Hamersly’s idea with the skitterbugs worked a treat. I found me a sack and filled it with dirt, then when Blooper headed off for his refill, I followed. It looked like he was headed for the same refuelling, which we’d already spiked, so I watched while he filled up. A couple of minutes later, he headed somewhere different. They was pretty fast, them bugs, but I could keep ahead of ‘em if I put in the effort. I saw where he was going ahead of time, and made it to the hopper in time to empty it of detonite, and replace it with dirt. I had to repeat the procedure three, maybe four, times , but you could see Blooper was in trouble by the last couple. Its movements was jerky and slow, and eventually it just stopped.
Then I had about a six hour wait before Bibbet went looking for a refuel. The little varmints had seemed so lifelike over the weeks they’d been shadowing me, I’d begun to wonder just how intelligent they were. Turns out not particularly, ‘cause Bibbet went to the same poison chalices I’d laid out for its companion, and it went just the same way.
Once he was done, I went hunting through Marico and Lady Kit’s personal space — another area the skitterbugs had refused to let me enter — and after a short search, I found me my gun and knife, along with a bit of spare ammunition.
That took us through most of the day, but I was suddenly anxious to get going. I picked up directions and a bag of supplies from Caroline, who weren’t half so bad a cook as Aliric had implied, and pretty competent with a map too. I searched Tarbuc out, who was still busy supervising construction the camp’s defences, and took my leave of him and his folks.
If he wanted me to stay, he didn’t try very hard to persuade me. Personally, I wasn’t too sure about his choice of companions or their motivation. Aliric especially worried me, and to a lesser extent, Connor nd Harvey. I held my hope that Lawrence and Mashek, and in particular Isobelle, might help to keep him on the right track. Me, I’d spoke my peace as best I could, and as I had in times past, the best I could manage now was to step back and leave him to his own choices.
The Shriven would be after him for the wholesale slaughter of the Engineer’s camp, and I was duty-bound to tell them of it. The Engineers’d most likely want revenge for all those deaths as well, not to mention wanting the camp back, and its easy access to weapons grade detonite. As for the Malories, they wouldn’t be none too keen when they found out Tarbuc planned to fight for the freedom of Gatrean.
He’d pretty much backed his-self into a corner, and I weren’t none to keen to stay around and see what came of it.
Isobelle led me out past their outer defences. Despite Tarbuc’s objections, Aliric and his bomber buddies had planted a few explosive devices. Nothing that’d go off if you tripped or trod on it, but the sharpshooters knew where they was and could light ‘em up any time advancing attackers came close. No matter how safe anyone thought they was, they was still explosive, and both Issy and me knew better’n to trust our luck and go treading on ‘em.
“Take care now, old timer,” she said, giving me a farewell hug.
“You too, little lady. And look after your man. I don’t know as he really knows what he’s letting you both in for.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I have my own ways of keeping out of trouble. And yes, I will look out for Tarbuc. I actually think he’s doing the right thing, staying with these guys.”
“I hope you’re right. I hope you’re ready when the Engineers come back wanting their camp back.”
“We will be. It’s really well protected by the hills here abouts. You know we probably wouldn’t have found it if we hadn’t spotted that huge guy with the spanner. As far as we can tell, that’s pretty much the only easy approach, and we already have it mined with a couple of snipers on station.”
There weren’t much left to say. I offered her a grin that was more sadness than smile, and headed off in the direction of Gatrean.
It was easy enough going, I guess. To start with I had to working my way over and around hills, most of which were covered in a fair amount of stiff gorse, but generally I was heading downhill and there were usually places where the undergrowth had thinned to reveal the bedrock beneath. My general heading was toward the south-west. In pursuing the Engineers with the Shriven, and later in riding on as their prisoner, we’d scouted well to the east of the town, and up into the Detonian Hills, or at least their foothills. The Engineer’s camp had been not too many miles from the mine entrance, but I figured I didn’t have much business there. Besides, given the way things were playing out in the wilds, it was quite likely I’d end up facing the business end of a gun if I went there.
