Scavenger Alliance

  The dinner bell sounded, and I got to my feet, looking warily first one way and then the other. Nobody should need to go along this corridor to reach the stairs. If anyone did appear, it probably meant they’d been following the same logic as me, but with the opposite motives. I was waiting for everyone to go downstairs so I could safely move the off-worlders. Someone else might be waiting for everyone to go downstairs so they could safely commit murder.

  I heard distant voices and tensed, then saw Vijay and Weston hurry straight past the end of the corridor. Seemingly fully occupied bickering with each other, they didn’t even turn their heads to look at me. Minutes ticked by without anyone else appearing, and I slowly relaxed. I told myself that I shouldn’t have been so ridiculously nervous. Machico was bound to be keeping a close eye on Julien.

  I fumbled in my pocket for the keys, went to Phoenix’s door, unlocked it and shoved it open. I saw her standing at the far end of the room, her back to the wall, palms pressed against it as if she was trying to push her way through it.

  “Blaze!” She hurried towards me. “What’s happening? I heard Tad being locked in again earlier. Are we safe now?”

  “No, you aren’t,” I said. “I have to move you somewhere else quickly. Grab your bedding and bring it with you.”

  I let Braden out next, repeating my instructions and getting a tense nod in response. Finally, I unlocked Tad’s door, opened it, and instantly lifted my hand in a stop signal.

  “Shut up! No talking, no questions, no arguments. We’re moving. Bring your bedding.”

  Tad turned, grabbed everything from the bed, and came out into the corridor. I locked the three doors again to make it less obvious their inmates had gone, and led the heavily burdened off-worlders down the corridor.

  We reached my apartment without meeting anyone. I unlocked the door, stepped inside, grabbed the smooth metal hilt of the sword that leant against the wall, and then waved the off-worlders in after me. They watched me shut the door behind them, lock it, and start methodically bolting it from top to bottom, slightly hampered by the sword in my right hand.

  “Why are you brandishing a sword?” asked Phoenix, in a faint thread of a voice.

  I slid the third bolt into place. “I keep a sword by my apartment door in case I open it and the wrong people are outside. I’m holding the sword now because the wrong people are inside with me.”

  “But I thought weapons weren’t allowed here,” said Phoenix.

  I worked my way through the rest of the bolts before straightening up and answering her. “Weapons aren’t allowed on common ground, but we’re in Resistance territory here. Donnell doesn’t like his people carrying weapons in the corridors, but I can have as many of them as I want in my own apartment.”

  Braden pulled a face at the door. “And as many bolts as you like too.”

  “I spent the first eleven years of my life living with London division,” I said. “My mother had two bolts on the door to our rooms. One night when I was three years old, a drunken man kicked his way through our door. My mother stabbed him, and then Ice showed up and beat him to a pulp. After that, we had eight bolts on our door, and the next man to try breaking it down gave up in disgust.”

  I paused. “In theory, it’s safe up here on the sixth floor, but one day the security system will break down like everything else round here. I sleep better with bolts on my door.”

  “What’s been happening, Blaze?” asked Phoenix. “Why have you brought us to your own rooms?”

  “Only Donnell, Machico, and I know that Tad is webbed, but all of Donnell’s officers have heard that he’s Thaddeus Wallam-Crane’s heir. At least one of them wants to kill Tad, and preferably all three of you, so you have to stay in here tonight.”

  I gestured round the room. “You can sleep on the chairs or the floor in here. There are bottles of drinking water in the cupboard. The bathroom is through there.” I pointed. “The other door is to my bedroom. If any of you try to set foot in there, I’ll stick this sword through you.”

  “This is all my fault,” said Tad. “You kept warning me, Phoenix, but I was too stupidly sure of myself to listen. I kept talking too much, I kept asking too many questions, and I gave myself away. I messed up and I’m really, really sorry.”

  “It’s a bit late to be sorry.” Phoenix turned back to me. “Where’s Donnell and what’s he doing about this? He won’t let them kill us, will he?”

