He shrugged resignedly and went back outside, closing the door before the cat could get back in.
Luc had not moved from where he had collapsed on the ground behind the barn.
“Any sign of Agnes?”
“Nothing. I found some more food but there’s no one in the house. Either they were arrested or were warned and ran. Hope they’re okay.” He noticed Luc’s eyes closing. “Hey. We have to move. Now. You can sleep later.”
“I’m not sleeping. The light hurts my eyes. Maybe we could just stay here if staz have been and gone already.”
Karim searched frantically for something, anything to motivate his friend into one last push of action.
“Luc, you’ll die here with only me to fix that infection. You know how useless I am. We have to get back to someone who knows what they’re doing, someone who is an experienced surgeon. We have to find Raine.”
It wasn’t working. Maybe Luc was starting to believe his own fantasy. Being dead probably was a deal more comfortable than the torture he was going through right now.
Karim tried again. “I know you want to get back and see Evie. And think how she would feel if you went and died before she could welcome you back to the Tarn?”
Luc opened one eye, squinting against the sunlight.
“It would save her the trouble of finishing the job she started before I left.”
“Come off it, Luc. You said she missed deliberately with the heaviest things she was throwing at you. She can’t stay mad at you forever.” Karim searched in vain for any sign of positive response. Maybe the thought of facing a furious Evie again was not Luc’s best motivation after all.
“Well, even if she is still mad at you, don’t you think you’re love-bound to ask forgiveness one last time?”
Luc groaned, struggling to lift his fevered body away from the wall. “All right! One more apology. On condition you talk to me about something else. Thinking about what she’s likely to say just makes me want to turn around and head back to the city.”
“I’ll get the horses and the bag with our stuff.” Karim glanced cautiously behind him and slipped quietly into the dark interior of the dilapidated barn. He found the bundle where they had stashed it, the usual place at the bottom of the metal grain bin at the back of the hayloft. He took out his own and Luc’s spare arrows, stroking the distinctive signature feathers with his forefinger. They reminded him of reassuringly familiar routines at the Warren, even though he had made a point of skipping most of them.
If I can just get Luc through this, I will get to basic training every morning and make him teach me everything he knows...
He picked up two sets of reins and remembered to take a scoop of grain with him. The horses were grazing the meadow behind the barn and came gladly at the sound of the shaken tin. He clipped in the reins and led the animals back to where Luc was still slumped against the barn wall.
He stroked the bay mare’s neck.
“Hey, come on now Dyffi, you really have to take care of Luc. He’s not at all in good shape here.” Karim pulled Luc’s hand up to her flaring nostrils and she snuffled at his fingers. “There you are Luc. She knows it’s you now. All you have to do is get on.”
Luc scrambled onto the low wall beside the barn and slid onto Dyffi’s back. They moved off, retracing the route upriver that led to the Warren. Karim knew that at this pace it would take the rest of the day just to get that far––and the Tarn was another full days’ ride beyond that.
And we won’t even be in max handset range for another day at least. If Lizzie managed to get through from the hive, maybe the Tarn will be expecting us. If we’re really lucky––
Luc swayed sideways and fell before Karim could grab him. He lay still in the long grass under the trees and Karim suddenly had the feeling they might not make it any further that day.
Or ever? Don’t think about it. Focus on getting through this.
Karim dismounted and knelt beside Luc, trying to persuade him to drink water and eat something. He knew the dressing on his arm needed changing but Luc always seemed to lose too much blood when he did it. He decided to leave it alone. Staying here would mean a night sleeping under the stars with no medical help. The way things were going, that would finish Luc for sure.
“Do you think you can ride on a bit further?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Can you give me some warning if you’re going to fall off next time?”
“I’ll try.”
But Luc could barely stand and although his wiry frame had lost more weight over the last few days, there was no way Karim could lift him onto a sixteen-hand mare. And the ground was flat with nothing to climb on.
If I had Luc’s skill with animals... maybe he can still do it.
“Luc, talk to her. See if you can get her to lie down.”
He drew Dyffi closer.
Luc stroked the mare’s long black nose.
“Come on old girl. Just give me a bit of help here.”
He took a handful of mane and made as if to pull himself up... and then Dyffi nuzzled his face, dropped her forelegs to her knees and lay down on the grass. With Karim’s help, Luc slid onto her back and somehow managed to stay on while she stood up again.
They walked on slowly under the trees.