Gatrean seemed by far the best bet. I hoped they’d have the telegraph fixed at least, and I’d be able to communicate with Hytheria. I had questions I wanted to ask Horeson, and I had long overdue reports to send back to Eadling, though heaven alone knew what I’d put in them. I also figured it’d be expedient to look up the group the family had sent up there and see if I could temper their excesses.
It all seemed like a good idea until I caught my first sight of the town. I remembered how Derrick had described it from his visit as a boy, but regardless of what he said, I was totally unprepared for what I saw when it first came into view. It was huge; bigger I’d say than Hytheria by quite a margin, but none of the folks in even the most run down parts of the city would’ve been able to complain about their lives compared to this place.
The sky was relatively clear, unlike how Derrick had described it, but then only a few of the factory chimneys seemed to be putting out much smoke. I guessed the shortage of detonite was the cause of this, which on the up side meant there weren’t so much soot in the air, but on the down side, it meant there would be hundreds of people without a wage, without the means to by food or pay rent.
The clement weather meant I got a good look at the town though, if it was fair to call it a town still. I could see the curve of the Bay of Relaro spreading out in the distance, and there was houses, warehouses, docks and the like spreading across most of the coastline. A narrow gap to the north separated the main urban sprawl from a smaller settlement I took to be Lendril. From the coast, the buildings spread haphazardly across the land until they all but reached the bottom of the hill I was standing on. And everywhere was covered in filthy black, oily residue. The streets, the houses, even the people I could see, all were blackened and sickly looking.
With a bit of studying, I made out more or less where the rail terminus had to be. It would most likely take more than a day to hike there from where I was on the hill overlooking the town, and from there who knew how long it would take to figure out what had happened to Malorie’s crew.
I decided to spend one more day in the clean air the hill offered still. Relatively clean in any account. This close to the city, I couldn’t smell much more’n the naphtha from the detonite. It invaded my senses and made the rations I cooked up taste unnaturally of chemicals. When I put my head down to sleep, I found myself contending with distant sounds of factory working, and the street lamps that cast much of their glare out into the surrounding night.
To be fare, it wasn’t so very different from Hytheria, just on a much grander scale. Or larger scale at least; there weren’t nothing grand about Gatrean.
The next morning, I was up with the lark, or at least I would have been if there’d been a lark to be up with. This close to the town, there weren’t nothing alive to breath save the poor wretches who inhabited the town beneath me.
I got my bearings, and picked out a few useful landmarks I thought I’d be able to see once I was in among the buildings, and I set off on my quest. True to expectation, it took me most of the day to find the rail station. I’d had to ask a good number of folk, and most had seemed to stupefied they’d barely been able to speak let alone respond to my questions.
The sun was still up, though barely, when I found the railway buildings. I made my way to the station manager’s office and introduced myself. I explained what had happened from the south end of the track and asked if there was any way of communicating with Hytheria.
The manager apologised and said the telegraph was not working. The best guess was that the explosion that had brought down the tunnel ceiling on the train had also disrupted the telegraphic connection, and I’d have to wait for the tunnel to be cleared before they found the break, or breaks, in the wire and repaired them. I was welcome, he said, to write a few letters and hand them over to be delivered, but it would take some days. It let me off the hook with Malorie, but it meant there’d be a delay of some days before I had answers to the questions I wanted to pose to Voorde.
I asked about the people Eadling had sent up some weeks before, and he offered me a non-committal and far from satisfactory response. I asked if there was somewhere I could stay the night, since the dark was closing in, and I had something of a hankering for having a roof and walls around me. He seemed better able to help there, and I walked away from him with the names of a few not entirely disreputable places where I might find a bed.
I settled on the third, passing over the first two for reasons I’d rather not go into. The bed weren’t too lumpy, nor were there fleas jumping on it. The linen was threadbare but laundered, and the price wasn’t exorbitant. It was more than the room and board were worth, but I’d be reclaiming it from the Shriven’s funds when I had access to them once more, and I didn’t begrudge them the extra.