  “Donnell’s in his room getting drunk,” I said.

  Phoenix gave an urgent shake of her head. “Donnell can’t do that. He mustn’t do that. Without him this place will explode into open warfare. The things Natsumi told me when we were fishing …”

  I wondered what Natsumi had told Phoenix. Stories about the battles at the barricades? Warning tales about the divisions? Blunt truths about just how much people here hated off-worlders? Whatever it was, Phoenix was terrified.

  “Donnell will be sober again tomorrow, or the day after at the latest,” I said. “Until then we …”

  I was interrupted by a burst of hammering on the door.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Everyone turned to look apprehensively at the door. I put my finger to my lips to warn the off-worlders to keep quiet.

  “Blaze!” called a muffled voice from outside. “It’s me, Luther.”

  I frowned. I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad. When we were up on the roof, Luther hadn’t argued in favour of killing Tad, but he hadn’t done a thing to prevent it either.

  “You were quite impressive on the roof,” Luther continued. “I suppose I could have done a bit more to help.”

  What did he mean by saying he could have done a bit more to help? He hadn’t done anything at all!

  “I was taken by surprise though,” he added, “and wasn’t sure what to do.”

  I could understand Luther being shocked to discover Tad was Thaddeus Wallam-Crane the Eighth. I’d been just as shocked myself, but I hadn’t stood motionless while Julien tried to throw Tad off the roof, I’d stepped forward to stop him. Perhaps I was being unfair about this; I wasn’t in a good mood at the moment, but …

  “I hadn’t understood why the deputy position was being kept vacant for so long,” said Luther, “but given the way Donnell’s been acting towards you these last few days, and the fact he called you his daughter … Well, now it’s obvious that Donnell’s planning to appoint your husband as the new deputy leader of the alliance.”

  I blinked.

  Luther was still talking. “I’ve always liked you more than any of the other girls, Blaze. I know you’re attracted to me too, so I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t announce our engagement right away.”

  I’d had a colossal crush on Luther back when I was fifteen, and he’d totally ignored me. Now, at the very moment he’d proved he was handsome but completely useless in a crisis, he’d announced he wanted to marry me. Just to be extra annoying, he was making it clear that his change of heart was solely because he wanted to be deputy alliance leader. I felt like banging my head against the nearest wall.

  “Blaze?” Luther called. “You can hear me, can’t you?”

  Oh yes, I could hear him, and so could an audience of three off-worlders. I had to shut Luther up and get rid of him.

  “We can’t discuss this now, Luther,” I shouted through the door.

  “I expect you’re frightened after what happened on the roof.”

  I raised my eyes to the ceiling in despair. “Yes, I’m terrified. I daren’t open my door tonight. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

  “I could come in and protect you. We should get a bit more … intimate now that we’re getting married.”

  I cringed at the suggestion, and glanced at the off-worlders. Tad and Phoenix were looking embarrassed. Braden was giving a brilliant impersonation of someone who was so fascinated by the pattern of the carpet that he hadn’t heard anything at all.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said, in what I thought w
as an impressively calm voice. “Donnell might not like it.”

  “It’s true that Donnell is fiercely opposed to underage marriages.” Luther’s voice sounded as if he was doing some hard thinking. “He’s never seemed worried about casual relationships, at least not unless there was a big age gap involved, but he might have stricter views where his own daughter is concerned.”

  He paused for a moment. “We should probably wait until we’re actually married before getting too friendly. Do you think Donnell will expect me to ask him for your hand in marriage?”

  “We’d better discuss this in the morning,” I said.

  “All right,” said Luther. “I’ll see you in the morning then.”

  Everyone stayed warily silent for the next two minutes. Once I was convinced Luther had gone, I spoke myself. “Ask for my hand in marriage? What does that mean? Doesn’t Luther want to marry the rest of me as well?”

  “It’s an archaic phrase that dates from long before Language became the common tongue of humanity,” said Tad. “It originated in a time when a girl needed her father’s permission to marry.”

