Shit and fear, the smell of sweatboxes everywhere. The cellar beyond the door has no ventilation. It’s high summer in Farlight, fifty or more people are down here in pitch darkness, with more being brought in while we wait.
Half will suffocate before the night is out.
‘Jaxx,’ Sergeant Brandon shouts.
A thin man stumbles towards the door. He’s blinking against the sudden brightness of the sergeant’s torch and wiping rivers of sweat from his face. Dark patches blossom under the arms of his once-white shirt. It could be piss staining his trousers, equally well it could be sweat.
‘Where is Vijay Jaxx?’ I demand.
Pale blue eyes blink at me. ‘I’m Vijay Jaxx,’ he whispers.
Never seen him before in my life.
‘You know the general?’
He wants to tell me everyone knows the Duke of Farlight. Only, he has no idea who I am and he’s being dragged out of a stinking cellar in the middle of the night. Traditionally, that means execution or torture. For someone not sure which, he does a good job of raising his chin and meeting my eyes.
‘Jaxx is my great-uncle,’ he says. ‘And you won’t-’
Captain Vard smirks. ‘Oh,’ he says. ‘Believe me. We will.’
Dragging this Vijay through the crowd around me, I bundle him up the stairs and park him next to the front door. He stays put without being told while I fetch the others.
‘We’re out of here.’
Anton takes one look at our captive, and opens his mouth. So I jab him in the ribs with my elbow. He’s still trying to draw breath when I push past.
‘Sir?’ Sergeant Brandon asks.
‘Get that boat prepared. I want it fuelled, and ready to cast off. I want Kemzins if you’ve got nothing better, helmets, and ammo and flak jackets.’
He salutes.
The major is approaching.
‘Sir,’ he says, then regrets it. His gaze stiffens. ‘I need to know where you’re taking my prisoner.’
Reaching across, I remove his pistol from its holster.
‘Believe me,’ I say, jacking its slide. ‘You don’t.’
Two shots crack the night. From habit, I slip the discarded shells into my pocket.
Vijay and Sef are looking aghast.
Think that is the right word. Anyone else, I’d say they were scared shitless. Must be because I had Sergeant Leona march them round the corner into a narrow side street. Where I put two bullets into the wall beside their heads.
Throwing both arms round the boy’s neck, Sef twists one foot behind his leg like she’s a piece of ivy and bursts into tears. We don’t have time for this.
Wrapping my hand into her hair, I pull.
She unpeels easily.
The boy glares.
‘Don’t,’ Leona tells him. ‘He’ll kill you.’
‘Right,’ I tell him. ‘Let’s start with who you really are.’
Turns out this Vijay Jaxx is the first cousin once removed of my Vijay Jaxx, and they’re both variously removed to another two Vijays in the Jaxx clan. I wonder if I knew about the eldest born of each clan branch sharing the same name and decide I did.
A captain in the Death’s Head told me. At the time I was trying to blow up an enemy mother ship. So I probably didn’t pay enough attention.
‘We must save the others,’ the boy says.
‘What others?’
‘The other prisoners.’
‘They’re dead.’
‘No,’ he says, and then stops. Understanding what I mean.
‘Maybe it’s a mistake,’ Sef says. ‘And they’ll be released later . . .’ No one bothers to correct her.
‘Spend tonight somewhere safe. Then get the fuck out of this city.’
The boy’s eyes are wide. His glance at a dark doorway tells me he thinks we need a private conversation. Ordering Anton and Leona to cover the street, I walk the boy somewhere private.
‘Is that true?’ he demands. ‘General Jaxx has been arrested?’
‘What?’
‘They said.’ He takes a deep breath. ‘That captain said Jaxx was arrested earlier this evening. But one of the prisoners said the general was ordered to surrender but is refusing and no one dares arrest him.’
‘Who’s meant to take his surrender? The Wolf?’
‘Apparently he refuses to be part of this . . .’ The boy hesitates. ‘And Sef says . . . She says Simone offered to help you find me?’
‘Why? What of it?’
‘Simone had me arrested.’
‘Shit. Sure it was her?’
He nods. ‘I was in a cafe, with a friend. Simone turns up wanting Sef. I say she’s with Lady Isadora. As she leaves, Simone points me out to a girl.’
‘Describe her.’
He does. Young, pretty, strangely dressed.
It’s Paper Osamu.
The boy can’t work out how Paper can order militia around. That’s because it hasn’t occurred to him she’s U/Free. And Simone’s a snake. All that fretting as Morgan tells her Vijay is trapped south of the river, and she knows he’s here all along.
I have one last question. Although I know the answer already. ‘The other prisoners. Who are they?’
They all have one thing in common.
Obvious, really . . . They’re supporters of General Jaxx, hangers-on to his family, senators who have taken the new duke’s side against the Thomassi. This hasn’t occurred to the boy before, probably because he inhabits a world where the idea of not supporting the general is absurd.
‘That ring,’ he asks. ‘Can I see it?’
His face falls and something bleak enters his eyes as he turns the ring over in his hand and squints at its jewelled ferox skull.
‘So it’s true,’ he says. ‘The Senate plan to ruin us, because of the murder of that Thomassi . . .’ He stares at me. ‘You know the one. He married Senator Wildeside’s daughter. But we weren’t behind his killing. The general swore an oath to that.’
Did he now?
‘Listen,’ I say. ‘Leave, and don’t come back until it’s safe.’
‘What if it’s never safe?’
‘Then you never come back.’
He wonders if I understand what I’m saying. Then he nods and walks to where Serafina stands, and puts one arm round her shoulders. Whatever he says, it’s enough to make her follow without complaint.