The next morning, my landlord seemed to have had an epiphany, and suggested a few places he thought I might try for the Malorie gang. I thanked him and tipped him for the information. In return he provided me with the services of his son — a sickly looking child — to show me around the town and make sure I found my way to where I wanted to go.
The first day ended up being a bust, as did the second and third. I wasn’t just looking though. Wherever the boy led me in search of my quarry, I left instructions that should any of the people I was looking for turn up, they was to direct them to the tavern I was staying in. Turns out the most effective way to find someone sometimes is to let them know you’re looking for them, and let them come find you. When we got back late on the third day, Jimmy Goodwyn was waiting for me.
Gatrean
“You sure know how to live life to the full,” Jimmy said, easing his boots off the table and standing up. It was the most he’d said to me in ten years, and I all but didn’t recognise him. He’d not been so insolent at any time in the past when we’d spoke, and for certain he’d never been so cock sure of his-self.
“I’ve stayed in worse places,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “There ain’t nothing wrong with it, and it’s an honest enough place.”
“I understand you’ve been looking for us.” He wiped a finger across a shelf and examined it. I ain’t none too sure he knew what to expect, just that he’d seen folks doing it.
“I just made it into town. I figured I ought to look you up.”
“Yeah. We figured you should’a been here a few weeks ago.”
“I take it you heard of the attack on the train.”
“Yeah, that was real tragic. What of it.”
“I was on it. The train I mean.”
“Well,” he drawled, “don’t that beat all? How’d you survive then?”
I told him everything, right up to when Alowin was killed and the other Hytherian engineers taken captive.
His face darkened when I mentioned his step-brother’s death. “Serves the damned fool right,” he murmured.
I stared at him reproachfully. “I don’t know what happened to you, Jimmy. The boy I remember would never have said a thing like that.”
“The boy you remember died a long time ago, old timer, about the time he figured out who really cared about him.”
“You think Eadling Malorie cares about you, boy? That man’s been using you since the moment he first spoke a word to you.”
“Well if that’s being used, I guess I done alright by it. Better’n I ever did with you and them others.”
“How’d you figure that?”
“The minute you and yourn had your fill of me, you passed me onto them Goodwin folks, then they only stuck me till they found better things to do with their time. Mr Malorie ain’t never made me feel like I didn’t belong.”
“That’s ‘cause you ain’t given him reason to…”
“And I won’t neither. You’re going to have to face it old man, I’m with the family now. I’m in the family, and that ain’t nothing you or anyone else gave me.”
There weren’t no arguing with him. For all the kindness we’d shown him, we’d messed up somewhere, and he was lost to us. I sighed, and resigned myself to the loss.
“Well, I’m here now. I spent some weeks in the company of the Engineers before Tarbuc came and helped me out, then came directly to Gatrean and I’ve been looking for you since I got here.”
“Well, I guess we can’t complain too much. You’re here now. Mr Malorie sent word there’s a shipment of weapons and ammunition on its way to us, and we’ll be wanting your help to secure it.”
“Wait, what? How did Malorie get a message to you? Did he send a courier or something?”
“No, the telegraph’s working. That’s why I came here today; to acknowledge receipt. It was while I was at the station I heard you was here and looking for us.”
“When’s the shipment due?”
“Soon enough. We’re planning on heading out in a couple of days, and we want your gun with us for if we run into trouble.”
“I’m done shooting at folks,” I said.
“You’ll come even so. If we find some folks who want to start taking pot shots at us, I’m pretty sure you’ll change your mind.”
“You thought about asking the Shriven?”
“Thought about it, decided no. I don’t much trust ‘em.”
“That’s unbelievable, coming from you of all people. You’ve known most of ‘em since you was a kid, when we took you in at the Shriven Main Quarters.”
“Yeah, that’s why I don’t trust ‘em. When I left, they just plain forgot about me.”
“That’s not true…”
“I don’t much care for your understanding on this, old man. That day I went back to the station? Sure they all made friendly noises and said they was pleased to see me, but they was gone in the shortest time…”
“They had a job to do! Your bad luck you came back on a busy day. Don’t go thinking everything’s about you.”