  “Really? I suppose Luther must have learnt it from his father. Kasim picked up a lot of strange information on his undercover assignments, and I’m sure he mentioned pretending to be a history professor once. Mind you, Kasim also claimed he’d gone undercover as a horse, so …”

  Tad interrupted me. “You mustn’t marry Luther, Blaze. He doesn’t care about you as a person. He’s only interested in becoming deputy leader of the alliance.”

  “I’m fully aware of that,” I said bitterly. “I’m a human being, not a stepping stone, and Luther can …”

  I was interrupted by another burst of hammering on the door, more aggressive than last time. “Blaze! I know you’ve got those leeches in there. Open the door!”

  “That’s Julien,” whispered Tad.

  The door shook from what had to be a kick on the other side. “I told you to open the door!”

  “From the way he’s slurring his words,” said Braden, “I think he’s been drinking.”

  “The bolts must hold,” muttered Phoenix, “but what about the hinges?”

  “They’re very solid hinges,” I said.

  There were several more kicks on the other side of the door. Silence obviously wasn’t going to get rid of Julien, so I clenched my right hand tightly on the hilt of my sword and tried some yelling myself. “I’m not letting you in here, Julien. Go away!”

  “If you don’t open this door, Blaze, I’ll set fire to it! You hear me? I’ll pour this whiskey on it and set fire to it!”

  Sick panic hit me. The whiskey from our stills had a high enough alcohol content to catch fire easily. The door was flexiplas reinforced with metal. I’d seen doors exactly like this burn in London. I knew how the smoke would drift under the door, the way the flexiplas would start to bubble, and then the flames …

  “Blaze.” Tad’s voice was startlingly close to my ear. “What’s wrong, Blaze?”

  I realized I was sitting on the floor, hugging my knees close to me like a frightened child. I’d no recollection of getting there, of dropping the sword that was lying beside me, or of Tad kneeling beside me and putting his arms round me.

  I made a whimpering noise. I felt too terrified to move, but if I stayed huddled here in the comforting warmth of Tad’s arms, then all four of us could end up burning to death. I forced my hands to let go of my knees, picked up the sword from the floor, and lurched to my feet again.

  There was the sound of smashing glass from outside. That had to be Julien breaking his whiskey bottle against the door.

  “What happened to you just then?” asked Tad.

  “I’m afraid of fire.” I took a deep breath, and shouted through the door at the top of my voice. “Your threats don’t scare me, Julien. If you start a fire, you’ll set off the alarm and bring the whole Resistance up here.”

  “Most of them would agree that …”

  Julien broke off his sentence. There was a thump against the door, followed by a yell of pain.

  “Sorry about that,” called Machico’s voice. “I wanted to see what Julien would do, but I didn’t expect him to go that far. Aaron and I will lock him up now.”

  I screamed back at him. “You mean you and Aaron were skulking nearby all the time, eavesdropping while Julien … Chaos take it, Machico!”

  “Have a good night, Blaze,” he said cheerfully.

  “You can go pollute yourself!” I closed my eyes and slumped against the door.

  There was a mere five seconds of peace before Tad spoke in a puzzled voice. “Was what you just said supposed to be rude?”

  I opened my eyes again. “If I’d let Julien throw you off the roof, you’d still have been asking questions while plummeting towards the ground, wouldn’t you? This world suffered centuries of people dumping every type of poison from toxic chemicals to radioactive waste, Tad, so yes, what I said was very rude.”

  “Machico said he’d lock up Julien,” said Phoenix. “Does that mean we’re safe now?”

  I shrugged. “It means we’re slightly safer.”

  “Why did Donnell have to go and get drunk?” she wailed.

  “He’s being totally irresponsible,” said Braden.

  I felt I should say something in Donnell’s defence, but at this particular moment I agreed with both of them.

  “Donnell isn’t being irresponsible,” said Tad.

  I turned to stare at him in disbelief.