“I don’t. I’m part of a family now — folks who take me for what I am and make me feel like I belong…”
“And make you do things I know I’d be ashamed of…”
“Nothing worse’n you’ve done yourself Mr First of the Shriven.”
“I wanted better for you, boy.”
“And I found better’n you could give me, so why don’t we leave it at that? I’ll be here to collect you two days from now, early, and I don’t want to see none of your colleagues. If I don’t find you, I’ll send Francis Junior your way. He was itching to come today, but I figured we needed you alive and not bleeding.”
He left, slamming the door behind him. He really was lost to me, and to Derrick and Heather. I gave him time enough to get clear, then followed him out the door.
My destination was the rail terminus. If they’d fixed the telegraph, I needed to use it. When they’d invented the darn thing, Horeson had seen good mileage in it. Communicating words by using long and short patterns could be adapted to a whole bunch of technology. Electric torches could be made to flash with the same patterns, or you could tap out a message on someone else’s hand if you wanted to communicate without another person in the room knowing it. He’d insisted all the Shriven learn the code, including me. I’d hated doing it, but I could see the use of it, and that being so, I worked at it till my old brain had soaked it in.
I went to the station manager’s office and showed him my star. Never having officially retired from the Shriven, I still had the rights and privileges of a Shriven officer. They weren’t so well recognised outside of Hytheria, but there were places, like Gatrean, that offered us some courtesy.
I explained to the manager that I needed to talk to Horeson Voorde in Hytheria, and could his telegraph operator send a message to call him to the station there, then leave us to exchange messages. It was quite a slow day, the main backlog of messages having been sent in the previous twenty-four hours, and most of Gatrean still not fully aware that communications were available again. The message got sent, and half an hour later, the telegraph chattered with the reply that Horeson was there and ready for me.
“Who didn’t you let me have?” I tapped out, slow and laborious.
“Kendrick,” came the reply. “Who d’you get instead?”
“Wheelan,” I responded. Something I once heard in relation to the Malories: You can’t be paranoid enough. Some telegraph operators reckon they can recognise who’s at the other end by the way they key their messages — sort of an accent, they say. Me, I don’t have the experience. I dare say most folks’d recognise me from the ham-fisted effort I made of sending messages, but I don’t know as I’d recognise Voorde from the way he used a telegraph. Which was why we each started a communication like this by asking a questions only the other would know.
Having made sure as well as I could that it was Horeson at the other end, I waved the manager and telegraphist out of the communication room and waited for the door to close. Then I started.
“You alone?”
“Yeah,” Voorde replied. “You?”
“Yeah. I met guys who blew train. They say they sent a warning.”
The pause at the other end lasted a while.
“I’ll check,” he responded eventually. “What else?”
“Tell Goodwins, Tarbuc and Isobelle safe and well last I saw.”
“Okay. Next?”
“Malories sent arms shipment north.”
“Not aware. Intentions?”
“Unknown. For family here. Suspect show of strength.”
“Will check. Tell Hugo.”
“You sure?”
“He needs arms more than family. Will use them better too. What else?”
“Nothing here. You?”
“Nothing now. More tomorrow same time. Good to know you’re okay.”
“Thanks. Out.”
“Clear.”
For all that there wasn’t much said it took best part of half an hour to complete the exchange. Voorde was more proficient with the key than I was, but he had to keep his sends slow so I could keep up with them.
I thanked the operator and made an appointment to come back at the same time the following day. I spent a while longer at the station, asking after the work in the tunnel. I learned they’d not made much progress due to danger of further rock falls, and they didn’t expect to have the link running again for best part of a year. They’d dug out the telegraph line from both ends until they’d found the break, which was why that had been easy enough to fix, but the train would take some months uncovering, and quite a long time after repairing the tunnel and the tracks.
I took a couple of letters to the postal service. They’d be going by horse courier while the rail link was down, but the offices would remain at the station.
On my way out I thought I caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd. Ronnie McKenzie was one of the best I knew at keeping hid while he tailed someone, but once you knew his face, he had a tendency to stand out from the crowd. It made me smile; nope, you can never be too paranoid when the Malories are involved.
I left Ronnie alone and headed back to my digs. He didn’t have a whole lot to report. I’d been to the terminus and talked to the manager. I’d spent some time in the telegraph room. I’d spoken to a few folks. I’d posted a couple of letters. The contents of the letters were innocent enough, though I wasn’t sure if Ronnie could read. Still it was better to be safe than sorry.
The following morning I woke early and took Ronnie on a long and tedious tour of central Gatrean. The place had become so run down over the years, there really weren’t a whole lot to see. I made a good show of looking for it though, and once I’d bored both Ronnie and myself into a state of profound lassitude, I took a few unexpected turns and found a place where I could hide and watching him looking for me.
He had his street smarts did Ronnie. He knew there’d be hell to pay if he headed home with a tale of how he’d lost me, so for the sake of his own skin, he’d make up some story of how he’d followed me about all day as I went from one boring place to another. If I let him find me later, it’d help him convince his-self that that’s what had really happened.
It did give me the freedom to seek out the band of Shriven who’d billeted their-selves in one of Gatrean’s many slums.
“You survived, I see,” Hugo greeted me.
“There’s something to be said for not shooting at folks when you don’t need to. They don’t shoot back so much.”
“They still caught you, didn’t they? We followed, once we got clear of the farmhouse, but there wasn’t much of a trail, and we lost it. It could’ve taken weeks of searching to find you and you know we couldn’t afford the time.
It was as close to an apology as I was going to get, and pretty typical of Foreham.
“You wanna tell me what happened?” he asked.
“Later. We got business now.”
I told him about the arms shipment and how Jimmy and his friends would be collecting me the next morning to go protect it.
“What d’you expect me to do about it?”
“I guess that’s up to you somewhat. Horeson asked me to let you know. He said you’d likely make better use of the shipment than the family; thought maybe you might confiscate it or something.”
“Now there’s a plan. Where are we likely to find this… shipment?”
“I don’t exactly know. Somewhere between Hytheria and here, but then you don’t need me to tell you that. I figured if you put Hagmen on watch somewhere in sight of my digs, he can follow without tipping off any of the family. He’ll need to watch out, mind. Ronnie McKenzie’s up here with them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have him watching for anyone who might follow.”
He nodded as he thought his way through my suggestion. “It puts us behind though. They’ll get to the shipment before us, which’ll make it all the harder to take it from them.”
“Not really. Follow for a while, till you get a general idea where they’re going, then scout ahead. If they don’t got no reason to think they’re being followed, they won’t try messing you about.
“Now, I gotta get back. Ronnie was tailing me earlier. I gave him the slip to come here, but if I leave him wondering for too long, he’ll go tell Jimmy or Francis, and they’ll figure something’s up.”
“I thought you was going to tell me what happened to you.”
“Yeah, and I said later. Maybe see you tomorrow.”
“Maybe.” He nodded at me, as much in acknowledgement as dismissal.
I headed back near where I’d lost Ronnie, and started wandering around. I’m not sure how long after I arrived that he actually picked me up, but it can’t have been too long. With him back on my tail, I drifted around a few shops buying supplies for the journey. Give the high cost and low quality of what I found, especially weaponry, I was glad I’d managed to recover my things back at the Engineer’s camp.
I did pick up some hardtack and some jerked meat of some sort which I could only hop wasn’t rat. That lot bit into my purse deeper than I cared, so I cut short my perusal of Gatrean’s shops and set about giving Gatrean a proper looking over. I still had most of the afternoon before I was due back at the terminus for my appointment with Voorde, and there weren’t a whole lot more to do with my time.
The sky remained clear above, which added some contrast to the scenes I looked on. The streets was quit filled with folk, but near none of them going about a day’s business. With most of the factories closed, the majority of the already malnourished population sat around listlessly and waited for whatever was to come. Nobody smiled, nobody moved much. I tried speaking to a few folks, but the most response I got was when one of them raised his eyes to look in mine. I could have wished he hadn’t for all the pain and misery I saw there.