  “He’s just being human,” continued Tad. “Imagine what Donnell’s life has been like. The Earth data net is full of pictures, news reports, recordings of him singing. I can see tens of thousands of them whirling round me right now like a hurricane. The Loyalists found a boy of fourteen with an incredible voice that could break hearts, and they made him famous. Sean Donnelly sang the Loyalist songs for years, became the face and the voice of their cause, and when their politicians failed to save Earth, he took up the fight himself and started the Earth Resistance.”

  Tad’s eyes moved oddly, seeming to focus on things that weren’t there. I tried to imagine what he was seeing right now, a tornado of data snatched by his thoughts from the Earth data net.

  “Donnell tried to save the Earth he loved from destruction,” said Tad, “but he had no chance at all of success. It was already too late when he started the Earth Resistance. It was probably too late before he even sang his first song.”

  Tad shook his head in a mourning gesture. “So Donnell lost his battle, and he’s been living in the ruins of the world he loved for decades. He’s only human, so he cracks under the pressure sometimes, when things remind him of his lost cause, when insensitive off-worlders rub his nose in his failure.”

  His voice was shaking now. “I can’t blame Donnell for that. He’s handling his failure far better than I’ll do in ten years’ time, in twenty years’ time …”

  Tad’s eyes stopped looking at invisible images and he turned to Phoenix. “When I was up on the roof arguing with Donnell, and he talked about watching people suffer for his actions and his choices and his failure, I suddenly realized something. Donnell’s me, isn’t he?”

  He paused to tug at his hair with both hands. “Donnell was fourteen years old when the Loyalists recruited him to their cause. I was fourteen years old when my grandfather put me in charge of the interstellar portal research. Donnell had to save one world and failed. I have to save five hundred of them, and I’m going to fail too.”

  I’d no idea what Tad was talking about or … Yes, I did. On the roof, Tad had said something about problems on the new colony worlds, and the interstellar portals breaking down.

  “You won’t fail!” Phoenix grabbed Tad by the shoulders and shook him. “What happened to your insufferable ego? You’re Thaddeus Wallam-Crane the Eighth. You’re the last man in humanity to be webbed. You’ll re-invent interstellar portal technology and stop civilization from falling!”

  “My ego has been crumbling for y
ears,” said Tad. “My grandfather told everyone I was a genius, promised them I could build new interstellar portals, and then I couldn’t. I was too young, too unprepared, and no genius at all, just a bright boy with the advantage of being webbed. The problem of the Rosetta component made my limitations painfully clear to everyone. I spent over a year working on that, but couldn’t find a solution. No wonder the government of Adonis lost faith in me.”

  “You have found a solution to the problem of the Rosetta component,” said Phoenix fiercely. “You came to Earth in search of answers, and you succeeded in finding them.”

  “I succeeded in getting all three of us stuck in New York,” said Tad. “You saw the children dancing round the portals and singing rhymes to try to make the old magic work? That’s what the future will be like after I’ve failed. Life here is what life on the other worlds will be like after I’ve failed. Donnell is the man I’ll be after I’ve failed.”

  Phoenix shook him again. “You won’t fail. The Adonis politicians may not understand how much time it takes to recreate interstellar portal technology, but there’s still Beta sector and the Fidelis Project.”

  I opened my mouth to ask what the Fidelis Project was, but closed it again without speaking. I had too much to cope with right here and now in New York. I couldn’t worry about what was happening on colony worlds in distant star systems as well.

  “I’m going to bed,” I said instead. “Call me if there’s any trouble.”

  I opened my bedroom door, and then paused in the doorway to frown at Phoenix. Tad and Braden seemed to be civilized, but I still felt guilty about leaving her to sleep in here with the two of them. Not guilty enough to risk letting an off-worlder into my bedroom, or hand her a sword, but …

  “Phoenix, you may want to lock yourself in the bathroom.”

  I closed my bedroom door, and started sliding its array of eight bolts into place.

  Chapter Eighteen

  My idea was to have an early night, and be up well before dawn next morning, but it was hard to get to sleep. I was tensely aware of the off-worlders in the next room, alert for any sound that might mean danger, and desperately hungry.