The place was run down to the point of collapse. What houses I saw were all but derelict. Damaged and leaking roofs, broken, boarded up windows, the walls glistening with a greasy blackness that just added to the sense of sickness. Once or twice I caught a glimpse of the sun glancing off the Detonian Hills to the north, and the contrast fair made me want to cry. If I was dying, like these folk so obviously were, I’d’ve wanted to do so in clean air, surrounded by nature’s goodness, but then I found myself wondering how many of the folks here had the strength to make even a small journey like that.
Down at the docks, the water was covered with a layer of oily scum that left you wondering if there was any water beneath it. What boats I saw were as blackened with soot as the rest of the place. There was some movement from fishing vessels, but the crews looked weary and their catch was both meagre and sickly.
I felt a sickness and anger settling on me. It wasn’t right that any man should be forced to live this way, that any child should grow up with so little to hope for. It had to change, and I understood why the Engineers had acted as they had. Without the detonite, everything was a whole lot worse, but maybe they figured that things had to get worse before they got better, and this was worth it for the prospect of breaking away from Hytheria.
Anger at the outrage, sure, but sickness too. I’d lived all my life in a city that thrived on the technology Gatrean had supplied. I enjoyed the street lighting that made the city safe, the energy that gave us warmth and light, even through the cold nights, the public transport systems that made it possible to get from one side of the city to the other in a fraction of the time it would take walking. I’d grumbled often enough when things had broke down, and I’d felt my own disquiet when the supply of fuel from Gatrean and been cut in half just a few weeks ago. It left me ill to my core to realise that all the benefits I’d taken for granted living in Hytheria had been squeezed from the poor folks of this miserable place. If what Derrick had heard from his grandfather was anything to go by, Gatrean had once been a better place still than Hytheria could ever hope to aspire to, and now it was near dead and bleeding from the insatiable leech that was my home city.
I lost my stomach for sightseeing shortly after lunchtime. I found a place by the docks selling spicy fish rolls, and I bought as many as I could afford, handing out the extras to folks I met, mainly kids. I’m not sure I did them too much of a favour in feeding them, ‘cause if the fish had been part of the local catch, it would quite likely make ‘em worse.
Back in my rooms, I settled down to catch up on my journaling. I’d had time to write a lot while I was in the Engineer’s camp, but I hadn’t put down many of my thoughts of Gatrean, and I wanted to address that, especially with what I’d just seen. From time to time I’d check out my window and see Ronnie leaning against the wall opposite. After a while I left him to himself and kept hidden. It’d make it easier to slip out past him later if he weren’t used to seeing my moving about.
Time came for my appointment with Horeson. I had quiet words with the landlord and he showed me a back way out. I took the time to check Ronnie, and left him leaning against the wall, getting cold. I didn’t feel no remorse over it; my experience of the young man left me thinking of him as more weasel than human.
Voorde and I exchanged enough personal information to be sure we were talking to each other and settled down to the business in hand.
“Met with Malorie,” he sent. “He denied getting a warning, but his face said otherwise.”
One question answered, and the Engineers a small amount less culpable. Eadling must’ve known Alowin and I would be on that train. Had it crossed his mind this would an opportunity to get rid of me? If so I was glad that I, at least, had managed to disappoint him. On the plus side, it left me feeling less inclined to report to him no more. I doubted I’d be returning to Hytheria with so much to do in Gatrean, so this seemed like a good point to cut ties with the man who’d tainted so much of my life.
“Also asked about shipment. Said he was sending supplies, but wouldn’t give details.”
Which meant he was trying to hide something from Voorde, which meant what Jimmy had told me was pretty much on the nose.
“Okay,” I replied. “Spoke to Hugo. He’s aware of what’s happening.”
“Good enough. Anything else?”
“Need a code for messages through normal channels.”
For the next half hour we exchanged ideas on how we would refer to people and events in a way that shouldn’t rouse suspicion, and set a few alert signals for when we thought we were being monitored or watched.
After we signed off, I headed back to my digs. I bought a couple of met pasties from a street vendor and handed one to Ronnie as I passed him. The expression on his face was worth the price. I smiled at him and winked. “See you in the morning,” I said and headed inside.